About Us关于我们
The CCFA Greater Vancouver Chapter focuses on encouraging Canadian entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses to take active interest in and advantage of China’s rise in a global economy.
加中友好协会温哥华分会集中注意力于鼓励加拿大企业家和中小型企业对中国保持积极的兴趣，以及关注中国在全球经济中上升所表现的优势。
加中友好协会温哥华分会
现代加中友谊可以追溯到近一个世纪以前，中国最后一个封建王朝走向灭亡的时候。1911年共和革命前夕,中国广大民族主义者和共产主义者共同敬仰的、现代中国之父-孙中山先生对维多利亚和温哥华进行了历史性的访问。这位伟大的政治家对维多利亚和温哥华的华人群体做了演讲，号召他们为推翻腐朽没落的清王朝给予道义和金钱上的支持。
同样深入人心的（尤其在大陆）是诺尔曼.白求恩大夫的英勇事迹。在二十世纪三十年代早期，他为救助抗击日本侵略军的中国战士而献出了自己的生命。直到今天，白求恩大夫的名字仍然在中国家喻户晓。年长的人们都能引述毛主席的一篇著名文章，高度赞扬这位伟大的人道主义战士。最近，中国在黄金时段上映了一部有关这位伟大的加拿大人的电视连续剧，它重新点燃了中国对白求恩个人和对加拿大人的兴趣。
二十世纪六十年代早期正处在冷战的巅峰，中国受到严厉的经济制裁。加拿大农业部部长埃尔文.希尔顿（Alvin Hamilton）抵制了美国和国内的重压, 帮助组织了向中国的主要粮食销售。当时的中国正遭受大跃进政策后广泛的饥荒和营养缺乏。官方回忆加拿大运去的粮食有如上帝派遣，拯救了成千上万的生命。历史学者们认为开拓性的粮食销售形成了双边关系进展的一个主要分水岭。
在那个反共产主义歇斯底里和反中国情绪弥漫了加拿大社会的时代，与中国大陆人民的人与人的联系实质上是不存在的。中国方面已经一头扎进了文化大革命的混乱局面，将自己向外界关闭。最早的加中友好协会（加中友协，CCFA）是加拿大人获得有关中国信息的仅有的少数渠道之一，更不用说进入中国了。但是，为领导加拿大的激进主义左派人员所倡导，加中友协徘徊在主流加拿大社会的边缘上。
皮埃尔·埃里奥特·特鲁多（Pierre Elliot Trudeau）是加拿大最伟大和执政时间最长的总理之一， 他毕生都保持着对中国的兴趣。他在中华人民共和国成立之前的内战混乱中穿越了中国，并在1959年和一个同事再次访问了中国。这位同事在他的名著“红色中国的两个天真汉”中记载了他们的中国之旅。在1968年第一次成功竞选后，特鲁多发起了加拿大亚洲外交政策的战略性转移，促成了两年后与中国外交关系的建立，宣布了中国国际隔离的结束。
紧随那个加中关系转折点的是特鲁多在1973年的历史性访问。这是第一个加拿大总理对中国的访问，它打破了加拿大对中国兴趣的禁锢，特别是加拿大学术界、学生和专业人士对中国的兴趣，并且立即引发了全国各地的外国人组建加中友协。领导者是诸如詹姆士.恩迪科特（James Endicott）博士和林大光（Paul Lin）教授等致力于发展各类交流的杰出人士。其他活动家，如吴灿坚（Chan-Kin Ng）先生帮助成立了中加友协蒙特利尔分会，以及谢培志（Pei-Chih Hsieh）博士促成了加中友协萨斯喀彻温分会的成立。
加中友协会员来自于社会各界，包括农民、工人、学者、专业人员、退休的公务员和外交官，当然还有那些华人们，他们渴望更多了解当时文化大革命后刚刚开始恢复正常秩序的中国。在此后的20年，加中友协作为一个特殊的交流渠道连结着加拿大和中国的友好人士，中国方面的组织者是中国人民对外友好协会(CPAFFC)。
1974年，倍受人民爱戴的总理周恩来开创了四个现代化的建设项目，旨在向经济政策中注入更多的现实性。 不幸的是这个国家领导的建设项目最后陷入了无法摆脱的政治泥沼。是邓小平在1978年的巨大努力坚决地确定和坚持了改革开放的方针，他的多次深化改革的号召激发了此后30年中中国非凡的经济腾飞和革命性的社会变革。加中关系也得到了本质的改变。
今天，大批加拿大人作为旅游者、学生、工作人员和商人来到中国。重要的加拿大企业均拥有稳固的中国市场。同时，老一套的和经常是负面的对中国的理解还在加拿大流行。这些流言经年不止的部分原因是媒体的歪曲和地缘政治的变化。在许多方面，加拿大还没有能够利用其在中国的伟大名声，特别是在中国经济迅猛增长的过去10年中。尽管在中国人民心目中拥有正面形象、拥有先进的技术和丰富的资源，加拿大还是输掉了激烈的竞争，没有能够赢得中国人心，没有符合他们的经济利益。最不幸的是加拿大的中小型公司没有能够开发和利用中国的无数商机。
怀着一个共同的愿望-更好地传达中国作为伟大经济力量的出现，志趣相投的加拿大商人于2006年8月聚集在一起，组成了加中友协温哥华分会。建立于加中友协基本宗旨的基础之上，特别是基于吴灿坚（Chan-Kin Ng）先生领导的渥太华-加蒂诺加中友协在推进理解和交流中的成功，温哥华分会集中注意力于鼓励加拿大企业家和中小型企业对中国保持积极的兴趣，以及关注中国在全球经济中上升所表现的优势。我们的方式不同于加中贸易理事会，加中贸易理事会主要服务于加拿大最大的公司和财务机构的利益。
我们的使命是：“促进相互间的文化理解和西部加拿大与中国之间的商业互动”。
协会的目标是：
•发展和促进主要是在大不列颠哥伦比亚省的加拿大人和中国人之间的友谊和理解;
•提升对中华人民共和国及其制度和目标的理解；
•发展加拿大（特别是在大温地区）和中华人民共和国之间的文化、教育、体育、商业、政治和其它方面的交流；以及
•为促进和发展协会的目标和目的而筹集资金。
加中友协大温哥华分会立志成为一个平台，用来深入讨论影响中国经济发展的主要问题。通过协会的会员公司和会员制，为加拿大企业家和小商人提供联系，参与中国的商业投机。
加中友协大温哥华分会在中国的主要伙伴仍然是中国人民对外友好协会，作为一个国家资助的非政府机构，它致力于促进与外国友好团体和个人的友好关系。目前，中国人民对外友好协会与全世界130个国家的550多个团体和机构保持着联系。温哥华加中友协能够通过其伙伴接入广阔的中国国内商业领域，以及中国人民对外友好协会的其它关系网。
Canada-China Friendship Association, Greater Vancouver Chapter
