Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion
Amidst the claims and counter-claims of the foreign assets issue, there was
surprisingly little denial that such unreported and potentially taxable
assets existed in significant volume. Indeed such an understanding was
taken for granted even among the opponents of the legislation. In a joint
presentation to the federal Finance Minister in 1996 opposing the regula-
tions, the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Institute of Char-
tered Accountants stated that 'many well-heeled Asians are less likely to
tolerate them since they came from countries where it is not necessary to
disclose assets, or be taxed on income derived from assets… [People] don't
mind disclosing income, but they don't want to disclose assets to any gov-
ernment' (cited in Lee 1998: 70). The point of the disclosure law of course
was that without knowledge of assets it was impossible to judge the accu-
racy of income statements. Jenny Kwan, NDP member of the BC Legis-
lature, made explicit the argument that non-disclosure was a cultural
disposition: 'The Chinese are very private about their money. This law
goes against our culture' (Walkom 1997). Patrick Wong, chief animator of
the Vancouver-based opposition to assets disclosure, concurred: '(The
law) unfairly targets individuals who wish to keep offshore assets private,
for reasons ranging from cultural sensitivities, to a well-recognized right to
privacy' (Chow 1997d). These spokespersons had learned the carrying
capacity of a 'cultural turn' in public discussion in the era of multicultural-
ism. Native-born elites were less diplomatic, but also more transparent in
their exposure of the simple logic of flows that lay behind Canada's Asia-
Pacific initiative. Stephen Kukucha, the federal Liberal election campaign
director in British Columbia, protested, 'The policy runs contrary to what
the government is trying to do by strengthening the country's economy.
This weakens the economy because, if people don't come to invest, you
lose jobs instead of gaining them' (Chow 1997d).
A Vancouver real estate lawyer with deep connections into the immigrant
population, and who had lobbied against the assets legislation, candidly
explained the scale of resistance to me in 1999:
The Chinese have spent a lifetime concealing assets from their own govern-
ments and are not about to reveal them to the Canadian government. I have
been over the topics of hundreds of firms in Taiwan, and have never seen one
that did not have concealed assets. It is the norm to run two sets of topics…
It's a different institutional culture.
If this statement is correct, and it was repeated to me more than once by
millionaire migrants and their consultants, then practices learned in East
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