Continued… John McCallum has resigned as ambassador to China at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. […] the move comes after the former ambassador was quoted in StarMetro Vancouver on Friday as saying it would be “great for Canada” if the United States drops an extradition request against a Huawei executive detained in Canada.
Chinada
“McCallum’s remarks, made exclusively to Chinese-language reporters …”
He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship
Chinada
So, correct me if I’m wrong, but the Feds dropped charges against these folks… because they feel they’re capable of murdering Crown witnesses? Just spitballin’ here, but that seems like a terrible precedent.
He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship
Follow Huawei updates at the Epoch Times.
He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship
Thirteen Canadians have been detained in China since the high-profile arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec. 1, according to a Canadian government official.
A Global Affairs Canada spokesperson, Guillaume Bérubé, confirmed the detentions in a statement to The Globe and Mail. Until Thursday, only three Canadians – Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor and Sarah McIver – were publicly known to have been detained in China since Canada’s arrest of Ms. Meng, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s chief financial officer. They were picked up after China promised retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest.
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of 13 Canadian citizens having been detained in China, excluding Hong Kong, since December 1, 2018. Of those, we can confirm that at least eight have been released,” Mr. Bérubé said in an e-mail.
But don’t you worry, assures the Globe and Mail. It’s all completely normal.
According to a government official who was not authorized to speak publicly, a total of about 200 Canadians have been detained in China for a variety of alleged infractions and continue to face ongoing legal proceedings, and many of them are out on bail or serving probation. The source said the number of detained Canadians has remained relatively stable, without a marked increase or decrease in recent years.
For comparison, the source said almost 900 Canadians are detained in the United States.
For “comparison”, mind you.
Chinada
This is what you are facing when you deal with any Chinese Corporation,
“All organizations and citizens must support, assist with, and collaborate in national intelligence work, and guard the national intelligence work secrets they are privy to.” (Article 7 of China’s National Intelligence Law)
h/t rd
He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship
It’s the Star, so proceed accordingly.
The extradition dilemma now facing Trudeau and his government is suddenly more complicated. It raises questions of law, politics, international trade and security.
It is fraught with geopolitical tension.
That’s because the fate of two Canadian citizens detained this week in China could depend on whether Ottawa hands the Huawei executive over to the U.S. justice system. Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian businessman Michael Spavor could languish in jail for years awaiting legal processes because China’s foreign ministry has levelled grave accusations against them of harming state security.
No Americans have been detained in the wake of the U.S. request to extradite Meng, as far as anyone knows.
“They go after who they think might be vulnerable,” said Cotler.
See if you can spot the stunning hypocrisy that arises later in the piece.
Related: ‘We’ve never been this alone’
(h/t Joseph)
He Admires Their Basic Dictatorship
China has detained a second Canadian citizen this week, a Chinese government news site has confirmed. China’s state security bureau is holding Michael Spavor on suspicion of jeopardizing China’s national security. As NPR’s Rob Schmitz reports, the detentions appear to be retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Related: Richmond MLA tight-lipped on Huawei ties, as telecom giant’s boss is bailed
Update: Good comments on this thread. I’ve been on the road much of the day and the readers have, as usual, stepped in to pick up the slack.
C.I.S.I.S. has been warning about security risks to Canada and Canadian interests for years. Liberals have for some mysterious reason seemed oblivious or worse.
The first post-Cold War instance surfaced during Operation Sidewinder (about Triad infiltration/immigration), the RCMP Report, that the then Liberal gov’t. deep sixed. An officer actually violated his oath of secrecy to make that public, as he viewed his loyalty to Canada paramount.
Now allowing Cdn. security, military and industrial, to be compromised, the vaunted 5 Eyes, may, in effect, become 4 Eyes, as Canada’s gov’t. is deemed by our closest allies as willfully blind.
WUT? China Arrests Kim Jong-un’s Canadian Drinking Buddy, Friend of Rodman
Chinada
I often ask my anti-pipeline friends in BC, “What do you plan to do for an economy after you’ve run out of real estate to sell to Chinese money launderers?
Ok, so they’re not my friends anymore.
Caravan
Globalization isn’t going quite according to plan…
Projections that underpinned the liberal policies of population control, climate change, open borders, soft power are now suspect. Open borders advocates wait with bated breath as central American refugee “caravans” headed for the United States in a replay of the migrant crisis that changed the political landscape Europe. Even a giant column from Honduras wound towards the US border yet another U.S.-bound caravan was taking shape in El Salvador.
“As the Trump administration makes preparations to combat the 6,500-member Honduran migrant caravan making its way toward the United States, the Department of Homeland Security is also tracking a new caravan taking shape — this time from El Salvador.”
