Guangzhou | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

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 »

Tags: 2013 Chinese Super League, China, Evergrande Real Estate Group, Guangzhou, Guangzhou Evergrande, Guangzhou Evergrande F.C., Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, real-estate, Shaanxi, Tianhe Stadium

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 (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 »

Tags: China, China and Taiwan, Cook Islands, Guangzhou, Marshall Islands, Pacific island nations, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Taiwan

01/11/2013

China plea paper ‘to be overhauled’ – BBC News

A Chinese newspaper that made a front-page appeal for the release of a reporter accused of defamation is to be overhauled, a press regulator says.

Journalist Chen Yongzhou, in handcuffs, is escorted by police officers at the Changsha Public Security Bureau detention centre in China

The Guangzhou-based New Express made a rare public plea for the release of journalist Chen Yongzhou.

But Mr Chen subsequently admitted on television that he had taken bribes to fabricate stories about a part state-owned company.

Now the New Express is to undergo \”full rectification\”, the regulator said.

via BBC News – China plea paper ‘to be overhauled’.

Posted in Censorship, China alert, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Government-owned corporation, Guangzhou, Yongzhou

24/10/2013

In rare move, China regulator voices concern for detained reporter | Reuters

So public protests sometimes works. See also – https://chindia-alert.org/2013/10/23/china-paper-in-detained-journalist-plea-bbc-news/

“China’s central publishing regulator, in a rare acknowledgement of the rights of journalists, expressed concern on Thursday about a detained reporter, a case that has stirred outrage after a newspaper pleaded with police on its front page to let him go.

Chen Yongzhou was detained after writing more than a dozen stories criticizing the finances of a major state-owned construction equipment maker, a move that coincides with new curbs on journalists, lawyers and internet users in China.

“The General Association of Press and Publishing (GAPP) resolutely supports the news media conducting normal interviewing and reporting activities and resolutely protects journalists\’ normal and legal rights to interview,” the China Press and Publishing Journal, which is overseen by the association itself, said, citing an association official.

“At the same time, it resolutely opposes any abuse of the right to conduct interviews.”

The article said the association was paying “close attention” to the matter.”

via In rare move, China regulator voices concern for detained reporter | Reuters.

Posted in Censorship, China alert, Economics, Human rights, Illegal practices, Politics, public protest | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Changsha, Chen Yongzhou, China, Guangzhou, Journalist, Yongzhou

23/10/2013

China paper in detained journalist plea – BBC News

A Chinese newspaper has published a rare front-page plea for the release of one of its journalists held by police.

A screen shot of New Express front page

The New Express, based in Guangzhou, called for Chen Yongzhou, who was detained last week, to be freed.

The paper said Mr Chen\’s detention was linked to reports he wrote about a part state-owned construction equipment company based in Hunan.

Police in Hunan have confirmed the journalist has been detained for \”damage to business reputation\’\’.

Earlier this year, Mr Chen wrote several reports about Zoomlion, which is partly owned by the Hunan provincial government.

Zoomlion issued a statement after one New Express article, which alleged it had improperly accounted for sales, caused its share price to drop.

In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange in late May, the company called the claims \”false, groundless and misleading\”.

via BBC News – China paper in detained journalist plea.

Posted in Censorship, China alert, Illegal practices, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Guangzhou, Hunan, Yongzhou

16/09/2013

China opens world’s highest civilian airport

Reuters: “China opened the world’s highest civilian airport on Monday, in a restive and remote Tibetan region of southwestern Sichuan province, which will cut journey times from the provincial capital from two days to a little more than one hour.

Daocheng airport in Garzi, a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan, is 4,411 meters (14,472 feet) above sea level, and overtakes Qamdo airport in Tibet, which sits at 4,334 meters above sea level, for the title of world’s highest.

The official Xinhua news agency said flights would initially connect with Chengdu, the provincial capital, otherwise a two-day bus trip away. Flights to cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing will begin at a later date.

The 1.58 billion yuan ($258 million) airport, designed to handle 280,000 passengers a year, will help open up the nearby Yading Nature Reserve to tourism, Xinhua added, referring to an area renowned for its untouched natural beauty.

