Monday, April 1

  • series of morning briefings for Speaker Milliken and Delegation at Beijing Grand Hotel
  • meeting with Officials from Ministry of Justice.

ChinaGov

The discussion focused on China’s system of legal aid, established in 1994, but still a work in progress, given that there is no foundational legislation. The MoJ tells us that it expects that the State Council will address this issue sometime during the year, after which the policies will be presented to the NPC for its follow-up.

  • meeting with Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Li Zhaoxing.
  • Delegation luncheon meeting with Dr. Mao Yushi, President, Unirule Institute of Economics, and Dr. Huang Jikun, Director, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

ChinaEc

China Hands will recognize Mao Yushi, co-founder of Unirule, as a guiding light of liberal economic and market reforms. A graduate of Shanghai Jiaotong University and variously a visiting Professor at Harvard and Queensland University. Always accessible and of good humour. Despite a history of disputes with the CCP, he remained intellectually independent and forthright. I have learned, while drafting this note, that the recent – 2024 – outcome of his disputes lead him to move to Vancouver, despite being well over 90 years old.

  • dinner for Speaker Milliken and delegation hosted by Director of the International Department of the CCP Dai Bingguo.

ChinaMFA

Dai Bingguo was one of the most important players in Chinese foreign policy, rising to Vice-Foreign Minister of the MFA in the early ‘90s, before moving to the State Council later in the decade. He played many international roles for the State Council well into the 2000s. A very impressive figure.

Tuesday, April 2

CdnIm&Vi

The Milliken group attending, meeting with CIC embassy colleagues regarding the implications of the rapid growth of demand for family class immigration services, as well as non-immigrant movements, the latter a result of increasing trade and investment linkages between Canada and China. Demand was especially high in Southern China, and the HK and Guanzhou offices were faced with the challenge of increasing the size of the staff complement by 5 CBC/Canada-based Staff, and 20 LES capable of speaking Cantonese, this having large space and equipment implications.

Letter to Vice Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao, introducing him to Bank of Montreal Deputy Chairman William Downe, seeking an opportunity to meet with the V.P.

Exchange with Dr. Harvey Skinner, UofT, regarding the potential for developing a CIDA-financed project re HIV/AIDS.

The background material to this letter refers to early work – over 20 years ago – with regard to E-health and Telemedicine.

Letter from Dave Rohee, Global Institute of Technology and former bush pilot,

Wednesday, April 3

  • mid-day arrival of former Minister of External Affairs Lloyd Axworthy, then in academia at UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues. Immediate transfer to meet with MoFTEC Minister Shi Guangsheng.

CCRels

Mr. Axworthy and Minister Shi had linkages in the past, so their discussion focused on the strategic international trade and economic environment, including the importance of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations, launched the previous November. The subject of the possibility and potential of regional FTAs was also addressed.

Education

  • luncheon meeting with Dr. Ira Cohen, Vice President, Universal Ideas Consultants (and also Professor at the University of Windsor) regarding opportunities available to foreign universities for education and training in China.
  • dinner at Official Residence for the Hon. L. Axworthy and Dr. Ramesh Thakur, Vice President, UN University in Tokyo…and a friend of many years.

Exchange with Chairman Eric Margolis of Jamieson Laboratories.

Letter to Dutch Ambassador Philip de Heer, introducing him to a public opinion polling company in Mongolia.

Mongolia

 As mentioned earlier, Philip was a scholar of Chinese history and politics, in addition to being a very well connected Ambassador, fluent as he was in Mandarin. To my recollection, among major country Heads of Mission, only the Japanese and Russian ambassadors were his match.

Exchange re visa request.

Exchange with the Senate Communications Directorate regarding Speaker Dan Hays report on the visit to China by a Senate delegation.

Exchange with the Chinese Business Expo and Conference, thanking the Embassy for its support of the event.

Exchange with Professor Ronald MacDonald, Dalhousie Law School regarding Chinese legal scholar Wang Teiya.

Éducation

Documents multiples à l’égard de demandes de visas pour 18 étudiants destinés à faire leurs études au Collège Ahuntsic. Le bureau du Premier Ministre du Québec s’en est mêlé.

