Thursday, August 1

Rencontre d’Au revoir avec Henri-Paul Normandin, Directeur du Programme de l’ACDI et ‘China Hand’ de grande crédibilité.

Meeting with Director Zhao Baogang, China Film Corporation and producer Wang Xiao Zhu.

Arts&Culture

CFC planned to film a tv series in Canada in the fall involving a cast and crew of 35 individuals, for 80 days of filming, and would thus require visas that would allow them to visit and work in Canada. I don’t believe that anything came of it.

ChinaEc

Exchange with Li Ke, Chief Justice of the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing regarding frozen loan payments owed to the Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. I emphasized that, especially in this new age of WTO membership, Chinese courts have to take into account both Chinese law and international practice.

ChinaMins&VMs

Letter to Vice Minister Ma Xiuhong, Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, drawing his attention to the CIBC and BoM issue noted above.

Arts&Culture

Letter to Ms. Chris O’Neil, Executive Director, Ross Creek Center for the Arts, Canning N.S., regarding the proposal to establish an on-going Chinese artist-in-residence program, offering assistance in identifying appropriate Chinese artists. Issues of English language capabilities, funding and visa issues are flagged.

  • Congratulatory emails to DFAIT colleagues on the occasion of their promotions.

CCRels

Lettre adressée au Major Général Michel Maisonneuve recommandant que l’Attaché du Ministère de la Défense du Canada, le Colonel David Burke, accompagne le Ministre Général Chi Haotian durant sa visite au Canada en septembre.

Une indication incontournable de l’état positif des relations canadienne avec la Chine et l’ouverture des dialogues bilatéraux.

Friday, August 2

Meeting with the New Brunswick Minister of Education Dennis Furlong and staff members.

Education

New Brunswick had an ambitious program vis-à-vis China, one that would include K/12 and post-secondary. The international student body in NB already accounted for 17% of students, and those from 70 countries. The province’s target was to reach 25%. In addition, it planned to work with the Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada which, as of this writing (2025) is still in cooperation with New Brunswick. The Minister explained that his ministry conducts annual inspections of facilities and programs, facilitated by the fact that the Vice Principal is from NB; Beijing Concord offers primarily 2 year diploma programs; UNB acts as clearing house for the program. The program is a thriving: this year’s number of graduates is 242.

  • Discussion with Ottawa regarding changes in personnel at Chongqing Consulate.

CCRels

Email adressé au Major Général Michel Maisonneuve exprimant le souhait que le Colonel David Burke, Attaché militaire à l’Ambassade, pourra accompagné la visite du Ministre de la Défense, Chi Haotian, durant sa visite au Canada.

Encore une fois mais pour en dire le moins, une visite impossible à imaginer en 2025.

Saturday, August 3

Education

Attended graduation ceremony and evening reception hosted by Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada at the Great Hall of the People. A number of current and former Chinese officials involved in education attended, including a member of the National People’s Congress.

Sunday, August 4

Kumru and I attended David Copperfield’s Illusion Show at the Shoudu Stadium.

Monday, August 5

Meeting with newly arrived RCMP staffer Rouben Khatchadourian.

Staff meeting re Bombardier aircraft issues: PM’s letter to Zhang Guobao is having an impact; commercial success of B’s planes in China; AVIC 1 is beginning designs of its own regional jet; engagement through the auspices of the Canada China Business Council.

CCRels  BT&I ChinaEc

Meeting with Liu Mingkang, Chairman and President, Bank of China.

Certainly one of the most impressive people I met while in the PRC. A ‘sent-down-youth’ during the GPCR, he used the time to learn to speak English, subsequently entering university and the Chinese public service in the financial sector, his talents also being recognized in the Party, which appointed him to the Central Committee during my tenure in Beijing.

The Bank he led was a very significant player: the 2nd largest national bank in China; the largest international player with the most modern technology, and Canadian links through EDC – $200mm Line of Credit and SNC-Lavalin business with the BoC’s Shenyang Branch.

During our conversation, he could not have been more straight-forward: half of commercial contracts are fraudulent to some extent; corruption accounts for 13% to 17% of GDP; tax evasion is in the order of US$12 billion; 66% of SOEs produce false accounts; these conditions call for reform in the banking sector, SOE restructuring, redirection of public lending to private enterprise, as 60% of current lending goes to SOEs etc. He also flagged his campaign to liberalize interest rates. I would meet President Liu on several occasions, including hosting a dinner I hosted later during my tenure in Beijing.

