Labour PARTY delegation in China to discuss Malta’s 2017 EU presidency
Published:
November 3, 2014 at 6:27pm
Toni Abela led his “ruling party delegation” to China to discuss Malta’s 2017 EU presidency. And I had to find out about it through China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, via the American Global Post.
What was the Malta Labour Party doing discussing Malta’s EU presidency? That is government business, not party business. And equally to the point, why was the Labour Party discussing Malta’s EU Presidency with the Chinese at all.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/141024/maltas-ruling-party-delegation-visit-china
WTF has Communist China got to do with the EU Presidency?
They bought the election. Now they’re exercising their consumer rights.
WTF has the Malta Labour Party got to do with the EU? They all voted against membership.
Ic-Cinizi sabu lil Joseph Muscat u l-erba’ qlafat ta’ madwaru makku u belghuhom shah bla ma ndunaw, ic-cwiec.
Gonzi was right. With the PL in government one is ashamed to be called Maltese.
Joseph Muscat keeps digging deeper.
As I have already written, when in government the Labour Party was never able to distinguish between party and national interest. It acted like the Communist parties in China, the Ussr, Cuba, etc.
And why do we have to hear about it from you?
Where is the media? (I am restraining myself from using caps and several question marks here).
Of course China wants to discuss the EU Presidency with the Labour Party and not the government. First of all let’s stop talking about Malta’s EU Presidency: its China’s EU Presidency: they bought it when they financed Labour’s election victory.
Secondly, it is far more inconspicuous for the Chinese to work with the Labour Party rather than the government: they make no distinctions for themselves, but they know how evolved states work. They would never approach the CDU or SPD to forge relations with Germany.
Wrong.
http://www.spd.de/presse/Pressemitteilungen/122936/20140822_tsg_china_myanmar.html
http://www.china-botschaft.de/det/sbwl/t1186028.htm
https://www.cducsu.de/themen/partnerschaft-ausbauen
http://www.kas.de/china/de/events/42344/
And that is just a few examples from a simple Google search.
It’s obvious. The Chinese are using Malta as their all-purpose base in the EU. Joseph cannot take decisions in EU fora unless he gets the all clear from China – otherwise they switch off the fabrika tal-kancer.
China -the communist government, that is – and not “the Chinese” are using Malta the way John Dalli used Silvio Zammit.
Under this MLP regime, Malta has become the EU’s weakest link. The Chinese are quite keen to take advantage of that fact.
X’inhua?
In other China-related news of relevance to Malta:
Ethelbert J. L. Cooper – the serial Liberian entrepreneur with an address at the 5th and 6th floor penthouse located at 16, The Quadrange, Chelsea Harbour – becomes Chairman of IMIC plc.
Cooper was founder of, and holds majority control over, Gasol plc, an under-capitalised company which holds 30% of Electrogas Malta Limited.
Cooper replaces Haresh Kanabar as chairman of IMIC plc. Kanabar, who stays on at IMIC as Chief Financial Officer, sits on the board of directors of Gasol. He is one of the few directors who survived recent changes in the board of Gasol, which now comprises of only 4 directors, of which one is new. Cooper is Strategic Advisor to the board of Gasol, a position he can use to effectively maintain full control over the direction of the company.
IMIC plc is a very tiny company listed on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market, a capital market for companies without a track record.
IMIC has a strategic partnership with the African Iron Ore Group (AIOG). AIOG – another entity set up and controlled by Cooper and a handful of others – is registered in the secretive jurisdiction of the Seychelles but has a representative office in Switzerland.
In December 2011, the Guinean government of President Alpha Conde’ caused a stir in his country and among giant global mining corporations operating in Guinea and the international press when his government passed a 40% stake in a Guinean-government controlled entity which holds a 51% share in the development of Guinea’s enormous iron ore reserves at the Simandou mountains to AIOG without any transparency.
