Putian's Bosses Pull Search Advertising

1 Talking Point 5 Week in 60 Seconds 6 Internet and Tech Week in China 7 Telecoms 8 Economy 10 Rail and Infrastructure 11 China Consumer 10 April 2015 13 Society and Culture Issue 276 17 And Finally www.weekinchina.com 18 The Back Page

Fevered brows m o c . n i e t s p e a t i n e b . w w w

Putian’s hospital tycoons boycott Baidu’s ads – triggering a fall

in the search engine’s stock Brought to you by Week in China Talking Point 10 April 2015

Taking their medicine Putian’s bosses pull search advertising; Baidu’s stock catches cold

Meet the press: Robin Li’s internet search firm Baidu is getting media attention over hospital row

ast Saturday the Hilton hotel in call a halt to all paid promotional town selling the homemade cure Lthe Putian was reminiscent of activities on Baidu, the dominant for as little as Rmb1 per bottle. He the scene from The Godfather film search giant in China. The bosses was so successful that other people when the leading mafia families claimed that the move was not de - in Putian followed suit, turning the met to settle a dispute. All the big signed to provoke a confrontation small enterprise into a national bosses from this city in Fujian with Baidu, or to put commercial medical network. province attended, no cameras were pressure on the company. But crit - Putian businessmen now tend to allowed inside, and bodyguards ics say they are doing exactly that. target treatments that have higher made sure that no one was wearing margins and that can be performed wiretaps. Of course, the tycoons in What’s the big deal? at relatively lower risk. Fertility pro - the boardroom weren’t from the As profiled in issue 242, business - grammes, plastic surgery and dental underworld. Instead they lead men from Putian, once a small fish - care have been especially popular. many of the country’s hospitals, ing village, make up the single Importantly, these sectors aren’t controlling as many as 8,600 med - biggest group of private hospitals normally included under national ical facilities in an empire worth operators in China. medical insurance, so patients often more than Rmb260 billion ($42 bil - They got their start in the early choose private hospitals that spe - lion), according to Changjiang 1980s, when a local doctor came up cialise in these categories. P h o t

o Times. with a remedy for treating scabies – The Fujian tycoons like to keep

S o u r After the four-hour session, the an infectious skin rash that was low personal profiles, but they were c e :

R e Putian tycoons presented a united widespread at the time. To make his one of the first business groups to u t e r s

front, announcing that they would living, the man travelled around advertise medical treatments on TV 1

Week in China Talking Point 10 April 2015

and radio. They were also some of the earliest advertisers on Baidu’s Planet China search pages, putting their ads on Strange but true stories from the new China the site from 2002 (two years after Baidu was founded) to lure people LADIES MAN. looking for medical services. Propped up in his hospital bed after a nasty car accident last “In the beginning, it was a great month, a man surnamed Yuan from Hunan province must have wanted partnership: Baidu brought many visiting hours to be suspended indefinitely. new clients to Putian’s private hos - That’s because he was playing host to a gaggle of girlfriends, all unaware pitals; and Putian’s advertising in - of the existence of their love rivals. vestment was instrumental to the According to media reports, at least 27 women have turned up to see rapid growth and later success of Yuan, some of whom had even given birth to his children. “I was really Baidu,” Changjiang Times con - worried when I heard that he was in hospital,” Xiao Li, one of the girlfriends, cludes. told Hunan Satellie Television. “But when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls show up, I couldn’t cry any more.” She has even set up a ‘girlfriend group’ on WeChat so that the women How did it all fall apart? can establish the full extent of his trickery. In the past, most of the private hos - Yuan had even convinced a number of the women to give him financial pitals have signed annual advertis - support, with one lady said to have been handing over most of her salary to ing contracts with Baidu. But the him for nine years. search engine, leveraging its near- The disgruntled girlfriends then went to Changsha police to accuse Yuan monopoly status, has become a of fraud. But while some netizens have fumed at his behaviour, others tough negotiator, pushing for in - seemed rather dazzled by his duplicity. “A liar always acts perfectly,” one creases in advertising spending of noted. “The only thing he paid them were compliments, which are all that at least a third a year. women wanting a perfect life will need. So as a consequence, they were Putian hospital operators are cheated on.” now pushing back. With more than an 80% market share of private clin - That may not be too much of an led nowhere and Google’s retreat ics, they are some of the biggest ad - exaggeration. One owner of four from China in 2012 has seen Baidu vertisers online in China. The city’s private hospitals told the Fujian strengthen its position in the search municipal secretary Liang Jiangy - Daily that he has spent more than market. One plastic surgery clinic ong even boasted back in 2013 that Rmb10 million on advertising on says it used to cost around Rmb30 Putian-owned hospitals contributed Baidu over the last year. His own per click when a user searched for Rmb12 billion ($1.93 billion) of margins have been shrinking: he cosmetic surgery. But that rate has Baidu’s Rmb26 billion in advertising claims net income for his hospitals gone up to a few hundred yuan to - sales. Baidu has countered that this is only Rmb20 million. day. In areas of the country where figure is dramatically overstated, “Our advertising budget is very consumers are wealthier like Shen - but industry analysts have esti - small compared to other larger pri - zhen, the price can reach Rmb999 mated that Putian-owned business vate hospital networks. I know for the top spots, says Fujian Daily. could contribute between 15% to some spend up to Rmb300,000 a The hospital owners are fed up. 30% of its revenues. day on Baidu just to become the “Domestic private hospitals dedi - Meeting Baidu’s growth targets high bidders on search results. So cate up to 70% of their advertising for online spending has become in - you can imagine after a year, the ad - budget to Baidu. But as the cost for creasingly difficult and in late vertising costs become very scary,” top spots becomes higher and March the hospital bosses decided he told the newspaper. higher, the only way for us to re - to rebel – with the Putian Health In - main profitable is to decrease the dustry Chamber of Commerce an - Baidu, the bully? quality of our service or increase nouncing that its hospitals would It isn’t the first time that Putian’s our prices, which is bad for our stop paid promotional activities on providers have accused Baidu of brand,” an industry insider told Baidu. “The industry is facing severe overcharging. In 2011, a number of Southern Metropolis Daily. problems and many medical facili - hospitals said they had to pay up to ties have been reduced to working Rmb600 for each click if they And the other side to the story? for internet firms,” the association wanted to appear in its recom - Last week Baidu fired back at the claimed. mended results. But the complaints hospital bosses, describing the Put - 3 Week in China Talking Point 10 April 2015