Hosted dinner with the Chinese MFA’s Zha Peixin, formerly Ambassador to Canada, and now headed for the same job in the UK.  

Tuesday, August 6

Meeting with Susan Bodemer, Mission Administration, re the Embassy Committee structure and roles, given the changes in Personnel.

Meeting with Robert Mao, President, Nortel China.

BT&I

Robert provided an update on market conditions facing Nortel: changes in market structure such as the break-up of China Telecon into different entities; intense competition among mobile services and equipment suppliers, including at the consumer level; ongoing transition from the planned economy model to market drivers, contributing in some product areas to the oversupply problem; rapid move to wireless transmission, now providing over 50% of connectivity, and so forth.

In order to improve productivity, Nortel was importing more of its technology to meet its needs in China, and to be price competitive. Overall, Nortel considered that they were in a strong position for further expansion in China. (Readers familiar with the Nortel saga may have doubts about this, hindsight being what it is…)

ChinaGov

Lunch with Minister of Civil Affairs, Doji Cering.

I so regret not having notes of our conversation. The Ministry’s responsibilities were extensive and almost completely domestic, consisting essentially of formulating and overseeing the structure and policies related to public services such as social welfare development plans, disaster relief, civil society and administrative rules on such basic issues as marriages, social welfare delivery and so forth. The ‘so forth’ included registration and monitoring of social groups. The latter role gave them authority to advise and implement government (read CCP) rules on NGOs, a newly emerging social movement that worried the Party.

ChinaMFA

Meeting with MFA NA DG He Yafei.

During my tenure in Beijing, among my most important interlocutors was He Yafei, the NA Director who later became an MFA Vice-minister, along with his boss at the time, Zhou Wenzhong, the Director General who subsequently became China’s Ambassador the US. They were my regular contacts in the MFA. They were both highly intelligent, as well as very articulate in English. While they never left behind, in my company at least, their CPC-inspired ‘hard lines’, they also occasionally told you the official as well as unofficial story or policy line – something all diplomats do, Chinese and Canadian.

Meeting with Bombardier’s Robert Greenhill, President and CEO, Bombardier International, followed by dinner. John Cheh also attended. Robert, btw, had a spectacular career, including as President of CIDA.

Wednesday, August 7

  • staff meetings, mostly;
  • letter to Liu Mingkang, Chairman and President Bank of China, thanking him for our meeting on Monday, as well as his attention to a fund misappropriation by one of the BofC’s branches of funds deposited by a Canadian company.
  • Reception hosted by Westport Cummings, manufacturer of natural gas powered vehicles;
  • hosted dinner with my Nanjing hosts Chen and Madame Liu and son Xiao-Bo

 A wonderful dinner with Kumru meeting my ‘Nanjing family’ for the first time. In 2025, I am still in touch with them.

Thursday, August 8

  • Staff meetings, re inter alia staffing Chongqing and Guangzhou; next meeting in Beijing of the Canada China Business Council; other staffing issues;
  • Letter to President Liu Shaoyong, China Eastern Airlines regarding a Canadian Aviation Electronics bid for A320 aircraft.

BT&I

Canada’s aviation sector was highly active in China during its amazing years of growth both pre- and post-WTO admission…and yet, as an August 12 letter and press release from the World Food Program’s representative in China show, the country still required and accepted WFP contributions such as the ‘major shipment of Canadian food grain arrives in Southern China’.

CCRels  Arts&Culture  PMJC

By the summer of 2002, having a year in Beijing under my belt, I could speak with more authority about both the current state of the bilateral C/C relationship, and future directions. I felt very strongly that Canada had a level of credibility and commitment to the relationship that allowed us to ‘think big and long-term’. I also believed that relations with China would rise to be among Canada’s ‘Big Five’: USA, Britain, France, Japan and China. The first three arose with the evolution and rise of the transatlantic world, and China and Japan would be our senior partners across the Pacific. To drive but also to symbolize China’s place in Canada’s future and to anchor it as a permanent feature in the center of Beijing, I believed then as now, that a ‘Canada House’ outside the Embassy should be established, a venue and location where Canada’s non-governmental relationship with China could be played out. A stand-alone Canada House would make visible to a broader Chinese public our commitment to the relationship and provide the venue where the substance of relations could be seen through trade shows, Canadian visual and performing arts, conferences and lectures, and so forth, where all would find a natural home. I even went so far as to discuss the idea with a prominent Canadian architect with links to China.

And the argument’s clincher: London, Paris, Tokyo and other Embassies have these types of facilities.

