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Beijing again urges Canada to extradite most wanted fugitive

In another signal that Beijing has not given up hope of extraditing the country's most-wanted fugitive from Canada, Vice-President Xi Jinping called on Ottawa to 'properly' handle certain 'sensitive issues' at a meeting with visiting Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon yesterday.

While pledging to build a 'healthy and stable' relationship with Canada, Mr Xi stressed certain issues should be handled with delicacy and caution.

'We will work with Canada to increase exchanges and co-operation and properly solve sensitive issues,' Xinhua quoted him as saying.

In February the Canadian government issued a one-year work permit to accused smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing, who fled to Vancouver in 1999.

The case of Lai, accused of masterminding a massive smuggling and bribery ring on the mainland in the early 1990s, has been a major thorn in Sino-Canadian relations.

Beijing has been pushing for Lai's return even though it does not have a formal extradition treaty with Canada. He has been fighting against a deportation order for several years, arguing that he would be executed if he was returned.

When asked whether Beijing had raised the Lai case during his trip, Mr Cannon said it was raised 'at every opportunity that there are discussions between China and Canada'.

'We of course express how our system works in Canada ... we avoid commenting or making any comments on these specific cases. This is done in the perspective of respecting the judiciary system,' he said.

Although Canada's government agreed that Lai and his wife should be returned to the mainland, its courts have so far ruled otherwise.

A series of court rulings citing human rights concerns has blocked all official attempts to deport Lai and his wife, with their three adult children, to the mainland.

Canada, which has long been a sharp critic of Beijing's human rights record, had proposed building a 'mechanism' whereby both parties would be able to look at the human rights issue with efficiency and care, Mr Cannon said.

While declining to describe the mechanism as a human rights dialogue, he said what he proposed was a platform Beijing would feel comfortable enough with to 'identify the deliverables'.

'[Via the proposed mechanism] our people will engage with officials from the Chinese government in the near future to look at specific issues,' he said.

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