Your 🇨🇳/🇨🇦 Briefing Friday, August 19th 2022
Xiao Jianhua gets 13 years, BRI in BC, Taiwan Trips & Victor Ho placed on "wanted" List for Hong Kong activism
Welcome to Maple Kingdom, here are the top 5 stories we are tracking this week.
Xiao Jianhua, Chinese-Canadian Billionaire, Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison
Hong Kong Democracy Activist Living in BC Placed on Wanted List
Going Full Pelosi with Taiwan Trips Planned in October
Mandarin Overtakes Cantonese as #2 Most Common Language Spoken in Toronto
Belt & Road Logistics Center Opens in Surrey, BC
Xiao Jianhua gets 13 Years after Guilty Plea
The saga of Xiao Jianhua’s detention by the Chinese Government was seemingly brought to a conclusion today with a 13 year sentence from a Shanghai court after he pleaded guilty to a variety of charges related to the financial empire he built on the back of his connection to the inner circle of the CCP.
From his dramatic seizure from a Hong Kong hotel half a decade ago (which spooked HK citizens after the booksellers case) to the present day, he will be inside of the Chinese legal system nearly 2 decades. His company, already being carved up through a dubious seizure process, will not survive a $10 billion CAD fine levied against it.
This is the latest of a series of moves by Beijing against Chinese billionaires; Guo Guangchang vanished in 2015, Xu Xiang was arrested for insider trading days after Xiao Jianhua disappeared, and Sun Dawu received 18 years in 2021. There have been many, many cases of this type, and they show no sign of slowing down.
Notably, the Canadian Government has done little for Xiao Jianhua, especially when contrasted with the case of the 2 Michaels during the Meng-Michaels incident. Interestingly, our early coverage of this case was tweeted by Sam Cooper of Global News, who refuted the idea that the lack of response to Xiao Jianhua’s case was related to the lack of an ambassador in Beijing.
Either scenario doesn’t look good for Canada; either the government was not concerned about our citizen then, or the lack of resources and leadership prevents us from caring now.
Hong Kong Democracy Activist Victor Ho, Living in BC, Placed on Wanted List
“When we came here, we thought we could live in an open society without fear”
Victor Ho, the former editor of the Sing Tao Chinese-language daily in Canada, has been placed on a list by the Hong Kong authorities after he began to organize around Hong Kong democracy. Taking a page from the Tibet freedom movement, Victor has been organizing a “parliament in exile” for Hong Kong citizens who feel that their current government is not a functioning democracy.
“We are Chinese-Canadians in Canada and now we have to hold back from joining in such a conceptual exercise related to Hong Kong. When we came here, we thought we could live in an open society without fear. Now, you have to fear, because they are saying (the National Security Law) applies worldwide. I myself am not scared, but I have family members who are”
Continuing with their policy of pretending China does not exist, Global Affairs Canada referred a Globe & Mail reporter to Public Safety Canada, which did not respond.
In a week, we have seen a 13 year sentence on a Canadian citizen who was dragged out of a hotel in Hong Kong and disappeared for 5 years, and another Canadian citizen fearful for his family after non-violent protesting for the democratic rights of Hong Kong.
This kind of week should be provoking Canadians and our government into action from coast to coast.
Judy Sgro Leading Canadian Delegation of 8 to Taiwan
This week the Canadian-Taiwan Friendship Group chair Judy Sgro announced that in October a delegation of 8 officials will visit the island. The selected delegation are apparently members of the Standing Committee on International Trade and are there on a trade mission.
Judy Sgro signed a letter from the “Formosa Club” just 11 days ago condemning the Chinese aggression around the Pelosi visit, and has now announced a trip of her own. This will be seen as a provocation in the current political climate, even though these trips have been happening biannually for years and have been traditionally no big deal.
Currently the status of the Taiwan-Canadian relationship is a thorny subject for Ottawa, so things like the “friendship group” offer ways to create bridges with informal associations. These tools are used by both Canada and China to create political outcomes that they seek without needing to use formal channels.
This story will probably fade in the coming weeks, and depending on how tense Taiwan is in October will prove to be either a huge diplomatic incident or (much more likely) a non-event as both China and the US are seeking to let Taiwan fade a little and are encouraging deescalatory stances for now.
Mandarin Overtakes Cantonese as #2 Most Common Language Spoken in Toronto
The census release this week has confirmed something that Toronto’s Chinese community has long suspected to be true: the number of Mandarin speakers now exceeds Cantonese speakers for the first time ever.
These trends show a steady influx of mainland Chinese immigration into Canada, and Canadian-Chinese immigrants are among the most successful groups to join Canadian society. 2nd generation Chinese-Canadians are held to have the highest rates of employment in professional and managerial fields compared to any other group.
The article also speaks to the influence of Taishanese on the early linguistic development of Chinatowns in Canada. Taishanese language (a dialect of Yue Chinese) is a fascinating story of early immigration and deserving of a great book.
For those readers in Toronto, reminder that this weekend is Toronto’s Chinatown festival!
The First BRI Project in North America Opens in Surrey, BC
The first of three phases of a giant warehouse that was the key project of the MOU between the BC government and China’s Belt & Road Initiative, signed by the premier of BC 5 years ago, has opened in Surrey, BC.
At the May 2016 China-Canada Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference — One Belt One Road Initiative Workshop, held in Vancouver, Clark told the conference she’s looking forward to “building a one road, one belt policy between our two countries our two provinces.” This was the first BRI cooperation in North America.
The warehouse has been built by Guo Taicheng, who is a Canadian permanent resident (his family live in Vancouver) and who is the chairman of Shing Kee Godown Group, who specialize in logistics for both SZ and HK. He is also the Deputy Executive President of China Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, an organization that has links to what is popularly referred to as the “United Front”, or organizations that help the Chinese Government with soft power ambitions.
Writing on this subject is always tricky, because a lot of these groups are true immigrant support networks and anyone joining them should be allowed and encouraged to do so. There is nothing newsworthy about “Chinese-Canadian man joins group to advance the interests of Canadian-Chinese”.
Guo Taicheng deserves praise for the ambition of the project, and warehouses dedicated to import-export between Canada and China exist all up and down the West Coast.
Instead of worrying about these kinds of projects, we need to spend more time training provincial and federal leaders on how to interact with Chinese government officials, as this was clearly an example of a BC premier being outmaneuvered.
This Week’s Reads:
Asia Times on Canada-China relations going nowhere
Op-Ed in the Globe on Mining our way to competition with China (paywall avoid)
The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom on Canada’s Road to Beijing
(note: this is pretty half-baked and needs a note telling readers it should be enjoyed as a work of speculative fiction for the time being)
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