ChinaEc

On December 11 of 2001, China joined the WTO, perhaps the most significant development in the transformation of China into a 21st century power, three weeks or so ahead of the Gregorian New Year, and two months prior to transiting from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse, an apt symbol of the transformation of the Chinese economy and indeed society that WTO access would entail.

Canada-China relations were largely in order, a Team Canada visit in 2001 having given significant visibility to the Government’s commitment to the relationship as well as promoting trade and investment, which was indeed increasing, reflecting our respective economic strengths – metals and minerals and agricultural goods from Canada, and increasing imports of manufactured goods from China. Relations between our two governments were largely positive except for the vexing issue of the Lai Changxing appeals process. The Chinese government sought his extradition with increasing impatience, while in Canada, Lai’s case was wending its way through the courts.

Overall, there was a dynamic of optimism, underpinning an increasingly complex bilateral relationship.

Tuesday, January 1         Le premier de l’an 2002.

Dinner at Nankou, our favorite Beijing Kaoya restaurant, not far south of Tienanmen. It did not survive the relentless destruction of traditional neighborhoods – the hutong – in the center of the capital and was replaced with high rise apartment buildings, no doubt to the happiness of their inhabitants.

Letter requesting the Ambassador’s autograph!

Wednesday, January 2  

Letter to Zhang Yunling, Director, Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, about Asia-Pacific economic integration.

One of the many burgeoning think tanks that had emerged as part of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening era. The Institute’s papers on the future of APEC were of particular interest.

Education  CdaIm&Vi

Exchange with the President, Royal Roads University, re its MBA program for Chinese students, and problems with visa issuances. Provides background to the visa issues.

In the letter, I point out the challenges to our Visa Section in managing the tremendous rise in demand for student visas – from 3,000 as recently as 1998 to 21,000 in 2001. And the numbers were not the only challenge: much of the documentation received was false or misleading, resulting in 35 to 40 percent rejection rates. Among those who did receive the student visas, hundreds then claimed refugee status once in Canada. It was important for Canadian university leaders, busy recruiting Chinese students, to understand these constraints.

Exchange with President, U. Regina, on visa issues.

…providing much the same background information as that provided to Royal Roads.

Exchange with Dean of Rotman School of Management on plans for China.

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto already enjoyed a positive reputation in Asia, notably thanks to its business campus in Hong Kong. China’s entry into the WTO was already heightening demand for business education services throughout China, which Rotman and others were keen on providing.

Monday, January 7

Admin

Embassy walkabout.

The succession of visits and meetings with senior Program Managers  – three on this day – can be overwhelming, and works to disconnect the Ambassador from the day-to-day activities of the great majority of Staff of the embassy. Taking an hour or so to walk around the many Sections of an Embassy as large as Beijing not only provided insights on the work of the individuals in each of the Sections but humanized the relationships with all levels of the Staff.

I confess that I did not take these walks as often as I should have.

The overall management of an embassy, and its auditing helps assure that Canadian programs and objectives are pursued effectively and within budgets. This is not of great interest to students of foreign policy but it is nevertheless essential to policy delivery. Between January 10 and 30, an Audit Team consisting of 10 officials, 8 from DFAIT and 2 from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, would examine our performance, based on responses to questions from the general – such as ‘Is the Mission Administration Program organized appropriately to ensure the most effective service and judicious use of resources’ – to the very specific ‘Do all staff complete Monthly Attendance Reports and is there a system in place to ensure that leave forms are submitted for all leave taken?’.

The Audit results provided an essential overview of where performance was good to excellent and where we needed to do better. 

As a newly appointed Ambassador, I welcomed this audit and its timing, as it would provide information and guidance on managing my Embassy. And so it did.

Tuesday, January 8

Education  DPRK

Letter to CEO Peter Chung, Vancouver Career College, regarding plans for providing education services, including in the DPRK.

The VCC did in fact launch and operate the Canada Korea Computer Graphic Design Institute in Pyongyang later in the year, as one of the very small numbers of Canadian private initiatives in the DPRK. Their CKCGDI operated until 2005. At the time, other Canadians were working for NGOs in the field of medicine and hospital administration, as indeed I had observed during my visit to North Korea in December.

