https://www.scmp.com/rss/322196/feed The Hongcouver blog is devoted to Vancouver's hybrid culture with Hong Kong and growing relationship with mainland China. Author Ian Young is the SCMP's Vancouver correspondent and former International Editor, who has won or shared awards for excellence in investigative and human rights reporting, and the HK News Awards Scoop of the Year. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com I was born in Taiwan in 1982. My dad was in agriculture and my mum was in the restaurant industry and, with my older brother, Kevin, we lived outside Taipei. When I was five, Kevin and I went to a toy store with our parents. Kevin went for the Nintendos and Transformers and I made a beeline for the doll section. That’s when my parents realised, “Hey, this kid is different.” I think they were confused, but they loved me and decided that if that’s what I wanted that’s what I’d get, and I came out... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/fashion/article/3193495/dressing-barbie-michelle-obama-jason-wu-fashion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/fashion/article/3193495/dressing-barbie-michelle-obama-jason-wu-fashion?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2022 07:00:12 +0000 HSBC suffered no risk of loss as a result of alleged deceptions by Meng Wanzhou, her lawyer told a Canadian court on Monday, as the Huawei Technologies chief financial officer’s two-year battle against extradition to the United States entered a critical stage. But a Canadian government lawyer representing US interests said the fact that Huawei was not a “deadbeat” borrower from the bank was irrelevant to Meng’s alleged fraud. This phase of hearings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3125574/hsbc-suffered-no-risk-meng-wanzhous-alleged-deceptions-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3125574/hsbc-suffered-no-risk-meng-wanzhous-alleged-deceptions-court?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Mar 2021 20:14:31 +0000 A Boeing 777 was chartered by China’s government to fly Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou back home last May, in the mistaken expectation that she was about to be freed, a Canadian court heard on Tuesday, in a dramatic hearing that featured testimony from Meng’s husband for the first time. Liu Xiaozong said he feared his wife might contract Covid-19 from the security guards assigned to prevent her fleeing while her extradition battle continues. As Meng’s lawyers sought to relax her bail... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3117479/boeing-777-was-chartered-fly-meng-wanzhou-home-canada-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3117479/boeing-777-was-chartered-fly-meng-wanzhou-home-canada-court?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:39:34 +0000 Canada’s plan to cool a red-hot domestic property market by taxing foreign homebuyers who do not reside in the country could upset the industry recovery and further erode international demand, analysts said. The proposal has gained traction in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government as property agents recorded roaring business and surging prices this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting improving sentiment among investors on the market outlook. Some 461,818 homes have changed hands... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3113048/canada-wants-tax-phantom-foreign-homebuyers-rein-red-hot-property-prices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3113048/canada-wants-tax-phantom-foreign-homebuyers-rein-red-hot-property-prices?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Dec 2020 23:30:13 +0000 A Canadian border officer who questioned Meng Wanzhou in the hours before her arrest at Vancouver’s airport has testified that he knew the case would end up in court over the way she was handled, as the judge hearing the case handed down a separate ruling granting the Huawei executive a small victory in her fight against extradition to the United States. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia agreed to admit new evidence presented by Meng, including... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3107697/i-knew-wed-end-court-says-canada-border-officer-who-quizzed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3107697/i-knew-wed-end-court-says-canada-border-officer-who-quizzed?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Oct 2020 19:27:06 +0000 Greetings American friends, from Richmond, British Columbia, aka The Most Chinese City in North America™! Regular readers of the Hongcouver blog will be familiar with this remarkable Canadian community, the only city outside Asia that has a majority ethnic Chinese population, representing 53 per cent of its population, according to the 2016 census. To put that in perspective, San Francisco – widely regarded as the most Chinese city in the US (various communities within Los Angeles County... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3102174/china-virus-north-americas-most-chinese-city-one-most-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3102174/china-virus-north-americas-most-chinese-city-one-most-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:28:19 +0000 Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case in Canada moved behind closed doors on Tuesday, for discussions about potentially sensitive evidence that government lawyers say needs to be kept secret from Meng and her lawyers. The evidence is being pursued by Meng’s team to press an argument that she is a victim of an abuse of process, as the US seeks her extradition to New York to face fraud charges. It includes correspondence and notes by Canadian government employees, including police and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3097880/meng-wanzhou-and-her-lawyers-are-excluded-canadian-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3097880/meng-wanzhou-and-her-lawyers-are-excluded-canadian-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Aug 2020 18:49:03 +0000 “You’ll delete my number won’t you? After we hang up, you’ll delete that, right?” said the protester, who asked that I identify her only as “Jessica”. Jessica lives in Vancouver, where she attends protests about Hong Kong – waving the same black flag that resulted this month in the first charge of inciting secession under new national security laws in her former home city. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. “Liberate Hong Kong; Revolution of Our Times,” the allegedly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3093721/delete-my-number-fear-hong-kong-security-law-spreads-vancouver-some?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3093721/delete-my-number-fear-hong-kong-security-law-spreads-vancouver-some?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:30:15 +0000 Watching chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain’s food shows about Vietnam drew second-generation Vietnamese-Canadian Michael Tran to the country of his parents’ birth – and inspired him to open a Vietnamese restaurant in Vancouver. Called Lunch Lady, it opened on July 1. The restaurant’s name comes from the nickname Bourdain (who died two years ago) gave Nguyen Thi Thanh, the owner of a street stall called Bun Cha Huong Lien in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, that he featured on his show No... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3091554/new-vancouver-vietnamese-restaurant-lunch-lady-inspired-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3091554/new-vancouver-vietnamese-restaurant-lunch-lady-inspired-one?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:45:06 +0000 On Thursday, more than four months into British Columbia’s Covid-19 pandemic, officials finally released regionalised data showing that Chinese-majority Richmond – once feared as potential ground zero for the outbreak – was in fact metro Vancouver’s least infected area. Ironically, the goal of withholding the data for so long was to avoid stigmatising certain communities. That may not have worked out so well. I say “ironically” because, in the meantime, incidents of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3088123/anti-chinese-virus-was-spreading-vancouver-data-could-have-broken-infection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3088123/anti-chinese-virus-was-spreading-vancouver-data-could-have-broken-infection?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:33:49 +0000 Provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry has been the calm, reassuring and authoritative voice of the Covid-19 pandemic in British Columbia. Her near-daily press conferences (with BC health minister Adrian Dix) have become essential viewing, and have earned her a Twitter fan club with more than 7,000 followers, and supporters who literally sing her praises online. “Dear Dr Bonnie” (based on “Dear Theodosia” from Broadway’s Hamilton) includes lyrics such as “you will lead us through... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3076807/coronavirus-calm-and-reassuring-didnt-convince-vancouvers-covidiots?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3076807/coronavirus-calm-and-reassuring-didnt-convince-vancouvers-covidiots?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2020 21:52:19 +0000 They were told to stay home, to practise social distancing. Instead, they started to gather. On Vancouver’s Kitsilano Beach. On a frozen lake in Whistler, by the hundreds. In my local playground. The messages in Canada this week about the need to stay at home and socially distance ourselves to curtail the spread of Covid-19, from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau down through every level of government, has been loud, clear and ignored by a portion of the population in British Columbia. Judging from... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3076034/coronavirus-go-home-vancouver-stay-home-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3076034/coronavirus-go-home-vancouver-stay-home-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:30:12 +0000 It was a deal negotiated over fine wine and meals in luxury restaurants and mansions on both sides of the Pacific. But the 2015 agreement between Singapore billionaire Oei Hong Leong and Vancouver developer Terry Hui to jointly develop a trophy site that Oei owns in the heart of the Canadian city would collapse in legal acrimony, despite their decades-long friendship. Now, Oei is accusing Hui’s deputy of threatening “bodily harm”, in a C$245 million (US$175 million) lawsuit alleging that Hui... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3075188/singapore-billionaire-oei-hong-leong-says-vancouver?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3075188/singapore-billionaire-oei-hong-leong-says-vancouver?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Mar 2020 17:02:19 +0000 The last time the Canadian rugby seven’s men’s squad medalled at a World Rugby Sevens Series event was nearly three years ago. On April 16, 2017 the squad downed the United States 26-19 at the Singapore Sevens, in what many thought was the upstart team’s coming out party. The past few years have been rough for the boys in red, as they have finished no higher than eighth since 2014 and are dealing with an ongoing labour dispute between the players and Rugby Canada. This past weekend, it was an... https://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/article/3074229/world-rugby-sevens-series-rebirth-canadas-squad-comes-fruition-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/article/3074229/world-rugby-sevens-series-rebirth-canadas-squad-comes-fruition-home?