An Ambassador Abroad
A new website captures, from the ground level, the work, experiences and perspectives of Canada’s ambassador to China between August 2001 and August 2003.
The Forbidden City lies in the center of Beijing, and was once the Chinese imperial palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911). Photo: Pexels/Pixabay.
Joseph Caron served in Asia for over 25 years of his 38-year career with Canada’s Foreign Service. During the course of his postings in the Indo-Pacific, he retained a good deal of his unclassified papers including daily schedules, general correspondence, speeches, news articles, and photos.
While his classified papers remain under lock and key with Global Affairs Canada, the unclassified material from his posting to China are the basis of a new website – AmbassadorToChina.ca – that offers a rare glimpse of what he did on a day-to-day basis as Ambassador to the PRC, with an emphasis on his first two years in the role – from August 2001 to August 2003. This was a positive period in Canada’s relations with China, when Beijing was seemingly entering a new era and open to change.
The website focuses on his day-by-day work, based on personal calendars, notebooks, unclassified correspondence, speeches, plus accounts of the issues raised at the many meetings he attended. The narrative also captures his reflections on what was happening in China at the time, both politically and economically, and the implications for Canada. Surrounded by incomparably knowledgeable and experienced fellow Foreign Service Officers, many fluent in Chinese and meriting the monicker of ‘China Hand’, his job was to synthesize Canadian and, to some extent, provincial foreign policy objectives in China and, with his Embassy and Consulate colleagues, pursue them at the ground level. This was primarily carried out by interacting with his Chinese hosts and reporting any progress back home to what is now Global Affairs Canada, as well as the interdepartmental community.
To a considerable extent, his reporting was also done through public speaking to many different Canadian audiences at home. At the time, China was ostensibly on the bucket lists of Canada’s national, provincial and even municipal governments, as well as the broader business community and academic institutions. Aspiring and established artistic and cultural institutions were also realizing that China’s reform and opening could be of interest to them. Canadian media, for their part, had been engaged for decades, and during his time in Beijing, Canadian audiences were becoming increasingly attentive to news from China.
The target audience of the ‘Ambassador to Canada’ website is primarily students – secondary, college and university – interested in Canada’s international relations and especially those with China, on how foreign policies are delivered at the ground level. Another aim is to encourage students to consider pursuing a career in diplomacy. Much of the narrative importantly deals with matters such as economic relations, immigration, academic and cultural linkages including many passages from speeches and presentations he made at the time on the Canada-China relationship. The website will also be of interest to scholars of international relations who wish to add an ambassador’s and Embassy’s daily work and experiences to their foreign policy research. It will undoubtedly also be of interest to a wider audience who are curious about the period and relations with China at the time.
As the website suggests, during the time that Ambassador Caron and his colleagues worked in China, bilateral problems could largely be managed, when not entirely solved. Later Canadian Ambassadors have not been so fortunate. His narrative, therefore, must be understood as reflecting on only one period – a productive and dynamic one – in the ongoing story and often high drama of contemporary Canada-China relations.
