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OTTAWA, 17/09/2011
As Ottawa fosters closer economic ties with Beijing, the news that a Conservative MP exchanged flirtatious emails with a reporter from China's state-run news agency has raised questions about possible Chinese spying activity in Canada.
Last week, a series of emails came to light that appeared to reveal a close friendship between Bob Dechert, MP for Ontario riding Mississauga-Erindale, and Shi Rong, a Canada-based reporter for China's state news agency, Xinhua.
In the emails, which Shi has said were distributed by her husband, Dechert tells her she is beautiful, encourages her to watch a Parliamentary vote on television so she can see him smile at her from the Commons floor, and asks if she was able to get enough information for a story about how Canadian banks responded to the global financial crisis.
Dechert issued a statement in which he acknowledged that the emails are "flirtatious," but said the relationship between the two is a friendship that "remained innocent and simply that -- a friendship."
But the controversy has led to speculation that Shi is really a spy who cultivated a relationship with Dechert, a parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, in order to gain access to sensitive government information.
Charles Burton, who has served at Canada's embassy in Beijing on two separate diplomatic postings and has worked as a consultant for the federal government on Chinese affairs, said "certainly a lot of circumstances point to something irregular about this."
Communication between the two appears to have been started after Dechert accompanied Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a December 2009 trip to China, when he would have come to the attention of Chinese officials who may have been on the lookout for a Canadian target, Burton said.
Shi also appears to have written little for Xinhua, which suggests reporting is not her primary function in Canada. And Dechert's queries about her article on Canadian banks raises the question of whether he helped her gain access to the executives interviewed for the story.
"So you put it all together and a lot of questions are raised," Burton told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. "Questions which should be looked into by the RCMP in an investigation that I imagine Mr. Dechert would welcome because it would clear his name if in fact there's nothing there that the government should be concerned about."
For his part, Baird dismissed the controversy, saying he still trusts the junior minister to continue in his job. Baird has since refused to make further comment on the story.
While opposition MPs have so far declined to call for Dechert to step down from his post, they have questioned his judgment in developing a relationship with a representative from China's state-controlled news agency.
"We all knew that particular paper was basically a front for the Chinese government, both as a propaganda tool but also as an espionage tool they use periodically," NDP justice critic Joe Comartin told The Canadian Press. "That was pretty well known."
Burton agreed, saying that as a diplomat who has served in China, he was briefed by a security officer from the Department of Foreign Affairs to be wary of being approached by representatives of Xinhua.
Parliamentarians and parliamentary secretaries must be receiving the same briefings, he said.
"When entrusted with classified documents and in a position of influence, there are certain classes of people that you cannot have close personal friendships with, and I would put correspondents for the Xinhua news agency right up at the top of that list," Burton said. "It just wouldn't be a good idea to develop a personal relationship with someone who is the agent of a foreign power."
Angry spouse exposes emails
According to Burton, Dechert fits the profile of a prime espionage target, according to how the Chinese intelligence apparatus is known to work. An agent will identify a middle-level minister who has influence and access, but is not among the upper tier of ministers or senior officials who are too well-protected from falling prey to subversion.
An agent will cultivate his or her source over a long period of time in the hope that he or she gains access to ever more sensitive information. As the relationship deepens, the target may be encouraged to seek jobs that give the agent better contacts. And targets likely don't even realize they are being duped until it's too late.
"The kind of thing we are speculating Mr. Dechert was involved in is certainly something that one has seen over and over and over again, not just with China, but in the Cold War with the Russians and so on," Burton said.
What's troubling to Burton is that the Dechert emails were revealed by an apparently angry spouse and not via a security check or investigation by the RCMP. Dechert's security clearance was renewed in March after he passed a routine round of security checks.
But the incident does not come as a complete surprise. Canada's spy chief recently warned that Canadian politicians, civil servants and other groups are susceptible to "threats, coercion or potential blackmail."
Dick Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Canada is a target for "foreign interference" due to natural resources, technological and scientific innovation and close relations with world powers.
Fadden has not singled out China in his reports on foreign spying, but he has not denied media suggestions that it is among the nations he is referring to.