ian protest as retaliatory. It says the ‘pre-diagnosis assessments’. keeps the private hospitals alive. tycoons are embittered because it So the row with Putian comes at They can work with other search en - has been refusing to post false or a time when digital innovation gines, such as Sogou, but those sim - misleading ads, and that up to 60% looks set to shake up the sector, ply cannot offer the search traffic of the rejected content was from bringing the established operators that Baidu does,” Lu Zhenwang, an members of the Putian association. into more direct competition with internet expert, told the China The healthcare ad market is “a their former commercial partners. Daily. long-term driver of revenues” for Almost all the population now has Sure enough, on Thursday this Baidu, insists Robin Li, its chairman, basic health insurance, up from a week there were signs that Putian’s and it needs to offer higher quality third in 2003. But health care cover - tycoons were trying to reopen ne - information about medical treat - age has not kept pace with potential gotiations by reinstating some ads. ments than its internet rivals Al - demand, and the internet brands But investors in the search firm ibaba and Tencent, which have sense a huge opportunity to step seem worried too. Since news of the started new services to search for into the gap. dispute started to make headlines medicines and pharmacies, and to Bloomberg gives prescription in late March, Baidu’s shares on Nas - make doctors’ appointments. drug sales as an example. “The daq have dipped by 6%, losing $4 The stricter screening also comes shift could reshape the $149 billion billion in value. The search firm at a time when Baidu is launching a market for such drugs, by moving could also face more resistance new medical platform and a mobile sales to web retailers and away from other advertisers in the year app called Baidu Doctor as part of from hospitals, which sell almost ahead, especially as the economy its effort to expand into healthcare. three quarters of medicines pre - slows, which could force Baidu to Policymakers seem keen too: for in - scribed in the country.” lower prices and clean up some of stance, Beijing’s municipal govern - Of course, the severing of ties its less transparent business prac - ment is using Baidu’s “health cloud” with Baidu comes at a cost to Putian tices, warns Doug Young, author of services for illness prevention and businesses. “Marketing is what Young’s China Biz Blog. n

Breakfast of champions

Tech rather than toast was on the breakfast agenda at the Boao Forum in Hainan at the end of last month, when Tesla’s Elon Musk, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Baidu boss Robin Li met for an early morning session about tech - nology and innovation. Li served as moderator for the event, choosing questions from more than 500 queries raised by users of a Baidu forum. Unsurprisingly he kept things nice and cheerful, Musk also predicted large-scale production of cars with avoiding mention of the ongoing investigation into Mi - a driverless option within the next five years. Li chose to crosoft’s Chinese tax affairs, and choosing not to quiz Musk keep quiet on the topic, although Baidu is developing self- on how Tesla can get closer to its sales targets in China. driving technology that is expected to trial on highways by Instead, The Paper.cn reports that Musk was asked the end of the year. whether radical thinking or hands-on management is more Gates and Musk also talked about how their careers had important for an entrepreneur to achieve success. developed, citing a love of reading as an important factor. “I “I create a vision, and then I start solving problems,” think reading is better than dialogue. When you have spare I l l u s t r Musk responded. “Tesla Motors was very difficult at first, time, spend it reading. Now I can finish 10 lines in one a t i o n : and a lot of people said that only fools try to make electric glance,” Musk said. w w w . b vehicles. But as long as there is even a 10% chance of suc - “People always have limitations, and reading is the best e n i t a e cess, I will try.” way to break these limitations,” Gates added. p s t e i n . c o m

4 Week in China The Week in 60 Seconds 10 April 2015

Hong Kong stocks surge The major news items from China this week were...

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said on Monday it 1has lowered minimum down payment levels on sec - ond homes from the current 60% to 30%. The central bank said the move was aimed at “supporting residents’ home ownership and improving housing demand”. The step adds to the government’s efforts to jumpstart the housing market. Two interest rate cuts since November, along with a loosening of property curbs in September, have so far failed to stem the decline, as new-home sales slumped 17% in January and February.

An explosion took place on Monday at a plant pro - 2ducing the chemical paraxylene (PX) in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, said Xinhua. PX is a flammable chemi - The inferno at Zhangzhou’s plastic plant cal used in polyester and plastics manufacturing. Con - struction of PX plants has spurred numerous protests, and short selling businesses more effectively. The including violent demonstrations last year in Guang - Shanghai Composite Index has climbed 19.5% so far this dong province. The mood won’t be helped by news that year (for more see our recent Focus Issue). the latest incident was the second blast at the Zhangzhou plant in two years. Caijing magazine has The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, which al - blamed a lack of investment in safety and poor oversight 4lows two-way trading between the cities’ stock ex - for the repeated blasts. changes, reached its daily limit on Wednesday for the first time since the link was started five months ago. The main Chinese securities regulator the CSRC has punished reason for the uptick in demand was a decision by Chi - 3six brokerages for violating rules in their margin nese regulators to allow mutual fund managers to buy di - trading businesses. The sanctions came just over two rectly through Stock Connect, rather than make use of an months after the CSRC banned three leading brokerages existing quota scheme. The surge in liquidity from China – Citic Securities, Haitong Securities and Guotai Junan also sent the Hang Seng Index to a seven-year high, with Securities – from opening new margin trading client ac - volumes the highest seen over the same period. counts for three months. The punishment reflected the regulator’s determination to police the margin trading Country Garden, one of the largest Chinese develop - 5ers by sales, will raise $812 million issuing new shares to Ping An Insurance. Ping An agreed to subscribe to 2.24 billion shares, representing 9.9% of the enlarged share capital. The developer plans to use the money to fund new projects and as working capital.

Dianping, a popular restaurant-review and group- 6buying services, has raised $850 million from a group of investors including smartphone maker Xiaomi, P h o t

o valuing the company at $4 billion. Dianping was

S o u r launched a year before its US equivalent Yelp in 2003. It c e :

R e has more than 190 million monthly active users, ac - u t e r s Record trading volumes this week in Hong Kong cording to company statistics. n 5 Week in China Internet and Tech 10 April 2015