BT&I

I attend a China Unicom general meeting and launch of new CDMA network with Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, Ministry of Mining and Minerals Minister Wu Jichuan and State Planning and Development Council Vice Chairman Zhang Guobao. Nortel was involved.

Wednesday, January 9

Education  ChinaGov

Meeting with Vice-Minister of Education Yuan Guiren.

The Vice Minister was a US university graduate and thus fluent in English, effectively doubling the time for substantive conversation. VM Yuan provided an outline of the breadth of responsibilities of his ministry, not surprising given the size of the Chinese student body! He struck me at the time as a representative of the progressive class of Party and Government Ministers represented by Zhao Ziyang and Zhu Ronji. Yuan Guiren became Minister of Education in 2009.

Following the Vice Minister’s outline of the massive challenge of educating the world’s largest cohort of grade school and high school students – an estimated 220,000,000! – I focused the conversation on higher education in the Canada-China context, pointing to the fact that this was also an era when Canadian universities were seeking ways to expand linkages with their Chinese counterparts. As an example, the University of Victoria was planning a conference in May on ‘Globalization and China’s Reform Agenda’, which would also address its significance to both Canada and China. Simon Fraser University and UBC were developing ambitious programs not limited to attracting undergrad and grad students, but establishing ‘strategic alliances’ with several Chinese universities, in a variety of scholarly and professional fields. Since reform and opening under Deng Xiaoping, thousands of young Chinese went abroad to study – UNESCO estimated roughly 35,000 per year at the turn of the ‘90s, to over 200,000 by the end of the decade – and that not counting those from Hong Kong. Among those thousands of returning graduates was a growing pool of academics and specialists that were available for collaboration with foreign institutions. These flows also were indicative of the potential for increased numbers of Chinese students seeking to study in Canada.

Thursday, January 10  

CdaGov

Exchange with the Honorable Judd Buchanan, Canadian Tourism Commission.

Media

Lunch with Strait Times Correspondent David Hsieh.

The focus of discussions was Canada/China relations – not surprisingly – and the dynamics that made these relations so positive at the time.

Friday, January 11

Letter of thanks from Chairman Yang Xianzu, China Unicom, for attending the launch of its CDMA network.

Separate meetings with: Baker and Mackenzie law firm; CP Rail; Vancouver Port Authority.  

Saturday, January 12 – Wednesday, January 16 Travel to Mongolia:

Program in Archives. The visit focused very much on the mining sector, and the governance challenges that shaped the engagement of Canadian companies.

Thursday, January 17

ChinaGov

Meeting with Yang Jingyu, Director of Legal Affairs, Office of the State Council.

Prior to being Director of Legal Affairs at the State Council, Yang served the Standing Committee of the NPC, notably as Deputy Director of the Commission on Legislative Affairs.

Exchange with Tim Armstrong, Japan Bank for International Cooperation introducing colleague Howard Ling, visiting China.  

ChinaGov Education

Letter to Chen Zhili, Minister of Education, PRC, re key elements in Canada/China collaboration in higher education, including the role of CIDA. Also referenced was Nortel support for R&D in China.

CIDA was at this time engaged in its Country Program Framework Review, which included an education component. Of equal importance was the ongoing Canada-China Scholars Exchange Program, which Chen’s Ministry strongly supported. And while the Ministry’s policy was to encourage the creation of joint programs between Chinese and foreign universities, only four of the existing 68 foreign degree programs approved by the National Academic Degree Granting Committee were Canadian. This was not a satisfactory number.

BT&I

On the other hand, an indication of Nortel’s importance in China at this time, the listing of the universities with which it was collaborating was impressive: Zhongshan, Qinghua, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (not surprisingly), Chongqing Post and Telecommunications University and others.  

