The Yellow Peril - in Nelson! Again!

 

Over Here!
A while ago Canadian news-media vaguely have it that some trade-agreement between Canada and Oh-No-Not-China either has been or is just about to be signed.
Details are murky, but there's one crystal-clear fact: this agreement is way more advantageous to China than Canada. Naturally followed by: those Chinese are just about to take over! Gasp! Not again! No investigative journalism here: no in-depth examples forthcoming. Also not demanded.

In Nelson this story-as-is - picked-up from whatever source - generates indignant comments all along the same uninformed, self-righteous lines, including those of a City councilor. Who should know better!

Predictably it all goes away in no time - the story has no legs; everybody can concentrate again on what really matters to Canadians: piling-up household-debt at the mall.

So much for that but still too much of Canada's sinophobia, institutionalized by white-bread (no crust, please!) British-Colonials. Nurtured by generations since. And another failure of national multi-culture feel-good to take care of THE Canadian conundrum: yes we are an immigrant-country and no we don't much care for immigrants with skin-color deficiencies. Particularly the Chinese kind!
With Nelson right up there sinophobiawise: habitually ignoring historical facts of local Chinese contributions - positive all - and going store-bought WASP-heritage only. 

Over there!
So then I go to China and ask friends if they know anything of any trade-agreement just signed between China and Canada. Nothing! I explain that some Canadians got their knickers in a wad over China - supposedly - having gained unfair advantages in the deal. They state the (to all but Canada!) obvious: A trade-agreement is signed by at least two parties, and - supposedly - both know what they're signing. Voluntarily! If one party - after the fact - feels it got a bum-deal: this party was/is stupid!
Now if your government signed the deal, and you're not happy with that: your problem is your government (not China!) which you can easily change, Canada being so democratic and all. My words - theirs are more circumspect. 
My thoughts too. Still - one of those embarrassed-over-being-Oh-Canadian moments.
They also say: to us Canada itself is of no particular interest; we only want to buy stuff from you - as you want to buy stuff from us. China is signing trade-agreements all over the map - just without using the customary American-model come-on: let's be friends we just want to help and protect you so we'll put a military base here and train you in killing more effectively as a bonus and by the way take all that silly oil off your hands and lucky you give you arms in return so it's all good!
While China says what it wants up-front - goes for that - and in developing countries may offer to contractually take-on infra-structure projects as part of a deal. Straightforward. Simple.

Over here over there!
Something to consider though in Canada-China dealings on any level: 

Face - having, wanting, giving, losing face is of utmost importance in the Chinese mindscacpe. China has a strong group-identity, so when you make the government lose face - all Chinese lose face.

When the Harper - a man with lots of second-hand ideology and without a clue - comes into power (literally!) - while posturing to position himself as a global player: he immediately shows general disdain for China via her human-rights record, etc. The usual. All phoned-in because he doesn't find it necessary to introduce himself in-person. After a couple of years of that, he can't make it to the opening-ceremony of the Beijing Olympics - scheduling-conflicts he says! - which gets him a lot of negative press in the West.

But China is cool. Says nothing. Although losing face in a big way - what with this coming from the baby-leader of a baby-country with a consistently appalling human-rights record of its own since day one. With treatment of Chinese in Canada close to the top of the list.
Eventually somebody in Ottawa gets through to the Harper that he's behaving like an idiot, so he sends Flaherty to Beijing to do nice. Another silly maneuver: sending an underling.

All this establishing a relationship China deals with dispassionately and critically, at arm's-length - while small-fish-in-large-pond Canada is oblivious and predictably splashing about.

When Chinese lose face they usually show no reaction. But they will never forget this - keeping it polished possibly for years, to one day bring it out again: payback-time! Not revenge based in passion - unannounced and quietly applied; a toughened particular approach to a particular situation.
And what with their Canada face-file now being thickish, the relationship - smiles for days - is locked-in for the duration. With negotiations of this recent trade-to-and-fro possibly colored accordingly. So this media-spread assertion may just be Canada's pouty reaction to being put in its place and kept there. Those Chinese - how dare they! Mom!!!!!

So there!
Then I come back from China - after the end of the national Asian Heritage Month here. Celebrated in various ways across Canada. Not in Nelson. Because the Nelson Cultural Development Commission's focus - supposedly on arts, culture and heritage - is oblivious to culture as in cultures, and heritage is about wet-paint upper-tier real estate over time.
More about that shortly.

The newest rumor making the rounds nationally is that Canada ought to move some of its naval operations/equipment from the east-coast to Esquimalt in BC wink-wink.

 


              Atta boy, Stevie!

 
  
SOHO Galaxy, Beijing: Zaha Hadid Architects