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Mar 2020 07:02:10 +0000 I first saw the rice raiders of Richmond, outside Vancouver, on Saturday evening in a message from an older relative, who got the photo from a friend, who received it in a group message to their Chinese singing troupe, that received it from who knows where. It shows one man literally climbing the distinctive scaffolding racks of a Costco store to pass down sacks of rice to shoppers below, their arms stretched out in supplication. An Asian man carries away a sack on his head. A woman in a down... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3065292/panic-costco-coronavirus-bogus-photo-and-contagion-fear-behind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3065292/panic-costco-coronavirus-bogus-photo-and-contagion-fear-behind?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2020 19:31:35 +0000 The main problem for Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre food court, in the heart of the most Chinese city outside Asia, used to be a lack of seats. It heaved around meal times, with tray-toting diners pouncing on tables as soon as an incumbent so much as dabbed their lips with a napkin. Not any more. The crowds are gone. Most tables are empty. It looks like someone pulled a fire alarm. In the Aberdeen Centre, and at Chinese restaurants and other businesses in the Vancouver region and across Canada,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3051883/vancouvers-chinese-restaurants-are-empty-amid-coronavirus-fears-if?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3051883/vancouvers-chinese-restaurants-are-empty-amid-coronavirus-fears-if?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Feb 2020 22:21:36 +0000 In early 2003, my soon-to-be wife and I developed a routine when we came home. We would take off our N95 face masks and drop them in a bin by the door. We would strip off in the entranceway in a thoroughly unromantic fashion and throw our clothes in the washing machine with a hearty slosh of Dettol. We then showered immediately, and retired to consider the unusual and frightening existence that was Hong Kong at the height of the Sars epidemic. Which is why current and former Hongkongers like... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3047964/those-asian-people-wearing-face-masks-amid-coronavirus-fears-they-arent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3047964/those-asian-people-wearing-face-masks-amid-coronavirus-fears-they-arent?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jan 2020 16:50:38 +0000 Lawyers for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou have blasted the US fraud charges against her as an embarrassment to the Canadian court that is judging her extradition hearing, and an improper “pose” intended to apply US sanctions on Iran that had been rejected by “the rest of the civilised world”. Concluding the first phase of Meng’s high-stakes extradition case after four days of hearings in Vancouver, lawyer Scott Fenton told Madam Justice Heather Holmes in the British Columbia Supreme Court that... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3047457/meng-wanzhou-extradition-case-embarrasses-canadian-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3047457/meng-wanzhou-extradition-case-embarrasses-canadian-court?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jan 2020 19:12:16 +0000 One encourages people on her social media profile to “send $$$ 4 nudez”. Others include a professional actress, a Vancouver artist and a young man whose fondness for starring in pornographic selfies had made his Twitter feed decidedly NSFW. What united them all on Monday was an apparent devotion to the cause of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, in her bid to avoid extradition to the United States on fraud charges. They and a couple dozen others stood outside the BC Supreme Court on the first day of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047265/free-meng-wanzhou-and-send-nudez-weird-world-vancouvers-unlikely?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047265/free-meng-wanzhou-and-send-nudez-weird-world-vancouvers-unlikely?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jan 2020 20:12:57 +0000 When I met Ian Gillespie a few years ago, he gave me a book of his thoughts and reflections on a career that has made him Vancouver’s most prominent and polarising real estate developer. It weighs 2.8 kilograms (6.2lb). The dashing founder and boss of Westbank Corp is not a man overburdened by self-doubt. Long regarded as one of the city’s most powerful people, Gillespie has been downright ubiquitous this past month, dominating discussions about art, affordability and city-building. The first... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3043059/vancouver-really-insular-little-village-so-says-its-most-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3043059/vancouver-really-insular-little-village-so-says-its-most-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Dec 2019 20:49:36 +0000 Chen Mailin, a Chinese former duck farmer turned tycoon, has made a habit of big purchases in Vancouver. Five years ago he bought a 17,000 sq ft Italianate mansion in Point Grey, one of the city's most expensive neighbourhoods, for what is thought to have been the highest price ever paid for a home in the city (or Canada, for that matter): C$51.8 million (US$39 million). Then, this April, his Union Pay credit card was used by his son to pay C$5.1 million (US$3.9 million) for what is surely one... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3042360/chinese-former-duck-farmer-buys-big-vancouver-first-us39m-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3042360/chinese-former-duck-farmer-buys-big-vancouver-first-us39m-home?