Media

Lunch with Bruce Gilley, Far Eastern Economic Review

Bruce was a prolific author – a half dozen books on Asia including a respected biography of Jiang Zemin. Among points Bruce made during our chat: despite Jiang’s opening the CCP to the business community, only 7% of top business leaders want to join the Party. On the other hand, perhaps a third would be interested in positions in the National Peoples’ Congress/NPC or the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Congress/CPPCC. He considered that some forms of representative participation by non-Communist Party Chinese citizens was conceivable as vehicles for providing from the ground up policy advice. He eventually put his thoughts in what is the unfortunately titled China’s Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead.

At the time, neither of us knew that the FEER would cease publication in 2009.

The disappearance of this superb, reliable and indeed essential weekly on developments political, economic and social from East to South Asia – lost because of the incompetence and lack of commitment of owner Dow Jones – was a real tragedy. It was by far the best way to keep an eye on Asia. I read it weekly and assiduously from the ‘70s until its untimely demise.

ChinaMins&VMs HR&RoL

Dinner: Ministries of Public Security and Min of Justice dinner guests, prior to their visit to Canada.

As with the meeting earlier in the day with Yang Jingyu of the State Council, this dinner for two Director level officials from the Justice and Public Security ministries, prior to their visit to Canada to meet their counterparts including at Immigration Canada and the RCMP, was exemplary not only of the business-like state of relations at the time, but also the acceptance if not ready willingness of the PRC Government – and thus the CCP – to listen to Canadian views on human rights and the rule of law, which impact closely on immigration issues and police issues, viz the Lai case, for which the referenced ministries had responsibility.

It would be interesting to read years later what the Canadian hosts thought of their guests and what conclusion the Chinese guests drew from the visit. Work for future scholars!   

Friday, January 18  

  • Congratulatory letter to Sun Zhenyu, VM, MoFTEC, on his appointment as China’s first Ambassador to the WTO, to which he replied with equal courtesy.
  • staff meetings on administrative affairs, as well as the forthcoming Mission audit;
  • lunch with Canadian businessman John Gruetzner of Intercedent, an advisory firm doing business in China.
  • meeting with a Canadian businessman on general business environment.

BT&I

Some of the points made during our chat: the biggest challenge to doing business in China is undertaking due diligence research; a good source of information on how business is conducted on the ground is provided by entrepreneurs, who face all of the challenges, viz. assembling capital, obtaining permits and so forth. Advisory sources also include foreign banks and the increasing number of foreign consulting and accounting firms.

Sunday, January 20

  • hosted Sunday evening dinner for visiting Audit Team and Senior Mission Program Managers.

Monday, January 21

Visit of the Department’s Audit Team, January 21 to 30.

Admin

As noted earlier, this is always a big deal for an Embassy, as it’s objective is not only to review finances and the use of resources – including staffing and facilities – but also the overall performance of the Mission and, especially, that of the Ambassador. As it happened, of course, I was only in my sixth month as Ambassador in China, with no previous experience as a Head of Mission. All in all, there were 193 questions in multiple categories, from 1/Management to 27/Cash Account.

As noted earlier, I welcomed this audit and at this time. The results would be and indeed were excellent, providing an updated and detailed management guide at the Mission end, and a clear picture, for Headquarters, as to how its money was being spent.

Tuesday, January 22

Letter to the Chair of the University of Ottawa Board, regarding their promotional plans in China. Also proposed dates for a possible speech and exchange with the University’s Asia-focused academics and students.

  • Off to Hong Kong.

Wednesday/Thursday, January 23/24

CdaPD 

This gathering in Hong Kong of Embassy and Consulate senior staffs was to conduct a strategic overview of the Public Diplomacy programs (also variously referred to as Public Affairs and Branding), defined as the promotion of Canada’s image in China and Hong Kong to stimulate Chinese interest in and collaboration with Canada and Canadians, and that especially though not exclusively in the worlds of media, arts and culture. Engagement with Heritage Canada, Industry Canada, the Canadian Arts Council, which shared objectives, was fundamental to the picture. As always, proposals for active Public Diplomacy programs undertaken by Embassies and Consulate around the world tended to be greeted in Ottawa with more enthusiasm than funding, which was irregular at best. Our challenge on the ground in China and Hong Kong was then – as ever – to establish a framework of priorities and partnerships, including with the private sector, and sell these to Ottawa, in the hope that some funding would be provided. (Hope springs eternal.) 