So, I wrote a paper arguing in favour of the establishment of Canada House Beijing and took the initiative to provide it and discussed the matter directly with André Desmarais, President of the Canada China Business Council. I also went to PMO via Eddie Goldenberg, putting the project in terms of a fantastic legacy project for Prime Minister Chrétien.

When DFAIT caught on, I was reprimanded by the Deputy Minister – and Best Man at my wedding! – on the political side of the house, who wasn’t impressed with my argument that the steps I had taken were to shake the system a bit. I thought then and still think today (2025) that this was a good idea whose time, regrettably, has now passed.  

Et qui plus est! That evening, I became quite ill and was ambulanced to the Beijing United Family Hospital. Surgery kept me in the hospital and in the Residence for two weeks. The hospital was owned and managed by a US company. All of the staff interacting with foreign patients spoke English. Many were from HK and Singapore or NA. My nurse, it turned out, was a Canadian ‘Newfie’ as she proudly presented herself. Services were excellent, and I was back and on the job on the 20st.

Waiting for me was the agenda: forthcoming visit of Immigration Minister Denis Coderre (who would be subjected to Chinese official displeasure because of the unresolved Lai case), staffing issues in Beijing and consulates, pressures to adjust staffing in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the latter given rising Southern China demand for visitors visas, an upcoming high-technology trade fair in Shenzhen, continuing efforts to obtain Official Designated Status for tour groups to Canada, i.e. the standard mix of issues, both familiar and evolving.

Correspondence during my convalescence:

  • Letter from Pasquale G. Teolis, RCMP International Liaison Branch asking for an appraisal of Liaison Officer. Inspector Colin Walker for 2007/2008.
  • Letter from Peter Wang, VP of the Canada-Yunnan United Services Organization, re collaboration between the Yunnan Government and the City of New Westminster, BC, in the transportation sector.
  • August 15 letter to Liu Qi, Mayor, Beijing Municipal People’s Government, regarding Metro Line No. 5 Project of the Beijing Mass Transit Railway Group and SNC Lavalin interests.
  • Aug 15 letter regarding a visa refusal.
  • Aug 16 emails about a novel, titled ‘Lu’ meaning road (道 in Japanese) based on the life of a retired antibiotics researcher from Sichuan who studied at UofT’s Norman Bethune college.
  • Aug 16 letter to Beijing Mayor Liu Qi on a number of issues: the successful introduction of Cummins Westport’s LNG engines in the Beijing Public Transportation buses; the successful bid of ABCP Architects of Canada for the Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center; a number of Canadian artists’ events in Beijing in the coming months, performing at commercial venues (given the absence of a Canada House in Beijing!); and the fall’s Terry Fox Run in Beijing, inviting the Mayor to participate. (He did not, regrettably).
  • Aug 16 letter from Mediatrix (Sherbrooke, PQ) thanking the Embassy for hosting a products seminar.  

Wednesday, August 21

LCX CPPCC

Telephone chat with Song Jian, Vice Chairman, CPPCC – Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

No notes on the chat, but I imagine that the discussion focused on the coming visit of Minister Collonette and our favorite subject: LCX.

  • Meeting with Jeff Nankivell, re mid-October visit of CIDA Minister Susan Whelan, who would be attending the Global Environment Assembly tri-annual meeting, this year in Beijing.

Minister Whelan was very interested in the China programs, especially regarding poverty reduction and democracy. Minister Whelan was also known for her strong support of efforts to publicize the China programs. Her visit would include Xian to meet with local Officials and to visit the Terra Cota Warriors.

  • Letter to former TSO Conductor Victor Feldbrill (1924-2020) regarding the politics of the concert business in China, following a WSJ article on same. Victor was a long-time friend from Japan days, where he was Professor and Conductor at Geidai, the University of Tokyo’s music academy.  Re China: he conducted the TSO in China in the 1980s, I seem to recall, but cannot confirm.
  • Exchange with Roy MacLaren re the forthcoming visit to China of Tim Drool of Algoma Central Corporation.
  • Exchange with Fulford Academy re a visa issue.
  • Exchange with Dr. Wang Jian of the Second Hospital of Baoshan City, Yunnan, on a visa issue.
  • Letter from US Brigadier General Neal Sealock complimenting Defence Attaché David Burke for his leadership of the Attaché community.

Education

Letter from Newfoundland&Labrador Minister of Youth Services and Post-Secondary Education Sandra C. Kelly re NfL/China education linkages and a September visit to China and my response.

