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China will keep buying our raw materials and selling us back manufactured goods. Well, of course. Why would they want to disrupt a perfectly good system that has generated a China-Canada trade deficit in their favor of about $25 billion? The latest analysis by our trade minister says a recent visit by the Dalai Lama to the PMO isn’t even a blip on China’s radar screens – despite China’s proven willingness to use the Dalai Lama issue as a club to win concessions.

Canada could have a Vancouver-style permanent Falun Gong protest in every Canadian city from Moncton to Moose Jaw and run Chinese political prisoner organ-harvesting documentaries every Sunday on the CBC. It wouldn’t make a difference. China has learned to play the economic globalization game extremely well. Frankly, Canadian economic and foreign policy wonks could learn a lot from China’s ferociously pragmatic approach to looking after its own interests abroad.

Enjoy your thirty cents off your screwdrivers, Canadian Tire shoppers.

UPDATE: Evidently, trade minister David Emerson has already learned quite a bit already from China’s approach. Emerson: “There are other ways of dealing with the various issues on human rights and other connected issues without sullying the virtues of Olympic events and competitions.” Well, of course. Why would one want to put any bad behavior in the spotlight when the whole world is watching?

Vancouver residents braved near-torrential rain yesterday to rally for the dissidents in Myanmar.

“I am here today because I cannot tolerate injustice, oppression, violence and the blatant suppression of human rights,” said organizer Deanna Scott. (CNEWS)

Sadly, the junta that is in the process of shooting monks and rounding up the “ringleaders” for mass protests in that poor country probably aren’t paying attention.

If the generals actually cared what the world thought of them, they would have thrown in the towel in the 1980s.

China and Japan prop up the Myanmar regime through investment and economic aid. Until those Asian heavyweights stop lending their support, the junta is free to do what it wants.

It took a massive display of violence to get Canadians and others to wake up to the horror show going on in Myanmar. But it’s a sad truth that international protests can only ever exert real pressure on countries with at least some element of democratic government.

But perhaps this rally will do more than reassure our own guilty consciences. For Myanmar’s oppressed, let’s hope so.

The intellectual left throughout the entire Western world must be having a rough day.

The brilliant left-wing American intellectual and constant critic of American foreign policy has been bestowed with a glowing testimonial by none other than terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Coming on the heels of petrol-powered socialist crusader and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez’ recent praise of Chomsky’s intellectual heft, Osama’s statement pretty much cripples the intellectual left at a stroke. After all, once you’ve got the world’s most famous terrorist thug proudly in your corner, it’s probably time to give up the university lecture circuit.

All those who continue to cite Chomsky’s work to critique US involvement in the world are now suspect, tainted by Osama’s poison handshake.

Of course, Chomsky and his fans (many of whom can be found right here in Vancouver – the left coast) are no doubt disgusted by the announcement of Osama’s seal of approval; the American-born critic has stated that despite its foreign policy failings, its democracy and freedoms help it to remain the greatest country in the world. And while Chomsky critiques American military involvement overseas, he has stated clearly in his books that terrorism such as the 9/11 attacks ought to be condemned in the most extreme terms.

The problem is, many fans of Chomsky absorb only the professor’s well-constructed criticism of US and Western policy. They purposefully ignore Chomsky’s appreciation of US achievements and his hopes for his homeland to one day rise again to its full potential as a bastion of freedom and human rights.

Just for the record, Osama – Chomsky is Jewish. Ouch.

A flood of low-cost Chinese labor is hurting the economies of many African countries.

This critique of Chinese intervention in the continent would be laughable if the situation wasn’t so tragic. China’s government and business leaders make the case that these countries wouldn’t be letting them do business if it didn’t benefit their nations. Of course that’s true – starvation wages are evidently better than no wages at all for many Africans.

In doing business in Africa, China is setting up strategic footholds in resource-rich but economically backward parts of the world (Very much like China’s recent effort to acquire a controlling stake in our own Canadian mining companies). Westerners and some other Asian nations with a vague fear of Chinese domination may condemn the Dragon for its opportunism and ruthlessness.

But doing business with regimes where human rights are more of a passing thought than an enforced principle is a little more understandable when the investor is itself a geriatric thugocracy. China is really just doing what pretty much every other country traditionally does to Africa – only with a little more honesty.

Tags: Africa, China, exploitation, neocolonial

Threats against Iran. Talks with the UN. More threats. A Middle East war. A ceasefire. More talks.

That’s pretty much where we’re at with Iran and the nuclear genie. Three months after I wrote on this topic from Vancouver’s Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (read the link here) things are pretty much where I left them.

Deadlines come and go and the media attention on this topic seems to rise and fall (but never entirely dissipate) and my views haven’t changed.

Yes, Iran is run by religious zealots and their front man, President Ahmadinejad, is constantly hinting at a genocidal attack on the Zionist Entity (who knew that the word “Israel” was so difficult for people to pronounce?) Yes, Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. And, yes, Iran’s human rights record stinks.

But the world needs energy. Iran’s oil reserves are not endless. Its people will not willingly go back to living in caves and tents in a few decades as the wells run dry. Since there aren’t any Niagara Falls-sized hydroelectric projects in the works in what is a region of rocks and deserts, nuclear energy is the only option for Iranian energy self-sufficiency over the long term.

Iran will get nuclear power. It may get the bomb as well, but there is nothing the world can do about that. Pakistan and North Korea were able to do it at a time when masses of their populations were repressed and literally starving. Iran, with its oil wealth and educated population, can do the same if it wants.

The international community, including Canada, can and should condemn Iran’s government based on its human rights record. This, more than anything, could lead to a perestroika for Iran. Making threats without the ability to back them up just makes the international community (in particular, Western countries) look weak and foolish.

tags: Iran nuclear, Middle East oil, Israel genocide, Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, CANDU