“It’s the same situation as the leftover single women. … It will be the same for the oil sands, they will be outdated just like unmarried single women,” Chen Weidong, the chief energy researcher at the CNOOC Energy Economics Institute, told the annual Canada-China Forum on Energy and the Environment in Beijing. "In China, growing frustration growing over Canada's 'outdated' oil sands." From today's Globe and Mail
Whatever your feelings are about the oil sands or Chinese investment in Canada, or FIPA, or foreign ownership of Canada's resource companies, this article is essential reading just for the shock value of the quotes. And, without meaning to do so, it offers cultural keys to why Canadians may be worried more about a takeover of ideas than of material assets.
"Outdated just like unmarried single women...." Ugh. Note that he was comparing the unmarried singles to the pipelines proposed to carry Alberta's bitumen to Chinese markets.
The reporter tells us this is a common statement in China, although it may be "jarring" to Canadian ears.
And, what about the fact that China is a country with a growing number of single men who will never find wives. This is due to the one-child policy and the belief that sons are more valuable, a belief, which, I've read is happily dying out. But too late for a bunch of dudes who will never find mates.
Wouldn't it be more apt to compare the languishing pipelines to guys?
Then comes this:
Canada is “advertising a big dinner party, the Chinese paid for a big ticket, and now they come and we say, ‘Oh sorry, it’s just appetizers.’ It’s not that the Chinese invited themselves to dinner. We invited them,” said Wenran Jiang, the forum’s organizer, who also advises the Alberta government on its energy policy.
"We?"
I'm not sure which is the more hapless remark.