BOOK EXCERPT speak Loudly and Carry a small Stick

David Mulroney

Canada’s foreign policy performance is flagging, argues career diplomat David Mulroney in his new book. We need to get serious, particularly in our relationship with an increasingly powerful China.

La politique étrangère du Canada est en perte de vitesse, observe le diplomate de carrière David Mulroney dans son nouveau livre. Et il nous faut y voir sérieusement, surtout pour ce qui est de nos relations avec une Chine de plus en plus puissante.

hree factors contribute to what I more prosperous (with all the potential interests that were uniquely its own, that see as our declining performance this has, in turn, to affect their own in- all this country wanted was a world at Tin steering an international course terests); and who have sufficient capacity peace and it would take it from there.” Of for Canada. The first is persistent confu- and credibility to be able to advance course, we actually did have national in- sion about our role as a middle power. those tasks.” terests, such as growing our economy and Because our core economic and security Canada’s middle-power vocation has warding off any threats posed to Canada interests have been safely embedded in a mainly been pursued through a network by a belligerent and ideologically inimical stable and largely comfortable relation- of international organizations, with the Soviet Union. But all of that was largely ship with the United States, we have felt United Nations at its heart. And just as advanced through our relationship with free to choose where and how we engage Evans delicately places in parentheses the the United States. elsewhere on the international scene. possibility that making the world a bet- Many came to see participation in This has enabled us to play and, indeed, ter place may pay dividends at home, we the UN as a uniquely Canadian vocation, to help invent the role of middle power. have been similarly circumspect about an end in itself. We began to lose track of The vocation has been well defined by making a direct connection between the the essential connection between Can- Gareth Evans, former foreign minister of global good and our own interests. That adian foreign policy and our own long- Australia, another country that has as- may be because of our natural generosity, term interests. This could be forgiven as pired to middle-power status. According but it could also be because we’ve been a delightful eccentricity as long as the to Evans, “Middle Power diplomacy is, in so confident that our core interests are al- United States maintained its role as the short, the kind of diplomacy which can, ready safely protected in our North Amer- engine of global economic growth and and should, be practised by states which ican cocoon. At times, we have seemed the enforcer of global order. But things are not big or strong enough, either in unaware of the connection between our are changing quickly. As important as their own region or the wider world, to global activism and our national inter- the U.S. continues to be, this long-reign- impose their policy preferences on any- est, even in its long-term sense. As for- ing superpower is increasingly required one else, but who do recognize that there mer Canadian diplomat Arthur Andrew, to share power with others. The days of are international policy tasks that need writing about Canadian diplomacy in free-riding in an American-dominated to be accomplished if the world around the years after World War II, admitted, “It world are over. How well we manage them is to be safer, saner, more just and was almost as if Canada had no national our foreign policy has a direct impact on our own ambitions for the future. The From Middle Power, Middle Kingdom: What Canadians Need to Know about road to prosperity, security and well-be- China in the 21st Century, by David Mulroney. Copyright © David Mulroney, 2015. ing — for us and the world around us — Reprinted by permission of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House increasingly runs through the effective Canada Limited. engagement of major new powers such