There are also ongoing concerns about cyber attacks, particularly in the wake of attempts earlier this year to crack the networks of both the Treasury Board and the Finance Department. Those incidents are suspected to be the work of Chinese hackers.
Closer ties, greater vigilance
After years of chilly relations with China, the Harper government has been seeking closer ties with the nation's communist government in an effort to entice investment and boost trade.
In July, Baird visited China and hailed the two countries' close relationship, which includes a 57-per-cent boost in trade over the past five-and-a-half years. Baird noted that China is Canada's second-largest trading partner, with $14 billion worth of Chinese investment in Canada.
While closer ties with China allow Canada to diversify its trade markets and decrease dependence on a shaky U.S. economy, Burton said the government must still be wary of the threat of spying.
"It's normal that foreign states will try and engage in espionage activities to further their state goals. It's incumbent on us to take measures to try and counter these things, so that the Canadian national interest is not harmed," he said.
Burton said Beijing is known to be involved in the theft of intellectual property, military secrets, financial data and other information that it deems useful for advancing business, and therefore government, interests.
Allowing the Chinese or others to gain access to sensitive information could have devastating consequences on Canada's relationship with the United States, and with NATO allies.
Countering Chinese espionage would require a significant financial investment at a time when the federal government is warning of belt-tightening amid the ongoing economic recovery. Greater resources must be allocated to the RCMP and other agencies to monitor Chinese intelligence activities in Canada. This includes staff that speak the language, who can sift through reams of intelligence.
"If Canada is seen as a more-or-less open field for Chinese espionage because we're not doing anything about it, basically it's like leaving the doors unlocked kind of thing," Burton said.
Harper backs Mississauga MP in flirty email furor
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper is standing up for a parliamentary secretary who was involved in a now controversial relationship with a reporter for the Chinese state news agency.
With Mississauga MP Bob Dechert gone to ground and Toronto-based Xinhua journalist Shi Rong reportedly having returned to China, it was left to the Conservative party leader to answer for his junior minister’s affairs of the heart.
Harper said there was no cause for concern because there was no proof that Dechert, who is married, shared privileged government information with the woman.
“I have no information that links this in any way to any government business,” he said at an event in Saskatchewan.
The relationship came to light one week ago when someone hacked into Shi’s email account and sent a series of flirty emails that she and Dechert had exchanged to more than 200 of her contacts. The list of recipients includes academics, Bay St. business leaders, Chinese foreign ministry officials, Canadian political operatives and personal contacts, including a Toronto youth soccer club.
The emails, dating back to April 2010 and often signed “Love, Bob,” have caused a fuss in the capital because of Xinhua’s close links to the Chinese government and its secretive role gathering foreign intelligence for senior Communist Party officials in Beijing.
One of those who received the emails said he had been contacted on several occasions in Shi’s capacity as a journalist about topical issues in the news.
While allowing that Xinhua performs legitimate journalism for both Chinese and English language media, he said he was aware of their secretive missives back to Beijing, contained in “internal reports” as well as reports of their espionage activities.
“These aren’t the types of people I would pick out to be my buddies,” said the person, who asked that his name not be used.
The New Democrats have called for Dechert, 53, to resign his position as parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister John Baird as well as ask the federal ethics commissioner to clear the cloud of suspicion surrounding his relationship with Shi.
A neighbour says she hasn’t seen Dechert or his wife, Ruth Clark, return to their home in a high-end Mississauga neighbourhood for about five days. She described the couple as “very nice.”
At his Mississauga constituency office, Dechert’s executive assistant said the MP was not in but would be returning to his Ottawa office on Monday.
Dechert emails underline need to guard against Chinese espionage: Expert
OTTAWA — Amidst the brewing scandal that is slowly enveloping the Harper government over the supposedly "flirtatious" emails of a Tory MP with a foreign journalist who may actually be a Chinese spy, two questions stand out.
Why hasn't Prime Minister Stephen Harper dumped MP Bob Dechert yet from his privileged post as parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister?
And if this affair isn't stickhandled delicately, will this embarrassing episode mushroom into a much bigger problem that threatens to derail Harper's plan to repair Canada-China relations?