Bon exemple d’échanges entre les trois pointes du triangle : l’école au Canada pressant pour recevoir ses étudiants chinois, le partenaire chinois, dans ce cas ‘L’École des Beaux Arts du Chemin de Fer de Zhenzhou, Henan’, et la Section des visas de l’Ambassade, qui doit juger l’éligibilité des postulants.

 Friday, April 5

Business meetings with Tembec Lumber and Zenon Environment.

Exchange with Chairman William Yip of Canada Land Limited, regarding his leadership of a Guangzhou Charity Hospital visit to Canada in May, and assistance on visas.

Education…in this case, mine.

April 6 to 14, I went to Nanjing to pursue a week of intensive Chinese language training at Nanda, University of Nanjing, with the help of the Institute for International Students. While I had, from university onward and at various times, attempted to study the language, my career returned me regularly to Japan where I had first spent two years at the US State Department Japanese language school in Yokohama. And while spoken Japanese and Chinese are very dissimilar, Japan of course borrowed its original script from China, so I did have a modest advantage in that I could read some Chinese, once I became used to the simplified characters which, by the way, are not used in Japan. And while I was given a crash course in spoken Chinese before leaving Ottawa and pursued one-on-one lessons with language professors while in Beijing, my abilities never got me much farther than ‘street Chinese’. Still, I tried to do better.

The Institute insisted that I spend the week in one of the international student dorms on campus, but I rejected that option entirely: I didn’t want to practice whatever I would be learning with other foreign students.  Instead, thanks to the intervention of a former PRC Ambassador to Canada – I believe it was Zhang Yijun – Nanda made arrangement for me to board as the guest of a Chinese family, Mr. and Mrs. Shen. They lived on the 5th  floor of a standard post-revolution apartment building which had yet to have an elevator. They cooked on a two ring hotplate. But they also had a tv and a computer. From that perspective, they were very much a typical urban middle class family. Their son, Shen Bo, typically, an only child, was studying at – if I am not mistaken – the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, one of China’s premier technical institutions. He went on to Harvard as David Shen Bo. His English skills were already excellent, but he was away at university during the week of my stay with his Parents. Thus Mr & Mrs Shen and I managed with my meager Chinese and their better English to take advantage of this quite unique situation. Mr. Shen drove me to and from Nanda on his motorcycle every day. We had dinner at home most evenings, the language challenges being great fun. We visited their relatives and friends, and toured on the two weekends some of Nanjing’s most famous sites. It was an unforgettable experience, and we have remained friends.

I can’t say that I learned a great deal of Chinese in a week! But I was, much more importantly, enriched by the experience of observing first hand ‘the normal life’ of middle- class urban Chinese. The experience, however brief, is unusual for an ambassador on her or his first posting to China.  

Sunday, April 14

Return from Nanjing

Monday, April 15

Catch-up day, plus…

Meetings with: Scotia Bank and the Locally Engaged Staff Association.

Attended evening reception at the Courtyard Restaurant for Diana Krall.

Exchange of letters with John Crawley, VP of Canada World Youth, regarding scheduled exchange of Canadian and Chinese, and separately, Canadian and Mongolian youths as part of CWY’s 2022 programs. The letter was to inform the Embassy of these plans and seek advice as well as assistance re visas. VP Crawley visited Beijing later in the month but unfortunately, we were not able to meet.

Exchange with Sandra Black, Senior HIV/AIDS Advisor at CIDA, regarding cooperation programs with several medical and research universities in China. 

Thank you notes to the Institute for International Students at Nanjing Daxue. Regrettably, I was not able to return for additional training. 

Arts&Culture

Exchange with Dr. Shirley Thomson, Director and CEO, The Canada Council for the Arts, regarding scheduling a visit to Beijing for her and accompanying CCA staff in tandem with the Book Fair.

Dr. Thomson and I developed a strong and productive relationship during my China years, when Canada/China collaboration in the arts was developing rapidly.

Tuesday, April 16

  • meeting with Senior Program Managers.
  • business meeting: ScotiaBank.
  • Hypotech office opening, at which I made brief remarks.
  • meeting with LES Association.

