A conservative private members bill known as the Taiwan Affairs Act or bill C-357 has resulted in Chinese officials warning Canada that if passed, China would pursue economic sanctions against Canada - a scary prospect.There are a few things that one should put in perspective here. For one, China is currently in the middle of a massive arms build-up, in anticipation of Taiwan's government declaring official independence. If this happens, China has promised in legislation, to invade and slaughter dissidents.
For years, Westerners have been under the impression that the Chinese acceptance of some free market activity was also bringing with it a China that would play nice and progressively on the world stage. But as the American and Japanese governments have recently been musing about under their breaths, the opposite is true; China is in fact, becoming increasingly bellicose.
China's free market, at least in our definition of it, is a sham. All international corporations in China are in partnership, or half-ownership by the Chinese government.
I wonder what "economic sanctions" they are considering? Perhaps it includes shutting down the Alberta oil sands production.
BEIJING (AFX) - China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) has agreed to pay 150 mln cad for a 40 pct stake in a joint venture to produce synthetic crude from western Canada's oil sands reserves, The Standard reported, without citing sources.The Hong Kong-based newspaper said the project could ultimately involve capital spending of 4.5 bln cad over the next five years by Sinopec and its partner, Synenco Energy.
According to the report, Synenco said the venture will develop oil sand leases in the Athabasca region of Alberta with recoverable bitumen reserves of 1.5 bln barrels.
Once up and running in 2009, the project could produce 100,000 barrels of syncrude a day for more than 30 years.
Of course, this is the same China to whom the Libranos donate $50 million a year of our money in "foreign aid". Though, I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt on that one - perhaps it's an error in translation.
It could well be that "foreign aid" is just a Chinese word for "sponsorship".
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There is a lot of troubling news about China these days, from the website registry to the fact that the west is bankrolling its military build-up. One reason that it hasn't gotten much play in the west is the focus on Iraq. Hopefully the media (and western governments)can multitask.
As for foreign aid going to China, I read somewhere that China is the greatest provider of foreign aid to North Korea. We shouldn't be providing aid to any country that has the wherewithal to shell out resources to another sovereign state or make takeover bids for resource companies such as Noranda.
Posted by: Tiberius at June 22, 2005 2:08 PMChina imposing trade sanctions - Um there goes a dollar store or two!!! Look around you they need our oil way more than we need the crap they are exporting.
Posted by: sheila at June 22, 2005 3:10 PMUh Sheila, look again. It's more than just the dollar stores. The Canadian footwear industry and garment manufacturers rely *heavily* on Chinese manufacturing. I'm with you in theory, but then, where would our rampant consumer society (with IQ's and attention spans of a gnat) rack up their credit card debt? Wal-Mart would be out of business in 12 days.
Posted by: A. Cooper at June 22, 2005 3:26 PMWhat's the difference between China, 2005, and Germany, 1935?
Taiwan = Chzecoslovakia
Japan = Jews (albeit, Jews with a homeland and legitimate historical gripes)
State ownership of industry.
Regardless, if China stopped shipping manufactured goods directly to Canada, they'd either go through the U.S., or another 3rd world nation would build them for Canada (Vietnam, Phillipines, Cambodia, etc.). China's sole strength is cheap labor and if they decide that Canada can't buy from them, there are other nations that will sell. If they charge 10 cents an hour more, the effect is negligible.
Posted by: Half Canadian at June 22, 2005 4:42 PMI'm OK with losing Walmart and all those knock off golf clubs and watches from the market place. And gee Canadian Tire might actually have to sell something made in Canada.
China still needs our oil more - and Nike et al will still be sold in Canada. I'd also like the collective attention span of most of Canada to improve beyond that of gnat. Sadly even my IPOD was "assembled" in China and how can I tune out, thereby maintaining my sanity, without that!
Posted by: sheila at June 22, 2005 6:25 PMCanada is giving $50M to China as "foreign aid"?
I didn't know that. It seems like an outrage for Canadian taxpayers, if that weren't an oxymoron.
Do you suppose that's where the Chinese contributions to Clinton originated?
Couldn't that money go to schools, gay-marriage advocacy, helicopters, gun registration, fighting the Quebec Supreme Court decision on health care, or maybe even an election?
Posted by: Hershblogger at June 22, 2005 8:59 PMI'm not sure what sort of economic sanctions China could throw at us (that couldn't be replaced as stated above). As for shutting down the tar sands, their possible $4.5 billion investment is a very small part of the over $110 billion in projects over the next 5-7 years. Their 150 million expenditure to date is 0.15% of the projected projects. That's no where near enough clout to have any lasting impact.
The kind of contract they would have had to sign to get 40% of a joint venture comes with some pretty tight legal wording, and some significant financial penalties on failure to meet commitments (it's been 15 yrs or so since I've seen one of those contracts, but I recall them being about 4-6" thick). Given the price of oil and the instability of the middle eastern supply, their JV partners would not be too hard pressed to find someone to buy out the Chinese should they reneg.
And, they need the oil.
Posted by: Candace at June 22, 2005 11:16 PMWho is Sinopec?
sounds like a combination of "sino" and "OPEC".
Posted by: Bill Strong at June 23, 2005 12:12 AMHay, how come we're giving foreign aid to countries that don't have queer marriage? Isn't that a violation of our most basic principle?
Here's some advice re Australian kowtowing to the Chinese Communist Party, which could be applied just as well to Canuckistan:
"Long experience has shown that it is pointless discussing ideology or morality with the Australian government, so one should not waste any more time with Canberra harping on the democratic ideal.
"Instead, for what it's worth, the Taiwanese should tell Australians that cross-strait conflict will stick knives deep into the thing that Australians value above all -- their economy."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/06/23/2003260415
Posted by: Brian O'Neill at June 23, 2005 1:39 PMSHANGHAI, Thursday, June 23 - "A Chinese state-controlled oil company made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid for Unocal today, igniting the first-ever takeover battle between corporations in China and the United States."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/business/worldbusiness/22WIRE-CNOOC.html?ei=5065&en=4d771759a933fc89&ex=1120104000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Posted by: Brian O'Neill at June 23, 2005 1:41 PMChina Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC Corp.) is a publicly listed company.
One of the SINOPEC board of directors, Ho Tsu Kwok Charles, 55, quoting the company bio “is Chairman of Hong Kong Tobacco Company Limited, a tobacco manufacturer and distributor in the Asia Pacific. He is also Chairman and Board Director of Global China Investments Group Limited, (which is now known as Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd) a joint-venture between a Canadian provincial government pension fund and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), and he is responsible for devising investment and management strategies of Global China Investments Group Limited. He is Chairman of Global China Group Holdings Limited, (now also part of Sing Tao News Corporation) and a Non-Executive Director of China National Aviation Company Limited, both listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He is also member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and an economic consultative advisor to Shandong Provincial Government. He is a Trustee of University of International Business and Economics of China, an Honorary Trustee of Peking University and a Trustee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.” Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd. together in a joint venture with Torstar Corporation (Toronto Star and others) publish The Sing Tao Daily.