On September 25, 2020, The Globe and Mail published a story on its front page about Ottawa’s plans to renovate or rebuild Canada’s Beijing embassy.

According to the article, Canada is looking for engineers, architects and urban planners currently doing business in China to prepare a “master plan” to renovate its four-acre compound. It is unclear from the article whether Canada has decided what kind of structure it wants to build. Does it want to make a statement, as it does with its strategically located embassy in Washington, D.C., or does it merely want functional office space?

But one thing is clear from the article: the approach taken by Ottawa is wonderfully Canadian.

The budget for the master plan is tiny (C$100,000) and those working on it will have the lowest security clearance as they “will not have access to sensitive information such as detailed floor layouts, current asset conditions status or access to physical assets.”

All this reminded me of the US Moscow embassy fiasco.

In 1979, after years of wrangling with the Soviet Union, construction began on a new US chancery in Moscow. Construction was carried out by Soviet contractors and workers and used a lot of precast concrete elements.

In 1985, it became clear that the chancery was riddled with listening devices. What further alarmed the Americans was the sophistication of the listening equipment. The US had greatly underestimated the technical abilities of the Soviets and overestimated their own ability to detect surveillance.

After 9 years of recriminations, the matter was “resolved” in 1994 when American workers were given permission to rebuild the top four floors of the eight-story structure.

The new chancery was finally completed and inaugurated in 2000, but the lower four floors remain compromised and only business of lesser sensitivity is conducted there.

If The Globe and Mail article is correct, it would appear that Ottawa needs to put a little more thought into its relations with China, the statement it wishes to make with its embassy, and by whom it will be designed and built.

We have enough matters to discuss with China, there is no need to add to the list.