Governator, BC premier sign green pact

Gov press release - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Premier Gordon Campbell today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between California and the Canadian Province of British Columbia to fight global warming. The agreement outlines key actions that California and British Columbia will take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They met in Vancouver during Governor Schwarzenegger's trade mission to Canada.

The agreement also commits British Columbia to adopt California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). California's LCFS will reduce the carbon content of all transportation fuels sold in our state 10% by 2020. Yesterday, the Province of Ontario also agreed to develop an LCFS.

"Premier Gordon Campbell has reached out to build cross-border relationships, and he has emerged as an important leader in North America who promotes collaboration and cooperation on issues that affect us all," said Gov. Schwarzenegger. "Climate change and ocean health are issues that do not respect borders, and we must foster collaboration among governments, businesses, and citizens to address these critical issues."

"This is an important step forward for our commitment to forge a Pacific Coast Collaborative, and I want to thank Governor Schwarzenegger for his tremendous leadership on tackling climate change", said Premier Campbell. "This agreement affirms the partnership between B.C. and California and sets out an action plan that can benefit our economies, our climate, our ocean and our planet."

Like California, British Columbia is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020 and beyond. British Columbia is the first Canadian province to sign the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative with California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Utah. Members commit to reaching greenhouse gas targets, participating in a regional market-based program, like a cap-and-trade system for emissions, and participating in a multi-state registry.

Earlier this year, Premier Campbell announced an environmental agenda that, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, includes building a hydrogen highway; adopting California's tailpipe emissions standards; and identifying how British Columbia's government can become carbon neutral. Environmental sustainability is also a cornerstone of Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Games.

California is party to eight agreements with other states, nations and Canadian provinces, including British Columbia, Ontario and Manitoba. These agreements are important because they expand markets for clean fuels, cars and emissions credits across borders, allowing emission reductions at the lowest possible cost. California is working with other governments so that reporting, measuring, verifying and emissions markets have consistent protocols. Through the agreements, California is able to share and receive valuable information, such as academic research, effective policy initiatives, best practices and technological innovation.

Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 which places an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions and requires a reduction of emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. He has also set administrative targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The Governor introduced the LCFS in January. It utilizes enforceable standards, market competition and flexible compliance to reduce emissions at the lowest cost and in the most consumer-friendly ways. By 2020 it will require a reduction in the carbon intensity of California's passenger vehicle fuels of at least 10% and is expected to more than triple the size of California's renewable fuels market, displace 20% of California's gasoline consumption with lower carbon fuels, and put more than 7 million alternative fuel or hybrid vehicles on its roads without any new government spending.

This first-of-its kind standard firmly establishes sustainable demand for lower-carbon fuels but without favoring one fuel or another.

Earlier this month, the Governor hosted an international symposium on the LCFS with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the International Council on Clean Transportation. The event was attended by officials from the federal government, Germany, Belgium, Indonesia, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan to learn more about how the LCFS will be implemented in California and its potential for adoption in around the world.

Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gordon Campbell, BC, California, global warming, green, environment

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Director Julia Kwan wins first Lieutenant Governor award

BC Film press release - Chinese Canadian film director Julia Kwan was among the winners of the inaugural Lieutenant Governor’s Daryl Duke Awards for Screenwriting.

The awards were announced last night at a reception at the Vancouver International Film Centre. Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo was in attendance to speak and present the winners with their awards.

Julia Kwan, writer and director of the award winning film Eve & the Fire Horse, won the award for achievement in writing for feature length film. "I am very honoured to be presented a Daryl Duke Screenwriting Award," says Kwan, "especially since it is named after the director of The Thornbirds, a mini-series that I adored as a child."

"I have the honour to nominate this very promising talent. I am very glad to have this amazing writer from our own community to tell our stories. Julia has been very dedicated and devoted to her work. I look forward to working with her in the future." says producer Shan Tam.

Chris Haddock, creator of critically acclaimed television shows DaVinci’s Inquest, DaVinci’s City Hall and Intelligence, won the award for achievement in writing for television. "It's a great honour to accept this award", says Haddock. "I hope I can live up to the expectations that this implies and help to ensure that Duke's spirit continues to inspire writers everywhere."

The Lieutenant Governor’s Daryl Duke Awards for Screenwriting were created to honour Daryl Duke’s contribution to the film and television industry and to celebrate excellence in screenwriting, a particular passion of Daryl’s. The program is sponsored by British Columbia Film and supported by the BC Chapter of the Directors Guild of Canada and individual donations contributed in Duke’s memory. Each recipient received $12,500 and a ceremonial talking stick by Coast Salish artist Jim Yelton.

"Daryl was a man of vision who worked tirelessly in support of Canadian filmmakers to help them tell their own uniquely Canadian stories," says Michael Francis, BC Film Chairman. "I am delighted that we are able to celebrate his life and career through the outstanding achievements of two extraordinary Canadian storytellers: Chris Haddock and Julia Kwan."

As a director and producer, Daryl Duke's Emmy Award winning career included success in feature film, television drama, documentary and television specials. In a professional life that spanned more than half a century, Daryl worked with all of the major North American television networks and for most of the studios in Hollywood.

Duke is best known for having directed "The Thorn Birds", the 10-hour mini-series from the best selling book; and "Tai-Pan", based on the novel by James Clavell. In the mid-1970's, Daryl founded the independent television station CKVU-TV in Vancouver. He was the station's first President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, leading it to be the highest rated station in its market.

Tags: julia kwan, director, chinese canadian, eve and the fire horse, movie, Lieutenant Governor’s Daryl Duke Awards for Screenwriting

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Canadian personal income rises 1.9% in 2005

Median total income and median employment income in select cities

	Median total income			Median employment income
	$	% +/- 04-05		$	% +/- 04-05
Canada	25,400	1.9		26,300	1.3
Calgary	30,800	3.2		31,500	2.8
Edmonton	29,500	4.2		30,800	4
Halifax	27,500	2.3		27,600	1.2
Montréal	24,900	2.4		26,400	0.2
Ottawa– Gatineau	32,700	1.3		34,000	0.2
Québec	27,600	2.3		28,300	1.1
Regina	28,900	1.4		29,200	0.3
Saskatoon	26,600	3.3		26,400	3.4
Toronto	26,100	0.2		29,600	-0.1
Vancouver	24,000	1.7		26,700	1.3
Victoria	28,800	1		26,500	-0.2
Winnipeg	26,200	1		26,500	0.1

StatCan - The median total income of individuals amounted to $25,400 in 2005, up 1.9% from 2004 after adjusting for inflation. This is the largest annual increase in median total income of individuals since 2001. The median is the point where one half of incomes are higher and the other half are lower.

Among census metropolitan areas (CMA), the largest percentage increases in median total income were in Edmonton (+4.2%), followed by Saskatoon (+3.3%), Calgary (+3.2%) and Trois-Rivières (+3.0%).

The median employment income in Canada increased 1.3% to $26,300 in 2005. Only people with employment income were included in the calculation of median employment income.

The Northwest Territories continued to have the highest median employment income in the country at $37,500, up 3.7% from 2004. Yukon had the second highest median employment income at $30,000 (+3.8%), followed by Alberta at $29,500 (+5.0%).

Among CMAs, Ottawa–Gatineau had the highest median employment income at $34,000. Oshawa, which had been in the lead for the past two years, followed with a median of $33,900.

The highest percentage increase in the median employment income of individuals in 2005 was recorded in Edmonton, up 4.0% to $30,800. Greater Sudbury followed closely behind, its median employment income increasing 3.8% to $26,200.

Among census agglomerations, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta led with a median employment income of $48,900. The area includes Fort McMurray and the province's oil sands development. Yellowknife followed with a median employment income of $48,000.

Of the 113 census agglomeration areas, 106 posted an increase in median employment income over 2004. The largest percentage increase was in Labrador City (+11.9%). Others, such as Camrose (+9.9%), Red Deer and Dawson Creek (+9.4%) and Grande Prairie (+9.1%) once again showed strong percentage increases in median employment income in 2005.

Employment income represented 75% of the total income, as in previous years. Employment income includes wages and salaries, commissions from employment, training allowances, tips and gratuities as well as self-employment income. Total income includes income from employment, investment, government transfers, private pensions, registered retirement savings plans and other income.

Government transfers represented the second largest source of income, accounting for 12% of total income at the national level. The main components of government transfers were Old Age Security and Canada/Quebec Pension Plan benefits, which together represented 59% of these transfers.

The relative reliance of individuals on government transfers compared to employment income is referred to as the economic dependency ratio. It measures the amount of transfer payments received for every $100 of employment income.

At the national level, individuals received $15.54 in government transfers for every $100 of employment income in 2005, down from $15.68 in 2004.

Among CMAs, people in Calgary relied the least on transfer payments again in 2005, receiving only $6.76 for every $100 in employment income. Those in Trois-Rivières received the most ($24.62).

Note: Data in this report are drawn from income tax returns filed in the spring of 2006. All income data for individuals are before the payment of tax and after the receipt of transfers. All figures for previous years have been adjusted for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. On May 29, 2007, Statistics Canada published a release on family income for 2005. Based on administrative data, primarily from personal income tax returns, this release is of particular value to users interested in detailed family income data for subprovincial geographic areas.

A CMA or a census agglomeration is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a large urban area (known as the urban core). The census population count of the urban core must have reached at least 10,000 to form a census agglomeration and at least 100,000 to form a CMA. To be included in the CMA or census agglomeration, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census place of work data.

Tags: canada, income, total income, median income, stats

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B.C.'s greenhouse gases drop as the economy booms

The BC example should be enough to prove to Stephen Harper and John Baird that cutting emissions does not necessarily affect the economy.

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Vancouver Sun - When Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gordon Campbell meet today in Vancouver each will be playing the role of anti-global warming crusader.

But it just may be ordinary British Columbians are already ahead of the California governor and B.C. premier.

The newest data from Environment Canada, which was provided to The Vancouver Sun by the B.C. government Wednesday, found greenhouse gas emissions in the province declined significantly in 2005, even as the economy remained one of the hottest in Canada.

"According to Environment Canada, greenhouse gas emissions for 2005 actually decreased by 2.4 per cent," Campbell told NDP leader Carole James in a little-watched debate in the legislature Tuesday evening.

"That was in spite of an economy that grew at 3.7 per cent."

Fluctuations in greenhouse gas emissions aren't unprecedented in B.C. Despite a steady increase in emissions from 50.6 million tonnes in 1990 to 65.7 million tonnes in 2005, there have been small decreases from time to time.

From 1996 to 1997, when the economy struggled, there was a decrease of 1.8 million tonnes. And in 2001-2002, another period of sluggish growth, there was also a drop of 1.4 million tonnes.

But the 2004-2005 drop -- a 1.6-million tonne reduction from 67.3 million tonnes -- occurred when the economy was growing at a rapid rate.

"These are preliminary numbers given to us by the feds," said Environment Minister Barry Penner.

"It's significant that this happened when the economy was also growing so strongly at the time."

Campbell's purpose in meeting with Schwarzenegger today is to sign a memorandum of understanding to signal B.C. is committed to joining California in setting stiff reduction targets, penalties for companies who don't meet those targets, as well as a carbon trading market enabling "green" companies to sell carbon credits to polluters.

If that policy continues, as Campbell has vowed, reducing greenhouse gases will be a major fixation of both government and the private sector for years to come.

What is notable about the 2005 decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in B.C. is that it occurred before the B.C. government's recent elevation of fighting global warming to a top priority. The government itself was surprised at the drop.

Some of the reasons for the reduction included a decreased use of personal vehicles, which saw emissions drop 5.2 per cent, or half a million tonnes.

Boating also saw a major decrease of 7.4 per cent, or 200,000 tonnes and manufacturing decreased by 11.7 per cent, or 750,000 tonnes.

"We've actually seen people driving less," said Penner. "Higher gasoline prices likely encouraged people to reduce unnecessary trips in their personal automobiles and/or move to more efficient vehicles," he said.

"And we're hearing anecdotal evidence that boaters are just not burning as much fuel on the water."

Penner attributed the decrease in greenhouse gases from manufacturing primarily because of changes in efficiency, such as reductions in power consumption by Alcan at its giant aluminum smelter in Kitimat. He also said there was a decrease of 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases coming from landfills thanks to new technologies to burn off methane gas.

"These numbers are good news for us," says Penner.

But they're also a drop in the bucket. Campbell has vowed to decrease the province's total greenhouse gases emissions to one-third of current levels by 2020.

That would mean a decrease of more than 20 million tonnes within 13 years.

The NDP has in fact accused the premier of creating his new "climate action plan" on a back of a napkin to copy the lead of Schwarzenegger.

The NDP has been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Campbell to explain where the 33-per cent reduction target came from and to provide the economic analysis of what it will mean for British Columbia.

"Full of words and full of photo ops," James said of Campbell's global warming initiative and his plan to meet the former Hollywood action hero today.

"While I appreciate that the premier is going to enjoy his time with the governor, I think it's important that we see action."

Tags: BC, energy, environment, pollusion, green house, climate change, global warming

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Canadians won't be fooled by Tories' fictional green plan

Ottawa Citizen - It is easy to get lost in the complexities of the fight against climate change -- the multiple deadlines, shifting baselines and arcane technicalities of the file. And lost is just where Stephen Harper's government seems to hope voters will stay.

It is the only way his two-track strategy will work: Pretend to care about climate change in public -- because polls say that voters care -- but work privately to delay meaningful progress and protect the domestic oil industry. And hope we don't notice.

The prime minister, for instance, is heading to next week's G8 summit in Germany, promising to act as a "bridge" between the United States, big greenhouse-gas emitters like India and China and the pro-Kyoto European nations. Canada, he says, will work to bring the world's largest polluters, led by the U.S., into the fold.

This almost sounds like a reprise of Canada's traditional role as honest broker, a country wary of extremes, but headed in the right direction. There is an apparent logic, too, in arguing that any climate-change regime that excludes the largest generators of greenhouse gases is deeply flawed.

Flawed, perhaps, but Kyoto is the product of years of arduous negotiation. Developing nations like India and China were deliberately excluded from targets in the accord's first period, because it was agreed the rich countries, whose economies were built on cheap fossil fuels, should be the first to reduce emissions. In later phases, emerging economic powerhouses like China would be expected to set and meet targets, too.

Experts close to negotiations say Canada, far from being a consensus-builder, however, is running interference for George W. Bush, who continues to oppose any binding targets, timetables and, by extension, any international carbon trading market.

Led by Germany, the Europeans want the world's richest club to commit to a two-degree limit on rising global temperatures. That would mean a 50-per-cent global reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. The G8 will also be asked to aim for a 20-per-cent increase in energy efficiency by 2020 -- by regulating appliances, cars, power stations and buildings so that they waste as little energy as possible.

So far, U.S. negotiators have rejected any caps or deadlines; they prefer a return to voluntary compliance and, say critics, are trying to undermine the United Nations itself by setting up a side club of dissenting nations, including rising Asian powers, Australia and, now, Canada.

Environment Minister John Baird insists that Canada accepts Kyoto -- although he blandly argues that we cannot possibly meet its legally binding targets. He also expresses support for the G8's proposed 50-per-cent cut by 2050 -- but he doesn't add that he is using a 2006 baseline, not the 1990 date established by Kyoto and respected by all other signatories.

This is where complexity and duplicity meet. It isn't only internationally that Canada is trying to slip out the back door on Kyoto. This week, Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute analysed Baird's proposed targets for big emitters and found them weak, riddled with loopholes and impossible to verify. Not only do they fall short of Kyoto targets, they may produce no real reductions for years.

Baird responded by attacking Bramley, a Cambridge-educated physicist and expert on climate- change measurements, as a Liberal dupe because Bramley -- whose advice is widely sought -- consulted on the recent Liberal plan. Baird also used an appearance before the environment committee yesterday to revive his tiresome political feud with the McGuintys -- Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton and his brother David, Liberal MP and environment critic. If Harper were serious about addressing climate change, instead of avoiding it, he would not have deputized a trigger-happy mercenary like Baird.

The selling campaign continues today with the visit of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Everyone is trying to get close to Arnie these days, to bask in his green glow. But Schwarzenegger has a muscular plan to reduce emissions in his state by 80 per cent beneath 1990 levels by 2050. By comparison, the Baird plan promotes speculative, even fictional, cuts of around 60 per cent below 2006 by 2050 -- and shows no interest in adopting California's tough tailpipe standards. (Those numbers again.)

Polls suggest that voters may be confused, but they aren't entirely lost -- or willing to accept Tory claims. In any event, soon enough, Bush will be gone, taking Harper, Baird and other Reaganite relics with him. For the planet, at least, it can't come soon enough.

Tags: canada, environment, stephen harper, john baird, green, G8, kyoto

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BC plans universal HPV vaccination; Chinese parents skeptical

BC is considering a plan to provide free cervical cancer vaccines to all girls between grades 6-9, according to the province's chief medical officer Perry Kendall.

Kendall said he has submitted a report to the ministry of health suggesting spending $17m in 3 years to vaccinate all girls between grades 6-9.

Health ministry spokesperson Sarah Plank said the government is going over the report and will be making an announcement in a short while.

However, in the same article of Ming Pao, a Chinese parent's response to the proposed measures is not an entirely welcoming one.

Jennifer Ng of the Richmond Chinese Parents Assn said the use of the vaccine is needed. "But the parents should tell their daughters that if you behave, if you are a 'good girl', you don't need the vaccine."

Ng believes promiscuity brings HPV infection and thus cervical cancer, and restrain from being promiscuous is more effective than getting vaccinated.

I was so shock when I heard about this argument. At first, I thought no one would object it, as it's for the health of the kids and hey, it's free! But it looks like I was wrong. I have underestimated the conservatism of parents, especially many Chinese parents, and, their ignorance.

Why are they so tabooed with anything linked with the word "sex"? Is protecting their daughters, potentially for a lifetime, against a deadly cancer less important than being "a good girl"?

It's a shame that ideology is standing in the way of saving lives. Ridiculous!

After I did some Google search, I found that Richmond's Chinese parents are not alone. Many conservative and Christian establishment are opposed to their girls getting the vaccine, "because they think it might encourage promiscuity."

Some parents in the US are not comfortable with a vaccine that deals with their daughters' sexual health.

A MSNBC report has some more shocking details:

STD shot stuck in center of U.S. culture war

ATLANTA - For a time, Georgia was poised to become the latest state to require preteen girls to be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer.

A powerful state Republican lawmaker proposed making the vaccine mandatory for girls entering sixth grade, and the governor included $4.3 million in his budget to make it available to some 13,000 girls whose family's insurance policies wouldn't cover it.

But state lawmakers nixed the plans after aggressive lobbying by religious conservatives, who argued that vaccinating young girls could promote promiscuity. The human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is transmitted through sexual contact.

Similar proposals were introduced in 23 other states and the District of Columbia, but only Virginia has signed such a mandate into law.

Proposals in many states died or were watered down to only provide parents with educational materials instead of requiring the vaccine. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order requiring vaccinations for sixth-grade girls, but the Legislature then passed a bill blocking the order.

The religious conservatives did not want the government to mandate a vaccine for "something that is only contracted through sexual activity," said Sadie Fields, executive director of the Georgia Christian Alliance.

Some parents insist that they should decide when their preteen daughter should be offered a vaccine that involved a discussion about sex.

According to an peer-reviewed article published in the notorious New English Journal of Medicine, Gardasil is nearly 100% effective in preventing disease caused by the two main cancer-causing strains of HPV, but only when the vaccine is given before sexual exposure to those viral strains. After infection with both strains the vaccine appears to do little or nothing to prevent cervical cancer.

Newly published reports from two large clinical trials show the vaccine is 98 to 100% effective after three years in preventing disease due to HPV types 16 and 18 - the strains that account for up to 70% of cervical cancers - when given to women and girls who have never been infected with these fairly common strains.

Tags: HPV, cervical cancer, Gardasil, BC

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Taiwan is 'soverign country', independent from China, Chen Shuibian tells US

A political/diplomatic storm must be cooking by now...

Taipei Times - Taiwan and China are two different countries and appeasement breeds aggression, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told US politicians and academics in Washington during a video conference last night.

"Taiwan is an independent sovereign country and our sovereignty is independent from the rule of China," he said.

"Taiwan is Taiwan. China is China. Taiwan and China are two independent nations on either side of the Taiwan Strait," he said.

The fact that Taiwan has 25 diplomatic allies runs counter to the message that Taiwan is part of China, said Chen, who was invited by the National Press Club (NPC) to make a speech to its members via teleconference.

Chen said China was damaging the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait and the democratic community should not turn a blind eye to it.

"History has taught us one important lesson: Appeasement breeds aggression," he said.

"To maintain a lasting peace in the Taiwan Strait and ensure security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, the international community must send the right signals to China," he said.

The international community must guide China toward democratization and join forces to build a more democratic, freer and safer world, Chen said.

Saying that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) favores "ultimate unification with China" and was "stalling" on a new defense budget for Taiwan designed to counter China's growing assertiveness, Chen told his audience that a KMT-ruled Taiwan "would pose a severe challenge and trial to the mutual trust and foundation for cooperation laid by our two countries [Taiwan and the US] over the years."

The 70-minute conference titled "Democratic Taiwan: Challenges and Prospects" began at 8:30pm Taiwan time and was hosted by NPC vice chairman Peter Hickman.

Chen opened with a 10-minute speech and then spent the next 20 minutes answering questions from current and former US politicians.

They included Representative Lincoln Davis, a Democrat; US-Taiwan Business Council chairman Rupert Hammond-Chambers; former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush; former AIT chairwoman Therese Shaheen; and Randy Schriver, former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Responding to Chen's speech, Shaheen said she agreed with him that "appeasement would lead to aggression," adding that China's actions in certain areas seemed increasingly inconsistent with its declared policies.

Schriver applauded Taiwan's democratic performance, saying it was important not only to the country but to the US as well. He added that the US should do more to help Taiwan's democratic transition.

The last 35 minutes consisted of a question-and-answer session.

While fielding questions, Chen said the biggest challenge facing Taiwan was the lack of consensus on national identification, with some people considering China as their "motherland."

It is a wrong assumption to believe China has no intention to attack Taiwan, Chen said, and Taiwan will not hand over the responsibility of protecting itself to the US or other countries.

While the US government wants to see Taiwan talk more about democracy and human rights than sovereignty, Chen said he did not understand why the collective human rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan to enter global institutions such as the UN continue to be ignored.

In response to questions about what he intends to accomplish during his last year in office, Chen said he would dedicate his remaining term to strengthening Taiwan-centered consciousness and helping efforts to join the UN and the WHO under the name "Taiwan" in line with the US' Taiwan Relations Act, which recognizes Taiwan as a country and therefore makes it completely legitimate for Taiwan to join international organizations.

HE said that using the name "Taiwan" to join international organizations did not violate the "four noes" pledge he made in 2000 nor was it equivalent to changing the name of the country.

The "four noes" refer to the pledge Chen made as part of his first inaugural speech, where he promised that as long as China did not use military force against Taiwan, he would not declare independence, change the national title, enshrine the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations in the Constitution, or endorse a referendum on formal independence.

Asked by media about any piece of advice he would like to share with his successor, Chen said that US President George W. Bush would not have signed the arms procurement package for Taiwan in 2001 without his "four noes" pledge, adding that he had worked hard during his presidency to ensure stability in the Strait.

Chen said he was sure his successor would understand the importance of US-Taiwan relations.

Asked about his plans after his term ends, Chen said he would heed the advice former US president Bill Clinton had given him: avoid criticizing your successor and refrain from giving him or her instructions.

Tags: china, taiwan, US, diplomacy, politics

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Liberals watch CBC, Tories watch CTV: poll

• Almost three-in-five Liberal voters (58%) say they turn to CBC for their news
• Two-in-five Conservatives (41%) tune into CTV for their information
• NDP split between CTV & CBC as their top news source

POLITICAL PREFERENCES & MEDIA TASTES

Angus Reid release – Supporters of different federal political parties each have their own distinct media tastes, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample, Canadians were asked which news sources they relied on for information, and allowed to input names if not found on the supplied list. The results show nearly three-in-five Liberal voters (58%) rely on the CBC for their news—but the top source for Conservative supporters is CTV, selected by two-in-five Conservatives (41%).

NDP voters, however, are split between CBC and CTV as their top media source, with roughly two-in-five selecting each option. Green Party supporters are most likely to tune into CBC (47%), while Bloc Quebecois voters favour TVA (22%), the CBC (22%) and Radio-Canada (19%).

Global is the third most popular TV news outlet for all parties except the Bloc, chosen by roughly a quarter from each group. CITY TV is fourth, selected by about 15% from all groups except the Bloc.

Print media preferences are also quite distinct from party to party. Liberals are equally split between the Globe and Mail (25%) and the Toronto Star (25%) as their paper of record.

One-in-five Greens (20%) selected both the Globe and the Star as well, and NDP supporters also read both papers but in smaller proportion.

However, far fewer Conservatives read the Globe and Mail (12%) or the Star (8%), instead showing a slight preference for the National Post (14%).

Tags: angus reid, poll, media, CTV, CBC, politics, TV, conservatives, liberals, NDP

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Sizing up China: Japan's local governments vying to lure more Chinese travelers

Asahi.com - In late February, as many as 5,000 Chinese tourists descended on the Fujikyu Highland amusement park to celebrate Chinese New Year.

The fun park was hosting a weeklong celebration to mark the event. Visitors rode roller coasters, ice skated and played table tennis before a panoramic vista of a snow-clad Mount Fuji.

At the chapel of an adjacent Highland Resort Hotel & Spa, a couple from Beijing held a wedding ceremony before relatives and friends against the backdrop of Japan's tallest mountain.

Watching the smiles of Chinese guests, Koichi Kubota, an official of the Yamanashi prefectural government, realized once again that the 3,776-meter peak is a powerful tool to attract Chinese travellers.

The World Tourism Organization estimates that 100 million Chinese will travel abroad in 2020, triple the 31 million in 2005.

Local governments are trying to lure them to their districts.

Mount Fuji is a favourite sight for Chinese visitors.

A recent survey by the Japan National Tourist Organization showed that 16.2 percent of Chinese travellers to Japan visited Yamanashi Prefecture, ranking it seventh among the most popular destinations in Japan.

The six ranked above Yamanashi were all large prefectures--Tokyo, Osaka, Kanagawa, Chiba, Kyoto and Aichi. The survey covered about 1,200 Chinese travellers between July 2005 and February 2006.

"We are doing a pretty good job for a prefecture with a population of only 880,000," says Kubota, who heads the international tourism division of the Yamanashi prefectural government. "We definitely owe our popularity to Mount Fuji."

Kubota's division is encouraging Chinese who come to see the mountain to spend more time within the prefecture.

Some tours offer a chance to pick grapes and peaches, the fruits for which Yamanashi is known, or sample wine, another specialty. The prefecture is also home to many hot springs.

The Chinese New Year event at Fujikyu Highland, its third, also included booths featuring local products and sightseeing spots.

Yamanashi is joining hands with neighboring Shizuoka and Kanagawa prefectures to market their tourist attractions internationally.

"For example, travellers may stay near the five lakes around Mount Fuji, swim off the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka and trek through mountains of Hakone in Kanagawa," Kubota says.

In March 2006, the three prefectures agreed to make efforts to increase the number of foreign visitors to the Fuji, Izu and Hakone areas to 1.4 million by 2010.

The initial goal of 900,000 visitors for 2005, adopted in 1998, was almost achieved a year earlier.

Local tourism officials expect that a new airport to open in Shizuoka Prefecture in March 2009 will help bring in more tourists from abroad.

The prefectural government aims to connect Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport with nine overseas destinations, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei.

Yamanashi Prefecture is also trying to attract tours of foreign students.

In fiscal 2006, about 1,400 in 26 groups stayed in the prefecture and carried out exchanges with local students. Most were from Taiwan and China.

"When they grow up, they may come back to Yamanashi, possibly with their families," Kubota says. "We expect (student tours) to produce extensive ripple effects in the future."

In targeting Chinese travellers, the prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara are teaming up with the Korea Tourism Organization.

"With help from the South Korean agency, we hope to have more Chinese visit the Kansai region via the Korean Peninsula," said a tourism promotion official of the Osaka prefectural government.

In October and November, more than 40 Chinese took part in tours that All Nippon Airways Co. helped the three prefectures to organize.

Hyogo Prefecture, which also borders on Osaka, will take part in the joint tour package from this year.

Osaka Prefecture earmarked 250 million yen in the current fiscal year to achieve its target of attracting 2 million foreign tourists.

A prefectural government official said she expects more Chinese travellers to leave Japan from Kansai International Airport, instead of Narita Airport just outside Tokyo.

"If they spend more on souvenirs in the Kansai region, it will have a positive effect on the local economy," the official said.

Tourism officials refer to the route that connects Tokyo and Osaka as the "golden route" because many Chinese travellers visit both cities.

Local governments situated away from the route are trying to lure Chinese travellers off the beaten track.

Gunma Prefecture, for example, plans to make the most of well-known hot springs that dot the prefecture, such as Kusatsu and Ikaho.

Travel agency Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. is helping the prefecture to prepare a tour package for health-conscious, wealthy Chinese that combines a dip in onsen and a physical checkup at a public medical center.

The first tour is expected by the end of the year.

But Gunma, Yamanashi and many other prefectures have their work cut out for them.

According to World Tourism Organization statistics for 2005, Japan ranked eighth as an overseas destination for Chinese travellers, after Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea.

A number of countries, such as Australia and Britain, are spending a lot to woo outbound Chinese.

"When we run a full-page newspaper ad targeting Chinese travellers, we find a four-page spread from Australia," said Shiho Mizuno, who is in charge of the Chinese market at the Japan National Tourist Organization.

BY MAYUKO TOKITA, STAFF WRITER; Editor's note: This is part of a series on the growing influence of China in bilateral relations as well as Chinese communities in Japan.

Tags: china, japan, tourism, economy

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China's incentives to lure back high-end overseas Chinese see some success while most stay abroad

China Daily - Carrying his baby daughter in his arms, Yang Nan stepped out of the airport and into Beijing's potent atmosphere. Immediately, he was gripped by familiarity: This was home. It was 2001 when Yang finally decided to return and establish an architectural design company.

He had spent a decade abroad, living in Germany for three years and Canada for seven.

"I can imagine what my life would have been like in 30 years if I had stayed in Canada," says the 43-year-old, who graduated with an architecture degree in Beijing more than 20 years ago. "What I want is not a stable and carefree life in a foreign country, but to be part of the sizzling economic development of my own country."

Now a major shareholder of a national architectural design company, Yang has proven his decision right.

"In Canada, I designed buildings of 2,000 square meters a year. In China, I design buildings of 20,000 square meters," he says.

Yang admits it took him almost a year to get used to pollution, traffic and people spitting on the streets. But, "like sugarcane, it cannot be sweet on both ends," he says. "You should know what is most important to you - yes, China has its problems due to its large population, but just because of that, there is vast market potential."

Since 1978, more than one million students like Yang have left the Chinese mainland to study abroad. But just one quarter of those had returned by the end of last year, statistics from the Ministry of Personnel reveal. As a consequence, China is now experiencing the most serious brain-drain the world, according to the 2007 Global Political and Security Report, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

China is "in dire need of people of expertise," says Pan Chengguang, a CASS expert who co-authored the report.

"It has been a great loss for China to see well-educated professionals leave after the country has invested a lot in them," he says.

To attract overseas Chinese back to beef up the country's talent pool, the Ministry of Personnel and other central government agencies issued a guideline document in March promising a "green passage" for acclaimed scientists, engineers and top company executives who are willing to return to work in the mainland.

Under this initiative, "high-end talents" will not be bound by the restrictions of hukou - the household residence registration - or the rigid payroll quotas at large State-owned institutions.

They will also receive more flexible pay packages on a case-by-case basis and their families will be given preferential access to jobs and schools. These enticements include the guarantee of privileged university admission for their children.

This preferential treatment, especially for the children of repatriated Chinese, has sparked a debate on the Internet, with some local Chinese questioning the fairness of the move.

"The (preferential) policies violate people's right of equal access to education. What could children of locals do if they don't have the means to leave the country?" asks one netizen on the popular forum of 126.com.

Currently, Chinese students face cut-throat competition for mainland university places. Of the 10 million who will take this June's university entrance examination, almost half will not make the cut.

Another netizen comments: "No matter a turtle or a tortoise, the pivotal issue is to set up an environment for equal competition."

"Haigui", or "turtle", is the Chinese term for those who left China to study and work overseas but are now "swimming home" to take high-level positions at multinational companies; while "digui" or "tortoise" refers to the mainland expertise.

There is concern some returning "turtles" will take advantage of the incentives for personal gain, instead of contributing to the country.

"Some will try to fulfill their own self-interest under the shield of this policy," one netizen writes on sohu.com, a major Chinese news portal.

However, Yang Nan believes all the worry is unnecessary. "I don't see any conflict," he says. "The more talents who return, the more rapidly China develops, and the more people will benefit from it."

Yang admits children's education is the biggest headache for overseas talents. "Actually it's not an easy admission to university, but a relaxing learning environment that I want for my kids to ensure a happy childhood for them," he says.

He says he feels sorry for his 8-year-old son when he sees the child glued to his desk late at night doing homework. "I figure that my decision to come back denied my son his carefree childhood," Yang says. "He would have had less work to do if we had stayed abroad."

Yang adds that, due to their perceived poor standards of Chinese education, some of his friends in Shanghai, who were also returnees, had sent their children to an elementary school where French and English are the two main languages.

By sending their children to such a school, Yang feels his friends seem reluctant to fully re-integrate with Chinese society.

Despite the problems in Chinese education, Yang would prefer his son to continue at a common school but maybe go abroad when he is older. "It's a dilemma," he says. "I also don't want to send him abroad too early, as he needs to learn the Chinese language and culture so as not to get lost in an identity crisis."

As Zhang Ying observes, the loosening of the government's grip on "hukou" will be welcomed by overseas talents. She tells of tasting the bitterness of this policy. After studying an MBA in France for two years, Zhang returned to Beijing in 2005, only to find that she couldn't install a telephone at home due to her Tianjin hukou.

Recalling her troubles, she says: "It is ridiculous that you need a hukou as a proof of identity to live in your own country. Getting a Beijing hukou is even more difficult than fetching a (US) Green Card."

Zhang says when she first arrived in France as a student in 2003, she had a telephone installed in her apartment almost immediately. Zhang, who is now 32, emigrated to Canada with her French fiance at the end of 2006.

"Sometimes it is not self-gain that overseas talents hunger for, but an equal, open and civilized environment, where they can display their full capabilities," Zhang says.

Yang Nan believes the choice to live in China or abroad, is a personal one, and depends on a variety of factors such as personality, timing and academic background.

"As long as China keeps its growing momentum, it will surely become a magnet for talent both home and abroad," Yang says.

Tags: china, brain drain, overseas chinese, job, employment, economy, immigrants

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Photo - bamboo leaves dancing in the wind

I took these pictures from my front yard today. Bamboos are my children. ... This is one of my best-loved sets of photos. :)

See my Tabblo

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China-Canada free trade pact may conclude in 2 years: Emerson

CIV - Canada and China have kicked off the first step towards a free trade agreement lately by devoting efforts to negotiate the long-awaited foreign investment protection agreement (FIPA), said international trade minister David Emerson in a teleconference with the Chinese media yesterday. Emerson said the China-Canada free trade agreement might be able to achieve within 2 years.

Chinese minister of commerce Bo Xilai visited Ottawa this week, and had held a in-camera meeting with Emerson. The opposition has been urging Emerson to disclose what was discussed on the meeting.

Just weeks before Bo's visit, the standing committee of international trade submitted a report dubbed "TEN STEPS TO A BETTER TRADE POLICY" which suggests Canada to wrap up more free trade talks with different countries. China being one of the most urgent ones. Emerson had said then that reaching a FTA with China is his "ultimate goal".

The FIPA negotiations might be the best news for months to Canadian companies wanting to do business in China. In the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's 12-point suggestion on China-Canada relation, published in Sep 2006, FIPA tops the lists:

1. Protecting Bilateral Foreign Investment

• Canada and China must conclude a high standards foreign investment protection agreement (FIPA) as soon as possible, so that the rights and obligations of each country are clear to investors.
• Given the importance of the FIPA for potential Canadian investors, the consultation process with the business community must ensure that vital business interests are fully understood by government negotiators and reflected in the eventual agreement.

FIPA would make the foundation for further talks towards a free trade agreement, Emerson said.

Moreover, Emerson has relayed Canada's position on the approved destination status (ADS) negotiations that a deal should come down earlier than later. According to Emerson, Bo Xilai agreed there has been too long a delay and he promised to discuss with his colleagues to see if anything could be sped up.

Emerson also said he had brought up human rights and the Celil case with Bo.

Tags: china, canada, free trade, FIPA, foreign investment protection agreement, ADS, david emerson, bo xilai, trade

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Taiwan's ex-president to visit Yasukuni Shrine

I have no problem that Lee visits Japan, a country he identifies more with than Taiwan or China. He even thinks he's more Japanese than Taiwanese. However, I'm angry that he is visiting the Yasukuni. What kind of message he wants to deliver? That the Japanese army was correct in killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Chen Shui-bian has just erased Nanjing Massacre from the history textbooks, and now this... isn't this a betrayal of the entire ethnic Chinese people?

The current Taiwanese regime has no conscience. Like the Canadian Tories, these people are not interested in the good of the country other than their own political agenda.

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Deutsche Presse-Agentur - Defying protests from China, former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui arrived in Japan Wednesday to deliver speeches in Tokyo and to re-enact a journey taken by a 17th-century Japanese haiku poet, media reports said.

In a move likely to further enrage Taiwan's rivals in Beijing, Lee, 84, unveiled his plan to visit the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, which honours, among others, Lee's older brother, according to Kyodo News Agency.

'It could be the last visit to Japan in my life,' he said. 'My older brother is enshrined there. As his brother, I cannot bear not to pay a tribute.'

Yasukuni Shrine, which is known to honour millions of war dead including convicted war criminals, has been a source of diplomatic dispute between Tokyo and many of imperial Japan's World War II victims in China, Korea and elsewhere in Asia.

China has long opposed Lee's Japan visit because it considers him among Taiwan's most hard-core pro-independence leaders.

The former president of Taiwan, however, has insisted his 11-day visit to Japan is an exchange of cultural and academic views, and not politically-motivated.

He said he plans to visit several provinces in Japan to follow a five-month journey taken by the famous poet Matsuo Basho.

As president, Lee reclassified Taiwan's relations with China as 'special state-to-state' ties in 1999, in an attempt to place the island in an equal status to that of the mainland.

The move enraged Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province and opposes any move toward independence.

Tags: taiwan, japan, history, yasukuni shrine, war criminals, lee teng-hui

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INTERVIEW - Lesbian politician hopes to make Japanese history

"Japan needs a society where differences are recognised as a form of affluence. To create this, we need minorities like me, who know society's pain, to be in parliament."

Reuters - Kanako Otsuji hopes to make history by becoming Japan's first openly lesbian national lawmaker.

Backed by the main opposition party in a nation so conservative that many gays prefer to stay in the closet, Otsuji, 32, would become the first openly gay politician of either sex if she wins a seat in parliament's upper house in a July poll.

A decade ago, she would have been shunned by major political parties, so the simple fact she will run with the backing of the Democratic Party shows progress, Otsuji says.

"Japan still isn't a place where people can come out, so many citizens don't know we are living right alongside them, or what we are suffering," Otsuji told Reuters in an interview.

"People who can come out should become visible, enter politics and gain wider understanding. Then concrete things like anti-discrimination laws will follow."

Otsuji, who served as a local legislator in the western city of Osaka for four years until April, said standing up for gay rights is more important than ever as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to revive traditional values under his slogan of "Beautiful Country, Japan".

"'Beautiful Japan' is a moralistic way of pushing one model and one form of ideal family, but the fact is that there are many different types of family in today's Japan and the more you do this, the more people will be oppressed," she said.

"Japan needs a society where differences are recognised as a form of affluence. To create this, we need minorities like me, who know society's pain, to be in parliament."

Otsuji said she didn't suspect she might be a lesbian until she turned 18, and that the pain and isolation of the five years until she accepted herself eventually led her to enter politics.

"Why did we have to keep on hiding ourselves like this? Why could we only be our true selves in bars?" she said.

"I began to wonder how I could change this so children of the next generation won't have to go through what I did," she added, speaking at her campaign office in Shinjuku Ni-chome, an area on the western side of Tokyo with several hundred gay bars.

CHANGING LAWS

Elected to the Osaka legislature in 2003, she helped change laws to make it easier for same-sex couples to rent public housing. She also fought unsuccessfully last year to keep a Japanese city from amending a rare law that had explicitly banned discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

Otsuji came out as a lesbian in 2005. In her autobiography, "Coming Out: A Journey to Find My True Self", she said: "I thought I could give courage to the most people this way."

Her constituents seemed not to mind, but she decided not to run again last April because a revision of legislative districts had reduced her chances of winning.

Early this month, the Democrats officially recognised her as a candidate for the upper house election.

The party decision, which she lauded as "courageous", faced some opposition from people who worried it might lose conservative votes. Some Internet sites have also criticised her.

Japanese media are taking sexual minority issues more seriously these days -- both TV programmes and a comic have dealt with transsexuals in the past year. But social acceptance remains limited and gays are still often shown as comic relief.

Otsuji remains optimistic, noting Japan has no religious prohibitions against homosexuality and that change often comes fast once it begins.

Supporter Mitsuo Fukushima, who heads of a group to promote Ni-chome, said Otsuji's candidacy will help speed that change.

"Having a role model that can be accepted is very important," he said. "Sexual minorities aren't only comic, they're just ordinary people right near you."

Tags: gay, japan, MP, politics, gay politician, lesbian, Kanako Otsuji

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Poll: 39% Canadians say Reform Party no good for Canada

• Nearly two-in-five (39%) think Reform Party did not have a positive impact on federal politics
• 58% would not vote Reform/Canadian Alliance if they were running candidates today
• A quarter of Canadians (26%) believe Conservative Party resembles Reform Party, not PC
• Two-in-five (41%) Canadians believe no federal party truly represents conservatism in Canada – and 44% of Conservative voters believe this too
• Older people, those with high-incomes and high-education more likely to thiink badly of Refform

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THE REFORM PARTY, 20 YEARS ON

Angus Reid press release – Twenty years after the formation of the western based right-wing Reform Party, many Canadians do not see its political legacy as positive, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample, nearly two-in-five Canadians (39%) disagree with the statement that “The now-defunct Reform Party / Canadian Alliance had a positive impact on the federal political landscape.” However, 22% do agree that the Reform Party did have a positive impact, while 38% are not sure how to rate their influence.

