The trip, a whirlwind of meetings with Chinese industry and top government officials, conveyed how the prime minister is viewing the wider world.

“Diplomacy is necessary, grinning is optional, and looking like a supplicant is undignified,” Kovrig said in an interview airing Sunday on CTV’s Question Period. “That’s not a good look. So, the optics could have been better.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to China to try to move past years of diplomatic tension and make progress on a key trade irritant — Canada's steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and the agricultural levies China imposed in response.