China Daily has those quotes. Oh yes, some are at times strikingly honest, others like the one of Zong Qinghou are, the least to say, weird and puzzling; looks like he is inventing a new brand of communism. So, all his wealth belongs to the laobaixing? You bet.
Quotable – China Daily 28 September 2012
“Whoever governs autocratically and arbitrarily is walking toward a dead end. We must take note.”
Wang Yang, Party chief of Guangdong province, told Guangdong officials at an annual training class on law and discipline. He said among punished government heads in the province, 80% made decisions autocratically and arbitrarily.
Quotable – China Daily 16 August 2013
“There is no need for the public to hate rich people. The wealth of the rich deserves respect from society. All the wealth created in China belongs to the country.”
Zong Qinghou, chairman of China’s biggest beverage producer, Hangzhou Wahaha Group, quoted by the magazine China Philanthropist. Zong, ranked the country’s richest man with a net worth of $11.6 billion (8.7 billion euros), criticized the idea of helping the poor by robbing the rich. Doing that would provoke an exodus of wealthy people from the country, creating a loss of state assets, he said.

In the difficult times we go through in China, not to say particularly in Beijing, reading the Weekly News Update of CER makes me feel a bit better. For sure 99% of the Chinese readers have no clue what they are talking about, which is a good thing for CER. Sarcasm (Western style) has never been a strong point here. So, here the latest one:
“Dreaming of Beijing’s blue skies”
It is possible to wonder whether any living human being has ever seen clear skies over Beijing. Maybe one person has, a 127-year old woman living in Xinjiang, although why she would have travelled so far East is up for debate. Blue skies are so rare in fact that they would likely replace Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall as the capital city’s biggest tourist attraction.
But soon we might become the first generation to witness this great miracle. This week central government officials issued a decree to curb pollution through the closure of dirty mills and factories and a reduction in coal-fired power. They envisage huge wind turbines on top of the Temple of Heaven and solar panels spread out across the gardens of the Summer Palace.
Skepticism about the success of such plans abounds. For a start, any reduction in industrial emissions will be more than offset once every single adult in China is driving a gas-guzzling SUV, one of the most popular models of cars in the world’s biggest auto market. Porsche certainly hopes so: The luxury German automaker forecasts strong growth in this sector.
Chinese nationals however are expected to vote with their feet on this one, and Thailand is positioning itself to capture as many of the rich ones as it can. Bangkok has said it will scrap import taxes on a range of luxury goods to encourage wealthy Asian visitors to swing by. From this it is not hard to imagine the country offering a luxury goods investor immigration scheme to turn weekend shoppers into permanent on-the-ground consumers.
While locals are plotting their escape route, foreigners are complaining bitterly about their inability to inhale the Chinese Smog, a Traditional Chinese Medicine updated for the 21st Century. Apparently a new visa law is causing delays in the visa application process . Still, there is one bright spot: Sources say the government might scrap burdensome mandatory health checks for new arrivals.
Note: as far as I understand, Chinese nationals no more need a visa for Thailand as from this month.

On 10 September 2013 I joined our client, Mr. Liu Jia (CEO of Jiamei Dental) to the French Embassy for the Dassault Falcon event.
Madame Sylvie Bermann, French Ambassador hosted the well-attend party on the embassy grounds. I admit the embassy building is indeed a great place for a party. Security checks were not much of a hassle (in some embassies, not that smooth…).
|It was good to connect with the aircraft company, finding out a former colleague is now working there.

On Monday 9 September 2013 our friend Barry invited us for the signing ceremony of a venture he is involved in: a Finnish company ROVIO signing an agreement in China World Hotel with 123 Education for the cooperation on a chain of kindergartens (5 now in Beijing). Rovio, the company behind hit game Angry Birds, announced a new venture to condense Finnish educational success into a game product. The project was announced in Beijing, where company representatives were joined by Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen. See the PM arriving and giving his speech.
The Angry Birds Playground title will initially be used in schools in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, but is intended for worldwide export. It is based on the Finnish curriculum in maths, language, interaction, music, arts and crafts, and physical and social education. The program was developed in conjunction with Helsinki University.
The former Australian Ambassador to Beijing also attended the event

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