Foreign policy and security experts said Wednesday that the answers aren't clear, but at the very least, Harper should now recognize that Canada needs to reinforce its intelligence apparatus to guard against Chinese espionage.
Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former political and economic counsellor in the Canadian embassy in China from 1998 to 2000, said it's clear the Asian economic giant will continue to conduct espionage.
Already, this has occurred in areas such as commerce, the military and the cyber sphere. Earlier this year, just a few blocks from Parliament Hill, the computer system of a key government department — the Treasury Board — was apparently infiltrated by hackers believed to be based in China.
And Burton confirmed that — while experts are now puzzling over why Dechert chose to have a very friendly relationship with Xinhua news agency's Toronto correspondent, Shi Rong — it was clear to him as a diplomat in Beijing that he should be wary of such activities.
"Before I left, I received a briefing from the security people in Foreign Affairs talking about exactly this sort of thing. When I was a diplomat in China I was occasionally approached by young women through different means — email or instant message — suggesting that we might want to meet up. But I didn't do that."
Burton added that the appropriate thing for Dechert to do now would be to "step aside" while the RCMP conducts an investigation.
A key question, he said, would be whether the "young Chinese woman" was sending emails and photos of herself to the much older Dechert simply out of pure romance, or whether she "wants something from him."
"If I got such letters, as soon as I found out the photographs were from someone from the Xinhua news agency, I would be hitting the delete button pretty quick. Mr. Dechert evidently didn't appreciate that."
After initially adopting a hostile approach to China five years ago, the Tory government is now pursuing a foreign policy to promote a stronger trading relationship with that country. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visited China recently and Harper is expected to make his second visit there this fall.
"They have to appreciate that we can't go into it with blind or naive enthusiasm," Burton said of the Tories.
"As we engage China more closely there's going to be more opportunity for Chinese intelligence agencies to engage in more spying. Therefore, commensurate to strengthening our capacity to trade and investment with China, we should be strengthening our capacity to counter Chinese espionage activities."
So far, at least, Harper and Baird are standing by Dechert — a much different approach from the quick retribution that was unleashed on then foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier in 2008.
At that time, he resigned from cabinet after leaving sensitive NATO briefing papers at the apartment of his girlfriend, Julie Couillard, who had connections to biker gangs.
But this episode is being treated differently.
"No government likes to have to demote a secretary of state or minister if they don't feel they are absolutely compelled to," said security expert Wesley Wark, a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa.
"And presumably, from all that we've seen from the government's response, they believe that they can weather this storm, they can pooh-pooh it and they can wait it out."
Fen Hampson, director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said Dechert is "damaged goods" and will eventually be shuffled out of his post — though not necessarily now.
"His credibility has obviously been thrown into question. My observation would be they're not going to throw him overboard today, but he might find himself swabbing decks tomorrow."
As for the broader question — will Dechert's actions be injurious to Canada-China relations — experts suspect Harper will do his best to prevent this from happening.
"What they're trying to avoid is this becoming a hot button issue in which bigger questions are raised about the activities of the Chinese government, or the activities of Chinese representatives," said Wark.
When Harper first came to power in 2006, his government was fiercely critical of the Chinese government over its human rights record. Also, then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay openly accused the Chinese of "economic espionage" in Canada.
Harper backed him up and said the espionage was well-documented, despite angry denials from the Chinese who complained the new Tory prime minister was endangering Canada-China relations with false accusations.
Since then, the Tories have dropped their pubic admonishments, and experts don't believe they will come out swinging in the case of Dechert.
"The preferred method that they have learned in government is to deal with it quietly and internally," said Wark.
"What the Harper government now realizes is that there is no point in making a public political brouhaha about Chinese espionage. It's not going to get you anywhere. It's not going to stop espionage and doing anything beneficial to Canada-Chinese relations."
In the case of Dechert, there's another reason why the Tories are reluctant to accuse the Chinese of establishing a spy operation through their journalist.
"They won't say that because when you say that, you're pretty well forced to expel them," noted Hampson. "And they'll do the same thing to our journalists. This is a tit for tat world and if you start pointing the finger at spies, then they will end our reciprocal arrangements to the journalists over there."