Sticking around A struggle for Youku Tudou in the Big Apple

n one of China’s biggest comedy enue recognition for barter trans - Ifilms of 2014, two hapless musi - actions, as well as how Youku val - cians decide to pursue their dream ues its licenced content. But over career in New York, but end up en - the past month, Youku has also been snared in a war between triads. on the receiving end of some of the The movie Old Boys: The Way of biggest drop in earnings forecasts the Dragon, starred a singing duo of any of the major Chinese internet Singing duo failed in New York called the Chopsticks Brothers. A players. Having believed that Youku mini-film produced by the two men might soon turn a profit, many an - spur additional advertising. was picked up by talent spotters at alysts are now realising that the Ad spend currently accounts for internet video firm Youku Tudou, company finds itself caught in the 87% of Youku’s revenue, but pay-per- which subsequently financed the classic bind of having to devote in - view and subscriber revenues are big screen version. creasingly greater sums of cash to rising and could finally tip the com - But in an unfortunate case of life sustain and expand its market pany into profit. While 2014 net imitating art, Youku Tudou – created share. losses of Rmb228 million ($37 mil - by the merger of two major Chinese Profitability, on the other hand, lion) were higher than analyst ex - video portals – is now facing its own continues to look elusive. pectations, revenues did beat con - set of problems in New York. A group Youku faces a number of formi - sensus forecasts. of investors has just accused the US- dable competitors, not least Ten - Youku Tudou will also be heart - listed company of providing inaccu - cent, China’s largest online content ened by the fact that China sur - rate and misleading financial infor - provider. However, as 21CN Business passed the US as the world’s biggest mation. Several law firms filed class Herald argues, at least it is burning box office in February, with takings action lawsuits at the end of March. its cash in a more rational manner of Rmb4 billion. During the fourth The move followed the release of than before. Rather than relying on quarter of 2014, takings grew 41%, Youku’s fourth quarter results, third-party material, it has been in - at Youku’s filmmaking arm, HeYi which included the revelation that vesting in its own content and is Pictures, which is co-producing 12 the US SEC is investigating its ac - planning to double the outlay on films over the course of the year. counts. Youku’s share price imme - proprietary programming to $98 There was better news for Youku diately lurched south, continuing a million this year. Talent spotters will investors this week too, when its descent that has seen it lose half its stay on the look-out for creative tal - shares rose the most in three years, value in the space of a year. ents such as the Chopsticks Broth - soaring more than 14% in New York. Company executives were quick ers, tempting them with the But analysts cautioned that money to quell the negative speculation, no prospect of multi-year contracts and was moving into Chinese stocks in doubt conscious of past scandals at co-production deals. Hong Kong and New York in general, US-listed Chinese firms. In an inter - Youku’s tie-up with Alibaba is also because prices on Chinese bourses nal email published by China Busi - expected to yield dividends in the have climbed so aggressively. ness Observer, Youku’s president future. The e-commerce giant owns And if Old Boys is a metaphor Liu Dele told employees that the in - 18.5% of the video site and some be - for Youku’s ambitions, it doesn’t vestigation is routine and that any lieve it may eventually try to buy bode too well either. The Chopstick P h o t o changes required by the regulator Youku out. In the meantime, the Brothers end the movie with their

S o u r c are likely to have a negligible im - partners are utilising Alibaba’s big showbiz dreams unfulfilled. They e :

I m

a pact. data analytics to give advertisers disband, leave New York and re - g i n e

C The SEC probe is said to concen - more measurable information on turn to China – claiming to be h i n a trate on questions relating to rev - Youku’s users, which should in turn happy to have tried and failed. n 6 Week in China Telecoms 10 April 2015

Fit and proper Huawei gets green light from the Brits

ne way in which China differs engage a rising power.” Ofrom, say, Britain, is the degree Likewise Washington harbours to which many of its people take an deep suspicions about Huawei. In interest in the achievements of Chi - 2012 an intelligence committee from nese companies abroad. the House of Representatives la - Thus, last month, when telecoms belled the telecoms equipment giant Huawei was given a clean bill maker “a security threat”, claiming London calling of health by a British board that as - that it had ties to the Chinese mili - sesses national security, it not only tary. It recommended that the Com - UK’s critical networks have been suf - made the news, it lit up social media mittee on Foreign Investment block ficiently mitigated,” it concluded. networks too. all acquisitions, mergers and On the whole, Chinese media Twice, in less than a month, takeovers involving the Chinese firm. was delighted by the verdict. “The Britain had lent its support to Chi - Since then, Huawei has essen - acceptance of Huawei by the UK is nese organisations that the US is tially been shut out of America’s another example of China confi - suspicious of. telecoms infrastructure market. dently and consciously confirming “The UK-US relationship is chang - So the Shenzhen-based firm was its peaceful rise,” an opinion piece ing from ‘special bond’ to having probably concerned when similar celebrated in the Global Times. “It is disputes,” China’s official news noises started emerging from the a landmark event.” agency Xinhua said. UK last year, where Huawei works Yet netizens were a little more As readers of WiC will know, the with local brands such as British sceptical of the UK’s motives, with first UK move to incur American Telecom and O2. some attributing Huawei’s clean bill annoyance was the decision to join The concerns, which originated of health to reciprocal promises of the Asian Infrastructure Invest - in the Parliamentary Intelligence Chinese investment, as well as its ment Bank (AIIB) last month (see and Security Committee, focused on backing of London as Europe’s lead - issue 275). The US is wary of the the workings of a cyber-security ing hub for the offshore renminbi. Beijing-led project because it be - evaluation centre set up in 2010 to “This is an exchange. China has lieves it will undermine the work allow British experts to evaluate agreed to the trading centre and the of the World Bank and Asian De - Huawei products before they were UK has announced Huawei’s inno - velopment Bank, run under the in - used in UK infrastructure. cence,” wrote one. fluence of Washington and Tokyo Specifically, it was the fact that Huawei said the evaluation respectively. employees of the centre were on showed that “in a globalised, inter - When Britain announced its in - Huawei’s payroll that made the connected digital age, we must all tention to join the AIIB the White committee uncomfortable. Instead, work together to deliver the best so - House took the unusual step of re - it recommended the centre be lutions to the challenges we face. “ leasing a terse statement: “This is staffed by employees of Britain’s in - Late last month Huawei posted the UK’s sovereign decision. We telligence agency, GCHQ. annual profit of Rmb27.9 billion hope and expect that the UK will Since then there have been two ($4.5 billion), up 33% from 2013. use its voice to push for adoption reviews of the Banbury-based cen - Revenues were up 21% to $46.5 bil - of high standards.” tre, first by national security adviser lion, of which 60% was earned out - But the Financial Times also Sir Kim Darroch, and then by the side China. Huawei has set a target P h o t

o quoted an anonymous American of - centre’s new oversight board, which of making $80 billion in revenue

S o u r ficial criticising the UK and its “con - is led by the intelligence services. by 2018. The UK’s green light ought c e :

R e stant accommodation of China”, “Any risks to UK national security to help it win more international u t e r s

adding this was not “the best way to from Huawei’s involvement in the orders in the future. n 7 Week in China Economy 10 April 2015

