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.
China angrily denies selling marinated human flesh to Africa in tins of corned beef
Authorities slam reports of shipping corned beef made of dead people
By GEORGE SANDEMAN
21st May 2016,8:38 am
Updated: 27th May 2016
THE Chinese government has strongly denied allegations that their country is selling meat products made from marinated human flesh.
Online rumours and a report in African media have fuelled speculation that the world’s largest country, by population, has been selling suspect goods.
Media reports in the central African country of Zambia have quoted a Zambian woman now living in China warning her compatriots not to eat Chinese corned beef.
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She claimed that corpses were being collected in the east Asian country before being marinated, canned and labelled as food fit for human consumption.
Online reports have said workers in Chinese meat factories have admitted to processing human flesh because of limited burial space in the country.
Factory workers are also quoted as saying that the regular, non-human meat was being exported to China’s more powerful trading partners instead of Africa.
China’s ambassador to Zambia, Yang Youming, hit back saying: “Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a rumour, claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa.”
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Speaking to China’s Xinhua news agency, he continued: “This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification which is absolutely unacceptable to us.
“We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act.”
Christopher Mulenga, a minister in the Zambian government, has promised a full investigation into the incident.
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He said: “The government of Zambia regrets the incident in view of the warm relations that exist between Zambia and China.”
PUBLISHED: 15:12 GMT, 13 January 2017 | UPDATED: 00:40 GMT, 14 January 2017
A Chinese restaurant has been accused of serving human feet after a waiter posted a gruesome picture - allegedly taken in its kitchen - on social media.
The grim photo shows what looks like two severed and partially decomposed human feet in a blue bowl.
It surfaced after a diner from Slovenia went with friends to a restaurant in Padua, in northern Italy and asked for the Chinese delicacy of bear paws.
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A Chinese restaurant has been accused of serving human feet after a waiter posted a gruesome picture - allegedly taken in its kitchen - on social media
The waiter, who was not named in reports, claims his picture of human feet were the 'bear paws' that were later served to the Slovenian and his friends.
After seeing the disturbing picture on social media, a regular Italian customer reported it to the authorities.
Police and food standards officials inspected the restaurant and found 55lbs of meat and frozen fish of doubtful origin.
They also found dirt and grease all over the refrigerators, on the floors and on the oven, reports said.
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The picture surfaced after a diner from Slovenia went with friends to a restaurant in Padua, in northern Italy and asked for the Chinese delicacy of bear paws
Packages of frog legs and crab meat were reportedly found to be well beyond their expiry dates.
Police have consulted a forensic pathologist about the feet picture, who said they appeared human, and say they are still investigating the image's origin.
The restaurant's legal status and whether it is still operating are unclear.
World Bank Applies 2009 Debarment to China Communications Construction Company Limited for Fraud in Philippines Roads Project
July 29, 2011
Washington, July 29, 2011−The World Bank today announced the debarment of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Limited, and all its subsidiaries, for fraudulent practices under Phase 1 of the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Project. Under the sanction, CCCC is ineligible to engage in any road and bridge projects financed by the World Bank Group until January 12, 2017. This action is based on recent changes in the World Bank sanctions system to clarify that successor organizations – through purchase or reorganization – will be subject to the same sanctions applied to the original firm.
CCCC is the designated successor entity to China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) which, along with six other firms and one individual, was debarred by the World Bank for eight years, beginning January 12, 2009, following an investigation of the National Roads Improvement and Management Project by the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT). No World Bank funds from the NRIMP project were disbursed to any of the sanctioned firms.
As part of its development program, the World Bank has been working with the Government of China on strengthening its approach to dealing with governance and corruption. Earlier this year the Bank recognized and appreciated that China’s National People’s Congress amended the country’s criminal law to make it an offence for Chinese companies and Chinese nationals to bribe foreign government officials. The law applies to companies organized under Chinese law and would include Chinese companies overseas and wholly foreign-owned enterprises in China.
About the World Bank Integrity Vice Presidency (INT)• 117 investigations in FY10, with 45 debarments of firms and individuals for engaging in wrongdoing. • 32 referrals of investigative information to governments and anticorruption agencies, based on completed INT investigations, for follow-up national action. • A cross-debarment agreement among the Multilateral Development Banks, so that companies debarred by the Bank Group can no longer seek business from other multilateral development banks (MDBs), closing a loophole in multilateral development programs. • An International Corruption Hunters Alliance bringing together 250 senior officials from 134 countries, to inject momentum into global anti-corruption efforts. • Cooperation agreements in support of parallel investigations, asset recovery and information sharing with the UK Serious Fraud Office, the European Anti-Fraud Office, the International Criminal Court, USAID, and the Australian Agency for International Development. • High-profile debarments in the past two years, including UK publisher Macmillan Limited and Siemens OO (Russian subsidiary). As part of the settlement with the World Bank, Siemens AG agreed to pay $100 million to support the global fight against corruption. • Enhanced preventive training in FY10, INT staff training nearly 1,200 people in preventive activities such as identifying red flags in procurement and managing integrity risks in development projects.
