Zhejiang: the new hot spot for billionaires - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

Zhejiang province, with its capital Hangzhou, have developed into a preferred destination for billionaires, says Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun China rich list. Zhejiang not only passed domestic cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but also Paris and San Francisco in the 2018 Hurun report, writes the Digital Journal.

The Digital Journal:

Explaining the winning formula of the province to CNNMoney in 2016, Jack Ma, billionaire CEO of leading online platform e-commerce platform, Alibaba, and native of Hangzhou in Zhejiang, had attributed the economic achievements of the province to “It's... surroundings, culture, (and) history". 

Today, such environment, culture, and history cited have seen the region produce 72 billionaires, 32 of which live in the capital city of Hangzhou - that's two more than Paris and four more than California's San Francisco. Notable among the 72 billionaires from the region are Neil Shen, founder of Sequoia Capital China; Ding Lei, founder of NetEase; and Li Shufu, founder of Geely Auto Group, which owns Volvo and is based in Hangzhou. With a population that makes up just about 5% of China's population, the region produces about 15% of the country's richest people, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman, Hurun Report. 

But that's not all. Beyond the individual billionaire count, Zhejiang's overall economic stats are equally mouth-watering. With a staggering GDP of 5.1768 trillion RMB which is 766.7 billion USD for the year 2017 (bigger than the GDP of Netherlands in 2016!), the Province of Zhejiang has become a glowing haven of wealth creation.

More in the Digital Journal.

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Honouring Zhejiang entrepreneur Lu Guanqiu - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hooogewerf

The iconic Zhejiang entrepreneur Lu Guanqiu, founder of China's largest automotive parts company Wanxiang Group, passed away last week, 72 years old. Hurun China rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf remembers him as "industrious, down-to-earth and low-profile" , he tells in Asia One.

Asia One:

His success in managing Wanxiang helped Lu rise high in the nation's rich list. Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher of Hurun Rich List, rated Lu as "evergreen" on the list. In the 2017 Hurun Rich List, Lu and his family ranked No 37, with a net wealth of 49 billion yuan (S$10 billion). 

"Lu is the first name that popped into my mind when asked about a model of Zhejiang entrepreneurs, although his wealth has been overtaken by Zong Qinghou from Wahaha and Jack Ma from Alibaba," Hoogewerf said. 

"He is industrious, down-to-earth and low-profile. He was the first private company owner who could make his wealth transparent to the public," he added. 

Wanxiang was founded in 1969 with 4,000 yuan by Lu and six other local farmers in rural Zhejiang as a maintenance depot for farm machinery. It began focusing on producing universal joints in 1980, which is a key component in automobiles' driving systems.

More in Asia One.

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My picks for religious developments - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Journalist Ian Johnson provides in The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao an unprecedented view on how religion has been developing in China over de past years. In an interview with the author for the LA Review of Books Ting Guo argues Johnson did miss important developments. Ian Johnson disagrees.

LA Review of Books:

You provide readers with a religious landscape of China, taking them by turns to different regions. But some important places are missing from your map. As a Southerner, for instance, I felt that Jiangnan — a region with major cosmopolitan cities like Shanghai and home to Zhejiang province, a place that has seen a religious boom — was skipped over. 

I don’t exactly agree. I specifically put in a large section on Jiangnan. The Master Nan chapter is set there, as are key parts of the chapters on internal cultivation. But I take your point — there isn’t much on areas like Fujian or Guangzhou, which have important and vibrant religious traditions. I was faced with a quandary: a book about a huge country has to be selective in order to be coherent. A survey of China would be a different kind of book. 

Any book involves a series of choices and this was no different. When it comes to books about religion in China, many people in the West would expect to see chapters on Tibet and Xinjiang, but I focus on Han Chinese. This explains why I don’t include deal with Islam, despite a strong interest in that religion that shows through in my other writings, from a previous book, A Mosque in Munich, to interviews I’ve published with scholars working on Chinese Muslims, such as Matthew Erie, and pieces I’ve done on recent books about Xinjiang. I also selected aspects of religions that I thought were more indicative of China’s future development. So I don’t write too much about Wenzhou and “boss Christians,” who are successful business people with large churches, because I think they are specific to a region and a model that is dying out.

More in the LA Review of Books.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

In March he won the prestigous Shorenstein Journalism Award. Are you looking for more stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

Repressing religion in China is not the big picture - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

The forceful removal of crosses at churches and the arrest of Christians have hit of Western media regularly. But that is not the big picture, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at CNN. Those government actions are mainly symbolic, he says.

CNN:

Hundreds of Christians have also been detained or arrested attempting to resist those demolitions, ChinaAid said. 

As the larger of the Christian denominations in China, Freedom House said Protestants had been “particularly affected by cross-removal and church-demolition campaigns, punishment of state-sanctioned leaders, and the arrest of human rights lawyers who take up Christians’ cases.” 

However, Ian Johnson, author of new book “The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao,” said the focus on the cross removal misses the big picture. 

“I’d say that the most important point is that virtually none of these churches have been closed,” he said in a piece for CNN Opinion. 

“All continue to have worshipers and services just like before. In addition, the campaign never spread beyond the one province. Some pessimists see it as a precursor for a campaign that might spread nationally, but so far that hasn’t happened and there is no indication it will.”

More at CNN.

The full CNN opinion piece is here.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list. Ian Johnson will be on a book tour in the US and China in April and May. Check here for the details.

Why Christianity grows fast in China - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

The Christian faith in China, sometimes illegally, sometimes condoned by the government, is growing fast, faster than other religions. Journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, explains in the Spectator why.

The Spectator:

Many Chinese converts do not want their faith to be controlled by the government — and so they join covert congregations like the one at Zion, which was founded in 2009. ‘For every one of the official churches, there’s at least another unregistered church,’ explains Ian Johnson, author of a new book on China’s religious revival, Lost Souls of China. ‘Many of those who attend “house” churches started by going to official churches and then branched out.’ The number of Christians is now estimated at around 60 to 70 million — much higher than official reports suggest. 

In Beijing, Christianity is permitted to thrive, as long as it does so quietly, but elsewhere in China there has been a crackdown. Last summer, in Zhejiang province — a region with a rich history of missionary activity — crosses were removed from the exteriors of more than 1,000 churches.... 

Christianity is growing fast within cities among the young and well-educated Chinese. ‘People don’t see a contradiction between modernity and Christianity,’ Ian Johnson says. ‘Particularly for many who are already westernised, or have studied abroad, Christianity may be more acceptable than Buddhism or Taoism.’

More in the Spectator.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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Zhejiang province: best in producing billionaires - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

"Highly collaborative and versatile." That is how Hurun rich list founder Rupert Hoogewerf describes the billionaires coming from Zhejiang province, China´s region that produces most billionaires than any other in China and the world. And it is not over yet, says Hoogewerf to CNN Money.

CNN Money:

Among the 72 billionaires from the Zhejiang region are Neil Shen, a venture capitalist and founder of Sequoia Capital China in Beijing; Ding Lei, founder of NetEase, also in Beijing; Frank Wang, founder and CEO of drone-maker DJI, based in Shenzhen; and Li Khufu, founder of Geely Auto Group, which owns Volvo and is based in Hangzhou. 

"Zhejiang province people are head and shoulders above other entrepreneurs in China," Hurun Report chairman Rupert Hoogewerf told CNNMoney. "They're highly collaborative and versatile." 

Even though people from Zhejiang make up about 5% of China's population, the region produces about 15% of the country's richest people, according to Hoogewerf. He also believes that Zhejiang will continue to produce more millionaires and billionaires, mainly because of (Jack) Ma. 

"Ma has worked with so many partners in China," Hoogewerf said, noting the billionaire's wide-ranging investments. Over the past six years, Alibaba has spent about $30 billion to $40 billion on over 100 investments and acquisitions. 

And Ant Financial, which was formerly called Alipay and spun off from Alibaba, will eventually have an IPO, likely making yet another billionaire in CEO Lucy Lei Peng, who Hurun estimates to be worth about $940 million. 

"Alibaba and Ant Financial have already created more people on our rich list than any other company in China," said Hoogewerf. "They're a great example of what cooperation can yield."

More in CNN Money.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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Bringing Christianity under control - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Mostly in Zhejiang province Chinese authorities have been trying to bring the 60 million Christians under state control, and took down between 1,200 and 1,700 crosses from churches, sometimes causing violent clashes. Journalist Ian Johnson investigated for the New York Times the current state of the government action.

Ian Johnson:

Several clergy members in the region said they were under pressure to demonstrate their loyalty to the Communist Party. Some churches, for example, have begun extolling Mr. Xi’s campaign to promote “core socialist values” — a slogan meant to offer a secular belief system that bolsters the party’s legitimacy. 

Other churches have begun displaying their building permits, implicitly endorsing the government’s authority to approve or reject church construction, including crosses.

“We have to show that we are loyal Christians,” said an employee of the historic Chengxi Church in Wenzhou, “or else we could face trouble.” 

In February, a prominent lawyer was shown on state television confessing to having colluded with foreign forces, especially American organizations, to stir up local Christians. The lawyer, Zhang Kai, had been in Zhejiang providing legal advice to churches that opposed the removal of their crosses. 

Unregistered churches appear vulnerable, too. In December, the police detained several members of the unregistered Living Stone church in southern China’s Guizhou Province after they refused to join a government-run Protestant church. The pastor was later arrested on charges of “divulging state secrets.” 

“It’s easy for them to fabricate a crime and accuse you,” said the pastor of a large unregistered church in Wenzhou. “We have to be very careful.”

Many worshipers in Shuitou are eager to keep their heads low, in hopes that the storm will blow over. 

One Sunday last month, about 300 people attended services at the Salvation Church, women sitting on the left side and men on the right — a reflection of traditional views toward worship. In the front of the church, above a big red cross, were six big characters that read: “Holiness to the Lord.” 

Most of the people there were in their 50s or 60s, in part because many of the younger worshipers were boycotting Sunday services to protest the church’s decision to comply with the government’s order to remove the cross. 

They have begun attending services on Thursdays instead, to mark the day of the week the cross came down. They used to participate in the church’s Bible study groups, but now study independently. Some wonder if they and others may stop worshiping in registered churches entirely and go underground. 

A senior church leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he and others had agreed to take down the cross because they feared the church would be demolished if they did not. People were on the verge of losing their jobs, he added, and church elders felt they had no choice but to call on parishioners to give in. 

“More than three decades ago, we didn’t even have a church,” he said. “Persecution in church history has never stopped. All we can do is pray.”

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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