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as India, South Africa, Brazil and, most important of all, China. But we seem unconvinced of the need to engage any of these countries The resulting “megaphone diplomacy” consistently, seriously and with specif- is gratifying to some audiences at ic Canadian objectives in view, and are particularly ambivalent when it comes home, but it erodes and undercuts to China. While that national hesita- whatever real influence Canada might tion is perhaps understandable given how unlike us China is, it represents have had. an increasingly costly and worrisome failure on our part. And even if we were convinced of the need for a more thoughtful engagement, I’m not con- encourage China to play a peaceful and fident that we have the ability to craft constructive role in the world; and how and deliver a foreign policy capable of we should engage China on fundamental addressing these new priorities. questions about human rights. This brings us to the second problem I came to see my job as that of “con- undermining our ability to steer a course nector of last resort,” and spent most of for Canada in the world: the increasingly my time getting people at the embassy chaotic and uncoordinated way in which to share information, work together, and we attempt to “manage” international stay focused on a very few big, long-term relations. The price we pay for our inabil- objectives for Canada. Getting these pri- ity to bring coordination and purpose to orities right invariably required the tal- our international activities was brought ents, energy and experience of multiple home to me most forcefully during my departments working closely together. work on Afghanistan, when it was my job But that was already something of an to bring about much-needed cooperation alien concept in Ottawa. among the various Canadian players. But Government, like just about every it was also a daily challenge for me when other part of Canadian life, has become I lived in Beijing. more international. When I worked I played several roles as Canada’s in the embassy in South Korea in the ambassador. I represented the Canadian early 1980s, the ambassador was the government in meetings with Chinese boss of a small team of Foreign Ser- officials. I also helped introduce Can- vice officers, who reported directly to ada to Chinese people through my him, and a military attaché, who was travels, public speaking, media inter- expected to be a team player. By the views and outreach via social media. time I became ambassador in Beijing, And each week I met and briefed many more than twenty-five years later, I was of the Canadian business people, jour- the nominal head of a group of more nalists, artists, teachers, athletes and than sixty Canadians drawn from more human rights advocates whose visits than ten federal departments and three make up the human dimension of the provinces. Such broad representation relationship. should actually be a good thing, and But what I saw as my most import- would have been but for the fact that ant job was helping to build consensus it has emerged without any planning in the Canadian government about the about how to manage it, and without key objectives that we absolutely need to any inclination by anyone in Ottawa to achieve in the relationship with China. show real, coordinating leadership. As This meant thinking hard about how a result, the bureaucracy has reverted China can contribute to Canadian pros- to its natural preference for turf pro- perity through trade and investment; tection, with each department going it how we can work with China to promote alone. Even among the Foreign Affairs global health, food safety and environ- contingent at the embassy in Beijing, mental protection; what we can do to officers were micromanaged by indi-

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vidual sections operating in isolation whom he saw as a client needing our as- in distant Ottawa. sistance. I made it clear that assistance, Fortunately, by the time I became notably helping the Canadian obtain ambassador, I already held the rank basic legal advice, came first. of deputy minister, and could insist But at least when I ran things in on a higher degree of collegiality. But Taiwan I was asked to comment on even with that seniority, getting even the performance of the various Can- a modest degree of coordination was adian staff working in our Taipei of- a full-time job. More junior ambassa- fice, regardless of which departments dors simply get shunted aside. Nor was they came from in Ottawa. By the there anyone senior back in Ottawa time I got to Beijing, this practice had who spent much time thinking about been abandoned. I sent in my views the priorities for Canada in its relation- to various parts of Ottawa anyway, be- Thinkstock ship with China, much less coordinat- cause I thought such oversight import- ing our assets and resources to achieve ant when it came to the many senior them. That left it to me to fill that vac- people working at the embassy, at a identifying and pursuing specific goals uum in leadership from afar via late- hefty cost to the Canadian taxpayer. I when they venture outside of Can- night phone calls and return visits to never heard back, nor did I ever get the ada. The problem is that these don’t Canada, elbowing my way into issues sense that my views were appreciated. always have much to do with foreign and projects that departments nor- This can be dismissed as bureaucratic policy. What I see as the third impedi- mally managed in isolation. trivia, but to me it pointed to a larger ment to advancing our international Think of what happens when part issue. The federal public service has a interests more effectively is the steady of Ottawa decides that it wants a major problem with leadership. Attempting encroachment of domestic political increase in the flow of students or tour- to exert it is increasingly seen as intru- considerations into our foreign policy ists from China, while another part of sive and undemocratic. Broad consen- calculations. It would be naive and un- Ottawa, unconsulted and unconcerned, sus, no matter how unambitious and democratic to argue that domestic pol- determines that we need to make it tenuously achieved, is always preferred. itics has no place in our foreign policy. more difficult to obtain a visa to come to That’s a recipe for mediocrity and mud- But political leaders need to rely on Canada. Once, in Taiwan, I had to recall dle in foreign policy and in just about something more than the most recent two officers who were heading to the every other dimension of government. polling data in navigating international airport at the same time in separate cars. My great worry is that on those rare oc- issues. Consider the growing obsession One, from the immigration department, casions when Ottawa does think of for- with photo-ops, the tendency to see was eager to help Taiwanese officials eign policy, it is seen as the sum total of foreign leaders as mere props on a set prosecute a Canadian who was accused what every department and agency has designed wholly for Canadian audi- of being part of a fake passport ring. on its international wish list. ences. There is also our increasing pref- The other, from our consular team, was Unlike the professional public ser- erence for rhetoric — the more extreme hurrying to meet that same Canadian, vice, politicians don’t have a problem the better — over more careful behind

