A lot of people admire him as a man of peace!

So WTF is he doing raising hackles in Nepal!

Parsing Sino-Indian Tensions

I have an article up at Asia Times Online under the pen name Peter Lee entitledDalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian tensions.

It’s keyed to a high profile news item–the Dalai Lama’s provocative visit to a border town in territory held by India but disputed by China–and a significant but rather underreported development–the escalating political struggle between pro-Chinese and pro-Indian political forces now reaching its climax in Nepal.

The Chinese themselves have said that the biggest irritant to Sino-Indian relations is the unresolved border dispute. To them, it’s more of an issue than economic competition, India’s growing integration into the U.S. South Asian security regime, or Indian unease at Beijing’s cozying up to Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Maldives at New Delhi’s expense and raising the specter of maritime encirclement.

A more authentic face of Beijing

This clip comes from a Flickr collection in CDT’s photo offering this morning.

The baked yam seller’s face shows the real anxiety of Beijing dwellers contrasted with the ad image of a young boy over his right shoulder. China is one and the other, an anxious man scrapping by and an image of youthful amazement harnessed to sell some consumer product other than baked sweet potatoes.

 

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An election in Canada is more than a year away

Image by The Stakhanovite Twins via Flickr

And here is the evidence:

Harper to visit India, China for 1st time

Last Updated: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | 2:35 PM ET Comments205Recommend50

CBC News

Once you think about it you realize how stupid this is. Our economy depends on foreign trade and we need new markets desperately and it takes Harper 3 yrs to get the gumption to visit China, where he is probably unwelcome, and India, where his visit will likely have little impact. Chinese Canadians will think “better late than never” while Indo Canadians will give a low level cheer!

This is for Canadian political optics and nothing else! It is sad when a PM has to do something he obviously didn’t want to or didn’t see the reason to do!

 

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Here’s why I’m giving serious consideration to a move to China

I found this via HuffPo:

9 Signs of America in Decline

By

Image via WikipediaRick NewmanPosted: October 26, 2009

The sky isn’t falling, exactly. America isn’t on a fast track to irrelevance. Even in a state of total neglect, we could probably shamble along as a disheveled superpower for a few more decades.

But all empires end, and the warning signs of American decline seem to be blinking more consistently. In the latest annual “prosperity index” published by the Legatum Institute, a London-based research firm, the United States ranks as the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That’s five notches lower than last year, when America ranked No. 4. The drop might seem inconsequential, especially in the midst of a grueling recession—except that most of the world has endured the same recession, and other countries are bouncing back faster.

China and India have recovered smartly from the recession, for example. Brazil seems to be barreling ahead. Australia is growing faster than expected, prompting worry among government officials who fear they may have overstimulated the economy. The United States, meanwhile, is muddling through a weak, jobless recovery, and we have a lot of problems that could make prosperity feel elusive for a long time.

I still have the energy and interest to pursue business opportunities in China and I have had encouragement from my accountant and a respected business associate. My wife, who is Chinese from Dalian on the coast of the Yellow Sea, and I are having a good think about this.

We have lived there before and our financial fallback, my pension income paid in CDN $ looks pretty good at a conversion rate of $1 to 6.5 rmb, China’s currency. Rents for comfortable apts look ok, or about $700/month for a fully furnished 2 bedroom unit in a very good location in Dalian.

I am planning a move for next March or April.

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A different view of downtown Vancouver with lotsa background

I got this (skitched it) from the VAncouver Sun site. It’s a great view of Vancouver and will be much appreciated when i am living in Dalian again in about 5 months:

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

And views of Dalian for comparison

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Change

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I can’t decide whether my change gene was hyperloaded at birth or not. But I have experienced many changes in my life.

And in the first month of my 75th year I have decided on a course of business and living that should bring an end to my Vancouver Sojourn.

Me and my wife have decided that we are moving back to China to pursue a line of business involving e-commerce, fine spirits made in the Okanagan and other North American products that we can bring into China as well as order fulfillment beginning in Dalian, the city we are going to live in.