How China is targeting its Uyghur ethnic minority abroad
In a broad campaign to increase pressure on Uyghurs overseas, including those in Canada, Chinese authorities are using coercive measures on family members, recruiting people to spy and sending threats to get many from the ethnic minority group to return to China, Nathan VanderKlippe reports
An ethnic Uyghur woman pushes her children on a tricycle in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China on June 28, 2017.
For days before she fled, Aynur hid. "We couldn't go anywhere public because if police recognized us, they would immediately arrest us," she said.
Then, on the day she had picked to board a flight from Cairo to Istanbul, she left home just after 2 a.m., hoping the cover of night would shield her identity – and that the early hour would mean fewer police on patrol.
On paper, Aynur had no reason to be afraid. Her papers were in order, allowing her to pursue a lengthy course of Islamic studies. She had attended university in Egypt since 2013.
But Aynur is Uyghur, a member of an ethnic minority in China's western Xinjiang region that has been blamed for fostering radicalism and perpetrating acts of terror. This summer, in response to what students believe was Chinese influence, Egyptian authorities began to detain Uyghurs.
Many men vanished, and months later some have yet to reappear. At the airport, Aynur – whose real name is not being used because she fears reprisals – witnessed several being taken away. She and other women were left alone, and she was able to escape to Turkey.
An ethnic Uyghur man walks in an alleyway near a local police station in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China on June 27, 2017.
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
But what happened in Egypt this summer was just one part of a broad campaign to increase pressure on Uyghurs overseas that has touched numerous countries, including Canada. Chinese authorities have demanded that many Uyghurs return to China and have used coercive measures on family members in Xinjiang to achieve that goal. In some cases, Beijing has even pushed women living overseas to shed their veils and abide by Chinese restrictions on Muslim dress. Meanwhile, people in countries such as Turkey have been recruited to spy on Uyghurs. And an activist in London has received threats that have him questioning whether he is safe in Britain.
China has denied mistreating Uyghurs. This year, Xinjiang deputy foreign publicity director Ailiti Saliyev has called them the happiest Muslims in the world, accusing those who suggest otherwise of collaborating "with hostile Western forces to wantonly spread rumours, misrepresent, vilify and besmirch Xinjiang in the overseas media."
In Xinjiang, however, Chinese authorities have exerted heavy pressure on Uyghurs, restricting travel, inspecting cellphones and installing an increasingly capable surveillance regime that employs facial recognition to track people. This year, authorities have also taken away numerous Uyghurs for re-education – in a bid to rid them of religious and political beliefs deemed unhelpful or dangerous.
The overseas pressure has stemmed from the same effort, students and activists believe. Those who return home often vanish, raising suspicions that they, too, have been sent for re-education.
An ethnic Uyghur shopkeeper works next to a Chinese flag at his shop on June 29, 2017 in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China.
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
China wants Uyghurs "closer to home, where they can be more carefully monitored," said James Leibold, a specialist in Chinese ethnic policy at La Trobe University in Australia. The acuteness of the pressure this year appears to be related to a desire for stability ahead of the Communist Party congress that just ended in Beijing.
"The key question everyone is asking is: Will anything change after the congress is over? Will things lighten up a bit?" Prof. Leibold said.
But what's happening with Uyghurs fits with a broader Chinese effort.
Even as he augmented his power during the recent party congress, President Xi Jinping said in a speech that "overseas students are an important part of our personnel and a new focus of united front work," a reference to long-standing Chinese attempts to exert influence abroad.
"There's a general trend to try to pull anybody in the Chinese community – and this would include Uyghurs as part of the Chinese nation – to completely fall in line," Prof. Leibold said. Authorities in Xinjiang appear to have been given additional resources, he said, "to either forcefully bring people back to China or to try to silence them or ensure that they parrot the party line."
Aynur's two brothers were sent to re-education centres, and her father was arrested. Her father's crime, she was told, was failing to ensure she returned to China.
She has refused to go back and lives in Turkey with little money or hope.
"I am struggling," she said, adding that she wants to go to Canada. "I want to live in a free country."
But Chinese pressure has reached there, too.
"Why does China want Uyghur students to return home? They are afraid of a Western mind," said Rukiye Turdush, a Uyghur advocate who lives in Canada. "China thinks these girls were already infected with democracy."
Ms. Turdush has spoken in recent weeks with Uyghur students in Canada and the United States whose families have been ordered to bring them home. Most were too frightened to speak with a journalist. One student also refused Ms. Turdush's entreaties to bring her situation to the attention of Canadian authorities.