No hiding place China unleashes Skynet against rogue officials

he Economist ran a lengthy pro - gotten gains offshore, in an en - Tfile of Wang Qishan a fortnight hancement of Operation Fox Hunt, Skynet’s former enforcer ago, declaring him to be “China’s sec - the Wang-led push to bring back ab - ond most powerful leader”. It like - sconders from overseas. from a slowdown which has seen wise described the anti-corruption The new multi-agency operation many smaller junkets go to the wall. tsar as both admired and feared. But has been given the codename If Skynet focuses on the remaining one key element of Wang’s biogra - Skynet, a designation that has junketeers, fewer high-rollers may phy that the magazine failed to men - sparked much chatter online. Fans travel there in future. tion is that he is childless. of Arnold Schwarzenegger will re - Another target will be offshore That matters greatly in a country call that Skynet was the rogue com - companies with links to state-run in which state corruption and nepo - puter system that battled human - enterprises. Illicit activity here in - tism often intersect. By having no ity in his cyborg movies. As popular cludes subsidiaries over-invoicing heir, it is a little easier for the rank blogger Zheng Wei noted: “Skynet their parent companies, with dodgy and file to believe that Wang is a has been launched, and the Termi - suppliers kicking back gains on clean politician himself. nator will follow soon.” wrongly-priced deals to corrupt ex - There was another reminder of Whether the name was chosen ecutives via offshore accounts. the links between graft and family with The Terminator in mind is dis - WiC suspects that if Skynet does last week when it was finally an - puted. Others have suggested that it get serious about this problem, it nounced that former security chief relates to the Chinese idiom that ‘the will likely focus more of its atten - Zhou Yongkang would be tried for sky may look thin, but you can never tion on Hong Kong too. corruption. escape it’. Beijing Youth Daily reports Back on the mainland, the next Zhou’s case – to be held in the that the Skynet team will go after wave of investigations into the SOEs high-profile city of Tianjin, a mere those who have fled, and put in place looks set to widen – having begun half hour by rail from Beijing – will new measures that make it harder with oil giant CNPC, a state firm that see the former security chief ac - for others to flee in future. The was closely linked to Zhou. cused of accepting “massive Party’s Organisation Department, The financial gains of top state amounts of wealth from others”, ac - the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, executives – both legal and illegal – cording to the prosecutor’s office. the Ministry of Public Security and were also a talking point during The New York Times alleges that the central bank will coordinate China’s parliamentary get-together much of the malpractice was facili - measures to make it more difficult last month, especially when China tated through Zhou’s children. Its for fleeing officials to use fake pass - Unicom’s chairman Chang Xiaobing investigation suggests that his rela - ports, for instance, while Skynet’s waded into the debate during the tives accumulated assets worth other targets include the under - gathering by claiming to make just Rmb1 billion ($161 million) as a re - ground banks and offshore compa - Rmb8,000 a month after tax. sult of their patriarch’s political nies that enable illegal capital flight. The comments led to much criti - power and influence. Skynet may mean more bad news cism in the media, especially when There is no indication that Zhou’s for gambling hub Macau. As WiC has it was revealed that the figure ex - downfall will end the anti-graft commented before, some of the jun - cluded numerous incentives in purge. In fact, Wang’s office has just ket operators bringing the wealthy Chang’s pay package. The telco’s an - ratcheted up its efforts. At least four to gamble in Macau have been a nual report revealed he actually ministries will coordinate their ac - route for money to leave the main - earned a total of Rmb1.07 million tivities to target fugitive bureaucrats land, which is then converted into last year. overseas, as well as the entities that Hong Kong dollars in the casinos. SOE executives can expect more help the exiles to transfer their ill- The casino city is already suffering scrutiny in the months ahead. n 8 Week in China Economy 10 April 2015

Aiming for higher things Shenzhen set to climb the ranks after the arrival of former moon boss?

hortly before sending the lunar benefited, becoming home to some Srover Jade Rabbit to the moon in of China’s most competitive private December 2013, the commander-in- sector firms, such as Tencent. chief of the expedition was rede - “The administrative model of the ployed to Guangdong. directly-controlled municipalities is The transfer of Ma Xingru i, an outdated,” Luo suggests, believing aerospace scientist from Beijing, to instead that China should set up 10 his new role as Guangdong’s deputy “special cities” and encourage them Party chief was unanticipated. At to develop as megalopolis via their the time it was suggested that the 56 surrounding hinterlands. year-old was tasked with tightening An article published on the the central government’s grip in the WeChat platform of the People’s province. After just two months in Daily says that it will be difficult for office, Ma led a direct attack on two Shenzhen to establish itself on a par of Guangdong’s murkier vested in - with bigger rivals like Chongqing, terests: the sex trade (see WiC226 Shenzhen’s Ma Xingrui simply because it isn’t large enough. for the crackdown on the sin city of (The population of Chongqing mu - Dongguan) and the druglords (see from the Chinese Academy of Social nicipality is 30 million, three times WiC221 for the raids in the ‘meth Science. “It is possible that Shenzhen that of Shenzhen.) “It is impossible, capital’ of Boshe). But it wasn’t until will become the fifth directly-con - at least for the near future, for Shen - this month that the latest objective trolled municipality later this year.” zhen to become a directly-con - in Ma’s redeployment was revealed, Higher status for Shenzhen could trolled municipality,” it concludes. with the news that he will also be - bring more supportive policies from “There is no need to over-read Ma’s come the Party boss of Shenzhen. Beijing. “Shenzhen would commu - latest appointment.” Observers say that the appoint - nicate with the central government Nevertheless, the newspaper says ment is significant because it im - more directly. As such it can better that for Shenzhen to grow further, it plies that the city is going to get en - understand, and carry out, the coun - will need to absorb nearby cities hanced status on the national stage. try’s strategic blueprint,” Guo such as Dongguan and Huizhou. Ma is one of the 205 Central Com - Wanda, vice president of the Shen - That would fit with the central gov - mittee apparatchiks that votes for zhen-based think tank China Devel - ernment’s master blueprint to cre - the members that sit on the ruling opment Institute, told local media. ate more integrated regional Politburo, making him the highest Could the move prove to be a economies, like the Beijing-Tianjin- ranking Shenzhen boss in the city’s winner’s curse for Ma? Three Party Hebei hub (see WiC231), and Time history. Before this, only Beijing, chiefs from Beijing, Shanghai and Weekly agrees that a supersized hub Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing – Chongqing have been ousted since in the Pearl River Delta is inevitable. the four cities with municipality sta - 1998 (the latest case being Bo Xilai). Or could Shenzhen be combined tus in China – were headed by mem - According to Luo Tianhao, an out - with Hong Kong into a super spe - bers from the Central Committee. spoken researcher with the state as - cial economic zone spanning the (Ren Xuefeng, the Party chief of set manager Sasac, Shenzhen might border between Guangdong and the Guangzhou, is only a backup mem - not gain from the extra attention special administrative territory to ber of the Central Committee.) either. Avoiding a more direct rela - the south? However, if Hong Kong’s “It underlines the elevated role of tionship with the central govern - mini constitution, the Basic Law, is Shenzhen,” Hong Kong’s i-Cable Tel - ment hasn’t done the city obvious properly observed, that looks un - evision reports, citing an official harm. By contrast, it seems to have likely before 2047. n 9 Week in China Rail and Infrastructure 10 April 2015

