Established in 2001, Anli Partners is a Beijing-based law firm with a team of over 710 professionals, including more than 120 partners and senior counsels, over 450 lawyers as well as 70 articling clerks, the firm operates offices across major cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Hohhot, Kunming, Xi’an, Hangzhou, Haikou as well as in Tokyo, Japan and now, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Isn’t it amazing how this was big news back in China for a major law firm, with a lengthy news release that remains on its website, and there wasn’t so much as a peep here in PEI that I heard, about us once again becoming “basecamp” for this latest expansion by China into North America.
The launching of their North-American headquarters in Charlottetown is now mentioned in all the “descriptive bios” for this prestigious law-firm specializing in the really big stuff, i.e., corporate and global law.
With over 700 lawyers, paralegals, etc. and a huge global outreach strategy, they claim to serve many different types of clients, which I’m sure they do, which is not surprising given the size of the firm.
However, they also provide legal advice to “state-owned” businesses, which is to say, “communist-owned and controlled businesses,” which comprise somewhere in area of 60% of China’s economy, with many large enterprises completely under state control at all levels, and an additional 867,000 enterprises with a degree of state ownership, according to Franklin Allen of Imperial College London.
Notice the sign – “North America office”.
Mr. McNutt is a long-time, seasoned lawyer who, with partner, Daphne Dumont, have been practicing law together since 1982.
Both lawyers – James W. MacNutt, K.C., Daphne E. Dumont, K.C. joined Cox & Palmer on April 27th, 2020.
In Monkileaks the Sequel, Episode #2, I mentioned that one the Commissioners at IRAC, Kerri Carpenter, also recently joined Cox & Palmer.
Premier King appointed Kerri Carpenter to IRAC back in 2023, and within a month, she abandoned her long-standing independent legal practice to join Cox & Palmer.
I raised concerns in Episode #2 about Kerri Carpenter’s role at IRAC in relati0n to this new Buddhist land investigation, given the VERY close connections between her and Premier Dennis King and the PC Party.
Murray Murphy, PC Party Executive Member and Stewart, McKelvey lawyer
Kerri Carpenter has been an executive member of the PC Party, and was a central player in King’s inner circle even before he became leader of the Party, and was part of a small “recruitment team” that included Margaret-Ann Walsh and Murray Murphy, another Stewart McKelvey lawyer also on the PC provincial executive.
There would also seem to be “conflict of interest” with this particular investigation, since Carpenter has a significant vested, financial interest in immigration, and bringing more, not fewer, immigrants to the Island, given that she is one of only a handful of “intermediaries” established by the PEI government to nominate immigrants via the provincial nominee program.
In fact, Carpenter is a “partner” in an Atlantic Canada group specifically committed to offering legal immigration services called Fusion Group:
The concern I expressed in the previous episode has been significantly heightened, now that I’ve learned of Premier King’s appointment of Kerri Carpenter as interim CEO of IRAC on February 4th with three Orders – an Order demoting Doug Clow back to “vice”, who has many years of senior administrative experience at IRAC, and an Order appointing Carpenter Interim leader, and an Order appointing Gordon MacFarlane an IRAC Commissioner effective April 1, 2025.
I also reported in Episode #2 that Doug Clow is the “Acting Director” of IRAC, and that’s still what the website says; however, those IRAC-related Executive Council Orders issued on February 4th by King and his Cabinet now makes Cox & Palmer lawyer Kerri Carpenter the “Acting Director”.
They of course had to first issued an Order rescinding Doug Clow’s Position:
Premier King had appointed McFarlane to the Atlantic Lottery Commission (where he still is, until 2026) just a few weeks after he FIRST became Premier in 2019.
These changes on the eve of the new investigation being made by King (1) appointing Carpenter head of IRAC for an undetermined period of time, and (2) appointing MacFarlane, raise concerns about the truly “independent” nature of what will transpire at IRAC pertaining to the imminent investigation of Buddhist land holdings.
On IRAC’s website we read:
“The Commission operates at arms-length from government and reports to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island through the Minister of Education and Early Years.”
There’s nothing “arms-length” at all with what Premier King is up to rearranging things at IRAC on the eve of this investigation which is sure to have major, international ramifications.
