CITIC, Maurice Strong

CITIC, Maurice Strong

China's Canadian Cousins

By Judi McLeod & Brian McAdam
Saturday, October 22, 2005

Canadian powerbrokers are the biggest western players in contemporary Chinese affairs.

Engaged in the Peoples Republic of China are Maurice Strong, AWOL since his alleged ties to the United Nations' Oil-for-Food scandal put him on the suspect list and former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who faded not into the sunset but into the Orient.

Strong seems to have hightailed it to China, when a $988,000 cheque drawn on an Arab bank became an exhibit in the Paul Volcker's Oil-for-Food investigation. Strong supporters say that China, on the fast track as the superpower to replace the USA, counts on their man to get there.

Less than two months after stepping down as Canadian prime minister--a job he left to Maurice Strong protégé Paul Martin--Chrétien was back in China tending business interests.

"Chrétien was hosted by the state-owned China International Trust and Investment Group Corp. (CITIC), which is the communist regime's most politically connected financial and industrial conglomerate." (Asian Pacific Post, Feb. 19, 2004).

CITIC is a sort of Power Corp. - Orient style.

With an estimated asset base of $48-billion, CITIC is among the world's largest corporations with 44 subsidiaries and banks including those in Hong Kong, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

This is a corporation that maintains close ties to the dreaded Peoples Liberation Army, and which answers directly to China's top ruling political leaders.

"According to a report from China, Chrétien was to meet CITIC's top executives, travel to Shanghai and Shenyang, near the North Korean border under a veil of secrecy in a completely private visit." (Asian Pacific Post).

For Canadian media types who promote the image of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin as political rivals, the same CITIC officials Chrétien met on his secret trip were entertained in Canada by Paul Martin earlier this month.

The nepotism inherent in China's Canadian family tree is one for the books.

CITIC counts among its advisors Chrétien's son-in-law Andre Desmarais of the Montreal-based Power Corp. China booster Maurice Strong is a former Power Corp. CEO, who hired Paul Martin during his Power Corp. tenure.

Canadian family tree ties in latter day China go well beyond prime ministers and their mentors, and even beyond the powerful corporation that is their master.

The founders of CITIC are Li Ka Shing and Henry Fok.

Wang Jun, CITIC chair was caught up in the Chinagate scandal. He's a business partner with another Chinagate player in a Macau casino under a franchise by Fok, Stanley Ho and other principals, including Cheng Yu Tung, a close partner of Li Ka Shing who bought the former Expo land in Vancouver back in 1986.

During his brief sojourn from politics, while John Turner was leader of the federal Liberals, Chrétien worked for Gordon Securities–one of many Li-controlled companies in Canada.

The vice president of Gordon Securities then was Robert Fung, one of Paul Martin's closest friends.

At last head count, both of Fung's sons depended on paycheques from boss man Li Ka Shing.

The older Fung is chair of the long on talk, short on action Toronto Waterfront Commission. The Maurice Strong founded Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is funding a $3-million study to determine if another UN University of Peace should be built on Toronto's waterfront. Maurice Strong was President of U-Peace in Costa Rica and plays a leading role in the so-called Earth Council which the Costa Rica government is pursuing to retrieve a tract of land donated on loan for university use, it says the council turned around and sold for profit.

Li owns most of the prime real estate on Toronto's waterfront, including all the surrounding former CN property with its world famous CN Tower.

Li donated about $50,000 to Martin's Liberal leadership campaign and the two meet regularly in Canada and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, China's famed Ginkgo trees are beginning to sprout maple leaves.

Maurice Strong resurfaces in China

By Judi McLeod
Friday, September 23, 2005

Little has been heard of Kofi Annan's pointman Maurice Strong since his alleged ties to the UN oil-for-food scandal surfaced.

"Ou est Maurice Strong?" has been water cooler speculation for UN watchers.

Strong, whose Lost Lake, Buckhorn, Ontario property has been up for sale, hasn't been heard from since he admitted to recognizing his signature on a $1-million cheque from deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to Tongsun Park to Cordex, a now defunct company once run by his son, Fred, after having first denied any knowledge of the cheque.

Maurice Strong is alive and well in Taiyuan, China. At least that's where he was yesterday.

Strong, co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Earth Council Alliance, and Qu Geping, media dubbed "the father of China's environmental protection", made a joint announcement Thursday that the two sides will join efforts to promote the research, development and utilization of environment-friendly technologies in different industries worldwide.

"Strong, who is a former under-secretary-general of the United Nations, addressed the meeting, speaking highly of China's enormous efforts in environmental protection by governments at all levels, different organizations and individuals, over the past decades." (www.chinaview.cn).

One of the People of the Republic of China's biggest boosters, Strong believes that China will someday soon replace the United States as a superpower.

He urged China to give greater importance to the study, development and spread of environment-friendly technologies in all industries, so as to curb increasingly severe industrial pollution.

Qu, who is former minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration and former chairman of the Environmental Protection and Land Resources Committee of the National People's Congress, expressed optimism about the future of environmental protection in the country.

The government has paid close attention to the issue and China's enormous achievements in this field have drawn worldwide attention, Qu said. But serious problems still exist in the country and in some areas the problems have caused social problems, he noted.

A group of Chinese and foreign environmental experts and scholars gathered in the Mianshan Tourist Resort, in north China's Shanxi Province, to attend the annual conference of the Earth Council Alliance, which is focused on clean industrial technologies.

The Earth Council Alliance gave an award to Yan Jiying, chairman of the board of the Sanjia Coal-Chemical Company Ltd., for his "exceptional contribution to sustainable development through the innovation and utilization of clean coke technology."

Yan, the first Chinese entrepreneur to receive the award, invented a clean coke technology that minimizes coking plant pollution.

At the meeting, Strong and Qu made a joint proposal, calling for spreading Yan's invention to China and other coke-producing countries in an effort to curb rampant coking industry pollution.

Strong established the Earth Council in 1992. In 2004, he and Tommy Short co-founded the Earth Council Alliance to coordinate the cooperation of earth councils in various countries.

The Canadian diplomat has been well received in China where his cousin, Louise, a personal friend of Chairman Mao, was buried with full honours.

Meanwhile, everything is not going so well for Strong's home base, the United Nations. Sen. James Inhofe will introduce the Protection Against UN Taxation Act of 2005. The bill will request the withholding of United States contributions to the United Nations until the President certifies that the UN is not engaged in global taxation schemes.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com