Canada on Friday appointed Jennifer May its first female ambassador to China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Her appointment comes as Canada is looking to scrape the ice off its chilly relationship with China after the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig one year ago.
Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and his wife Vina Nadjibulla react following his arrival on a Canadian air force jet after his release from detention in China, at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Sept. 25, 2021.Global Affairs Canada has what it refers to in its current departmental plan, an “evolving China policy framework” that will be set up within the broader development of a total Indo-Pacific strategy.
“Canada will continue to speak out against China’s repression of the Uyghur and Tibetan peoples, and of all religious minorities in China,” reads the plan, which was published earlier this year. Barton left the post last December, three months after they were released. Spavor, a business consultant who was working in China, and Kovrig, a former diplomat who was working in China for the International Crisis Group, were arrested in December 2019.