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the scenes engagement. The resulting of Parliament of Chinese “megaphone diplomacy” is gratify- origin as interpreters at ing to some audiences at home, but it events in China. Although erodes and undercuts whatever real in- it makes for a touching fluence Canada might have had. video clip back home, The most obvious manifestation it is much less effective of our lack of seriousness is the ten- in China. For one thing, dency to use regional travel as a form despite being of Chinese of outreach to politically important ethnicity, such MPs often ethnic communities in Canada. Our struggle to speak the stan- diversity is an undeniable Canadian dard Mandarin used by advantage, and should form part of their audiences. For an- the briefing we use to promote invest- other, people in China ment, tourism and education to for- are likely to be far more eign audiences, particularly when we impressed by the very ab- want to make a point about how wel- sence of hoopla, by how coming Canada is. But this shouldn’t normal and unexception- be among the main topics on our al it is for Canadians of agenda when leaders meet, nor should Chinese origin to be elect- the accompanying delegations from ed to Parliament. Positive Canada be so relentlessly tailored to impressions are reinforced the ethnicity of the country being by seeing them act like visited. The prime minister of India is MPs, not interpreters. aware of the fact that there are many As proud as we are of people of Indian origin in Canada. our diversity, we need to And the premier of China is similarly remember that leaders in well briefed about the presence of Chi- powerful and important nese diaspora communities across our countries such as India and country. Indeed, given China’s experi- China are focused on ser- ence of waves of emigration over the ious international issues. Shutterstock centuries, its leadership is distinctly They expect our leaders to unsentimental about the vast Chinese be similarly focused. In fact, we have an I can appreciate that Canadian diaspora around the world. Canadian interest in ensuring that the Indians and politics can’t be left completely behind politicians have encountered this ho- the Chinese think of us as something when a prime minister travels, but a hum response from foreign leaders. more than a home to large, politically flurry of questions to the Canadian PM But they’re far more interested in the sensitive diaspora communities, especial- about how same-sex marriage legis- coverage on the 6 p.m. news back ly since neither government is shy about lation would affect religious groups in home and, most important, in Can- wading into those same communities Canada ate up much of the press avail- ada’s ethnic media. in Canada when they want to snoop on ability, leaving the Indian prime minis- Part of the problem is that we have or admonish their former citizens. This ter watching in confused silence. Final- lost track of the necessary division of tendency also leads to some bizarre inci- ly, a Canadian reporter put a question labour between partisan political staff- dents that can hijack agendas. I accom- to the Indian PM: what did he think ers, who, with an eye to the next elec- panied Prime Minister Paul Martin on a of same-sex marriage for India? After a tion, keep politicians focused on their visit to Asia in early 2005. He was joined lengthy pause, the Indian leader polite- immediate political agendas, and pub- by a number of Indo-Canadian MPs who ly suggested that it wasn’t an issue for lic servants, who take the long view, happened to be Sikhs. At the outset of which there would be much “apprecia- providing professional, non-partisan the visit, the MPs were embarrassed by tion” in his country. advice to the minister or prime min- an article written by a Sikh religious lead- Despite the onrush of globalization ister of the day. Both perspectives are er in India deploring the trend toward ac- and the transformation of Canadian so- important, but we’re losing the neces- cepting same-sex marriage, which at that ciety through immigration, it’s as if we’ve sary balance between them. Short-term time happened to be the subject of a bill become less curious about our place in political advice is winning out over sea- working its way through Canada’s Parlia- the world, and steadily more focused on soned long-term viewpoints. ment. This in turn became a major issue our own affairs. This is our collective fail- I have had to discourage political when the prime minister came to face ure, but one that has been exacerbated by staffers from using Canadian members the press with his Indian counterpart. a lack of political will and leadership.

