Stockwell Day says there are "great" business opportunities in China.

The international trade minister marvelled at the economic growth China is experiencing in a speech he made Wednesday.

Much of what Day had to say would likely have been news to an audience, had they not all been members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Canadian businesses have been making efforts to get into the Chinese market for decades.

The previous government conducted a number of high-level trade missions to the world's fastest growing economy, but when the Conservatives took power in 2006 they put a quick end to the practice and seemed to distance themselves from China.

In November of that year Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: ''I don't think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don't want us to sell out to the almighty dollar.''

At the time, Harper was supposed to meet with the Chinese premier, but China abruptly cancelled that meeting. Harper suggested it may have been because he intended to raise questions about China's abhorrent record when it come to human rights, its reputation for stifling democracy and its jailing of a Chinese-Canadian Huseyin Celil.

Thursday marks 20 years since China violently ended a pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square (an event it still does not acknowledge happened), it is still a country ruled by a single party, and Celil is still in jail without access to Canadian consular officials.

But now the U.S. economy is hopelessly in the doldrums, and the federal government's efforts to strengthen ties with South America aren't showing any quick returns.

And then there's this global recession thing.

So, it's any port in a storm, I guess.

Day recently returned from an official visit to China where he met with various government officials and, as he told audience members on Wednesday: "I still haven't, I don't think, fully recovered from what I saw there in terms of growth."

While acknowledging China has "huge problems and a lot of issues," Day still remarked at what a "phenomenal thing it is to see" a country with some 30 cities with a population of at least 1 million.

Day also told audience members of visiting one such city where the population topped 10 million and 24 cranes could be seen dotting the skyline.

In another city, Day was brought to the top of what will be the 10th tallest building in the world, once it is completed. "That building was built at the rate of one floor every two days, and... it's not a bamboo building. This is steel. This is high-tech, earthquake-proof, right on the leading edge of technology, fabulous looking building."

Day assured his audience this was not simply a bunch of anecdotes, but a trend.

Something of which, again, leading members of the business community are probably aware.

They thanked Day for the speech with polite applause.

— James Fitz-Morris