← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · edward gibbon
Thread ID: 15396 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2004-10-21
2004-10-21 21:25 | User Profile
From the following site: [url]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041021.wchina21/BNStory/International/[/url]
[B][SIZE=3][CENTER]China set to buy Canadian[/CENTER][/SIZE][/B]
By GEOFFREY YORK From Thursday's Globe and Mail
[QUOTE]Beijing ââ¬â China's Communist rulers have a blunt message for anyone who frets about the planned Chinese takeover of Canada's biggest mining company: Get ready for more to come. In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail in Beijing this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing made it plain that the controversial $7-billion takeover of Noranda Inc. is just a small element in a much more ambitious strategy of investment in Canada's resources sector to feed China's voracious appetite for raw materials. "Given our rapid economic growth, we're facing an acute shortage of natural resources," the Foreign Minister told The Globe.
"No matter how plentiful our natural resources, when you divide them by our population of 1.3 billion, the figure will be very small," he said. "The Chinese government is encouraging Chinese enterprises to make investments in Canada, particularly in the field of resources exploitation."
It is the first public comment on the Noranda issue by a senior Chinese leader since the controversy over the planned takeover erupted last month. Though the minister did not identify any specific targets for future Chinese buyers, it is known that two of China's biggest state-controlled oil companies are considering major investments in Alberta's oil sands. In other potential billion-dollar deals, Chinese oil and mining companies are looking at lucrative assets held by Canadian companies in Ecuador and Mongolia.
[COLOR=Red]The proposed takeover of Noranda by state-owned China Minmetals Corp. has shocked many Canadian observers, but it is a potent symbol of China's sudden emergence as a powerful global investor and a massive consumer of commodities. China is hungry for supplies and expertise in the natural resources sector, and Canada has both.[/COLOR]
The Noranda takeover ââ¬â which is expected to be finalized by mid-November, becoming the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese corporation ââ¬â has sparked questions by several MPs who have raised human-rights concerns. Some say the deal should be blocked because of reports that China Minmetals has been linked to the use of forced labour in the Chinese prison gulag.
China's Foreign Minister vigorously rejected the human-rights concerns. "You can tell your readers that they needn't worry at all about China's development," he said. "In the international arena, we act in accordance with international law and international practice. We will act in accordance with the rules of the World Trade Organization, as a member of WTO." He insisted that human rights are fully protected by the Chinese constitution, and argued that China's human-rights situation is not too different from that of Canada. "On human rights, I believe, our two peoples have a lot in common," he said. "Liberty, democracy, freedom and whatever, we share a lot. What is democracy? Democracy is a way in which people enjoy their rights according to law. If the Chinese people and government are working in accordance with our constitution and law, why do people in Canada worry about this? "I don't think there is anything to give a reason for those people to worry about China's human-rights record. Perhaps those people have not read at all the Chinese constitution. Perhaps they have not been to China and also perhaps they don't know history."
He invoked the memory of Norman Bethune, the Canadian surgeon who became a Communist martyr after he died in 1939 while tending to wounded Communist soldiers on the battlefield after the Japanese invasion of China. "When the Chinese fought against foreign aggression, it was a very progressive and friendly Canadian who came to help us," he said. "That was a real help to the Chinese people. If you have any questions, any doubts or suspicions, tell them that all of our Canadian friends are welcome to come to China to see for themselves."
He also revealed that Prime Minister Paul Martin will visit China within the next few months. It will be Mr. Martin's first visit to China since becoming Prime Minister, and it could provoke further questions at home about the Noranda deal and the human-rights issues. (The Prime Minister's Office has not yet announced the China visit, but Mr. Li confirmed that the Prime Minister will visit China early next year.)
On the economic front, he noted that the two-way trade between Canada and China in the first eight months of this year was nearly 60 per cent above the level of last year. He wants still closer links. "The two economies are highly complementary, and are yet to tap their tremendous potential, especially in resource and energy co-operation," Mr. Li said in response to a supplementary list of questions from The Globe.
