China Declines APEC Meeting With Canada

TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday Canada would not "sell out" its position on democracy after learning that Beijing's leader has declined to formally meet with him during an upcoming Asia-Pacific summit of world leaders.

"I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that," Harper said. "But I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values - our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights."

Canadian officials had hoped that any such meeting would include such contentious issues as that of a Chinese-Canadian being held by China.

World leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Harper, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, will hold their summit in Hanoi this weekend.

Canadian officials said Beijing had approached Ottawa about a bilateral meeting and that they had been negotiating over the agenda. But just as the delegation was leaving for Hanoi on Wednesday, Harper's camp said there would be no meeting.

"China approached us about a meeting. We said yes. We have since learned that the meeting offer has now been declined," Christine Csversko, deputy director of communications in the prime minister's office, said in a statement.

"We remain open to meeting with China at any time - at APEC or anywhere else. We would, however want a substantive agenda on economic and trade relations, and consular cases like Celil," she said.

Huseyin Celil is a Chinese-Canadian being held in prison by China for alleged terrorism links. China does not recognize his Canadian citizenship and Ottawa has been aggressively lobbying for his release. His family says he is being persecuted because he is a Muslim and a political dissident who fled his homeland in the 1990s.

Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa were not returned Wednesday.

Fred Bild, former Canadian ambassador to China from 1990 to 1995, said the canceled meeting was a significant blow to relations with Canada's second-largest trading partner.

"Having the heads of government deliberately not meet; that's a big step backwards," said Bild, a professor of Asian studies and Chinese politics at the University of Montreal.

Since the Conservative Party took power in January, Canada has awarded honorary Canadian citizenship to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and has publicly accused China of commercial espionage.

Tory MPs have also been vocal critics of religious persecution in China, particularly the members of the Falun Gong faith.