China'BOXED

[Securious]

[size=200]Genetically Modified Athletes, Is This Fair?

 --->NO![/size]



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181873/Genetically-modified-athletes-Forget-drugs-There-suggestions-Chinese-athletes-genes-altered-make-stronger.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... onger.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181873/Genetically-modified-athletes-Forget-drugs-There-suggestions-Chinese-athletes-genes-altered-make-stronger.html

[Securious]

Wake Up Canada

[Securious]

[size=200]CNNOC Pleased With Itself-That NEXEN Deal Will Be Snatched Up

[Prime Minister Harper Is In The Bag][/size]



[size=150]CNOOC says confident Nexen deal will go through[/size]

Thu Nov 8, 2012  





 BEIJING (Reuters) - CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK: Quote), China's top offshore oil and gas producer, said on Friday it is confident of winning regulatory approval from Canada this year for its $15.1 billion bid for Nexen Inc (NXY.TO: Quote)(NXY.N: Quote).

State-controlled CNOOC launched China's richest foreign takeover bid in July when it agreed to buy Nexen. But the success of its bid began to look shaky after Canada held up Malaysian state oil company Petronas' $5.2 billion bid for Progress Energy Resources Corp (PRQ.TO: Quote).



Canada has extended its review for the CNOOC-Nexen deal by a month to December 10 to determine whether the takeover would bring a "net benefit" to the country.



CNOOC Chairman Wang Yilin said it was "normal" for the Canadian government to extend its review, adding that he expects the deal to be completed by year-end.



Wang was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Communist Party congress in Beijing.



Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday that his government will make decisions very soon on foreign investment proposals it is considering and on the broader framework for dealing with such investments.



Nexen's portfolio includes operations in oil sands and shale gas in the province of British Columbia, among assets around the globe.



Industry sources have said CNOOC's bid might have a better chance of success compared to the Petronas deal as only about a quarter of Nexen's assets are in Canada, while Progress Energy's operations are centered in Canada.



CNOOC is pressing on in its search for overseas assets as it has only nine years worth of reserves based on current production levels - one of the lowest ratios among global oil majors.

[Securious]

[size=150]Yet Another Canadian Company Being Bought Up By China[/size]

http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCABRE8AC0ZE20121113">http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessN ... ZE20121113">http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCABRE8AC0ZE20121113

[Securious]

 Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been courting the powerhouse economies of Asia, including a trip to China in February when he met with President Hu Jintao. Ottawa extends review of Chinese bid for Nexen



Stephen Harper's long, uphill slog in India As a former deputy minister at Industry Canada, there was no one in government who knew the Investment Canada Act more intimately than Paul Boothe.



The top-tier bureaucrat, who has since migrated to academia, was instrumental in guiding a relatively young Conservative government when it surprisingly blocked the sale of domestic space technology, including the Radarsat-2 satellite, to an American firm in 2008.



After recently poring over the pros and cons of the $15.1-billion energy deal between Chinese-controlled CNOOC and Calgary's Nexen, Boothe can't see any good reason for turning down the deal. He's also well aware the answer may not be yes ....well Duh!..me/S



Despite attempts over the years to make approvals of foreign investment as clinical as possible, the CNOOC-Nexen decision comes down to pure politics.



Harper's legacy

If Prime Minister Stephen Harper selected legacy items to be hallmarks of his first seven years in office, diversifying Canada's trade and investment away from the United States towards the burgeoning economies of Asia and securing the prosperity of our resource economy would be near the top of the list.



But the CNOOC-Nexen proposal is making him confront a deeply embedded Conservative queasiness about state involvement in business, and a long-standing mistrust of China.



Even though CNOOC — controlled by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation — may pass the net-benefits test, it may not pass the smell test.



"People are afraid of the unknown," said Conservative MP Merv Tweed of Brandon, Man. — one of many politicians who has been lobbied in CNOOC's highly orchestrated campaign.



The CNOOC offer is a neat fit for so much of the Conservative rhetoric these days. It's the natural manifestation of Harper's aggressive campaign to court Asia, bring foreign investment to Canada and have global recognition of the value of the oilsands.



Opposition to the deal

But the NDP opposition is against the deal. Public opinion is not on side. The business community is split.



And the Conservative caucus has a history of being leery of China, with Harper ignoring the rising power for his first few years in office. His first visit to the country was in 2009, five years after the previous official trip by a Canadian prime minister.



Conservative MPs have been targeted by anti-CNOOC letter-writing campaigns. And they say they're hearing about it on doorsteps in their ridings.



