Saturday, March 01

CdaGov

Flight to Vancouver and Ottawa for a number of purposes: to attend a set of presentations for Heads of Mission by senior Government of Canada officials on issues such as ‘Looming Security Concerns’, ‘Branding and Public Diplomacy’, ‘Modern Management’, ‘Physical Security of Missions and Crisis Planning’ – actually, ‘Crisis Management’ would have been a better subject. Followed-up with Asia Bureau meetings re the usual issues of policy priorities, staffing and so forth, including of course with my successor as ADM and later Ambassador, David Mulroney. I was invited to speak on ‘Economic Developments in China and their Impact of the World Economy’ to a gathering of Embassy Finance and Economic Counsellors. I also met separately with CBC President Bill Atkinson, the Presidents of Carleton and l’Université d’Ottawa, the Deputy Ministers of the Immigration, Agriculture and NatResources Departments.

The highlight for me however was the Friday March 7 Round Table on ‘The Internationalization of Culture in China: Implications for Canada’, which I chaired.

Friday, March 07

Speech March, 2003

March, 2003 – Arts&Culture

Summary of Discussions

Read PDF

Arts&Culture

I presented a 17 page deck of photos and commentary to the audience. The deck – en français et en anglais – is in the archived March 2003 files. The points raised in the deck – repeated in PDF – formed the basis of my somewhat freewheeling presentation.

And so it went. I and my Colleagues at the Embassy continued to promote the benefits to Canada and China of expansive relations between cultural and artistic institutions and among artists. But the development of beneficial linkages depended on the institutions themselves.

Despite my absence from Beijing and thanks to my Staff, correspondence continued, as per the following:

  • exchange with a Canadian company on measures they have taken to prevent fraud in visa applications for travelers to Canada.
  • letter from a US citizen condemning the GoC’s ‘management of the commercial seal hunt’.
  • distribution of the summary of the text of Premier Zhu Rongji’s ‘Report on the Work of the Government’ delivered at the First Session of the Tenth National People’s Congress on March 5, 2003’ prepared by Prof. Richard Baum, UCLA, to which is attached to the full 54 page text.
  • Exchange with Director General Yi Xiao Zhun, Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, regarding proposed amendments of a China/CIDA MoU extending the Yunnan Maternal and Child Health program for another year.
  • the detailed schedule of the planned visit to Tibet, in the company of Flora MacDonald, but which would be canned because of SARS.
  • letter from BC Premier Gordon Campbell confirming his plan to travel to China from April 13 to 19, to advance BC interests as well as attend the World Economic Forum’s China Business Summit 2003.
  • a few exchanges on Personnel issues.
  • exchange with Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed regarding his planned visit to China in mid-April.
  • Nancy Southam writing Pierre: Colleagues and Friends Talk about the Trudeau …
    …seeks Embassy help to connect to Huang Hua and Zhao Ziyang.
  • invitation to an art exhibit at the Red Gate Gallery;

Monday, March 10

…and back in Beijing.

MAM

The weekly meeting flagged a number of issues: BC Premier Campbell’s forthcoming visit and attendant lumber promotion program; AgCda DM Samy Watson’s upcoming visit – about which I reported on my meeting with him the previous week; down the line, future PM visit and early arrangements; the Trade Section noted that given the increasing number of Canadian companies sourcing inputs from China and indeed investing in China, there was a need to update the template for services to be provided by the Embassy and Consulates, what to advise re Web searches and so forth.

Meeting with the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, which was in China to meet institutional counterparts, as well as obtain an understanding of the business opportunities available to their membership.

Meetings with individual staff members.

Lunch hosted by former President of China Southern Airlines Yu Yan’en.

Meetings with individual staff members, including re planned visit to Tibet.

Tuesday, March 11

Meeting with APConsulting/China executives.

Meetings throughout the morning with Staff.

Media

Interview par téléphone avec Journaliste-Animateur de Zone Libre, sur Radio Canada TV. La discussion porta beaucoup sur la Corée du Nord.

CCRels ChinaPs&Ms

Hosted lunch for Jilin Provincial Governor Hong Hu, along with members of his staff from the Economic and Trade Commission, Foreign Affairs Office, Development and Planning Commission, the European and American Division of Jilin’s Foreign Affairs Office and the Director of its Beijing Office.

A number of my Staff attended, including both the Political and Commercial Ministers. My Executive Assistant – and since 2022  Ambassador to the PRC Jennifer May  – as always took excellent notes and prepared a classified report, one of so many she and fellow staffers produced, now deep in the vaults of Global Affairs Canada…(sigh…)

ChinaPs&Ms

Visit by Shenyang Mayor Chen Zhenggao and members of his staff.

My sketchy notes indicate that Mayor Chen had a number of Canadians in residence in his city, and that a ‘Canada Week’ was being planned for June or July in 2004. The linkages were both business and in the field of education.