As well, over half of Canadians (58%) would not vote for the Reform Party if it was alive and running candidates in the next federal election. Perhaps in a testament to how effectively the Conservative Party has replaced its predecessor, a mere 9% say they would vote Reform if the option was available.

In fact, over a quarter of Canadians (26%) do believe the Conservative Party most closely resembles Reform over the Progressive Conservatives. But 22% think that the Conservative Party has become its own distinct political entity, while 20% believe it resembles the Progressive Conservatives.

However, by and large, over two-in-five Canadians (41%) do not believe any current federal political party truly represents conservatism in Canada. Even among those intending to vote Conservative in the next election, 44% say this is true.

By political preference, over half of those voting Conservative in the next election (39%) believe the Conservatives are a unique political entity, but those voting Liberal (54%) and those voting NDP (35%) believe it most closely resembles Reform.

Conservatives are also most likely to believe Reform’s influence was positive, while 68% of Liberals and 51% of NDP voters disagree. 22% of Conservatives would also vote Reform in the next election if given the chance.

Unsurprisingly, Alberta remembers the Reform Party most fondly, with 35% agreeing that it was a positive influence on federal politics and 18% saying they would vote Reform in the next election. Albertans are also among the most likely to believe the Conservative Party resembles the Reform Party, and are in overwhelming disagreement that no federal party truly represents Canadian conservatism.

Conversely, Ontario conjures up little affection for the Reform Party in hindsight. 35% of Ontarians believe that the Reform Party was not a positive influence on federal politics, and three-in-five (62%) would not vote Reform in the next election.

The survey also reveals that older Canadians, those with university education or more, and those in households earning $100,000 or more are the least likely to look kindly on Reform. Far more respondents from these groups believe the Reform Party did not have a positive influence on Canadian politics, and would never vote Reform in the next election.

Tags: reform party, conservative party, canada, federal politics, progressive conservative

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Green Party condemns gay pride attacks in Moscow

Green Party press release – The Green Party has condemned recent violent attacks on lesbian and gay rights activists in Moscow and is calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to lodge an official protest over the incident with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Volker Beck, a Green Party member of the German Parliament, and veteran human rights campaigner and British Green Party candidate Peter Tatchell were among a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people savagely attacked by neo-Nazis and other extreme right-wing thugs as they tried to present a petition to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to lift the city’s ban on a Gay Pride parade. Russian police watched as they were beaten. They then arrested several LGBT people while their attackers walked free.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said today that the apparent official sanctioning of the attacks on peaceful protestors was part of a worrying trend towards authoritarianism and abuse of basic human rights in Russia.

“Canada must stand up and support the growth of democracy in Russia, which includes the right to free speech and peaceful protest,” said Ms. May.

The Green Party of Canada has a long history of supporting equal rights for LGBT people. In 1996, it became the first federal party to officially support the right to equal marriage for same sex couples.

Tags: green party, pride parade, gay parade, moscow, anti-gay, same sex

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And now promoting Chinese culture, language is a conspiracy too?

This is ridiculous!!! What is the problem of promoting one's culture and language?? From what is reported in this article, the CSIS's claim that China is using Confucius Institutes as "soft power" to drive for global dominance is pure speculation. It's not supported by facts or evidence that the college is doing anything else other than offering language courses and stuff.

What is the problem of promoting one's country to the world, impressing others to like it?

To be fair to everyone, CSIS should check on other similar organizations such as the British Council, the Japanese Society etc to see if they too are trying to spread their cultures as a way to dominate the world.

I think CSIS might be next checking on the Chinese Cultural Centre and other Chinese media in Canada... because they all promote Chinese culture and language. And CSIS might well believe the overseas Chinese media are state-owned.

This government is too obsessed with bashing China to a sickening level.

CSIS say: Confucius part of Chinese bid to win over western hearts

CP - Canada's spy service believes China has enlisted Confucius, the master of enduring wisdom, in its drive for global dominance.

A newly declassified intelligence report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says Beijing is out to win the world's hearts and minds, not just its economic markets, as a means of cementing power.

The secret CSIS brief, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, points to the creation of more than 100 Confucius Institutes around the world, including one at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver.

The Confucius Institutes, the brainchild of Beijing's Ministry of Education, primarily promote Chinese language and culture.

"In other words, China wants the world to have positive feelings towards China and things Chinese," the CSIS report says.

"For China to achieve its goals, people must admire China to some degree."

CSIS director Jim Judd recently acknowledged the agency devotes considerable effort to keeping an eye on monitoring Chinese operatives.

China denies allegations it schemes to pilfer Canadian military and industrial technology.

The CSIS report, portions of which were blacked out, paints the spread of Confucius Institutes as a calculated use of the discipline known as "soft power."

"While academics debate the relative importance of hard power - tanks, missiles, guns and the like - versus soft power, the People's Republic of China (PRC) government views the soft power concept as useful," the February intelligence report says. "PRC officials refer to China's quest for soft power in the official media."

The spy service notes analogies have been drawn between the Confucius Institutes and the German Goethe Institutes, the Spanish Cervantes Institutes and the French Alliance Francaise.

Since the opening of Canada's first Confucius Institute in Vancouver last year, agreements have been struck to create institutes in Waterloo, Ont., Montreal and Moncton, N.B.

The website of the Confucius Institute at the B.C. Institute of Technology says it aims to provide "market-driven programs and services that will serve the needs of the local community and promote culture and business ties for economic developments between China and Canada."

Allison Markin, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Technology, said the school was unaware of CSIS's interest.

"We're an educational institute, so it's not something we look at in a political vein, or any sort of security vein," she said Monday. "What we're doing really is delivering education for people."

Robin Yates, a professor of East Asian studies at Montreal's McGill University, said China is trying to play catch up with Taiwan, Korea and Japan, which have been more aggressive about forging cultural ties with the West.

"China, with its burgeoning economy, has failed rather miserably in its efforts at projecting its interests."

Zhai Jianjun, first secretary for education at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, stressed that the priority of the Confucius Institutes is to bring the Chinese language and culture to different corners of the world.

Modern China has begun to penetrate the Canadian consciousness, CSIS notes.

"Evidence of the increasing appeal of Chinese culture in Western society is all around us," the intelligence report says

The growing popularity of Chinese films, the emergence of NBA star Yao Ming, Chinese manned space flights and the coming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing "all suggest at least a modest rise in Chinese soft power."

CSIS says once the Beijing Olympics are over, the Confucius Institutes will "take a more prominent place in China's efforts to increase its standing in the world."

Tags: china, canada, CSIS, spy, confucius institute, culture, language, education

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Tories decline to enter G8 climate change fight!

Bush's dog follows every step his master makes.

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Reuters - Canada declined on Monday to take sides in a dispute among Group of Eight members over climate change, saying merely it wanted to build consensus on the question of how to fight global warming.

Germany, which hosts a meeting of G8 leaders next week, wants the group to agree on a series of fixed targets and timetables for cutting emissions. The United States disagrees and wants such language excised from the final communique.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- who says Canada cannot meet targets for emissions cuts set out by the Kyoto climate change protocol -- did not answer when pressed several times by opposition politicians as to whose side he would take at the G8 summit.

"In order to have a post-2012 effective international protocol, we need to have all major emitters, including the United States and China, as part of that effort. Canada will be working to try to create that consensus," he told Parliament.

Kyoto committed Canada to cutting emissions by 6% of 1990 levels by 2012, when the first stage of the international treaty runs out. Canadian emissions are now 32% above that target.

Washington walked away from Kyoto in 2001 on the grounds that it would hurt the U.S. economy and unfairly excluded such heavy emitters as China.

Leaders of all three Canadian opposition parties said they suspected Harper would back U.S. President George W. Bush at the summit.

"I have a lot of concerns that the government will be siding with the Bush administration instead of supporting the German presidency to be sure that (the) G8 will help humanity to fight climate change," said Stephane Dion, who heads the Liberals.

Tags: canada, us, environment, kyoto, G8

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China urges extradition treaties with the West

This is really something. If more extradition treaties could be signed with the West, it would be a great diplomatic success for China. Mind it, Mr. Lai.

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NYT — China has called on Western countries to put aside fears about its death penalty and sign extradition treaties, state media reported today, as the Communist Party seeks the return of suspected corrupt officials and criminals who have fled overseas.

Some governments have been reluctant to sign extradition treaties with China because of concerns about its widespread use of the death penalty and doubts about the fairness and independence of its courts, according to Chinese officials and foreign diplomats.

In March, France became only the third developed country after Spain and Portugal to sign an extradition treaty with China. In its agreements with these three countries, Beijing has guaranteed that suspects returned to China for trial will not face the death penalty.

The official Xinhua press agency reported this month that Japan was ready to negotiate an extradition treaty, but there has been no confirmation of this by the Japanese government.

The official English-language China Daily newspaper reported today that 29 countries had now signed extradition treaties with China.

“We are trying hard to negotiate with developed countries to conclude bilateral extradition treaties,” the paper quoted Duan Jielong, director of the Foreign Ministry’s treaty and law department, as saying.

Senior Chinese officials routinely warn that rampant official corruption is one of the biggest threats to Communist Party rule and the authorities have mounted a series of sweeping crackdowns on graft in recent years.

But many suspects, including government officials and managers of state-owned businesses, have fled to developed countries including the United States, Canada and Australia to escape arrest.

The China Daily reported that about 800 suspects wanted for economic crimes were at large overseas, according to officials from the country’s Public Security Bureau.

In earlier reports, state media said that up to 4,000 officials have pocketed a total of $50 billion and escaped overseas in recent years.

The most celebrated Chinese fugitive is the suspected smuggling boss, Lai Changxing, who has been living under a form of house arrest in Canada for seven years while he fights in the Canadian courts to avoid being returned to China.

The Canadian government has agreed that Lai should be repatriated, but his case has been tied up in a series of challenges and appeals.

Last month, a Canadian Federal Court judge ordered a judicial review of an earlier ruling in which a court concluded that Lai and his wife would not be executed if they were returned to China, effectively delaying any decision to deport the pair.

The absence of an extradition treaty does not automatically prevent the return of suspected or convicted criminals.

This month, Japan, which lacks such a treaty with China, for the first time repatriated a Chinese official accused of corruption, according to a Xinhua report on May 12.

Yuan Tongshun, the former manager of a state-owned enterprise in the northern port city of Dalian who was suspected of embezzling public funds, was returned to China after a Japanese court ruled he should be extradited, Xinhua said.

The United States also cooperated with China to return Yu Zhendong, a fugitive wanted for his part in the embezzlement of at least $485 million from 1992 to 2001 from a branch of the Bank of China in Guangdong Province.

In April 2004, Yu pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to racketeering charges arising from the embezzlement and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But, as part of a plea bargain, he agreed to return to face charges in China providing he was not jailed for a longer term, tortured or executed.

However, the barriers to bringing fugitives to justice in the absence of extradition treaties frustrate Chinese authorities.

“What is evident is the fact that the suspects who have fled the country have benefited from the stumbling blocks that prevent China from bringing them to justice,” The China Daily said in an editorial Monday. “They continue to live above the law, spending stolen money on luxury>houses, limousines and other symbols of the good life.”

Tags: china, extradition treaty, corrupt officials, criminals, west

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From ice to nice, expect China-Japan progress

Opinion articles in state media such as the China Daily have always been read as the voice of the highest above. From the following article, looks like China will continue to restrain from condemning Japan's war crimes and related issues. Pissed.

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China Daily opinion - China-Japan relations have taken a turn for the better since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China late last year and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-melting" journey to Japan last month, after going through twists and turns over the last decade or so.

After the rapprochement in 1972, Sino-Japanese relations made impressive advances. Starting from the mid-1990s, however, the bilateral ties began to zigzag through uncertainties. As a result, friction between the two sides became increasingly intensified and ever more frequent. By the end of 2005, contacts between the top leadership of the two countries were completely suspended, a low point for bilateral relations.

The worsening of the bilateral ties not only did harm to the two nations' strategic interests but also aroused grave international concern.

In October 2006, the new Japanese prime minister paid an official visit to China. Both sides reached consensus on overcoming political obstacles, pushing forward bilateral relations, restoring connections between Chinese and Japanese leaders, evaluating the development roads taken by the two countries, sticking to the approach of jointly developing the East China Sea resources, and building mutually beneficial relations based on common strategic interests.

During the Chinese premier's Japan visit in April, the two sides gained more common ground on handling the major disputes between the two countries. They reached agreement on the basic principles and content of the mutually beneficial strategic relationship and on concrete steps to achieve the goal.

The significant improvement of bilateral relations finds expression in three aspects.

First, the two sides reached consensus on resolving the issue of the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals, are honored. Pragmatic approaches to settling the issue have been found.

This constitutes the key to breaking the political stalemate caused by former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine in the last five years.

The disputes of the two nations over historical issues are not expected to be settled overnight. It is, therefore, in the interest of the two countries to ensure that overall bilateral relations are not harmed by the shrine issue.

Also, China has indicated it has no intention of playing the history card in its relations with Japan.

Second, the two sides have reached consensus on promoting connections between their top leadership. Impressive progress has been made in a short time.

A certain degree of mutual trust between the top leaders plays a unique role in promoting the bilateral ties. Top Chinese and Japanese leaders have made official visits to each other's countries, in addition to their three meetings on different international occasions.

Third, the two sides have reached consensus on building a mutually beneficial strategic relationship, placing bilateral relations on the basis of common interests.

Two years ago, while pointing out that questions revolving around history, Taiwan and disputes over the East China Sea resources were directly responsible for the worsening of bilateral ties, this author made it clear that there were more profound contributing factors: the "strong-versus-strong relationship" that came into being between China and Japan with the end of the Cold War.

Both sides were not sufficiently prepared for this situation or their ideas lagged behind developments. As a result, friction between the two countries became ever more intensified. This eventually led to Sino-Japanese relations becoming marked predominantly by disputes and feuds.

The consensus on building the mutually beneficial strategic relationship marks the major breakthrough in ideas and also a new starting point for bringing about mutual trust.

This also demonstrates that both sides are now determined to put common interest above everything else. They have discarded the fossilized idea that "no two rival tigers can exist on the same mountain."

Accompanying this turn for the better in these three major respects, affairs in many fields have started to improve. Cooperation between China and Japan in resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, for example, has been strengthened. Also, China has promised to offer its help on resolving the question of the kidnapped Japanese citizens. Negotiations on joint tapping of the East China Sea resources have entered the stage of discussing specific development plans.

Japan, on its part, has expressed its understanding of China's grave concerns on the Taiwan question. It has pledged to stick to the principles embodied in the China-Japan Joint Communique, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and the China-Japan Joint Declaration and to refrain from supporting Taiwan independence.

The program of Chinese and Japanese scholars jointly studying history has been formally launched. Military ties between the two countries have also been renewed and promoted.

The major turning point in Chinese-Japanese relations did not come from nowhere.

First, continuous deterioration of China-Japan relations have done serious damage to both countries' strategic interests. All kinds of feuds kept cropping up in almost all areas over the previous five years. Antagonism grew between the Chinese and Japanese public. And each side grew increasingly suspicious of the other's strategic intentions.

In 2005, people began to worry that Sino-Japanese relations, which were then described as "icy politically but warm economically", could move in the direction of icy both politically and economically. The consequences would be disastrous if that possibility became a reality. So, breaking the political stalemate as soon as possible became the common wish of both sides.

Second, worsening of China-Japan relations was a cause of concern for the international community. The two countries' falling afoul of each other not only weakened East Asian multilateral cooperation and made reform of the United Nations all the more difficult but also seriously tipped the triangular balance between China, Japan and the United States.

East Asian countries would never want to be forced to choose between China and Japan. On the part of the United States, deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations was poised to push the US-Japan alliance into a position of confrontation with China. At the same time, orchestration between the US-ROK (Republic of Korea) alliance and the US-Japanese alliance would be rendered difficult (ROK's stance on historical issues is similar to China's).

Third, as a matter of fact, both Chinese and Japanese governments - the Chinese government in particular - have been making efforts to clear away political obstacles and improve bilateral ties since 2005.

After all these efforts were thwarted by Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in the capacity of Japanese prime minister in 2005, the two sides still kept the channels of communication open in 2006, in extremely difficult situations.

However, we should see that the improvement in Sino-Japanese relations still rests on vulnerable foundations. The three big issues that constitute the root causes of friction are still there: Taiwan, history and the East China Sea. The antagonism between the Chinese and Japanese public, stemming from continuous worsening of bilateral relations, will not be gone overnight. Furthermore, the profound strategic mistrust of the two sides toward each other is not expected to disappear quickly.

In view of this, the primary task for China and Japan is to consolidate the fruits brought by their common efforts to improve bilateral relations and make the improvement irreversible.

Both sides must fully realize that some problems, if not handled properly, could again poison the mended bilateral ties. For instance, the Taiwan question could assert itself again with the 2008 Taiwan "presidential" elections approaching. Both sides should be on the alert over this.

After repeated discussion over the last six months or so, the two sides have reached a three-pronged consensus on building a mutually beneficial strategic relationship.

First, the two sides have decided on the basic principle of the mutually beneficial strategic relationship. With this principle, China and Japan should contribute to the peace, stability and development of Asia and the world through bilateral, regional and international cooperation. The two sides are expected to realize their own interests while expanding common interests.

Second, the two sides have clearly defined the basic content of the mutually beneficial strategic relationship: supporting peaceful development and promoting mutual political trust; deepening mutually beneficial cooperation; strengthening military dialogue and exchanges; promoting cultural exchanges to nurture mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Third, the two sides have mapped out specific steps for these purposes. They are: improving and strengthening dialogue mechanisms; strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation in areas including energy resources, environmental protection, information technology and banking; strengthening cooperation in regional and international affairs, particularly United Nations reform and the Six-Party Talks.

Some of these steps are of pioneering significance, such as launching the high-level economic dialogue mechanisms, launching mutual naval visits, strengthening defense liaison mechanisms.

Besides, one important signal is worth noting. China has made it clear that it expects to see Japan playing a greater constructive role in international affairs.

The author, Zhang Tuosheng, is a researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies

Tags: japan, china, history, wwii, war crimes, diplomacy

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Immigrants tend to lower wages in Canada, US: study

StatCan - Immigration has tended to lower wages in both Canada and the United States, according to a new study. However, it was found that the impact of immigrants on the wages of domestic workers depends to a large extent on the skill mix of the newcomers.

A significantly higher proportion of immigrants to Canada are highly skilled. In 2001, around 4 in 10 individuals with more than an undergraduate university degree were immigrants in Canada compared to about 1 in 5 in the United States. This has had the impact of curtailing the earnings growth of the most educated Canadians relative to the least educated, the study found.

In the United States, however, the opposite has happened. A significantly higher proportion of immigrants to the United States have been much less skilled. As a result, these newcomers have depressed the earnings of low-paid Americans and increased the gap relative to the highest-paid.

In Canada, immigration has dampened the trend to higher earnings inequality but in the United States, it has exacerbated it.

The study, based on census data from each country relating to workforce participants aged 18 to 64, explored the impact of the immigration on each nation's labour market.

Between 1980 and 2000, immigration increased the male labour force by 13.2% in Canada and 11.1% in the United States, the study found. However, Mexico experienced a 14.6% loss in the size of its potential male workforce.

Inverse relation between immigrant-induced shifts in labour supply and wages

One of the central questions in the economics of immigration concerns the impact on the labour markets of countries that send and receive immigrants.

A key finding of this study is that there was a sizable, statistically significant, and roughly comparable inverse relationship between immigrant-induced shifts in labour supply and wages in each of the three countries.

In each, a migration-induced shift of 10% in labour supply was associated with a 3% to 4% change in weekly earnings in the opposite direction.

But, as the study found, the mix of skills was a factor, causing real weekly wages to decline in different skill groups in each country.

While the United States and Canada are two major host countries for immigrants in North America, Mexico is a source country of immigrants, almost all leaving Mexico for the US.

Therefore, while evidence from the United States and Canada shows the impact of immigration on wages in host countries, Mexico provides a mirror image of the impact of emigration in a source country.

In Mexico, emigration has resulted in a decline in the labour supply and, consequently, an increase in wages. The study found that the effect on Mexican wages was almost identical in scale, though the changes were in the opposite direction. A labour supply decline of 10% was estimated to induce a wage increase of 3% to 4%. The impact of emigration on the wages of those who stay in Mexico also depends on the skill mix of those who leave the country.

Different skill mixes are the result of immigration policies

The differences in skill mixes between Canada and the United States are the result of differences in immigration policies during the last four decades.

Canadian immigration policies since the 1960s have encouraged high-skilled workers to come to the country. During the same period, American immigration policy has emphasized family reunification, which resulted in a disproportionate number of low-skilled immigrants.

Significant illegal immigration to the United States since 1965 (an estimated 10.3 million as of 2005), more than half of which is estimated to have been from Mexico, has also contributed to the tendency for US immigrant workers to be lower-skilled than those who entered Canada.

Immigration to the United States, moreover, has tended to increase the supply of young workers; the opposite has been observed in Canada.

This study suggests that immigration played a role in the 7% drop in real weekly wages experienced by workers with more than a university undergraduate degree in Canada between 1980 and 2000. Over this period, the immigrant share of all workers with more than a university undergraduate degree in Canada increased. Between the 1986 and 2001 censuses, this share rose from 32.5% to 38.2%.