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Dec 2019 18:42:08 +0000 When Vancent Zhu heard that supporters of the Hong Kong protest movement would be gathering at a shopping mall in Richmond, near Vancouver, to sing their de facto anthem Glory to Hong Kong, he knew he had to be there. The electrical technician was going to be in Richmond afterwards for a party, anyway. So he drove the 15km (9 miles) from his home in Burnaby, another Vancouver satellite city, and made a day of it. Hundreds of protesters dressed in black filled the railings of the multilevel... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3032075/hundreds-canada-sang-glory-hong-kong-he-sang-different-tune?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3032075/hundreds-canada-sang-glory-hong-kong-he-sang-different-tune?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Oct 2019 17:07:28 +0000 Outside the Aberdeen Centre mall in Richmond, near Vancouver, supporters of the Hong Kong protest movement were marking China’s National Day on Tuesday by building a Lennon Wall – and counterprotesting opponents were tearing it down. Taunts and challenges turned into shoving. Then there were cheers and applause when uniformed police appeared on the scene and led away two of the counterprotesters, to shouts of “go back to China” and “stand with Hong Kong”, video of Tuesday’s incident shows. But... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3031486/canadian-police-go-undercover-hong-kong-protest-tensions-rise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3031486/canadian-police-go-undercover-hong-kong-protest-tensions-rise?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:25:11 +0000 In the closet of his Vancouver home, Albert Cheng King-hon now has 100 ties that he never wears. The once-dapper Hong Kong broadcaster, media tycoon, ex-legislator and nemesis of the establishment fingers the frayed buttonhole of a comfortable-looking grey shirt as we sit in a Gastown coffee shop, surrounded by oblivious hipsters and tourists. “Look at me. I wear this every day,” he laughs at the state of the man known to Hongkongers as Taipan. “Maybe I should start wearing my ties again. I... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3027768/why-pro-democracy-star-albert-cheng-left-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3027768/why-pro-democracy-star-albert-cheng-left-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Sep 2019 21:45:48 +0000 Fenella Sung sits across from Victor Feng at a narrow bench table at Bubble Queen on Vancouver’s Oak Street. She’s nursing a hot rose jasmine tea – a somewhat radical choice in a bubble-tea joint – but it’s “fantastic”, she assures Feng, who sips a cold milk tea with tapioca balls, the classic variant of the genre. “I like to keep things simple,” he says. Three weekends earlier, they had faced each other under very different circumstances in this Canadian city that has 188,000 mainland-Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3027025/bubble-tea-summit-brings-together-pro-hong-kong-and-pro-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3027025/bubble-tea-summit-brings-together-pro-hong-kong-and-pro-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Sep 2019 22:55:39 +0000 They think they’re being watched. And they’re right. The question is: who’s doing the watching? I’m at a rally in support of the Hong Kong protest movement outside Vancouver’s Public Library on Saturday afternoon. So far I’ve spoken to three protesters who ask that I not publish their names for fear of retribution from Chinese authorities. People who do “not belong” are filming the protesters, one says later. It all seems a little paranoid. This is Canada, after all. Then I spy a man hanging... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025575/vancouvers-hong-kong-protesters-think-theyre-being-watched?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025575/vancouvers-hong-kong-protesters-think-theyre-being-watched?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Sep 2019 14:52:58 +0000 Foreign investors, including those from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese, largely stayed out of commercial real estate in Vancouver, Canada’s second-largest investment market, in the first half of 2019 amid sinking home prices in the city. “Market participants seemed to be waiting for the next shoe to drop. With single-family homes and commercial properties competing for land, the thinking is that the decline in residential prices will bring down land values, and in turn bring down commercial... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3023481/hong-kong-china-investors-hold-fire-over-vancouver-commercial-property?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3023481/hong-kong-china-investors-hold-fire-over-vancouver-commercial-property?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00:12 +0000 Beijing has hailed the success of its internment camps – officially described as “vocational training centres” – in countering terrorism, in a third white paper in five months seeking to explain its controversial policies in the far western Xinjiang region. The government’s defence comes amid a growing international outcry over the network of internment camps, where United Nations experts have said more than 1 million ethnic Uygurs and other Muslim minorities were being held for political... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3023195/china-hails-success-stage-xinjiang-internment-camps-countering?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3023195/china-hails-success-stage-xinjiang-internment-camps-countering?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:00:12 +0000 Vancouverites have the tongue-in-cheek reputation for starting their day with sun salutations, ending it with a jog around the Stanley Park sea wall and eating kale and quinoa in between. This is funny because it’s largely based on truth. Perpetuating this truth are five well-known brands that many actually credit for helping to create it in the first place: Lululemon, Aritzia, Herschel Supply, Native Shoes and Arc’teryx. If their respective corporate image seems “very Vancouver”, it’s because... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3022544/lululemon-arcteryx-five-vancouver-brands-built-citys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3022544/lululemon-arcteryx-five-vancouver-brands-built-citys?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Aug 2019 20:00:10 +0000 Social media is filled with uplifting stories of people who encounter racism and rise above it. People of colour who wade through the mire to embrace or convert their tormentors – or, at least, distinguish themselves in the face of ignorance. They go low, we go high. This is not one of those stories. The facts of my encounter with a real-life racist in Vancouver, your honour, are as follows. On July 10, a random white man called my wife and me “gooks”, an awful thing to do. He followed us and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3019420/sunny-vancouver-afternoon-he-called-us-g-word-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3019420/sunny-vancouver-afternoon-he-called-us-g-word-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jul 2019 22:10:57 +0000 Remember the olden times, Vancouver, when dinosaurs and Pokemon Go ruled the Earth? Cast your mind back to mid-2016. That was the last time that pretty much everybody agreed that housing unaffordability was a Very Bad Thing – in principle, at least. Over the preceding two years, there had been a mix of awe and confusion as the average price of a detached house in Greater Vancouver soared 40 to 50 per cent, thanks to the rocket fuel of Chinese capital outflows. Real estate prices across the board... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3013288/scared-falling-home-equity-and-war-money-laundering-vancouver-tough?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/3013288/scared-falling-home-equity-and-war-money-laundering-vancouver-tough?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:58:49 +0000 In the current debate on extradition, some commentators have defended the mainland’s legal system, pointing to various “improvements” in recent years. We should examine such “improvements” and China’s rule of law, not in terms of the statute books, but by how people experience the rule of law. For example, since 2002, those who aspire to join the private legal profession, the state prosecution body and the judiciary must pass a national exam. This written test, which includes multiple choices... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010015/chinas-rule-law-has-not-improved-enough-reassure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010015/chinas-rule-law-has-not-improved-enough-reassure?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 May 2019 02:00:09 +0000 The guard was in a semi-crouch behind a boat parked in its trailer, but there was no mistaking what she was doing – surreptitiously photographing us with a smartphone, as we stood across the street from Meng Wanzhou’s Vancouver home. On a previous occasion, in January, guards from Lions Gate Risk Management – who are supposed to be serving as Meng’s private jailers – went further, physically obstructing a journalist for a global news agency and a freelance photographer from following Meng on a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3009270/she-their-prisoner-or-their-boss-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhous-private?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3009270/she-their-prisoner-or-their-boss-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhous-private?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 May 2019 19:27:59 +0000 When Kenny Zou appeared before Canadian media in 2017, he was adamant about the new buyer of Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain, the iconic ski hill that looms over the city, its floodlit slopes a gleaming beacon at night: CM (Canada) Asset Management was a “completely Canadian company through and through”. Yes, Chinese investment giant China Mingsheng Investment Group (CMIG) was a 40 per cent minority shareholder – but it would be a “silent” investor, he pledged, stamping down on reports that Grouse... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3008193/whos-really-behind-vancouver-mountain-boss-troubled?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3008193/whos-really-behind-vancouver-mountain-boss-troubled?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Apr 2019 19:04:00 +0000 Karen Wen Lin Woods wants you to know she has “absolutely” no relationship with the Chinese government or its diplomatic missions in Canada. And she wants the critics who suspect otherwise to know that she thinks they are, variously, “fat and creepy”, “trolls” or “simplistic hacks”. Co-founder of the Canadian Chinese Political Affairs Committee (CCPAC), Woods has become a prominent commentator on China-related affairs in Canada, appearing on the CBC and other broadcasters and publishing lengthy... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3006638/how-chinas-canadian-lobbyists-blurred-lines-pr-journalism-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3006638/how-chinas-canadian-lobbyists-blurred-lines-pr-journalism-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2019 17:37:23 +0000 The son of a Chinese tycoon is buying a C$5.1 million (US$3.8 million) custom Bugatti sports car in Vancouver, apparently with his father’s Union Pay credit card, according to a picture of the invoice the young man posted on Instagram to complain about Canadian taxes. Ding Chen published a copy of the bill bearing his father Chen Mailin’s name on his Instagram stories, with an exasperated message overlaid in Chinese: “These taxes … my heart feels tired”. The photo, posted around noon on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3005989/chinese-tycoons-son-buys-us38million-bugatti-chiron-vancouver?