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in Taiwan, and that we something I had the chance to discov- had been able to preserve er first-hand. Despite the shared last and advance them even name, there is no close family connec- after recognizing China, tion, though we are both part of the was largely due to the ele- Irish diaspora that settled along the Saint gant and simple formula ­0Lawrence Valley in Quebec (his family) for recognition that Tru- before moving into Ontario (mine). I deau had championed. never had the chance to speak with him (We simply took note of until I was well on in my career. In 2006 I China’s claim that Taiwan was assigned to the Privy Council Office is an inalienable part of (PCO) to serve as foreign and defence China’s territory.) Can- policy advisor to Prime Minister Harper. adian government offices On Boxing Day of that year, former U.S. around the world set out president Gerald Ford died. I was asked a book of condolences to to phone former prime minister Mulro- mark Mr. Trudeau’s death. ney to see whether he could attend the In a special gesture of re- funeral on behalf of Canada. I reached spect and affection, Tru- him in the midst of his Christmas get- deau’s book was accom- away with his family. But he was unper- panied by a single rose in turbed and readily agreed to attend. a vase. I stayed in the lob- Just after New Year’s, my assistant by of the Taiwan office to at the PCO stuck her head in my office greet visitors. Throughout to tell me that Brian Mulroney was on the afternoon, I heard a the phone. Assuming that it was my steady stream of very per- brother, Brian, I asked her to tell him I sonal testimonials about would phone him back. She hesitated, how Trudeau’s vision and and then said, it’s the Brian Mulroney. style had influenced them I took the call. What followed was a and shaped their apprecia- twenty-minute tour-de-force briefing, a tion of Canada. concise and highly relevant report on Under Trudeau, Can- what the key international guests who e have not always lacked vision- ada launched two initiatives aimed at gathered for the funeral had said about Wary leaders capable of helping us animating our broader diplomacy. One topics that were of current interest to to understand our place in the world. of them, his controversial “Third Op- Canada. It was so complete that I had Pierre Trudeau was famous for his ener- tion,” would have seen Canada reinforce no need to ask questions when it was getic if eclectic internationalism. My its links with important partners other finished. I remember that my note-tak- only chance to meet him came long than the United States, meaning Europe ing hand was stiff and sore when the after his retirement. He was visiting and Japan. But it languished and faded call ended. China as a distinguished advisor at a without much serious effort having special Beijing meeting of the Bank of been expended to advance it. For many he last part of my career was spent Montreal’s board. I was struck by the pragmatic Canadians, the Third Option Tduring the Harper years, a period way Chinese guests, not expecting to was not about securing our future, but that has featured instances of bracing encounter Trudeau, were almost over- instead represented, at least insofar as and much-needed realism in the whelmed in his presence. In their en- Europe was concerned, a dubious move management of international relations. thusiasm, they made it clear they were in the direction of a vanishing past. Tru- But it is also a period that has been meeting someone whose leadership deau’s other great foreign policy initia- undermined by partisanship and com- had produced the formula that made tive was, of course, the establishment plicated by strange and sudden bouts possible China’s diplomatic relations of diplomatic relations with China. of silence in the face of controversial not just with Canada but also with the Here, as we will see, the challenge was issues and difficult decisions. many countries that followed our lead. reversed, with Trudeau looking far into Although, as his foreign policy ad- At the time of Trudeau’s death in the future, farther indeed than most visor in 2006, I was privileged to have 2000, I was running the office that Canadians have yet been able to see. frequent, direct access to Prime Minister looks after Canada’s interests in Taiwan Another internationally mind- Harper when he travelled, the nature of in the absence of official diplomatic ed prime minister, Brian Mulroney, the job had clearly changed under the relations. That we still had interests possessed legendary diplomatic skills, new government. Previously, the role of

