Posts tagged ‘China’

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09/11/2013

Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy – China Real Time Report – WSJ

If money can buy success in the world of sport, then in China, it matters greatly to whom it belongs.

As China stands on the cusp of its first taste of international soccer success, with Guangzhou Evergrande taking on FC Seoul in the final of the Asian Champions League on Saturday night, it’s clear that without huge sums of money, this may never have been possible. And not just any money, but real estate money.

As preparations took place outside Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou’s business district on Saturday morning, the clout and wealth of the local team’s owner, Evergrande Real Estate Group, was plain to see. Rows of trucks bearing the name “Evergrande Music” lined up outside the stadium in preparation for huge post-match bash. With a two-goal advantage after a 2-2 draw in Seoul last month (away goals count for more), Evergrande are the favorites to win Saturday night’s match.

Guangzhou-based Evergrande is owned by Xu Jiayin, who according to the latest Hurun Report rich list has a net worth of $7.7 billion. He also has political clout, as a member of the country’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

He bought the disgraced Guangzhou Pharmaceutical club in 2010 for 100 million yuan ($16.4 million), after the team was relegated over a match-fixing scandal dating back to 2006. After that, he signed China’s national team captain Zheng Zhi, as well as three players from South America.

“There will be no chance for a state-owned company to compete against private real estate money,” said sports columnist Yan Qiang.

China’s real estate developers may not necessarily be the biggest or most profitable companies in the country, especially compared to state-owned behemoths. But the industry is a source of some of the more colorful and freewheeling businesspeople — a number of whom are willing to take risks on sports teams for the prestige they bring.

In the 2013 Chinese Super League season, state-backed Shandong Luneng Taishan placed second but lagged far behind Evergrande in points. Beijing Guoan, backed by state-owned conglomerate Citic Group, placed third. Real estate money came into play for Guizhou Renhe which ranked fourth. The team received large sums of money from developer Renhe Commercial Holdings Co. Ltd. in 2010, after the team, which was then based in Shaanxi province, flirted with relegation to the second division.

Other teams in the Super League propped up by real estate interests include Guangzhou R&F, which finished 6th this year and Hangzhou Greentown, which finished 12th.

via Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Economics, real estate, Social & cultural, sports | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party | Reuters

Did you know that there are “eight government-sanctioned non-Communist parties, whose role is technically to advise rather than serve as a functioning opposition.”

“Supporters of China\’s disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai, who has been jailed for corruption, have set up a political party, two separate sources said, in a direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party\’s de facto ban on new political groups.

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai stands trial inside the court in Jinan, Shandong province, August 22, 2013, in this file photo released by Jinan Intermediate People's Court. REUTERS/Jinan Intermediate People's Court/Handout via Reuters/Files

The Zhi Xian Party, literally \”the constitution is the supreme authority\” party, was formed on November 6, three days before the opening of a key conclave of top Communist Party leaders to discuss much-needed economic reforms, the sources said.

It named Bo as \”chairman for life\”, Wang Zheng, one of the party\’s founders and an associate professor of international trade at the Beijing Institute of Economics and Management, told Reuters by telephone.

\”This is not illegal under Chinese law. It is legal and reasonable,\” Wang said.

A second source, who asked not to be identified but who has direct knowledge of the party\’s founding, confirmed the news.

Calls to the Communist Party\’s propaganda department seeking comment went unanswered.

The party announced its establishment by sending letters to the Communist Party, China\’s eight other political parties, parliament and the top advisory body to parliament, Wang said, adding that no ceremony was held.

It also sent a letter to Bo via the warden of his prison informing him that he would be their \”chairman for life\”, she said. It was not immediately clear if Bo would agree.

The party was set up because it \”fully agrees with Mr Bo Xilai\’s common prosperity\” policy, according to a party document seen by Reuters, a reference to Bo\’s leftist egalitarian policies that won him so many supporters.

Asked if party members included Communists, government officials or People\’s Liberation Army officers, Wang said she could not discuss the matter to protect them because it was politically \”sensitive\”.

China\’s constitution guarantees freedom of association, along with freedom of speech and assembly, but all are banned in practice. The constitution does not explicitly allow or ban the establishment of political parties.

Bo, once a rising star in China\’s leadership circles who had cultivated a following through his populist, quasi-Maoist policies, was jailed for life in September on charges of corruption and abuse of power after a dramatic fall from grace that shook the Communist Party.

History suggests the Communist Party will not look kindly on the establishment of this new party, even more so because its titular head is a former member of its own top ranks.

China\’s Communist rulers have held an iron grip on power since the 1949 revolution, though they allow the existence of eight government-sanctioned non-Communist parties, whose role is technically to advise rather than serve as a functioning opposition.

The Communist Party views the founding of opposition parties as subversion.”

via Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Internal politics, political party, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

China army says roots out ‘illicit’ apartments in graft fight | Reuters

Even the PLA is not immune to anti-corruption campaign.  This means Xi and Li have a stronger grip of power than some of their recent predecessors.