The study also suggests that, in the long run, low-skilled workers in Canada have gained relative to high-skilled workers. This has occurred not simply because disproportionately more highly educated immigrants to Canada have dampened upward pressure for the wages of high-skilled workers, but also because the share of low-skilled workers in the labour force has declined.

The net result is that migration-induced effects on the Canadian labour supply have served to reduce measured wage inequality between low-skilled and high-skilled workers. The weekly earnings gap of 38% between those who dropped out of high school and those with a university degree increased to almost 45% between 1980 and 2000. In the absence of immigration the study estimates this gap would have been 49%.

The story for the US labour market is different. The tendency for the supply of immigrant labour to the United States to be concentrated among low-skilled workers served to depress the wages of workers in the lowest skill groups.

Coupled with only a small dampening effect of immigration on the wages of highly-skilled workers, who saw their real weekly wages increase by 20% in the United States between 1980 and 2000, immigration served to magnify growth in US wage inequality between low-skilled and high-skilled workers over the same period.

In Mexico, however, emigration rates are highest in the middle of the skill distribution and lowest at the extremes.

As a result, international migration has increased relative wages in the middle of the Mexican skill distribution and lowered the relative wages at the extremes.

Paradoxically, the large-scale migration of workers from Mexico actually slightly reduced the relative wage of low-skill workers remaining in that country.

Most of these effects, however, were small when compared to actual wage changes and were consequently not the main explanation for the developments in earnings inequality in these three countries.

Note to readers

Data used in this study are drawn from the Canadian, Mexican and American censuses, and the analysis is restricted to male labour market participants aged 18 to 64. The study used all the microdata files of the Canadian censuses taken every five years from 1971 to 2001. Each of these files represents a 20% sample of the Canadian population, except the 1971 file, which represents a 33.3% sample.

Data used to study the American labour market are the US decennial census files from 1960 through 2000, with 1960 representing a 1% sample of the population and 1970 a 3% sample. Files from 1980 to 2000 each represented 5% samples.

The analysis of the Mexican labour market uses the 1960, 1970, 1990 and 2000 Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) of the Mexican decennial census; no microdata sample was available for 1980 as the primary records were destroyed in an earthquake. The 1960 file represents a 1.5% sample of the Mexican population; the 1970 file represents a 1% sample; the 1990 file represents a 10% sample; and the 2000 file represents a 10.6% sample.

The analysis focuses on weekly earnings adjusted for inflation. The skill mix of the various populations is measured by their educational attainment and experience.

Tags: immigration, immigrant, income, canada, US, mexico

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Hong Kong 'fighters for democracy' appeal to Canadians

CBC - Two self-proclaimed "fighters for democracy" from Hong Kong appealed to Canadians Thursday to support their fight to keep the island city free and democratic within the communist state of China.

As the countdown draws nearer to July 1, the day that will mark 10 years since Beijing reclaimed sovereignty over Hong Kong, Democratic Party of Hong Kong chairman Albert Ho joined Hong Kong Civic Party founder Margaret Ng in Toronto to discuss the most pressing political issue of their time: how to keep the democratic system alive.

"There is much for us to be concerned about in Hong Kong and I urge you not to be complacent," Ho told Canadian media Thursday at the Toronto branch of the Chinese Canadian National Council.

"I think this is the right time to come to tell the international community what has been happening in Hong Kong in the last 10 years," he said, referencing a string of Chinese political reforms since 1997 that included Beijing's appointment of a new chief executive "even though he had no popular mandate to speak on behalf of Hong Kong people."

Before its transfer back to China on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong had been a British colony for more than 150 years following Britain's First Opium War with China in 1842.

When the deal expired in 1997, China vowed to maintain Hong Kong's existing laws for 50 years under a "one country, two systems" approach where the rest of China would use the socialist system.
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While it sounded good on paper, "one country, two systems" did not work in practice, Ho and Ng argued Thursday. And Hong Kong's democracy is falling by the wayside, they said.

"You — the community in Toronto, the community in Canada — have a very pivotal role," Ng said, calling Toronto's roughly 39,000 Hong Kong and Chinese immigrants "the overseas link" for the democratic fight in Hong Kong.

Ho added that polls in Hong Kong "persistently show that over 60% of Hong Kong people were in favour of having a fully elected democratic system of government."

Toronto-based Canada-Hong Kong Link invited Ho and Ng to Toronto as part of a planned series of events commemorating the 10th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China.

The group's mandate is to foster community spirit among Chinese Canadians and to advance the protection of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.

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Beyond the Nanjing movies

AP - For decades, Chinese filmmakers haven't made a major feature film about one of their country's biggest wartime atrocities: the Nanjing massacre of 1937.

Now at least two directors are preparing to make a movie set against the Japanese military's brutal killings in the former Chinese capital.

Historians say at least 150,000 civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of women raped in the Japanese rampage.

Trying to tell the story of Nanjing, or Nanking as it was known to English speakers at the time, on the big screen has been hard for Hong Kong director Yim Ho and his Chinese counterpart Lu Chuan. They have gone through tough vetting by the Chinese government that reflects conflicting agendas of Chinese nationalism and good diplomatic relations with Japan.

Both say they've received governmental approval, but only after an elaborate process that involved multiple departments, despite both having Chinese state-run movie studios as partners.

Yim, a respected art-house director who made the 2001 movie "Pavilion of Women" featuring Willem Dafoe, said his script was first rejected by China's Film Bureau several years ago before getting approval on a second try this year.

Lu, a rising Chinese director, said the approval process for his movie, titled "Nanjing! Nanjing!," took five months.

"The process was more tense than usual. It was more complicated than usual," he said.

"This movie touches on the sphere of diplomacy. The government departments that oversee movies aren't the main departments overseeing this movie. That's all I can say," Lu adds cautiously.

In Yim's case, he said his movie was vetted by the Film Bureau, the Chinese foreign ministry and the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department.

The Chinese government's careful handling of the two movies are apparently motivated by the desire to promote nationalism and boost the image of the Chinese Communist Party, and to maintain strong ties with economically important Japan in a year that coincides with two sensitive anniversaries.

This year marks both the 70th anniversary of the massacre and the 35th anniversary of Sino-Japanese diplomatic ties.

Highlighting Japanese atrocities is historically important because it evokes the success of China's ruling communists, said Phil Deans, a scholar on Sino-Japanese relations at Temple University's Japan campus.

The Japanese invasion of China helped expose the failures of the then-ruling Nationalist Party, Deans noted.

However, while Chinese officials don't mind a certain level of anti-Japanese sentiment, they're worried about it getting out of control and scaring away crucial Japanese investment, or snowballing into a greater anti-government movement like the pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, he said. (Chinese troops crushed those protests, killing at least hundreds.)

Anti-Japanese feeling over the Nanjing atrocities among the general Chinese public remains strong. Demonstrators vandalized Japanese shops and smashed windows at Japanese diplomatic offices in Shanghai and Beijing in April 2005 to protest purported whitewashing of atrocities in Japanese textbooks.

"How can you make that pot simmer without making it boil? That's the delicate balance the party has to do," said Deans, who predicts the new movies may portray the atrocities as being committed by a clique not representative of the Japanese people.
Yim's movie may have drawn especially intense scrutiny because of its potentially international audience. It's a $35 million English-language production with Hollywood investment that the director hopes to craft into a star-studded project.

The Hong Kong director's movie, called "Nanking Xmas 1937," revolves around a group of foreigners who sheltered locals from Japanese brutality.

Earlier this year, the documentary "Nanking" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and co-director Bill Guttentag said while the filmmakers submitted an outline of the movie to the Chinese government, officials didn't interfere with its content. Partly shot in Nanjing, it also centers on foreigners who protected locals from Japanese soldiers.

Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and other actors play the foreigners in stage readings recounting the horrors.

Tags: nanjing massacre, nanking massacre, rape of nanking, china, japan, history, movie, diplomacy, nationalism

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Canada underestimates Chinese power

Dealing with China is a complex game. But while our government's moral stance is admirable and commendable, it is ultimately doomed to fail.

Times Colonist - You wouldn't know it by our relatively small population, but Canadians have managed to really spread out worldwide. Here in China, it seems like every other foreigner I meet is from Toronto or Vancouver or Edmonton.

And on a recent trip to Bangkok, I saw lines of foreigners waiting to check in at a budget hotel. A majority were faithfully carrying navy blue Canadian passports as identification.

The good news is being a Canadian overseas is often much easier than being an American, or even a German or Briton for that matter, because we are generally viewed favourably.

Toronto and Vancouver have become magnets for overseas Chinese and many who fled the country during Mao's years often tried to reach our shores. We have traditionally had a good reputation as being fair and honest. But times are changing.

"Only the corrupt Chinese go to Canada," an elderly man in spectacles told me over a steaming dim sum breakfast at a park in the southern city of Guangzhou. "I don't like the Canadian government."

He wasn't referring to our government's complaints about the treatment of Huseyin Celil, the Canadian who is being held by the Chinese authorities for "terrorist activities and plotting to split the country," according to state-run media.

He also wasn't referring to the Conservative government's decision to grant honorary Canadian citizenship to the Dalai Lama, who is still seen here as a "splittist" set on breaking up the country. He wasn't talking about the frequent trips Canadian MPs are making to Taiwan, either.

No, he was talking about Lai Changxing, one of China's most notorious criminals, accused of embezzling billions of dollars and then fleeing to Vancouver, where he remains today.

Despite repeated requests to have him turned over to Chinese authorities, our government has let the legal process take its course. He's been in Canada for years and has just been given another chance to fight deportation.

It's not a good time to be a Canadian in China, because these issues are starting to trickle down into mainstream opinion, obviously guided by the monolithic state-run media machine.

But whereas Xinhua wire stories used to regularly blast former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for paying respects to war criminals at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, now the target is Canada, and most recently Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who was being warned not to "damage Sino-Canadian ties."

But judging from the two countries' laundry list of grievances, perhaps the ties are already damaged. Canada has been one of the few countries insisting China improve its human rights record, becoming a thorn in the side of the Communist emperors in Beijing.

A recent Angus Reid poll showed 76 per cent of Canadians want our long-term policy with China based on advancing human rights and minority rights, not just economics. But the chances of that happening are slim, because there's simply too much money to be made.

China is not an "emerging" or "growing" superpower. Many feel it's become one already, and has enough economic clout to tell other countries what to do. And as much as Canadians like to think we have a say, we don't.

Other than natural resources, which are also found in other countries with friendly ties to China, we don't have a lot to bargain with. We have a relatively small population, no substantial military strength and aren't one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

We can either look the other way and cash in on China's dizzying economic growth, or we can cease trading with one of the world's largest and most dynamic economies.

CEOs, governments and companies have overwhelmingly chosen the former. They are lining up to obey whatever rule China puts in place for access to its 1.3-billion person market.

From Google and MSN, which willingly block Internet searches not palatable to the Communist regime, to the World Health Organization, which most recently denied Taiwan and its 23 million people membership thanks to pressure from Beijing, China is becoming used to getting its way.

Canadian consumers, if they are honest, would likely also prefer being able to buy cheap Chinese-made goods at Wal-Mart rather than paying more as part of an effort to pressure some far-off government to improve the human rights of people they've never met in a land they'll never see.

It all boils down to money, for governments, companies and individuals.

The one bright spot for social activists will be the Olympic Games next year. China views the Olympics as a major coming-out party and the Asian ideal of "face" means China is very sensitive about ensuring the event goes off without a hitch.

Linking Darfur to the Olympics worked for 107 U.S. congressmen, who wrote a letter urging China to take action or face an Olympic boycott. China responded by sending 275 military personnel to the region.

But it can go the other way, too, as five protesters learned when they unfurled a banner calling for a Free Tibet on Mount Everest. Instead of giving Tibetans more autonomy, China cracked down on Tibetan travel permits issued to foreigners.

Dealing with China is a complex game. But while our government's moral stance is admirable and commendable, it is ultimately doomed to fail.

Cam MacMurchy of Victoria is working as a journalist in China.

Tags: china, canada, diplomacy, human rights, trade

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Abe pays respects at tomb of unknown soldiers

AP - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid respects at the country's tomb of the unknown soldiers on Monday, laying flowers at the secular memorial.

Chidorigafuchi cemetery, established in 1959 after Japan renounced war, holds the remains of more than 350,000 Japanese victims of World War II.

The remains of 973 unknown soldiers were interred Monday. They were recovered in countries such as Russia and the Philippines.

"Our hearts go out to those who died in the war who became the foundation of our country's peace and prosperity today," Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said in a statement read by vice minister Keizo Takemi during the ceremony, attended by more than 600 people. "We pledge to do our best for eternal peace."

Every year, prime ministers pay respects at the memorial, which is completely secular, unlike Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine that deifies Japan's 2.5 million war dead and is vilified by critics at home and abroad as symbolizing the country's militaristic past. Class-A war criminals executed for their role in World War II are enshrined at Yasukuni.

China and South Korea refused to hold summits with Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, after he repeatedly visited Yasukuni.

Leaders of the two countries have repeatedly pressed Abe not to visit the Yasukuni as a demonstration of Japan's remorse for its brutal invasions.

Abe, an ardent nationalist, regularly prayed at Yasukuni in the past and reportedly made a secret trip as chief Cabinet secretary just before the shrine's main spring festival last year.

Last month, Abe sent an offering to Yasukuni, which triggered concern in China and South Korea.

Critics have suggested that Japan make Chidorigafuchi into the country's official war memorial — excluding war criminals — so leaders can pay their respects for the war dead without being seen as glorifying the militarist past.

But many Japanese oppose the move, and the search for a Yasukuni alternative has stalled.

Tags: japan, militarism, yasukuni shrine, wwii, war criminal

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First Sino-Canadian theartrical co-production

Canadian Embassy in Beijing release - The Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai, together with the Canadian Embassy in Beijing are pleased to announce that Canada’s Theatre Smith-Gilmour & the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre will present the first ever Sino-Canadian theatrical co-production, Lu Xun Blossoms (魯鎮往事), opening in Shanghai on May 24, 2007.

The original, collaborative script is based on the brilliant short stories of the early 20th Century writer, Lu Xun, considered by many to be the father of contemporary Chinese literature. Following its first run of performances in Shanghai, Xun Blossoms will be presented in Beijing early June. A Canadian tour is scheduled for the fall of this year followed immediately by other international performances.

This is the first theatrical co-production between Canada and China, and is a prime example of the artistic collaboration between the two countries which was set out in the terms of the Canada-China Cultural Agreement, signed in January 2005 by President Hu Jintao and former Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Work on Lu Xun Blossoms started with a three-week workshop in Shanghai, following Theatre Smith-Gimour’s successful presentation of Chekhov’s Longs at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre in May 2006. The development of the project continued in Toronto in November of the same year with similar a four-week workshop.

Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith founded Theater Smith-Gilmour in 1980, and have since produced 32 shows together, 18 of which have been original plays. The company has toured across Canada several times, and to 14 countries throughout Europe and Asia. Their work has been nominated for 24 Dora Awards and has won 7; they were also nominated twice for the Chalmers’ New Canadian Play Award, and have received the Montreal English Critics Award for Best Ensemble.

The co production of Lu Xun Blossoms will honour the legacy of one of the greatest figures in the 20th-century Chinese literature Lu Xun. Lu is widely regarded as one of modern China's most prominent and influential writers. His vibrant, articulate work promoted radical change through its astute observations of antiquated cultural values and social customs. Lu Xun's acclaimed short stories, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, will be the primary source of inspiration for the joint venture.

Tags: china, caanda, theatre, beijing, shanghai, canadian embassy

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Amanda Zhao's murder -- Backgrounder

Mother pleads for arrest in 3-year-old murder (March 26, 2005)
Mounties review decision to free murder suspect (June 12, 2004; CBC)
Accessory charges in Zhao murder dismissed (June 10, 2004; CBC)
China wants to try B.C. murder suspect (March 4, 2004; CBC)
Accused killer staying in China (March 4, 2004; CBC)
Zhao's boyfriend arrested in China (February 23, 2004; CBC)
Police report progress in student's murder (October 8, 2003; CBC)
Dead woman's family leave the country (June 5, 2003; CBC)
China may keep murder suspect: report (May 29, 2003; CBC)
Murder charge laid in student's death (May 12, 2003; CBC)
Long wait for court date in Zhao murder case (January 24, 2003; CBC)
Boyfriend, now in China, suspect in B.C. murder (December 3, 2002, CTV)
Murder victim's boyfriend under suspicion (December 3, 2002; CBC)
RCMP trying to reach murdered woman's boyfriend (December 3, 2002; CBC)
Arrest made in Zhao murder (December 2, 2002; CBC)
Police release internal report on Zhao investigation (November 15, 2002; CBC)
Memorial for murdered student (November 4, 2002; CBC)
Missing Chinese student identified as murder victim (October 23, 2002; CBC)
Woman was murdered, say police (October 22, 2002; CBC)
Chinese student missing (October 17, 2002; CBC)

The body of a deceased woman found near Stave Lake on Sunday, October 20th is that of Wei Amanda Zhao, age 21.

Zhao went missing on Wednesday October 9th after she left her Burnaby home at about 8 pm to walk to a local food market. RCMP charged Han Zhang with accessory after the fact in Zhao's murder. Zhang lived with Zhao and her boyfriend Ang Li at their Burnaby apartment. He is also Li's cousin. Shortly after she was found, Li, 19, returned to his home in Beijing, China.

File #Mission 2002-14551
File #Burnaby 2002-48353

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Japanese ultra-rightwingers send death threats to reporters

AP - The Asahi Shimbun said Friday it had received death threats against its staff, the latest in a string of threats against journalists.

The left-leaning newspaper, which heavily criticized former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for visiting Yasukuni Shrine, received two postcards warning that several of the newspaper's workers would be killed, according to an Asahi official who spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

"It is inevitable that one or two of your staff will be killed," the official quoted one of the two handwritten threats as saying.

The postcards were mailed earlier this month and were signed with the same name, he said.

The threats alluded to a 1987 shooting in which a rightwinger entered the Asahi's bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and killed one journalist and wounded another, saying a similar attack could happen again, the official said.

The paper has tightened security at all of its bureaus and handed the postcards over to police, according to the official.

Friday's case is the latest in a new string of threats against journalists, academics and lawmakers, some appearing to come from a resurgent nationalist fringe.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, the country's biggest newspaper, said Thursday it received a mystery parcel containing a gun, bullets, a small amount of amphetamines and a slice of melon. It was unclear what the meaning of the package was.

In August, a member of an extremist nationalist group burned down the home of lawmaker Koichi Kato after he slammed Koizumi for going to Yasukuni Shrine.

The Asahi also ran an editorial critical of Koizumi's pilgrimage.

Tags: japan, right wing, asahi shimbun, death threat

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Japan's first gay politician to stand in elections

What? Japanese gay people couldn't even rent a place together? Ultra conservatism sucks.

The Guardian - Kanako Otsuji, Japan's first openly gay politician, is to run in July's national elections in what she says is a challenge to official ignorance of the country's "hidden" minority groups.

Officials today confirmed that the Democratic party, Japan's largest opposition party, had endorsed Otsuji, 32, to run in the July 22 election for the upper house of parliament. If she wins she will become the country's first openly gay MP.

In 2003 Otsuji, running as an independent, became the youngest-ever candidate to win a seat on the Osaka prefectural assembly at the age of 28, and one of only seven women on the 110-seat legislature.

Two years later she successfully campaigned to change a local law to allow same-sex couples to rent public housing in Osaka, which had previously been available only to married couples. Same-sex unions are not recognised by Japanese law.

Midway through her four-year term Otsuji decided to go public about her sexual orientation with the publication of her autobiography, Coming Out: A Journey to Find Myself. The day after the book appeared in August 2005 she spoke at a gay and lesbian pride march in Tokyo.

Though she did not attempt to hide her sexual orientation during the Osaka election campaign, her aides persuaded her not to mention it for fear that it would drive voters away and invite attacks from the media.

She received messages of support from voters after deciding to come out but encountered ignorance among her colleagues, with one assemblyman asking her if she was planning to have a sex change.

In a message on her website, Otsuji said the prime minister Shinzo Abe's back-to-basics vision of a "Beautiful Japan" ignored the diverse nature of Japanese society.

"I think there is a tendency to put forward one set of values and make it seem as though that is the only beautiful or right way," she said. "But the reality is becoming more diverse. Japanese society is not engaging with the wide range of people living in diverse ways, in terof nationality, race, sex, age and disabilities."

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Queerty - Kanako Otsuji has changed the face of Japanese politics. In 2003, at the tender age of 28, Otsuji became the candidate to win a seat on Osaka's assembly. In that seat, the politician pushed for social change, successfully passing a law allowing gay couples to rent housing together. Then, in 2005, Otsuji came out as a lesbian, thus becoming the first openly gay politician in Japanese history. Though the public embraced her, Otsuji found some opposition among her political peers, including, according to the Guardian, one anti-queer "comrade" who asked her if she planned on becoming a man.

Despite this ignorance - and her aides' advice to keep a lid on it - Otsuji hasn't given up her political dreams and has just joined forces with the Democratic party to launch a campaign for Japan's upper parliament. Not surprisingly, Otsuji's efforts rest on highlighting Japan's diverse nature, a stark departure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's chimerical political conformity.

Tags: gay, japan, MP, politics, gay politician, lesbian, Kanako Otsuji

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ASEAN supports Japan's depacifying effort

The Philippine Star editorial - Manila, as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has assured Tokyo that ASEAN is supporting Japan’s efforts to amend its pacifist constitution. The amendment will allow Japan to create a regular military and take on a greater role in regional and global security.