Path to profit Will state firms get a free ride on Xi Jinping’s new Silk Road?

uring last weekend’s tomb- Barely a year ago analysts were Dsweeping holiday, state broad - attributing a much lower valuation, caster CCTV devoted extended air - based on profit margins in the low time to a commemoration of single digits. But investors now Chinese workers killed in Tanzania seem to see more reason to buy, and Pakistan. with China’s ambitious infrastruc - Hundreds of workers are buried ture plan expected to result in there, having lost their lives build - stronger returns. ing the Tanzania-Zambia railway “CCCC is one of the top 10 stocks and the Karakoram Highway in for investors along the new Silk Pakistan. Road,” the Hong Kong Economic Conceived during the Mao era, Times suggests, pointing to the fact neither project turned a profit. that it has already engaged in proj - China saw them more as a way of ects in a number of Asian countries. winning new friends during an era Other state infrastructure firms of diplomatic isolation. More re - On hold: CCCC’s port in Colombo such as China Railway Construction cently the Chinese have been in - (CRCC) and China Railway Corp (CRC) vesting overseas again, although dem with national-level plans. have also registered strong gains this this time their efforts are flanked CCCC is the largest port con - year, while stocks at the two state by greater financial and techno - struction and design company in train makers CNR and CSR soared logical nous. China, as well as the largest dredg - more than 40% this week when their As we reported in issue 275, Xi Jin - ing firm. One of its key focuses has merger was officially confirmed. ping’s “one belt, one road” blueprint been the Pearl River Delta region, So does everything look rosy for envisages a network of highways, where the central government has the infrastructure giants? When railways and ports linking China to been seeking to integrate Hong China’s diplomatic relations come central and south Asia, and then fur - Kong and Macau more closely with to the fore, there is always the risk ther afield to the Middle East and the mainland. CCCC is involved in that sweetheart deals will be cut Europe. The establishment of the building a 50-kilometre bridge link - with customers. CRCC’S light rail Asian Infrastructure Investment ing the two former colonial territo - project in Mecca in Saudi Arabia cost Bank (AIIB), meanwhile, is viewed as ries to Zhuhai, and it is also working the company Rmb4 billion in losses a means to finance some of these on a Rmb38 billion ($6 billion) proj - in 2010, for instance. Reportedly, plans, with Xi telling last year’s APEC ect to build a Dubai-style artificial is - company bosses were told to grin summit that infrastructure spend - land in Hengqin, an area near and bear it, as energy diplomacy was ing in Asia would top $8 trillion in Macau which is three times the size the order of the day in Beijing. the next 10 years. of the former Portuguese enclave One of CCCC’s flagship projects is China Communication Con - (see WiC208). also struggling with the vagaries of struction Corporation (CCCC) has Driven by investor excitement international politics, after a $1 bil - the kind of pedigree that suggests it about the Silk Road concept, Hong lion port-building programme in Sri could benefit from the “one belt, Kong-listed CCCC has seen its stock Lanka was put on hold following a one road” roadmap. Its predecessor climb nearly 60% this year. As of change of government in Colombo. P h o t

o helped to build the Karakoram Wednesday it carried a market value Last month Xinhua said that the

S o u r Highway, and the Economic Infor - of $50 billion, although it is still state construction giant is losing c e :

R e mation Daily says the company has trading on just 13 times its reported $380,000 each day that the project u t e r s a long tradition of moving in tan - earnings. is delayed. n 10 Week in China China Consumer 10 April 2015

The avocado advocates How the alligator pear is winning over Chinese shoppers

hen supermarket chain Latin America to China. WSainsbury’s first introduced Consumers can now buy avoca - the avocado pear to UK customers dos for Rmb7 to Rmb10 each, al - in 1962, unwitting shoppers as - though Zhao says this has been at sumed the new fruit should be the expense of his own profit mar - eaten with custard, just like tinned gins. However, he says he is happy peaches. to accept the squeeze while he But a decade later the avocado builds demand for a product had become a symbol of Britain’s known as an ‘alligator pear’ (the lit - growing post-war affluence. No eral translation of an older English discerning dinner party was com - term for avocados, which were plete unless avocado had been fresh fruit and vegetables.” thought to resemble crocodile skin) served as the starter (the prawn Social media has also accelerated or as ‘butter fruit’. cocktail was another favoured hors interest in avocados, says CBN, with Avocados have gone through al - d'œuvre much enjoyed by middle- international celebrities such as most as many names in their his - class diners in the seventies). Gossip Girl ’s Blake Lively helping to tory as there are ways to eat them. Now it is China’s turn to be per - create greater public awareness The modern day term comes from plexed by this nutrient-heavy fruit, thanks to the promotion of veg - the Spanish word aguacate , which is which tastes like a vegetable and etable-based drinks and shakes on thought to be derived from the in - should be eaten only when its rind their lifestyle websites. Supermar - digenous identifier ahuacatls , or has turned an off-putting shade of kets and local importers have also testicles, because of their shape and murky brown. worked hard to educate shoppers, supposed aphrodisiac effect. CBN reports that Chinese avo - with tastings and giveaways, while In modern day Mexico, avocados cado consumption has jumped 127 in-store posters help customers out are eaten with salt alongside a cup of fold over the past four years, with with tips on how to tell when an av - coffee, while Brazilians tend to mash consumers chomping through al - ocado is ripe, how to peel it and how them into ice cream as a dessert. most 4,000 tonnes of them last year. to best serve it. CBN says China is creating its own Exports are still the preserve of CBN says importers have also had culinary traditions. Many of the new just two countries, Mexico and Chile, to learn how to handle the fruit in devotees are simply slicing them although New Zealand hopes to join order to maintain their margins. In into tofu like blocks and dousing the list of approved exporters this the early days, a single avocado them in soy sauce. Others have be - year as it tries once again to cash in would retail at about Rmb20 ($3.20) gun using them as filling for on the Chinese desire for fresher pro - because of the high wastage rates dumplings. There is even an avocado duce, which not only confers health (typically up to 30% of consign - themed restaurant that opened last benefits, but also conveys a visible ments were spoiled before they summer in Shanghai. Dishes include stamp of prosperity. reached the supermarket shelves). avocado and beef cheesecake, and Julie Escobar, a sales director at Zhao Guozhang, founder of fresh- raspberry and avocado mousse. fruit-and-veg trader Robinson Fresh food e-retailer Fruit Day says he has The Chinese are also beginning tells CBN: “China’s consumption of managed to reduce his loss rate to to explore cultivation of avocados perishable goods has experienced 5% after understanding how to vary of their own own. The hope: that the dramatic changes in the past couple storage temperatures according to soil and climate in sub-tropical of years. It all stems from the grow - the different seasons, and in figur - provinces such as Hainan, Guizhou ing middle class and their desire to ing out the maturity profiles of the and Guangdong could be suitable adopt a healthier lifestyle with more fruit after its 25-day shipment from for production. n 11 Week in China China Consumer 10 April 2015

