Canada Cannot Retaliate Against China Over $4B Canola Trade Dispute

(Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

One year ago, Canadians couldn’t grow enough canola to meet Chinese demand. Between canola seed, canola oil and canola meal, the Chinese imported roughly $4 billion worth of the oilseed crop from Canada, according to an analysis from the Canada West Foundation. Couple that with an escalating trade spat between the U.S. and China, and market analysts were predicting record canola shipments from Canada to China in 2019.

Then, in March, China suddenly reversed course—blocking shipments from two of our biggest exporters because they were supposedly contaminated with pests. It mattered not that Canada said otherwise. Prairie farmers were left wondering what do with no access to their primary market.

It didn’t stop there—which is why most observers believe the action had more to do with Beijing’s anger over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou than with defective Canadian crops. Canadian exporters then reported roadblocks as they tried to send peas, pork and soybeans to China. The delays ranged from unusually long inspections to newfound paperwork problems. There’s no reason to think other products won’t soon be targeted.

So, as China seems to be targeting Canadian exports, acting as though the two countries are locked in a trade war, why isn’t Canada retaliating? The answer may simply come down to a matter of size.

“We need China—and China doesn’t need us,” says Sarah Pittman, a policy analyst with the Canada West Foundation. “Retaliating would probably be satisfying, because we’re definitely being jerked around, but it might not be what’s best in terms of the Canadian economy.”

China vs Canada: Canadian citizen sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling after prosecutors said an original 15-year sentence announced in November was too lenient.

“Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in the northeast province of Liaoning retried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and handed down the death penalty,’’ the court said in a brief statement on its website. 

The case is likely again to test relations between Beijing and Ottawa, which has been tensed since Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the U.S. in December. The arrest was followed by China’s detention of two Canadian citizens on suspicion of endangering state security. This may be connected to Canada arresting a top official of Huawei corporation on the crime of espionage. A form of powerplay and politics which should not bring any danger to life, but here it is.

Beijing Is Now The Billionaire Capital Of The World

Beijing is the new "Billionaire Capital of the World.'' The Chinese capital has overtaken the New York as home to the most billionaires -- 100 to 95 -- according to Hurun, a Shanghai firm that publishes a monthly magazine and releases yearly rankings and research about the world's richest people and their spending habits.

The study, which comes months after reports suggested China now has more billionaires than the United States, highlights how China's elite are continuing to accrue vast wealth despite a wobbling stock market and cooling economy.

Different tabulations of wealth, such as the Hurun Report and the Forbes list, have historically produced somewhat different results depending on their methodology.

Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of Hurun, attributed China's explosive wealth creation to Chinese market regulators allowing a flood of new initial public offerings after holding back new IPOs for several years.

Hoogewerf said his wealth calculations were made using stock prices as of Jan. 15, which means they took into account the Chinese market's 40 per cent tumble over the past half year.

See full list after cut.....

Aww! Student agrees to marry disabled man 3 DAYS after they met online

Sarah Ridley | Mirror
Attractive Xiao Dan, 22, has decided to leave college and now hopes to get a job so she can look after her husband-to-be.

A love-struck student is giving up her studies to marry a disabled man she met online - despite only knowing him for three days.

Pretty Xiao Dan, 22, started chatting to Kong Chuang, 23, on the messaging app service, WeChat.

And she was so impressed with his zest for life that she decided to leave college so she can look after him.

She said: "Talking to him was not like talking to anybody else I met online.

"He seemed to be a really amazing person and we stayed up long into the night chatting.

"The next day we talked again and I decided that even though it meant missing lecturers, I was going to go and see him.

Beijing Received More Than 30,000 Applications For Right To Birth Second Child In One Year

Couples In Beijing Apply For Right To Birth Second Child. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said on Tuesday.

 that more than 30,000 Beijing couples have applied to have second child since the capital eased its one-child policy in February 2014.

Zhong Dongbo, the Deputy Head of the Commission, said in Beijing that out of the 30,305 applicants, 28,778 had been approved.

Six terror suspects shot dead in Xinjiang, China

Chinese police shot dead six “attackers” who tried to set off an explosive device in the troubled Xinjiang province on Monday, The Times of India reports. The police acted after the “mobsters” tried to attack the police with knives and an explosive device in a business district in Xinjiang in China’s western region, local authorities said.

Acting on a tip-off, the police tried to confront the suspects in Shule county, south of the old Silk Road city of Kashgar city, when the incident took place, the Xinjiang government said on its official news website. An axe-wielding suspect tried to attack police officers while another tried to set off an explosive device. The police acted quickly and shot dead all six of them, it said.

Japan 'Made in China' Labels Dropped To Boost Sales

BBC
Chinese manufacturers have stopped using "made in China" labels on clothes sold in Japan in an effort to improve sales, it's reported.

The move is an attempt to overcome perceptions that Chinese-made clothes are poor quality, the South China Morning Post website reports. Instead, clothes are being labelled "made in PRC" - the People's Republic of China - because many Japanese customers don't know what the acronym stands for, the website says. Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency says despite the term being lost in translation, there's nothing to stop Chinese companies from changing their labels.

