Dear Canadian embassy, just 'regret', no 'apology'?

On Monday, the Canadian embassy in China issued a statement on its official website, expressing "sincere regret" about staff members ordering T-shirts with WU-HAN emblazoned across what looks like a bat (the embassy called it "logo of a popular hip hop group"). The statement expressed "regret" for "the offence they may have caused".

Indeed, any Chinese citizen will take grave offence to any design linking Wuhan with a bat, more so after how certain biased Western media outlets and politicians badmouthed China not long after Wuhan residents battled the novel coronavirus outbreak.

However, the choice of the word "regret" does not hide what the embassy sincerely feels about such a grave offence. The least one would have expected from them would have been an "apology".

Some organizations prefer to avoid apologizing and simply say "sorry". However, the Canadian embassy chose the word "regret", which is 90 percent about "hoping it never happens again", 10 percent about "sensing what you feel" and zero percent about "knowing I have done wrong".

The Canadian embassy also said the T-shirts were being privately produced for their staff members. They did not say if those persons will be held responsible or if they will do anything to make amends. In fact, they didn't even say they will ensure there is no repeat of the incident in the future. That was left for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to say. At its press conference on Tuesday, the ministry said it had noticed the offenses made by Canadian embassy staff members and stressed that such incidents should never happen again.

There is ample reason to believe the Canadian embassy staff members will be sensitive in the future to not hurt Chinese sensibilities in this manner.