"She firmly believes that disclosing this issue will be very harmful for her parents," Ms. Turdush said. "She is scared as hell."
An ethnic Uyghur family ride a scooter on June 28, 2017 in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China.
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
The Globe and Mail spoke with one Uyghur student who studies in Canada. The student's family was told this year to bring their child home, although authorities relented when the student provided documentation showing a valid study-abroad visa and enrolment in a program unrelated to religion.
But the student's spouse and children have been unable to come to Canada because authorities seized their passports last year.
Now the student must decide whether to remain in Canada, away from family, or return home to almost certain detention.
Fly to Xinjiang and "it's definite I'm going to re-education camp," said the student, who knows others who were taken away after spending time abroad. "I'm so scared because re-education camp – you don't know how long you will stay there."
Though these students live in North America, to them it feels "like they are living in China," Ms. Turdush said.
An ethnic Uyghur woman waits for customers at her fruit stand on June 27, 2017 in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China.'
In Australia, some women have even stopped wearing Muslim dress because their families in China fear reprisals if authorities see pictures of their children overseas in clothing that has been banned in Xinjiang.
"A few of the ladies took off their scarves and said, 'Even though we are living in a free country, Australia, we still have to obey China because our relatives and fathers are in trouble,'" said Sofia, a Uyghur social worker whose clients include Uyghur students at local universities. She asked that her surname not be used.
At least one Uyghur student has been completely cut off by her family because they are afraid of associating with a child abroad.
"A mother told her daughter, 'I don't know you any more,' " Sofia said.
Ruptured communications have also cut off flows of money to Uyghurs seeking refuge in places such as Turkey, where some have been forced to sleep in mosques and sift through garbage for food, Sofia added. "They are just living like homeless people."
Under a poster showing Chinese leaders including the late Mao Zedong and the present President Xi Jinping, an ethnic Uyghur man makes bread at a local bakery on July 1, 2017 in the old town of Kashgar, in the far western Xinjiang province, China.
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
Meanwhile, China appears to be seeking new ways to monitor Uyghurs in Turkey, where activist Can Uludag received Facebook and e-mail entreaties this summer from a person identified as "Alan Leung."
"I will buy information from you about uyghur," said one message shared with The Globe and Mail. "all information about Uyghurs," another message said.
Mr. Uludag was sent a separate Word document that resembles an offer of employment as a "correspondent/information collector."
"Good reports and articles are worth 200USD-500USD," the document promises. "Our other investigators in Turkey have very high salaries, so income completely is depended upon your efforts."
The document does not name the employer. When Mr. Uludag inquired, he was told not to ask too many questions. He believes Alan Leung comes from China. He eventually blocked the sender, whom he called "stupid" for thinking "I would sell innocent people for money."
And in the U.K., one Uyghur exile believes Beijing is behind a threatening recent conversation.
Early this fall, Enver Tohti was invited to a London coffee shop by a stranger. The man knew about Mr. Tohti's friends, recent travels, even his taste in literature.
Then the conversation turned.
"Campaigning for human rights is fine. But now somehow you crossed the red line," the man told Mr. Tohti, a surgeon who has been outspoken in accusing China of persecuting Uyghurs.
"I asked him: 'Is this red line drawn by the Chinese?' He was smiling," Mr. Tohti said. It was not clear what the red line was.
The man continued: "If you continue your work, we cannot guarantee your safety in this country."
Mr. Tohti took it as a threat. "The situation in China is very unpredictable now, so anything could happen," he said.
Trudeau government warned to be careful before approving Chinese takeover bid for Aecon construction
By Mike Blanchfield The Canadian Press
Oct 27 2017
WATCH ABOVE: Ottawa to 'carefully examine' sensitive Aecon sale to Chinese group
OTTAWA – The Trudeau Liberals are facing warnings to proceed cautiously and in as transparent a manner as possible as they weigh a Chinese state-owned company’s bid to take over Aecon construction of Calgary.
The warnings come in the face of strong affirmations by the Liberal government that Canada’s pursuit of deeper trade relations with China is full steam ahead despite suggestions that such enthusiasm could risk angering the Trump administration during the North American Free Trade renegotiations.
CCCC International Holding Ltd. of China has made a $1.5-billion bid to buy Calgary-based Aecon Group Inc., which has a storied 140-year history in landmark Canadian construction and engineering projects such as the CN Tower, Vancouver’s SkyTrain and the Halifax Shipyard.
CCCC International has some less auspicious recent history. The World Bank banned it from bidding on construction projects for eight years until this past January because of a bid-rigging scandal in the Philippines.
The state-owned company has also been linked to the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, which has created high tension between China and several Asian countries.