Modern Canada-China friendship dates back almost a century to the downfall of China’s last
emperor. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Father of modern China revered by Chinese Nationalists and
Communists alike, made a historic visit to British Columbia on the eve of his 1911 Republican
Revolution. The great statesman spoke to Chinese communities in Victoria and Vancouver,
eliciting moral and monetary support for the overthrow of the corrupt and oppressive Qing
Dynasty.
Equally endearing to Chinese people, especially on the mainland, were the heroic exploits
of Dr. Norman Bethune who gave his life saving Chinese soldiers in their resistance against
invading Japanese armies in the early 1930s. To this day, Dr. Bethune’s name is a household
word in China, with older folk able to quote from Chairman Mao’s famous eulogy to the great
humanitarian. A recent Chinese prime-time TV drama series on the great Canadian has rekindled
interest in his person and in things Canadian.
In the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, when tight economic sanctions were
imposed on China, Canadian Agriculture Minister Alvin Hamilton, defying heavy US and
domestic pressure, helped orchestrate major sales of grain to China, then stricken with widespread
famine and malnutrition following the disastrous policies of the Great Leap Forward. Officials
recall the shipments of Canadian grain as a god send that helped save millions of lives. Historians
agree the pioneering wheat sales formed a major watershed in the evolution of bilateral relations.
During that era when anti-communist hysteria and anti-China sentiment permeated Canadian
society, people to people contact with mainland China remained virtually non-existent. For its
part, China had plummeted into the tumult of the Cultural Revolution, shutting itself off from the
outside world. The earliest CCFAs were one of a mere handful of channels through which
Canadians could get any information about let alone access to China. However, pioneered by
leading Canada’s leftist personalities who embraced political radicalism, the CCFAs lingered on
the fringes of mainstream Canadian society.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau, one of Canada’s greatest and longest serving Prime Ministers had had
a life-long interest in China. He traveled through China during the civil turmoil just prior to the
founding of the People’s Republic and returned to China with a colleague in 1959, chronicling his
journey in his famous book Two Innocents in Red China. Following his first election victory in
1968, Trudeau engineered a strategic shift in Canada’s Asian foreign policy that led to the
establishment of diplomatic ties with China two years later, heralding the end of China’s
international isolation.