"On paper it looks like a good exchange that will bring wealth and growth to this area," said one Conservative MP whose views echoed those of many Conservatives who spoke with The Canadian Press.



"However, the other side of the coin is the fact that it is a state-run enterprise, a government-owned company," the MP said, speaking frankly in return for anonymity. "That's what's causing the apprehension."



That such simple observations must be cloaked in anonymity shows just how politically sensitive the CNOOC deal has become for Conservatives.



So Harper's looming decision is not merely one of looking at the economic benefits, or deciding how to handle state-owned enterprises. It also has to pre-empt a public backlash.



The complexity of that task was made clear late Friday when the government announced a second extension to Dec. 10 for reviewing the deal.



CNOOC's efforts

CNOOC has taken great pains to make sure its case looks air-tight. The company has laid out an offer, both publicly and in private discussions with regulators, that caters directly to the Investment Canada Act. It has committed to keeping management in Canada, listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, maintaining Nexen's corporate social responsibility program, sticking with its capital investment plan and making Calgary the head office of its North American interests.



That was widely viewed as just the company's opening offer, and negotiations with Ottawa will no doubt see it pressured for more.



"When you look at what they've said about their plans in terms of investment, in terms of employment, in terms of governance, in terms of social things like corporate responsibility — all of those things are consistent with the criteria in the Investment Canada Act," said Boothe, who cautions that he does not know what is happening behind closed doors and bases his analysis on information in the public realm.



There's no doubt, however, the deal is forcing Harper and a very tight group of confidantes to address some larger, uncomfortable issues.



"There are some bigger questions: About should we have state-owned enterprises investing in Canada? How much from a certain country? How much from China?" Boothe said.



"In my view, those are discussions about the rules themselves rather than discussions about the application of the current rules for this particular deal."

[Securious]

Harper Government will sacrifice everything over the NEXEN deal..Canada TOO! Foolishness of the first order/madness! Expect this to happen at the end of this year. Nice closing eh folks. China's political occupation has commenced. So what were we honouring just a few days ago/Rememberance Day. Can we reflect upon that. Wasnt that Hypocritical/Treasonous in fact.

[Securious]

[size=200]China's  Selected  Leader Takes Hold[/size]



http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/xi-takes-helm-china-powers-problems-grow-17723022">http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... w-17723022">http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/xi-takes-helm-china-powers-problems-grow-17723022













and what a state its in too!



 :mrgreen:







the populace writhes with resentment over state corruption by the Han Rilling Elites. Revolution is in the air...

[Securious]

Beautiful COUNTRY of Taiwan

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSKlNvif2_4N22JiaF0PGHEXGVHLLgL7bygXdzxcm0VoeoW4rz5">

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSCVNjPW_07VF_1ajEHESirOh510rbgmTJdLotoBkDC-_WzwO5QjQ">

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRuHv_4ml6jGyroLUkGrwm1b1kRQbMn3wGRNuSkeoGsfTrsni1i3w">

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDz2ABZRfLQBz_g4U13GwvzpdIkEF1aIaFfesnt5IUAB-uVRLpqw">

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfvIZwLNRlodKBwVQEb6UajrsxDH6RBrRXDoX-LXjDMYicPtHz">

pics 2& 2..F, is there any seascape pics?

[Gary Oak]

Taiwanese are usually very nice towards foreign travellers

[Securious]

er not so good there F on the last one.."seascape".....?

[Securious]

[/color]





Michael Den Tandt | Nov 16, 2012



 The economic cognoscenti in this country — the ecognoscenti? — including senior figures in both the Liberal and Conservative parties and virtually all my columnist colleagues, believe Canada's freshly minted foreign investment protection agreement with China (FIPA) is a no-brainer. Opposition to the FIPA, we are led to believe, is populist twaddle.



Likewise the related $15.1-billion bid by China's state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. for Calgary-based Nexen Inc. is a slam dunk, or it should be. Nexen isn't a major player; many of its assets are overseas. The booty is rich – $27.50 share, a 60-per-cent premium over the pre-bid price. It's not as though incoming Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping – who, by the way, gave a peppy little speech at his formal unveiling in Beijing Thursday — will be camping out on the new Alberta cottage's front lawn. This man has better things to do, such as managing the tiny, insular oligarchy that rules a fifth of the people on earth.