Make it wok Britain’s best-known oven brand hopes for a China makeover

ix years ago, when the British Soven maker AGA Rangemaster was first planning to try out the China market, it asked a chef to work out which cooking techniques the two cultures had in common. The answer was a shock. Of the 10 ways that the British ap - ply heat to food, and the 15 Chinese ways doing it, there was only one clear overlap – boiling. It wasn’t the best of indicators for an iconic British brand whose prod - ucts are deeply associated with Sun - day roasts, freshly baked cakes and Made in a factory that dates back to the UK’s Industrial Revolution richer UK families. But AGA’s CEO William McGrath long history of quality. AGA’s are popular in rural Eng - was undeterred. True, China had “Authentic British is very impor - land but will the Chinese be per - spent the best part of the last 4,000 tant to buyers here. So the idea that suaded? For those who aren’t quite years shunning oven-based cooking, you can buy a product still made in ready to buy into the full AGA story but, everything – including the way the factory where Abraham Darby there is also the Redfyre, which has people make food – was changing, first smelted iron ore with coke in been engineered to incorporate a he argued. 1707 is going to be key,” he said. powerful wok burner that “would be Which is how, on March 27, Mc - Other trends in AGA’s favour are a illegal in the UK”, notes McGrath. Grath came to be standing in front of rising interest in Western food, es - This ought to adapt more to local a hall full of people in Beijing, pecially baking, and a shift away tastes. The Redfyres are also launching the AGA TC and its sister from traditionally narrow kitchens cheaper, priced at between brand RedFyre. to open-plan spaces that are also Rmb50,000 ($8,059) and “We have made China a priority. used for dining and socialising. Rmb80,000, compared to as much We think it could be transforma - McGrath believes that scares as Rmb250,000 for an AGA. They tional for us just as it was for Jaguar over food safety have triggered a will be stocked too in Chinese stores, Land Rover,” he told WiC earlier in wider interest in healthier food too. unlike AGAs which will have to be the day. So one line that AGA will be push - ordered from the UK. A bit like AGA, which is labour - ing is that food cooked in one of its Interestingly, when the first order ing under the weight of huge pen - traditional ovens requires less fat does arrive it won’t be the first AGA to sion deficits, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to make because there is no fan be installed in China. That honour was close to bankruptcy before drying the dish out. goes to the oven sitting in the kitchen launching the Evoque SUV in China. Factors such as the loosening of of a faux Scottish castle at the Treaty Now, China is its largest market and the one-child policy and the lack of Ports Winery in Shandong province. it has even begun local production. central heating could also come into The owner, the winemaker Chris Ruf - The trick, said McGrath, is getting play, says McGrath, as the company fle, was McGrath’s roommate at uni - the Chinese to see AGA and the Red - intends to promote it always-on versity. Ambassadors like that might fyre ovens in the same light as JLR’s ovens as the warm “heart of the well pique interest from China’s sta - cars – a great British product, with a home”, where families snuggle up. tus-obsessed super-rich... n 12 Week in China Society and Culture 10 April 2015

A hit with the critics A psychological thriller breaks the mould at the Chinese cinema

ervantes’ knight Don Quixote is Cthe insane protagonist of what is often regarded as the world’s first novel. And according to Andrew Scull’s recently published Madness in Civilisation , insanity has been a topic of fascination for the literary world for centuries, becoming par - ticularly popular thanks to the work of Sigmund Freud. In 1924, the American movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn even crossed the Atlantic to meet Freud, offering him $100,000 to come to Hollywood to write a story for the screen. Goldwyn’s proposal was re - jected. Nevertheless, as Scull notes, madness has had plenty of movie moments. In 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won five major Acad - emy Awards. This feat was not matched until 1991: by The Silence of the Lambs, which featured the psy - chopath Hannibal Lecter. In China mental illness hasn’t got the same movie treatment. From the late 1960s, mental incapacity wasn’t even classified as an illness but rather as faulty appreciation of the class struggle. Patients would be taken from hospitals and sent to labour camps because of perceived counter- Michelle Ye, who stars in Insanity revolutionary” behaviour (see WiC53). More recently the situation has im - and Michelle Ye from Hong Kong, as Lau and producer Derek Yee are proved. Since May 2013, the Mental well as Huang Xiaoming from the the movie’s only A-lister names (al - Health Law (the first of its kind in mainland. In the film, a long-time though Huang’s profile got a boost China) has required that most psy - mental patient convicted of invol - when it was announced he will tie chiatric commitments be voluntary. untary manslaughter is released the knot with actress Angelababy With this context in mind, it is from a psychiatric facility on the ad - later this year). This lack of star - P h o t o hardly surprising that few Chinese vice of his doctor. A series of mur - power means Insanity has been far -

S o u r c studios have focused on mental dis - ders swiftly follow. As the drama un - ing modestly at the box office. Bei - e :

I m

a order as a dramatic device. This folds, the line between madness and jing News said the movie earned g i n e