Dechert has, in past, had the support of Harper, who he accompanied on a trip to China in 2009 — later receiving the promotion as the right-hand man to Canada's foreign affairs minister.
But now, the leaked emails have turned him into a liability. The emails show that Dechert was writing to Shi, whose news agency is commonly regarded by experts as a intelligence-gathering operation for the Chinese government.
In the emails, written from his parliamentary office account, he describes her as "beautiful" and compliments her for how she looked in a photo "by the water with your cheeks puffed."
Dechert, who has not spoken to the media since the emails were leaked last week, released a written statement describing the emails merely as "flirtatious" and that he merely had an innocent "friendship" with Shi.
But experts question Dechert's political judgment in this regard.
They note that after the Bernier affair, Harper was determined to read the riot act to senior Tories so that there would not be another potential security breach.
Wark isn't so sure it worked.
"The message should have gotten out to all cabinet ministers and all political appointees, all secretaries of state. You have security responsibilities. You have to be aware of the security landscape and who might be operating against the interests of Canada. You have to be aware that people will contact you who are not what they appear to be, including journalists from foreign countries."
Shi Rong, journalist in Bob Dechert affair returns to China
The Chinese journalist enveloped by political scandal over amorous e-mails she received from MP Bob Dechert has returned home to China, sources say.
Until the Dechert affair broke, Shi Rong had been serving as the Toronto correspondent for Xinhua News Agency, an organization controlled by the Chinese government.
Ms. Shi was already due to head to Beijing for a previously scheduled vacation beginning in late September – but has now left Canada early. She is believed to have flown home earlier this week, possibly on Tuesday night.
Before the Dechert affair unfolded, Ms. Shi had arranged to spend a significant portion of October in China to get her Canadian work visa renewed and report back to headquarters at Xinhua.
Friends and acquaintances say the Chinese reporter faces an uncertain career future: It’s unclear whether Xinhua will return her to her job in Toronto or reassign her.
On Sept. 9, Mr. Dechert, a Conservative MP with special foreign affairs duties, admitted to sending “flirtatious” e-mails to Ms. Shi. He denied compromising Canadian secrets and said his messages – which include professing love for the younger woman – were part of an “innocent friendship.”
Canada’s top spy last year warned that the Chinese were trying to infiltrate Canadian politics. Western intelligence agencies consider Xinhua a tool of the Chinese state that collects information for Beijing.
The Dechert affair has drawn special attention to Beijing’s activities in Canada just as China is preparing to build up its public-relations outreach to Canadians.
China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, is planning an expansion into Canada - part of a ramped-up soft power campaign by Beijing to shape world opinion. The paper is preparing to publish an edition for distribution in Canada starting in December, a staffer in its New York office said Thursday.
Effectively a propaganda arm of the Chinese government, China Daily was launched in 1981 with the explicit aim of transmitting Beijing’s take on things to the world. The paper’s launch in Canada will include a heavy focus on Toronto and Vancouver.
The primary market isn’t the big numbers of ethnic Chinese in these cities, but rather Canadians of all backgrounds in business, politics or academia, China Daily project manager Liu Lian said.
“We are planning to set up local offices and target Canadian audiences, but the edition will probably be called China Daily North America instead of China Daily Canada,” Ms. Liu said.
She said the paper will feature China-related news on business, politics and culture – as well as Canadian stories that relate to China. “We try to present China in what we would say is a more well-rounded perspective,” Ms. Liu said.
The move comes two years after China Daily launched a U.S. edition.
Other state-controlled media have flourished as China’s economy has grown rapidly over the last decade. CCTV – China Central Television – has been relaunched, and the Xinhua newswire, has undergone massive expansion.
China’s moves are in sharp contrast to how most Western media organizations are shrinking their foreign operations.
China Daily has historically been a turgid read, but has gotten livelier and slicker in recent years.
It’s clearly aimed at readers outside of China. Electronic versions of China Daily stories are regularly accompanied by an invitation to use Twitter to spread the story online, even though Twitter is blocked in the People’s Republic of China.
The newspaper is currently surveying Canadians through two market research firms to prepare for the launch, asking respondents what kind of news they’d like, how they see China and how they consider the Asian country relevant to their lives and careers.