Related: “Those who travel the deepest geopolitical weeds will know exactly what V-POTUS means when he says: “financed by Venezuela” !! This means Big Panda (China – Red Dragon) is financing the effort as part of their geopolitical strategy to defend their interests from Donald Trump.”
Gooks In The Wire
The effects of a decision taken 16 years ago may not only helped sink Hillary, but forms the cornerstone of Trump’s strategy. As Steve Bannon told Bill Maher in a recent interview, Trump’s tariffs, renegotiation of trade agreements and tax policy are all aimed at reshaping the supply chain and reducing American dependence on China. The strategy articulated in Pence’s speech, which Victor Davis Hanson described as a declaration of Cold War II, can also be thought of as an attempt to roll back Bill Clinton’s “last great legislative victory.”
Update via Steakman — The Pence speech.
Russia! Russia! Russia?
As media, intelligence agency, and political scrutiny of foreign meddling is seemingly at its apex, a story with big national security implications involving a high-ranking senator with access to America’s most sensitive intelligence information has been hiding in plain sight.
The story involves China and the senior U.S. senator from California, and former chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Dianne Feinstein. It was buried eight paragraphs into a recent Politico exposé on foreign efforts to infiltrate Silicon Valley, as a passing example of political espionage…
Vancouver’s Real Estate Crisis: Where Does the Truth Lie?
The Vancouver Sun published an article on the amount of “dirty money” that has been used to purchase real estate in Vancouver. According to the article, the amount is paltry.
The thing is, is the article and the study it was based on, remotely true? According to commenter, Michelle Lee, it’s not even close:
As we all know, the $100 million dollar figure German quoted is exceedingly low and has already been proven to be low in another casino story which quoted at least $600 million dollars going through one casino.
And given that the criminals were blatantly able to launder $200,000 to $600,000 or more at one time, in plastic grocery bags no less, it’s apparent that a reasonable person would conclude that since this was allowed to go on for over a decade, more than $100 million dollars was laundered.
You can continue to argue that $100 million dollars wouldn’t make a dent in the Vancouver real estate market, but you can’t argue that we have an effective or efficient system of stopping any money laundering occurring within our real estate market. This was proven in a recent story where the sale of a luxury West Vancouver home was denied due to the US stopping a money transfer to Canada because of money laundering concerns. Canada did not stop nor investigate the incoming laundered funds. Canada did not investigate the home builders or the realtor who was involved in the failed deal.
Trade War: China vs. America
Chinada
British Columbia’s dysfunctional regulatory regime for casinos helped fuel a perfect storm for large-scale, transnational money laundering and organized crime networks, a report released Tuesday by Attorney General David Eby says.
“Vancouver is a hub for Chinese-based organized crime,” the report, titled Dirty Money, says, but adds that large quantities of illicit drug money also move through Vancouver casinos related to Mexican drug cartels and others, including Middle East organized crime.
The story’s been simmering for a while, so it’s interesting to see it pick up mainstream traction.
Chinada
Whitby Estates in West Vancouver…
The area, developed between 2009 and 2014, was marketed to investors from China. Two-thirds of the names on titles in the B.C. Assessment database are non-anglicized Chinese names. Some of those names are familiar to court watchers in B.C.
I’ve friends who bought a house in the lower mainland, surrounded by empty mansions. Some were “staged” with playground equipment to provide the lived-in look.
Chinada
Beijing envoy scolds Ottawa for allowing the Globe & Mail to expose Canadian politicians whose palms get greased with Chinese money; tells Canadians to do what they're told & give up "the excuse of national security.” Liberal official sits there & smiles. https://t.co/E0VAMlWcMr
— Terry Glavin (@TerryGlavin) April 19, 2018
Just shut up and admire them.
Chinada
The data I had was closer to 95% end up living outside Quebec. A complete scam.
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) March 13, 2018
Chinada
Same old Libranos:
Liberal MP Geng Tan hand-delivered a letter to a top official at the Canadian embassy in Beijing and personally spoke to Chinese authorities on behalf of a Liberal Party donor who has been charged with money laundering and the fraudulent sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in securities to Chinese citizens.
Chinese-Canadian businessman Xiao Hua Gong, also known as Edward Gong, was arrested in Toronto last week and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has charged him with fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, laundering proceeds of crime and uttering a forged document. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Luckily, it wasn’t from a constituent and posted to a website. That might have got him in serious trouble.
A former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, David Mulroney, expressed surprise that the Liberal MP would approach the embassy on behalf of Mr. Gong, and praised Ms. Termorshuizen for giving the letter to the Mounties.
“It suggests a pretty shocking misunderstanding on the part of the MP on how our system works,” Mr. Mulroney told The Globe and Mail on Thursday. “It is the kind of thing you do in China … when you try to use your prestige or connections to smooth something over. It is not how things are done in Canada.”