Since the end of World War II, Japan has been under the American security umbrella. Its neighbors, which suffered from Japanese aggression during the war, remain wary of a resurgence of Japanese militarism.

But the Japan of the 21st century is far different from the country that sought to create an East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere over six decades ago. Those responsible for that war of aggression, of which the Philippines was one of the victims, have passed on the torch to a new generation – one that remembers the war in terms of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the struggle to rebuild a broken nation.

This is a generation that engaged in passionate debates before sending its troops to peacekeeping missions overseas. Many in the new Japan like their pacifist constitution, preferring to focus on economic growth and the export of Japanese products and culture as well as the sharing of the country’s wealth with other countries including the Philippines. The fate of initiatives to create a regular Japanese armed force remains uncertain.

If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, new in his job and a member of the post-war generation, can avoid rankling his neighbors with denials of the existence of Japanese sex slaves during the war, it would be even easier to support his initiatives to amend his country’s constitution. Abe has stopped rewriting war history, at least in public. He has yet to stop making pilgrimages to Japan’s shrine for its fallen soldiers – regarded as war criminals by Japan’s wartime enemies. But the pilgrimages look more like political gestures rather than war hero worship that could turn into military aggression.

Since the end of the war Japan has shown itself to be a responsible member of the community of nations. Its people can handle a regular armed force. This is one constitutional amendment that deserves ASEAN’s support – if Abe can sell the initiative to his compatriots.

Tags: japan, pacifist constitution, artile 9, philippines, ASEAN

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Harvard prof reaches out to help resolve Sino-Japanese history dispute

Harvard News Office - In 1978, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan. Although the trip made little impression on the West, Ezra Vogel calls it one of the greatest meetings between national leaders of the 20th century. In fact, it was the first meeting between top leaders of the two countries in 2,500 years.

Vogel, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, has been following relations between China and Japan for many years, as well as making efforts to improve them. As one of the few scholars with expertise in both countries, he is the right man for the job.

It is not the first time Vogel has played a mediating role between cultures. In 1979 he published a book whose title alone was a shock to many Americans: “Japan as No. 1.” The book provided insight into Japan’s economic success and helped to initiate a period of national introspection in the United States. It also became a best seller in Japan and made its author something of a celebrity there.

Now that the Japanese star has faded slightly while that of China is rapidly gaining magnitude, Vogel believes it is time to confront some of the issues that have caused the two nations to be wary of one another, if not downright hostile, through much of the 20th century.

“We can’t resolve things for other nations, but if we can get them to agree on what actually happened, we can give the political leaders a firmer basis to work from,” he said.

Vogel has been organizing a series of conferences bringing together scholars from China, Japan, and the United States to discuss in detail one of the most contentious issues in Sino-Japanese relations, the conflict between the two nations during World War II.

The first conference, which took place in Cambridge in 2002, looked at how the war affected different localities in China. The second conference, which took place in Hawaii, explored the military history of the war in China, something that has never been done before. The third conference, sponsored by Japan, focused on educational, literary, and cultural aspects of the war. Edited volumes based on the first two conferences are forthcoming.

According to Vogel, getting Chinese and Japanese scholars to talk to each other about the war is a much bigger undertaking than getting Americans and Japanese to see past their misconceptions and prejudices.

“It’s much more complicated and controversial,” he said. “It’ll take a much bigger effort.”

On the one hand, the Japanese are very reluctant to talk about “the terrible things they did” during their occupation of China, while the Chinese “are wary about discussing the complex issue of collaboration — how they adjusted to the Japanese occupation.”

On May 11, Vogel gave a talk sponsored by the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research titled “From Sino-Japanese War to Sino-Japanese Peace,” making the point that since the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 there have been few opportunities for smoothing relations between the two countries. Despite their differences, China and Japan’s best chance for constructive engagement may lie in the future.

After fighting what may have been the most destructive war in history with casualties in the tens of millions, China and Japan went through what Vogel calls a period of “postponed peace.” From 1945 to 1949, while Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist government struggled unsuccessfully to bring stability to China, diplomatic relations between China and Japan were neglected. After the Communists took over in 1949, Japan, as an ally of the West, was discouraged from establishing relations with its neighbor.

Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 and the subsequent normalization of relations between China and the United States set the stage for a new era in Sino-Japanese relations, culminating with Deng’s 1978 visit.

Vogel, who is working on a book about Deng Xiaoping and his times, said that the Chinese leader’s visit was a highly productive one. Deng’s meetings with influential Japanese business leaders and his visits to high-tech manufacturing facilities may have helped plant the seeds of China’s own industrial rise.

Despite having little experience with Western-style press conferences, Deng handled himself well, and the visit was portrayed favorably in the Japanese media. Unfortunately, Deng’s trip received little coverage in China, which may be one reason its impact was not more widespread.

Since then, Sino-Japanese relations have had their ups and downs. The Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 turned many in Japan against China, while the visit of Emperor Akihito to China in 1992 and his guarded acknowledgment of Japanese World War II atrocities seemed to hold promise of improvement. During the 1990s, however, former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi’s repeated visits to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which commemorates Japanese war dead including more than 1,000 convicted war criminals, served to hinder relations between the two countries.

What’s ahead? One development that gives Vogel great hope is a recent decision by the Chinese and Japanese governments to appoint officially sponsored groups of scholars to look into the contentious history of World War II. Meanwhile, in an effort to get both sides on the same page, Vogel and his associates are compiling an online bibliography of agreed-upon sources pertaining to the Sino-Japanese conflict.

As China rises, Vogel foresees increasing competition over resources, markets, and influence, but he also sees deeper contacts in these areas.

“It’s going to be a very complicated period,” he said. “But there is potential opportunity for farsighted leaders to resolve long-standing differences.”

Tags: china, japan, history, war, wwii, atrocities, harvard university, Ezra Vogel

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Canada considers free trade talks with China

CIV - Canada should wrap up more free trade agreements with countries - including China - and revamp the national trade policy because Canada is disappearing from the international stage, a parliamentary committee warns.

The report, "TEN STEPS TO A BETTER TRADE POLICY", has recently been submitted to the parliament after the standing committee of international trade has discussed on the issue and witnesses have been called during an 8-month hearing.

David Emerson, minister of international trade, acknowledged the importance of China to Canada's integral trade policy. He has read the report and realized that it's recommending the federal government to start free trade talks with China.

"Ultimately, free trade is where we want to go [with China]," Emerson said.

This is the first time a federal Tory minister has made it clear that a free trade talk with China is at least on the drawing board.

The report says Canada is in urgent need of action, because "Canada is disappearing from the international stage, the very source of our high standard of living." It points out the fact that Canadians are still stuck in the old-school perception of what trade is.

Why is trade so important to Canada? The traditional answer to this question is that we lack the domestic market to be self-sufficient and maintain our current standard of living. This is the basis for our traditional focus on exports; the ability to sell into foreign markets allows us to produce more than we need at home. This added production creates jobs and wealth, and allows businesses to expand and realize efficiency gains through economies of scale.

This idea is widely understood in Canada but is, unfortunately, an outdated view of today's global business environment. The mercantilist view of the world has been discredited: exports and imports do not work at cross purposes, with the latter "taking away" jobs and wealth created by the former.

Increasingly, exports and imports - as well as foreign direct investment (FDI) - are recognized as being inextricably linked to one another in the context of Canada's long term economic prosperity. This is all the more true given the changing nature of international commerce. No longer do businesses simply manufacture and export from a single location. Increasingly, rather, they are participating in global supply chains - engaging in increasingly specialized production, where a final product may be assembled in one country using components from around the world.

Exports, imports and direct investment are interconnected in this economic paradigm called "integrative trade." The common thread running between trade and investment on the one hand, and economic prosperity on the other, is competitiveness. Indeed, the relationship between the two is self-reinforcing: trade and investment help make the Canadian economy more competitive and more productive. That, in turn, helps businesses to be successful on the world stage. International trade and investment policy must, therefore, be at the centre of any Canadian competitiveness strategy.

The report suggests 10 steps to update our trade policy.

1. Increase Federal Resources Destined for Trade by a Full 50%

It has become obvious to Committee members that one of the key deficiencies of Canadian trade policy is that the federal government is not spending enough on its trade negotiating efforts and on its trade promotion at home and abroad. We must make our commercial presence known in the world, and inject considerably more dollars, people and effort into trade. Other priority areas of government activity, such as transfers to the provinces, the Canadian military, and foreign aid have all received considerable increases in federal expenditures in recent years. So, why not foreign trade and investment, which is a major generator of the wealth that allows Canada to finance spending in those other areas?

Recommendation 1: The Government of Canada should increase its current expenditures on trade negotiation and promotion by a full 50%. This increased spending should be allocated to:

• Canadian trade negotiators;
  
• trade commissioners;
• new diplomatic offices in countries and regions with significant commercial potential for Canada (China, India, the Gulf States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to name a few);
• international business development programs, including a revamped Program for Export Market Development (PEMD);
• aggressive marketing and promotion of Canada and Canadian products abroad; and · bilateral business associations.

Recommendation 2: The federal government should immediately undertake a review of the existing legislative restrictions that restrain Export Development Canada from having greater commercial presence in emerging markets, and remove these restrictions where feasible.

2. Increase High-Level Government-to-Government Visits

Dwain Lingenfelter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Canada-Arab Business Council & Vice-President, Government Relations at Nexen Inc. pointed out that, in the Arab States, Canada has sent the message that we are not interested in building closer ties with that region.

How has this happened? Because elected Members of Parliament, Ministers, Parliamentary Committees and senior government officials seldom visit the region. The Committee was told that when Canadian legislators do not travel to countries like Yemen, it sends a message that Canada is, at best, ignoring these potential markets or, at worst, insulting them.

Other countries have recognized the importance of government-to-government contact to improving trade and investment ties. Canadian business has suffered as a result. The Committee learned that Australia is a leader in terms of building government-to-government relationships. Visits to the UAE, for example, by Australian government ministers and Parliamentary Committees were a regular occurrence. Australia's trade with the UAE has profited enormously. It is not just Australia that uses government-to-government contact as a trade and investment promotion tool.

We heard that many other countries that compete directly with Canadian companies use a similar approach. However, Canada does not operate in this way and as a result, our companies are automatically at a disadvantage with respect to those from countries like the U.S., the UK, China and France.

Recommendation 3: Because many countries view close government-to-government relationships as fundamental to building closer economic ties, the Government of Canada and Canadian Parliamentarians should ensure that there are frequent focused and well-planned visits to and from priority markets. The House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade should be actively involved in these visits.

3. Wrap Up Existing FTA Negotiations

Recommendation 4: With the goal of securing agreements that are in Canada's best interests, the Government of Canada should complete free trade negotiations with the European Free Trade Association, the Central America Four, Singapore, and South Korea as quickly as practical.

4. Sign New FTAs

Glen Hodgson, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, Conference Board of Canada says: "We only have three very small bilateral deals, while the rest of the world is out negotiating like crazy. The Americans, the Chinese, and the Europeans are extremely active right now, trying to expand their access to other markets […] It's about time Canada really got into the game."

Bringing to fruition long overdue trade agreements is only one element of a successful trade policy. Canada is in a difficult and deteriorating position globally. All of our major competitors in international markets are furiously negotiating free trade agreements.

Each time a new agreement is signed, Canadian businesses effectively take a small step backward. Why? Because these trade agreements tilt the competitive balance in favour of our competitors. If a Canadian company faces a tariff in any given country of 10%, for example, while a competitor from the EU or the U.S. can sell into that market tariff-free, the Canadian enterprise will quickly see its business dry up. Canada will not be able to compete internationally if we do nothing to stem our eroding competitive balance.

Recommendation 5: Recognizing that Canadian businesses have been shut out of some markets because competing countries have preferential trade agreements in place and Canada does not, the Government of Canada should determine in which countries Canadian businesses are operating at a disadvantage with respect to their major competitors, and then negotiate "defensive" free trade agreements that prevent Canada from being shut out of those markets.

Recommendation 6: The Government of Canada should continue to consult with Canadian businesses, unions and civil society organizations active overseas, to determine where Canada's "proactive" trade interests lie, that is, where Canada would most benefit from improving two-way market access. The Government of Canada should then aggressively pursue trade deals with countries considering those assessments. At the same time, since the reputation of Canada as a whole is affected by the activities of Canadian companies abroad, the Government of Canada should also ensure that the businesses and unions with which it consults (i.e., those active overseas) are acting in a socially responsible manner.

Two countries stand out as being worthy of consideration as a special case. Except for witnesses representing specific regions of the world, nearly everyone who appeared before the Committee spoke of the importance of China and the need for Canada to have a China-specific strategy. India is also a crucial, high-growth economic partner for Canada.

We believe that having China and India strategies that involve close engagement with, and direct investment in, these two countries is critical to the long run survival of Canadian businesses. The significance of these markets cannot be overstated.

Put simply, if Canadians do not invest in, or import from China and India, others will, putting Canadian companies at an enormous disadvantage relative to their international competitors. Although China is sometimes blamed for the erosion of the manufacturing base in Canada, the reality is that building closer economic ties with China will gives Canadian business a better chance to compete with their international counterparts. Closer involvement with India, for its part, could open up additional market opportunities for Canada's service industries as well as accelerating Canadian investment in that country.

The Committee is pleased to note that on 12 March 2007, the federal government announced that, once ongoing negotiations on a foreign investment protection and promotion agreement between Canada and India are completed, it will pursue a free trade agreement with India. We believe that this announcement is a step in the right direction and we call on the Government of Canada to adopt a similar position with respect to China.

Recommendation 7: The federal government should develop and start to implement comprehensive strategies on Canada's commercial relations with China and India, including the conclusion of foreign investment protection and promotion agreements prior to the negotiation of a bilateral free trade agreement with each country. These strategies should also include consideration for human rights; more aggressive promotion of Canada and Canadian products; and greater involvement of the Chinese and Indian diasporas in Canada.

Recommendation 8: In future free trade negotiations, the Government of Canada should consider studying and possibly adopting the Mexican negotiating model, in which agreements are signed without necessarily resolving all sensitive issues and where Canadian interests are protected through the exclusion of certain sectors from negotiations. If Canada were to use such a negotiating model, then as the relationship grows, these concerns could be addressed in subsequent contact between the two parties. The Mexican model should not be employed in cases where Canadian businesses would be put at a disadvantage relative to their major competitors by a free trade deal.

5. Pursue FIPAs and Other Bilateral Agreements

Recommendation 9: The Government of Canada should immediately open negotiations on Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (FIPAs) with Indonesia, Vietnam and Colombia. It should also negotiate FIPAs with other countries, after consulting with businesses to determine where investment protection and promotion agreements would be beneficial.

Recommendation 10: The Government of Canada should expand its network of air services agreements around the world, including with Singapore.

Recommendation 11: Building on the progress made during its Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement (TIEA) negotiations with the European Union (EU), the Government of Canada should negotiate a regulatory cooperation agreement with the EU that will remove non-tariff barriers facing Canadian businesses in that market.

6. Take a Leadership Position at the WTO

Recommendation 12: Recognizing the benefit from the expanded access to global markets that a successful Doha Round could secure, the Government of Canada should take a leadership role in ensuring the completion of a broad and ambitious outcome to the current World Trade Organisation negotiations.

7. Increase North American Competitiveness for Global Success

Recommendation 13: Canada should continuously push forward the agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, thereby aggressively working towards the removal of as many obstacles to a seamless movement of goods and services across North America as possible, with greater public oversight and transparency.

Recommendation 14: The federal government should undertake effective intellectual property enforcement to keep counterfeit and pirated products from entering Canada and from being transhipped through Canada to our trading partners.

8. Improve Domestic Policy to Help Canadian Companies Compete Globally

Recommendation 15: The Government of Canada should modernize and strengthen its infrastructure, tax, regulatory, human resources, innovation, and other domestic policies to ensure that Canadian companies are as well positioned as they possibly can be to compete in the global economy.

Recommendation 16: The Government of Canada should take steps to ensure that federal tax rates on Canadian businesses are competitive with those of other leading industrialized nations. The setting of these tax rates should take into account the substantial competitive advantages of the Canadian health care system and other social programs.

Recommendation 17: The federal government should take a leadership role and work in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments to establish a barrier-free internal market by the end of 2008.

Recommendation 18: Given the increasing importance of lower-cost imports in the Canadian production of goods that are subsequently exported, the Government of Canada should study the feasibility and the consequences of unilaterally eliminating its remaining industrial tariffs.

Recommendation 19: The federal government, as part of its next legislative review of Export Development Canada, should consider providing that agency with the authority to also finance imports that are critical to Canadian exports.

Recommendation 20: The Government of Canada should immediately review its trade remedy system to ensure that critically valued imports, needed as inputs by companies who subsequently export products out of the country, are not unnecessarily blocked.

9. Take Steps to Increase Foreign Direct Investment Flows and Services Trade

The report calls on Canada to adopt a three-pronged strategy to enhance services trade:
· Improve the structural and regulatory environment in Canada for services activity;
· promote exports and investment abroad of our services providers; and
· achieve greater market access through the successful completion of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations within the WTO Doha Round.

Recommendation 21: The federal government should immediately develop and implement clear and comprehensive strategies to (a) generate more foreign direct investment inflows and outflows and (b) strengthen international trade and investment in services.

10. Put In Place an Integrated Trade Policy

It became apparent to the Committee that it would be a considerable challenge to coordinate the activities of such a large number of departments and agencies in a way that Canada could develop and implement a coherent and focused international business policy.

An even greater challenge would be to ensure that these departments and agencies work together to send a unified message abroad.

This Committee has a number of questions as to how the machinery of government currently operates as it relates to the development and implementation of international business policy.

We are especially interested in knowing if the organization of trade- and investment-related activities within the federal bureaucracy can be improved. As such, in the Spring of 2007, the Committee intends to begin a study on this subject. Our objective will be to evaluate how the machinery of government functions, as it pertains to federal trade and investment policy and promotion, and whether or not it could be restructured to operate more logically, efficiently and effectively.

Recommendation 22: All of the above recommendations should be implemented taking into consideration the importance of democratic debate on issues contained in the report; the quality of life of all Canadian families and closing the prosperity gap; and the importance of working to raise social, labour and environmental standards, both in Canada and internationally with our trading partners.

Tags: canada, china, china-specific strategy, free trade agreement, india, trade, trade policy

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Chinese man caught posing as tourist to Taiwan, then smuggles to Vancouver

Taipei Times - In the first-ever discovered case of an illegal alien from China using the "small three links" to enter Taiwan posing as a tourist, immigration authorities yesterday detained the suspect and five members of a Taiwan-based human smuggling ring that helped him.

Wei Zirui (魏子銳), 19, from China's Fujian Province, was traveling with a tour group last week before he deserted it just one day after arriving in Kinmen on May 14.

Accompanied by Taiwanese "snakeheads," or human smugglers and holding a doctored passport, Wei boarded a plane from Kinmen to Taichung while his group reported him missing, prompting Kinmen police and the agency to investigate his whereabouts, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday.

The snakeheads took Wei from Taichung to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday, where he planned to board a plane bound for his final destination -- Canada.

Wei probably thought he was in the clear after landing in Vancouver, immigration officials said. What he didn't know, however, was that Canadian police were waiting for him at the arrival gate.

NIA Deputy Director Steve Wu (吳學燕) said yesterday his agency ascertained Wei's whereabouts after poring over security camera footage in Kinmen and contacting authorities there and in Taichung.

By the time the agency had figured out Wei was Canada-bound, he was already in the air and the agency scrambled to notify its counterpart in Canada, Wu said.

"Thanks to sound international cooperation and coordination at home, we were able to crack the first human smuggling case involving the `small three links,'" he said.

Wei was put on a plane back to Taipei and taken into custody by Taoyuan County police yesterday.

The NIA said Wei had paid the ring US$65,000 to smuggle him to Canada via Taiwan.

Asked why his agency failed to apprehend Wei before he boarded the plane for Canada, Wu said Wei's documents seemed valid, making it difficult to track him.

Taoyuan District Prosecutor Chang Chun-hui (張春暉) said a Taiwanese named Lin Yi-hung (林怡賜), who bears a slight resemblance to Wei, provided Wei with his passport and other documents.

Before handing his passport to Wei, Lin, 19, reported his original passport missing and then provided the authorities with a doctored photograph that combined the facial features of Lin and Wei for the new passport, Chang said.

The composite photo obfuscated any dissimilarities between their faces, allowing Wei to use the new passport without raising suspicion, he said, adding that Wei used the fraudulent passport and other documents to secure a Canadian visa.

Lin was one of the five arrested.

Tags: taiwan, china, smuggling, smuggler, snakehead, illegal migrants, canada, tourist

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Actor Chow Yun fat interested in movie about Vancouver Chinatown concubine

AP - Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat says he is interested in making a movie inspired by a book about a concubine who lived in Vancouver's Chinatown.

The film's director, Ann Hui, says the Chinese-funded movie is based on Denise Chong's book "The Concubine's Children."

It's set in the 1920s and is about a Vancouver Chinese man's concubine.

Hui says she gave Chow the book and he's now waiting to read the script, which still needs to be written.

If Chow signs on for the role of the Chinese man, it would be his second recent collaboration with Hui.

He played a suspected con-man in Hui's comedy "Postmodern Life of My Aunt."