Arts&Culture

Exchange with Bill Crook, General Manager, Manitoba Theater for Young People (still going strong) informing me of the MTYP’s performance schedule in April in Hong Kong and seeking engagement with our offices in HK and Guangzhou.

Evening dinner hosted by the Italian Ambassador and Madame.

Wednesday, March 12

Courtesy call by Portuguese Ambassador Antonio Santana Carlos

Telephone exchange with Ms. Suzanne Labbé of the Supreme Court of Canada staff, regarding a forthcoming visit by Canadian Justices to Shanghai.

Media

Interview with New Design Magazine.

ChinaPs&Ms

Dinner hosted by Liaoning CPPCC Chair Zhang Wenyue for diplomats at the Diaoyutai. No notes. Likely one of those evenings when the Hosts opening comments are strong on platitudes and light on substance…

Thursday, March 13

Meetings with Staff.

Telephone discussion with Senator Jack Austin.

ChinaPs&Ms

Luncheon hosted by Dalian Mayor Xia Deren, also at the Daiyutai Guest House.

Mongolia

Mongolia was, as ever, interested in expanding its relations with Canada and to the credit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulan Bhattar and their Embassy in Ottawa, they proposed different approaches to that end. This was consistent with the ever-present need to increase the global visibility and significance of a country with only two sometimes unfriendly neighbours, in the middle of the breathtakingly vast expanse which is continental Asia east of the Urals. As noted earlier, their ‘Canada strategy’ was to seek to multiply both official and non-governmental linkages.

Their most important objective was the establishment of a Canadian Embassy in UB. The Canadian view at the time was that expat Canadian and true Mongolia Hand Honorary Consul Chris Johnstone was working very effectively in Mongolia, and more than adequately served our purposes. Periodic visits to UB by the Beijing Embassy Political Section also took place. The Mongolian MFA also proposed a bilateral consultative mechanism on policies, and expanded trade and investment relations. The Canadian mining sector was the dominant presence in Mongolia: mining companies themselves, investors, engineers and geologists; you could hardly go anywhere in Mongolia at the time without meeting Canadians. Missionaries also formed an important group of Canadians. Permanent residents however were few and far between.

Accordingly, the Canadian Government’s focus was on the economic relationship. While Canada sought to support Mongolia’s democratic development, the absence of a CIDA program (other than a modest contribution through the Canada Fund) meant that there was no means of developing an HR program. Our engagement was thus limited to participation in such initiatives as the International Conference on New or Restored Democracies and the International Civil Society Forum.

Friday, March 14

BT&I ChinaGov

Letter to the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng regarding a new preferential Value-Added-Tax that would be accorded only to domestic regional aircraft producers and discriminate against Canadian manufacturers. Such a tax would not be consistent with the National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation Treatment principles of the WTO. The letter requested that the Minister look into this issue and provide a response as soon as possible.

Sunday, March 16

Expedition to the Great Wall and Huairou.

Monday, March 17

MAM

Not all confirmed but several individual and group missions were heading for China in the near term, e.g. S&T corporates, including Nortel, BC Premier Campbell, Secretary of State for Asia Pacific, Environment Minister Anderson in September, Immigration officials, Cdn members of CC Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation, the Office of the Auditor General etc. It was always like this!

Report on increasing DPRK refugee flows into China, for many reasons not limited to poor food availability.

Drafting remarks for Canada China Business Council presentation.

Luncheon with Maurice Strong.

My notes indicate that we discussed current UN and international efforts to engage with the DPRK, including the provision of international assistance to deal with current food crisis in the country. Additional Canadian assistance commitments were in discussion in Ottawa – perhaps $2.6mm, with add-ons over the course of the year, all channeled through the World Food Program.

Meetings with Staff.

Meeting of the Beijing Chapter of the CCBC.

Échange de lettre avec Le Centre d’Échange Éducatif et Culturel Chinois au Québec à l’égard de visa pour un groupe d’étudiants Chinois.

UBC Professor Pitman Potter invites me to join the International Advisory Committee of a group of academics and Asia Hands on approaches to dispute resolutions in a cross-cultural environment.

Tuesday, March 18

Media

Entrevue avec China Radio International à l’égard de la Francophonie.

Meetings with Staff.

Tibet

Accompanied by Embassy colleagues, meeting with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences regarding Tibet.

Our meeting was with Professor Yang Enhang, a Tibet scholar with 12 years of working in Tibet. His credentials however did not mean that the briefing would be anything other than the CCP official lines, and in that, we were not to be disappointed.

He began by boasting of the improved living conditions of Tibetans since the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The 1st Tibet Work Conference of 1980 had set a different developmental tone to the governance of the so-called Autonomous Region and its 2.6mm Tibetans. (An additional 131,000 live outside Tibet, he added.)