China has embarked upon a multi-billion-dollar program in recent years to revamp old airports and build new ones, especially in the remote west, as a way of boosting the economy.

Some of these airports have been located in Tibetan regions, whose population chafes at Chinese political control, and often have a dual military purpose so troops can be bought in quickly during periods of unrest.

Garzi has been the scene of numerous self-immolation protests against Chinese rule in the last three years or so and remains under tight security.”

via China opens world’s highest civilian airport | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Ethnic clash, Politics, Religious clash, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chengdu, China, Guangzhou, Sichuan, sichuan province, Tibet, Yading

11/09/2013

Guangzhou to empty labour camps

SCMP: “Guangzhou plans to empty its hard-labour camps by year’s end, state media reported yesterday, the latest locality to phase out the notorious punishment.

Rights advocates have long complained that the “re-education through labour“, or laojiao, system which lets police send suspects to work camps for up to four years without trial, is widely abused to silence dissidents, petitioners and other perceived troublemakers.

In March, newly installed Premier Li Keqiang promised nationwide reforms to the system this year, but concrete steps have yet to be announced. In the meantime, some cities or provinces have been moving away from the punishment.

“All [100 or so] detainees in Guangzhou labour camps will have completed their sentences and be released by the end of the year,” the China Daily reported, citing a senior judge in the city. Guangdong province stopped taking new re-education through labour cases in March, it said.

In February, Yunnan said it would no longer send people to labour camps for three types of political offences.

Four cities designated as testing grounds have replaced the system with an “illegal behaviour rectification through education” programme, domestic media said at the time.

The forced labour system was established under Mao Zedong in the 1950s as a way to contain “class enemies”. A 2009 UN report estimated that 190,000 mainlanders were locked up labour camps.

Calls to scrap the system grew last year after the media exposed the plight of Ren Jianyu , a former official who spent 15 months in a Chongqing labour camp for reposting criticisms of the government on his microblog.”

via Guangzhou to empty labour camps: state media | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Illegal practices, Justice, labour camp, Politics, Reform, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Labor camp, Li Keqiang, Mao Zedong, politics, Re-education through labor

06/09/2013

China’s Factory Owners Hunt for Energy Savings

BusinessWeek: “Kevin Chang, general manager of Concord Ceramics, is a member of a younger generation of factory bosses in China trying to survive leaner times. That quest led him to examine the power use at his factories. He didn’t like what he found.

A worker at a textile factory in Huaibei, China, on Apr. 10

For decades after China started trading with the U.S. in 1979, most factory managers didn’t focus on electricity prices. Demand from abroad was expanding, labor was cheap, and the exchange rate favored China’s exporters. But conditions have changed since demand softened in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Chang says his labor costs have doubled, and the exchange rate is less favorable. Increasing energy efficiency is one way to shore up the bottom line.

The work at Concord requires constant air conditioning, and in the summer electricity has accounted for as much as 15 percent of operating costs. Chang, who was already leaving the hallway lights off, installed a high-volume air-conditioning system to cut expenses. Yet once the system was up and running, his electricity bill went up. Chang hired an engineer from the China Academy of Building Research, a government think tank, in Guangzhou. The engineer figured out the cooling system was more powerful than the factory needed, so the air conditioning constantly cycled between maximum cooling and powering down, wasting energy. The solution, conceived a few weeks ago, was to run just half of the unit. Now the air remains at a steady temperature, and Chang says he should save about 40 percent on electricity bills: “A lot of things can be made more efficient.”

via China’s Factory Owners Hunt for Energy Savings – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Electricity, energy, Manufacturing | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, electricity bill, Factory, Guangzhou, Wage

25/05/2013

* Guangzhou rice scare shows open government remains elusive

SCMP: “Cover-up of cadmium scandal reveals authorities’ reluctance to comply with 2007 rule on non-classified information

Guangzhou rice scare shows open government remains elusive

Many Guangzhou residents have been worried and angry for more than a week after being told that nearly half the rice they buy from local markets may contain excessive levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal.

The city’s Food and Drug Administration said on May 16 that it had checked 18 batches of rice between January and March and had found cadmium levels in eight of them exceeded the national food safety standard.

But it declined to disclose any information about the tainted rice, such as where it was produced and by which brands. The food-safety watchdog said it was “inconvenient” to share the information with the public but did not explain why.