Admin

A number of LES were expatriates – Canadians, Australians, Brits and others – and they faced different sets of challenges than local LES, including re purchasing health insurance, salary gaps when compared to expats working in other embassies, Chinese working visa related issues and so forth. Some of these issues could be addressed by the Embassy but others were – as the Japanese put it – caissu bai caissu. We sought solutions where we could but Chinese visa issues, residence permits etc were out of our hands.

Wednesday, April 17

  • hosted lunch for visiting MP Joe Volpe, including guest Zhang Zhijun, Vice Minister, International Department, CCP Central Committee.

CCRels

One of my frustrations, shared no doubt by Readers, is the absence of information on what was discussed over this type of occasion. Jennifer May, First Secretary in the Political Section of the Embassy, no doubt wrote a report on the exchange with Zhang, but that is in the DFAIT Archives and not – at this writing – available to scholars. As host and responsible for keeping the conversations going, I would not normally – noblesse oblige – be taking my own notes. All the more regrettable as in this case, as Zhang eventually became Executive Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and subsequently a member of the CCP Central Committee, and thus ever an important interlocutor.

This may also be the place to remind readers that Jennifer, an excellent political officer and multilingual FSO, successfully moved up the career ladder. As I write these notes – spring of 2025, Jennifer is ensconced in my former office as Canada’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China! Bravo Jennifer!

Accompanied MP Volpe to a meeting with Li Fan, President, The World and China Institute.

ChinaDom HR&Rol

At this meeting, with the conversation between Mr. Volpe and President Li, I could take notes. Li Fan, a graduate of BeiDa and Ohio State University, founded the Institute and was editor as well of the World and China Affairs Journal.

The first topic was the state of NGOs in China in the early oughts. Li stated that the topic itself was very sensitive, and thus closely watched by the CCP/Government. The NGOs had to remain small scale, local and operate at the margins of governance and society, all the while working with local governments. They required Beijing connections, to stay safe and acceptable, within shifting margins. And they could not be seen to harbour dissidents.

On the issue of elections: thanks to a law in 1987, these were taking place, however modestly, spurred by the fact that many CCP members were unhappy with local management of the CCP and the feeling among some that greater democracy was inevitable. At local levels, the public was also disturbed by arbitrary taxes and fees imposed upon them by local authorities and over which they had no influence. Plus, who knew where the money went? In addition, the perception was widely shared that corruption was rampant, and with reason. In Guanxi province, there was talk of conducting municipal elections, with Party and non-Party candidates. Similar talk could be heard in Shenyang and Wuhan. Underpinning some of this thinking is the belief that democratization required changes both at grass roots level as well as within the CCP itself. Currently, however, there was no such movement within the Party. Li believed that the fundamental motive forces of reform within the CCP will be a combination of internal debates and the necessity of meeting as yet unanticipated crises. Some look to the late Qing as the kind of crisis the CCP could face, with a response along some forms of constitutional change.

Back at the local level, Li said that the fundamental aspirations were, again, for local elections, public participation and internal checks and balances. Democracy, for those engaged in these debates, means effective governance at the local level. It is not a debate about values or human rights.

Interestingly, Ambassador Fred Bild in Reese/Assignments (p227) comes to the same conclusion: on a visit to Shandong in 1994 to observe elements of the “Grassroots Democracy Program”, he met with the Governor, mayors and other local note worthies and writes: ‘Oddly enough, they seem more comfortable railing against the corrupt practices of ‘many officials’ than in talking about the CCP and electoral practices’.

Li’s interpretation of Jiang Zemin’s Three Represents is not some form of democratic expansion, but simply recognizing the fact that the capitalists are already in the Party. Beyond that, the concept remains purposefully vague, to retain maximum ideological control, as well as flexibility when needed.

Exchange with Don McCutchan, a friend and International Policy Advisor at Gowlings in Toronto, regarding his Mother’s forthcoming visit to China. Don’s father was born in Shanghai.

CCRels

Letter to Dr. Ivan Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada, regarding a forthcoming conference engaging both StatsCan and the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.