Five White Papers have outlined Beijing’s policies. Education, electrification and transportation infrastructure were the development goals. He stated that each county now had a school infrastructure with primary to secondary curricula and while the level of education remained low – which he blamed on the marginal standard of living of the population – work was being done on improving the quality of public services and standards. Religious training was available in schools. Monks were allowed to study the Sutras and Buddhist rituals.

Infrastructure was improving, with 75% having access to television, phone connectivity to be complete in 2004.

On the political front, between 1982 and 1989, a dialogue between the Government (and Party) had made some progress but that had ground down, with few high-level exchanges in the intervening decade.

As far as Beijing was concerned, the annual March 10 statement, offering the ‘Middle Path Approach’, reiterated the principal tenets of the CCP: no to political independence; yes to allowing the Tibetan people to preserve their identity, promote their religious and cultural heritage and to protect the delicate environment of the Tibetan Plateau. The Dalai Lama would not play a political role. He should dissolve the ‘Government in Exile’.

When I inquired about the whereabouts of the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was kidnapped in 1995 at the age of six, all I got in response was that he was under house arrest, for reasons that did not merit an explanation.

Future meetings with Chinese government officials did not provide much more information than the boiler plate provided by Professor Yang.

Dinner hosted by Hu Qili, Chairman, Soong Chingling Foundation, named after the truly remarkable Madame Soong, whose life is emblematic of much of China’s 20th century history. It’s activities at the time of our meeting Chairman Hu were centered on medical research and development, but would substantially broaden over the coming decade.

CdaPs&Ms

Lettre et programme de visite en Chine pour Sous-Ministre des Ressources Humaines, MAE, Gisèle Samson-Verreault.

Une visite importante pour l’Ambassade : la Sous-ministre s’est familiarisée avec les conditions de travail et de vie du Personnel de l’Ambassade – Canadiens et non-Canadiens – et a rencontré des homologues des Ambassade du UK, US et Australie pour fin de comparaison.

Wednesday, March 19

Meeting with Anne Golden, President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada, along with VP Charles Barret.

No notes but having met Anne on a number of occasions, in both China and Canada, I am quite sure that we discussed current economic developments in the PRC and their impact on Canada, my remarks updating the sitreps from my speeches and commentary.

Luncheon for HR ADM Gisèle Samson-Verreault attended by senior Administrative and HR members of the US, UK and Australian Embassy.

SARS

Conference call with HK/Bruce Gillies, Shanghai Neil Clegg, Guangzhou Jim Feir and DFAIT HR ADM Samson-Verreaut also on the line. This was not the first time we learned of a worrisome epidemic spreading in parts of Southeast China, and already referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – SARS. But I had not been aware that on March 10, over a week earlier, the World Health Organization had issued a global alert, reiterated by the US Center for Disease Control, to the effect that a mysterious respiratory illness resulting in multiple deaths was spreading in parts of China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Our three offices were beginning to take steps to limit the spread of the disease among our Staffs. The impact of SARS would only become evident in the coming days.

Not yet realizing the potential of the epidemic – the Chinese authorities to date having been silent – I proceeded with my plans to travel to Tibet both in an official capacity for a few days, but later also to enjoy a bit of tourism with my Wife Kumru as well as Flora MacDonald and a few of her friends.

Meeting with University of Alberta President Rod Fraser, followed by a buffet dinner for UofA alumni.

Thursday, March 20

Meeting with Mr. Tony Sorrenti, Counsellor (Finance), Canadian Embassy, Tokyo, preparatory to meetings with finance and banking officials in Beijing.

Meetings with Staff.

Lunch with Swedish Ambassador to the DPRK.

Friday, March 21

Mostly meetings with Staff, plus one business visitor.

HRRoL ChinaGov

Letter to Procurator General of the Supreme People’s Procurator General  Jia Chunwang on his appointment.

Jia was the former Minister of Public Security with whom Canada cooperated on joint law enforcement efforts against people smuggling, drug trafficking, economic crimes and fugitive cases. The purpose of the meeting was to flag the importance of a new CIDA program of $2.5mm to strengthen the Procurator’s capacity and professionalism regarding protecting citizen’s rights, to implement and enforce due process in the criminal prosecution system and to develop new laws and policies.

Arts&Culture  ChinaGov

Letter to Vice Minister Madame Meng Xiaosi, Ministry of Culture.

I explain that Canadian policy was in support of the principle that the cultural voices of all nations need to find a place to be heard on the world stage, a notion promoted through the work of the International Network on Cultural Policy. The issue was also being promoted by UNESCO. The purpose of the letter was to encourage China to support the UNESCO initiatives.

CCP CCLA

Letter to Senator Jack Austin, Chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association (CCLA), informing him that Vice-Minister Zhang Zhijun of the Central Committee of the CCP’s International Liaison Department had informed the Embassy of his desire to pay a visit to Canada to meet with Canadian political parties and academics to increase the CCP’s understanding of party politics in Canada. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa would organize the visit.