The cover-up sparked a national outcry. Even some state-owned media criticised the regulator, saying the refusal to disclose the information was a crime.

After coming under a great deal of pressure, the watchdog disclosed the names of the rice producers last Saturday, but still refused to detail the amount of tainted rice sold.

The Guangzhou case is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg in showing how reluctant mainland officials are to allow open access to government data.

The Regulations on Open Government Information, introduced by Beijing in 2007, say all levels of local government should make their non-classified information public.

The regulations set clear standards for the format authorities should follow when publishing and organising the data on their websites, because of concerns that members of the public would otherwise be unable to find the information they were looking for.

But six years later, mainland officials remain reluctant to publicise such information.”

via Guangzhou rice scare shows open government remains elusive | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Food safety | 1 Comment »

Tags: cadmium, China, Food and Drug Administration, food safety, Guangzhou, Rice

13/05/2013

* China: unequal in death, as in life

FT: “The news that Guangzhou is to start building a costly cemetery exclusively for revolutionary heroes and government officials this October has stirred up something of an online controversy.

With the cost of cemetery space far higher than housing, it has highlighted the increasing inequality in Chinese society – in death, as well as in life.

The Fushan Revolutionary Cemetery, which will cover an area of 1,300 mu (870,000 sq m) and cost Rmb620m ($100m), is designated only for the privileged class, including “revolutionary martyrs”, “government cadres” and “military servicemen”, according to China Insight, a Beijing-based magazine, run by the Communist Party journal Qiushi (“Seeking Truth”).

The news, which came out last week, has created a buzz on the Chinese blogosphere and triggered criticism by many Weibo users (China’s answer to Twitter).

“No wonder people are trying so hard to get a job in the government; otherwise, they die without a burial place,” wrote one Weibo user.

“Chinese taxpayers take care of not only the living but also the dead [officials],” wrote another.

The discontent is shared by Fan Haiqun, a researcher at Guangdong Social Sciences Academy who specialises in funeral policy.

He was quoted by Insight China as saying: “Are there any new revolutionary heroes? Since the new China has been established for more than 60 years, most of people who sacrificed their lives in wars have already passed away. Today’s so-called revolutionary figures are just government officials.”

Guangzhou’s Civic Affairs Bureau later denied such accusations, saying the Fushan cemetery isn’t built for “only burying officials” and would also be open to the public, according to the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News. A lady who answered the bureau’s phone on Friday declined to comment on the issue.

However, such denials are not likely to convince the public or parts of the media. The Xi’an Evening News questioned: “Although the city’s Civil Affair Bureau denied the report [by China Insight], it didn’t offer any strong evidences to refute it, such as the proportion of the public graveyard [at the Fushan cemetery]. Therefore, it cannot shake off people’s doubts.”

On Sina Weibo, microbloggers fired back with sarcastic comments. “I would like to pay more tax if it’s built to bury them [officials] alive,” wrote one.

Apart from deep social inequality between the privileged and unprivileged in China, the issue highlights a new challenge for the country’s given the rate of urbanisation – scarcity of land for public cemeteries.

In Guangzhou, there are around 50,000 deaths per year, of which 30,000 are buried, according to China Daily. However, the city’s 10 commercial cemeteries are failing to cope with demand as there is no available land for new plots, reported Southern Metropolis Daily.

This has led the price of cemetery plots in Guangzhou to rocket – Rmb80,000 ($13,000) per sq m, much higher than that of local commercial housing (which is Rmb23,518 per sq m in April), according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

The sky-high price of plots is another hardship for Chinese people. As one blogger put it: “Life is never easy in China, now, [nor is] death.””

via China: unequal in death, as in life | beyondbrics.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Politics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Cemetery, China, Communist Party, Guangzhou, military servicemen, revolutionary cemetery, revolutionary heroes, Sina Weibo

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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China to loan Pacific island nations $1 billion | Reuters

China plea paper ‘to be overhauled’ – BBC News

In rare move, China regulator voices concern for detained reporter | Reuters

China paper in detained journalist plea – BBC News

China opens world’s highest civilian airport

Guangzhou to empty labour camps

China’s Factory Owners Hunt for Energy Savings

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