Trudeau picks strong envoy to China after two missteps

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appointment of career diplomat Jennifer May as the ambassador to China indicates one of two things. It reveals the Trudeau government is finally starting to take the work of international diplomacy seriously; or that, with Pierre Poilievre and the re-energized Conservative opposition hovering over them, the Liberals cannot afford to do politics as usual anymore. May is a China specialist with three decades of diplomatic experience under her belt. She speaks Mandarin, of course. Language proficiency is a necessary tool of the trade for diplomats who specialize in a particular region or country. To do their jobs right, they also tend to be culturally savvy. May was posted in Hong Kong in 1998, during the aftermath of the British handover of Hong Kong to China. She has seen and done it all. Moreover, as a seasoned professional, she is amply qualified to speak the proverbial truths to power, if her Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly permits it. https://twitter.com/canjenmay/status/1573310392214130689 Joly was curiously absent from Trudeau's announcement. It might have something to do with Joly’s past behaviour. In June 2022, her staff appeared to have first approved a request by Global Affairs Canada’s deputy chief of protocol to attend an event at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa; but when the event came to public light, they threw the poor protocol officer under the bus. “This is unacceptable. No Canadian representative will attend this kind of event again,” tweeted Joly. Bhagwant Sandhu is a retired director general with the federal government. Photograph courtesy of Bhagwant Sandhu Joly’s boss, the prime minister himself, has also played fast and loose with Global Affairs Canada. In 2017, he appointed long-time Liberal cabinet minister John McCallum as ambassador to China. McCallum’s qualifications were sparse. He represented a large Chinese-Canadian constituency in his riding of Markham, Ont.; and, as was reported at the time, his wife was ethnically Chinese. Needless to say, Trudeau had to fire McCallum in 2019, after the then-ambassador made a tone-deaf public argument for Canada to return Meng Wanzhou back to China, while the Chinese still held the two Michaels in custody. Trudeau could have replaced McCallum with a career diplomat, like say, May. Instead he appointed Dominic Barton, a management consultant, who headed a company that helps big corporations improve their bottom line, like Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin and contributors to the opioid crisis. He resigned from the China gig in 2021, after the self-styled “bull on China” was roundly criticized for prioritizing business dealings over trying to free the two Michaels. Shortly after losing the ambassadorship, Barton landed with Rio Tinto, an anglo-Australian multinational mining company that counts the state-backed Aluminum Corporation of China as its biggest shareholder. Decisions to appoint political hacks over career public servants always backfire. And when they do, they drag the entire system down with them. Daniel Livermore, a senior fellow of the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, rates the performance of Global Affairs Canada as somewhere between “fail” and “needs considerable improvement.” Commenting on the chasm between career diplomats and political appointees, Livermore adds that “career aspirations are fading, as the prime minister relies increasingly on political appointments to fill critical jobs abroad. Thinking about diplomacy of today and tomorrow is non-existent.” Academics and analysts have repeatedly urged the government to stop the political interference and start modernizing Canada’s foreign service cadre. By selecting a qualified career diplomat, Trudeau has managed to escape criticism from Poilievre and his Conservatives. They would have no doubt taken Trudeau to the cleaners if he had tried to pull a stunt like he did with the appointments of McCallum and Barton. The prime minister should use this opening to seek common ground with the Conservatives. They have mostly held anti-China positions in the past. Trudeau should be careful, therefore, not to turn the matter into a wedge issue. The international order is changing. The unipolar hegemony of Western-based alliances is giving way to multipolarism. China’s gross GDP is set to overtake the United States by 2030. Canadian exports to China hit a record $22.97-billion in 2021. China’s influence is also growing. In August 2022, it forgave 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries. The Chinese are pursuing what they call the model of “mutually beneficial co-operation.” Canada should engage with that model. It does not preclude us from criticizing China, as needed, on its contraventions of human rights and the rule of law. Unlike her predecessors, May should be able to accomplish both these tasks. She certainly has the necessary credentials. Trudeau’s marching orders to May are very direct. He wants her to advance “Canadian priorities in the Canada-China relationship, including supporting the long-standing people-to-people, economic, and business ties between our two countries.” It would be a shame if May’s mission or her bureaucratic talents were to somehow get stymied by party politics or political paybacks. Bhagwant Sandhu is Canadian foreign policy commentator and author. He retired as director general from the federal public service. The Hill Times