Among the issues that this would raise would be who would formally invite the VM, whose rank required an official invitation, and of equal importance, whether indeed senior levels of Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, the then Canadian Alliance and the NDP would in fact want to meet and be known to have met with a senior CCP Official. This should not pose a problem however for the CCLA – or so I opined! I wrote a similar letter to Senator Dan Hays, then Speaker of the Senate.   

I should add that VM Zhang was very good at his job, as a former MFA official (and future MFA Vice-Minister); immaculately fluent in English with a UK polish that came with the posting in London; conversant in articulating China’s sense of its place in the world, and with a professional curiosity about the views of his interlocutors. It was always a pleasure meeting with him, knowing that his first duty was to articulate clearly and for the benefit of Westerners the CCP’s views on the world.

CdaGov

Letter to Minister Jane Stewart, Human Resources Development Canada, regarding her forthcoming visit to Beijing to participate in the China Employment Forum.

I informed her about the recent session of China’s National People’s Congress (which had appointed Hu Jintao as the new President), and policy issues such as the necessity of dealing with unemployment and the development of a social security network. The China Employment Forum was meant to serve as a venue for the Chinese Communist Party and Government to learn about best international practices. In addition, the Embassy was scheduling a visit to a civil society program funded by CIDA and – adding a distinctively Canadian touch – attending the 2003 Women’s Ice Hockey World Championships, which were taking place for the first time in Beijing. Canada’s delegation of 35 athletes and support staff would include 16 gold medalists that participated in the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. I also indicated that the Embassy was seeking an opportunity for a speech at the Central Party School or the National School of Administration, venues where speeches could grab the attention of senior CPP members. A presentation on developing a modern labour force for the expanding knowledge economy would attract significant interest.

Admin

 And, on another subject entirely: I distributed an email to the Canada Based Staff, as follows:

‘Many of you may have wondered – as I myself did – what happens to the Embassy’s Canadian flags when they no longer fly our flag poles (because of physical deterioration). Rather than destroy them, we began last year a program of distributing these flags to those of you who depart at the end of their posting. If you or your family would like to have one, please inform our Canadian Security Guards.’

Sunday, March 23

DPRK

I had lunch with man-about-the-planet Maurice Strong who was leading a one man effort to promote a meeting among the DPRK, the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the USA, RoK, Canada and others to re-open networks of communication and re-engagement with Supreme Leader of Everything, Kim Jong-il. The proposal was to organize an international meeting to lead to the establishment of a Task Force to address relevant issues, including the DPRK’s baleful economic conditions, which would be the teaser. Maurice had just returned from Pyongyang where he had met with the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Vice-Minister Chae among others, and even toured the DMZ from the North side – I’ve only done it from the South. North Korea was still in a precarious food supply situation, so the leadership was more open to ‘discussions about discussions’. The idea was for the Secretary General to convene a meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation. Ottawa was cool to the idea, according to Maurice, but US State Secretary Powel was said to be interested. The ‘Dear Leader’ having signalled his interest in some sort of meeting to his minions, the Foreign Ministry and others were open to a meeting, but only if the US were to participate.

Not much if anything came of this, but Maurice Strong at least could come closer to realizing such initiatives than anyone, thanks to his drive and his contacts.

Monday, March 24

MAM

SARS was the first item on the agenda, but reliable information was difficult to obtain, as the Chinese Government under-reported what was happening on the ground. Our Guanzhou Consulate stated that there was no significant amount of anxiety among the population. So, BAU in many respects.

Education

Shanghai reported about the build-up of educational linkages between the Ottawa School Board and education authorities and schools in Suzhou, with a Canadian school to be established in the city. Canadian businesses were investing in Suzhou, including Celestica and Mitec – which was moving all of its manufacturing to China, or so we were told.

Various meetings with Staff.

Rencontre avec Suzanne Labbé, Sous-Commissaire, Affaires Juridiques Fédéral, invité par la Cour Suprême de la Chine à Shanghai pour une conférence les 26 et 27 mars.

BT&I

Telephone meeting with Clare Cowan regarding the forthcoming conference on venture capital, to be held in Shanghai on June 25 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Participants were beginning to line-up, with IBM China playing a promotional role. A Policy Action Group was being assembled. The consultant Ercel Baker – who I would be meeting later in the day – was to be involved.

Hosted lunch for new Australian Ambassador Dr. Alan Thomas and his Spouse, Dr. Sally Borthwick.

Preps for forthcoming visit of NRCan Minister Dhaliwal.

BT&I

Rencontre avec M. Hubert Lapierre et collègues de la Caisse de Dépôt du Québec. Différents ministères du Gouvernement Chinois utilisaient des agences internationales pour des raisons de besoins financiers mais cela se faisait uniquement en dollars américains. La Caisse veut offrir des services en gestion des risques et l’infrastructure technologique et cela au Entreprises d’État – SOEs. Comme prochaine étape, la Caisse préparera des propositions spécifiques afin de développer des liens d’affaires avec eux.  

Meeting with Ercel Baker, former PCO official, now an international relations consultant.

BT&I ChinaPs&Ms

Exchange with Mayor Chen Zhenggao, Shenyang People’s Municipal Government.

Mayor Chen was promoting the China International Equipment Manufacturing Exposition to be held in his city in August, and I committed to informing Canadian companies in this sector of the trade show. I also reflected on the number of Canadian corporates in his district – Nortel, Innovative Board Technologies, Hydrono – as well as – importantly – the Québec Industrial Park. Mayor Chen had mooted the idea of visiting Canada but had had to postpone his plans. I encouraged him to plan for an early visit.

Éducation

Échange avec le Directeur, Hautes Études Commerciales, Montréal, au sujet d’une visite au mois de mai auprès des partenaires en éducation à Chengdu, Liaoning et Guangzhou, ainsi qu’une escale à Beijing pour rencontrer divers officiels gouvernementaux. Je lui ai promis la pleine collaboration de l’Ambassade.

Letters to Staff of our Consulate in Chongqing, congratulating them for their work during a leadership transition period at the Consulate.

Hosted reception for a delegation from the National Research Council.

Tuesday, March 25

Travel to Chongqing, Chengdu and Tibet, for an extended stay (March 25 to April 6)…but Tibet lost out to SARS.

ConGens BT&I ChinaDom

Chongqing, Chengdu, Kunming and Guiyang

To think of Chongqing as just another large – very large – Chinese city is to miss the mark: it’s more than that, as the 30mm urban and rural residents drive the heartland of Sichuan Province. As with so many regions of China far from the ancient capitals, it has its own history and politics and dynamics, so much so that one of its Party Secretaries, Bo Xilai – whom we’ve met in Liaoning and as Minister of Trade – was viewed as campaigning against the leadership in Beijing, prompting a set of investigations that landed him in prison for life. (Bo Xilai’s life story would make a dynamite Beijing Opera.)

The region and its four major cities had an estimated population of 180mm, twice that of  Malaysia. 125 of China’s Fortune 500 Chinese companies had their headquarters in the region. 140 Canadian companies also operated there. They and other foreign enterprises focused on manufacturing, construction materials, electronics, food products, machinery and real estate. It had a lot of heavy industry – steel, automobiles – but was weak on export oriented enterprises. That said, it was also rich in natural gas, coal and other minerals. The region was China’s largest grain producer. Its rural population was massive, at about 80% of total population.

The Central Government played a substantial role in its economic development, accounting for up to 60% of infrastructure investment.

  • meeting with Consular Staff and tour of the office, followed by lunch.
  • round-table with Canadian business representatives.

BT&I

The round-table line-up of Canadian and Canada-related companies was impressive: 19 firms attended, including Davey International – already in the 10th year of doing business in the West; Nortel Networks China spoke of $200mm in business in the region; Sunlife’s representative office had opened in 1998. Scotia Bank was the only foreign bank in Chongqing at the time. And so forth.

That said, doing business in the region was not without its challenges: the immaturity of the judicial system, caught up in conflicts of interest; the ineffectiveness of judicial decisions on commercial matters that proved difficult to implement; access to capital, especially difficult in the real estate sector; dominance of Beijing policies in areas of provincial formal authority, and so forth. One more comment heard: difficulty of accessing EDC financing.

  • meeting with Health Services International.
  • media interview with Chongqing/The World Magazine.

CCP

Meeting with Chongqing Party Secretary Huang Zhendong

I had a substantive meeting with Chongqing Party Secretary Huang Zhendong, followed by dinner. I provided a thumbnail sketch of Canadian engagement in Chongqing and the region, having opened our first office in 1942, where Chang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Government had moved to escape the Japanese. Of more recent vintage, we opened our Consulate in 1997. Canadian business found much in common with industry in the region: complementarities in IT, telecon, transportation, construction, energy, agriculture and environment protection goods and services.

Party Secretary Huang outlined current economic developments: 2002 GDP of over Yuan200B, fixed asset investment of Y100B. He was familiar with the marketing efforts of Cummins Westport and their LNG-powered buses – who would play an important transportation role in the 2008 Olympics. As a symbol of the growing sophistication of his region, he also boasted about the number of newly opened golf courses, the sine-qua-non proof of modernization and, to an extent, Westernization of China. A Canada/China JV had opened a golf course and hotel complex in the late ‘90s.

Wednesday, March 26

ChinaDom

Breakfast meeting with the Consul Generals of Japan and the UK.

Experienced China Hands with full language capability, my British and Japanese colleagues discussed the political infighting among the CCP elites. They gave Party Secretary Huang kudos for his successful development of Chongqing’s infrastructure, this partly due to the fact that the PS was ‘a local boy’, always a valuable asset where program delivery is concerned. Not all was rosy on the economic front however. My guests complained about electricity cuts and other problems with power, lack of regulatory transparency, unreliability of the judicial system, especially in real estate cases.

Both Consulates focused on Public Diplomacy:

  • a Think UK program was being conducted by the British Council; cultural events were important but organizing them was resource intensive: dealing with the absence of transparency in the granting of approvals for events; selling tickets was a challenge in a free-entertainment tradition; but this cuts two ways: free tickets given to the cultural authorities miraculously end up on the market!
  • the Japan Foundation was active, sponsoring a rock concert to celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations; same back-room issues as the UK re ticket sales.

Grist for the mill.

  • visit and plant tour of China Unicom, accompanied by Nortel Representative.
  • networking lunch with the Presidents of Chongqing-based universities who had participated in the Education Team Upper Yangtze Mission to Canada the previous May.

Flight to Chengdu.

Dinner with Sichuan Party Secretary.

I so regret not having notes of this meeting.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

ADMIN

A sign of the times: Ottawa asked Canadian Missions to canvas their country of accreditation enquiring if the MFA would accredit same sex couples. The Chinese MFA would respond quite categorically that it would not recognize same sex couple relationships nor accredit a dependent partner. Individuals in such relations could obtain a visa to visit China but these would be entirely independent of the Mission and have no diplomatic privileges.

Education   Arts&Culture

The Embassy had been giving some thought to the state of play of Canadian Studies in China. We oversaw and channeled the funding for three separate programs: a scholars exchange program, a ‘Special Awards for Canadian Studies’ program which funded visits to Canada by Chinese scholars for purposes of research, and a modest grants program in support of Canada-related research projects, publications, and support for the existing – and frankly minuscule – Canadian Studies Centers.

But economic change in China took many forms, including a dash by many other countries to attract significant numbers of Chinese budding and established scholars to devote their studies to them. In other words: competition. And applications for Canadian Studies grants and support was declining to the point that some of our modest budgets were unused. The Embassy made a number of recommendations for expanding the eligibility for access to the funding, keeping the core objective – introducing Canada to Chinese thought leaders – unchanged. These included expanding the eligibility criteria of candidates to include public institutions beyond universities: government ministries for example, independent media, cultural organizations, and so forth. Fields of study in the social sciences and humanities could be broadened. We suggested increasing the values of the awards, making them competitive with China’s own national state-sponsored scholarship programs.

We then waited for Ottawa’s response.

Thursday, March 27

BT&I

Round Table with Canadian companies in Chengdu.

The companies represented at this meeting included: Sunwing/PanChina Resources, Goodmans LL, Cummins Westport, Wilbur Smith Associates, Daniel AutoDoor, Dessau-Soprin, Nortel Networks and other smaller firms. Comments made during the gathering reflect the varying – indeed contradictory experiences of foreign businesses:


Positive comments:

  • Chengdu as a better investment environment for energy projects than other resource rich cities and regions; contracting issues have gone very well.
  • an increasing number of Chinese companies in the region want to expand abroad.
  • growth of the transportation infrastructure offers openings for foreign firms.
  • insurance and banking opportunities are expanding in the region.
  • people in Chengdu have high technical capabilities.


Negative comments:

  • Chengdu is moving forward, but it’s a decade behind China’s East Coast.
  • business case alone doesn’t do it: government support is essential to move things forward.
  • minds are closed to changes of processes and procedures.
  • access to local capital very constrained.
  • too much over-regulation and rent-seeking.
  • very political and competitive market, with foreign companies fighting things out between and among themselves, which provides openings for their Chinese competitors.
  • bureaucratic and administrative processes are very rigid, which adds to the cost of doing business.
  • authorities involved in legal and taxation files do not understand many Western business principles such as deferred capital or the accounting value of expertise.
  • lack of awareness of Canadian companies, depending on the sector.
  • difficulties of bringing Chinese customers to Canada: who can help?
  • and related: need to increase Canadian visa issuing capacity in Chongqing Consulate.
  • guanxi, guanxi, guanxi.


I also picked up this interesting backgrounder: engagement of the International Finance Corporation in Western development:

  • IFC exposure in China $1.2B, including through leverage; about 11% in South China;
  • 95% of IFC cooperation and financing to small private enterprises, currently about 40,000 companies, half in Chengdu; (I think that number of companies is overstated, or more likely, my mistaken understanding.)
  • 30 IFC staff members engaged in collaborative work on individual projects it finances.
  • also does one-on-one consultations with individual companies.
  • access to capital is the key constraint on the expansion of firms and their projects.
  • strong local government support.
  • local Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association providing advice, for example, on credit risk management.
  • 90% of SOEs at the provincial levels have been privatized, but the privatization program is not very transparent, with no established formal system, weak governance, no clear ownership, low quality of financial information and so forth. (Unstated but one can assume that the beneficiaries are CCP members and local political big-wigs, as was the case throughout China.)
  • it is what it is, but it must eventually lead to transparent, systematized and legal and predictable business practices.
  • also lacks environmental considerations and the ‘official regulatory burdens’ are excessive.
  • 4 large banks have 80% of the business.


