Canada has appointed veteran business consultant Dominic Barton as ambassador to China, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, as the government grapples with a major diplomatic and trade dispute between the nations.
Barton, 56, a Uganda-born Canadian who stepped down as global managing partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Co last year, has extensive experience in China and is close to Trudeau’s Liberal government.
“His years of experience in Asia and the significant global economics expertise he has acquired over an impressive career will make him a great choice,” Trudeau said in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
Barton replaces John McCallum, who Trudeau fired in January for commenting on the case of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), who was arrested in Canada and is fighting extradition to the US.
Beijing has blocked imports of Canadian canola seed, pork and beef, and has charged two Canadians with spying.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said that it was vital to choose an envoy who Beijing knew would have direct access to Trudeau.
She also told reporters in Toronto that Barton would be expected to stress the importance of human rights.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said that Beijing had approved Barton’s appointment and hoped he would “play a positive role in getting China-Canada relations back on track.”
Geng reiterated that the problems in the relationship were entirely Canada’s responsibility and again urged Canada to reflect on its mistakes and release Meng.
Business and agricultural groups welcomed the announcement.
“We are pleased with the appointment and the signal that both sides see the importance of returning to normal bilateral relations,” Business Council of Canada president and CEO Goldy Hyder said.
“This is the outcome of a months-long diplomatic process,” a Canadian government official said earlier on Wednesday.
The dispute could become an issue in a federal election set for Oct. 21. The Liberals face a tough fight against the Conservatives, who say that Trudeau has not been tough enough on Beijing.
Conservative foreign policy spokesman Erin O’Toole accused Trudeau of “replacing one Liberal insider with another Liberal insider at a time that we should have a professional diplomat ... to secure the swift release of Canadian citizens and stabilization of export trade.”
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS