- BEIJING -- China's Communist
rulers have a blunt message for anyone who frets about the planned Chinese
takeover of Canada's biggest mining company: Get ready for more to
come.
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- In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail in
Beijing this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing made it plain that
the controversial $7-billion takeover of Noranda Inc. is just a small
element
in a much more ambitious strategy of investment in Canada's resources
sector
to feed China's voracious appetite for raw materials.
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- "Given our rapid economic growth, we're facing an
acute shortage of natural resources," the Foreign Minister told The
Globe.
-
- "No matter how plentiful our natural resources,
when you divide them by our population of 1.3 billion, the figure will
be very small," he said.
-
- "The Chinese government is encouraging Chinese
enterprises
to make investments in Canada, particularly in the field of resources
exploitation."
-
- It is the first public comment on the Noranda issue by
a senior Chinese leader since the controversy over the planned takeover
erupted last month.
-
- Though the minister did not identify any specific targets
for future Chinese buyers, it is known that two of China's biggest
state-controlled
oil companies are considering major investments in Alberta's oil sands.
In other potential billion-dollar deals, Chinese oil and mining companies
are looking at lucrative assets held by Canadian companies in Ecuador and
Mongolia.
-
- The proposed takeover of Noranda by state-owned China
Minmetals Corp. has shocked many Canadian observers, but it is a potent
symbol of China's sudden emergence as a powerful global investor and a
massive consumer of commodities. China is hungry for supplies and expertise
in the natural resources sector, and Canada has both.
-
- The Noranda takeover - which is expected to be finalized
by mid-November, becoming the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese
corporation - has sparked questions by several MPs who have raised
human-rights
concerns. Some say the deal should be blocked because of reports that China
Minmetals has been linked to the use of forced labour in the Chinese prison
gulag.
-
- China's Foreign Minister vigorously rejected the
human-rights
concerns.
-
- "You can tell your readers that they needn't worry
at all about China's development," he said.
-
- "In the international arena, we act in accordance
with international law and international practice. We will act in
accordance
with the rules of the World Trade Organization, as a member of
WTO."
-
- He insisted that human rights are fully protected by
the Chinese constitution, and argued that China's human-rights situation
is not too different from that of Canada.
-
- "On human rights, I believe, our two peoples have
a lot in common," he said.
-
- "Liberty, democracy, freedom and whatever, we share
a lot. What is democracy? Democracy is a way in which people enjoy their
rights according to law. If the Chinese people and government are working
in accordance with our constitution and law, why do people in Canada worry
about this? "I don't think there is anything to give a reason for
those people to worry about China's human-rights record. Perhaps those
people have not read at all the Chinese constitution. Perhaps they have
not been to China and also perhaps they don't know history."
-
- He invoked the memory of Norman Bethune, the Canadian
surgeon who became a Communist martyr after he died in 1939 while tending
to wounded Communist soldiers on the battlefield after the Japanese
invasion
of China.
-
- "When the Chinese fought against foreign aggression,
it was a very progressive and friendly Canadian who came to help us,"
he said. "That was a real help to the Chinese people. If you have
any questions, any doubts or suspicions, tell them that all of our Canadian
friends are welcome to come to China to see for themselves."
-
- He also revealed that Prime Minister Paul Martin will
visit China within the next few months.
-
- It will be Mr. Martin's first visit to China since
becoming
Prime Minister, and it could provoke further questions at home about the
Noranda deal and the human-rights issues.
-
- (The Prime Minister's Office has not yet announced the
China visit, but Mr. Li confirmed that the Prime Minister will visit China
early next year.)
-
- On the economic front, he noted that the two-way trade
between Canada and China in the first eight months of this year was nearly
60 per cent above the level of last year. He wants still closer
links.
-
- "The two economies are highly complementary, and
are yet to tap their tremendous potential, especially in resource and
energy
co-operation," Mr. Li said in response to a supplementary list of
questions from The Globe.
-
- China's dramatic rise on the world stage has triggered
anxieties in the West and in Asia, where observers have worried about its
fast-growing military budget, its expanding nationalist movement and its
territorial disputes with some of its neighbours.
-
- Nobody should fear China's rising influence, the Foreign
Minister said. China's own development will, in return, contribute to world
peace, he said.
-
- "China's development will not threaten anybody or
compromise their interests," Mr. Li said. "China's peaceful
development
serves not only the maximum interests of its people but also the common
interests of people around the world."
-
- Despite the double-digit annual growth of its military
budget, China's defence spending remains "at a low level"
compared
with the United States, he said. The sharp increase this year is
"mainly
intended to ensure that the livelihood of service personnel
improves."
-
- Even as China becomes a global economic powerhouse, Mr.
Li insists that it is merely a "developing country" with a
"weak
economic foundation."
-
- The country will "concentrate on its own
development"
in the future, he said. "It will take a long and arduous journey and
require generations of hard work before China can fully develop
itself."
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