What is worth noting in this exchange is as yet another example of tapping into the breadth of interest in international post-secondary international education among Chinese institutions of higher learning, and a reciprocated interest among well established counterpart institutions in Canada. It can be certain that the vast majority of Chinese have never heard of Newfoundland or Labrador or would link the two, prior to beginning a search for a foreign academic institution. But if anything, discovering this lesser-known part of Canada is itself a draw.

  • Various letters of thanks for flowers etc received during my convalescence. 

Thursday, August 22

Evening Kungfu Spectacle at the Tianqiao Theater.

Friday, August 23

LCX HR&RoL

Meeting with MFA Vice-Minister Li Zhaoxing.

This was my first meeting with Vice Minister Li, who had recently returned from Washington as China’s Ambassador. We had a fulsome discussion, beginning with the continuing demand for Lai Changxing’s extradition back to China. Familiar positions were repeated: China wants him back from Canada, since his escape to Vancouver in August, 1999; the Canadian Government committed to his return should the federal courts ultimately clear the extradition process and on condition that he not be executed as China had promised – an arrangement that Chinese Ambassador Mei Ping and I, as ADM for Asia, had negotiated before my assignment to Beijing. Of course, Canada  could not promise a time-line for Lai’s return to China, nor commit the Courts to an outcome that the Chinese wanted. The rule of law would prevail, as it did until Jul 23, 2011 by which time Lai and his lawyers had exhausted the legal steps that they could take to keep him in Canada. As of this writing (August 2025), and as far as is known, Lai is still alive and lingering in prison. The involvement and identity of unnamed and unindicted CCP members who ruled over Xiamen and Fujian during Lai’s criminal escapades remain unknown.

I raised the issue of the suppression of Falun Gong since 1999, and the imprisonment of so many of its adherents, as an attack on religious beliefs and groups by the police forces.

On a more positive note, we spoke of the expansiveness of the bilateral relationship, reflected by the significant back-and-forth visits by senior government and political figures, such as Calgary Mayor Ralph Klein, CIDA Minister Susan Whelan, Québec International Affairs Minister Louise Beaudoin, Health Minister Alan Rock and others from Canada, all the way to the visit of Joseph Baril, chief of the Defense Staff of Canada and meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian in Beijing in 2001.

I followed-up by emphasizing that Canada expected China to deal wisely, and with restraint and moderation, in its dealings with Taiwan. We also discussed the DPRK, Li asking about the state of Canada/DPRK relations and my contacts with the Government of NK.

  • Late afternoon phone meeting with Tony Burger, our man in Hong Kong, on upcoming visits and administrative matters.

Monday, August 26

Missions Agenda Meeting

Lengthy and covered the water-front, e.g. upcoming ministerial visits; flooding in Chongqing; Industry Canada mission; Cda/China PKO training; Ministry of Public Security issues etc.

  • Hosted luncheon meeting with Australian Ambassador David Irvine.
  • Fax from Chinese Consulate General, Toronto, on a visa issue.

Tuesday, August 27

  • Email to all Embassy Staff, including the newly arrived, welcoming everyone back from summer holidays, and flagging some of the key events in the coming fall.
  • Individual meetings with new Staff Members.
  • Planning for forthcoming visit of Secretary of State for Asia Pacific.
  • Congratulatory letter to the new Bangladeshi Ambassador upon presentation of credentials.
  • Luncheon meeting with President Victor Yang, Power Pacific Corporation.
  • Meeting with the Minister of State for Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Xie Zhenhua.

CCRels

Since 1992, the establishment of the China Council for International Cooperation and Development, a Canadian initiative inspired and led by distinguished predecessor Canadian Ambassador Earl Drake (1987-1990) with the support of CIDA, greatly enhanced Canada’s relationship with China on the environment files and gave the relationship substantive breadth and depth. Indeed, cooperation on environmental issues was a central feature of what might be considered the ‘golden age’ of Canada-PRC relations. By the turn of the century, the CIDA/China agenda covered a complexity of programs in energy and the environment: pollution prevention, agriculture, climate change, utilization and management of natural resources, capacity building via collaboration between Chinese and Canadian universities and colleges in training and development of technologies and training. 

SEPA had recently been upgraded as a Ministry but was still finding its footing in competition with other ministries whose files were tangentially related to environmental issues. This new SEPA was responsible for formulating and coordinating national environmental policies and implementation strategies, environmental guidelines , ecosystem conservation and so forth, a broad agenda for a new ministry. 

