Everyone knows Stephen Harper’s over in China, right?
After they were first elected in 2006, the Conservatives took a tough stance against China, criticizing it for human rights abuses and intimidation both at home and in disputed territories like Tibet and Taiwan. But as the Chinese economy has continued to roar along, with China on pace to become the world’s leading economic power by the end of the decade, and the U.S. in decline, and the Conservatives positioning Canada as a storehouse of energy and other natural resources, the party’s singing from a different hymn book (so to speak) now.
With a coterie of business and financial leaders in tow, Harper is in China to pimp Canada and forge closer economic ties. Which brings us to the latest installment in PMO Photo Op. It shows the Prime Minister and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reviewing an honour guard in Beijing.