杜魯多拒絕通過北極黃金交易 - 再次阻擋中國

Trudeau Shuts Out China Again by Rejecting Arctic Gold Deal

Steven Frank, Kait Bolongaro and Stephen Wicary

Bloomberg Wed., December 23, 2020, 12:13 a.m. PST

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government rejected a plan by China’s Shandong Gold Mining Co. to acquire a gold miner that operates in the Canadian Arctic, potentially inflaming a diplomatic feud.

TMAC Resources Inc. owns the Hope Bay gold mine in the northern territory of Nunavut, an operation that includes a port and air strips. Shandong, an acquisitive state-backed metal producer, agreed to buy the Toronto-based company for about $150 million in May. In October, TMAC received notice the government had ordered a national security review.

The Canadian miner said late Monday an order had been issued under the Investment Canada Act for Shandong not to proceed with the takeover. Shandong confirmed the rejection in a statement Tuesday, citing a decision made for the “purpose of safeguarding national security.”

Officials in Trudeau’s office declined to comment on the move, which comes amid badly frayed ties between Canada and China over the 2018 arrest of a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive on a U.S. extradition request.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that Canada “should provide an open and nondiscriminatory business environment for all companies operating in Canada, including the Chinese ones.”

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa sees any politicization of economic co-operation as wrong, a spokesperson said by email late Tuesday, calling on the Canadian government to foster a fair market for all foreign investors.

A spokesperson for the Canadian industry ministry said she was restricted in explaining why the Shandong deal was rejected, citing confidentiality provisions of the investment act. “Canada remains open to investments that create jobs, growth, access to global trade and value chains, and long-term prosperity for Canadians, while protecting Canada’s national security interests,” Sophy Lambert-Racine said by email Tuesday.

TMAC plunged as much as 19%, the most intraday since March, and was down 11% to C$1.16 as of 12:05 p.m. in Toronto. The shares have declined 70% this year.

Security observers have said a sale could be a threat to Canada because it would give China greater access to the Northwest Passage and is close to Canadian early warning radar facilities in the Arctic.

The Trudeau government’s rejection of the deal might not be the end of the story, according to Stephanie Carvin, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and former government intelligence analyst. “The issue when dealing with state-owned and state-championed enterprises is that when you say no to them, China finds other ways to circumvent the rule of law,” she said by phone Tuesday. “If you say no once, it doesn’t mean they won’t try again in some way.”

Huawei and Aecon

The decision -- and Beijing’s reaction to it -- will be watched closely by other Arctic nations, Carvin said, flagging that Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had meetings with his Nordic counterparts recently. “Canada is not the only country struggling to deal with China in the north. Denmark is particularly concerned,” she said, citing Beijing’s infrastructure investments in Greenland.

Canada-China relations soured sharply two years ago, when police detained Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver’s airport. She has been confined to the Pacific coast city since then, fighting extradition. In the days after her arrest, China jailed two Canadians on espionage charges and halted billions of dollars in agricultural imports.

Even before the Huawei case flared, China was warning of an investment chill in Canada after Trudeau’s government rejected a takeover of Toronto-based construction giant Aecon Group Inc., citing national security concerns.

Translation

（彭博社）-  總理賈斯汀·杜魯多（Justin Trudeau）政府拒絕了中國山東黃金礦業公司（Shandong Gold Mining Co.）收購位於加拿大北極的金礦開採商的計劃，這有可能激起外交上的爭執。

TMAC Resources Inc. 在努納武特（Nunavut）北部擁有霍普灣（Hope Bay）金礦，該業務包括一個港口和一條跑道。山東公司作為國有的收購性金屬生產商, 於5月份同意以約1. 5億美元的價格收購這家位於多倫多的公司。十月份，TMAC收到政府已下令進行國家安全審查的通知。

這家加拿大礦業公司週一晚間表示，根據加拿大投資法，已經下達了一項命令山東不要繼續進行收購。山東周二在一份聲明中證實了這一拒絕，而做出的決定的理由是“因為要維護國家安全”。

杜魯多辦公室的官員拒絕對這一舉動發表評論，正值由於加拿大和中國之間關係因在2018年因應美國引渡要求被捕的華為技術公司高管被捕而造成了嚴重的磨損。

中國外交部發言人趙立堅在周三的北京吹風會上說，加拿大“應為在加拿大經營的所有公司，包括中國公司，提供開放和非歧視性的商業環境。”

中國駐渥太華大使館一位發言人星期二晚在電子郵件中說, 經濟合作的任何政治化都是錯誤的，呼籲加拿大政府為所有外國投資者建立公平的市場。

加拿大工業部一個發言人說，她以《投資法》的保密條款為理由，拒絕解釋為什麼山東交易被拒的原因。索菲·蘭伯特-拉辛（Sophy Lambert-Racine）在周二的電子郵件中表示：“加拿大仍然開放給投資以創造就業機會，增長，進接全球貿易和價值鏈, 以及加拿大人的長期繁榮，同時保護加拿大的國家安全利益。”

TMAC股價暴跌多達19％，創下三月份以來的最大盘中交易，在多倫多截至下午12:05下跌11％，至1. 16加元。該股今年下跌了70％。

保安觀察家表示，這筆交易可能對加拿大構成威脅，因為這將使中國有更多機會進入西北通道，並且靠近加拿大在北極的加拿大預警雷達設施。

渥太華卡爾頓大學教授，前政府情報分析師Stephanie Carvin表示，杜魯多政府拒絕這筆交易可能並非故事的終局。她週二在電話中說: “處理國有和國有控股企業時的問題是，當你對它們說不時，中國會找到其他規避法治的方法”; “如果你曾經說不，並不代表他們以後不會以某種方式再試一次。”

華為與Aecon Group

Stephanie Carvin說，這一決定以及北京對此的反應將受到其他北極國家的密切關注。她舉出外交大臣Francois-Philippe Champagne最近與北歐同行舉行了會晤。 她援引北京對格陵蘭的基礎設施投資的話說: “加拿大不是唯一一個在北方爭取與中國打交道的國家。特別是丹麥。”

兩年前，加拿大警方在溫哥華機場拘留了華為首席財務官孟萬洲，加中關係急劇惡化。從那時起，她就一直被限制逗留在太平洋海岸一城市裡，與引渡作鬥爭。在她被捕後的日子，中國以間諜罪名將兩名加拿大人送入獄，並停止了數十億美元的加國農產品進口。

甚至在華為案爆發之前，中國就警告加拿大將遇到投資寒意，此前特魯多政府以國家安全問題為由，拒絕了中國對多倫多建築業巨頭Aecon Group Inc. 的收購。

              So, apart from Australia, China is trying to buy natural resources from Canada. I think Canada is particularly attractive because of its Arctic location.