New Year's Update: STAMPEDE IN SHANGHAI

Thirty-six people were killed in a stampede during New Year’s celebrations in downtown Shanghai, city officials said.

The deaths — the worst disaster to hit one of China’s showcase cities in years — occurred a half-hour before midnight at Shanghai’s popular riverfront Bund area, which can be jammed with spectators for major events. A Shanghai government statement said Thursday that another 47 people were receiving hospital treatment, including 13 who were seriously injured.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unnamed witness as saying people had scrambled for coupons that looked like dollar bills that were being thrown out of a third-floor window. It said the cause of the stampede was under investigation.

New Year Stampede In Shanghai, China Kills 36 People

Angry family members clash with security personnel in a hospital where some of the victims of a stampede by new year’s revellers were sent in Shanghai on January 1, 2015. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Jonathan Kaiman | Guardian
A New Year’s Eve celebration in Shanghai ended in disaster when a stampede left at least 36 people dead and nearly 50 others injured, marking one of the biggest disasters to befall a major Chinese city in recent years.

The stampede began at about 11.35pm in Shanghai’s Chen Yi Square, a wide promenade popular with tourists between a row of historic art deco buildings and the Huangpu riverfront, according to China’s state newswire Xinhua.

Witnesses told Agence France-Presse that the mayhem centered on a stairway leading up to a viewing platform overlooking the river. Some people were trying to climb to the platform as others tried to get down, causing panic and mass confusion.

China Mobile Phone Maker Xiaomi is Now Worth More Than Uber

Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune
Xiaomi, the Chinese maker of affordable smartphones, is now worth more than $45 billion after raising over $1 billion in its latest round of funding. That makes it one of the most valuable tech startups in the world, surpassing Uber’s $41 billion valuation.

The investment round is expected to close as early as Monday and is led by All-Stars Investment, a fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji, Thee Wall Street Journal reported. Other big name investors are also getting in on the deal, including Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC.

Following Xiaomi’s most recent funding round in August 2013, the smartphone maker was valued at $10 billion.

Why now! China exonerates man 18 years after his execution

 The Associated Press
A court in northern China on Monday cleared a man of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet 18 years after he was executed for the crime.

The Inner Mongolia Higher People’s Court announced on its microblog that it had overturned the conviction of Huugjilt, who was 18 when he was sentenced to death and executed for the 1996 crime. Like many ethnic Mongolians, Huugjilt used only one name.

The deputy head of the court, Zhao Jianping, offered his “sincere apologies” to Huugjilt’s parents, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The parents received 30,000 yuan ($5,000) as an expression of the court’s sympathy and were told they could claim an unspecified amount of compensation.

Chinese state media carried photos of a court official handing over the verdict to Huugjilt’s weeping parents at their home in Inner Mongolia’s regional capital of Hohhot.

China ban singing of National Anthem at weddings & funeral

According to a statement by Chinese Xinhua News Agency, China’s national anthem can no longer be performed at weddings, funerals, balls or other non-political functions. They can now only be performed at certain dignified events.

The anthem, known as the March of the Volunteers' may be played at the start of important celebrations or public political gatherings, formal diplomatic occasions or significant international gatherings.

The anthem can also be performed when Chinese athletes win medals and “at arenas where national dignity should be fought for and safeguarded".

Tragic! Fire kills 24, injures 52 in China

A coal mine blaze killed 24 workers and left 52 injured in northwest China on Wednesday, government sources said. The accident took place in a state-owned Fuxin Coal Corporation in Liaoning province, The Times of India reports.

The government did not release the reasons behind the fire but it highlighted lax safety standards in China’s coal mining sector which is plagued with regular occurrences of accidents and deaths.

Last April, 20 people died when a coal mine in southwest Yunnan province suddenly flooded, leaving miners trapped. This was followed by the death of 22 people in an accident at a coal mine in the southwest city of Chongqing.

Copycat! Chinese car company unveils $22,000 copy of $70,000 Range Rover

UK giant car company Jaguar Land Rover is furious after a relatively unknown Chinese car company called LandWind unveiled a car that looked almost exactly like the Range Rover E-vogue which at $22,000 cost $48,000 less than the Evogue which is about $70,000. Above is the Evogue and below is the Chinese car. It was launched at a motor show in China last week. 

Jaguar Land Rover say they may take legal action against the company. Jaguar Land Rover chief executive Dr Ralf Speth told Autocar magazine: 

‘The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing. The intellectual property (IP) is owned by Jaguar Land Rover and if you break that IP then you are in breach of international regulations.’

OMG! Aunt cuts off 3yr old nephew's penis for entering the toilet while she was there

A 37-year-old woman in China got so angry that her three-year-old nephew walked in on her while she was using the toilet that she cut his penis off. Xue Paan, was supposed to be looking after her sister's son, Qiang Qiang, while his mum went to visit a neighbour nearby but when the little boy interrupted her as she was texting her boyfriend, and asked if he could play a game on her phone, the furious aunt stormed into the kitchen, picked up a knife and hacked off the boy's penis.

The little boy's mother Cai Tuan, 27, ran back to the house when she heard child scream only to find that he had fainted and was in a pool of his own blood.