Attached to the letter is a good overview at the ground level on aspects of StatsCan and CNBS collaboration, specifically on the conduct of household surveys. The level of trust and mutual respect was high, and thus productive in achieving CIDA program objectives. 

Thursday, April 18

EDUCATION

Meeting with Rodney Briggs, Canadian Education Center Network regarding the ongoing marketing of education services in the PRC.

Rodney, a former Foreign Service Officer and international education enthusiast, reported that Chinese demand for Canadian education services had largely stabilized which, in itself, was not a bad thing as many Canadian institutions – and here, he was referring to pre-university levels – wanted to diversify the student bodies by welcoming students from other countries. In addition, higher education institutions were looking to the CECN to help identify ‘higher quality’ of students. Thus, the CECN was working with the China Education Association for International Exchange, the China Scholarship Council and the China Services Center for Scholarly Exchange, each of which had its own connections to the Ministry of Education.

Media

Lunch with Susan Laurance, Far Eastern Economic Review.

Meetings with the Executive Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Teleglobe Canada.

Meeting with Vice-Minister Ma Wenpu, International Department, Central Committee, CPC.

…and again, no notes…

Media

Dinner with David McGuffin, CTV.

DPRK

Letter of support addressed to the Institute of International Relations, supporting the proposal for a Human Security Fellowship Award to be granted to Erich Weingartner for his work in the DPRK.

As mentioned earlier, Eric was one of the very few Canadians who had a deep understanding and extensive relations with North Korea.

Letter to former Ambassador Zhang Yijun, to thank him for providing an opening at the University of Nanjing’s language school.

Friday, April 19

Denis Scown and his CIC staff provide members of the HofC Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration a fulsome report on the Beijing’s CIC programme.

Exchange with Mr. Robert Young of the Mancal Corporation on the forthcoming visit of Chairman Fred Mannix, and his interest in receiving a briefing from me and colleagues regarding security and defence issues defining the Canada-China relationship.

Letter to Zhang Yaokuan, Director General, Office of State Air Traffic Control Commissioner, in support of Raytheon Canada’s bid to supply Primary Surveillance Radars to Chinese airlines.

Exchange with President Roy Culpeper, The North-South Institute, providing a list of potential NSI project partners in China. CIDA expresses some hesitation about the approach the Embassy should be taking.

CCRels  LCX ChinaPs&Ms

Between April 23rd and the 25th, I visited Xiamen, a coastal city of Fujian Province, with a rich history as a major port from the 10th century Song Dynasty onward, and of geo-strategic significance well into the 21st, given its dramatic proximity to the Kinmen Islands, administered by Taiwan in Xiamen Bay, less than 6 kilometers from the Chinese mainland. It’s importance as one of the first Special Economic Zones, and the resulting trade and investment expansion – making it among the 10 largest international shipping ports in China – reached all the way to Canada, incidentally, as being the operating center of Lai Changxing’s criminal enterprises, with its attendant corruptions way up the CCP hierarchy itself. It is also one of the most attractive cities in China, thanks to ample evidence of its 1000 years of history and the automobile-free Gulangyu Island with its Victorian trimmings, given its popularity among 19th and early 20th century expats and their holiday homes.

Visiting over two days and accompanied by Consul General Paul Lau, I met several local leaders, including the Mayor of Xiamen (and former Vice Governor of Fujian Province) Zhu Yayan; Cao Wanghuai, Chairman of the CPPCC for Xiamen; Xiamen University Vice President Sun Sigang,  and Vice-Mayor Zhang Changping. I visited and met senior executives of Ports International China and Xiamen Gaoqi Airport, one of China’s newest and thus, most impressive. I also lectured on ‘Canada and Asia’ at Xiamen U.