As for Anli Partners establishing here just a few months before the IRAC investigation…well, that doesn’t seem coincidental to me at all. They definitely won’t be able to count on the “genius” of local legal counsel to get out of the jam they’re in this time around.
[Note: I’ve highlighted a few sentences of special interest]
This place has successfully attracted the attention and favor of enterprises and high net worth clients from all over the world (including China), becoming a popular choice for investment, real estate, and business cooperation in North America.
The establishment of the North American office by the Security Council aims to build it into an important node connecting cross-border legal services in North America and other regions, making it a gateway for expanding North American business.
This is another major measure taken by the Security Council to expand its business globally after the successful establishment of the Tokyo branch in Japan. It is also a practical action to implement the new policy orientation of “Chinese lawyers going global” proposed by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Council Legal Affairs Office.
In addition, with the strong expertise of the three newly joined lawyers and consultants in investment and mergers and acquisitions, international intellectual property, family trusts, immigration and real estate, and international trade dispute resolution, Anli will further expand the breadth and depth of professional services, providing clients with comprehensive legal services across languages, cultures, and legal systems. Mr. Wang Qingyou, Head of Firm, congratulated on establishment of office and joining three partners/Consultants.
He emphasized, “With the active expansion of Chinese enterprises’ overseas business, the legal industry has also ushered in new opportunities for internationalization. Anli’s overseas layout is timely and of great significance. We hope that the establishment of the new office and the joining of the three colleagues can help the law firm deepen professional division of labor,
services, provide clients with higher quality and more efficient foreign-related legal services, and lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the law firm”
INTRODUCTION OF FRANCHISE ATTORNEYS/ADVISORS
Xu Xiaomeng
North America Office
Principal partner
Bachelor of Law from JiNan University, Master of Law in International Trade Law from the University of Essex in the UK, and Master of Law in Common Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Canada (graduated with all honors).
Our professional fields include foreign investment and mergers and acquisitions, international intellectual property, litigation and arbitration, family trusts, etc. Lawyer Xu Xiaomeng has successively served in foreign-related law firms, the Commercial Office of the U.S. Embassy in China, Fortune 500 enterprises, large domestic leading listed companies and Internet companies.
As the chief legal officer or general legal adviser, he has both legal professional ability and coordination management ability. Since 2005, Lawyer Xu has been selected as an arbitrator for Guangzhou Arbitration Commission (Guangzhou International Arbitration Court) and Nansha International Arbitration Center, serving as an arbitrator or chief arbitrator in multiple arbitration cases with extensive experience in litigation
and arbitration.
In the field of intellectual property, Lawyer Xu, as the legal head of a Fortune 500 company and a large domestic leading brand company, is well versed in the necessity and importance of global, forward-looking, and systematic management of intellectual property protection.
He is skilled in developing a global intellectual property protection system and framework for large enterprises, thereby achieving comprehensive protection of intellectual property from application registration, daily maintenance to infringement monitoring and rights protection handling.
Since 2015, in order to serve the national policy orientation of “Chinese enterprises going global”, Lawyer Xu has presided over and participated in international investment and merger and acquisition business of multiple domestic enterprises, providing comprehensive legal services for Chinese enterprises from selecting invested enterprises, ensuring the legality and compliance of investment and merger, to specific participation in investment and merger commercial negotiations and post investment management.
James McNutt
North America Office
Honorary Consultant
James McNutt graduated from the prestigious Dalhousie University and the University of Ottawa in Canada, with a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws, and a Graduate Certificate in Legislative Law.
Since obtaining the qualification of a Canadian lawyer in 1969, he has been practicing as a lawyer for over 55 years and has been awarded the honorary title of Royal Counsel, which is the highest honor that lawyers under the common law system in Canada can receive.
He has served as the Legal Secretary to the Governor of Prince Edward Island, Director of the Legal Compilation Office of the Department of Justice, and Secretary General of the Prince Edward Island Branch of the Canadian Bar Association. James McNutt has extensive experience in North American law, investment, family trusts, dispute resolution, and other areas, making him an encyclopedia and information treasure trove for Canadian investment and commerce.
At the same time, he is also the author of several best-selling books. His novels, historical facts, and legendary stories are widely popular in North America and have been included in the bestseller catalogs of well-known New York publishers several times.
