From Beijing, an unfiltered view on business and economy.
As mentioned earlier, I was interviewed by the Belgian VRT at the occasion of the visit of our Belgian PM Charles Michel. See here the clip.
I finally managed to get the full segment, thanks to the help of VRT. The language is Dutch.
This is the direct link:
http://m.deredactie.be/#!/snippet/5817391ac9976f06001c35dd
I also uploaded the clip on Youtube (needs VPN in China): https://youtu.be/mXMiG4hEFTY
Or see here:
On the occasion of the official visit to the People’s Republic of China by Prime Minister Charles Michel and to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Belgium, Michel Malherbe, Ambassador of Belgium and Wu Xiaohui, Chairman of Anbang Insurance Group jointly organized the China-Belgium Economic Forum on Monday 31 October at the Anbang Group Head Office in Beijing.
The Anbang buildings are state of the art and impressive. It was a great setting for a Forum that we can say was very successful.
There was a VIP line-up of speakers:
The speeches were followed by a panel discussion, with among others representatives of Huawei and Anbang.
To conclude there was a lively Q&A with PM Michel.
Pictured are, among others, our ambassador Michel Malherbe, Paul Lambert (Consul General Shanghai), Eddy De Cuyper (Counsellor, Customs Attaché at the embassy), and others.
We saw some pretty cool videos about Belgium, I checked and all are available on this Belgian website, an excellent overview of our country with well-done short videos:
http://focusonbelgium.be/en
See for example the video of Gent (Ghent), my hometown:
(you need VPN for the direct link, Https://vimeo.com/151404508)
The presentations by the Belgian side were very informative, giving a clear introduction to our country as well as indicating all the advantages of investing and operating there, such as also tax incentives.
As mentioned by China Daily, see:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-11/01/content_27235357.htm
Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd unveiled a three-year loan program that will offer a total of 10 billion euros ($10.97 billion) to help Chinese startups and smaller companies to do business in Europe. The plan was announced by Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui at the China-Belgium Economic Forum in Beijing. The loan will be extended through Anbang’s banking subsidiary Bank Nagelmackers in Belgium.
The loan program is part of Anbang’s response to a Chinese government call for greater support for local small business, which have faced growing difficulties in gaining access to capital amid the economic slowdown.
The previous day I was interviewed by VRT (Stefan Blommaert), near the Belgian Embassy along the Liangma River. See the pics of the interview in the previous post.
Pictured are several screenshots of the VRT TV News, the last group of pictures.
Overall the visit of our Belgian PM received wide media coverage in the Chinese media.
On the occasion of the official visit of H.E. Mr. Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium, to celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations between China and Belgium, H.E. Mr. Michel Malherbe, Ambassador of Belgium, invited the community to a Garden Party at his Residence on Sunday 30 October 2016 in the afternoon.
Before the Garden Party I was interviewed by Stefan Blommaert (Belgian VRT) along Liangma River, close to the embassy.
There was a large crowd to welcome the PM, some 500+ braving the chilly weather. Food by TRB.
Also attended: the ambassadors of the EU Delegation, Luxembourg, Russia and others. Also, the President of the EU Chamber, Joerg Wuttke.
Our PM cordially mingled with the guests to chat.
I also met several of the staff of Anbang Brussels who were happy to finally meet the father of a certain Valerie…
See pictured also Renaat and Susan Morel, Stella Chang (soprano), Sus van Elzen (Belgian writer and journalist) and other friends.
AustCham organized a joint chamber event on China’s New Foreign NGO Law – “Everything that Corporate Foundations, CSR Departments and NGOs Need to Know”. It was co-hosted by AustCham Beijing, the British Chamber and the French Chamber.
Speakers were Wang Liwei, CEO China Development Foundation; Clare Pearson, International Development Director, Asia, DLA Piper (and Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China); Josh Freedman, Social Policy Research Manager, China Policy.
It was followed by Q&A.
I took place in the AustCham Beijing offices (U-Town Office Building).
That event was one of the first to point at the myriad of problems and questions raised by the new law that will take effect on 1 January 2017.
Being deeply involved in the Rotary operations in China I have been following very closely the whole story of that law as well as for the new China Charity Law (took effect on 1 September 2016). There is too much to be said to report here. My point is that many NGOs still underestimate the impact it will have on their operations, forcing many to close.
Contrary to what many think, we are not here worried about NGOs that operate in sensitive areas such as politics, religion, human rights, democracy and so on, being in a covert way or none.
The concern is for NGOs that do a lot of charity, are involved in improving the lives of many Chinese and alike. Many of those will have to close down operations as it looks like.
I am still pretty concerned on what will happen. It is at any rate one more sign of China closing its doors, never mind the naïve who don’t see it or simply don’t understand what is at stake. China very much follows Russia for this matter.
How will Rotary survive this in China? It might be classified as a “Social Organization”, an entity to be under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and being managed with its own law. The Foreign NGO Law appoints the Public Security organs as the supervisory party. Good luck with that.
See also this telling commentary from the SCMP:
22 August 2016 – “China tightens grip over social groups through greater Communist Party presence”
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2007359/china-tightens-grip-over-social-groups-through-greater
On 24 October I had an evening lecture at The Yenching Academy, Peking University (“Beida”). The theme was lobbying in China. Duration: well over two hours including the Q&A.
This was the second one, see earlier post with the details of the Academy:
“Biking and Chinese cultural conflict”
https://blog.strategy4china.com/2016/09/biking-and-chinese-cultural-conflict/
In the first lecture all students were Chinese; this time all were basically foreigners
Well, the first questions should be: is it legal? What do we understand with lobbying?
After clarifying that and giving a quick overview on the tremendous changes China saw over the past 35 years, I moved to the core of the lecture. I give two real lobbying examples: the “Athletes Alley”, the huge sculpture of the artist Olivier Strebelle; the re-launching of metro projects in China through the contract for Shanghai Metro Line 3.
Both are two projects I handled personally. Both are of the type what I call “Mission Impossible”.
A lively debate followed where I explained also how one can overcome a new cultural obstacle, how to face challenging environments and the need to think out of the box.
Another issue I discussed is the other side of the medal: the difficulties working with the head office in Europe and the often murky situations one faces there.