Nathan VanderKlippe

Nathan VanderKlippe is a foreign correspondent working for Toronto's The Globe and Mail. He has been posted on the Asia desk in Beijing for more than five years.[1] His present publisher has employed him for 10 years. He has worked in front of the TV camera. His native tongue is English and he also speaks French and Mandarin. His roots are in Western Canada.[2]

2017 Thoughts on Chinese politics

VanderKlippe argued in November 2017 that China has become "evangelical" about its national development model, in a live interview that occurred soon after Xi Jinping was promoted to Chinese leader-for-life. He remarked on China's self-promotion as a "role model for the world", and noted the Belt and Road forum that Chinese diplomats were hawking, and how the Chinese model is a very state-run and authoritarian system, with motivations which seem puzzling to Western people. He feels that the Chinese development model does not work without the Chinese political model, and no political dissent is tolerated in China. The media in China has become more self-censored, and he remarked on CGTN, a state-run TV channel like the CBC. The Foreign Ministry of China has been unhappy with several of his reports. Chinese academics are very reluctant to talk to him about internal political developments.[3]

He remarked that in places like Myanmar people look toward China as the "city on a hill", because of its stability and economic opportunity.[3]

VanderKlippe observed that the Chinese Communist Party was setting up committees inside of private corporations, including foreign owned corporations, and that the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) sector, which distorts entire markets, dominates in China. SOEs, among other ends, provide social welfare and can become zombie corporations.[3]

The Harper government had two distinct eras, a hostile era and a friendly era. The Trudeau government seemed to be committed to develop their trade relationship, and seemed more willing to listen than to criticize. China looked favourably on the first political appointee as Ambassador in John McCallum.[3]

VanderKlippe feels that the South China Sea was given up by the Obama administration to the Chinese, and the Japanese lament their loss of leadership to China. The Philippines have not enforced the international court judgment over the South China Sea, ostensibly because of massive investment and aid from China into the Philippines after the judgment was released.[3]

Sympathy for the Rohyinga

VanderKlippe has great sympathy for the Rohingya people of Myanmar.[3]

On Japan

VanderKlippe observed that the North Korean nuclear programme, and specifically the 2017 North Korean thermonuclear test, caused the Japanese to reconsider their prohibition of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.[3]

Abuse in Xinjiang

VanderKlippe was interviewed by journalists at the CBC on the surveillance and interference he encountered in Xinjiang, as he attempted to document the Chinese government's re-education centres.

At another point ... I was surrounded by people. They reached into my car. They grabbed my camera, they grabbed my phone away from me so I didn't have any of those things. They didn't let me go until I deleted pictures.[1]

Honours and awards
  • The International China Journalists Association
  • The Society of American Business Editors and Writers
  • National Newspaper Awards (Canada)
  • National Magazine Awards (Canada)
  • Canadian Association of Journalists
  • Amnesty International

References
  1. "'They followed me everywhere': Reporter tailed, deterred while investigating Uighur detention in Xinjiang". CBC/Radio-Canada. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020. (ellipsis in the source)
  2. "Nathan VanderKlippe". The Globe and Mail Inc.
  3. "The Globe's Nathan VanderKlippe in conversation about working as a journalist in China". The Globe and Mail. November 2017.
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