That turning point in Canada-China relations followed by Trudeau’s historic visit in 1973,
the first by a Canadian Prime Minister, spiked pent-up interest in China especially among
Canadian academics, students, and professionals. It promptly lead to the formation of broader
based Canada-China Friendship Associations (or Societies) across the country steered by such
luminaries as Dr. James Endicott and Prof. Paul Lin dedicated to promoting exchanges of various
kinds. Other activists namely Mr. Chan-Kin Ng helped to found the Montreal Chapter of the
Canada-China Society and Dr. Pei-Chih Hsieh was instrumental in setting up the Saskatchewan
Chapter of the CCFA.
CCFA members came from many walks of life including farmers, workers, academics,
professionals, retired civil servants and diplomats, and of course Chinese Canadians yearning
to learn more about China as normalcy was just being restored with the waning of Cultural
Revolution radicalism. For the next two decades, the CCFAs served as a special conduit for
communication and exchange between interested Canadians and their Chinese counterparts
under the auspices of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries
(CPAFFC).
In 1974, Zhou Enlai, China’s then ailing popular Premier, inaugurated the Four
Modernizations program that attempted to inject more pragmatism into economic policy.
Unfortunately, the state-led program became mired in the very politics that it was trying to
extricate. It was Deng Xiaoping’s gargantuan efforts in 1978 to resolutely set and stay the course
of reform and opening up and his repeated calls to deepen reform that sparked China’s remarkable
economic take-off and revolutionary social change over the next three decades. As a result,
Canada-China ties have witnessed a fundamental transformation.
Nowadays, Canadians flock to China as tourists, students, workers, and businessmen and
major Canadian businesses are entrenched in the Chinese market. At the same time, stereotypical
and often negative perceptions of China prevail in Canada, perpetuated in part by media slant
and shifts in geo-politics. In many ways, Canada has not been able to take advantage of its
great reputation in China, particularly over the past decade of China’s surging economic
growth. In spite of its positive image among Chinese people, its advanced technologies and
bountiful resources, Canada stands to lose out in the intense competition for Chinese minds and
pocketbooks. Most unfortunate is that Canada’s small and mid-sized companies have not been
able exploit the myriad of opportunities that exist in China.
It is with a desire to better convey China’s emergence as a great economic power that
likeminded Canadian businessmen gathered in August 2006 to form the Greater Vancouver
Chapter of the Canada-China Friendship Association. Building on the basic tenets of CCFAs
and in particular the success of the Ottawa-Gatineau CCFA under Chan-Kin Ng to promote
understanding and exchange, the Greater Vancouver Chapter focuses on encouraging Canadian
entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses to take active interest in and advantage of
China’s rise in a global economy. Our approach differs from that of the Canada-China Business
Council which primarily serves the interests of Canada’s largest corporations and financial
institutions.
Our Mission Statement is “to promote mutual cultural understanding and business interaction
between the peoples of Western Canada and China”.
The purposes of the society are:
- To develop and further friendship and understanding between the Canadian
peoples primarily in British Columbia and the Chinese peoples; - To promote understanding of the People’s Republic of China, its institutions
and objectives; - To promote cultural, educational, athletic, business, political and other exchanges
between Canada (and specifically the Surrey/White Rock area) and the People’s
Republic of China; and - To raise funds to promote and develop the aims and objectives of the society.
CCFA Greater Vancouver aspires to become a platform for in-depth discussions of major issues
affecting China’s economic development and through its affiliate companies and its membership
a provider of linkages for Canadian entrepreneurs and small businessmen who wish to partake in
business ventures in China.
CCFA Greater Vancouver Chapter’s main partner in China continues to be the CPAFFC, a
state-funded non-governmental institution that promotes ties with foreign friendship groups
and individuals. Currently, the CPAFFC has links to over 550 groups and organizations in 130
countries around the world. Through the partnership, CCFA Greater Vancouver is able to tap into the vast
domestic Chinese business and other networks of the CPAFFC.