We were told by our colleague from Ottawa who attended that there was in fact considerable interest at DFAIT for such a program, while also being informed that the battle for money was ever the constraint. We needed to assemble a framework of priorities, assure coordination among the various missions involved, find outside sources of funding, piggyback with events and programs sponsored by the private sector, and – especially – recognize the challenges that such initiatives presented.

It was evident to me and others that, while Canada had a positive image in China – thanks in part to the lingering celebrity of Norman Bethune, as well as the close relationship that Canadian political leadership had nurtured since diplomatic recognition was established in 1970. However, nothing could be taken for granted for the future, given China’s dynamic growth, economically and geopolitically. Competition for space in China’s public sphere would only increase. Absent the strong historical linkages we enjoy with Britain and France, and cheek by jowl proximity with the United States, we had to think long-term of ways to place Canada among the countries which the Chinese people, and not only the Party and the Government, felt could enrich their lives.

Easier said than done: China is geographically huge, its billion people speak and read their own regional languages, in addition to Mandarin. Since Reform and Opening, people were making their own choices as to where to travel, what consumer products to buy, where to send their kids for higher education. We had to be realistic about what we could accomplish.

Our meeting in Hong Kong agreed that the fundamental messaging about Canada would emphasize:

  • Canadian values, based on democracy and human rights, foundational in our country;
  • Canada’s cultural diversity, thanks to a history of welcoming immigrants from around the globe, and in large numbers. (Admittedly, an incomplete message, given the lack of acknowledgement of the history and contributions of the First Nation Canadians.)
  • the history of Chinese in Canada;
  • the potential for collaboration and Canada/China exchanges, in the arts, in tourism, in trade and investment. 

This gathering and re-think of our Public Diplomacy objectives was less a turning point than a re-emphasis of the purposes and messaging of our outreach activities in China.

At the meeting, we did not specifically address one dimension of Public Diplomacy that was and remains of great importance: turning our gaze around and messaging on Canada/China relations to Canadians. This is a role that I undertook and enthusiastically so: from one end of the country to the other, I found and created opportunities to speak to a wide variety of Canadian audiences about the challenges as well as the opportunities that relations with the PRC were offering then as well as in the future, emphasizing that China’s impact would be greater than many people imagined, and that developing ‘China Strategies’ was not only the responsibility of governments, federal and provincial, but that of all businesses and institutions – commercial, cultural, educational, scientific and so forth. These too needed China strategies, both on the offensive and on the defensive. Admittedly, during these early days of my assignment to Beijing, I did not realize this clearly. But it did not take long before I became convinced of it, and developing China strategies became one mantra – there would be others – of my personal Public Diplomacy to Canadians. 

The 100 page ‘Canadian Public Diplomacy Strategy for China, 2002-2005’, is located in the June 2002 file in the AtC archives, including a 6 page summary.

…and since the name of Norman Bethune has appeared and will subsequently be referenced as well, it is the proper place to invite the thoughts of ur-China and Asia Hand, Ted Lipman, to provide his insights on the Bethune legacy.

In Memory of Norman Bethune

Ted Lipman was one of the few Canadian students to study at Beida in the 1970s. He has had a 35 year diplomatic career which included postings in China, as Consul General in Shanghai (1995-1999) and in the USA. He also served as Ambassador to both South and North Korea (2007-2011). In the decade following his resignation from the Canadian foreign service, Ted served as CEO of a global cultural foundation based in Hong Kong.

. – .

At 20, the first political text I read in Chinese was penned by Chairman Mao himself: “In Memory of Norman Bethune’’ 

This is one of the seminal works by the Chairman which were a must-read for any politically aware Chinese during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which ran from 1966–1976 (I was a Canadian exchange student at Peking University in 75/76.)   Indeed, political awareness was sometimes a matter of life and death during those dark days. 