China Daily has made no secret of how it views the Western media. In 2010, responding to a BBC poll of how various countries regard each other, the paper said public opinion about China was shaped by the Western media, which it described as “unsuitably seasoned with misunderstanding, misinterpretation or even bias and enmity.” At the time, China Daily held out hope for change in its favour. “As mutual understanding deepens, public opinion will change,” it said.
Chinese reporter, ‘Old Fox’ more than friends in e-mail
Bob Dechert calls “flirtatious” messages he sent to a journalist with China’s state media part of an innocent friendship but among the cache of leaked e-mails that brought this to light is an especially personal letter about an entanglement gone sour – one that raises more questions.
•China’s Xinhua a trap for unwary Western politicians
•Bob Dechert is flirting with trouble
•Workplace e-mail: What’s appropriate and what’s not
The Harper government treated this missive, written in Chinese, seriously enough that it went to the trouble of translating it while investigating what transpired between Mr. Dechert, 53, and Xinhua News Agency correspondent Shi Rong.
Mr. Dechert is a Conservative MP with special duties to assist the Minister of Foreign Affairs, while Ms. Shi is the Toronto correspondent for Xinhua, an organization that Western counter-intelligence agencies consider a tool of the Chinese state. Both are married.
The e-mail, titled “Old Fox,” was part of the same bundle of e-mails hacked from Ms. Shi’s inbox last week and sent without her consent to more than 240 business, academic and political contacts. She blames her husband for the leak.
Mr. Dechert is never mentioned by name in this note, a fact Tory government officials cite when defending their decision to stand by the MP.
This e-mail, however, appears to be counselling Ms. Shi on a relationship she’s having with an older man – something that was more than a friendship and is now on the rocks.
Dated June 26, 2010, it was purportedly sent to Ms. Shi by fellow Xinhua correspondent Qu Jing.
“About the old man, tune him out,” reads the e-mail from Ms. Qu, which then goes into a lengthy diatribe about how men treat their girlfriends as “clothes” that they can wear or discard as they see fit.
“About the sad tales you told me about him keeping you waiting for a long time, put it out of your mind. I have experienced the same,” Ms. Qu writes to Ms. Shi. “Sweep him into dust bin, he is not good enough for you.”
Members of the Harper government, which has refused to fire Mr. Dechert from his parliamentary secretary post, keep repeating that the MP has denied any “inappropriate behaviour” and that it has “no information to suggest otherwise.”
In e-mails that that Mr. Dechert has already admitted writing – and are widely circulated in the media – he professes his love for Ms. Shi and fawns over a picture of her.
The Mississauga Erindale MP did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday and Ms. Shi has avoided answering media calls since the story broke.
University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman, who has been interviewed by Ms. Shi in the past, said he is surprised Mr. Dechert hasn’t been removed from his duties.
“It’s really bad judgment,” he said of Mr. Dechert’s conduct. “There’s no doubt Xinhua is strictly under the thumb of the Chinese authorities.”
Little is known about Ms. Shi. Mr. Wiseman said she told him she’d previously studied in England and was especially interested in the works of Oscar Wilde.
He said during past interviews he pressed Ms. Shi on how Xinhua works.
It is taken as a given by those who study China and its security apparatuses that correspondents sent abroad by the Xinhua newswire are agents of the state, and journalists only on the side.
“I explicitly asked her whether she belongs to the Communist Party,” Mr. Wiseman said.
“And she danced around it and said no.”
And I said ‘Well, hold it, how can you work for them without being a member?’ So she said she was just very good [at her job], as if her other qualities had made up for that.”
He said he didn’t give this much credence.
Xinhua colleagues of Ms. Shi described her as a “naive” rookie foreign correspondent and denied that the newswire’s reporters engage in espionage.
A long-time Xinhua correspondent, retired after 40 years with the newswire and two postings abroad, said he and his colleagues were too busy trying to appease editors in Beijing to do espionage on the side. He said demands on correspondents are even higher since Xinhua – like media companies worldwide – expanded operations in recent years to include broadcast and online media.