Tags: chow yun fat, actor, vancouver, chinatown, concubine's children, ann hui, movie

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Okinawans protest over Abe's revision of war history

(caption: Japanese soldiers' corpses at "Suicide Cliff" on Okinawa, 1945. Source: New Brunswick history dept: Oral history archives of WWII interview with Ogden C. Bacon)

Bloomberg - Mitsuko Yoneda was 17 years old when 13 members of her family gathered in a forest in drizzling rain. It was March 1945 and the U.S. army was invading Okinawa. Told by Japan's military government that death was more honourable than capture, the Yonedas had come to die.

Her 19-year-old brother, a member of the civilian youth defense corps, pulled the pin on an army-issued hand grenade, killing himself and four other relatives. They were among more than 735 people who committed suicide in Okinawa during the U.S. assault.

Four local assemblies are now protesting an order by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Education Ministry to remove from school textbooks all references to military involvement in the deaths. They have passed a resolution demanding the central government reverse its decision, and several other communities are considering the measure.

"Mr. Abe seems eager to delete the memory of Japan's defeat and the military's direct involvement in mass suicides," said Tomokazu Takamine, the author of "Unknown U.S. Soldiers in Okinawa" and executive director of the Ryukyu Shimpo, Okinawa's largest daily newspaper. "He wants to create a new fiction."

The controversy follows another earlier this year, when Abe, 52, disputed the military's involvement in forcing women to work in brothels for soldiers during the war. That prompted protests from South Korea, China and the U.S., and Abe later apologized.

Okinawa Deaths

On March 30, the Education Ministry declared that the army's role in the Okinawa deaths be stricken from textbooks, igniting anger on the island where almost 150,000 people, or a quarter of the population, died in the fighting.

"It is an unmistakable fact that mass suicides in Okinawa could not have taken place without the military's order," said the resolution, which local governments in Naha, Okinawa's capital; Itoman; Tomigusuku and Haebaru have adopted. "For Okinawans who experienced the fierce and tragic battle and were forced to endure indescribable sacrifices," changing the textbooks "is utterly unacceptable," the resolution said.

Yumiko Tomimori, an official in the textbook division of the ministry, said in an interview that there are "different views on whether or not the army directly ordered them to commit suicide. It would be misleading to say the army was responsible."

The Final Front Line

Once an independent kingdom known as Ryukyu, Okinawa was a prosperous trading nation with its own culture and language. In 1879, it came under the control of Japan, which introduced an education system designed to make Okinawans loyal imperial subjects. The archipelago was Japan's final front line during World War II.

Shinjun Tomiyama was a village official on Yoneda's island home of Tokashiki in charge of army liaison during the war. In 1988, shortly before he died, he talked to the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper about military involvement in the mass suicides.

"A few days before the landing of the U.S. troops, the Japanese army assembled the young men of the island," Tomiyama said in the report. "There was a speech instructing them never to be taken as a war prisoner. The army gave each one two grenades: one for attacking Americans and the other to kill themselves."

After Yoneda's brother set off his grenade, her aunt "wielded a hatchet, shouting, `If you are a true Japanese, die right here,"' she said in an interview.

Yoneda, now 79, survived because her mother grabbed her hand and they ran. She said she never saw the rest of her family again.

Military Advantages

After World War II, the U.S., mindful of Okinawa's strategic location, didn't return it to Japan until 1972, 20 years after occupation ended in the rest of the country. As a result, Okinawa missed out on much of Japan's economic growth, leaving it today with an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent, almost twice as high as the rest of the country. The average annual income is 1.995 million yen ($16,600) or about 70 percent of the national average.

Okinawa still plays an important role in U.S. global military strategy, stretching between the Korean peninsula and China. It is home to 75 percent of U.S. military facilities in Japan, including Kadena, the biggest American airbase outside the U.S., where a dozen of the most advanced F-22 fighter aircraft were deployed earlier this year.

War-Time Suicides

The controversy over the war-time suicides prompted a former army officer and the brother of another officer to file a lawsuit in 2005 that is still pending against Nobel Prize- winning author Kenzaburo Oe and his publisher. Oe's book says the officers ordered Okinawans to commit suicide. The plaintiffs say there was no such direct order.

In passing the resolution against changing the textbooks, Okinawans say they are trying to preserve their history -- despite the distress it recalls.

"We have to remember that the mass suicides happened under the rule of the Japanese military government," said Tadakatsu Nakayama, an Okinawan lawyer. "The central government is trying to dilute the damage and pain inflicted on Okinawans."

Tags: japan, okinawa, wwii, war, suicide, history, white wash

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UN criticizes Japan on sex slaves

AP - A United Nations committee accused Japan of trying to whitewash its past practice of forcing women to become sex slaves for Japanese Imperial army soldiers, and urged Tokyo to help surviving victims.

The criticism by the U.N. Committee Against Torture comes after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set off a furor by saying there was no proof the government forced thousands of women from Asia and elsewhere to work as prostitutes for front-line troops during World War II.

In a report issued Friday, the U.N. committee condemned what it called efforts to cover up history and urged Japan to address the "discriminatory roots of sexual and gender-based violations" and improve rehabilitation for survivors.

It said the victims suffered "incurable wounds" and are experiencing "continuing abuse and re-traumatization as a result of the state party's official denial of the facts, concealment or failure to disclose other facts, failure to prosecute those criminally responsible for acts of torture, and failure to provide adequate rehabilitation to the victims and survivors."

In March, a fund set up by Japan to help Asian women forced into military brothels expired amid widespread criticism it had fallen short of healing wounds. While it compensated 285 women from the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan, many victims rejected the money because it did not come directly from the government or with an official government apology.

Historians say as many as 200,000 women from Japan, Korea, China and elsewhere worked in Japanese military brothels in the 1930s and '40s. Many victims say they were forced to work by military authorities and were held against their will.

After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, discovered documents showing government involvement. That led to a carefully worded official apology in 1993 and the establishment of the private fund to pay the women limited reparations.

However, Abe rekindled controversy earlier this year by saying there is no evidence the women were coerced, apparently backtracking from the earlier apology. Since then, he has repeatedly distanced himself from the comment, saying he sympathizes with the victims' plight and apologizes for the "situation they found themselves in."

Conservative governing party lawmakers contend the women were professional prostitutes and were paid for their services. They also maintain that Japanese military authorities were not directly responsible for establishing or running the brothels.

Abe's earlier denial of coercion drew intense criticism from China and South Korea, which accuse Japan of failing to fully atone for wartime invasions and atrocities. The U.S. Congress is also considering a resolution urging Japan to apologize.

Tags: japan, war crimes, wwii, war, sex slaves, comfort women, UN, torture, human rights

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BC rep chosen for China

Gov of BC press release – The Province has chosen a representative to get the message out in China that B.C. is a global magnet for investment, talent and tourism.

“The Province needs representatives in the world’s markets who can promote British Columbia,” said Colin Hansen, Minister of Economic Development. “John McDonald is an industry expert with relevant business and language skills and a network of contacts already in place. B.C.’s interests will be well-served by his efforts.”

McDonald is a graduate of INSEAD, has 11 years’ business experience in China with exposure to clients in manufacturing, high technology, forest products, agri-food and services industries; and six years’ experience in managing and setting up new business operations in China.

The Province plans to add additional representation in Asia in the coming months, with a key focus on Japan. The Asia representatives will play an important role in helping implement the Province’s Asia Pacific Initiative.

British Columbia’s trade and investment representatives help promote the province in international markets in a number of ways:
· conduct corporate calls to present the business case for locating in British Columbia, and generate investment leads;
· deliver seminars or presentations on the merits of establishing a presence in British Columbia;
· identify target partners or key clients for B.C. industries;
· gather strategic marketing intelligence and information; and
· support in-bound and out-bound trade and investment initiatives.

British Columbia representatives are expected to have relevant language skills, sector-specific knowledge, and an established network of commercial contacts in their geographic markets.

Tags: BC, china, canada, trade, china-canada relations

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Panda porn

I've been looking for this clip for a while. So glad that I found it today. Enjoy. :)

Tags: panda porn, reproduction, panda sex

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China can't rush to let market set yuan: Bank of Canada head

Bloomberg - Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said China's government can't be expected to let the market set its currency's foreign-exchange rate "overnight."

"They have to keep going, and they have to keep going pretty rapidly," Dodge told reporters today after a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. "But let's not expect everything to be done overnight."

In his remarks, Dodge said that the world's most developed nations need to have "some tolerance" as long as countries such as China are making "substantial progress" in shifting toward flexible exchange rates. Some economies don't have financial markets that are developed enough to withstand an immediate move to prices set in markets, he said.

Dodge's remarks are more measured than those of U.S. officials, who demanded last week that China move more quickly on loosening its management of the yuan. The People's Bank of China on May 18 increased the amount that the currency can move each day. U.S. Treasury officials and lawmakers said China must use that increased flexibility to allow its exchange rate to climb.

Chinese officials "understand that it's not to satisfy the Americans or the Europeans and Canadians, they need to do it for their own domestic growth," to move on the yuan, Dodge said.

In his speech, Dodge urged the Group of Seven industrialized nations, especially the U.S., to pursue changes at the International Monetary Fund so it can more effectively combat world trade imbalances.

World Bank Successor

Separately, Dodge said that it's more important to find "a very strong and credible person" to replace former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz than to focus on "citizenship." Wolfowitz quit May 17 less than halfway through his five-year term amid a furor over securing a pay raise for his companion. By tradition, the U.S. names World Bank presidents.

Dodge, who retires in January and has said he wants half a year off after that, declined to say today if he's interested in the job.

Dodge also declined to comment specifically on the Canadian dollar's recent advance. The currency touched 92.35 U.S. cents today, the highest since October, 1977.

Dodge said he didn't want to comment on "day-to-day or week-to-week movements" in the currency. "As we said in April, the major move up from the mid-60s to the mid-80s that had taken place seemed to be pretty much consistent with, to use your word, fundamentals," he said.

The currency traded at about 85 U.S. cents in March, up from about 65 cents in January 2003.

The currency has gained on high prices for exported commodities, record consumer spending, and speculation the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates this year after a May 17 report showing faster inflation.

Inflation

Canada's inflation rate, excluding eight volatile items and some taxes, rose to a four-year high of 2.5 percent in April from a year earlier, a government report showed last week.

"We don't base policy on one number at one point in time," Dodge told reporters. He said policy makers will fully assess inflation and the currency when the central bank writes its next Monetary Policy Report in July. The bank's next interest-rate decisions are May 29 and July 10.

Dodge also said, answering audience questions after his speech, that a rule limiting ownership stakes in Canadian commercial banks to 20 percent may not still be "absolutely appropriate."

Dodge repeated a prior view on bank mergers, saying they could allow the industry to achieve "economies of scale." Canada's five biggest banks have been banned from merging since 1998.

If the government altered the so-called `widely held' rule, there would need to be other regulations put in place to meet policy goals on financial-industry competition, Dodge said.

Tags: china, caanda, bank of canada, david dodge, yuan, exchange rates

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Secret hankbook tutors Tory MPs how to paralyze parliament

Right from the very beginning, Canadians observed and members of the media observed, that [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper had a kind of control fetish, that he just had to run everything all the time and there couldn't be one comma or one sentence or one word uttered without his personal approval and I think in part, it is a manifestation of that kind of absolute obsession with control. - Ralph Goodale

Shame! Shame! Shame!!!! How can a democratic party in Canada do things like this? This is the worst politics ever seen in this country. The Conservatives are mean, despicable, loathsome, sly and wicked. Harper's government is now virtually a semi-dictatorship.

No wonder the Comfort Women motion was sent back to the lower sub-committee for "reconsideration" and calling for witnesses. Of course, witnesses to be called must be pro-Tory. Damn! Ugly politics!

The longer the Tories rule, the more "hidden agenda" will be exposed. And that's the only thing good for Canadians right now.

National Post's Don Martin broke the story Friday:

It paints in vivid detail what Conservative chairs should say when confronted by challenges to their authority, how to rule opposition MPs out of order during procedural wrangling and even tells government MPs how to debate at committee when a hostile motion is put to a vote.

The manual offers up speeches for a chairman under attack and suggests committee leaders have been whipped into partisan instruments of policy control and agents of the Prime Minister's Office.

Among the more heavy-handed recommendations in the document:
• That the Conservative party helps pick committee witnesses. The chairman "should ensure that witnesses suggested by the Conservative Party of Canada are favourable to the government and ministry," the document warns.

• The chairmen should also seek to "include witnesses from Conservative ridings across Canada" and make sure their local MPs take the place of a member at the committee when a constituent appears, to show they listen and care.

• The chairmen should "meet with witnesses so as to review testimony and assist in question preparation."

• Procedural notes tell the chairmen to always recognize a Conservative member just before a motion is put to a vote "and let them speak as long as they wish" - a maneuver used to kickstart a filibuster as a stall tactic.

• Chairmen are told to notify all affected ministries prior to a motion being voted upon. "Communicate concerns with the Prime Minister's Office, House Leader or Whip," the document insists. "Try to anticipate the response of the press and how party could be portrayed."

• The guide says a "disruptive" committee should be adjourned by the chairman on short notice. "Such authority is solely in the discretion of the chair. No debate, no appeal possible." By failing to appoint the vice chair to run the meeting, the adjournment will last until the chair is ready to reconvene the committee.

The Post says: "the document does illustrate a government preference for manipulative tactics and proves that the chairmen are under intense supervision from the powers above."

Look at how hypocritic Stephen Harper can be, how he can lie without blinking: "Its tactics also fly in the face of yesterday's complaint by Stephen Harper that opposition parties are solely responsible for the committee paralysis now breaking out on Parliament Hill as the summer recess approaches."

Canwest - The book was drafted in the wake of parliamentary hearings into Hockey Canada's decision to name Shane Doan as captain of the national team, despite allegations that he had made derogatory remarks to a francophone official.

It suggests that the Conservative party help pick committee witnesses and that committee chairs ensure that witnesses suggested by the Tory party "are favourable to the government and the ministry."

The book also urges that witnesses be included from Conservative ridings across the country, and advises chairmen to "meet with witnesses so as to review testimony and assist in question preparation."

It also offers advice on how to grind committees to a halt by, for example, recognizing Conservative MPs just before a vote and letting them speak as long as they wish to stall the vote.

The instructions may at least partly explain why three committees ground to a halt over the past week. They had been studying sensitive issues, including official languages policy, the treatment of Afghan detainees, and the use of replacement workers in federal workplaces.

More from the Globe:

Globe and Mail - A manual telling Conservative chairs of Commons committees how to stick to the party agenda - and to obstruct or end meetings when the debate turns hostile to the government - is proof that parliamentary dysfunction is being orchestrated by the Conservatives, opposition members charged yesterday.

Conservative Whip Jay Hill refused to return phone calls about the 200-page manual, which caused an uproar in the House after its existence was revealed in a published report yesterday. But the government did not deny that such a guidebook had been handed out to its committee chairs.

The controversy came at the end of a week in which Conservatives filibustered the Commons ethics committee to prevent an investigation into the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees.

It was also a week in which the Conservative chair of the official languages committee cancelled hearings into the cancellation by the government of the Court Challenges Program, and another Conservative filibuster of the Commons agriculture committee to block a motion on the government's handling of the Canadian Wheat Board.

Tags: canada, federal politics, conservatives, tories, dirty politics, secret handbook

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Asian-Canadian groups put pressure on Canadian, Japanese governments

The Scarborough Mirror - Time is running out for Japan to apologize and compensate Asian "comfort women" kept as sex slaves by its soldiers during the Second World War, a coalition of Asian-Canadian groups announced Thursday in Scarborough.

Few of an estimated 200,000 women and girls taken from Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries by the Imperial Army are still alive and untold thousands of them died without being able to speak about what happened, reporters were told Thursday at the Yee Hong Scarborough Finch Centre for Geriatric Care.

Japan's military and its politicians of the day condoned systematic recruiting and keeping of comfort women, "a gross violation of human rights the world has rarely seen," Yee Hong founder Dr. Joseph Y. K. Wong said.

A group called Toronto ALPHA - Association for Learning and Preserving the History of the Second World War in Asia - is, along with representatives of Toronto's Korean community and the Filipino community's Alliance for Social Justice, gathering support for House of Commons Motion 291, which demands Japan issue an official apology and compensation to comfort women.

But Wong, ALPHA's co-founder, said the rest of the world, Canada included, also owes such women an apology "because we have been keeping silent for so long."

ALPHA, which brought Canadian educators to China to meet former comfort women, recently convinced British Columbia and Ontario to mention their story in school curricula, but it was not being taught in Canada before, Wong said.

What happened to the sex slaves was not just a crime against Asian women, said Ward 42 Councillor (Scarborough-Rouge River) Raymond Cho.

"It is a crime against the human race and the dignity of all women."

"Every night, these girls were raped," said Cho, who said he spoke at the press conference not as a councillor but as a global citizen. "They were referred to as toilets."

References to comfort women have disappeared from four of seven textbooks published by a company whose products are in 80 per cent of Japanese schools, said Rev. Peter Han, chairperson of the Council of Korean Churches in Ontario.

"History denied is justice denied."

The National Association of Japanese Canadians supports the comfort women motion, Han noted.

In a letter last month, association president Grace Eiko Thomson urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper "to give strong leadership in seeking justice for these long suffering victims" and help Japan's government recognize an apology and compensation would "bring closure to this matter, which can only add benefit and status to Japan's currently held position in this world."

Japan's government has never offered an official apology for what Japan did to comfort women, though in 1993 a senior government official expressed regret.

Last March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he stood by those remarks but added there is "no evidence to prove there was coercion" of comfort women.

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay criticized Abe's remarks, calling the abuse of comfort women "deplorable" and saying the wrongs done to them "should not be forgotten but should be addressed in a compassionate and progressive way."

MacKay was attacked at Thursday's press conference, however, as someone taking Japan's side on demands for a formal apology. Wong warned groups supporting Motion 291 will keep an eye on Canadian politicians "who continue to fool around on this issue."

The coalition will gather signatures to present to Canadian parliamentarians in three weeks and will invite surviving comfort women from Korea, China and the Philippines to come to Ottawa in September, he said.

ALPHA vice-chairperson Flora Chong, who travelled with Wong to Korea last April to interview comfort women said they are dying off fast.

"We cannot wait. We have to do something for them," she said.

Tags: japan, history, comfort women, sex slaves, canada

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Japan schools to teach patriotism despite opposition's nationalism fear

BBC - Japan's lower house of parliament has approved a new law requiring schools to teach children to be patriotic.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition voted for the law, which cites "loving our country" as a goal of Japanese pupils' compulsory education.

Opposition members of parliament protested against the bill, warning that it could spread nationalism.

The new legislation will be sent to the upper house for further debate and is expected to become law next month.

Parliament changed the Basic Education Law in December, requiring teachers to encourage patriotism as part of Japanese children's compulsory education for the first time since World War II.

New goal

But Wednesday's revision stated that developing "the attitude of loving our country and hometown" and "the attitude of participating in society based on social norms and public spirit" would now be a required goal of compulsory education in Japan.

The bill will also reinforce the education minister's power over local education boards, and introduce a requirement for teachers to renew their licences every 10 years.

The move to instill patriotism may also meet concern from South Korea and China, which remain suspicious of Japan because of its wartime aggressions.

On Monday, Japan's upper house of parliament passed a bill setting out steps for holding a referendum on revising the country's pacifist constitution, which has not been changed since 1947.

Drawn up by the US occupation authorities after WWII, it bans military force in settling international disputes and prohibits maintaining a military for warfare.

But the government wants Japan to be more assertive on the world stage, with a military able to take part in peacekeeping missions abroad.

Tags: japan, patriotism, nationalism, militarism, education

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China's Wen meets with former PM Martin, slap in Tories' face

The Globe and Mail reports that former Canadian prime minister met with China's premier Wen Jiabao for 35 minutes, in which they exchanged talks on China-Canada relations and human rights.

It was the highest-level meeting at which a Canadian politician has raised the Celil case in China so far. In the past, Canada has raised the case in meetings with Chinese cabinet ministers, but never with the Prime Minister (note: wrong, Wen should be China's premier).

Mr. Martin is an adviser to the African Development Bank, which is holding its annual board meeting in China this week for the first time in its history.

Most of his meeting with Mr. Wen yesterday was focused on China's role in investing in Africa. But they also discussed Canada-China issues, human rights and the Celil case, according to a spokesman for Mr. Martin.

It is so obvious that China is telling Stephen Harper that China can talk about human rights, but not under the aggressive atmosphere created by the Conservatives. Even our foreign minister Peter MacKay who visited China last month was only able to meet with China's foreign minister.
This is such a slap in the face to the Conservatives.

Another report by the People's Daily:

Chinese state councilor meets former Canadian prime minister

China and Canada should treasure the hard-won fruit made in bilateral relations, Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said here Friday in a meeting with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

"Under the current situation, the two sides should firmly grasp the correct direction of bilateral relations and handle the relations from a strategic and long-term perspective," Tang said.

Tang said he hoped both countries would make joint efforts to enrich the contents of China-Canada strategic partnership, explore more common interests and further deepen cooperation in various fields.

In addition, Tang urged both sides to properly solve disputes between the two countries to ensure a long-term, stable bilateral relations.

He appreciates Chretien's continual contribution to promoting bilateral relations and expects him to continue to play an active role in promoting the healthy and steady development of China-Canada relations.

Chretien is invited by China's CITIC Group for a visit to China.

Tags: china, canada, paul martin, wen jiabao, stephan harper, peter mackay, celil

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Vancouver house sales rise again after 10 month of falling

BCREA - British Columbia Real Estate Association reports that residential sales volume on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC rose 17% to $4.2b in April, compared to the same month last year. Residential unit sales increased 5% to 9,677 during the same period. The average MLS® price reached $431,945, climbing 11% from April 2006.

