Keeping an eye on Communist, Totalitarian China, and its influence both globally, and we as Canadians. I have come to the opinion that we are rarely privy to truth regarding the real goal, the agenda of China, it's ambitions for Canada [including special focus on the UK, US & Australia]. No more can we trust the legacy media as there appears to be increasing censorship applied to the topic of communist China. I ask why. Here is what I find.
Rhino horn smuggler gets gored with stiff sentence
BY MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Washington BureauMarch 25, 2015
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/25/260930/rhino-horn-smuggler-gets-gored.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
WASHINGTON— The lucrative underground trade in rhinoceros horns earned Canadian resident Xiao Ju Guan some ill-gotten gains.
Now, it’s going to cost the 39-year-old antiques dealer from British Columbia 30 months in a U.S. prison.
On Wednesday, New York-based U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain sentenced the man also known as Tony Guan.
Guan was arrested in March 2014, as part of “Operation Crash,” a nationwide crackdown on the illegal trafficking in rhinoceros horns. He was seized in the United States, after being lured to this country by undercover special agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who had baited the hook with the offer of two endangered black rhinoceros horns.
“The illegal trade in rhinoceros horns is the number one threat to many populations of African rhinos, and is driving the species towards extinction,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said in a statement. “The wholesale slaughter of these magnificent animals in the wild is taking place so a few callous individuals can line their own pockets.”
The primarily Asian demandfor rhino horns stems, reportedly, from the putative health benefits they provide. Last year, according to the Justice Department, a record 1,215 rhinoceros were poached in South Africa alone.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/25/260930/rhino-horn-smuggler-gets-gored.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Dragon'Head laundered Triad cash in Canada: court documents
An accused triad leader from Macau laundered millions of dollars of dirty money in Canada as immigration officials waited over a decade for access to police wiretap information that allowed them to move to have him deported, court documents show.
Lai Tong Sang, the alleged “dragon head” of the Shui Fong gang who fled a bloody turf war by coming to Canada, was the subject of an investigation by the Integrated Proceeds of Crime unit, according to documents filed with the Federal Court of Canada in Vancouver.
“I was informed that although the subject’s financial record and transactions indicate trends of money laundering activity, they did not have sufficient evidence to meet the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” said the December 2011 report by Canada Border Services Agency.
However the standard of proof in an immigration matter is less than in a criminal court, it noted, and immigration officials pointed to a report from FINTRAC – Canada’s financial intelligence agency – to contend there are reasonable grounds to believe Mr. Lai “was or is” involved in money laundering activities. From Oct. 15, 2002 to Nov. 8, 2006, investigators tracked 49 separate electronic funds transfers.
The transactions amounted to $2.1 million and $140,000 (U.S.), the report stated.
Mr. Lai and his wife, accompanied by their three children, arrived at Vancouver airport on Oct. 28, 1996, under a permanent resident visa.
His immigration made headlines, as he was well known in Macau media as the head of the Shui Fong, or Water Room, gang.
But it wasn’t until July 2011 that immigration officials completed reports alleging Mr. Lai was not admissible to Canada due to his ties to a criminal organization.
In November 2011, Mr. Lai filed an application with the Federal Court for a judicial review of the agency’s decision to try and have him removed from Canada.
The then 14-year delay was “unreasonable and prejudicial to Mr. Lai and his family,” argued his lawyer, Peter Chapman.
“Previous investigations were done and the government apparently decided not to take proceedings to cancel Mr. Lai’s permanent resident status,” Mr. Chapman submitted to the court.
But that was not the case, said documents filed with the court.
“It should be noted that it is extremely difficult to investigate or prosecute members of organized crime, given that they are often sophisticated, very mobile, have access to vast resources and use violence or threats to intimidate witnesses,” stated a report by Citizenship and Immigration Canada filed in court. Evidence from wiretaps and police investigations was not able to be released at the time that Mr. Lai arrived in Canada and was the target of an assassination attempt by gang rivals.
During three days of hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board last week, police witnesses described the intertwined criminal investigations that touched Mr. Lai’s case.
The assassination plot was linked to Simon Kwok Chow, the purported leader of the rival 14K triad in Vancouver. Mr. Chow was convicted of the first-degree murder in February 2001 in an unrelated case and sentenced to life in prison.
Mr. Chapman argued there is no allegation that Shui Fong was engaged in activities that constituted indictable offences in Canada. Not so, said immigration officials.
