China's baby steps toward world currency domination

"The government has also started to allow yuan to leave the country, with qualified Chinese enterprises directing investments overseas. The three U.S. branches of the state-owned Bank of China are also now offering yuan accounts to its American customers.
The much-maligned currency regime, meanwhile, has allowed the yuan to rise to a 17-year high.
The amount of trading under these new programs is minimal. But China's first tentative steps toward the globalization of its currency are perceived as signs of fundamental progress, said Charles Burton, a former counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.
"They're able to engage in measures that provide reassurance to the West that they are genuinely intending to move towards market regulation of the currency exchange rate," said Mr. Burton, who is also a research associate at the Canadian International Council and an associate professor at Brock University."

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/China baby steps toward world currency domination/4188634/story.html

Human Rights Watch on China: Making points at the state dinner for President Hu Jintao - latimes.com

At the recent state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, human rights had a place at the table.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-roth-china-human-rights-20110123,0,5060045.story

My interview with Radio Canada International on China-West relations

My interview with Radio Canada International on China-West relations broadcast today

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link-s-top-stories/16-30_2011-01-21-chinese-leader-s-disappointing-u-s-visit/

China to Rein In North Korea, U.S. Official Says - NYTimes.com

President Obama warned President Hu Jintao that if China did not step up its pressure on North Korea, the United States would have to redeploy its forces in Asia to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on American soil, a senior administration official said Thursday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/world/asia/21diplo.html

My Op-Ed on China Policy in Globe and Mail this Morning

"Hu Jintao is President of the People's Republic of China, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Unlike leaders in the West, he is not constrained by his national constitution or the rule of law. He does not answer to a democratic legislature, or to public opinion as articulated by a free press. One would think that Mr. Hu would therefore be an autocratic dictator who has the final word on everything.
But the reality is quite different from our own Prime Minister, for whom it can truly be said the "buck stops here" for all aspects of Canadian government programming, domestic or foreign."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/hu-isnt-china/article1876446/

The "weakest leader" of China's Communist era?

I agree with this analysis from the New York Times:
@markmackinnon: The "weakest leader" of China's Communist era? NYT on the limits of Hu Jintao: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/asia/17china.xml

China Opens Investment Office in Toronto with Help from David Emerson

Notice prominent role of David Emerson, cabinet minister of two Federal Parties in this venture.  He has been described as "son-in-law of China" in some Chinese language media.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/chinas-sovereign-wealth-fund-sets-up-shop-in-toronto/article1867917/

My Interview on CBC TV on China allowing imports of edible seal products from Canada

My interview on CBC Lang and O'Leary Exchange about selling seal meat in China broadcast on January 12, 2010: (starts at about 42 minutes in): http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/Lang_&_O'Leary_Exchange/1308689786/ID=1739979147

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada secures deal export seal products China/4097044/story.html

Shift of Values for the Children of Post-1980 Affluent China - NYTimes.com

I highly recommend this article.  It very much accords with my discussions with Chinese young people in their 20s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/world/asia/13iht-letter13.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

US Concerned About DPRK Missile Program

@markmackinnon: RT @BBCWorld: North Korea could develop inter-continental ballistic missile in five years: US Secretary for Defense Robert Gates

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110111/pl_nm/us_usa_korea_gates

Gates’s Misconceived Trip to Beijing - Gordon G. Chang

Chang makes the point that the Chinese Government perceives conciliatory gestures by Western powers as signs of weakness. They do not elicit reciprocity as intended.
Gordon Chang "Gates's Misconceived Trip to Beijing"
http://blogs.forbes.com/gordonchang/2011/01/09/gatess-misconceived-trip-to-beijing/?boxes=financechannelforbes

Chinese media have been warned against using the term "civil society"

The Chinese Communist Party is very worried that "the masses" will start to realize that they are in fact citizens of China with entitlement to protection of universal human rights.  People yearn to be free from unelected imposed arbitrary authority.  The powerful idea of a society of citizens threatens the future of the current privileged authoritarian elite in China.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/media-01062011151409.html