CLICK:
"BC home sales rebounded in April after declining for ten consecutive months," said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist.

"A 25% increase in the number homes for sale and favourable labour market conditions are major contributing factors."

"Provincial economic growth continues to reinforce housing demand," added Muir. "However, affordability remains the largest constraint to home ownership in BC. While April’s performance is notable, it will take a few more months of increasing
home sales to consider demand on an upswing."

Year-to-date, MLS® residential sales volume was up 8.6% to $13.4b, compared to the first four months of last year. MLS® home sales dipped 3% to 31,876 units, while the average MLS® residential price climbed 12% to $420,716.

Tags: vancouver, housing, real estate, house prices, home prices

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Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile IV - Canada losing competitiveness; suggestions

With an annual growth rate of 9% over the past two decades, China is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, both as the world’s workshop and as an emerging market. Many entrepreneurs see China as being in an historic period with rich entrepreneurial opportunities similar to the Renaissance in Europe, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, or the take-off of the Asian Tigers in the 1970s.

On the other hand, many industries in China are still backwards by international standards. Entrepreneurs are eager to fill such gaps.

Canada and China. From 1995 to 2005, Canada’s trade with China increased from $8 billion to $30 billion. China has become Canada’s second largest national trading partner since 2003.

Canadian direct investment in China has also grown quickly. By 2002, Canadian firms had invested $667 million in China, an increase of almost 15 times over a decade earlier. Chinese investment in Canada increased from $54 million in 1991 to $220 million in 2004.

About 400 Canadian companies have established a permanent presence in China, while China has set up 120 firms in Canada

Overall, Canada’s trade with China has been growing. However, in comparison, Canada has been left behind in the Chinese market by key competitors such as Australia, as well as smaller players such as Brazil and the Philippines. Important economic indicators — Canada’s share in China’s imports and exports and Canada’s investment in China — have been hovering around 1%: what experts call “the 1% relation”. The latest Statistics Canada data revealed an even more alarming picture. While Australian and US exports to China soared, Canada’s exports declined in 2005.

Indeed, a pessimistic view has become dominant in the discussion of Canada’s role in China. Many are concerned about an even bleaker future, where Canada’s role in the Chinese market might be limited to that of an exporter of natural resources. More recently, concerns have emerged that China may compete with Canada in its major export market — the US.

SUGGESTIONS

• Setting up a database of the Canadian Diaspora, in particular returnee entrepreneurs in key international markets.
• Bringing bilateral trade to the grassroots level by fostering collaborations between mainstream and ethnic firms, especially among SMEs.
• Establishing an integrated online resource database to facilitate networking and the dissemination of information.
• Supporting transnational businesses by setting up pilot projects modeled on existing initiatives that promote entrepreneurship among women and aboriginal people.
• Raising immigrants’ awareness of governmental resources by advertising in ethnic media and partnering with ethnic business and professional associations.
• Funding regular, long-term, and comparative research on transnational entrepreneurship among multiple ethnic groups in Canada.

See also:
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile I - Each 1000 Chinese immigrants = $700m jump in trade
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile II - Half of transnationals make $1m a year
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile III - Immigration policies and CC population
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile IV - Canada losing competitiveness; suggestions

Tags: asia pacific foundation, transnational, chinese canadian entrepreneurs, trade

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Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile III - Immigration policies and CC population

According to the Asia Pacific Foundation's study on Chinese Canadian entrepreneurship, the Chinese population in Canada has been growing steadily since 1967 when Canada adopted the points system to select immigrants based on skills rather than on racial quotas. There are at least one million Chinese-Canadians, forming the third-largest ethnic group in Canada (Statistics Canada 2004).

Post-1967 Chinese immigrants differ from long established Canadian-Chinese in place of origin and in socio-economic background. Close to one-fifth of the Chinese immigrants landed in Canada between 1980 and 2000 had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

After landing in the new country, immigrants often face labour market disadvantages such as depreciated human capital or the lack of English proficiency, which hinders them finding jobs in the mainstream economy.

The impeded mobility leads many of them to entrepreneurship (Henry 1994). Aiming to attract investors and entrepreneurs, the Business Immigration Program was introduced to the Immigration Act in 1978. Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China accounted for more than half of the 85,000 business immigrants who landed in Canada between 1986 and 2004 (CIC 2006).

A fast-growing immigrant population provides the market, labour and capital for ethnic entrepreneurship. Research shows the proliferation and diversification of the Chinese ethnic economy in major Canadian metropolitan cities.

The great majority of the Chinese-Canadian population is foreign born. Their tastes create a demand for “authentic” goods and services imported from their countries of origin. Their desire to maintain ties with their home countries creates demand for telecommunication services, travel agencies, financial services for remittance transfers, as well as for legal, notary and translation services.

Furthermore, as the Chinese-Canadian community consists of immigrants from different places of origin, immigrant entrepreneurs are able to explore links to various export regions, particularly to markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

See also:
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile I - Each 1000 Chinese immigrants = $700m jump in trade
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile II - Half of transnationals make $1m a year
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile III - Immigration policies and CC population
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile IV - Canada losing competitiveness; suggestions

Tags: asia pacific foundation, transnational, chinese canadian entrepreneurs, trade

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Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile II - Half of transnationals make $1m a year

According to the Asia Pacific Foundation's study on Chinese Canadian entrepreneurship, imports and exports combined account for 14% of ethnic Chinese firms’ revenue. Transnational entrepreneurs import and export significantly more than domestic entrepreneurs. International trade makes up 30% of the annual revenue in transnational enterprises, compared with only 3% of the annual revenue in domestic firms.

Entrepreneurs illustrate that ethnic entrepreneurs have both the willingness and capability to be bridge builders, matchmakers, or intermediaries between Canada and their home countries. Ethnic entrepreneurs’ tacit knowledge about doing business in their home countries allows them to serve as “the antennae of Canadian firms” in international markets.

Close to half of transnational entrepreneurs had revenues above $1 million in 2004, compared with only 24% of domestic entrepreneurs.

Transnational enterprises have significantly more employees both in Canada and overseas. Overall, more than 70% of transnational enterprises have five or more employees. Some 13% have 50 or more employees.

By contrast, almost 60% of domestic enterprises have fewer than five employees, and only 6% have 50 or more employees. Until the early 1980s, grocery stores and small personal service businesses such as laundries and restaurants had dominated the Chinese ethnic economy in Canada.

Until the early 1980s, grocery stores and small personal service businesses such as laundries and restaurants had dominated the Chinese ethnic economy in Canada.
While retailers still have an important presence, Chinese ethnic businesses are shifting to professional services, technology industries and manufacturing.

While retailers still have an important presence, Chinese ethnic businesses are shifting to professional services, technology industries and manufacturing. Firms run by transnational entrepreneurs are more diversified in terms of industry distribution.

Transnational enterprises have expanded into the manufacturing and wholesale sectors, while domestic businesses are more concentrated in the service and retail sectors. Close to 30% of transnational enterprises are in the wholesale sector, compared to 6% of domestic businesses. Close to 18% of transnational businesses are in the manufacturing sector, compared with 6% of domestic businesses.

See also:
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile I - Each 1000 Chinese immigrants = $700m jump in trade
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile II - Half of transnationals make $1m a year
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile III - Immigration policies and CC population
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile IV - Canada losing competitiveness; suggestions

Tags: asia pacific foundation, transnational, chinese canadian entrepreneurs, trade

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Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile I - Each 1000 Chinese immigrants = $700m jump in trade

Data shows that between 1995 and 2004, each 1,000 increase in the number of immigrants from China was associated with about a $700 million increase in Canada’s trade with China.

A new report, released today by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, finds that 42% of Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs engage in international business, many building on the trade in goods, services, technology, knowledge and culture between Canada and their country of origin.

The report – Doing Business at Home and Away, Policy Implications of Chinese-Canadian Entrepreneurship – is one of the first to look at this aspect of the economic contribution of Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs. These immigrant businesspeople contribute directly to international trade, participate in ethnic business and professional associations, and typically utilize new communication technologies. Most importantly, the report finds that 72% of Chinese-Canadian businesses have helped non-Chinese Canadian firms to do business in their home country or home country firms do business in Canada.

The survey found that 42% of Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs are transnational. Data shows that between 1995 and 2004, each 1,000 increase in the number of immigrants from China was associated with about a $700 million increase in Canada’s trade with China.

BACKGROUND: The report was done by University of Toronto sociologists Whenhong Chen and Barry Wellman. They conducted the Transnational Immigrant Entrepreneurship Study (the TIE Study) which aims to use Chinese-Canadians as an example to understand the causes and consequences of transnational entrepreneurship. They collected data from Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs from 2002 to 2006 through ethnographic study, in-depth interviews and a random sample survey.

First, the researchers interviewed 67 entrepreneurs and experts in Toronto and Beijing. Second, drawing on a random sample, they conducted a face-to-face survey1 in Toronto with 308 Chinese-Canadian entrepreneurs from major sending societies in Asia Pacific and the global Chinese Diaspora. The data provide a good opportunity for systematically analyzing how factors at structural and individual levels affect transnational entrepreneurship. The random sample design of the TIE survey allows a generalization of the findings to the population of Chinese-Canadian businesses in the Greater Toronto Area.

See also:
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile I - Each 1000 Chinese immigrants = $700m jump in trade
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile II - Half of transnationals make $1m a year
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile III - Immigration policies and CC population
Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs' profile IV - Canada losing competitiveness; suggestions

Tags: asia pacific foundation, chinese canadian entrepreneurs, trade, transnational, imports, exports

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Canada's software piracy rises 1%; China down 4%

Ottawa Business Journal - Software pirates got a little busier in Canada in 2006, with a new study showing that Canada's software piracy rate rose by one percentage point to 34 per cent last year.

The report by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said losses to the Canadian economy due to software piracy totalled $890 million in 2006.

Although Canada remains among the top 20 countries with the lowest software piracy rates worldwide and had a lower rate than the 35-per-cent global average, the country lags behind the United States where the software piracy rate remained unchanged at 21 per cent.

"The fact that Canada's software piracy rate has remained more or less unchanged over the past few years indicate that a lot more work needs to be done before we can achieve rates found in countries that we usually compare ourselves to, such as the U.K. and Australia," said CAAST president Michael Murphy in a statement.

Mr. Murphy said more than one-third of PC software used in Canada in 2006 was obtained illegally, and pushed for stronger legislation to reduce the negative impact of piracy on Canada's IT industry and resources for future innovation.

The study also showed that on a worldwide basis, for every two dollars of software purchased legitimately, one dollar was obtained illegally, with global losses from software piracy last year increasing by 15 per cent from the previous year to US$39 billion.

Of the 102 countries surveyed in the study, the number of countries where piracy rates dropped increased to 62 from 51 in 2005, while 13 countries saw increases in their piracy activity compared to 19 the previous year.

The report singled out the reduction in China's piracy rate, noting that the country had seen a 10-percentage-point drop in its piracy rate in the last three years to 82 per cent, saving more than half a billion dollars in the process.

"The reduction in the piracy rate and the savings are the result of government efforts to increase the use of legitimate software within its own departments, vendor arrangements with PC suppliers to use legitimate software, and increasing industry and government education and enforcement efforts," the study said.

China's piracy rate fell by four percentage points in 2006, its second consecutive yearly decline. As well, the legitimate software market in the country grew to nearly US$1.2 billion last year, an increase of 88 per cent from 2005's numbers and of more than 358 per cent since 2003.

However, China still had the second-highest losses in terms of dollar value, at $5.4 billion. The United States had the greatest total losses to software piracy, at $7.3 billion, despite having the lowest piracy rate of all countries surveyed.

The report predicted that businesses and consumers worldwide will spend $350 billion on PC software over the next four years, with more than $180-billion worth of PC software being pirated during the same period if current trends continue.

In more than half of the countries surveyed, the piracy rate was higher than 60 per cent, while one-third of the 102 countries had piracy rates exceeding 75 per cent, the report added.

Tags: piracy, copyright

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S.Korea: Japan is reviving wartime aggression

The Hankyoreh - Political parties concerned over Japan's move to amend pacifist constitution Political parties Tuesday expressed worry over Japan's move to rewrite its pacifist constitution, claiming it could be a sign of a reemergence of Japanese militarism.

Japan's parliament on Monday approved a law setting steps for revising the constitution, boosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to expand military operations overseas.

The constitution, drafted by U.S. occupation forces in 1947 after Japan's defeat in World War II, put limits on the country's military, particularly Article 9 that bans the use of force to settle international disputes.

"We have serious concerns in that Japan will be able to possess a military and that could lead to the revival of its imperial militarism," Rep. Na Kyung-won, spokesman of the main opposition Grand National Party, told reporters.


The South Korean government did not issue an official statement.

A Foreign Ministry official said, however, that Seoul was keeping an eye on the controversial move.

"That was a domestic step to make procedures to revise the constitution... but we are keeping an eye on it with strong attention," a Foreign Ministry official dealing with Northeast Asian affairs said.

The pro-government Uri Party accused Tokyo of trying to restore its wartime aggression while neglecting "true reflections on its history including the issue of comfort women."

Abe ignited a furor with remarks about Japan's sexual exploitation of Korean and other Asian women during World War II, denying that those women were coerced to work in Japanese military brothels although it has been proven by historians and records.

Korean women were the major victims of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Under the law approved by the Japanese parliament's upper house, a referendum on revising the constitution can be held as early as in 2010.

Tags: korea, japan, militarism, pacifist constition, article 9

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North Korea blasts Japan's missile defence move

India eNews - North Korea Tuesday lashed out at Japan's intention to boost its cooperation with the US on deploying the missile defence system.

'Such dangerous developments is suggesting that Japan is now only watching for a chance to pre-empt attacks on North Korea...with the US,' said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea's remarks came after Japanese defence minister Fumio Kyuma and former Director General of the Japan defence agency Fukushiro Nukaga recently called for Japan's need to boost its cooperation with the US on the missile defence system.

'Japan is escalating its military threat to North Korea and other countries of the region,' said the KCNA, noting the nature of the system is 'offensive and aggressive' which sparks off deep concern among many countries in Asia and other parts of the world.

'The war history in the 20th century clearly showed what a miserable end Japan's rash act had brought to the militarists who went arrogant, seized by hysteria of overseas expansion,' the KCNA said.

Tags: north korea, japan, missile defense, militarism

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Japanese teen takes mother's severed head to police

Looks like Japanese teenagers like to chop their victims' heads off, while their counterparts in the States use guns. Perhaps images like the one on the left still thrive in the heads of Japan's new generations.

The Guardian - A 17-year-old Japanese boy was arrested on suspicion of murder today after walking into a police station and telling officers he was carrying the severed head of his mother, whom he had murdered during the night.

The teenager, who has not been named for legal reasons, was holding the head in a bag. "It's in here," he said, adding that he had killed his mother with a knife as she slept on the eve of her 47th birthday.

He later accompanied police to his home in the town of Aizu Wakamatsu in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, and led them to his mother's headless corpse lying on a futon.

The discovery is the latest in a series of gruesome crimes, several involving dismemberment, that have horrified Japan, regarded as one of the safest societies in the world.

Police are investigating the discovery yesterday of a severed leg found floating in a river in the capital.

Last month a businessman was acquitted of the killing in 2000 of British woman Lucie Blackman, whose dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave, her head encased in concrete.

Earlier this year a woman admitted cutting up her abusive husband with a saw and dumping the body parts in plastic bags at several locations in Tokyo after bludgeoning him to death with a wine bottle.

"There have been a high number of incidents involving dismembered bodies and I certainly think there is a chain reaction going on," Susumu Oda, a criminal psychology expert at Tezukayamagakuin University, told the Associated Press.

The latest incident drew comment from Japan's top government spokesman. "If it's true, then it's horrendous," Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters.

The boy, a high school pupil, had been absent from school and was receiving psychiatric treatment, the Kyodo news agency reported. He was quoted as telling investigators that he "didn't care" who he killed and spoke incoherently about wanting to see an end to war and terrorism.

He and his younger brother lived together away from the family home in another town in the region so that they could attend their chosen schools and their mother often visited at weekends do their washing, local reports said.

The teenager's admission brought to mind one the most notorious juvenile crimes in Japan of recent times. In 1997, a 14-year-old boy beheaded another boy three years his junior and left his severed head in front of a school gate in Kobe, western Japan.

Figures show the number of murders by juveniles has fallen in recent years, but the viciousness of several high-profile killings prompted calls for harsher punishments for those aged under 20.

Last month parliament voted to lower the age at which young offenders can be sent to reformatories from 14 to 12.

Tags: japan, murder

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China concerns over Japan constitution plan

Reuters - China expressed concern on Tuesday at Japan's plans to rewrite its pacifist constitution, saying it was a cause for misgiving for Asian countries which suffered Japanese invasion and occupation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at 52 Japan's first prime minister born after World War Two, has made revising the constitution a key element in his efforts to boost Japan's role in global security affairs.

On Monday Japan's parliament passed a law outlining steps for a referendum on revising the charter, which was drafted by US occupation authorities in February 1947.

China's Xinhua news agency, noting that the pace of moves to amend the constitution had quickened under Abe, said parliament's passing of the voting bill signified another "substantive step" in Japan's path towards amending the peace charter.

It had also aroused "high concern and misgivings among the people of Asia who suffered Japanese invasion and enslavement", Xinhua said.

"People have begun to doubt whether Japan will continue its path of peaceful development."

Japan occupied the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and invaded and occupied parts of China in the first half of the 20th century. It invaded Malaysia, then known as Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines and other Asian countries during World War Two.

Article 9 at present renounces the right to wage war to resolve international disputes and bans the maintenance of a military.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference on Tuesday that neighbouring Asian countries had given their "utmost attention" to the plan to revise the constitution.

"The facts demonstrate that the Japanese people were correct in choosing the path of peaceful development. We hope that Japan adheres to this direction."

Sino-Japanese ties have been overshadowed for years by what Beijing says is Tokyo's refusal to admit to atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in China between 1931 and 1945.

For instance, Beijing says Japanese troops slaughtered 300,000 men, women and children after taking the then Chinese capital of Nanking (now Nanjing), in 1937. An Allied tribunal after World War Two put the death toll at about 142,000.

Some Japanese historians say the massacre has been exaggerated and some conservatives deny it even happened.
Tags: china, japan, constitution, pacifist constitution, militarism, ultra nationalism

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Poll finds 62% of Japanese don't want constitutional change

This is the scary part and dark side of ruling by a right wing party (any where else in the world, including the US and Canada): Ruling by IDEOLOGY. Right-wingers have too much of a self-serving agenda they hope to achieve by ruling the country. Nothing's about the good of the people and the nation. Ultra-conservatism is as terrible, if not more, as communism.

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Kyodo News - 62% of people responding to a survey say the current government interpretation of the Constitution barring Japan from exercising the right to "collective self-defense" should remain intact, up 7.4 points from the previous survey in April.

The telephone survey conducted over the weekend received responses from 1,054 eligible voters.

In Japan, the concept carries a sensitive political meaning because the pacifist Constitution did not foresee the security situation in East Asia today, in which the United States wants Japan to help shoot down North Korean missiles aimed at North America.

The proportion of respondents satisfied with the current constitutional interpretation of collective self-defense increased, and those who favor changing the interpretation to make it possible for Japan to exercise the right dropped by 5 points to 13.3%.

A total of 19.1% said the Constitution should be revised to enable Japan to exercise the right, a slight increase from 18.3% last month.

The survey was taken ahead of the scheduled launch this Friday of a government panel of outside experts for examining Japan's right to collective self-defense.

The panel is dominated by members known to be critical of the current official interpretation, in line with Abe's stance in favor of allowing Japan to come to the aid of an ally — namely the U.S. — when it is under attack.

However, 58.9% of the respondents said they think it is desirable for the matter to be deliberated by a panel of experts, as opposed to 31.4% who said they do not think so.

While the public has shown increased caution over the possible move to revise the Constitution or to change its interpretation over collective self-defense, many have a positive attitude toward debating the matter, apparently due to the changing security environment around Japan, including the threat from North Korea.

Meanwhile, the support rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet rose by 3.4 points to 47.6%, marking an upswing since hitting a low in March when the rate fell below 40% for the first time.

But 62.1% of the respondents said they do not think it is appropriate for Abe to remain ambiguous over whether he gave an offering — a potted plant — to Yasukuni Shrine in late April, nearly double the 32.2% who said they thought it was appropriate.

Of those who said they support Abe's Cabinet, 40.6% cited a lack of alternatives, followed by 23.1% who expressed confidence in the prime minister.

Of the 38.2% of respondents not supporting the Cabinet, 19.2% said they see no leadership qualities in Abe and 18.3% said they do not expect much from the administration's economic policies.

The%age of those choosing the response that they see no leadership qualities in Abe has been decreasing since peaking in March at 34.8%. The figure in the April survey was 28.1%.

An overwhelming 80.8% of respondents were in favor of tightening restrictions on the practice of "amakudari," in which retired elite bureaucrats find jobs with firms and entities closely linked to their official roles, while 15.2% were against it.

Tags: japan, poll, pacifist constitution, article 9, collective self defense, right wing, ultra nationalism

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Referendum aims to prevent teachers to preach pacifist constitution

I only have four words for Japan's militaristic ambitions: 居心可測!