“Information within the disclosure packages indicates that the Shui Fong were involved in various criminal activities, but not limited to, murder, assault, extortion, gang fighting, illegal gambling, and living off the avails of prostitution,” said the report. Mr. Lai’s membership in the Shui Fong is lifelong, “even if he is not active in criminality in Canada.”
Mr. Lai first applied for permanent residence in February 1994, an application that was referred for enhanced criminal checks because of his membership in a triad organization, say the court documents.
With that process stalled, Mr. Lai sent a letter March 15, 1996, withdrawing the application in Macau. He had filed an application in Los Angeles two weeks earlier, on March 1.
Mr. Lai did not attend his IRB admissibility hearing in person, but called in from Macau. His wife and children live in Metro Vancouver, and immigration officials seek to have them removed on the grounds that material facts were misrepresented in their visa applications.
A decision is not expected in his case for several months.
The TRUTH on China: China is in fact very poor and backward, majority of the people live in poverty, children have no food nor clothes, slave workers everywhere in China....the China Experts, China Scholars, journalists covering China are fraudulent, most of them do not understand the Chinese language though they pretend to so they have to rely on the Chinese most of them are spies to provide information to them; some of them rely on the Chinese media to provide information to you; and of course they make up stories to make things fancy...arrest them all as most of them are guilty ....the West nations do not need such fraudulent information, wake up.
Real ChinesePeople In 1960, the Chinese people were living in poverty like this (see photo ) ! Today, the standard of the Chinese living increased 32 times based on Henry Kissinger, The Vatican, China experts in the US, that means the Chinese are still living in poverty and have to come to the Western nations as fake refugees to make money and send to home in China. Yes, we do see many rich Chinese people shopping in the West, ironically, they are not normal Chinese but members of Chinese Communist Party (about 80 millions) and their lovers, children and relatives.
Chinese South China Sea Reclamation Projects Hamper Philippines, Others’ Claims
By Simone Orendain In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2013 by a surveillance plane, and released Thursday, May 15, 2014, by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, Chinese-made structures stands on the Johnson South Reef (Đá Gạc Ma), called Mabini by the Philippines.
MANILA—China is forging ahead with reclamation projects on at least seven tiny but hotly contested features in the South China Sea, posing what could be a major challenge in the Philippines' international arbitration case against China.
Surveys of the disputed outcroppings will be key. Since the beginning of the year, various satellite images of Chinese reclamation work in the Spratly Islands have shown shoals and reefs turning into artificial islands.
Major harbors that can dock military ships are nearly completed.
So are several airstrips and at least three multistory buildings where bare outposts once stood. Philippine Foreign Affairs SecretaryAlbert del Rosariosaid at a forum in Manila Thursday his government has protested what he calls “the massive reclamation activities” of China. “The alteration of these features [is] plainly intended to change the character, status and maritime entitlements of the said features, which prejudice the arbitration and undermine work of the arbitral tribunal to hear and objectively decide the case,” said del Rosario. In January 2013, the Philippines filed a case with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea seeking affirmation on features it is contesting with China based on definitions of international law. Just about every single feature included in the filing now has Chinese reclamation work in progress. The case also questions what Manila calls Beijing’s “excessive claims” in the South China Sea. China opted out of arbitration in certain cases when it signed on to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and it rejects the filing. China has said it has “indisputable sovereignty” over practically the entire sea.
Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also have claims in the resource-rich sea. The Philippine argues that certain features China took over are “low tide elevations,” meaning at high tide they are completely submerged.
It says these are far from China’s territorial sea, which makes them either part of another state’s continental shelf or part of the international seabed.
The Philippines also deems four reefs “rocks,” saying even if they are above sea level at high tide, they are uninhabitable “and incapable of supporting economic life in their natural state.” When features are disputed, international law does not recognize their altered states.
But there has to be proof of what they were before they were changed. Gregory Poling, who specializes in the disputes in the South China Sea at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said such cases are rare and in the only other case he could recall, the international court’s standards were tough. “They needed on the ground surveys, at not just high tide, but the highest tide of the year. It was a much higher bar than say, a few flyovers for satellite imagery,” said Poling. University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs directorJay Batongbacalsaid that until 2010, the Philippines had solid surveys of the features it claims in the Spratlys. “However, if for example the tribunal were to say, well, they don’t think that the evidence presented is good enough and they would ask for newer, better surveys, then clearly it would be impossible,” said Batongbacal. Also, Batongbacal said, the features that could be surveyed are too close to Chinese and Vietnamese positions.