•Tory MP who flirted with Chinese reporter passed security check
•Baird stands by MP who flirted by e-mail with Chinese reporter
There’s a curious dynamic being played out in political Ottawa when it comes to Bob Dechert, the beleaguered and embarrassed Conservative MP.
While the New Democrats wasted no time in calling for his resignation, questioning whether national security has been breached, the Liberals are being more circumspect and refusing to join in the pile-on.
More related to this story
•Chinese reporter, ‘Old Fox’ more than friends in e-mail
•Bob Dechert is flirting with trouble
•China’s Xinhua a trap for unwary Western politicians
Why Liberals have not raised the issue of potential espionage and security breaches?
According to a senior Liberal MP, the third party does not believe that Canada’s national security was compromised by Mr. Dechert’s amorous e-mail exchanges with a female journalist working for China’s state-run news agency.
It’s not the first or last time someone did something silly, the MP told The Globe. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper is notorious for not sharing information with even his ministers, so why would he tell Mr. Dechert secrets, the Liberal added.
As a result, the Grits won’t be raising the issue in the House when Parliament resumes next week after its summer break – unless new and more incendiary information comes out.
Mr. Dechert, a Mississauga Tory MP and parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, has admitted to a flirtatious email relationship with Shi Rong, the Toronto correspondent for Beijing’s Xinhua News Agency. But he maintains their relationship was innocent – Mr. Baird and the government have stood by him, saying he will remain in his post.
Given that Western counter-intelligence agencies view Xinhua with a high degree of suspicion, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar says the government’s stand is unacceptable.
“He holds an important portfolio which requires professionalism and discretion,” Mr. Dewar told The Globe. “Unfortunately, this has devolved into a distraction. The right thing to do is for him to step aside from his portfolio until this incident can be properly investigated,” he said.
The Liberals have adopted an entirely different strategy.
Interim Leader Bob Rae has repeatedly refused to comment on the issue. On Sunday at a concert in Ottawa commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Rae told The Globe he was not going to weigh in on the affair and he has refused to return subsequent e-mail requests on the matter.
Other Liberal MPs have carefully chosen their words. John McCallum, for example, has said that Mr. Dechert “exhibited poor judgment” but he did not call for his resignation. “My own view is that if we are continuously calling for resignations at every misstep, we devalue the message,” Mr. McCallum told The Globe Wednesday morning.
Liberal foreign affairs critic Dominic LeBlanc did not call for Mr. Dechert’s head either. On CBC’s Power and Politics Tuesday, he also called this a “personal embarrassment” for the Tory MP but said he should not have to resign.
“Mr. Dechert clearly showed some lapse in judgment,” Mr. LeBlanc said. “Our view however is at the end of the day the Prime Minister has to take responsibility for issues of national security. ... Mr. Harper has to investigate and satisfy himself there was in fact no breach of security and no compromising of foreign relations.”
A happy coincidence for a jocular Conservative
Defence Minister Peter MacKay is taking a break from the situation in Libya to enjoy his favourite sport – he’s in Whangarei, New Zealand, for the Rugby World Cup.
The trip is on Wellington’s tab. And he’s also doing some work on defence issues between New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
Thank goodness he is there as he was able to represent the Harper government in congratulating Canada’s team Wednesday on their upset victory over Tonga. It was Canada’s opening match and they beat Tonga 25 to 20.
A veteran rugby source says Mr. MacKay went into the Canadian dressing room after the match and that he was very well received by the team.
Industry Minister Tony Clement, who also appears to be following the tournament from Canada, took to Twitter to gloat: “Eat our dust, Tonga.”
Asked about the genesis of Mr. MacKay’s trip, spokesman Jay Paxton said his boss is “engaging in high-level discussions with Australia and New Zealand on defence, and specifically, defence transformation issues.”
“The goal of these discussions is to find efficiencies in the defence budget in order to save Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars while ensuring that front line troops and their families have the support they need to do the jobs asked of them,” he explained.
Mr. Paxton noted that “while in New Zealand, Minister MacKay is a guest of government which means New Zealand is bearing all costs relating to in-country transportation and accommodation.”
The New Zealand government also invited the Prime Minister, as the Rugby World Cup is one of the largest sporting events in the world. According to the New Zealand Herald, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were also invited.