The law bans public servants, including teachers, from participating in any debates over constitutional change. Critics said the ban seemed aimed at preventing teachers, who tend to be supporters of the current Constitution, from influencing young voters.

NYT - The Japanese government took an important step toward revising its pacifist Constitution today when the country’s parliament endorsed a national referendum on the issue.

The government will be able to hold the referendum as early as 2010 under a bill approved by the upper house of parliament. The lower house passed the bill last month.

Experts believe it may take far longer than three years to persuade voters and opposition lawmakers to back changes to the Constitution imposed by American occupation authorities after World War II.

Polls show that the Japanese remain divided, especially on the Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces war and forbids the country to have a full-fledged military.

Proposals for any amendments would have to be approved by two-thirds of both houses of parliament and then by a majority of voters in a national referendum.

But the endorsement of procedures for holding a referendum was an important preliminary step in rewriting the Constitution, a goal long cherished by the governing Liberal Democratic Party and one that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has deemed central to what he calls shedding Japan’s “postwar regime.”

To change the Constitution, the Liberal Democrats would effectively need the approval of opposition parties, which either want to maintain the current Constitution or have their own preferences for revisions.

Opposition lawmakers said Mr. Abe had used the Liberal Democrats’ control of both houses of Parliament to ram through the legislation with little debate.

They also criticized the new law for not establishing a minimum turnout in a referendum, which they said would give disproportionate weight to the most fervent supporters of change.

The law bans public servants, including teachers, from participating in any debates over constitutional change. Critics said the ban seemed aimed at preventing teachers, who tend to be supporters of the current Constitution, from influencing young voters.

In recent years, the Japanese government has passed special laws that have stretched the limits of the pacifist Constitution, allowing, for example, non-combat troops to operate in Iraq.

Washington has long backed constitutional change so that Japan could play a larger military role. But moves by Japan to jettison its pacifist Constitution, coupled with attempts to revise Japan’s wartime history, are likely to be regarded with caution by its neighbors.
Tags: japan, militarism, pacifist constitution, article 9, ultra nationalism, right wing

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Bone Marrow match urgently sought

I'm re-publishing David Wong's urgent message. The Chinese media have also reported on the case. The message needs to be spread wider and further.

Through the electronic world of blogs and websites, I’ve recently discovered a new relative, and I was requested by her to urgently send out this call for help.

Her cousin had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and is now fighting for his life. All we can do is to put out this plea, and to hope that the message gets transmitted to as many eyes and ears as possible. The Georgia Straight newspaper had the following item published today:

Young Eurasian man urgently needs a bone-marrow donor

By Gail Johnson

Publish Date: May 13, 2007

A 23-year-old North Vancouver man with acute lymphoblastic leukemia is fighting for his life in St. Paul’s hopsital. He’s had chemotherapy but his only hope for remission is a bone-marrow transplant. The problem is there is a severe shortage of donors of mixed Asian and European ancestry, who would be the best chance of a match since they are from the same ethnic group.

James Erlandsen, an SFU student who worked at the Lynn Valley Save-On-Foods, was diagnosed with the disease in February.

Erlandsen’s family is putting out a plea for people, particularly those of Eurasian ancestry, to donate bone marrow.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a quickly progressing disease in which too many immature white blood cells called lymphoblasts are found in the blood and bone marrow.

The Straight recently wrote about bone-marrow transplants and the difficulty for people of ethnic minorities to find matches. See the December 14, 2006, story at www.straight.com/article/bone-marrow-donors-give-a-chance-at-life.

People with leukemia and lymphoma also require frequent blood transfusions during and after treatment, and sometimes there is a waiting list for blood prodcuts (platelets, for instance) as well. Canadian Blood Services urges people to consider giving blood as well.

More details on donating blood and/or bone marrow are at www.blood.ca/.

***

As the article indicated, there is a severe shortage of donors of mixed Asian and European ancestry… and communities that have a higher population of Eurasians include Toronto and San Francisco. So if anyone out there knows, or has a media contact out in these two places (or in any other locale), please help forward this message to their attention. Thank you.

Tags: lymphoblastic leukemia, James Erlandsen, SFU

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China fights back spy charges

Rarely would I read all messages left by readers to a post in the Globe and Mail. But today, I have great entertainment reading some discussing the article by Geoffrey York: "China points to ‘poppy coin' case to deny charges".

The article says:

Global Times, a newspaper owned by the venerable Chinese propaganda organ People's Daily, said Mr. Judd's statement is “even more absurd and senseless” in view of the false warning about the poppy coins.

“The Canadian government issues such irresponsible accusations, but they fall down on the most crucial point of providing evidence,” the newspaper said.

Global Times claimed that CSIS had “quickly pointed the finger at China and Russia” when it received the warnings about radio transmitters in the coins. (In reality, CSIS had actually questioned the accuracy of the U.S. espionage warning when it first heard of it.) The Chinese newspaper noted that CSIS had made similar statements about Chinese espionage in the past. “Although many people asked them to show evidence or data, they didn't get any answer,” it said. “This time, the chief of Canadian intelligence has again made a shrill statement, but he is still sloppy on the crucial question of evidence.”

The newspaper said CSIS is suspicious of Chinese immigrants, students, scientists and economic delegations in Canada. “This seems to mean that CSIS thinks it necessary to monitor almost every Chinese person in Canada.”

It said CSIS was accusing China because the agency is searching for threats to justify its budget and to fend off criticism of its inefficiency. “But evidence and facts are more important than jobs and prestige. Despite accusing a country of espionage for the past two or three years, it still cannot show any evidence.”

In the 54 messages left by readers (as at 10:30pm on Saturday May 12), not a large number of them are automatically anti-China as they usually do. This really surprises me. I'll just quote some of the interesting ones:

• The Chinese students association here tells students what they could and couldn't say about China and how they were supposed to talk about sensitive issues with Canadians.
• You have the freedom of not joining CSSA, and not following its instruction. I think it's noting more than Church's objection to gay marriage or Falun Gong's instructions on how to portray China when talking with Canadians.
• I suspect there are a lot more American spies in Canada although we choose to conveniently ignore them.
• The idea that there are more Chinese spies than American spies in Canada is pretty ridiculous.
• This article gets right to the point. You can't accuse someone without evidence. I believe the budget explanation is more like it. Like most of the government agency, CSIS is inefficient, and bureaucratic, a good place for people waiting to retire. One of my friend who worked as visiting scholar at NRC. She was so suprised to find out that people there take long lunch breaks, the buildings are empty after 4PM, and no one really concerned about the failure of the project, cause nothing would happen to them, and they can always get tax-payer's money and work on another project. Please someone tell me what technology from Canada worth stealing.
• This whole Chinese spy story is nothing but a pork barrel ploy for more government money. It also takes advantages of the typical self-important sentiment of Canadians.
• Why would Red China bother with spies?...America and Canada SELL all the technology to them... or send it there when companies relocate overseas(to China)..Microsoft is a good example.
• Here comes the Falun Gong again! It seems the Falun Gong is more efficient than CSIS. Just pick up a report on Epoch Times (Falun Gong's free newspaper) and put it into a CSIS report, job done!
• "But evidence and facts are more important than jobs and prestige" - That only proves they are better at doing what they do than we are at catching them.
• Nothing like claiming a conspiracy with no facts to support those allegations, no specifics to substantiate them - and at the same time divide Canadians further with undertones of suspicion, fear and possibly even racism.
• It should have been evident over the past few weeks that the RCMP and the CF are out of control, having taken instruction (at various levels) from Washington and not Ottawa. I suspect CSIS has been no different.
• It is time Canadians said no to this fearmongering and took back control of Canada. We are not quite in the hole our American neighbours are - but they too are now starting to realize where the last six years have led them.
• Good on the Government of China to do a little Intelligence work to protect themselves. If the Government of Canada won't protect other countries nationals or property in Canada then other countries will do it for them.
• Don't worry Canada, Uncle Sam is watching the Chinese so it won't interfere with our interests. Don't know who's looking out for Canadian interests though? I guess nobody is. The Perfect People who think that they live in a Perfect Country delude themselves into thinking that being nice will protect them. Well looks like everyone else in the world is taking advantage of you and laughing about it.
• Jeez...China buys most of Afghanistans poppy crop to refine into heroin to sell in North America. The 'poppy coin' is the centre of the story. Coincidence....HHhhmmmmm. And Canada is fighting to support the crook Karzai in Afghanistan against the Taliban, who made a real attempt to eradicate the Poppy farms. Karzais corrupt cronies are back in business shipping the poppy crop to China. HHhhmmmmm.
• That many spies? Well then come up with evidence or shut up. As they say: ""Get on with it" or get off the pot!"
• Can this country's relationship with the world's second greatest power get any worse? And am I the only one who's thinking that ever since Harper became PM, these things started popping up?
• If the current Canadian government really wanted to stop China from spying on us, then it would have strengthened CSIS - which many people here have pointed out as being inefficient - rather than banging up empty words and accusations. Duh.

Tags: china, canada, spy, diplomacy

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First and only time in North America to see China's national treasures in Quebec

Museum press release — Some of the finest historic artifacts from the National Museum of China are making a premiere appearance at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in its must-see summer exhibition, Treasures from China.

Featuring 120 prized artifacts, the exhibition illuminates the rich history and remarkable achievements of the Chinese people from ancient times to the modern era.

"This is a rare and wonderful opportunity for a North American audience to explore several periods in Chinese history and to better understand China's extraordinary contribution to the world's cultural heritage," said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. "Most of the pieces are so rare and so significant that this is the first time many of them are being shown outside of China."

On display are jade carvings and lacquerware; paintings and calligraphy; silk textiles; ceramics; and items fashioned from bronze, gold, and silver. Twenty-three of the artifacts are described by the Chinese museum as "premier masterpieces" because of their exceptional historical, cultural or artistic significance.

The artifacts illustrate the numerous connections between China and other parts of the world, the people and levels of society, and the religious beliefs of Chinese people at different periods in history.

"One of the artifacts, a jade Cong (3300–2200 BC), was used in rituals of worship," said Dr. Ban Seng Hoe, Curator of Asian Studies at the Museum of Civilization. "It was most likely owned by a noble, as most congs have been discovered in large, elaborate tombs."

The exhibition was developed following an exchange agreement signed two years ago by the National Museum of China and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. In return, the Museum of Civilization is creating an exhibition for the National Museum of China showcasing treasures of Canada's First Peoples. That exhibition will be presented at the Imperial City Museum in Beijing in 2008.

Treasures from China will be presented from May 11 to October 28, 2007 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Globe and Mail has a story on the exhibition:

"This is a rare and wonderful opportunity for a North American audience to explore several periods in Chinese history and to better understand China's extraordinary contribution to the world's cultural heritage," said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. "Most of the pieces are so rare and so significant that this is the first time many of them are being shown outside of China."

On display are jade carvings and lacquerware; paintings and calligraphy; silk textiles; ceramics; and items fashioned from bronze, gold, and silver. Twenty-three of the artifacts are described by the Chinese museum as "premier masterpieces" because of their exceptional historical, cultural or artistic significance.

The artifacts illustrate the numerous connections between China and other parts of the world, the people and levels of society, and the religious beliefs of Chinese people at different periods in history.

"One of the artifacts, a jade Cong (3300–2200 BC), was used in rituals of worship," said Dr. Ban Seng Hoe, Curator of Asian Studies at the Museum of Civilization. "It was most likely owned by a noble, as most congs have been discovered in large, elaborate tombs."

The exhibition was developed following an exchange agreement signed two years ago by the National Museum of China and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. In return, the Museum of Civilization is creating an exhibition for the National Museum of China showcasing treasures of Canada's First Peoples. That exhibition will be presented at the Imperial City Museum in Beijing in 2008.

Treasures from China will be presented from May 11 to October 28, 2007 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.

The show also speaks to the increasing importance Beijing places on cultural exchanges and soft diplomacy. It is another growl from a giant tiger muzzled for 500 years.

Back in 1400, Chinese civilization was poised to dominate the civilized world. Early Ming emperors sent expeditions throughout the Indian Ocean, in ships more technically advanced than any Europe would develop for centuries. But Admiral Zheng He's treasure fleets brought back foreign ideas and contacts that threatened the power of Confucian bureaucrats, who counselled isolationism.

And the Chinese, just recovering from the trauma of Mongol occupation, accepted their advice. Ships and maps were burned. Just before the age of Columbus, China turned inward -- probably the greatest voluntary retreat in history.

There's much the West may never understand about China, but now, with that isolationist policy in full reversal, there's no way to ignore it. "They want to show their open doors, they want to show they are opening up," Hoe says.

"We're seeing an outreach," says museum president Victor Rabinovitch. "More accessibility for foreign scholars."

Tags: china, canada, treasures of china, exhibition, quebec, beijing, ottawa, culture, civilization, history

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Photo of the Day - Pillow fight

Hundreds of people take part in an organized pillow fight at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on Saturday, May 12, 2007 in Toronto. (CP PHOTO/Nathan Denette)

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MPs free to visit Taiwan, needless to take order by 'another country': Kenney

CIV, MP - One of PM Stephan Harper's most important decision making partners Jason Kenney, the multicultural secretary of state, said Canadian MPs have the right and freedom to visit Taiwan and "don't need to listen to the order of another country."

"Canada and Taiwan share the common value for democracy," Kenney said. "And this should be respected."

The Globe and Mail reports earlier that China slammed Canada for "damaging Sino-Canadian relations" by allowing MPs to visit Taiwan, an issue it raised privately with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay during his recent visit.

China says such visits mean s sway from the "One China" policy and could easily be fallen victim to manipulation by activists advocating Taiwan's independence.

When asked about China's protest yesterday, Kenney first responded with a few loud laughters, then he said Canadian MPs have the right to decide which country they want to visit. They do not need to listen to the order of a foreign government.

He mentioned that both Canada and Taiwan have the same value for democracy. "Neither myself or the Canadian government would need to apologize to anyone for visiting a democratically elected government."

Kenney said the MPs' visit won't negatively affect the "One China" policy. He said the policy also includes keeping economic and cultural exchanges with the people of Taiwan.

Kenney was in Vancouver last night, one of his major activity was to visit the annual dinner of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in BC.

This was Kenney's first visit to a Chinese organization in Vancouver as the capacity of the secretary of state. While pro-China organizations outnumber pro-Taiwan organizations in BC, Kenney's decision to visit a Taiwanese organization first speaks much of his well-known distastes of China.

But he wouldn't rule out visiting pro-China organizations in the future.

"Being a member of the cabinet, I have the responsibility to meet with people of all ethnic backgrounds, regardless of where they originally come from," Kenney said.

Tags: china, canada, diplomacy, taiwan, foreign affairs

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New evidence emerges from Dutch government archives on 'Comfort Women'

BBC - Reports from Japan say documents have been found that suggest the Japanese authorities forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II.

They come from the Dutch government archives and include the testimony of a 27-year-old Dutch woman from May 1946.

The Kyodo news agency says the documents show women were coerced into prostitution in occupied Indonesia.

PM Shinzo Abe had claimed there was no evidence of Japanese officials forcing women into prostitution.

The documents are reported to have been found by a Japanese journalist investigating Japan's wartime crimes in Asia.

'Comfort women'

The Dutch woman's testimony says she had her clothes ripped off her by Japanese military police.

She says she was taken to a brothel and forced to work as a prostitute, despite her efforts to resist.

That testimony, it is claimed, was submitted to the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal as evidence of forced mass prostitution in Magelang, in what is now Central Java, in 1944.

Other documents are said to include further allegations that the Japanese forced women into prostitution.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Abe said that investigations had failed to find any documentary evidence that the Japanese authorities in wartime had issued orders to soldiers to coerce women into sex slavery.

He said though that he stood by a Japanese government apology to the women, known in Japan as "comfort women".

The journalist who found these documents says they contradict the prime minister's denial that the authorities were directly involved in coercion.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry says it is aware of his claims but has not seen the documents so cannot comment on what they might contain.

It says the Japanese government has investigated its wartime activities in Indonesia thoroughly and acknowledges and apologises for the country's wartime use of sex slaves.

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China military ties with ASEAN no threat, U.S. says

Wow, what a change of attitude from five years ago. I wonder if this would have any influence on the Harperites in forever-formulating their China policy.

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Reuters - China's bid for closer military ties with Southeast Asia is a "positive overture" and does not pose a threat to U.S. interests in the region, a top U.S. military commander said on Thursday.

"Our reaction to it is, we are going to reach out to China and engage with them. If they want to exercise together, I'm prepared to exercise right now," said Lieutenant-General John Goodman, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces in the Pacific.

"I view it as an opportunity. It is change, but change needs to be viewed from a long-term perspective," he told foreign journalists in the Thai resort town of Pattaya where the annual Thai-U.S. "Cobra Gold" war games began on Tuesday.

Nearly 5,000 military personnel, including 1,900 from the United States and smaller contingents from Singapore, Japan and Indonesia, are taking part in the largest multilateral exercise for U.S. forces in the region.

However, Washington's allies fear it has been distracted by Iraq, Iran, the war on terror and North Korea, allowing China to raise its profile in the region quietly and be more assertive.

During a summit with leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) last October, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for greater cooperation on cross-border issues such as counter-terrorism, transnational crime, maritime security, rescue operations and disaster relief.

Those goals could equally apply to Cobra Gold which, over its 26 years, has evolved from an exclusively Thai-U.S. exercise to include many other countries from the region.

China, which has sent observers to Cobra Gold, has proposed its own joint exercises with ASEAN, according to a report by Jane's Defence Weekly last month.

"Sources told Jane's that the Chinese proposal, which is still in an early stage, involves a joint naval drill," wrote Robert Karniol, Jane's Asia-Pacific editor.

Discussions began in early 2007 with an aim to hold the exercise in mid-2008, the report said.

"I think it's a positive overture. It helps move toward avoiding miscalculation," Goodman said, adding he would like to see U.S. forces take part in a China-ASEAN exercise.

"Let's go out and let's exercise. Let's train together, let's get to know one another. Let's figure out who we are and how we can make this place a better place to live," he said.

Jane's said the Chinese proposal "signals that Washington can expect heightened competition for influence in Southeast Asia."

Goodman said: "That is true, but it does not have to be a competition. That's the most important lesson we have to learn."

However, he added the fact a third of the U.S. Marine Corps' fighting force was based in the Pacific underscored the U.S. commitment to the region.

"Some of them go to Iraq and Afghanistan. They come back. This is our home and we are here for the long haul. The United States is an Asia-Pacific nation," he said.

Tags: china, USA, military, ASEAN

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Japan hopes to improve ties with China: spokesperson

AFP - Japan said Wednesday it hoped to keep improving relations with China after Beijing refrained from criticizing the Japanese premier for sending an offering to a controversial war shrine.

Chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Japan and China are building a "mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests," a frequent soundbite from Japanese leaders.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered a shrub considered sacred in Japan to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including leading World War II war criminals.

The Shinto memorial has been at the heart of tensions as some Asian nations regard it as a symbol of Japan's past aggression.

"Both Japan and China share the resolve to build together a beautiful future in bilateral relations, while looking directly at our history," Shiozaki told a press conference.

"We are looking at the same goal of building a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests. It is important that we maintain this broad current with efforts made by both sides," he said.

Abe, despite his conservative ideology, is not known to have visited the Yasukuni shrine since he took office in September.

China, which has improved relations with Japan under Abe, did not criticize his offering to the shrine.

But South Korea, where resentment runs deep over Japan's harsh colonial rule of the peninsula from 1910-45, expressed regret over Abe's shrine offering.

Separately on Wednesday, South Korea sent a letter of protest to Tokyo over what it called distorted historical references in Japanese school textbooks to disputed islands and wartime sex slavery.

Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine each year he was in office, which led China and South Korea to refuse any summits with him.

Seen more as a political eccentric than an ideologue, Koizumi fulfilled a campaign promise to go to the shrine annually and made his visits highly visible, drawing intense media coverage.

Abe, who was a staunch defender of Koizumi's shrine visits at the time, has refused comment on his past and possible future pilgrimages, saying such remarks would only aggravate Japan's relations with its neighbors.

Abe donated the shrub just after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid a landmark visit to Japan in which Wen took a conciliatory view on history but made what was considered an indirect warning against visits to the Yasukuni shrine.

Abe sent the offering with a marker that included his title as prime minister but later said the donation was a "private matter."

The liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which is critical of visits to the Yasukuni shrine, said that Abe had put himself in an "awkward" position.

"The gallant, right-leaning agenda that the prime minister once raised is difficult to execute after being tasked with managing the administration," it said.

The Asahi said that Abe was "trying to reveal his true nature as a nationalist little by little" while facing public opposition.

"The prime minister will find no way out of the dilemma as long as he does this."


Tags: china, japan, diplomacy

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Canada-China imports and exports 2001-2006

TOTAL IMPORTS FROM CHINA
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	$	%
							+/-	+/-
							05/06	05/06
Total imports from China	12,724	16,004	18,583	24,103	29,515	34,473	4,958	16.8%
Machinery	1,454	2,109	3,041	4,726	6,049	7,155	1,106	18.3%
Electronics	2,156	2,780	3,256	4,328	5,596	6,794	1,198	21.4%
Toys and sports	1,440	1,725	1,936	2,059	2,186	2,409	224	10.2%
Furniture, Bedding	817	1,103	1,255	1,627	1,886	2,274	388	20.6%
Clothing	1,236	1,593	1,661	2,010	2,958	3,428	470	15.9%
UNIT: Millions of Canadian Dollars (i.e. $34,373 is $37.5 billion)
SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA