Canadian-Asian Affairs

Cai Wu, China's Information minister has publicly invited Harper and fellow high-level Canadian politicians to come to China. This demonstrates succinctly the fact that the Conservative Party's bungling of the China relationship has not gone unnoticed across the Pacific. The Chinese are not happy and want the relationship to improve. Of course their idea of improvement involves a cease to all the official chatter about human rights abuses, industrial espionage, and Taiwanese statehood.

The Conservatives on the other hand seem to not know how to approach the problem. They can't keep their message clear. In the world of diplomacy mixed signals leaves too much room for misinterpretation. The Harper government needs to formulate a constructive China policy and stick to it.

Link: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=41cb7876-e490-4a7c-b0bc-2aa4cef1ef9f&k=61885

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According to the Globe and Mail, Ottawa is considering abandoning the annual human-rights dialogue that takes place between Canada and China. Critics claim the dialogue is used by China as a way to divert attention from its human rights issues. The Chinese claim to be dealing with the problem by having a conference with a purportedly upstanding international citizen: Canada.

The talks have been running since 1997 and have accomplished very little except photo-ops and a few newspaper stories. That said, Chinese press has suggested there will be serious repercussions if Canada drops the talks. A better plan would be to continue with the talks but insist on doing some serious talking and try to limit the positive spin China can use the conference for.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061027.CHINA27/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/

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The sixth annual Asia Pacific Summit started yesterday in Vancouver. It is one of the premiere Asian oriented events in Canada. The Asia Pacific Foundation sponsors the event on an annual basis and bring together politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and business people to debate issues of interest.

Link: http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/October2006/24/c3415.html

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Michael Fortier is considering renaming a government building in BC which has been named after former Conservative MP Howard Green. The honouring of Green has angered Japanese and Chinese Canadians due to some of the rather racist remarks on record that have been attributed to him. Mr. Green has been quoted saying: "Orientals should be excluded from Canada" in 1939. He had more explicit things to say about the Japanese following the war.

One would guess given Canada's love of compromise that a solution will be found quickly. Fortier holds a rather unsteady position in Cabinet as it is. He of all people will want to minimize controversy.

Link: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=d49df77d-2ff7-4774-8d9f-e14663504639&k=76640

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The government has cut the first cheques to surviving head tax payers and/or their spouses. The cheques are for $20 000. There has been some controversy over the decision not to pay other surviving descendents of people who paid but have since died.

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/20/head-tax.html

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Lai Changxing, one of China's most wanted men, has won the right for a judicial review of his deportation order. He suspects, understandably, that China will ignore its promises to stay the death penalty if he is deported to China. He knows too much about too many high ranking officials to be safe in China. One must suspect that were he locked up in a Chinese jail he wouldn't last very long.

I was under the impression that the Chinese were ready to drop this issue. No one wins if they bring him back to China. He loses, whoever he uncovers as co-conspirators will lose and the government will lose face by uncovering so much of the rampant corruption.

Link: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-10-18T214328Z_01_N18252830_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CRIME-CANADA-CHINA-COL.XML&archived=False

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Embassy had a good article today about the Canada-China business relationship. It springs from Harper's recent announcement that the Conservatives plan on honouring the Liberal promise to invest hundreds of millions in a port strategy to capitalize on increased Asian trade.

The article goes on to address a number of issues including changing trade balances with the US, energy prices, and Chinese political power. It's a good read if you've got the time.

Link: http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/october/18/china/

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Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has, unsurprisingly, signalled Canada's support of sanctions as a response to last week's nuclear test in North Korea. MacKay quotes Churchill in his justification of the sanctions. He also berated North Korea for acting "like an island." Apparently more fitting peninsular actions are required for progress to be made on the nuclear non-proliferation front.

Link: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061014/korea_nuclear_061015/20061015?hub=TopStories

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Trying to clear up any doubt on the issue, Harper confirmed the government's official policy remains recognizing Taiwan as a part of one China. Some Conservatives have suggested recognizing Taiwan in the past. It is of course a nice thought, but China will have none of it. Harper also suggested that his government is actively engaging China, and working on the Canada-China relationship.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061014.NATS14-1/TPStory/National

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The Epoch Times, a Falun Gong mouthpiece, has a feature length piece on the state of Canada's China relationship. It is overly positive about the 'principled stand' that Harper's conservatives have had. The author's main argument is that no matter what, human rights concerns musn't be overwhelmed by trade concerns. This is a reasonable stance, but balance needs to be attained. China will not listen to a country that has human rights concerns if that country has nothing to offer the Chinese. To attain any influence trade and engagement with the Chinese are necessary.

Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-10-12/46974.html

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Continuing his West coast tour, Prime Minister Harper gave a speech featuring the plans for improvement of West coast port infrastructure. Vancouver is getting an upgrade to handle increased Asian trade. Meanwhile Highways and Railways are slated for expansion. The article claims container receiving is expected to increase from a current 2 million containers/year to 7 million by 2020.

Link: http://english.people.com.cn/200610/12/eng20061012_311038.html

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Prime Minister Harper was in Vancouver yesterday. I've linked to the text of his speech. He's still milking the official head tax apology. It's not a bad speech, but he managed to make it sound pretty awful. He's certainly not a rabble-rousing soap box politician.

This sort of stuff gets a good deal of coverage in the Chinese langauge media. They love it when world leaders talk about how great the Chinese are.

Link: http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=245639

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Prime Minister Harper acted along with world leaders around the globe by condemning North Korea's nuclear tests this morning. Canada has not played much of a role in the recent security situation on the Korean peninsula, and likely will not in the immediate future. That said, Canada does have diplomats in Pyong Yang where America does not. Furthermore Canada has what the DPRK needs: food and energy.

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Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture, is making an official visit to China. His trip will be the first ministerial visit to China since the Harper government took office.

Relations have been getting icer as time goes by. The Conservatives' rather ham-fisted treatment hasn't been making relationship building any easier.

Link: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=615588

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Research in Motion has opened a new customer service centre in Singapore to provide 24/7 service to its growing Asian customer base. Singapore's highly trained, multi-lingual work force is a real asset for RIM. Furthermore, the convenient location places the centre in the middle of a high-growth area for wireless communications. India, China, and Indonesia are all huge potential markets.

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Talks with South Korea on ways to cut tariffs and work towards a free trade agreement are continuing. The talks are naturally controversial amongst some Canadian industries as South Korea enjoys a trade surplus with Canada. Many believe Canada has less to gain than it has to lose from the agreement.

Link: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/159424.html

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Embassy, a paper aimed at diplomats and foreign policy buffs, has an article claiming that Canada's international branding efforts are lagging behind other countries, and we are thus not attaining the level of international enrolement in educational institutes that we could be.

The article goes on to extrapolate on Canada's lack of cohesiveness in its branding. Public Diplomacy as DFA is referring to any sort of culture or image campaigns is important. The article is an interesting read if you get the chance.

Link: http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/october/4/branding/

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