I have various notes from these meetings, but the most salient points I gathered include the following:

ChinaEc

Deng Xiaoping’s SEZ economic development strategy, involving both SOEs and private investment, domestic and foreign, certainly worked for Xiamen. According to Mayor Zhu’s explanation of the governance system in place, SEZ rules provided a great deal of space for local initiatives. He told me that while the GoC provides general guidelines for the development of SEZs, local authorities and the institutions they established allowed them to exercise a great deal of autonomy. The Zone’s development and expansion is in the hands of a Planning Department, including the establishment of varying rules for different types of businesses. Infrastructure and real estate development is left to the market and local authorities; the tax system is based on revenue sharing, with the national government setting the overall tax structure, tariff rates and VAT taxes (75% central government/25% local). To all appearances and in line with what Mayor Zhu explained, this system benefited the Xiamen municipality immensely, earning it – at Chinese Yuan 6 billion – about half of the total tax haul, in the previous year. (In 2001, the CNY FX rate was about 8 to 1 US$. This converts to over US$700mm. I will leave it to historians to determine the credibility of Mayor Zhu’s assertion.)

I also ventured to ask Mayor Zhu how he was elected: here, the answer was less expansive: he received ‘CCP support’.

My conversation with Cao Wanghuai, Chairman of the CPPCC for Xiamen, focused on education. The Party priority was to develop the region as an education center. He expressed the hope that the Xiamen Science and Technology University would establish links with, inter alia, UBC, but that it had yet to reach out to pursue that plan. He also expects that private sector initiatives would be an increasingly important driver in education.

I asked what role the Xiamen representatives in the CPPCC played in education. He responded that the local CPPCC body consists of 390 members and, given its consultative role, includes representatives from 29 social and economic sectors, including education, infrastructure and the environment. In addition to its annual meeting in the fall, its standing committees on these various sectors meet with some regularity for 5 or 6 day sessions. Since the CPPCC role, consistent with the PRC’s constitution, is purely advisory, its impact at the local level, let alone at the national level, by any definition, is difficult when not impossible to measure.

Dinner with Xiamen Vice-Mayor Zhang Changping was information heavy. We discussed local economics. Zhang stated that disposable income in Xiamen was in the order of CNY 11,700 and 4,400 in rural areas (round numbers US$ 1,440 and US$ 550) but he then cast doubt on the accuracy of these estimates. There are ‘technical discrepancies’ he said, as rural areas don’t report accurately, working on averages rather than on-the-ground verifications; the output of rural enterprises are not accurately measured; there is a great deal of land-use double counting and officials over-report, since this determines their performance evaluations and their future career prospects. Given that China no longer has a planned economy, statistics alone are not reliable indicators of what is really going on.

Zhang then reiterated some of the points made earlier in the day about the CPPCC’s consultative role. But he also outlined other forms of public engagement: improved channels for disseminating information on public matters to the general public, newspaper ads, government websites for citizen comments, regularly scheduled days for dialogue with the public, ward by ward-specific public services surveys. Xiamen does not do polling to understand public opinion. Policy proposals are circulated in draft form and responses are collected.

But the ‘guidance’ functions of the local CPPCC were also part of the picture, based on  CCP priorities, Party directives to the media, with ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ lists on what can and cannot be addressed. Messaging on ‘public morality’, publicizing the achievements of their local government; 16th Party Congress themes; propaganda (my word, not his) on ‘Heroes’ as models for the people and so on and so forth are also part of the local picture. On the issue of corruption, it was said that trends in its reduction were positive, but also that there is a tendency not to focus excessively on corruption as ‘the citizens will lose confidence in the government’ – which is an interesting approach to the problem. (My words again, not his.) The local leaders looked to Singapore as a model for ‘propagandizing public morality’. Finally, if every other means of promoting morality had seen its limits, there was always the wisdom of the Book of Enlightenment of Sage Emperor Guan and the Eight Virtues he lists: filial piety, sibling harmony, dedication, trustworthiness, propriety, sacrifice, honor and shame.

And why not?

Thursday, April 25

Return to Beijing.

  • hosted dinner for Chairman Fred Mannix, Mancal Corporation. As third generation leader of the family firm, Mancal continued to expand its construction and mining businesses, and was looking at opportunities in China. Diversification was also being considered, via venture capital initiatives. Specifically, in China, this might include areas such as water, energy, health care, technology development.

Friday, April 26  

  • briefing meeting with Customs and Immigration Deputy Minister Michel Dorais, preparatory to Saturday meeting with the MPS Minister.
  • luncheon meeting with Edmond Luke, Partner, Fasken Martineau Dumoulin.