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3005989/chinese-tycoons-son-buys-us38million-bugatti-chiron-vancouver?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Apr 2019 18:20:57 +0000 He’d been wanting to do it for a long time. So, outside the British Columbia Supreme Court complex in Vancouver, where Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou was facing a judge as part of her extradition process, Yang Kuang pulled out a Chinese flag on the broken tip of a fishing rod and set it on fire. A phalanx of photographers and film crews captured the moment on a chilly Wednesday morning. A string of Meng’s court appearances since her December 1 arrest at Vancouver’s international airport... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188956/non-spontaneous-combustion-yang-kuang-burned-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188956/non-spontaneous-combustion-yang-kuang-burned-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Mar 2019 23:15:00 +0000 A lawyer for Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou has accused Canada of letting the US pursue her extradition despite the “political character” of the case, citing comments by US President Donald Trump, at a proceeding in British Columbia’s Supreme Court. Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was in court in Vancouver on Wednesday to set a date for the formal start of her extradition hearing. Proceedings were adjourned until May 8. She is wanted... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2188945/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-canadian-court-us-extradition-hearing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2188945/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-canadian-court-us-extradition-hearing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:48:07 +0000 Beginning in autumn 2013, over the span of 10 months, three Chinese citizens applied separately to immigrate to Canada. They applied variously under a skilled-worker scheme and a provincial programme favoured by wealthy businesspeople. Two planned to move to Toronto, one to Saint John in New Brunswick. Their paperwork joined the tens of thousands of Canadian immigration applications being processed at any given time. Besides nationality, the only thing the three applicants all appear to have had... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188614/who-jw00237-secret-canadian-campaign-ban-huaweis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188614/who-jw00237-secret-canadian-campaign-ban-huaweis?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Mar 2019 18:00:45 +0000 This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Lauren Gardner on politico.com on March 3, 2019. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is suing Canada and two of its federal agencies, alleging that authorities detained and interrogated her before declaring her under arrest. Canada decided Friday to move forward with proceedings to extradite Meng to the US on charges of violating US sanctions against Iran by deliberately misleading banks about the company’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188458/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-suing-canada-its-border?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2188458/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-suing-canada-its-border?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Mar 2019 20:30:30 +0000 A decision on whether to begin extradition proceedings for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei who was arrested in Canada at the behest of the United States, is expected to be announced at a court hearing on March 6. Her fate could rest on the decision of one man - David Lametti. Lametti, appointed Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General last month, will have to decide whether to set Meng free or allow the courts to proceed with her extradition... https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2187940/canadian-minister-who-will-decide-whether-huaweis-meng-wanzhou-goes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2187940/canadian-minister-who-will-decide-whether-huaweis-meng-wanzhou-goes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Feb 2019 13:02:02 +0000 Huawei Technologies would deny any Chinese government request to open up “back doors” in foreign telecommunications networks because they aren’t legally obliged to do so, the company’s chairman said. Liang Hua, speaking to reporters in Toronto on Thursday, said the company had received an independent legal opinion about its obligations under Chinese law and said there is nothing forcing companies to create what he called “back doors” in networks. This was an apparent reference to hidden access... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2187193/huawei-expanding-canada-despite-arrest-cfo-meng?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2187193/huawei-expanding-canada-despite-arrest-cfo-meng?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Feb 2019 18:55:06 +0000 Cathay Pacific Airways is closing its Toronto cabin crew base, saying it is not commercially viable, putting dozens of jobs at risk. Flight attendants were told of the “disappointing and unsettling” changes when staff were invited to meet airline representatives at a hotel at Toronto International Airport to clarify their future, according to an internal memo obtained by the Post. “The commercial viability of the Toronto cabin crew base has been a concern to us for some time,” the memo said,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2185747/cathay-pacific-set-close-toronto-cabin-crew-base?