“Justin Trudeau’s recent statements about considering an extradition treaty with China, a military dictatorship that executes more ‘criminals’ than any other country, and hoping to get a free trade deal with China to double trade by 2025 are both troubling.” Once again, he is showing poor judgment when it comes to China and has done so before. Bill Tieleman for The Tyee.
China’s damming of the river: A policy in disguise
China’s dam-building spree on the Tibetan Plateau has given Beijing immense leverage as controller of the region’s “blue gold” and with that power comes responsibility. For starters, to permit an open assessment of the impacts of these projects – particularly given the region’s vulnerability to seismic risk – and to share those findings with neighboring countries and the people most directly affected by dam construction upheaval.
Dispute between CNOOC and Toronto-listed Husky and Primeline could impact China-Canada trade
This terrific article by the Financial Post echoes the warning signs of an earlier Post piece by Probe International’s Patricia Adams on trade with China and, in particular, China’s state-owned enterprises.
World Bank caution to Tanzania criticised
These comments by Tanzanian economics professor Humphrey Moshi serve as quite an indictment of the wayward World Bank. When China — no stranger to poor practices itself — is your “saviour” from bad World Bank policies … The Daily News reports.
Aid is best spent in poor, well-governed countries. That isn’t where it goes.
This Economist piece doesn’t mince words: foreign aid, it says, “is a mess in almost every way”. Hard-won transparency in aid over the past decade has actually revealed “just how badly things are going”.
Why China’s nuclear exports may struggle to find a market
China seems well placed to trump its competitors in the nuclear export business but buyer concerns about the quality of components, the rigor of the Chinese regulatory system, the risk of dependence on China and the potential leakage of technologies with strategic geopolitical use, may prove a tough sell. China Dialogue reports.
Mekong Delta loses half of silt to upstream dams: scientists
A soft shield of silt that took over 6,000 years to form and which protects the ‘rice bowl’ of Vietnam against intrusion from seawater, erosion and declining groundwater levels has been seriously stripped by Chinese dams on the Mekong River, say experts. Half of the river’s essential sediment is now trapped upstream and the delta may be in jeopardy of disappearing altogether. Thanh Nien News reports.
The myth of sustainable hydropower
2016 will be a decisive year for hydropower projects on the mainstream Mekong. Southeast-Asia based journalist, Tom Fawthrop, looks at the notion of ‘nice dams’ that supposedly don’t inflict too much damage on their surrounding environments and their opposite reality: the hidden costs of hydropower and the irreversible destruction of unique ecosystems.
China’s ‘water grab’ and its consequences
Beijing’s revisionist approach to the status quo in Southeast Asia is nowhere more evident than its “land grab” in the South China Sea and “water grab” in the upper reaches of the Mekong River, says renowned Thai commentator Thitinan Pongsudhirak.
China damming Lhasa River into artificial lakes
Beijing’s Lhasa River Project comes under fire from high-profile Chinese geologist and environmentalist, Fan Xiao.
Paris climate agreement is a triumph of hope over facts
China’s leaders, we are told, are leading us to planetary carbon salvation. For a reality check, consult a new report by Patricia Adams, the executive director of Probe International. Tom Switzer for the Sydney Morning Herald.
China’s pollution is not the same as cutting C02
Patricia Adams, an economist with Probe International, says China will not live up to global CO2 emission standards. Commodities host, Andrew Bell , for Business News Network (BNN), interviews Adams after the release of her new report, The Truth About China, today.
The truth about China
Why Beijing will resist demands for abatement. A new report by Patricia Adams.
China’s gloomy future
China’s increasing financial and economic assertiveness suggests its star is only set to rise on the world stage and that has prompted some major swagger on the part of its leaders. Swagger the nation’s long-term view doesn’t warrant. Commentary by John Robson.
The impending dam disaster in the Himalayas
Two of the most populous nations—China and India—are building hundreds of dams in a violently active geologic zone.


