Canadian Politics

Dominic Barton, the former global managing partner of consultancy firm Mc Kinsey, has been appointed Canada’s new ambassador to China, tasked with reviving relations between the countries that have hit an all-time low following the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer last year.

The appointment of Mr Barton fills a position that has been vacant for months as relations between Ottawa and Beijing have deteriorated sharply, raising questions about Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s approach to dealing with the world’s second-biggest economy.

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei and daughter of the company’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was apprehended in Vancouver last year following a US extradition request over allegations the company had violated sanctions against Iran. Huawei has denied the accusations.

China subsequently arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat who worked for the International Crisis Group, and businessman Michael Spavor on accusations of spying. The two men are still detained in the country and have been held in solitary confinement, deprived of sleep and interrogated regularly.

Beijing has also hit Ottawa economically, targeting Canola seed exports. Canadian Canola seed exports to China were worth $2.7bn in 2018.

Mr Barton ran Mc Kinsey for nine years until 2018, during which time annual revenues doubled. But his tenure was marred by its dealings in South Africa, where the company was embroiled in a series of scandals over political corruption.

Mr Barton has strong links to China. He was previously based in Shanghai as the firm’s Asia chairman and sits on the advisory board of China Development Bank Capital Group. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

He has long advocated strong commercial ties between Canada and China, telling Bloomberg shortly after the arrest of Ms Meng: “I think there remains lots of business to be done together. That’s what I think we should keep focused on.”

Mr Barton’s appointment has been met with praise from Canada’s business community and scepticism from some former diplomats and analysts given his strong connections to Chinese business.

Perrin Beatty, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Mr Barton was “an outstanding choice for such a sensitive and important post”.

Asked about the new appointment, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that China hoped Canada would release Ms Meng and act to correct problems in the bilateral relationship, for which he said Ottawa bears “total” responsibility.

“We look forward to [the new ambassador] taking proactive steps to return China-Canada relations onto the right track,” Mr Geng said.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, was pessimistic that the appointment would resolve the conflict between the two countries.

“Canada is eager to reset relations with China as China’s sanction on Canada is taking its toll,” he said. “But Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou under the request of the US. We don’t see much hope of Meng’s coming back to China in the near future.”

Mr Barton replaces John Mc Callum, a veteran Canadian politician, who was fired in January after a series of public remarks that appeared sympathetic to Ms Meng’s case.

The Chinese government offered no sign of new warmth toward Canada on Thursday, hours after Ottawa said it would dispatch to Beijing a new ambassador who has ties with China’s elite.

“Relations between China and Canada have encountered serious difficulties, and the responsibility lies entirely with the Canadian side,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized China’s use of arbitrary detentions, which, he said, is often intended to achieve the Chinese government’s goals.

Mr. Geng confirmed that China has approved former Mc Kinsey & Co. global managing director Dominic Barton as Canada’s top envoy to China, saying Beijing hopes he can help stabilize the cross-Pacific relationship. That relationship is in its worst state since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989.

But he showed no sign of a changed tone from Beijing, urging Canada to “reflect on its mistakes” and immediately release Meng Wanzhou. The arrest of the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. executive in Vancouver last December set in motion a series of hostile actions, including the arrest in China of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

At a livestreamed event with Toronto Star journalists later in the day, Mr. Trudeau said: “Using arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals, international or domestic, is something that is of concern not just to Canada but to all our allies, who have been highlighting that this is not acceptable behaviour in the international community because they are all worried about China engaging in the same kinds of pressure tactics with them.”

The reaction from Beijing, and Ottawa’s focus on arbitrary detentions, underscored the difficulty facing Mr. Barton. His success as ambassador will depend, in part, on his ability to secure the release of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor and revitalize Canada’s trade ties with the world’s second-largest economy after Beijing blocked imports of some key Canadian agricultural goods.

Some Canadian corporate leaders welcomed the nomination of Mr. Barton, a globe-trotting consultancy chieftain who has occupied some of the world’s most exclusive business circles – a trusted confidant of the Trudeau government who also understands the intricacies of working in China.

Business and political leaders have long bemoaned Canada’s comparatively anemic economic relationship with China, relative to other allies and democratic powers.

Mr. Barton has lived in Shanghai, and his experience in China has given him rarefied access. Mc Kinsey has worked for large numbers of China’s top state-owned entities. Mr. Barton has rubbed shoulders with the country’s wealthiest and most powerful at the prestigious China Development Forum.

He has been a member of the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, whose honorary members include Wang Qishan, one of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s most trusted lieutenants. The board holds annual meetings with top members of the Chinese political establishment including, in 2013, Mr. Xi himself. State media reports do not make clear which meetings Mr. Barton attended.

But the leaders he has met individually include Chen Jining, a former minister for environmental protection and now Beijing mayor, and Zhou Zhongshu, president of China Minmetals Group, the biggest metal and minerals trader in the country.

That experience has given him insight into Chinese power structures unmatched by any previous Canadian envoy to China. It has also offered him personal contact with corporate leaders who have access to enough resources to substantially elevate trade between Canada and China.

Yet it’s not clear how much that experience will benefit Mr. Barton as ambassador in a country that is strictly hierarchical, and often reserves access to top leaders for those considered equivalent in rank. Tensions between Canada and China may also obligate Mr. Barton to deliver critical messages.

“The first time that he has instructions to say things that displease the Chinese leadership – which, if Canada is sticking to its national interest, will happen pretty quickly – I think the value of that prior access is going to diminish,” said Rory Medcalf, a former Australian diplomat and intelligence analyst who is head of the National Security College at Australian National University.

Dispatching diplomats who Beijing perceives as friendly is a risk for Western democracies, he said.

“If in any way the Chinese feel that they are now going to have someone who is in fact more sympathetic to a business-at-all-costs attitude, then obviously they will see an opportunity there to dilute Canada’s independence on security issues – and to break the solidarity between Canada and other democracies on security issues,” he said.

In Hong Kong, too, the appointment of a corporate leader to Beijing raised concern.

“Somebody well-versed in doing business with China can be an advantage, provided you do not allow business interests to compromise your stance as regards defending Canadian values,” said Anson Chan, a former chief secretary in Hong Kong who has criticized China’s Communist rulers.

She has a dim view of the posture corporate leaders have tended to adopt toward China. “In order to make money, business people have been quite willing to close their eyes to some of the other things going on [in China] that they would not in normal circumstances accept from any other country,” she said.

At the same time, critics question whether Mr. Barton’s selection as ambassador signals a new desire by Ottawa to emphasize trade over other priorities, such as advocacy on behalf of Muslims in western China who have been placed in internment camps for political indoctrination and skills training.

“I see this as a victory for Beijing and capitulation on the part of the Canadian government,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Mr. Barton will sever all corporate ties, and has engaged in extensive discussions of human rights in China.

Ms. Freeland said she and Mr. Barton met on Wednesday, and the plight of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor was the first thing they discussed. She said that in regular consular visits, Canadian diplomats tell the two men, among other things, about the government’s efforts to secure their release. She said that is a “source of solace” for them.

A person who answered Mr. Barton’s e-mail at Mc Kinsey said he is not accepting media interviews.