Harpers “quiet” meeting with Chinese Communist Party propaganda Chief – why were Canadian media last to know?

Posted on by Laila

“One of China’s most powerful figures slipped into Ottawa unannounced. Unless you were watching Chinese TV.

Li Changchun is ranked No. 5 in the Chinese hierarchy, one of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and the party’s propaganda chief. When he arrived in Ottawa Thursday, he met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The government of Canada had never announced the powerful official was coming.

However, Mr. Li’s visit was covered widely by Chinese television and print media like state news agency Xinhua. And then, after Mr. Li’s meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Harper’s PMO sent out a photograph of the two men chatting, just before 8:30 on Thursday night. It was the first time they’d told the press about Mr. Li’s visit”

~snip~

“Mr. Harper’s government, however, barely mentioned the three-day visit of the powerful Communist Party official. How powerful? Forbes ranked Mr. Li No. 19 on a list of the world’s most powerful people. In their words, he “controls what 1.3 billion Chinese see, hear, speak.” As chairman of the party’s Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilization, he is the de facto controller of media and information censorship.”

To read the rest of this timely article… head on over to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-quietly-holds-face-to-face-talks-with-chinese-propaganda-chief/article2409475/

If this doesn’t make your brows furrow, I’m not sure what will. 

Why were mainstrean Canadian media outlets the last to know ?

More to come next week on foreign influence on Canadian politicians… as well as a feature on corruption in one of B.C.’s largest sectors.

“In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.”
– Sun Tzu

Thanks to Boots2 for these photos of the event, from Chinese media:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-04/21/c_131542094.htm

15 thoughts on “Harpers “quiet” meeting with Chinese Communist Party propaganda Chief – why were Canadian media last to know?”

    1. You and I both. Very secretive indeed to only invite Chinese media and let the msm know late in the evening. Updated with a photo sent in by a reader showing Baird and our esteemed visitor.

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  4. That’s pretty scary when the Chinese government is telling their people about the visit, and Canadian government is hiding it?!
    Baird’s been bought, that’s obvious. What’s not readily obvious is the extent of the selling off of Canada to Communist China.

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  5. Some great links from a keen source:
    “The prime minister is getting some bad advice.

    Those were former member of Parliament David Kilgour’s first words when he heard Stephen Harper had met with another senior Chinese cadre who is among the most notorious rights abusers in China today.

    “I am very sad to hear that. It simply has got to stop or Canada is going to be a laughing stock among the people that believe in human dignity and rule of law,” said Kilgour, a former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific).

    Harper met with Li Changchun, head of the Chinese regime’s propaganda and censorship system, on Thursday, but the meeting was not announced in advance. Details of the meeting emerged from Chinese press likely in Li’s entourage, and a photo of Harper and Li was distributed by the Prime Minister’s Office.

    Kilgour said the fact that Li was making the rounds in Ottawa while trying to keep his presence unknown to the western press should have tipped Harper’s staff off that Li had something to hide.

    Meetings With Top-Level Targets for Ousting
    Li comes to Canada amid factional infighting in the highest ranks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is claiming some of Li’s most powerful allies.

    Li has long been counted among the core members of the faction loyal to former chairman Jiang Zemin, as opposed to the faction headed by current leader Hu Jintao and his premier Wen Jianbao.

    Several top members of Jiang’s faction are now targets for ousting. It’s a messy process that has caught the attention of the international press as former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, another Jiang ally, comes under investigation”

    From the : http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/canada/pm-needs-help-on-china-file-says-former-mp-224501.html

    And this :
    “Why did Li want his visit unnoticed in Canada?

    Ottawa – As reported by the Globe and Mail and the Epoch Times today, the visiting Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Propaganda Chief and Politburo Standing Member Li Changchun in Ottawa has been set up secretly and for a good reason.

    As CCP Propaganda Chief, Li Changchun controls media and guides public opinion in China against the once respected Falun Gong spiritual discipline, and is personally responsible for perpetuating the deadly persecution which has lead to thousands of documented torture cases and thousands or reported deaths in custody.

    “When Chinese Communist Party officials heavily involved in persecuting Falun Gong come over seas, they want to keep their itinerary secretive because they are afraid of protests and lawsuits”, said Lucy Zhou, a representative with the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

    By keeping his visit outside of the attention of the Canadian public, Li Changchun avoided possible protests and lawsuits against him for his key role of commanding and implementing the crimes of torture, killing, inhuman abuse against Falun Gong practitioners during the period of time when he served as the CCP Party secretary of Guangdong Province and for spreading lies and hatred that justified the persecution and turned Chinese people’s opinion against Falun Gong during his current post as CCP Propaganda Chief.

    Li Changchun was served with lawsuits against him in Ireland during his visit in 2010 and previously in France for crimes of torture by Falun Gong practitioners.

    According Wiki-Leak cables, in 2007, when now disgraced but then-Chinese Commence Minister Bo Xilai visited Ottawa, he was served with a lawsuit, one of the 14 lawsuits Bo got in 13 countries for persecuting Falun Gong. Shortly after that Bo was demoted to Chongqing because the lawsuits “negatively impacted the image of China”. According to leaked Wiki-Leak document.

    Background

    Li is usually counted among the core members of a faction within the Communist Party that is in the process of being purged. The faction is associated with former leader Jiang Zemin who orchestrated the systematic eradication of Falun Gong.

    Li came to his position in 2002, rising through the ranks of the party in the same way that Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang did–through closely following Jiang Zemin’s order to crush Falun Gong. Like Bo, and Zhou, Li distinguished himself by being particularly brutal in his efforts to eradicate the Falun Gong group from Guangdong province during his tenure there as the Party chief from 1999 to 2002.”
    From this link:http://mwcnews.net/focus/letters-to-editors/18370-propaganda-chief.html

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  8. You know, I think we’re all overlooking something.

    One can’t simply accuse Harper of being a committed evangelical with designs to pollute the planet and thus bring on the rapture in one breath…

    …and then and dismiss him as an ignorant and unprincipled lackey of China’s in the next. Remember Harper ignored China for the first few years of his reign in a very specific way. He refused to go to China’s Olympics, sending instead a flunky, and he refused to participate in trade delegations unless they dealt with Canadian issues of prisoners of conscience, privacy, copyright and patent. He snubbed China in a variety of very specific ways, and his ministers did the same, doubtless under orders. I found some principles in his actions, enough to write him once to tell him that I appreciated the nuance that I saw in the actions based on those principles.

    Of course, China told Harper to butt out. But he didn’t, for four years. Meanwhile, business fumed, especially the lumber business and manufactured wood products business here in BC.

    That was until this year. Now he’s “seen the light” according to all the reports in the LameStream Media.

    I think he’s been leaned on. But by whom? Let’s look at the list of richest Canadians, shall we?

    #1 – Thomson at $21 billion? Doesn’t care.
    #2 – Weston at $8 bilion? Doesn’t care either
    #3 Irvings at $8 biillion? Hmmmm… oil manufacturing and importing, with a stake in the oil sands refining….
    #4 Rogers, doesn’t care
    #5 Pattison – doesn’t care
    #6 Saputo? Tar sands trucking… hmmmm…
    #7 Desmarais – Power corp – financing oil sands? Hmmmm…
    #8 Jeff Skoll? doesn’t care
    #9 Mannix? Alberta oil sands construction? Hmmmm…
    #10 Sherman (drugs) ? Hmmmm.. a generic manufacturer that could benefit from manufacturing in China? Hmmmmm….
    #11 Clay Riddell – oil and tar sands? Hmmmm….
    …and on and on it goes. Now Sinopec just bought a major stake in Opti Energy and Syncrude Canada. Penn West and Pacific Rubiales now have new-found power to support pipelines, driling and fracking and long-distance transport of oil. Bob Friedland is still spending more time and billions in Asia these days instead of Canada, which ordinarily wouldn’t be a bad thing, crook that he is….

    No, I’m smelling a very large, and very oily RAT. What’s surprising is that ordinary Canadians don’t seem to care that they’re being sold out for a few barrels of oil that they aren’t even making decent royalties on.

    Of course, you’d have to look somewhere else for your information than the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald…

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    1. Astute obsevervation, one I am looking at in the followup post to this story. As I mentioned,and have others, there has been an aboutface with Harper and China.Bang on there in influence and pressure, but the China connection is still about more than resources, and that cannot be ignored. I think Canadians do care, many feel immobilized, don’t know what to do about it.

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      1. One only has to look at how the robocall scandal was handled/ignored/covered up and the rather surprising majority government Harper somehow? managed to obtain to understand how powerless Canadians feel. For me, I believe there is underlying corruption going on at levels we have not seen before. Harper is at the center of this corruption since he is allowing and even forcing unsavory issues which are decidedly unCanadian. I do not believe Harper actually did win a majority, I think he cheated…I just don’t know how it was done…yet.

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  9. You’re more correct than you think Laila (and Zalm), as any respectable citizen concerned with themselves and their families welfare, our rights, and our freedoms is trembling in fury, not fear.
    We’ve written our MLA’s and MP’s, letters to media and marches on parliament, and what happens? A big, fat, nothing. Zero, zilch, nada, nein.
    Excuses, dodging the question, claiming simply “I don’t know anything about that, you’ll have to ask my staffer”, media spin, semantics, not even bothering to reply.

    The government has a very big lawyer pool replete with greedy judges and courts in pocket. Our government (now a “for profit” organization.. hrmm) is funded by corporations (not so much the taxpayer anymore) who stand to profit by lining the pockets of the ministers involved in the fields the companies (most owned now by goldman/sachs, rockefeller, china, etc) are interested in, so that laws are passed (or ignored) and by the time anyone is on to them.. oops, too late, it’s been done and we can’t undo it.. (so they claim).

    I’ve seen, since the inception of the LIEberals, nothing but public outcry, outrage and great despair. I’ve watched Beautiful British Columbia become China’s fuel source and industrial supplier at the expense of our own workers/jobs/businesses.
    I’ve watched Premiers and Quasi-private corporations like BC Ferry’s and our own infamous David Hahn paying himself million + $$$ a year and giving raises to their board staff at times when most working people are living paycheck to paycheck.

    And the people just don’t know what to do next.
    The criminals know we’re coming and are doing everything they can to stall us “legally or technicality-wise” while they grab as much as they can before the gravy train derails.
    Personally, I’d say all blue collar workers in EVERY job just don’t go to work today.. or for a couple days.. maybe when the corps and govt isn’t making ANY money because production is standstill, we may see a turn-about.
    Then again, they may declare martial law and use the military.. (which shows what a true democracy we are living in)… with the very same profiteers…. profiteering. The scenarios are plentiful, but always end up with the same people suffering and the same people profiting.

    So what IS our next move?
    Btw, here’s an interesting read.)

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