I am no stranger to Dalian. I lived there from Oct 2004 till Oct 2005 and then for 5 months in 2009, this year. My wife is no stranger to Dalian because she was born, brought up and worked there for at least 22 years. So its not a completely foreign land to us. And here’s a snap of she and me!

During the next few months I will be completing negotiations with the owner of the distillery that will supply us with fine eaux de vie and liquers. I will also be looking for other products that we can add to our catalogue, but we will be starting with fine products produced in a magnificent distiller installed in Penticton BC. I will eventually say more about individual who triggered my interest in this line of business. I will also be setting up a BC corporation and developing a working agreement with my buddy Hodge Zhou, who is CEO of Dalian Advanced Backoffice Technology Co Ltd in Dalian.

If any of my friends read this I trust they “won’t be surprised” that this old fox is still up to “his tricks”. This business feels like a natural to me and more than ever I feel it’s not too late to get something meaningful started in China. After all the market there is big enough and growing as wealth spreads across that giant land, the Middle Kingdom!

Normally I would have posted this news at robertg69.typepad.com but for some peculiar reason it feels more comfortable here. I will not be moving 100% to China because I will be maintaining a residence here in Vancouver since the supply part of my business model will be in North America, probably mostly Canada.

Image via Wikipedia

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When it’s Chinese it usually involves a large number

This image of a hotel in Hangzhou leaves little doubt that in China, one, two or three is never enough!

This hotel decided that 60 national flags, or more, best marked the 60th anniversary of the PRC!

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Can you guess what this image depicts?

Could it be a new version of abstract art, a kindergarden doodle, or is it the pic of a plastic dump in China?

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Bombardier wins $4-billion train contract in China

Image via Wikipedia

Deal is to supply 80 high-speed trains to China

I think now I understand better why our Prime Minister is being very circumspect about his Dalai Lama connection. Canadian business must come before human rights, even for a hard-ass Tory PM.

But no fooling this is a big deal for Canada and Bombardier, who seem to have found the key to doing business in China.

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Canadian Tory “principled actions”

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Tories give Dalai Lama a wide berth

The Dalai Lama, left, greets the crowd prior to a panel discussion with the Reverend Mpho Tutu, right, in Vancouver Sunday. The Dalai Lama is visiting Vancouver to take part in the World Peace Summit. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Canada’s high-profile welcome in 2007 enraged China, and Ottawa is still mending fences ahead of Harper’s visit to the People’s Republic

I personally find it difficult to understand the point of the Dalai Lama excitement in BC these days. On Saturday he was the Guest Editor of the Vancouver Sun. And apparently he is here on some kind of “Peace Summit”. He really appears to be more of a peace gadabout than summiteer.

But all the rich bourgeois in Vancouver seem to be very happy to pay his fare many times over.

The whole brouhaha smacks more of culture vultering than “peace”!

As for PM Harper, he is simply up to his old tricks of political peekeboo. Now he’s with the DL, now he’s not! Now China are tewwible communists, now their not so tewwible! So goes “Tory politics with Harper principles” in Canada!

The temporary discomfiture of the Canadian Govt is further demoed by this quote from the Globe and Mail:

Governor-General Michaëlle Jean had been scheduled to share the stage with the Dalai Lama yesterday, but abruptly cancelled her appearance last week.

Spokeswoman Marthe Blouin said the decision was prompted by family reasons and had nothing to do with political pressure, noting Ms. Jean intends to meet privately with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday.

“The Governor-General is free to make her own decisions … and does not need to have her schedule approved by the government,” Ms. Blouin said in an e-mail.

At the Chan Centre, sitting cross-legged and shoeless on a comfortable black chair, the Dalai Lama surprised his reverential audience at one point by admitting he was stumped by a question posed by moderator Mary Robinson. The former UN high commissioner for human rights asked him about the role of dignity in human rights.

Image by california cowgirl1 via Flickr

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