“If you take a snapshot of China at any given time, there may be things you don’t like about it. But the important thing is to look at the video of China and how fast it is changing and how on many fronts, China is changing faster than we did in the West ourselves,” said Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council.

Kutulakos, who has been interacting with China since the late 1980s, highlighted one major accomplishment in China's development over the past few years. “We survey our members every two years. For many years, IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] was the number one challenge. In 2012, it was still number one. In 2014, it fell to number four. In 2016, it was way down to number thirteen, which means it's a manageable business problem,” said Kutulakos.

She added that Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment to IP protection in his opening speech at the first-ever China International Import Expo will make it easier to encourage foreign companies to come to China and do business.

Xi said China will foster a world-class business environment. He said, “We are resolute in meting out, in a law-binding manner, punishment for violations of the lawful rights and interests of foreign investors, particularly IPR infringements” and will “put in place a punitive compensation system to significantly raise the cost for offenders.”

According to data from Statistics Canada, in 2017, Canada's exports to China accounted for 4% of Canada's total exports, with a 15% year-on-year increase.

China and Canada have had a few exploratory discussions on a comprehensive trade agreement. Canada hopes a trade agreement with China will reflect "Canadian values" in the areas of labor rights, environmental protection, and gender equality.

“Whether it be gender, labor rights, I think there are ways to get to satisfactory outcomes without necessarily assuming that a country of 35 million can change a country of 1.4 billion people,” said Kutulakos.

“Particularly, in a trade agreement, you are talking business, right?” she concluded.