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participation in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Con- vention on Climate Change, which We have not always lacked visionary Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government leaders capable of helping us to had signed, to great acclaim, in 1997. Harper saw this commitment, in understand our place in the world. which Canada agreed to reduce green- house gas emissions from 1990 lev- els by 2012, as wrong-headed on two foreign policy advisor had been the sole gate the United Nations. There were counts. First, we had clearly taken on preserve of a highly experienced diplo- fireworks when our ambassador to a commitment that was beyond our mat whose job was to provide disinter- the UN Conference on Disarmament willingness, if not our ability, to im- ested professional advice to the prime warmly welcomed the North Korean plement. By the time Harper arrived minister of the day, uncoloured by the diplomat who had, almost unbeliev- on the scene, we had done almost needs and agendas of the Department ably, been made chair of the confer- nothing to meet our target. In fact, of Foreign Affairs. While I played that ence. The ambassador’s welcome, our emissions had increased signifi- role to a certain extent, my identity as which probably passed unnoticed cantly. Second, the protocol failed to a public servant meant that I operated within the clubby context of the UN include the world’s two largest carbon at a much greater arm’s length. The system, undermined the condemna- emitters, the U.S. and China, thus put- PM typically introduced me to foreign tion of the appointment that his boss, ting us at a disadvantage, particularly leaders as his “bureaucratic” foreign Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, in terms of our closest neighbour and policy advisor, a portfolio I shared with had uttered only days before. major economic partner. After much a highly partisan Conservative Party A disconnect also existed between acrimonious internal debate, and after staffer who was introduced as his “pol- the prime minister and his diplomats absorbing much criticism from a range itical” foreign policy advisor. Indeed, in relation to our ultimately futile cam- of observers, foreign governments one of my main tasks was fending off paign to win a seat as a non-permanent among them, we withdrew from the the more ideologically extreme agendas member of the UN Security Council. protocol in 2011. of my “political” counterpart. I wasn’t The prime minister was not originally Insisting on paying greater atten- overly fond of my dreary “bureaucrat- inclined to pursue this goal. When he tion to national interest is an obvious ic” title, which pointed to much greater did come around, he was frustrated by and essential part of any successful for- shifts in thinking about how foreign persistent efforts by Foreign Affairs to eign policy. But unless a country wields policy gets done. discourage him from taking firm meas- unlimited power, it needs to balance Following his 2006 victory over ures in support of Israel, an orientation ambition with a degree of accommo- Paul Martin, Stephen Harper immedi- that was at the heart of his and his dation. This isn’t a case of going along ately challenged the foreign policy party’s convictions, a core interest. He to get along, but it does involve a will- status quo. His was, at least in its earli- was told that this would jeopardize our ingness to listen, build trust, find allies est manifestations, a government of the chances of being elected. It didn’t help and show some ability to compromise. suburbs and small towns, of small busi- that when he asked why we wanted to Instead, we came to take pride in being ness and small communities. Going or win a seat, he would be told, “So that among the first to close embassies, cut gone were the internationally inclined we can advance our core interests.” The off dialogue and impose sanctions in Red Tories such as Joe Clark, Flora PM went against his best judgment and the face of clearly unacceptable inter- MacDonald and Barbara McDougall. agreed to launch a campaign to win the national behaviour. And while our new- There was to be a new agenda, aimed seat. Despite going into the vote with a found toughness made us the first to at returning the country to what were comfortable margin of “confirmed sup- pack up and leave, our relatively small seen as its traditional values and part- port,” we experienced what a disgrun- size made us among the last to be wel- nerships. We would be guided by core tled Australian ambassador to the UN comed back. We seemed in danger of beliefs, would support our true friends, has called the “rotten lying bastards” replacing international activism with and would speak out against hypocrisy phenomenon and went down to an em- mere rhetoric. This was risky because, in the international system. barrassing defeat. even at the end of the first decade of the More than once, the prime min- Perhaps the most prominent ex- twenty-first century, we were still very ister condemned the tendency of ample of what the new government much a middle power as Gareth Evans “going along to get along.” But that, saw as a conflict between Canada’s would define one: still unable to impose unfortunately, had come to represent reflexive desire to be a good inter- our policy preferences on others, still at least a part of the daily reality fa- national citizen and the pursuit of obliged to work with others to achieve cing those whose job it was to navi- our core national interests was our at least some of our objectives. n

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