“China\’s People\’s Liberation Army has discovered in a corruption probe that its troops \”illicitly kept\” more than 8,000 apartments and 25,000 vehicles, state media said on Tuesday.

But those who benefitted will apparently escape punishment and only have to give them up.

President Xi Jinping, who as chairman of the Central Military Commission is also China\’s top military official, has called corruption a threat to the Communist Party\’s very survival, and vowed pursue powerful \”tigers\” as well as lowly \”flies\”.

China intensified a crackdown on rampant corruption in the military in the late 1990s, banning the PLA from engaging in business. But graft has intensified in recent years due to a lack of transparency and checks and balances.

The PLA said its probe had \”uncovered more than 8,100 apartments and more than 25,000 vehicles kept illicitly by its personnel\”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

There was, however, no mention of punishment.

\”Various PLA units have promised to return illegal housing and eliminate secretaries that were not allowed; they have also vowed to strictly regulate the use of military vehicles,\” Xinhua said.

\”PLA units have held criticism and self-criticism meetings and submitted reports to echo a Communist Party of China drive to clean up undesirable work styles such as … bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.\””

via China army says roots out ‘illicit’ apartments in graft fight | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Good news, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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09/11/2013

China’s Coming Terrorism Wave | China Power | The Diplomat

Prediction time: China will experience unprecedented terrorism over the next few years.

China

On October 27, a carload of Xinjiang residents made headlines by crashing into a Tiananmen Square crowd, killing two people while injuring 38. Then, on Wednesday, a series of explosions rocked the provincial Communist Party headquarters in Shanxi province, killing one person while injuring 8.

This recent uptick in political violence is not an anomaly for China, but a harbinger of terrorist violence to come.

Several long-term trends put China at risk.

China’s footprint on the world stage is growing while the United States is retrenching internationally. The recent travel schedules of Xi Jinping and Barack Obama are telling. At a time when Barack was cancelling trips to attend the APEC Summit in Indonesia, the East Asia Summit in Brunei, and his planned visits to the Philippines and Malaysia, Xi was wrapping up tours of Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Tanzania, South Africa, the Congo, Mexico, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kurdistan, and Turkmenistan. Look for Xi and he’s probably overseas. Look for Obama and he’s probably at home, wrangling with Congress.

Historically, Americans have been the preferred target of international terrorism, while China has been virtually spared. Americans have been the most popular target because of their country’s hegemonic position around the globe, which inevitably breeds mistrust, resentment, and ultimately counterbalancing. Professor Robert Pape at the University of Chicago has found that foreign meddling is highly correlated with incurring suicide terrorist campaigns. With its comparatively insular foreign policy, China has understandably elicited less passion and violence among foreign terrorists.

But the trajectories of the U.S. and China are now inverting. Reeling from its botched counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is engulfed in an unmistakable wave of isolationism. Meanwhile, China is rapidly converting its rising economic power into ever greater international leverage. This newfound orientation makes sense geopolitically, but will not come without costs.

Moving forward, China will contend with not only international terrorism, but also the domestic variety. This is because China is likely to follow (albeit belatedly) the post-Cold War Zeitgeist towards democratization. China will neither become a Jeffersonian democracy nor continue to disenfranchise political dissidents. Instead, it will inch closer to a “mixed” regime, a weak democratic state. This regime type is precisely the kind that sparks domestic political unrest. Such governments are too undemocratic to satisfy citizens, but too democratic to snuff them out.

Add to this brew globalization and the government’s critics at home and abroad will be better informed about both Chinese policy and how to mobilize against it, including violently.

via China’s Coming Terrorism Wave | China Power | The Diplomat.

Posted in China alert, Dissident, Ethnic clash, Inequalities, Instability, Insurgency, Internal politics, Politics, public protest, separatism, terrorism, unrest | Leave a Comment »

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08/11/2013

China to loan Pacific island nations $1 billion | Reuters

Having woo-ed all the large countries, China is now wooing the smaller ones too.  See – https://chindia-alert.org/2012/12/31/question-who-did-china-woo-in-2012/ (We have been tracking China’s wooing in 2013 and will post the list in early 2014).

“China will provide a concessionary loan of up to $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support construction projects, state media on Friday cited Vice Premier Wang Yang as saying, a part of the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for influence.

Political map of Oceania

Political map of Oceania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wang made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island nations in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It provided no other details on the loan.

China will also build medical facilities in the region and send medical teams as well as invest in green energy projects, Xinhua cited Wang as saying.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji, the news agency added.

The Pacific has traditionally been a site of competition for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own.

In the region, Taiwan maintains formal ties with Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. Taiwan has also supported development projects and provided loans.

However, China and Taiwan have maintained an unofficial diplomatic truce and not tried to court each other\’s allies in the developing world since they signed a series of landmark trade and economic deals in 2008, ushering in improved ties.”

via China to loan Pacific island nations $1 billion | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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08/11/2013

China to build huge super nuclear bomber carrying over 200 nuclear bombs

Another innovation in military hardware. See:

Posted in China alert, innovation, Military, Technology | Leave a Comment »

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06/11/2013

Japan targets China as islands dispute threatens to boil over

Oh dear, brinkmanship often turns out to trigger real conflict. Hope this one doesn’t.

