Do you support Harper's attempts to improve Canada's relationship with China?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is heading to China Monday, along with four cabinet ministers and seven other MPs, to talk trade, foreign investment and human rights, both in China and around the world.

Prime Minister Harper visits the Forbidden City in Beijing with his wife Laureen on his last visit to China in 2009. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)The federal government says the goal of Harper's second trip to China is to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Harper waited five years after taking office before visiting China, and didn't attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The snubs were widely considered a protest by the Harper government against China's position on human rights.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao publically scolded Harper for waiting so long before he finally visited there in 2009.

Harper has been talking about expanding trade with China for a while now, especially when it comes to Canada's oil. He has been talking up the Northern Gateway pipeline that would bring oilsands bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast, where tankers could take it to Asia.

Currently, most of Canada's exports to China are other natural resources: wood pulp, mineral ores and oilseeds like canola. China is Canada's second-largest two-way trading partner, after the U.S.

Do you support Harper's attempts to improve Canada's relationship with China? Let us know what you think.



(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)