Globe and Mail says I have been Wikileaked

An interview with me is quoted in Campbell Clark's report "China turns chilly on human rights dialogue" published in the Globe and Mail on January 6, 2010: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/china-turns-chilly-on-human-rights-dialogue/article1860772/.  It makes reference to a Wikileaked cable that discusses my analysis of human rights dialogues with China: http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3960156.ece

PCO: "LIST OF MINISTERS TO ACT FOR THE PRIME MINISTER IN THE EVENT OF HIS BEING UNABLE TO PERFORM THE FUNCTIONS OF HIS OFFICE"

Interesting order of precedence:

LIST OF MINISTERS TO ACT FOR THE PRIME MINISTER

IN THE EVENT OF HIS BEING UNABLE TO PERFORM THE FUNCTIONS OF HIS OFFICE

The Honourable Lawrence Cannon,  

Vice-Chair, Priorities and Planning Committee and Chair, Afghanistan Committee

The Honourable John Baird,

Chair, Operations Committee

The Honourable Diane Finley,

Chair, Social Affairs Committee  

The Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay,

Chair, Foreign Affairs and Security Committee

The Honourable Stockwell Day,

Chair, Treasury Board

The Honourable Christian Paradis,

Chair, Environment and Energy Security Committee

The Honourable Tony Clement,

Chair, Economic Growth and Long-term Prosperity Committee

The Honourable Robert Douglas Nicholson

The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn

The Honourable Marjory LeBreton

The Honourable Chuck Strahl

The Honourable Vic Toews

The Honourable Rona Ambrose

The Honourable Beverley J. Oda

The Honourable James Michael Flaherty

The Honourable Josée Verner

The Honourable Peter Van Loan

The Honourable Gerry Ritz

The Honourable Jason Kenney

The Honourable James Moore

The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq

The Honourable Lisa Raitt

The Honourable Gail Shea

The Honourable Keith Ashfield

The Honourable John Duncan

The Honourable Gary Lunn

The Honourable Gordon O’Connor

http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/oic-ddc.asp?lang=eng&Page=secretariats&txtOICID=2010-1409&txtFromDate=&txtToDate=&txtPrecis=&txtDepartment=&txtAct=&txtChapterNo=&txtChapterYear=&txtBillNo=&rdoComingIntoForce=&DoSearch=Search+/+List

Bad News on Xi Jinping in US Wikileaked Tel

This account seems quite credible but does not bode at all well for China's future:

Next leader seen as dull princeling
http://www.nationalpost.com/Next leader seen dull princeling/4054806/story.html

John Fraser Who Opened the Canadian Embassy in Beijing Has Passed Away

FRASER, JOHN MACLEOD Died peacefully at home in Ottawa on Wednesday, December 29, 2010. Born in Montreal, February 12, 1935, he was a Rhodes Scholar before joining the Department of External Affairs in 1958. He had a long and distinguished Foreign Service career, ending as Ambassador to Poland in 1980 and Yugoslavia in 1984. A high point of his career was opening the Canadian Embassy in Beijing in 1971. He leaves his wife, Deborah, his brother and sister-in-law Graham Fraser and Barbara Uteck, his two nephews Malcolm and Nicholas Fraser, four step-children and seven step-grandchildren. No flowers please, contributions to the Ottawa Humane Society would be welcome. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Bartholomew's Church, 125 MacKay Street, on Thursday, January 6 at 11:30am

Published in the Ottawa Citizen on 12/31/2010 Long obituary by Sandra Martin appeared in the Globe and Mail on January 22, 2010: http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20110122.OBJOHNMFRASERATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths

Origin of Santa's Gifts

@cburton001: My 7 year-old wants to know why the Christmas gifts given by Santa Claus say "Made in China" not "Made in North Pole". Does anybody know?