Posted in China alert, Defence, GeoPolitics, History, Military, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Territorial dispute | Leave a Comment »

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06/11/2013

Blasts at China regional Communist Party office kill one – BBC News

A series of small blasts have killed at least one person outside a provincial office of the ruling Communist Party in northern China, state media report.

The blasts in Taiyuan in Shanxi province appeared to have been caused by home-made bombs, Xinhua reported.

It said eight people had been injured and two cars damaged.

Photos posted on social media showed smoke and several fire engines at the scene of the incident, which happened around 07:40 local time (23:40 GMT).

No immediate explanation has been given for the incident. There have been occasions in the past where disgruntled citizens have targeted local government institutions.

They do not often make the headlines but explosions in China\’s cities are not unheard of. Earlier this year, in another part of Shanxi Province, Chinese media reported that a bomb exploded outside the house of a local law official, killing his daughter. The culprit was a pensioner enraged by a court ruling against him.

Last year the BBC reported on a suicide bombing in Shandong, carried out by a disabled man upset by lack of compensation for an industrial accident. Every year there are examples of attacks with crude weapons or explosives, carried out by the desperate, the dispossessed and the disturbed, usually triggered by a dispute with some arm of local government or a local official.

It\’s too early to say whether the explosions on Wednesday follow the same pattern. But some details will worry the authorities: the ball bearings apparently placed inside the bombs, increasing their destructive power; the fact that witnesses reported several explosions over a period of time. And the bombs were placed outside the local Communist Party headquarters – was the party itself the target, or was this just the product of a local dispute?

The authorities will especially be nervous after last week\’s apparent suicide attack outside the gates of the Forbidden City, especially as the capital also prepares to host a meeting of China\’s Communist Party elite on Saturday.

Tensions are also high in the wake of last week\’s incident in Beijing. A car ploughed into a crowd in Tiananmen Square in what the authorities said was a terrorist attack incited by extremists from the western region of Xinjiang.

Later this week, the Communist Party\’s top officials will meet in Beijing to start a major economic planning meeting.

via BBC News – Blasts at China regional Communist Party office kill one.

Posted in China alert, Dissident, Inequalities, Instability, Insurgency, Internal politics, Politics, public protest, unrest | Leave a Comment »

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05/11/2013

China, India begin joint anti-terrorism drill | South China Morning Post

China and India began a joint anti-terrorism drill on Tuesday, the first such exercise by the Asian powers – which have a sometimes-fraught relationship – for five years.

china_india_drill.jpg

The world’s two most populous countries each sent one company of soldiers to Chengdu, in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, for the “Hand-in-Hand 2013” drill, according to Chinese state media reports.

The joint training exercise comes even as the two remain embroiled in a border dispute that has been unresolved for decades and has occasionally led to military standoffs.

In April, India accused Chinese troops of intruding into Indian-held territory, a row that was only resolved three weeks later when troops from both sides eventually pulled back.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Beijing two weeks ago, signing an agreement with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to step up co-operation on border defence and counter-terrorism training.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters on Tuesday that the drill showed “enhancing political-military trust between the two countries”.

“Since the beginning of this year, China and India relations have scored new progress,” he said.

Indian officials said the country’s contingent for the 10-day-long drill was 162 strong and led by a brigadier.

“The joint training exercise is a counter-terrorist exercise with a purpose of exploring useful experience and thoughts, advance pragmatic co-operation, promote friendly environment and enhance mutual trust,” an Indian defence ministry statement said.

The first such exercise was held in China in 2007, with another in India the following year.

Beijing blames “terrorist” groups for incidents in its far western region of Xinjiang, home to Muslim Uygurs, and has in the past linked clashes to groups trained in Pakistan, which as well as being India’s great rival also shares a border with China.

via China, India begin joint anti-terrorism drill | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Chindia Alert, Defence, GeoPolitics, Good news, India alert, Military, Openness, peace keeping, PLA, Politics | 1 Comment »

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05/11/2013

Beijing slashes car sales quota in anti-pollution drive | Reuters

China\’s capital, Beijing, infamous for its thick smog and heavy traffic, will slash the city\’s new car sales quotas by almost 40 percent next year, as it looks to curb vehicle emissions and hazardous levels of pollution, the city government website said.

Lines of cars are pictured during a rush hour traffic jam on Guomao Bridge in Beijing July 11, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The change in policy gives greater support for new, cleaner cars and could strengthen foreign carmakers\’ determination to accelerate growth in China\’s less crowded lower-tier cities.

In the last month alone, high levels of pollution have forced China to all but shut down the northeastern city of Harbin, a major urban center with a population of 11 million.

via Beijing slashes car sales quota in anti-pollution drive | Reuters.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

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