Sara Huang
North America Office
Master’s degree in English Language and Literature (MA in TEFL) from City University London. My professional fields include Canadian immigration, US and Schengen visa applications, and appeals for difficult immigration cases.
Ms. Huang previously worked at the Foreign Enterprise Service Group (FESCO) and worked at the visa office of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in China for ten years. She was the first Chinese female visa officer from a Schengen country, responsible for issuing Schengen visas. Ms. Huang currently holds the Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) qualification and is a licensed immigration consultant officially registered with the Canadian Federal Immigration Department.
She is also one of the only two types of professionals authorized to act as an immigration agent under Canadian law and has extensive experience in visa and immigration program applications.
With her efficient bilingual communication skills and friendly service attitude, Ms. Huang has become one of the few licensed Chinese immigration consultants in the province. In addition to visa and immigration services, Ms. Huang can also provide Canadian investment and real estate services for applicants, including land purchase, housing construction and maintenance.
She is committed to assisting immigration applicants in optimizing their landing experience and providing them with high-quality, meticulous, and thoughtful exclusive services.
In the future, the Security Council will also take the establishment of its North American office as a new starting point to further leverage its advantages in cross-border legal services, cultivate legal talents with international perspectives and cross-cultural communication abilities, continue to promote the integration of China’s legal service market with the international community, and provide more convenient, high-quality, and efficient legal services and support for two-way investment and commercial activities between China and North America.
The investigation that is about to happen at IRAC is no small matter, and will be unlike any that has happened before.
Eyes globally have been on PEI for some time now, especially on the corrupt PNP program with streams of immigrants using PEI as a “door” into North America for the past two and half decades, and then the constant “back-and-forth” of Buddhists, via Bliss and Wisdom Inc.’s corporate entities on the Island such as GEBIS and GWBI.
The security concerns – given the “Belt and Road” initiative – are very real, and as some of the news we’ve seen about Chinese involvement in politics and elections federally should reinforce for us here in PEI, communist expansion via Belt and Road is not a “friendly-neighbour” plan, it’s a political and economic juggernaut strategy by Xi Ping fueled with a passion and relentless strategy to expand control globally that could be dubbed the “C” strategy: “connive, convince, control, capture, conquer” motto.
That’s behind “monks and nuns” in PEI – put here by Bliss and Wisdom Inc. and a Chinese-born leader (Zhen-Ru) – hidden, but nonetheless determining everything as those movers and shakers we don’t see follow their unspoken, disguised motto, and the pursuit of the goal of conquest as their very modus operandum.
“In addition to visa and immigration services, Ms. Huang can also provide Canadian investment and real estate services for applicants, including land purchase, housing construction and maintenance.”
With the formal connections between Anli Partners—C0x & Palmer—-IRAC most certainly create an appearance of a conflict of interest and raise legitimate questions of concern about what will and will not come out of this investigation.
The lawyers in our law firms seem to run things here in PEI, not our elected MLAs, despite the fact that they – the law firm lawyers – also appear to be the agents who ensured a cover-up in the first investigation, since they, the law firms, including Cox & Palmer, were representing and defending the Buddhists during that first investigation.
You repeatedly hear calls for IRAC to release the report from the first investigation.
There is no report.
Everything was buried.
If anything had been found wrong in that first look at Buddhist land (or I should say, “if anything found wrong that IRAC was willing to make public) then the legislation would have required both a public hearing and a final report, as I understand it. There was neither.
In fact, lawyers representing the Buddhists at the time included Cox and Palmer by then Stewart, McKelvey lawyer J0nathan Coady (he has since been appointed a judge), that the investigation had ended.
A law firm – Cox & Palmer – which has already provided legal representation to the Buddhists that have come here thanks to, and through, Bliss and Wisdom Inc. that owns and controls GEBIS, GWBI:
(1) has one of their lawyers at the helm of IRAC as we commence a new investigation into Buddhist land holdings, while
(2) another lawyer in the same firm – Cox & Palmer – offers high-end corporate “business advice” to a Chinese law firm that has just established head offices in North America here in PEI.
UPDATE EDIT TO ADD THE FOLLOWING (Wednesday morning 11am):
The Principal Partner heading up the North American office of Anli Partners purchased three properties.
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