Even before establishing diplomatic relations in 1971, Canada sent some life-saving grain exports to the PRC in the 60’s. There was mass starvation throughout the country. China was on its knees as a result of many impractical and extreme policies which Mao imposed during the Great Leap Forward. At that time, Canada proceeded with grain exports despite US pressure not to. This was greatly appreciated by Mao as well as subsequent Chinese leaders throughout the 20th century, most of whom are now dead. To those same leaders, Norman Bethune’s significance had meaning, much more so than today.

During the 70s and 80s, Canada’s role was critical in enabling China to open to broader engagement with foreign countries and ideas. Yet China’s relationship with Canada was often framed by the narrow depiction of a single blemish-free Canadian martyr, who tirelessly worked and eventually paid the ultimate price for the Chinese revolution. Bethune opened the door for many Canadians in those early days when there was much enthusiasm for the China relationship…. on both sides.

Norman Bethune was a brave eccentric, a creative and multitalented man who left the University of Toronto in mid studies to serve as a labourer-teacher at a remote lumber camp in Ontario.   He returned to Toronto to finish his studies in the faculty of medicine but when World War I broke out, he suspended his medical studies again, to join the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. He saw action as a stretcher bearer in France and was wounded during the second battle of Ypres. After recuperating from his injuries, he returned to Toronto to complete his medical degree in 1916. 

With WW1 still in progress in 1917, Bethune signed up with the Royal Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant to serve in the UK, and after the war he continued an internship there, specializing in children’s diseases at the Sick Children’s Hospital at Great Ormond Street in London. Afterwards he went to Edinburgh where he completed his FRCS qualification at the Royal College of Surgeons. 

Bethune then met his wife Frances Penney whom he married in 1923 divorced in 1926, remarried in 1929 and divorced again, for the final time, in 1933.  Norman Bethune was a complex person whose private life was not as “selfless” as the Chairman would have us believe in his famous essay. But in China, where the Party maintains a monopoly on the “official” interpretation of history, it is far easier to honour the dead than celebrate the living. A martyr can be styled into a character without the same push back and evident flaws of a living, breathing hero. Bethune’s martyrdom was his strongest point when Mao portrayed him as the epitome of selflessness and devotion. In fact, Bethune’s life was far from straight forward.

Eventually Bethune became the Director of thoracic surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. He developed a number of revolutionary medical instruments still in use today. He was also an early advocate of socialized medicine in Canada. In1935, Bethune travelled to the Soviet Union, where he observed their system of universal free healthcare. The same year he joined the Communist Party of Canada and continued to identify with the communist cause.

The following year, shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war in 1936, Bethune travelled to Spain to support the Loyalist forces. He is credited with having set up a mobile blood transfusion service. The following year he went to China.

Having arrived at Mao’s guerilla HQ at Yan’an in 1938, Bethune became a front-line doctor in the communist guerilla war against Japan. In1939, after operating on an injured soldier, Bethune contracted sepsis and died. Mao’s tribute to him was meant to set an example of selfless internationalism and communicate to the masses that the communist revolution in China was not alone. 

According to the Chairman, Bethune travelled to China at the behest of both the US and Canadian Communist Parties. Canada was then and is still perceived in China today as joined at America’s hip…. “A running dog of American imperialism” as the Chairman might have said in another context. This, in fact, made Canada an attractive partner for China to practice on; “America light”, so to speak, in those years before Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979. But as China enhanced its ability to engage with the world, eventually joining the UN and the WTO, and with Chinese priorities changing from ideological purity to national prosperity, the Canadian option became one of many. Norman Bethune’s martyrdom was not as important as it used to be.

As a young student in China, having Bethune as a symbol of Canadian friendship with China opened many doors for me and my fellow Canadians. When we young and sometimes foolish students were on our best behavior, Bethune was a great asset. However, when we were confronted misbehaving, as students tend to do, we would claim to be Albanians! Like Bethune, Albania was China’s best international friend and could do no wrong. 

There were instances in my own life which provided some additional insight into Norman Bethune:

I was sitting with my father in the On-On restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1973, when Binky Marks, who recognized my Dad, came over to our table. My late-mother Lucille had known Binky in Toronto when they both supported anti-fascist causes back in the 30s. And my sister had worked at Duthie’s bookstore part time as a teenage student, where Binky ran the paperback section of the store. Binky was well known as an extremely book-knowledgeable curmudgeon as well as being renowned in some circles for his avid pursuit of nudism. 

As Binky sat down at our table my father bragged about how I was at UBC learning Chinese and had just read an article in Chinese penned by Mao himself: “In Memory of Norman Bethune”.  It turned out that Binky had been a close friend of Norman Bethune when they both lived in Toronto. As he had a car, Binky would often drive his comrade Norman to various Communist Party meetings.  As he regaled us with his stories of Bethune, he produced a flask of whiskey from the pocket of his crumpled coat, which he poured into his tea cup and generously helped himself to the dim-sum on offer at our table. Binky, who was certainly no prude, went into some detail about Norman’s exploits as a young man in Toronto; womanizing and generally having a good time. His colourful and very personal description of Bethune was far more human and compelling than the one that Mao portrayed in his famous essay. 

Several years later after graduating from Peking University in 1976, I was working at the Canadian embassy in Beijing. We received a visit from the CFDC, now Telefilm Canada, which was there to negotiate the first major film coproduction between Canada and China: “Bethune: The Making of a Hero”. The film’s budget, $20 million, was the largest of any Canadian film to date. There was an obligatory banquet, and I was seated next to Ted Allan, co-author of “The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune”. Ted had served with Bethune in Spain and it was his book which was to provide the basis for the story that was to be portrayed in the film. Ted told me many heroic stories about his comrade, Norman Bethune. He also pointed out to me how photos of Bethune in Spain as well as in China often showed him standing beside a rather fetching nurse (… according to Binky , Norman had been “quite the ladies’ man”). He created a very colourful picture of a very talented and energetic man, not quite in the detail relayed over a boozy meal at the On On, but enough to confirm that Bethune would make a wonderful story… if well told.  A true hero, a complex individual who fills his boots when faced with crisis and suffers for a greater cause (sort of like Lawrence of Arabia?). The Chinese however had other ideas.

The Cultural Revolution was hardly over and although people were starting to question the cult of Mao as well as the wisdom and consequences of his decisions, there were no clear lines, so officials normally aired on the side of caution.  The Chinese co-producers were compelled to frame Bethune and his life in the saintly manner described by the Chairman, and this was the Bethune portrayed in the film… heroic, brave and boring. Despite its star-studded cast (including Donald Sutherland as Bethune along with Helen Mirren and Anouk Aimée), the picture crashed at the box office. There was blame to be shared all around, including Ted Allan’s weak script, poor management and the Chinese coproducers in denial about those aspects of Bethune’s personality which might have made this a great story, (this happens in the West too; the Catholic Church opposed the movie the “Last Temptation of Christ” for similar reasons. Jesus did indeed have a girlfriend and she did have tattoos!) 

Bethune was a heroic figure in the cult of Mao which was at its height during the Cultural Revolution, but that cult never completely disappeared. After Mao’s death in 1975, Chinese visitors to Canada, especially the plethora of “inspection delegations” which landed on Canada’s doorstep after 1978, would go and pay obeisance to Bethune at his birthplace in Gravenhurst, Ontario. I wonder if Gravenhurst gets the same traffic from China now as it did over 20 years ago? Without question there is now less enthusiasm in China for Canada and for our native son, Norman Bethune. And I am afraid that to some extent the feeling is mutual.

I worked at the embassy in the late 70s when there was virtually no tourism and delegations from Canada were few and far between. Visiting Canadians needed to rely a great deal more on their embassy than today, and this was no exception when a delegation from the Communist Party of Canada Marxist-Leninist – CCPML – arrived in Beijing for a study tour, their host and sponsor possibly being the Canada China Friendship Association, a key player in the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Department attempts to gain favour in the West.

The Canadian Ambassador hosted a reception in honour of the visitors, each of whom sported Norman Bethune buttons on their lapels. To everyone’s surprise, the CCPML guests then began distributing NB buttons to other guests at the reception. The irony of this was not lost of the Chinese: Canadian communists wearing Norman Bethune buttons when Chinese communists were shedding their Mao jackets with the obligatory Mao button and donning suits and ties. Furthermore, ideological differences intervened: this Marxist-Leninist offshoot was not the Beijing-recognized Canadian Communist Party. Loyalty to “Mao Zedong Thought” and antipathy towards the Soviet Union and its so-called “revisionism” was no longer ideologically acceptable. The CCPML and its erstwhile chairman Hardial Bains (known in some circles as “hardly any brains”), saw China as the Mecca of authentic communism and did not hesitate to use the Bethune “brand” to promote themselves as true internationalists. 

It didn’t work. China was in the process of freeing itself from the constraints of doctrinaire Maoist ideology and it could no longer maintain a simplistic worldview. Most of China’s major trading partners were the very countries which had participated in the Eight Nation Alliance which attacked and occupied Beijing in 1900 – remember ‘55 Days in Peking’ – and its reviled aftermath? When Alliance member USA established relations with the PRC in 1979, Canada’s significance as a major partner, thanks to the wheat exports, was diminishing, and thus the utility of Bethune to Canadian endeavours in China was of less significance. 

Almost 100 years after Bethune’s death, the Chairman’s memorial to him is still read in schools and sometimes Party officials will pay lip service to his martyrdom. But I very much doubt his legacy was of any value in, for example, the prolonged negotiations to release the Two Michaels. In the 21st Century, China has become far more interested in getting cozy with foreign elites rather than sycophantic communist parties (“useful idiots” was the name Stalin gave to fellow travellers). Canada-China relations are now characterized by practical benefit to China, rather than any obligations of history.

Thursday, January 24

Meeting with Professor David Zweig, Hong University of Science and Technology, to discuss a May conference on a number of themes, including globalization and China’s reforms, China’s ‘opening and reform’ and its significance for Canada.

David was one of my mentors on China.

Return to Beijing.

Friday, January 25  

ChinaGov

Letter to Wang Guangtao, Minister of Construction, PRC, re Cda/China cooperation in his sector, including with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, with which the Ministry is active.

S&T

Exchange of letters with Dr. Arthur Carty, President, National Research Council of Canada, re collaboration with China, in response to his letter of January 4 to me.

The NRC had been developing relations with China’s S&T sector for a number of years, especially so as the Chinese Government encouraged its domestic sector and researchers further to internationalize. The results included an expansion in the number of fields of scientific endeavour, as well as the rising number of institutions and affiliated scientists and researchers. Both as a driver but also as a result, Canada/China collaboration already extended to formal agreements between the NRC and its affiliates with the Chinese Academy of Science, the Hong Kong Productivity Council and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China. In Canada, NRC also extended its programs to collaborate with Canadian small and medium enterprises seeking to promote cooperation with Chinese counterparts.

These were yet more indicators of the dynamism that characterized the Canada/China relationship at that time, I would argue for the benefit of both countries…although, over time and as they say: ‘It gets complicated’.

Sunday, January 27

Visit to Shijiazhuang: Tomb of Norman Bethune

CCRels

The visit to Bethune’s tomb – despite the flow and consequences of history – remained a moving experience. With the passage of time, idealists often get short-shifted by later developments, their hopes and dreams signs of foolishness. That is to ignore the honesty of their commitments and the tremendous breadth of their efforts. Bethune, in my opinion, remains a hero, not for his ideology but for his humanity.

Monday, January 28

ChinaGov BT&I

Meeting with Zhou Xiaochuan, Chairman of the Chinese Security Regulatory Commission.

Easily one of the most impressive technocrats and one that I would meet with some regularity during four years in Beijing. By the end of 2002, Zhou would be appointed Governor of the People’s Bank of China by Premier Zhu Rongji. As noted earlier, he features prominently in Julian Gewirtz’s ‘Unlikely Partners’, referenced in 01-0926.  

CCP

Dinner hosted by Vice-Minister Zhang Zhijun, International Department, Central Committee, CCP.

Not surprisingly, VM Zhang chose our first meeting to educate this new Ambassador (relatively) from Canada on the history of the Chinese Communist Party, with particular emphasis on its evolving ideologies, in the face of change in China and abroad. My notes remind me that I received the full treatment: dialectical materialism, role of Leninism, historical materialism and the transition from capitalism to communism, from Mao Zedong Thought to Jiang Zemin’s The Three Represents, via Deng Xiaoping’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. I have four pages of notes on this: the Vice-Minister was doing his job.

My job at this first meeting was to listen. I did however raise the issue of China/Taiwan relations. Here, VM Zhang was business-like, pointing to the centrality of the issue in Chinese history – he didn’t add that the Qing incorporated the island in 1684 – and then flagged its significance to modern China’s sense of nationalism. He expressed a high degree of optimism about Taiwan’s future, and PRC/Taiwan relations. ‘Political differences should not interfere with economic and trade relations.’ He flagged ongoing discussions with the Democratic People’s Party of Taiwan.

He concluded the discussion by stating his hope that more Canadian academics would visit China, including foreign policy specialists. 

Exchange with the Chairman of the Union of Mongolian Artists, re the possibility of art exhibitions in Canada.

Tuesday, January 29

ChinaDom   ChinaFP

Meeting with Professor Yuan Ming, Director of the Institute of International Relations and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of International Studies at Beijing University.

A very accomplished and cosmopolitan professor and intellectual player in the relatively open environment in Chinese academic circles at this time. Well connected as well with friends with Li Zhaoxing. She was then a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Not surprisingly perhaps, our conversation focused on the ‘Reform’ part of Reform and Opening. Her hopes for a more open future were based on an increasingly cosmopolitan Chinese public, better travelled, accessing wider sources of international news and culture via Chinese publications, greater availability of books and magazines than in the past.

She did not come across as a Pollyanna or apologist, given her credibility among foreign academics and intellectuals, mentioning sinologist Perry Link as an important interlocutor.

Meeting with Dai Xianlong, Governor, People’s Bank of China

Meeting with Agritech representative Paul Westdal.

CdaPs&Ms

Letter to Hon. Sandra Kelly, LtGov of Newfoundland and Labrador, regarding the Immigration Canada staff decision to deny visas to Chinese students from Tianjin Foreign Studies University, headed for Academy Canada Career College.

Education  CdaIm&Vi

The visas for students program was indeed a high priority for Canada, with budgets to match, particular for adding staff to meet the ascending growth in demand. In 1998, before I arrived in Beijing, just short of 4,000 applications had been received. When I assumed my duties in 2001, the total had reached over 21,000. Approvals tracked this rise. Serving the growth strategies of Canadian institutions of higher learning on the one hand and the Government’s policies as expressed in the Immigration Act on the other also required balancing many objectives. It was an undeniable fact for example that the PRC had become one of the major sources of illegal immigration to Canada, with smuggling rings – the ‘Snakeheads, in US parlance – heavily involved. Even absent these factors, a large percentage of visa holders – whatever their initial intentions – opted to remain in Canada, turning a student visa program into an immigration program.

Wednesday, January 30

Meeting with Huang Yan, President, Petro China Company Limited.

Meeting with MFA Vice Minister Li Zhaoxing, who succeeded Tang Jiaxuan as Foreign Minister in 2003.

Thursday, January 31

  • Meeting with Director Chen Yunlin, Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
  • Meeting with Steve Kaufman, KPWood Co.
  • Meeting with Terry Brophy, Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia.

Media

  • Meeting with representatives of The Economist Corporate Network.

Letter to VM Zhang Zhijun, International Department, CP Central Committee, following dinner discussions.

Letter from President and Vice-Chancellor David Barnard, University of Regina, responding to my letter to him of January 2 regarding visa processing times, and expressing understanding of the administrative challenges.

Attended evening event promoting the Canadian Tourism Council.