"Those who intersect with their hearts will become their long-term" - remember the style of Chinese female diplomats in Vancouver

Author:Half Sheet (Vancouver)

What kind of style is a female diplomat?

Some say that diplomats are the profession of making friends with the world. How to make friends varies from person to person, time to time, and place to place. The professional style of female diplomats can be seen in the way and extent of their friendship with the world.

I came to Vancouver, Canada in the millennium, and had the opportunity to have face-to-face communication and interaction with real diplomats, and also to truly appreciate their professional style. It is very rare to have the privilege of meeting not only one, but also three senior female diplomats who serve as the Chinese consul general in Vancouver.

Tian Chunyan: Consul General who has made friends

From December 2004 to January 2007, Ms. Tian Chunyan served as the ninth Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver, and the first female Consul General here.

Just after New Year's Day in 2005, the newly appointed Consul General Tian Chunyan held a media meeting. At the meeting, Consul General Tian said that diplomatic work is to make friends, and he hopes to make friends in the future. After this remark was reported by the media, the "Consul General who made friends" seemed to have become Ms. Tian Chunyan's business card, which was widely circulated not only in the Chinese community but also in the Western community.

A year later, I had the opportunity to travel with Ms. Tian to Comox on Vancouver Island for a business trip and witnessed her making friends.

Flights from Vancouver Airport to Comox are small planes with just a dozen seats. This is the first time I have taken such a short-distance small plane, and I am quite curious, but also slightly nervous and worried. However, seeing Ms. Tian, who was traveling with her, chatted and laughed with everyone, and was excited to watch the beautiful scenery of the sea and sky along the road, the nervous mood flew to the cloud of nine clouds.

After a 50-minute flight, the plane landed safely at Comox Airport. The Comox district consists of cities that include the beginning of the three letters C, namely comox, courtenay, and Cumberland. The local mayor, councillors, indigenous representatives and business people obviously welcomed the arrival of ms. Tian's business delegation, just like meeting an old friend.

In Cumberland, the mayor gave ms. Tian the "evergreen saplings", symbolizing the longevity of Canada-China friendship. Ms. Tian gave back to the mayor the "Fan of Friendship", a Chinese handicraft signed by all the members of the delegation, expressing the eternal goodwill of Sino-Canadian friendship.

During the expedition, the author unexpectedly found that there was a ruins of Chinatown in Cumberland. Between 1888 and 1968, it was once home to Chinatown in rural North America. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the needs of the development of nearby coal mines, there were 1500 Chinese residents in the area, making it the largest Chinatown north of San Francisco at that time. Later, with the introduction of Canada's "Chinese Exclusion Act", it became more and more difficult for chinese to survive here, and the once largest rural Chinatown gradually evolved into an uninhabited city and was finally abandoned.

A week after returning from Comox, on June 22, 2006, then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Canadian government, formally apologized to Congress for the Poll Tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Thinking of the changes in Chinatown in Cumberland, the author had the idea of writing a book to record and commemorate the pioneers of the Chinese.

Liu Fei: Consul General who can make the most friends

From December 2011 to August 2017, Ms. Liu Fei served as the twelfth Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver, the longest consul general. For a diplomat, serving as consul general in Vancouver for nearly six years is rare.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Ms. Liu Fei is the consul general who is the most able to make friends. During his tenure, Consul General Liu witnessed the development of trade between China and B.C., and in six years, the total import and export trade between B.C. and China increased from $14.1 billion to $18.2 billion, an increase of 30%. During his tenure, he made China B.C.'s second-largest export trading partner, after the United States.

Although the growth of international trade is a normal embodiment of the complementarity and development of the two economies, it is also inseparable from the interaction and promotion of the two governments and enterprises singing, that is, they must be good at making friends with all aspects from the government to the people.

During his tenure, Consul General Liu pioneered the mechanism of dialogue between China and British Columbia. She attended the Local Aboriginal Summit to promote the history and friendship of early Chinese-Aboriginal marriages. Together with the British Columbia government, we will publish Chinese history textbooks for 21 Chinese sites and jointly promote cooperation between China and Canada in the fields of economy, trade, education and culture.

During her tenure, Ms. Liu Fei also witnessed the rotation of the ruling party of the British Columbia government. In the 2017 BC election, the New Democratic Party led by Ho Jin defeated the Liberal Party led by Jian Huizhi and thus took the helm of the British Columbia government. At this moment, Consul General Liu is speaking with data, illustrating China's role in B.C.'s GDP growth. Governor He Jin has also said that relations with China are important to him and British Columbia, and believes the new government will further deepen trade relations with China.

During her tenure, Ms. Liu Fei also witnessed the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ms. Liu Fei and the wider community have continuously emphasized the historical fact that many Chinese came here before the founding of Canada, and repeatedly reiterated that the Chinese people accompanied every step of Canada's growth and development, the huge Chinese community here is very important, and everyone should be a non-governmental ambassador for China-Canada relations, and a rare common wealth of British Columbia and China.

It is also on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada that my dream of writing a book commemorating the dedication of Chinese pioneers to the community has also become a reality. On June 17, 2017, the Chinese edition of "Canada's Chinese Genes", co-authored by the author, Ding Guo, a well-known local writer and expert on Chinese history, and Zhang Yiyuan, a young author, was officially published and distributed.

Ms. Liu Fei attended the book launch at the Poly Art Museum in downtown Vancouver. In her speech, she said that it is of great significance to publish this book on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada, which affirms the outstanding contributions made by the Chinese pioneers to the founding and social development of Canada, and believes that the overseas Chinese in Canada will certainly uphold the indomitable fighting spirit of their predecessors and do more work to promote friendly cooperation between China and Canada.

Also present at the book launch were two former Canadian ambassadors to China, Mr. Earl Drake and Mr. Joseph Caron, and Former Canadian Diplomat in Culture and Technology in China, Dr. W. Walls. The arrival of Ms. Liu Fei, who also has the rank of ambassador, has transformed the book launch into a gathering of old friends of senior diplomats of the two countries, which is also an interesting story in China-Canada relations.

Tong Xiaoling: Consul General: "The Most Difficult to Meet"

Ms. Tong Xiaoling, who also holds the rank of Ambassador, served as the 13th Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver from November 2017 to July 2022 and the third female Consul General of the Consulate General of Vancouver.

During Tong's tenure as Consul General, perhaps the two most notable and well-known events are the Meng Wanzhou incident and the covid-19 pandemic. The impact of the former on China-Canada relations is comparable to an avalanche of international relations, which has led the relations between the two countries to a trough and a freezing point. The latter is even more like a global tsunami, the impact on the entire international community is wave after wave, wave after wave, and the aftermath is still going on.

Due to the needs of epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic, British Columbia has adopted home work, closed office, online meetings, and masks must be worn when necessary. So after 2020, Ms. Tong has almost become the consul general of the "most difficult to meet".

Nevertheless, during Tong's tenure as Consul General, he witnessed the rapid growth of british columbia's trade with China. B.C.'s total import and export trade with China further rose to a record high of 26.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 47% over 2017. China's share of B.C.'s trade also rose to 22 percent, cementing the second-largest trade partnership.

Maybe it's a coincidence. The book also became a special connection between the author and Consul General Tong.

Hearing that Ms. Tong loves books, I sent a collection of the winning works of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Canadian female writer Alice Munro, to Consul General Tong, who had just arrived. Later, the English edition of "Canada's Chinese Genes" was published in 2021, and the author specially gave a copy to Ms. Tong as a Mid-Autumn Festival gift. As the ancients said, the show talent is half a piece of human love paper, and the gentleman's friendship is as light as water.

Ms. Tong and the author often exchange ideas on writing and research, just like the exchange between literary friends, which is very rare and sincere.

In July 2022, Consul General Tong bid farewell to all sectors of British Columbia in the form of a farewell letter. Although she did not see Ms. Tong again before she left office and returned to China, she still felt her parting feelings for people from all walks of life and her long-standing expectations for friendship between the two countries.

In fact, from Wang Hairong to Fu Ying to Zhang Qiyue and Hua Chunying, there are more and more Chinese female diplomats active on the international stage, but these are often images that can only be seen in books or TV news.

In the past few years in Vancouver, the author has been able to witness the three female consuls-general Tian Chunyan, Liu Fei and Tong Xiaoling in dealing with the Western world, making friends and keeping pace with the times, especially appreciating their professional style of making friends, making friends and making friends deeply, which can also be regarded as a confirmation of "those who intersect with their hearts and become them for a long time." ”