Mulroney was supposed to appear alongside former ambassadors John McCallum and Robert Wright, but those two declined the invitation to appear. The committee voted to formally summon them to testify.

In June, a group of high-profile Canadians wrote a letter calling for a prisoner exchange with Meng to get Spavor and Kovrig back, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly rejected. Mulroney said that letter was concerning.

It worries me when I see people who are thought leaders seem to lack the sense of energy to defend our national interests, he said.

He said he believes prominent people, former politicians and government officials, doing businesses with China should have to be upfront about any business ties.

If you choose to go to work for China or another country, you can do that, but you have to be transparent.

Mulroney argued for Canada to stand with allies to pressure China together. He said China can punish one country economically, but cant do that to a coalition of countries standing together.

The reality is that Canada has what China needs, he said. China needs the products that Canada, Australia and the United States produce.

MPs also heard warnings about Chinas motives in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong is becoming a second Tibet

The leader of Tibets unofficial government-in-exile warned Canadian MPs that China is attempting to subjugate Hong Kong and Taiwan just as it did to his country more than 70 years ago.

Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, testified that Hong Kong is losing its freedoms just as his country once did.

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Time for Liberal government to give up 'fiction' that China is our friend, ex-diplomat warns MPs - National Post