Lunch with US Consul General and Spouse.

  • briefing was largely on local politics. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Consulate would one day be caught up in the high drama of the Bo Xilai/Wang Lijun scandals.

Arts&Culture

Meeting with Chengdu Cultural Activity Organizers, led by Madame Yan.

This provided an opportunity to learn about possible venues for Canadian performers travelling to Western China. The four organizations – the Sichuan Performance Company, the Chengdu Performance Company, the Chengdu Cultural Affairs Bureau (whose Madame Yan had visited Canada in 2002), and the Modern Arts Gallery each had surprisingly large performance spaces that were available for rental, and could assist with publicizing cultural events. All grist for the cultural linkages mill.
In total, between 700 and 800 performances had made the stages in the previous year, some based on commercial arrangements, some as part of cultural exchanges – notably Russia, US, Isreal and Austria in the previous year.
A common tread among the organizations: the difficulty of making a profit, absent government subsidies and sponsorships. It was a challenge to develop ‘a performance market’.
Also developing were training schools in a range of the performing arts, viz. ballet, small orchestras, popular music and so forth.

For its part, the Modern Arts Gallery boasted the largest private facility in China, hosting exhibitions of the fine arts, notably paintings and sculpture, performance art and so forth. It hosted the Chengdu Biennale. To the MAG’s regret, it had not hosted a foreign artist to date: most exhibits were sponsored by commercial enterprises. It was seeking to promote exchanges of artists, including of course Canadians.

The State viz CCP was not far away: all events and exhibits could only proceed with the authorization of the Chengdu Cultural Affairs Bureau, which Madame Yan represented.

Tour of San Xin Dui Museum, focused an ancient local history and its artifacts.

Bilateral with the Mayor of Chengdu. No notes.

CCRels Education

Gathering with Western China Medical University.

For me, this was the highlight of the visit to Chengdu. Western China Medical University was the successor institution to the West China Union University, an institution of higher learning established by the Canadian Methodist Mission and US Methodist, Baptist and Quaker missionaries in 1910. It became a very important medical university: for example, the first to introduce research and training in dentistry.

The newly established PRC government asserted its authority over the university – as they did throughout China – in 1950. In 1953, WCMU became a multi-disciplinary medical university. It boasted 70,000 students, 12,000 faculty, 28 ‘schools’, 4 university hospitals spread over 20 campuses. It continued to maintain Canadian connections, e.g. audiology with Dalhousie U and AIDS and social work with the University of Manitoba

Over the pre-revolution decades, a significant number of WCUU students and professors obtained their advanced degrees in Canada. By chance and through Japanese connections, I had become friends with Dr. Ralph Outerbridge, members of whose family had served at WCUU and who was remembered when I met a small number of retired professors, each of whom had completed their medical studies in Toronto and Ottawa before the Revolution. Unfortunately, this Canadian background did not serve them well during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: given that their training was obtained abroad, to the Red Guards, this clearly made them to be spies. One of their colleagues, I was told, was driven to suicide as a result. But my interlocutors were fit and hardy, and rather philosophical about their life experiences. I would meet them again during a future visit to Chengdu.

What I Read

Insights into the missionary aspects of Canada-China relations, I strongly recommend reading Saving China by Toronto writer Alvyn J. Austin. Also very much worth reading is James Endicott: Rebel out of China by his son Stephen Endicott.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

During my last day in Sichuan, our Consul General in Hong Kong, Tony Burger, distributed to Ottawa and broadly in the region an article from the South China Morning Post which detailed the increasing concern in the local government about something called SARS and the quite comprehensive steps that Tony was taking at the Mission in response. With more than 400 visitors daily, there were concerns in-house about the threat of infection. The Mission had already taken the step of engaging a local doctor as its medical advisor – a role that our neighbours at WHO, along with our contracted ‘in-house Doctor’ and Nurse, would play in Beijing. The Doctor had already and very helpfully provided six precautions to take to diminish the risk of infection: no close contacts/keep your distance; regularly wash one’s hands; clean work surfaces with bleach or other disinfectant; no sharing of food and utensils; good ventilation; protect your immune system by getting enough sleep, regular exercise and lots of Vitamin C.

With other news about this illness emerging, Ottawa began preparing and distributing ‘Daily Interdepartmental Updates on SARS’ which provided a dependable flow of shared information. Missions were also sending reports on developments in their respective regions, in principle on a daily basis.