He and Poling say timing of the surveys is important because they need to have been done before reclamation work started. Henry Bensurto, a San Francisco-stationed consul general who heads the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department’s legal team on the arbitration case, said the Philippines is strengthening its case through a “holistic approach.” He said the Philippines has submitted flight surveillance imagery of the islands, low-tide elevations, and rocks as well as their anthropological and historic background. “Because this is important to have a better appreciation of the features not in just one instance of history but over a period of time. Because that’s very important also, especially if you’re going to define [an] island as capable of sustaining human habitation,” said Bensurto. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has yet to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the case.
Beijing says it does not because Manila’s filing is essentially about maritime borders and delimitations, which the court cannot rule on. Manila is confident the Court has jurisdiction and it expects a ruling on both jurisdiction and the merits of its claim by early next year. Poling thinks the Court will likely make a determination only on the sweeping claim argument and leave the question of the features alone because “it gets too close to the delimitation issue.”
(this should be written by a journalist covering China, but as they are now busy dinning with members of the Chinese Communist Party and dating Chinese business women, I write this blog for the world and my payment for writing this blog is a beer paid by myself. ) You do not have to be persecuted or prosecuted by the Chinese Communist government, you can even be a member of the Communist Party of China, a rich businessman, a visa student ....it really does not matter, as long as you speak Chinese, you should be qualified to make a refugee claim in Canada.
Further, you do not even need to be someone who speaks the Chinese language, you could be Japanese or anyone who looks like a Chinese, you are qualified to make a refugee claim in Canada.
You go to Chinatown in Canada, find a paralegal - there are many signs telling you that they do immigration; then you pay them $5,000.00, and they will make up a story for you; if you are well-known or you failed your refugee tests in the past, you may pay more money to get a new ID; and you then may be referred to the local Falun Gong organization - they are located in Chinatown, you join the Falun Gong and learn how to practice Falun Gong style Qigong.
If you are stingy, you apply for social assistance andget legal aid - all the Chinese community services could help you with that. With a legal aid certificate, you may hire a lawyer to represent you. But still, for very rich people or communist party member, you may wish to pay your lawyer cash instead of legal aid, the more the better.
At the refugee hearing, you tell your story although the story is fake, and you may produce a letter from the local Falun Gong organization to back up your story, as long as you are confident, coherent and act well, you will succeed and become a Canadian immigrant.
It is like an exam, if you practice it well, prepare adequately and pass the refuge hearing, then you will become a Canadian immigrate; it really has nothing to do with the TRUTH. And we all know that the Chinese people are good at passing exams.
I practised refugee law over ten years ago, once I was told by one of my clients about the story, I ceased to practice refugee law.
It is in the Chinese media that paralegals, immigration firms, Falun Gong and "Pro-democratic organizations disclose these practical tips and teach people how to obtain immigration status by pretending to be a refugee, and most people known about it, if you are close to the Chinese they will tell you, "There are no refugees in China", because their family, friends and themselves came to Canada by way of being fake refugees.
So I tell you, do not trust the China Experts, journalists covering China, China based diplomats...they all know or ought to know the truth as they understand the Chinese language, or married to the Chinese.
(some people called me asking me how to become a refugee immigrant in Canada, as I no longer practice immigration, I write this here for everybody to know. Do not worry about our politicians, after all, they stay in office for only 4 or 8 years, then they will pack up and retire; and do not worry about our police officers, the detective I knew personally was busy planning to do business while handling 911 calls. )
(Reuters) - China's President Xi Jinping said he hoped its annual trade with the countries involved in Beijing's plan to create a modern Silk Road would surpass $2.5 trillion in a decade.
Xi also pledged to protect the interests of foreign companies inChinaamid investors' rising concerns that Beijing is enacting policies that could hurt their businesses.
Under the so-called "One Belt, One Road" initiative,Chinaaims to create a modern Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to boost trade and extend its global influence. Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said previously that more than 50 countries had shown interest in the initiative.
Projects under the plan include a network of railways, highways, oil and gas pipelines, power grids, Internet networks, maritime and other infrastructure links across Central, West and South Asia to as far asGreece,Russiaand Oman, increasing China's connections to Europe and Africa.
