Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler and an all-party alliance of MPs call for Canada to vote down countries known for their human rights violations – Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Cuba – as they seek re-election to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Michelle Zilio reports for the Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau.
Trudeau’s Human Rights Compromise
Join us Tuesday, October 11, at 8 PM. Patricia Adams of Probe International will discuss how the Trudeau administration’s willingness to extradite Canadian residents to China will embolden the Chinese government in their widespread crackdown on China’s civil society.
Peter Kent: It’s ‘concerning’ Trudeau’s office won’t criticize China
“China uses the death penalty universally, there is no due process, white-collar criminals and others of non-capital crimes are regularly put to death, one way or another, sometimes by neglect, sometimes by torture, mistreatment, by organ harvesting. And in other cases, it is a formal execution… We don’t understand why they are bothering to discuss, or talk, or negotiate at all.” ~ Conservative critic Peter Kent
Trudeau playing part as China’s patsy
“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.
The Three Gorges Dam: Do recent floods indicate flaws?
The Three Gorges Dam’s flood control performance continues to generate scrutiny. Jonathan Green for The Market Mogul asks how effective has the dam been period.
Disgorging
More on the Three Gorges Dam’s flood control capabilities and its performance in one of the wettest seasons for China since the record-breaking El Niño event of 1997-98. In this report, The Economist concludes the country’s weakened river pulse is “in danger not only from floods but from its flood controls.”
Why is the flood control capacity of the Three Gorges Dam project being questioned again?
Because the project’s flood control capacity doesn’t work.
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”.
Keep an eye on this
A USD80-million research project at India’s Koyna dam site will study reservoir-triggered earthquakes (aka reservoir-induced seismicity) and the causes behind them. Dam activity at Koyna was blamed for a powerful earthquake in 1967 that destroyed the village of Koynanagar in western India’s Maharashtra state, left 180 people dead, 1,500 injured, thousands homeless and power cut off to Bombay.
China builds new framework governing civil society organizations
The National Law Review breaks down highlights from China’s controversial new Law on the Management of the Activities of Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations Within China into two parts: the first looks at Charity Law, the second, Foreign NGO Law.
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.
Landslide at Chinese dam site signals looming risks
Another deadly landslide at a hydropower construction site in Fujian, south-east China, highlights the growing risks of dam building in mountainous regions of Asia. Chinadialogue.net reports.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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