Canada, everyone with sense knows, must get in on the China gold rush while there's still time. The United States is mired in $16-trillion of public debt; Europe is, as of Thursday, in recession for the second time in four years. Canada's natural resources — 600 projects worth $650-billion ready to go — are the single ray of light. China will become the world's largest economy by 2020. And because much of its territory is still relatively undeveloped, the raw-material need curve is just beginning.



All true. Now, however, I must interrupt this column with a nagging, impolitic passage from the U.S. Department of State's human rights report on China, for 2011.



"As in previous years, citizens did not have the right to change their government. Other human rights problems during the year included: extrajudicial killings, including executions without due process; enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention, including prolonged illegal detentions at unofficial holding facilities known as 'black jails'; torture and coerced confessions of prisoners; detention and harassment of lawyers, journalists, writers, dissidents, petitioners, and others who sought to peacefully exercise their rights under the law; a lack of due process in judicial proceedings; political control of courts and judges; closed trials..."



There's more – much more. Well, yes, sigh our world-weary ecognoscenti, there are a few glitches over there. But how will the People's Republic ever modernize if we don't deepen mutual ties? China's despotic, opaque institutions themselves are the best argument in favour of the FIPA, its proponents insist. "The main purpose of a FIPA," declares a federal government backgrounder, "is to ensure greater protection to foreign investors against discriminatory and wholly arbitrary practices... "



Japan, it may surprise some to learn, has a FIPA with China. It was signed in 1989. Among other things, the agreement commits each party to protect the business interests and properties of the other. China is Japan's largest trading partner and has been since 2007. In 2011, total two-way trade between the two Asian giants was worth US$344.9-billion – a new high.



Just weeks ago, amid a territorial dispute over miniscule, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, there were mass protests in 50 eastern Chinese cities. Violent mobs trashed or burned Japanese-owned supermarkets, factories and car dealerships, while police stood by. The damage has since been estimated by the Japanese government at more than US$100-million. Japan's FIPA with China, as you may have guessed, was of little use during the riots, or in their aftermath. Japanese businesses have been left to fend for themselves, seeking compensation in Chinese courts.



Incidentally, Japan has held the disputed islands since 1895. They are considered by the United States to be a part of Japanese territory and are explicitly covered under The United States' Mutual Co-operation and Security Pact with Japan, signed in 1960.



At a little-reported forum in Ottawa last month North American security experts were asked to comment on how Chinese state-owned enterprises are different from, say, Canadian corporations. Ray Boisvert, formerly deputy director of Canada's spy agency, CSIS, summed up the consensus view, as I have written before: They operate as organs of the communist party. This, of course, is why the Nexen deal has become such a hot potato: CNOOC is not just a company. It's an arm of the Beijing ruling clique. Rejection of the bid therefore means rejection of the clique. Because the clique utterly controls the country, that in turn will be taken to mean a rejection of China itself.



Is this not, to use the precise economic jargon, seriously messed up? The Conservative government blundered into this on the assumption that dealing with China is just like dealing with any other trading nation. It isn't. In attempting to rush the FIPA through with no discussion or study, let alone a credible plan of engagement, the government guaranteed it would become controversial. It now finds itself in a Catch-22. Extrication will not be easy.



Twitter.com/mdentandt



National Post

[Securious]

yes Shen Li hysterical country indeed...

look at little horrorNutz

[Securious]

Lose Lose on FIPA..Comment

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/OPINION+Chinese+FIPA+lose+lose+proposition/7545141/story.html">http://www.vancouversun.com/life/OPINIO ... story.html">http://www.vancouversun.com/life/OPINION+Chinese+FIPA+lose+lose+proposition/7545141/story.html

[Securious]

[size=150]More Comments Over NEXEN..deal now is being rushed through Parliament as I type this all at our sovereignty's expense..Did I hear anyone shout Treason![/size]





 SAY NO TO NEXEN DEAL and NO TO FIPA you have seen who they put in power in China more old conservatives who want to expand stealing information from countries like Canada only a fool would approve this agreement



"Just weeks ago, amid a territorial dispute over miniscule, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, there were mass protests in 50 eastern Chinese cities. Violent mobs trashed or burned Japanese-owned supermarkets, factories and car dealerships, while police stood by. The damage has since been estimated by the Japanese government at more than $100-million US. Japan's FIPA with China, as you may have guessed, was of little use during the riots, or in their aftermath. Japanese businesses have been left to fend for themselves, seeking compensation in Chinese courts."



Japs wont get their money, and you think Canada would do better! LOL



 Read more: http://www.canada.com/China+ju">http://www.canada.com/China+ju...