DFAIT/Emergency Services, Health Canada and other agencies of government were beginning to awaken to the potentially global dimensions of SARS. To the Southern China advisories were added Hanoi and Singapore. Missions were asked to address letters to all Canadians in their districts informing them of the new Health Canada advisories as well as information provided by the World Health Organization. Elements of the messages included recommendations to ‘DEFER ALL TRAVEL TO HANOI, SINGAPORE, HONG KONG AND GUANGDONG’. All relevant info was to be copied to Mission websites. Similar advisements were also distributed through the Travel Report networks.

The Missions were also asked to provide DFAIT with the following information:

  • total number of dependants of CBS.
  • number that are of school age and name of the school they attend;
  • number of non-core Staff;
  • number of core staff that would be retained in the advent of a draw down.

DFAIT was also assembling information from various sources, inter alia because China had yet to come around and provide public information itself. For example, ‘WHO is not being permitted to go direct to Southern China giving rise to fears that there are cases in that region. Health Canada is hopeful that they will have more complete understanding of (the) mainland China situation tomorrow following a report from WHO.’ Meanwhile labs around the world were working on identifying the pathogens.  Given the paucity of info, Missions ‘should report any and all information they can obtain’…and so forth.

Typically, Singapore was ahead of the curve: the Ministries of Health and Education closed all primary, secondary and junior colleges, effective on the 26th.

The Chinese authorities were still largely mute about the disease despite its rapid spread in Southern China, and initially did not inform the World Health Organization or its own public about the epidemic. We and the rest of the world depended on international media for information on the nature of the illness and its spread – I recall the Wall Street Journal reporting as ahead of the curve – but it was not until April that the Chinese Government came clean and started to provide both information about the illness itself and developing responses at the national and local levels.

Meanwhile, my Wife Kumru and I were scheduled to fly to Llasa and begin an official visit to Tibet. On Thursday evening however, given the increasing evidence of the seriousness of the health crisis, I spoke to ADM David Mulroney about the uncertainty of the course of the epidemic, still seemingly in its early days. We agreed that I should head back to Beijing to ensure that Embassy and Consular countermeasures were being put in place. Which is what we did, arriving in Beijing on the evening of Friday the 28th.

The weekend was largely spent gathering what information that I and my Colleagues could put together and discussing our responses, preparatory to Monday morning’s Mission Agendas Meeting.

Monday, March 31

The day was devoted to SARS response planning and strategy implementation.

Hong Kong was reporting that SARS was by far the biggest issue in the territory, thus impacting the estimated 300,000 Canadians, including dual citizens. The Consulate had already issued over 6000 mailouts to registered Canadians. Medical briefings to the Staff had already taken place, gloves and masks distributed, additional cleaning services contracted. The office was receiving 400 visitors a day, seeking advice and assistance, in light of the fact that leaving HK was a priority for many, against the realization that air travelers were especially vulnerable to infection. The Mission was recommending that BC Premier Gordon Campbell postpone the planned mission, which was expected to depart BC in the next 24 hours.

The Shanghai Consulate had already held two meetings with the Staff on safety procedures. The level of concern was apparently less among Shanghai authorities: apparently, they had not yet begun to gather information on the spread of disease in its territory, and there was yet no directive on school closures. Still, emails to all registered Canadians citizens had been sent by the ConGen, providing what cautionary information was available. Responses to media queries had also been prepared and distributed: it was agreed during the MAM meeting that Beijing would ensure that Canadian press lines were coordinated.

Guangzhou had conducted Staff meetings, distributed masks and was also dealing with the implications for air travel: for example, would the Government of Canada allow flights from China and entry to non-Canadians? And, arising from SARS, what would be the impact on commercial relations with the region, let alone all of China?

At our MAM meeting, members pointed to the implications of continuing Chinese Government stonewalling of information on the crisis, and the absence of instructions to Government entities and the general public on practical steps to take to protect oneself from the spread of SARS.

Following these discussions and developments, the Embassy established an in-house SARS Task Force which I chaired, and took the following steps to protect all members of the Staff, Canadian, Chinese and others:

  • stating clearly that care for the Staff and their families was the lead issue, and ahead of Program and operational priorities;
  • listing precautionary measures to prevent infection;
  • requesting Staff to advise on their health status as well as that of the members of their families;
  • report all cases of illness to their Senior Managers;
  • obtain and distribute reliable and relevant information on the spread of the illness;
  • the Task Force would conduct daily meetings and provide updates as necessary; 

These would turn out to be the first of many steps to deal with SARS. The epidemic was still spreading but had yet to reach north of the Yellow River and thus, while precautionary measures were in place, life in Beijing had still tacked to normal.

As the SARS news spread around the world, scheduled missions to China by Canadian Government officials and corporations were putting on the brakes.