Speaking at the sidelines of a high-level event in the southern city of Boao on Sunday, Xi said the scheme would stimulate trade and investment betweenChinaand countries along the route, according to a statement on the foreign ministry's website.
"We hope that the annual trade volume betweenChinaand these countries surpasses $2.5 trillion in a decade or so," Xi told 40 company representatives fromChinaand overseas.
By way of comparison, China's trade with the European Union in 2013 amounted to 428.1 billion euros ($466.1 billion).
Chinese industries expected to benefit from the plan include agriculture and mining as the route encourages exploration for minerals.
In addition to trade efforts,Chinais seeking to boost its global influence by signing up countries to its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Xi, meanwhile, sought to address concerns from foreign businesses, which have complained of an increasingly tough business climate in the world's second-largesteconomy.
"Chinawill be more open. China's policies that encourage the use of foreign investment will not change, and the protection of legitimate rights and interests of foreign-invested businesses will not change," Xi said.
The United States is concerned about China's restrictions on the use of foreign information technology equipment by the banking sector, according to a filing published by the World Trade Organization on Thursday.
New cyber-security regulations would force technology vendors to Chinese banks to hand over secret source code and adopt Chinese encryption algorithms.
U.S. companies have also cried foul over China's oversight of monopoly and pricing issues and antitrust enforcement.
Darryl Dyck/The Canadian PressBritish Columbia Premier Christy Clark speaks at an announcement about a joint venture agreement with Shell Canada Energy, PetroChina Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation to develop a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday April 30, 2014.
The Canadian government is studying the idea of providing new tax breaks in the upcoming federal budget for companies that build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, according to internal records obtained by Reuters.
Such incentives could help companies move forward with stalled developments in Canada, even as they cut spending around the world in response to plummeting oil prices.
More than a dozen LNG terminals have been proposed in Canada, mostly in the West Coast province of British Columbia. Backed by energy giants like Malaysia’s Petronas, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron Corp, the projects would ship cheaper North American gas to Chinese markets.
But backers have long complained that development costs for these projects are high and margins are thin. There are no Canadian LNG export plants in operation now.
To help speed development, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) wants Ottawa to reclassify LNG export plants as manufacturing assets.
Under their current classification, LNG facilities in Canada can write off 8 percent of their total capital investment each year.
A government memo said that if finance officials accepted the industry proposal, LNG export plants could write off 30 to 50 percent of their capital investment per year.
Manufacturing assets have benefited from the 50 per cent capital cost allowance rate since 2007, which allows companies involved in manufacturing and processing to write off capital investments within two or three years. The memo, obtained by Reuters under Canada’s Access to Information Act, was prepared for the top bureaucrat at the federal natural resources department ahead of a meeting with industry representatives last October.
“We understand the need for clarity on the fiscal environment for LNG facilities to support final investment decisions,” said the memo prepared by the natural resource department’s energy sector.
“We have examined CAPP’s proposal … and continue our discussions with the department of finance on the matter.” The department, headed by Finance Minister Joe Oliver, compiles and delivers the budget, making major decisions in conjunction with the Prime Minister’s Office.
The next federal budget is due in April at the earliest and neither the natural resources nor the finance department would comment on any specific budget proposals or discussions.
If implemented, the measure could make the government forgo hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue at a time when slumping oil prices are already eating into government receipts.
CAPP estimates that in return, the proposal would spur growth, adding about C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) over 20 years to Canada’s gross domestic product. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
To be sure, the government rejected the industry’s requests for tax breaks for LNG plants in the last two federal budgets and it is not clear whether Ottawa will grant the incentives this time.
Still, Canada’s right-leaning Conservative government has deep political roots in the oil and gas-rich west of the country and regularly stresses the importance of the energy industry.
It is also uncertain whether this tax incentive would be enough to spur energy companies to break ground on such projects given volatile markets.
Canadian energy regulators have approved export licenses for 10 LNG projects in British Columbia and are reviewing further 10 applications for proposed terminals on Canada’s west and east coasts, but no final investment decisions have been made.
Reg Plummer, a senior economist who retired from the natural resources ministry last year, said the proposal would cost the federal treasury a lot of money while offering investors a benefit of less than 1 percent on their rate of return. He also said officials may consider how this fits in with Canada’s international commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
“Finance (department officials) would be looking hard at that because these are serious bucks we’re talking about,” Plummer said. “It’s sort of helping out (companies) a little bit with some risk, but it’s not going to be a make or break for them.”
