U.S. Senator Marco Rubio walks through the Senate subway following a vote in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 12, 2020 in Washington, DC.Senator Marco Rubio, chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, is drawing attention to an earlier chapter in the life of Dominic Barton, now Canada’s ambassador to China, as the U.S. politician presses giant global consulting firm McKinsey and Co. on its business ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and state-owned enterprises.
Canada’s official Opposition has also raised questions in Parliament about McKinsey’s connections to Chinese state-owned enterprises and dealings with Chinese Communist Party officials. Mr. Rubio has asked McKinsey for months to reveal all its relationships with the CCP and whether McKinsey made sure its Chinese clients were not controlled by the military or involved in human rights abuses. He said the firm has answered one of his letters, saying that “to our knowledge” neither the Chinese government nor the Chinese Communist Party “has ever been a client of McKinsey.
“It is an important matter of disclosure which Chinese state-owned companies our ambassador was in some kind of a business relationship with,” Mr. Genuis said. Mr. Barton was asked again about this client list on Dec. 8 during a second appearance before the House of Commons special committee on Canada-China relations. He told MPs he is “comfortable” with the names of his former Chinese state clients being disclosed. He said it’s up to McKinsey to handle that, and he urged the committee to talk to the company.The Globe and Mail asked McKinsey for comment on this list on Wednesday and whether the company would provide it to MPs.