Media

  • meeting with Zu Zhongtian, President, People’s Daily, about which…

…sometimes, Ambassadors’ dinners can go awry: on one evening I hosted, the US Ambassador and Zu got into a noisy argument over some of the People’s Daily ‘reporting’, which sort of halted all other conversations. The Ambassador and Madame then left in a huff…but we remained friends, including into retirement.

  • meeting with Jim Christie, Blakes, Cassels&Graydon, LLP.
  • hosted dinner for Michel Dorais, with MPS Vice-Minister Zhao Yongji also attending, and preparatory to the meeting on the next day with the Minister.

DPRK

Letter to Ri Kwang Gun, Minister of Foreign Trade, DPRK, regarding a possible MOU between his ministry and CIDA on future collaboration.

To my recollection, nothing came of it. The next time I visited the Ministry, the Vice-Minister chose not to provide any useful information on their existing foreign trade policies or on such issues as tariff schedules….despite also saying that they hoped for expansive trade with Canada!

Saturday, April 27

Meeting with Minister Jia Chunwang, Ministry of Public Security.

CCRels

The main item concerned the operation of Chinese criminal gangs active in both China and Canada. Some gang members were, in the Chinese view, lingering in Canadian prisons, avoiding extradition until their legal procedures against removal had been exhausted. How to expedite these processes was very much on the PRC agenda, as they refused to recognize the HR principles behind our criminal procedures. Zhao also warned against politicization of this issue, as if it was Canada that was doing the politicizing. The most sensitive Canada/China criminal cases, from the Chinese perspective, concerned crimes related to bribery of Chinese government officials. One felt that what really worried our Chinese friends was less the nature of the crime of bribery, than the identity of all those involved, including possibly senior members of the CCP.

The discussion concluded with agreement to continue working-level exchanges, and at the Ministerial level if/when possible. China was already gearing up for the 2008 Olympics, and would be seeking Canadian advice on managing the ‘movement of people’ issues that would inevitably arise. 

Monday, April 29

ChinaEc

  • Visit to Zhongguancun Science Park, including briefing by Park officials.

This was the first such urban center for technological development in China. New, ambitious and very impressive in appearance, a visible demonstration of China’s determination to match the West in the sciences.

  • dinner for several Ambassadors hosted by Tian Jiyun, Vice-Chairman, Standing Committee of the NPC; at the Great Hall of the People.

Mongolia

  • letter to Vice Minister Erdenee, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mongolia, informing him that at least 5 Mongolian participants at the Prospectors and Developers Association’s International Convention and Trade Show in Toronto had claimed refugee status. I point out that such developments complicate the decision-making process when visas are requested by Mongolian Officials and citizens. These are particularly regrettable given the importance of the mining sector in our bilateral trade relationship. 

Tuesday, April 30

  • meeting with Ding Guangen, member of the CCP’s Central Secretariat, and responsible for propaganda and ideology.

CCP

Ding Guangen’s responsibilities may be the reason I have no notes on this meeting! There would be little new on the propaganda and ideology front!

  • meeting with the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Freeman.

Letter to Zhang Yanling, EVP, Bank of China, regarding a contract issue between the Bank and SNC Lavalin. It follows a meeting with SNC President Michael Novak on the next steps SNC plans to take.

BT&I

It reminds me that, as a matter of fact, there were only a limited number of commercial disputes coincident with my 4 years in China – 2001-2005, meaning admittedly hose of course brought to my attention. Given the rapid expansion of trade and the promise for much more extensive economic ties between our two countries, disputes between Canadian and Chinese companies would be inevitable. Canadian companies facing problems with their partners would have to decide the best ways – public or private – to resolve issues. The legal routes would not always be the most effective. Perhaps there is a compendium, somewhere, on the number of such  disputes.

Exchange with Dean V.V. Baba, Michael DeGroote School of Business, MacMaster University, about visas for 13 MBA applicants, selected by the University.

Letter to Newfoundland and Labrador Minister for Youth Services Sandra Kelly on the ongoing issue of visas for students destined to Academy Canada. It provides an additional illustration of the complexities attendant to servicing visas for Chinese students to Canada.