The Sinocanadian

Posted By Rob on December 2, 2009

Well, after all my griping about how hard it is to get the time of day from anybody in Canada on China, the sought-after day is upon us.  Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada has arrived in China.  And good on him.  According to the Global Times,

“Harper is the last leader of the Group of Eight to visit China, and Chinese leaders have barely visited Canada since Harper took office,” said Jin Canrong, vice dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China.

In a fit of excitement, the Chinese government has dropped the pork ban on Canadian pork that has been in place since the word “Swine” was attached to the word “Flu” that somehow showed up on an Albertan farm.  Now that everybody’s got H1N1, I guess the ban just doesn’t seem so important now.  Or maybe it’s the warming relations.  Regardless, I guess the Prime Minister is probably licking his lips at the thought of a nice Canadian pork chop or – even better – some Canadian yu xiang rou si.  I sure am.

And what do we hope to accomplish?

Well, as the Toronto Star astutely points out, “Harper is no visionary Pierre Trudeau, or Jean Chrétien Team Canada deal-seeker.”  That’s not big news.  The interesting bit is that:

Canadian officials are working overtime to keep expectations in check. It’s all about “building relationships and strengthening ties” as Canada prepares to chair the Group of Eight next year, host the G-20, and mark 40 years of diplomatic relations with China.

Well, let’s see what happens.  It seems that China is willing to give everybody a chance, even guys like Stephen Harper who have hugged the DL and seem to enjoy poking China in the eye about human rights.  So, let’s see if Harper has gotten the message and does actually manage to open up a new phase of warm and happy feelings between China and Canada.

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Posted By Rob on November 27, 2009

In a short note, the China Daily reported that Wen Jiabao will attend climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2009-11/26/content_9058050.htm

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang made the announcement on Thursday at a regular press conference.

How will other world leaders (especially political ones) view this?

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Posted By Rob on November 27, 2009

After vehemently denying attendance at Copenhagen without a formal meeting of leaders planned, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided that he will attend the conference after all.  Sadly, it seems that this only has to do with the reports that US President Barack Obama will attend the conference, rather than any particular reason of his own.

Or maybe the next story we’ll here is that Hu Jintao will attend?  After all, China has just announced it’s 40-45% reduction in energy intensity by 2020 targets.

Anyway, even if Stephen Harper comes, what will he bring with him?  Here’s Canada’s position on the Environment Canada website.

Update: China Daily reports today that Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the Copenhagen talks

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Posted By Rob on November 26, 2009

We’re not yet exactly sure when we’ll be on site, but what we’ll be covering with keen interest is any talk or progress on biofuels, low carbon fuel standards and carbon registries.  We’ll also be observing with great interest any talks on the fate of Arctic peoples.

Four streams:

1. Biofuels
   1. Forest-based products
   2. grassland conversion and land use change
   3. second generation biofuels and policy implications
2. low carbon fuel standards
   1. how to incorporate the ecological risks of low carbon fuel standards into effective climate change mitigation policy?  Is this problem solvable?
3. Registries
   1. What are the practical issues for registries in developing countries?  How do you deal with incomplete data, and what level of precision is needed?
   2. Why should organizations in developing countries join registries?  What’s the benefit and what are the drawbacks?
4. Arctic peoples
   1. What role do arctic peoples have in defining their own vutures?  How will their cultures help them to adapt?  What innovative strategies or tactics are emerging in these places tha could be mimicked in the south?
   2. What are the major changes going on in the arctic?  What can science tell us, and what is traditional knowledge telling us?  Does the difference matter?
   We’ll start posting introductions to these topics over the next few days leading up to the conference, and post regularly as they are discussed throughout the event, Dec 7-19.

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Posted By Rob on September 26, 2009

Well, after at least a week of online haiatus, and repeated calls to the embassy and foreign affairs Canada and others, Canada’s national portal, http://canada.gc.ca is back online in China, available on all my various devices and in all sorts of locations.

At the height of this ridiculous blockage in China, I couldn’t access Canada’s website in Beijing: I tried on my own computer and my office computer, took my Ipod Touch and laptop to various locations around the city, and had the same result of other blocked sites.   I even tried to get there using the GPRS internet on my mobile phone.  No luck.  I had spoken to a journalist in Beijing, and for some reason he could go to canada.gc.ca, but others I asked to test for me couldn’t.  Really bizzare.

Anyway, I’m glad that the site is back, there is some information I need on there.  But the more disturbing question is: why was a national website allowed to be blocked in China?  If it’s a snub, I’d like to know why… if it was just carelessness on China’s part, well…I think Canada needs to reevaluate (again) it’s position in China.  If it was carelessness, Canada’s profile is clearly still not high enough to warrant being on a “White list” with China’s censors.

Canada has the ability to be a leader in so many ways with respect to global issues, if it has the desire.  But if our national website is blocked to 1/5 of the world’s population in China, it’s going to be very hard to do anything at all.

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