C taboo, however, seems to have been sanity, as well as patient and doctor, only Rmb30 million ($4.8 million) h i n a broken by Insanity , starring Sean Lau becomes blurred. in the first four days following its 13 Week in China Society and Culture 10 April 2015

debut this month. That looks even less impressive when you consider that audience turnout will have increased over the Tomb Sweeping Festival holiday last weekend. Strong sales so far this year have already seen industry tak - ings break through the Rmb10 bil - lion threshold in less than 100 days (it took 141 days in 2014). However, Insanity is scoring stronger reviews from the critics in the Chinese newspapers. “Excellent story telling, full of unexpected twists. You can’t anticipate the end until the end,” Xinhua Entertain - ment marvelled, while a critic at Chengdu Economic Daily wrote more about the audience reaction. Dancing in the street: damas showing off their moves “A girl sitting in the front row kept screaming,” the reviewer reported. relieve the pressure. From this angle Many expect Insanity will be a it is a movie of significant mean - winner at this year’s Hong Kong ing,” Xinhua Entertainment added. Drills, not pills Film Awards, and it has already been Certainly incidences of mental Plight of wayward retirees in nominated in four categories, in - heath problems have been on the focus after drug raid cluding best new director for David rise, with China’s breakneck growth Lee Kwong-yiu, who is a Cornell Uni - and its rapid change cited as factors. he targets of a narcotics sting in versity graduate. “The biggest contribution of In - TWenzhou in January were an In interviews Lee told reporters sanity is that it helps to raise public unlikely crowd: a group of older that he spent five years researching awareness and understanding of women at a karaoke parlour. the subject matter. The movie’s pro - mental illness,” Shenzhen Urban “Plain-clothes officers at the door ducers also believed it was the right Daily agreed, noting that the film of the karaoke room watched a time to acknowledge mental illness has been released a month before number of elderly people go inside more overtly, given that Chinese au - the second anniversary of the Men - and suspected that they were drug diences have been showing a shift in tal Health Law. users,” a police spokesman told tel - interest away from historical dra - It is also the 12th anniversary of evision news. mas to more contemporary issues. Hong Kong superstar Leslie Che - The group had sent out invita - “When I took the Beijing subway, ung’s suicide the newspaper noted. tions to the drug meet via the mo - I could see the stress on people’s Suffering from acute depression, bile app WeChat, with coded mes - faces – even more so than in Hong the actor jumped to his death from sages that it was time for ‘eating Kong or Japan. Mental conditions a city-centre hotel on April 1, 2003. stewed food’. Ketamine was the hal - are still a new topic for movies in Perhaps the censors were more le - lucinogen of choice, with partici - China, and few directors have nient because of more cases of sui - pants paying as much as Rmb5,000 proved adept at handling it,” the cide in the government ranks as well. for their evenings of indulgence. producer Derek Yee told the South According to Jiefang Daily, up to 112 “When the police opened the China Morning Post. Chinese officials have killed them - door, they were blown backwards by Lee added that the movie censors selves since 2003. Many more sui - the loud music,” an eyewitness told had no problem with Insanity as the cides by civil servants will have gone Tencent News, after officers film is “based on science and fo - unrecorded. Certainly, some may swooped on the revelling retirees. P h o t

o cused on humanity”. have wanted to avoid arrest in the “Inside, in the dim light, there was a

S o u r “Insanity is a thriller but it is intensifying anti-graft campaign. group of people twisting their bod - c e :

R e about the mental health of modern, But others may have been suffering ies crazily.” u t e r s urban people. Its primary goal is to from mental illness and depression. Three people were imprisoned for 14 Week in China Society and Culture 10 April 2015

arranging the sessions, while an - by the chengguan (generally dis - to dance that her sense of vitality other 17 were fined for taking part. liked urban management officials: was renewed. Most were female and in their fifties. see WiC203). “During the dancing we encour - Anti-social behaviour among For aging housewives there can age and praise each other, and even older people was mentioned briefly be a lack of fulfilment too. Most get applause from passersby,” she in WiC220, but there was a surpris - women in their fifties have only had told the newspaper. ing degree of sympathy in some of one child, and they are having to Millions of others have found the media coverage of the partying wait much longer for grandchildren meaning in square dancing, with pensioners – and certainly more than earlier generations. some of the most enthusiastic devo - than might have been extended to In extreme cases this loss of pur - tees even taking the trend overseas. drug-abusing youngsters. pose seems to have led to drug tak - Last year, police were called to im - “This group of Wenzhou damas ing (although the Wenzhou party promptu displays in Red Square in has nothing to do at home all day,” crew was much wealthier than aver - Moscow and Brooklyn in New York, Tencent News explained. “They age, which may have encouraged for instance, while Parisians were don’t get up until the afternoon, and their experimentation). perplexed by a pop-up performance then they pass their time taking More common is for damas to outside the Louvre. drugs to have fun.” gravitate towards square dancing. Back at home the media has re - Dama translates as “big mama” WiC has mentioned these dance dis - ported on heated arguments be - in Chinese and generally refers to plays before (in one case a routine tween damas and local residents, married women between the ages that celebrated China’s military vic - who sometimes regard the dancing of 40 and 60, usually from the mid - tory over the Japanese; see WiC245). as noisy and disruptive. dle class. The term gained popular - They also seem to have a therapeutic In one case in 2013 a man fired a ity about two years ago when the fi - value for many of the older women. shotgun over dancers’ heads in Bei - nancial writer Song Hongbing “Essentially, square dancing is a way jing before letting three large dogs dramatised damas as routing Wall of venting some of their frustrations. off their leashes in an attempt to Street after buying up large quanti - It combines social expression, exer - scare off the boppers. ties of gold after a price dip. Later cise and recreation into one. And it Hence the interest last month that year they made headlines again lets the damas find a sense of be - when the government published for herd-like investment in Bitcoin, longing,” Tencent News says. proposals aimed at streamlining the digital currency (see WiC218). The People’s Daily gives an ex - square dancing into standardised No longer young, many damas ample of a typical dancer, a 57 routines, with the rollout of national are still active. Most have left for - year-old from Beijing who training over the next five months. mal employment, with the female planned to spend her retirement “Square dancing represents the retirement age (of 55) five years taking care of a grandchild, but collective aspect of Chinese culture, ahead of men. In the past, some re - who is waiting for her daughter- but it seems that the over-enthusi - tirees took on a monitoring role in in-law to give birth. To fill her asm of participants has dealt it a local communities, reporting ab - time, the woman started to play harmful blow with disputes over normal activity to the police. Known mahjong all day. This was no good noise and venues. So we have to colloquially as the “small feet pa - for her health and she got de - guide it with national standards and trol”, they have since been replaced pressed. It wasn’t until she started regulations,” advised Liu Guoyong,

Friendly rivalry

“If the world’s multilateral banks, including the new ones, can form alliances, work together and support development, we all benefit – especially the poorest and most vulnerable” P h * o t

o World Bank head Kim Jim-yong shows support for China’s new Asian Infrastructure

S o u

r Investment Bank (see WiC275); a move the Financial Times describes as marking “a split c e :

R with the US president Barack Obama”. Kim is due to meet China’s finance minister Lou e Kim Jim-yong u t e

r Jiwei next week and said he plans to find innovative ways to work with the AIIB. s

