Stern Hu knows the stakes at play

On July 18, 2009, Dr. Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, was interviewed by the Australian on the detention of four Rio Tinto executives last week in Shanghai, China, on charges of bribing staff of Chinese steel companies during iron ore negotiations this year.

In the interview, Wenran recalls Stern Hu, one of the detained Rio Tinto executives, from their days together at Beijing University. They were both studying in the history department there 30 years ago. He noted that it's unfortunate to see what's happening to him. In the world of commercial negotiations, the borderline between what is public information and what is a state secret may be easily crossed or blurred in China.

Now, Jiang says, because of China's desire to re-regulate the industry and the resulting media insistence that Chinese businesses that have acted detrimentally to that goal must pay a price, many of Hu's Chinese customers will be shaking, wondering when the police will knock on their door.

You can read the article here.

Chinese buying spree bypasses Canada

On July 17, 2009, Dr. Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, was interviewed by Calgary Herald on China's growing need for energy and its continued quest to shore up supply through overseas buying spree in Brazil, Central Asia, Venezuela, and Russia. What's curious, however, is that none of those deals has taken place in Canada.

In the paper, Dr. Jiang lists a number of reasons for this apparent lack of activity. One of those factors is the lack of pipeline infrastructure to the west coast that could facilitate the export of oilsands production to China and other countries in the Far East. Jiang makes reference to the memorandum of understanding signed with Enbridge back in 2005 in connection with the Gateway Pipeline, but it's been almost four years since that time and the pipeline has yet to be built.

You can read the article here.

Is China Really a Melting Pot?

Banner image: Ethnic Uighurs go about their daily lives in Xinjiang's famed Silk Road city of Kashgar in China's far northwestern, mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.
Photo: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

On July 14, 2009, Dr. Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, was interviewed by KCRW Radio on the July 6 Uyghur riots occurred in the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

First the Tibetans, now the Uighurs, are challenging China's central authority. Can 56 very different cultural and linguistic groups continue to get along?

During the interview, Dr. Jiang said that Han population in the Xinjiang Region has grown from 6 percent to over 40 percent now, but the current migration trend is motivated more by economic opportunism of the "outsiders". Nevertheless, many Uyghurs view this as an infringement over their lives and interests. The tension is on the rise and it threatens stability in the region.

You can listen to the entire audio clip available on the KCRW website. Wenran's comment starts around at 31:00 minutes from the beginning.

Uighur Unrest Seen Highighting China's Ethnic Tensions

On July 13, 2009, Dr. Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, was interivewed by the AFP, commenting on the July 6 Uyghur riots occurred in the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

In the article, Dr. Jiang urges Beijing to squarely face the reality about how minorities are being treated by Hans, not only in Xinjiang, but in the rest of the country.

Even though China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported following the unrest that Xinjiang's economy quadrupled to 400 billion yuan ($60 billion) in 2008 compared with how it stood in 1997, Wenran noted that this has not produced the intended consequences of uplifting the local people as much as the Hans.

You can read the article here.

During the past few days, Wenran also did several interviews with OMNI TV, CBC National Radio News national security reporter Bill Gillespie, and CBC Radio Active Hop Spot host Peter Brown on the same topics, providing his comments, the background of the Xinjing riot, and its latest development.

Resource-rich Xinjiang crucial to China

On July 12, 2009, Dr. Wenran Jiang, Mactaggart Research Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, was interviewed by the AFP on the July 6 Uyghur riots occurred in the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Wenran noted that the strategic importance of Xinjiang - it takes up one sixth of China's land mass and borders Central Asia - meant any long-term unrest would not be tolerated. He told the AFP during the interview that Xinjing is China's northwest frontier, and like Tibet, is absolutely vital to the country's security. Beijing will not compromise in any way on these regions.

You can read the article here.