Archive for ‘money’

11/09/2019

Chinese man who scattered US$14,000 in street after bad day at work pleads for his money back

  • Police in Fujian ask people who picked up notes to ‘be rational and return the money’
  • Impulse move caused traffic jams as pedestrians ran into road to grab what they could
The man from Shishi city in Fujian province who tossed US$14,000 into the air after a bad day at work has asked for help in getting it back. Photo: Weibo
The man from Shishi city in Fujian province who tossed US$14,000 into the air after a bad day at work has asked for help in getting it back. Photo: Weibo

The man from southeastern China who caused a cash frenzy on the street after he threw more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,052) into the air because he’d had a bad day at work is asking for his money back, authorities said.

Huang, 42, said he acted on impulse after he withdrew cash from a bank in Shishi city, Fujian province, on Monday.

His actions caused a traffic jam and passers-by fell over each other to grab what they could, the municipal police bureau said on Tuesday.

The man, who said he was having trouble at work, now regrets what he did and is hoping he will get the money back, the police statement issued on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform, said.

Police in Fujian said Huang’s impulsive move had caused him a lot of trouble and asked the public to return the money he threw away. Photo: AFP
Police in Fujian said Huang’s impulsive move had caused him a lot of trouble and asked the public to return the money he threw away. Photo: AFP

Officers criticised Huang for his “inappropriate behaviour” and urged those who picked up the cash to take it to the police.

A video clip shared on Weibo on Tuesday showed motorists pulling up sharply in the street to pick 100 yuan banknotes off the road.

In another video, pedestrians were seen rushing into the middle of the road to join in the frenzy.

Banknotes falling from the sky send crowd into a frenzy in Hong Kong neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po
Some of the money had been returned by Tuesday evening, the Shishi police Weibo account said.

“Huang is from an ordinary family and not rich at all. A sudden impulse has caused big trouble for himself and his family. Please be rational and return the money,” it said.

On December 24, 2014, Hong Kong Police appealed to the public for help after a G4S Hong Kong van carrying HK$525 million (US$66.9 million) crashed on a main road near Wan Chai district, causing major traffic jams as motorists abandoned their cars to collect notes.

While armed police were quickly on the scene and closed off two lanes of the road, witnesses reported money being taken. One office worker said she saw a “regular Hong Kong lady” walking briskly away from the scene with 10 bricks of notes.

In March 2017, a woman threw away more than 16,000 yuan (US$2,250) in cash at a busy crossing in southwestern Chongqing municipality, but passers-by simply looked on instead of scrambling to pick up the money, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.

Police collected the bills quickly and found the owner. She said she threw the money because she was “in a bad mood”.

Source: SCMP

04/12/2018

Portugal welcomes China’s money as its influence worries EU partners

Portugal welcomes China’s money as its influence worries EU partners

  • Xi Jinping’s visit to Lisbon follows EU countries’ agreement on regulation of foreign investment, particularly from China
  • EU-IMF bailout of Portugal in 2011 prompted privatisations that brought flood of Chinese investment
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 December, 2018, 5:56pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 December, 2018, 6:09pm

Fresh from a visit to Spain last week, Xi’s two-day stay in Portugal will include a meeting with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the signing of cooperation agreements.

One of them will bring the Portuguese port of Sines, in the southwest, into China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, a strategy that offers loans to build railways, roads and ports across Asia, Europe and Africa.

In an opinion editorial published on Sunday in Portuguese newspapers, Xi stressed the importance of China’s relationship with Portugal as part of a broader network of trade links.

But China’s growing influence in Europe, welcomed by Greece and several eastern European countries, is viewed warily by others on the continent

At the initiative of France and Germany, EU countries last week agreed a framework regulating foreign investment, particularly from China.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Friday that Lisbon did not back the idea and was relieved that the final accord provided for only an advisory role on the part of the European Commission.

Foreign investment does not worry Portugal, and the EU should not “take the path of protectionism” in the face of globalisation, he said.

Portugal, one of western Europe’s poorest countries, was open to Chinese investment after being hit hard by the 2008 global financial crisis.

Its 78 billion euro (US$89 billion) EU-IMF rescue package in 2011 came with required austerity policies – and a wide-ranging privatisation programme that opened the doors to Chinese investment.

Chinese investment accounted for 3.6 per cent of Portugal’s GDP between 2010 and 2016, according to figures from Spain’s ESADE business school.

China now owns a 28 per cent stake in Portuguese energy utility EDP, the country’s largest firm, via China Three Gorges and China’s state-owned international investment company CNIC.

It also has a stake in Portugal’s biggest private bank, BCP, and its leading insurance company, Fidelidade.

Perhaps the most contentious issue is China Three Gorges’ bid to take a controlling stake in EDP, of which it is already the main stakeholder. The 9 billion euro operation was launched in May.

But although it has been welcomed by the Portuguese government, it still risks falling foul of barriers imposed by regulators in around 15 countries where EDP operates, including the United States.

Luis Castro Henriques, head of Portugal’s trade and investment agency Aicep, says Chinese investment in Portugal has been good for the country.

China has risen to Portugal’s 11th-largest trade partner in the decade since 2008, when it was 28th on the list.

“We want now to attract large-scale industrial investment, notably in the automobile and agro-food sectors,” Castro Henriques said.

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