The government says it will review the offer to decide if there is a “net benefit” to Canada as required, but has not made clear whether a national security test will be imposed on the company. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the deal will be reviewed “very carefully” under the Canada Investment Act.
WATCH: Government working to find solutions to trade ‘barriers’ with China: Trudeau
Rejecting the deal would anger China, which is anxious to start free trade talks with Canada, and maintains that an eventual deal would provide more certainty for its potential investors in Canada.
David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, urged the government to keep its guard up in the face of shifting circumstances with Beijing.
“We can’t make every decision with a view to making the Chinese happy. The more you do that, the more bad deals come your way from China,” said Mulroney.
“You have to show there are limits to our flexibility. We have real standards and we will live up to them.”
Canada needs to pursue free trade talks with China otherwise it will become “hostage to an American negotiating strategy and the fate of NAFTA,” said Paul Evans, of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia.
But the government needs to exercise caution when it weighs all investment bids by China, he said.
“There is still a high degree of wariness about FDI (foreign direct investment) and particularly from state-owned enterprises,” said Evans.
“It’s going to be really important for the government to be both transparent and forthcoming on what are the calculations that lay beneath their decision on either national security or net benefit to Canada.”
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa argues the Aecon acquisition is in Canada’s interest, saying it is “purely a commercial activity.”
In a statement to The Canadian Press, the embassy said conducting a security review is a matter of “internal affairs” for Canada. But it said the deal would be in the economic interest of Canada.
“We have learned that in recent years, a number of Canadian companies, acquired by Chinese companies, have not only ceased to lose and begun to turn out a profit, increased employment, but also entered a broader platform for development,” the embassy said.
“There are numerous such successful stories.”
The government faced criticism earlier this year when it allowed the takeover of Norsat by China-based Hytera Communications Co. Ltd. without a full national security review. Vancouver-based Norsat makes radio systems and transceivers used by the American military and other NATO partners.
In 2012, the Harper government allowed Chinese state-owned CNOOC Ltd. $15.1-billion purchase of Calgary-based Nexen Inc., in what was then the largest oil and gas purchase by China. But then prime minister Stephen Harper said the takeovers would not be allowed to continue unless there were in “exceptional” circumstances.
Wariness about deepening ties with China surfaced again this past week.
Following a similar warning this spring from the former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, ex-industry minister James Moore, also a member of the government’s NAFTA advisory panel, said Ottawa risks angering President Donald Trump if it pursues free trade talks with China. Trump has a history of anti-China rhetoric.
Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and a spokesman for International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne have since dismissed Moore, saying it remains in Canada’s interest to push forward, unabated, with China.
“There’s an argument to be made that demonstrating that we have a diversification and a broader range of interests than simple dependence on NAFTA might actually strengthen our NAFTA negotiating position,” Trudeau said.
Chinese construction group to buy Canada's Aecon for $1.2 billion
(Reuters) - China’s CCCC International Holding Ltd will buy Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc (ARE.TO) for C$1.51 billion ($1.18 billion), including debt, in a deal that would require Canadian government approval.
Shares in Aecon, which helped build Toronto’s iconic CN Tower and the Vancouver Sky Train, surged 20 percent to C$19.82 on the news, but traded below CCCI’s C$20.37 per share
offer price.
CCCI, the overseas investment and financing arm of engineering and construction company China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC), is paying 42 percent premium to Aecon’s share price on Aug. 24, a day before the Canadian company said it had engaged two financial advisers to explore a potential sale.
CCCC is a publicly traded company in Hong Kong (1800.HK) and in Shanghai (601800.SH) and has more 118,000 employees. In 2015, CCCI acquired Australia engineering firm John Holland.
China’s acquisition of Canadian targets hit an annual record of $21.2 billion in 2012, helped by state-owned oil firm CNOOC’s (0883.HK) purchase of Nexen Energy for $17.9 billion that year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Since then, Chinese acquisition of Canadian companies has slowed after some members of the then-governing Conservative Party had misgivings about the CNOOC-Nexen deal. The government then said the CNOOC-Nexen was the last deal of its kind that it would approve, drawing a line in the sand against state-controlled companies taking any further majority stakes in the oil sands.
While Aecon does not operate in a sensitive sector, the deal needs regulatory approvals under the Investment Canada Act, the Canadian Competition Act and from relevant authorities in China, the companies said.
CCCI has agreed to keep Aecon headquartered in Canada and retention of Aecon’s Canada-based employees.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, which would rank as the ninth biggest Chinese acquisition of a Canadian company, the data showed.
The transaction will help Aecon get access to capital to take up more larger and complex projects in Canada, the company said.
CCCI has developed several large and medium-sized ports and navigation channels along China’s coast and inland rivers and has actively participated in and competed for projects under external assistance and the international contracting projects.
BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities are acting as joint financial advisors to Aecon. Barclays is acting as financial advisor to CCCI.