 I and my colleagues from CIDA found Minister Xie to be dynamic and very open. He was all business, but he was friendly and had a good sense of humour. At 53, he was a relatively youthful Minister. He had travelled in Canada, attending Globe 94 in Vancouver, to which were added subsequent travel and meetings on environmental issues in Toronto, Montreal and Québec city. He and his department were modern in the use of domestic media to highlight environmental issues and crises. 

This meeting, my first with Xie, was essentially for ‘getting to know you’ purposes, and indeed, I subsequently met on regular occasions with him, when Embassy intervention on issues was deemed essential. At this meeting, I flagged that CTV’s Discovery Channel wished to film an episode of ‘The Great Warming’ in China, with specific interest in solar and wind energy projects in Inner Mongolia, natural gas use in Beijing.

Also discussed at this first meeting were plans for the next China Council meeting, environmental technology verification, biosafety, livestock waste management, and ‘strategic’ environmental impact assessments.

CCRels

Meeting with Professor Kang Laiyi, Director of the Shanghai Municipal Aids Surveillance Center. CIDA was supporting work on HIV/AIDS in China, principally through a $2.4MM contribution to the UNAIDS program, where the program focused on policy reforms, strategic planning, public awareness and medical training.

Dr. Kang informed me that the  Center was currently dealing with 2,500 HIV cases and 70 AIDS cases. Shanghai is only one of 6 cities that administers methadrone programs. His 700+ staff are involved in research, AIDS prevention and control, and training of medical staffs. 

Wednesday, August 28

  • Meetings with Staff.
  • Lunch with former Ambassador to Canada Zhang Yijun (1992-1997).

CCRels Agric

Dinner for China General Administration of Quality Supervision/AQSIQ Mme Wang Fengqing, Member of the Party Committee and Chief Administrator, and members of her delegation on their way to Canada.

Mme Wang and colleagues were headed to Toronto and Ottawa for meetings with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. While relations between the two agencies were cordial and could be productive, China then and later would use fictitious reasons to ban Canadian foodstuff imports to signal displeasure over extraneous bilateral problems and issues. The Canadian position was and is to oppose these kinds of actions, and where foodstuff imports issues arose, the underpinnings of cooperation between the two agencies as ‘finding solutions, not problems’ should be the rule.

Madame Wang and Co were headed to Canada to conclude a package of agreements on foodstuff exports/imports that would lead to opening of Canadian markets for Chinese apples, edible synthetic casings for pork products and preserved vegetables. Canada would gain an agreement on the Chinese meat plant approval system for Canadian suppliers, animals for export health protocols and the removal of suspensions on certain Canadian meat and seafood plants.

For those unfamiliar with the complexity of the importation and exportation of foodstuffs, the list above is a good illustration.

Thursday, August 29

  • Various staff meetings.
  • Letter to Education Minister Chen Zhili seeking her support for a proposed Carleton University/Donghua University (Shanghai) MBA program that requires ministry approval.
  • Exchange with UVic Lecturer and former DFAIT ADM Barry Carin re ‘Commission on Globalization’ and the participation of CPPCC member who, in the end, could not attend the conference.

CdaMinVisits

  • Hosted dinner on the occasion of the visit to China of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Denis Coderre and his delegation, inviting as well 9 senior members of the Ministry of Public Security, including two Vice-Ministers, responsible for immigration matters. 

Friday, August 30

Meeting with President Tim Dool, Algoma Central Corporation

BT&I

This was a courtesy call to inform me and the Embassy of Algoma’s contract with Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai for the construction of a double hulled 18,000 DWT chemical tanker.

Lunch with the Ambassador of Singapore.

  • Invitation sent to all Canada-based staff to a welcome reception at the Official Residence on September 10. List of staff and their work units.
  • Finalized lists of Mission Management Committees and Membership.
  • Exchange on a visa issue.
  • Letter to Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor Myra Freeman regarding my forthcoming visit Halifax.
  • Letter and application form from DND for receipt of the Canadian Peacekeeping Mission Medal, 29 years following my service as part of the Canadian Delegation to the International Commission of Control and Supervision in South Vietnam, my first foreign service job and the start of my Asian adventures.
  • Example d’une lettre adressée à tous les nouveaux membres de l’Ambassade, leurs fournissant un dossier d’informations sur Pékin et ses charmes, et signalant la réception à la Résidence pour les accueillir dans une ambiance informelle.

Saturday, August 31

Arrival of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre.