Mr. Chair, dialogue at all levels and in all sectors is very important when working with China. The Canada-China Legislative Association has also given us access to senior officials in China's National Congress. A number of political parties were represented.
For the Chinese, it was an opportunity to have direct access to the opinions of parliamentarians, see the plurality of their ideas and note the extent to which they defended Canadian democracy. The Canadian parliamentarians raised the same kinds of questions we do in our roles as government representatives, whether at the embassy or at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.