The Simandou, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore reserves, could propel Guinea to be among the top 4 producers of iron in the world and could lift the entire country from poverty. In other words, the Simandou is a strategic asset of Guinea.
Soon after the deal in Guinea, AIOG announced a number of strategic partnerships with Chinese state-controlled entities, chief of which are with China Railway Materials, the China Railway Group and the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) – this entity builds power stations. Incidentally, on 1 May 2014, Gasol too announced a strategic partnership with CMEC.
The Simandou development entails initially the development of hundreds of kilometers of railways and the development of a new port – this being the infrastructure necessary to eventually transport the iron ore to the markets. The infrastructure development costs billions of dollars, and AIOG and IMIC are not known to have that type of money.
Hence the partnerships with Chinese state-owned entities.
China is in fact expected to be the main destination of the Simandou iron. China’s appetite for world resources – of which iron is a key component – is insatiable.
Information published by IMIC plc in its annual reports suggests that IMIC plc is controlled by Cooper through a number of significant shareholdings, including those held by AIOG and other Cooper entities.
In fact, it appears that AIOG is to IMIC plc as the African Gas Development Corporation Limited (AGDCL) – another Seychelles company controlled by Cooper – is to Gasol plc (AGDCL controls Gasol plc).
In an article referring specifically to AIOG and IMIC plc, The Sunday Times of London described the shell companies of Ethelbert Cooper as “go-between for the Chinese”.
Is there any doubt that there is a battle for power in all Cooper companies we know of? Cooper is gradually asserting his power over all entities he founded.
And there is a strong indication that Cooper and his companies are China in disguise.
The Simandou story shows how China has laid its hands on one of Guinea’s strategic assets through entities controlled by Cooper in what was a very shady deal.
http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/73910/cooper-takes-over-as-imic-chairman-73910.html
Just a few more comments about this issue:
1. In the link in my previous post, proactiveinvestors open with the line “Ethelbert Cooper, the billionaire founder of oil company Afren…”
So he is a billionaire.
Good on him – although I have serious reservations about how he made his money.
So how does he explain that Gasol plc, the company which he founded and of which he has majority ownership is in such financial mess, with the shareholders owning the company $13 million?
Does Cooper make his billions by digging holes in the share capital of companies?
2. He founded Afren plc. With others. Namely, with Rilwanu Lukman, who died of undisclosed cause in Austria on 21 July 2014, the same day that Gasol was delisted from the London Stock Exchange AIM, and with Osman Shahenshah, who was CEO of Afren until last month, when he was dismissed for receiving unauthorised payments.
Afren’s share value is currently at around 75 pence. This is around 50% less than its opening market price in 2014. When the crisis first hit the company in July, the price initially dropped by more than 20%.
The company is now exposed to a takeover. Let’s see who might make a move.
This reminds me of this other article:
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2014/06/gasol-plcs-share-price-has-fallen-by-55-84-over-the-last-year/
It really must be worth investing in Cooper’s companies. His new chairmanship of IMIC plc must be really exciting to its third party shareholders.
Correction: £13 million not $13 million.
Maybe now he wants to sell all of Malta (literally) to the Chinese.
Wisq probabbli lanqas EU Presidency ma kienu kapaci jaghmlu u talbu lic-Cina.
I am still gobsmacked that the Chinese ambassador had the nerve to call on Chris Said to ask him to stop the PN media from publishing the story about the scandal at China-owned Leisure Clothing.
Why does no newspaper find this outrageous? Are we still a member of the EU?
What a mess! It is like a free fall.
Leaked video from the meeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rGU2xwSsFs
Out of all the posts you published recently, this one shocks me most.
If China is even remotely interested in Malta’s EU presidency, something is very wrong.
The more I read about China’s interest in tiny Malta, the more I conclude that China’s communist leaders have found a very naive non-particularly-democratic government who provides them with the easiest way to enter by stealth into Europe’s economy and politics.
And why China would want to do that does not even bear thinking about.