15 Week in China Society and Culture 10 April 2015

the chief of the mass fitness depart - regulators want to turn square thorities haven’t done more to ment at the General Administration dances into loyalty dancing. It move millions of the older women of Sport (GAS). sounds more and more similar to off the streets. The new routines are based on the Cultural Revolution,” one com - “There’s no need to regulate “scientific design and public health plained. “The government just dance steps as they are just a form considerations,” Liu explained, not - wants to show its muscle,” another of recreation. But what needs to be ing that an expert panel of instruc - scoffed. “Next up, the Health and taken seriously is how to provide tors had been part of the prepara - Family Planning Commission will elderly people with proper facilities tions for the changes. be giving us a guide on how to to work out without disturbing oth - “The unified drills will help keep make love.” ers,” one weibo user insisted. the dancing on the right track where Stung by the reaction, sports of - Among the damas themselves it can be performed in a socially re - ficials pointed out that the recom - the response to the campaign was sponsible way,” argues Wang mendations aren’t mandatory. mixed. “I will never learn those rou - Guangcheng, the specialist tasked “Asking all square dancing groups tines, they are like the mechanical with preparing 600 instructors to to follow only one standard is def - morning exercises that students do provide training in the 12 routines initely impossible, and we never in the schools, and not elegant danc - that make up the new programme. meant to do that,” the dance unit ing,” one greying diva vowed to the Wang claims that dancers are go - clarified. Global Times. But other dancers ing to be better protected with the Domestic media is also reporting seemed to like the proposals, espe - new choreography than currently. that no details for the standards cially if they mean getting profes - “Repeated squats, for instance, will have been set, like recommended sional instruction for free. “I’m an injure peoples’ knees,” he warns. volumes for music, or the places and organiser of square dances and me But plenty of netizens greeted times at which dancing is allowed. and all the other old people I know news of the routines with disdain, Ironically, this is just what many support the idea of the new stan - seeing them as further evidence of of the dance critics have wanted, dards,” a delighted dama wrote on meddling by the nanny state. “The and there is frustration that the au - her weibo. n

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16 Week in China And Finally 10 April 2015

Time to take the bus Officials struggle with the driving test, after ban on chauffeurs

arge numbers of Chinese offi - Ou says he will sue the police for de - Lcials have suffered the ig - faming him, after officers released nominy of being stripped of their his name to the media when they government cars. And now they are found him with a young woman in suffering the shame of being ex - a hotel room in Hunan’s capital posed as woeful drivers too. Changsha. Ou claims that he trav - The double whammy is the un - elled to the city to meet a man sur - intended result of Xi Jinping’s anti- named Chen who had expressed extravagance campaign, which has support for his work. The two had tried to ban all officials below vice- dinner and drinks in a karaoke bar ministerial level from using state- and then Ou went back to his hotel. funded cars and chauffeurs. Later, one of the girls from the bar, Many of those abiding by the new came to his room and initiated sex. rules are having to go to driving Minutes later the police burst in, school for the first time in their lives taking photos. – and the results, it seems, aren’t Ou claims the whole operation pretty. Much missed by many officials was a sting as the police had video Take Ms Zhang, a 52 year-old bu - footage of what happened inside the reaucrat from Changchun in Jilin Newspaper commentaries say room – which they threatened to re - province, who was long accus - that there are now so many middle- lease – and because they later gave tomed to being ferried around in a aged officials figuring out how to the tape of his police interview to a government vehicle. From this drive for the first time that they are local TV station. The 62 year-old de - spring she has found herself with clogging up the training system. nies having sex with the woman, only a small stipend to pay for work Few of them are good students, it partly because there was no time travel. Her response was to buy a seems. Bureaucrats need to learn to and also because no money changed car and drive it around herself. The “behave like ordinary people again” hands – two rather important req - problem with the plan? She can’t before they will get their driving li - uisites for charging someone with pass her driving test. cences, one report suggested, with solicitation. A story from Xinhua reveals that more than a hint of satisfaction. “It was a deliberate action to Zhang has been through three driv - At least the afore-mentioned of - blacken my name,” the indignant ing instructors and sat the exam 10 ficials are trying to embrace the new campaigner told The Paper.cn. times – all to no avail. rules. In other parts of the country, If that really was the aim, the “Every time I fail I get more irri - bureaucrats seem ready to resort to move seems to have backfired. Most tated,” she was quoted as saying. underhand tactics to hold on to netizens seem to think Ou is inno - Then there is the case of the 56 their drivers and their cars. cent. And even if he isn’t, few are too year-old bureaucrat, also from Ou Shaokun, an anti-graft cam - bothered by his transgression. Changchun. His seniority at work paigner, has been posting images of “I don’t care if he hired a prosti - appears to have rendered him inca - officials flouting the car ban or us - tute, I care that he is the victim of an pable of taking any form of instruc - ing state vehicles for their personal abuse of power,” one wrote. tion. “In the office everyone listens activities. But in his case this has “Even if he hired a prostitute, it’s P h o t

o to him so he has a lot of ideas of his proved a dangerous activity. He not a big deal. Shame on you [offi -

S o u r own when learning to drive. He only claims to have been framed by an - cials]! Don’t you know it is the usage c e :

R e wants to drive his way,” his instruc - gered officials, who detained him of public cars for private business u t e r s tor, Song Bo, complained to Xinhua. last month for hiring a prostitute. that we hate,” raged another. n 17 Week in China The Back Page 10 April 2015

Photo of the Week In Numbers Rmb78.08 The share price of Lens Technology, Apple’s touch-screen glass supplier, on March 31 in Shenzhen. At that level, it turns company CEO Zhou Qunfei into China’s richest woman. She holds 592 million shares in Lens, valued at $7.4 billion, surpassing the $7.1 billion fortune of property investor Chan Laiwa (for more on Zhou see WiC274).

P 10 h o t o

The number of container megaships that S o u r

c shipping and port giant China Cosco is set e :

e to order. The so-called Triple-E vessels, u t e r s which can move 19,000 containers each,

will be ordered from a Chinese yard and Children of the revolution: primary students in Red Army gear visit a will cost about $1.4 billion in total. Martyrs’ Cemetery ahead of last week’s Tomb Sweeping Festival $14.7 million The amount paid at Sotheby’s for a Song Dynasty vase in Hong Kong, one of the Where is it? highest prices ever paid at auction for a Some of the places referred to in this issue Changchun Jilin ceramic from that period. Sotheby’s said the buyer was Shanghai-based collector Liu Yiqian, who paid a record price at Beijing auction last year for a Ming Dynasty bowl Shandong known as the “chicken cup”. China 100 Shanghai The number of restaurants that burger

Chongqing Wenzhou chain Johnny Rockets plans to open in Changsha China. “There is a strong demand in China Hunan Fujian Guizhou for American brands as well as a growing Guangzhou Dongguan middle class population with more Shenzhen Hong Kong Macau spending power,” said Scott Chorna, senior vice president at the chain. Hainan

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