 Falun Dafa is a heart and mind cultivation practice with

practitioners all over the world and most of them are in China. They

practice truthfulness, goodness and tolerance. In 1999, the brutal

paranoid Chinese Communist Party believed them to be a political threat,

they were not, and began an attempted genocide using torture, slavery,

organ harvesting and murder. Every time the ruthless CNOOC finds a

practitioner working for them, it has turned him or her into the police

and these gentle people have been sent to slave camps and brainwashing

facilities to be tortured and or murdered. This is the kind of company

that the Government of Canada is allowing to invest in our country. It

is about time that Mr. Harper started representing all Canadians, not

just the rich ones. Thank you for your

consideration.

[Securious]

[/color]



by The Canadian Press on Friday, November 2, 2012



OTTAWA – The Harper government bought itself some more time to deal with a political hot potato, extending a review of the controversial $15.1-billion bid by a Chinese state-owned company to acquire Calgary-based oil and gas producer Nexen Inc (TSX:NXY).



Industry Minister Christian Paradis said in a news release issued Friday evening that the Investment Canada Act review of the proposed purchase has been extended by 30 days until Dec. 10.



Extensions under the Act are not unusual, Paradis noted and can again be prolonged with the consent of the acquiring company, in this case China National Offshore Oil Co.



Because it's the second time the Nexen-CNOOC review has been extended, the latest delay couldn't have taken place without CNOOC's permission.



Another extension was widely expected by market players and political observers, but nonetheless it suggests the political ramifications of the proposed takeover have the Conservatives bewildered on how to proceed, said Peter Julian, the NDP's natural resources critic.



"Anytime in politics when people are making decisions on a late Friday night it's because they're scared of public reaction," he said in a phone interview.



"They desperately want to rubber stamp it, and because they know that public opposition is growing they're just trying to buy more and more time."



The Nexen deal has generated direct and indirect concerns from a number of quarters and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the takeover bid "raises a range of difficult policy questions," indicating there's a national security angle that factors into Canada's relationship with China.



The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's spy agency, raised a red flag on foreign investment by state-owned firms in general in its annual report this year, although it didn't name specific countries.



The NDP has raised a wide range of concerns specifically regarding Nexen, including concerns over national security, environmental and human rights. The New Democrats have also called the federal review process too secretive.



Harper is even dealing with members of his own caucus, such as Alberta MP Rob Anders, who have voiced displeasure.



Ottawa sources say the Harper government is torn between its eagerness to court foreign investment and new markets in Asia, and its distaste for government-run companies.



"One of the most pointed concerns is, this country spent the better part of a generation moving away from the Crown or the state-owned enterprises because we recognized it's simply not an efficient way to run an economy," one Conservative MP told The Canadian Press on condition of anonymity. "So there is some hesitation to allow a state-owned enterprise from a foreign acquisition come in and buy a sizeable Canadian asset."



A source close to the matter said CNOOC was prepared for a lengthy review when it made its move in July, given the size and significance of the transaction. The person added the Chinese company still expects the deal to close by year-end.



Industry Canada took 103 days to approve Swiss-based Glencore's $6.1-billion deal to buy Viterra earlier this year. That transaction still hasn't closed because it's waiting on Chinese government approval.



Under the Investment Canada Act, deals involving WTO member countries valued at more than $330 million must be a "net benefit" to Canada.



Just what constitutes a "net benefit" exactly is unclear, but Harper has said clarifications are coming soon.



U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle have cautioned Ottawa against turning over natural resources to a Chinese state-owned company. Critics fear that CNOOC may answer more to Beijing than it does the market.



And the deal involves a Canadian national treasure, oil.



In an apparent bid to ease Ottawa's concerns, CNOOC has pledged to keep the head office in Calgary, seek a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and place some $8 billion of its assets under the control of Nexen's management in Canada. It has also promised to carry on Nexen's social responsibility programs in Canada and around the world.



"The proposed transaction is undergoing a rigorous review under the Investment Canada Act," Paradis said in a statement. "A determination will be made based on the six clear factors that are laid out in detail in section 20 of the Act and the Guidelines on Investment by State-Owned Enterprises.



"The required time will be taken to conduct a thorough and careful review of this proposed investment."



Now that the government has until early December to complete its review, the plan may be to quietly announce approval of the deal sometime during the Christmas holidays, suggested Julian.



"I think the way this government works and its lack of respect for the public means that they're going to be looking to rubber stamp it sometime during the Christmas season, hoping that public reaction will blow over."