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2185747/cathay-pacific-set-close-toronto-cabin-crew-base?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:00:45 +0000 Canada-based pop star Wanting Qu has issued a heartfelt plea for justice in the long-delayed Chinese corruption case against her mother, a former Harbin city official who prosecutors want executed for allegedly embezzling 350 million yuan (US$52 million). Qu’s posting on Weibo, telling how her “heart aches” for her mother Qu Zhang Mingjie, went viral this week. Posts carrying a hashtag referring to her comments have been viewed more than 230 million times, but elicited an overwhelmingly negative... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2184400/canada-based-pop-star-wanting-qu-pleads-mother?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2184400/canada-based-pop-star-wanting-qu-pleads-mother?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:57:33 +0000 I refer to Barry Wilson’s opinion piece (“If Singapore and Vancouver can create liveable cities, why can’t Hong Kong?” January 21). In comparing development plans for Hong Kong with other cities, he could not have chosen three more boring cities than Singapore, Vancouver and Edinburgh. There is more to quality of life than being mollycoddled. Perhaps in his next opinion piece he could list a few of the major urban problems the citizens of these cities face, such as the dire destitution and drug... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2183484/hong-kong-become-boring-singapore-or-vancouver-no-thanks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2183484/hong-kong-become-boring-singapore-or-vancouver-no-thanks?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jan 2019 05:03:43 +0000 Godwin’s Law, as anyone remotely familiar with social media should know, posits the shift towards certainty that a comparison to Hitler or Nazism will be made, the longer any online discussion proceeds. It’s usually a gambit of last resort. But Nathan Lauster – a professor in sociology at the University of British Columbia – went there with little prodding. Focusing on the role of foreign money in Vancouver’s unaffordable real estate market “mirrors how you move from ‘socialism’ to ‘national... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2181447/professor-says-vancouvers-china-money-fears-mirror?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2181447/professor-says-vancouvers-china-money-fears-mirror?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Jan 2019 21:15:30 +0000 They include a property agent, a mansion-owning homemaker and a part-time yoga-instructor – a veritable casting call of modern Vancouver. The other thing they have in common is Huawei Technologies CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. These are the Canadians who have put their homes and retirement savings on the line by paying millions in bail for Meng, certain in their belief that she will not betray them by fleeing Vancouver, where she is awaiting extradition proceedings to face charges of fraud in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2178796/these-are-canadians-who-paid-millions-bail-huaweis-sabrina-meng?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2178796/these-are-canadians-who-paid-millions-bail-huaweis-sabrina-meng?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:30:45 +0000 In August 2013, Huawei CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou faced a HSBC banker and did something countless other executives have done before – she gave a PowerPoint presentation. But according to the United States, the presentation was far from ordinary: it was fraud, designed to help Huawei evade US and EU sanctions against Iran, in a deception involving hundreds of millions of dollars. It lies at the heart of the US case against Meng, and her arrest in Vancouver on December 1. Her detention has sparked... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2178250/powerpoint-presentation-proves-huawei-cfo-sabrina-meng-wanzhou?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2178250/powerpoint-presentation-proves-huawei-cfo-sabrina-meng-wanzhou?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Dec 2018 22:00:15 +0000 Huawei Technologies top executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou said she was proud of her company and her country, hours after she was released on bail in Canada while awaiting trial on fraud charges. Meng, the Chinese telecoms giant’s chief financial officer and heir apparent, was granted bail by the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday. “I am in Vancouver and back with my family,” she said in a post on Chinese social media platform WeChat after her release. “I am proud of Huawei, I am... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2177670/sabrina-meng-i-am-proud-huawei-i-am-proud-my-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2177670/sabrina-meng-i-am-proud-huawei-i-am-proud-my-country?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:30:28 +0000 The Canadian bail proceedings for Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou resumed in British Columbia's Supreme Court on Monday, with her defence team proposing the use of a private security detail to prevent her from fleeing, pending an extradition hearing. The US seeks her extradition to face multiple fraud charges relating to alleged breaches of US and EU sanctions against Iran, each carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years. Meng would pay for private security guards... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2177339/bail-hearings-continue-canada-huawei-cfo-sabrina?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2177339/bail-hearings-continue-canada-huawei-cfo-sabrina?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:15:45 +0000