China's dramatic rise on the world stage has triggered anxieties in the West and in Asia, where observers have worried about its fast-growing military budget, its expanding nationalist movement and its territorial disputes with some of its neighbours. Nobody should fear China's rising influence, the Foreign Minister said. China's own development will, in return, contribute to world peace, he said. "China's development will not threaten anybody or compromise their interests," Mr. Li said. "China's peaceful development serves not only the maximum interests of its people but also the common interests of people around the world."
Despite the double-digit annual growth of its military budget, China's defence spending remains "at a low level" compared with the United States, he said. The sharp increase this year is "mainly intended to ensure that the livelihood of service personnel improves." Even as China becomes a global economic powerhouse, Mr. Li insists that it is merely a "developing country" with a "weak economic foundation." The country will "concentrate on its own development" in the future, he said. "It will take a long and arduous journey and require generations of hard work before China can fully develop itself."[/QUOTE]Does anyone remember Solzhenitsyn's warning?
2004-10-21 23:41 | User Profile
Edward,
If they don't, they damn well better remember Napoleon's.
2004-10-22 00:43 | User Profile
I posted something in reference to this article in another article above.
When you sell your land to another country you are selling the future of your people.
Mexico has the right idea, you can rent land, if you are a foreigner, but can not buy it.
2004-10-22 05:00 | User Profile
[quote=Edward Gibbon]Does anyone remember Solzhenitsyn's warning?[QUOTE=Sertorius]Edward,
If they don't, they damn well better remember Napoleon's.[/QUOTE]
I don't remember either one, pointy heads. Give me a break, what were they!
In any event, with 1.3 Billion Chinese buying (and no doubt other plans of acquisition) up the world, isn't it nice that we are gradually gaining a foothold on Falujah? At least we don't have to worry about a few Middle Eastern clerics.
And Israel will probably profit nicely from Red Chinese expansion. They seem to be one of their closest friends.
2004-10-22 11:58 | User Profile
Okie,
Here you go. [QUOTE][url=http://www.russia.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=21563&pagenumber=2]"China is a sickly, sleeping giant. But when she awakes the world will tremble."- Napoleon[/url][/QUOTE] Edward is referring to Solzhnitsyn's 1978 address to Harvard. [URL=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts[/URL] [QUOTE]There is the concept of the Third World: thus, we already have three worlds. Undoubtedly, however, the number is even greater; we are just too far away to see. Every ancient and deeply rooted self-contained culture, especially if it is spread over a wide part of the earth's surface, constitutes a self-contained world, full of riddles and surprises to Western thinking. As a minimum, we must include in this China, India, the Muslim world, and Africa, if indeed we accept the approximation of viewing the latter two as uniform. [/QUOTE] I believe Edward is referring to this: [QUOTE]At present, some western voices already have spoken of obtaining protection from a third power against aggression in the next world conflict, if there is one; in this case the shield would be China. But I would not wish such an outcome to any country in the world.
First of all, it is again a doomed alliance with evil; also, it would grant the United States a respite, but when at a later date China with its billion people would turn around armed with American weapons, America itself would fall prey to a genocide similar to the one perpetrated in Cambodia in our days.[/QUOTE]
2004-10-22 21:47 | User Profile
Sertorius,
I think Japan will start building nukes some time in the next ten years and lead East Asia in a new "Cold War" with China. The US may not even be a party to this. The PRC is the most mass mudering and evil state in the history of world. The Jap will give up the anti-war nonsense and go back to their old ways. The Japs could well take place they were trying to get in the 1880 to 1945 period.
I also think depopulation will start to cause China problems in not too many years. Aids is growing at high rate due to the PRC destruction of religion. I saw a program about the "Gay Rights" movement is growing in China. We can hope this kind of degeneracy keeps grows in China.
2004-10-23 16:12 | User Profile
Note- Taconite is the iron ore used to make steel.
A friend e-mailed me that it was reported in his local paper that the first load of taconite pellets destined for China was shipped from the Duluth MN harbor in the past week.
Is it not a third world nation that sends it's raw materials to more advanced nations to be manufactured into usefull products?
And you can bet that the prostitute economists and politricksters will be crowing about how such trade with China will help to create jobs, improve the balance of trade, blah, blah, blah.
2004-10-23 17:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Blond Knight]Note- Taconite is the iron ore used to make steel.
A friend e-mailed me that it was reported in his local paper that the first load of taconite pellets destined for China was shipped from the Duluth MN harbor in the past week.
[COLOR=Red] [I]Is it not a third world nation that sends it's raw materials to more advanced nations to be manufactured into usefull products?[/I][/COLOR]
And you can bet that the prostitute economists and politricksters will be crowing about how such trade with China will help to create jobs, improve the balance of trade, blah, blah, blah.[/QUOTE]The below statistics should open some eyes for those who believe China is still a third world nation. From the International Steel Institute: [url]http://www.worldsteel.org/wsif.php[/url]
Crude Steel Production__2003___2004
China_____220 Million Tons187 Japan_____110_107 United States__90_____91
China now produces more than twice the steel the United States does and shortly it will be three times as much. Will anybody say four?
2004-10-23 17:18 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Okie,
Here you go.
Edward is referring to Solzhnitsyn's 1978 address to Harvard. [URL=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts[/URL]
I believe Edward is referring to this:[/QUOTE]So true!!!
Shame Solzhenitsyn's address is not posted here for ready reference. Napoleon's remark is for the historically minded.
2004-10-24 02:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Okie,
Here you go.
Edward is referring to Solzhnitsyn's 1978 address to Harvard. [URL=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/776305/posts[/URL].......
I believe Edward is referring to this:[/QUOTE]Thanks Sert. We certainly don't understand China, but we certainly can't underestimate them.
Does anyone remember now when they virtually bought the Clinton White House, through - who was that guy - Charlie Woo or something - who owned those fast food Chinese outlets in Little Rock?
Gosh - this sounds like an issue even Freepers might get excited about one day. :lol:
Anyway, thanks for that link to Solzhnitsyn's address. I'd been looking for that.
2004-10-24 09:33 | User Profile
You're welcome and you are thinking of Charlie Trie.
The Chinese are using classic [url=http://www.sig.upv.es/personales/rmolla/Suntzu.htm]Sun Tzu[/url] strategy. He was a Chinese general who lived around 500 B.C. and wrote a book entitled The Art of War. These quotes below explain what they are doing in regard to the U.S. on a grand scale.
Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.
With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.
Instead of doing all the crap the idiots of the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal are worried about they have a better way of fighting us short of physical warfare. They are waging economic warfare taking advantage our cult of the consumer, i.e., the cheapest price, and turning this into a weapon to destroy our domestic industries. Between them and the rest of Asia they have just about destroyed the U.S. textile industy. Does anyone remember the infamous beret incident when the Army decided to exchange the fatigue caps for berets and it turned out that 2/3 of them were made in China because there weren't enough domestic producers here? Eventually, the Army was able to get enough from other sources without using the Chinese ones. As for them the taxpayers ate the bill. The Chinese realize just how stupid and greedy our "leaders" (and the mindset over at the Wall Street Journal in particular, with their calls for military confrontation while at the same time calling for "constructive engagement") are and are doing well in exploiting it. Just think, thanks to the U.S. consumer it is possible for them to buy this company that Edward posted above that controls resources that the U.S. needs. Same with the Panama canal.
I'm afraid that the "freepers" are too focused on the Middle East to see the Chinese sneaking up behind us on this.
2004-10-24 17:08 | User Profile
Sun Tzu must have been a Chinese Jew because that's what the Jews have been doing now for centuries.
Those people have taken over America and done it so softly that the American people still only care about their six pack and ball games.