Safety certificates for GMO products…Mongolia…Canadian Aviation Electronics and China Eastern Airlines…Terry Fox Run…China Insurance Regulatory Commission…and as an example of hope against hope, two weeks of Chinese language studies at the Shanghai Foreign Studies University...
I sent letters of welcome to all new Canada Based Staff and met them individually over the course of the following few weeks. (This had been arranged prior to leaving for Thailand.)
Lettre à Gérald Tremblay, Maire de Montréal, donnant suite à ma rencontre avec le Maire Han Zheng de Shanghai. ‘J’ai félicité les deux grandes et importantes municipalités pour le renouvellement de l’entente de jumelage. Maire Han m’a fait part de son intention de visiter le Canada avant la fin de l’année, en plus qu’une délégation de Montréal est attendu dans une avenir prochain.’ J’ai encouragé M. Tremblay de ne pas hésiter de communiquer avec notre Consulat Général pour leur appui.
Does an Ambassador have an occasional right to brag? DFAIT Deputy Len Edwards and ADM Mulroney comment on a message from Manulife’s Corporate Headquarters informing Ottawa that the China Insurance Regulatory Commission had granted Shanghai-based Manulife-Sinochem the long-sought license to open a fully operational office in Beijing. Manulife stated that the CIC had been very impressed with the interventions I had made in favor of MS and that, during the SARS partial shut-down. Nice to be remembered.
PM Chrétien has written a short letter to Premier Wen Jiabao inviting him to visit Canada in early December.
Catch-up meetings with Senior Staff.
Off to Shanghai for Chinese lessons at the Shanghai Foreign Studies University. Stayed at the Shanghai Railway Hotel, which retained some of its pre-war zeitgeist.
Prior to departure, I address some outstanding business:
Letter to Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Baowen.
The Ministry of Agriculture had just facilitated the applications process for interim safety certificates for GMO products, which was welcome news for Canada’s canola industry. But this kind technical of certification issues kept coming up. Illustrative is a second letter to the Vice Minister on the issue of procedural requirements for food safety trials for corn, soybeans and cotton, to ensure that they had not been infected by rats. The procedures were now in place but agreement has not been reached for canola. An example of the types of technical issues that require government to government agreement so that the safety of consumers and the flow of trade can both be assured.
Letter to President Gu Binglin, Tsinghua University.
Tsinghua had invited Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson to speak, during his forthcoming visit, at the University on September 2 on the challenge of sustainable development. This event provided an opportunity to explore the idea of an annual lecture on sustainability at Tsinghua, the speakers being international experts and political leaders, sponsored and paid for by Canada, to promote our common interests in advancing understanding of sustainable development. This idea would be further developed during Minister Anderson’s visit.
Letter to Senate Speaker Dan Hays regarding his upcoming trip to Mongolia, scheduled for September.
Speaker Hays was to attend the ‘Fifth International Conference on New and Restored Democracies’. As a ‘restored democracy’, Mongolia was endeavoring to build its outward looking nascent democracy, and that situated between the two immense and powerful nations that were far from democratic in their governance. Mongolia’s leadership was talented and committed to its democratic values. Canada’s aid program was modest – Cdn$800k per year, but a fourfold increase since 1999. Canadian mining companies Cameco and Ivanhoe were of growing importance to the sector. Senator Hays would be impressed by Our Man in Mongolia, Chris Johnstone, who would be helpful during the visit. A member of our Beijing Staff would also be on hand to support Senator Hays during the visit. I sent a similar letter to MP David Kilgour.
Letter to President and CEO, Canadian Aviation Electronics, Derek Burney, following-up on the successful contract with China Eastern Airlines for the sale of flight simulators. I reported on my recent meeting with China Eastern’s President Li Fenghua and his company’s plans to upgrade and expand its flight training center in Shanghai. President Li had underlined that he and his company were very pleased with CAE’s Airbus A320 full-flight simulators. He expected that his company’s demand for simulators would increase, including for Boeing 737-800 simulators. China Eastern was planning upgrading and expanding its training center in Shanghai, and that this would provide significant opportunities for CAE. I also informed President Burney that recently, I had also met with Minister Yang Yuanyuan of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. He too spoke fondly of CAE and their flight training joint-venture in Zhuhai with China Southern Airlines, and enthusiastically recounted his involvement in CAE’s first sale in China in 1990, when he was Vice-President of China Southern. Minister Yang also stated that, should CAE consider expanding the joint-venture in Zhuhai, he would lend his support.
I assured President Burney of the Embassy’s continued commitment to his company.
With the forthcoming Changing of the Guard in the Liberal government, notably with a yet named successor to PM Chrétien, a Coordinating Committee of Deputy Ministers, to which a selection of Heads of Missions were temporarily admitted, began deliberations of what was called ‘Canada and the World: A New Vision’ – presumably not a name chosen by our departing PM. Of interest was the selection of international issues with which the new PM would have to address, as per:
An exchange of letters with John Wiebe, President and CEO, Globe Foundation of Canada, flagging the Embassy and Consulate Commercial Sections’ engagement in trade promotion for the environmental sector: across all 5 Greater China posts – Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzho and Hong Kong – we had 6 officers assigned to this commercial sector on a full-time basis. I also flag that Environment Minister David Anderson is scheduled to visit China in early September.
Ongoing planning for VIP visits, starting with the PM. Funding issues discussed. Also anticipated: Defence Minister/McCallum and Environment Minister/Anderson; the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. CIDA described its ongoing relationship with the CCP Policy School.
Meetings with Senior Staff.
Response to a letter from New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord on the growing trade relationship between Chinese and NB companies.
We learn that Treasury Board has approved renewal of the Embassy/Consulates Public Diplomacy Program, setting aside $30,000 of its Cultural Grants budget.
Letter to Chairman Ma Kai, National Development and Reform Commission
Readers will know that an early cornerstone of the Canada/China relationship has been trade in Canadian wheat which had by then continued for 42 years. And a good crop of Canadian wheat was anticipated this fall. With PM Chrétien visiting China in October, I suggested that in celebration of the historic contribution of the wheat trade to the success of the Canada/China relationship, an agreement with China to purchase 1 million tons of Canadian wheat be signed by the Canadian Wheat Board and COFCO during the visit.
…and why not? I should have added that the first sales were done on credit, of which China had little – commercial or financial – as it emerged from the Great Leap Forward.
Individual meetings with new Staff members and au revoir to others.
Press briefing to CCTV, Beijing Youth Daily, Beijing Radio, CRI and other media on the forthcoming Terry Fox Run.
Hosted luncheon meeting for Chairman Wu Dingfu, China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
This was an important meeting. The CIRC had recently been upgraded to ministerial rank and was changing its focus from supervision of insurance company performance to the strengthening of the regulatory framework for an industry that was increasingly internationalizing, including firms such as Manulife-Sinochem and SunLife-Everbright.
It was important to understand not only the changes in the commission itself, but also the direction in which the new government of Premier Wen Jiabao was headed with financial sector modernization. As a sign of changing times, the CIRC had recently issued draft administrative rules for foreign life insurance companies and had solicited public comments. This was unprecedented. The Embassy had responded, reflecting inter alia the collective views of the Canadian firms.
Individual meetings with new Canada Based Staff members.
Hosted lunch for Nortel CEO Robert Mao and senior staff members of the China office.
Meeting with Simon Pang, Vice President, AECL Beijing.
Hosted breakfast meeting with Bill Downe, Vice Chairman, Bank of Montreal. Included were Special Advisor Neil Tait and General Manager for China, Roger Heng.
Continued individual meetings with new CBS Staff.
Déjeuner avec Patrice Dallaire, Directeur, Bureau du Québec, et Premier Secrétaire Jean Marchand.
Letter to Acting Mayor of Beijing Wang Qishan introducing him to CH2MHill, and outlining its skill sets in environmental planning and management, sustainable development and energy management, each essential to the successful preparations for the 2008 Olympics.
Arrival of members of the Subcommittee on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment, of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the House of Commons. The delegation Chair was MPs Mac Harb and included Raymond Simard and Stéphane Bergeron.
I conducted a briefing session preparatory to the group’s meetings with their Chinese counterparts. Given the trade and economic agendas of interest to the delegation members, I included as guests my predecessor Howard Balloch as well as representatives of APCO, Mitsui Trading and Patrice Dallaire of the Bureau du Québec.
…and so it goes…
Joseph Caron, September 30, 2025