Violence at Hong Kong protests needs to be condemned - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Business analyst Shaun Rein asks Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong to condemn the violence at the protest. That went obvious too far for Joshua Wong, we noted at a forum of The Economist.

Shaun Rein 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 to manage your China risk? Do check out this list.

Wealthy, tourists shun Hong Kong - Wei Gu

+Wei Gu 

Teargas and water canons did not deter Hong Kong protesters, but the rising tension do chase away wealthy Chinese and the much-needed tourists to the island state, writes WSJ wealth editor Wei Gu in the Wall Street Journal. A quarter of luxury property in Hong Kong is bought by mainland Chinese.

Wei Gu:

Although comprehensive data is hard to come by, Chinese investors already had begun selling this year amid a liquidity crunch in China, property agents say. The current troubles could intensify this selling, some agents fear, and that could have an impact on prices. Chinese buyers account for a quarter of new luxury home sales, according to Centaline Properties. 

The protests could peter out and Chinese are likely to continue to invest—and shop—in the city given its proximity to the mainland, but property agents and wealth managers also say the recent China-fueled boom in prices and growth may be a thing of the past. 

Rich Chinese fear pro-democracy protests may force Beijing to tighten its grip on Hong Kong, making it a less safe place to park wealth offshore. Wealth managers said Singapore, another popular offshore wealth center for the Chinese, will likely view the pro-democracy protests as an opportunity to grab business from Hong Kong. 

Late Friday, tension between pro-democracy protests and those who oppose the demonstrations simmered in the Mongkok area of Hong Kong. Protesters continued to block the entrance to the chief executive’s office, and some bank branches and luxury shops were forced to close. 

The disturbances also will exact a toll on Hong Kong’s retail sector, which relies on demand from mainland visitors.

More in the Wall Street Journal.

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

Are you interested in more experts on luxury goods at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out our recently updated list. 

Related articles

• Where are China´s tourists turning to? - Wei Gu
• Will Hong Kong's luxury district get pinched by protests?
• Globe in Hong Kong: Mainland Chinese don't know - or care - about push for democracy
• In China, Shrugs and Sneers for Hong Kong Protesters | BY DAVID WERTIME | OCTOBER 2, 2014
• Hong Kong's protests don't impress mainland Chinese visitors
• Hong Kong: Chinese Tourists Getting More Than They Bargained for During Golden Week

Chongqing organizes itself a mass incident

A small BBQ-stall owner, beaten up by local authorities, ignited a massive riot and a burning government car in Chongqing op September 4, reports Global Voices. Despite effort to surpress the news, the internet got hold of it.

Beijing Olympics has its own nail house

You might still remember those nail houses in Chongqing, Shenzhen and Shanghai? Angry house owners did not want to leave for the bulldozers. Well, Beijing has its own and today it made it to the International Herald Tribune.
Sun Ruoyu is fighting to retain a 1840 bakery that is unfortunately on the route of the marathon of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. They can make a detour, can't they?

Grandma fights back

Global Voices looks at another massive incident where a Chinese citizens - at least initially - fought back efforts to destroy here house. The 90-year old grandma Zhang in Shenzhou, Zhejiang province was at a certain moment even defended by a crowd of 20,000, attacked by police in defending her nailhouse.

It is unclear what the status of the conflict is right now.

Workers unite against Danone

Ok, not time to go really deep into the Wahaha-Danone argument, apart from this picture showing workers who support Wahaha against Danone. A nice example of "social unrest" of a special case.
As you might have noticed by now, the question who is right or who is wrong is increasingly irrelevant. The question is "who get's it right?" It is not Danone yet, and we might have seen that coming.

SEPA critical on Xiamen PX-project

In a new environmental assessment of the city of Xiamen, the plans for a new chemical plant might have to be reconsidered, the State Administration of Environmental Protection (SEPA) announced on Thursday, writes AP.
The now suspended so-called PX-project was the reason of a major protest on June 1.
While the new assessment by SEPA was asked by the embattled municipal authorities, mayor Li Cigui told reporters on Friday the protest has been "inappropriate". He suggested action might be taken against the organizers, according to Reuters:

"There are some people who have taken advantage of the people's attention to environmental issues, attention to this project, and taken inappropriate and even illegal actions," Liu told a small group of reporters in Hong Kong.

Eradicating Tiananmen too effective

An interesting twist in the efforts by the Chinese censors to eradicate the bloodshed at June 4 1989 in Beijing from everybody's memory (at least in China then). ESWN translates (h/t Danwei) a report about an incident where a rather young editor of the Chengdu Evening News allowed an ad into the paper remembering the incident. "Salute to the strong mothers of June 4th victims!", the ad said.
The editor, who had no clue about the crackdown on June 4, 1989 was told that the text referred to an accident that happened in the past. It show how effective censorship can be.
Below a few books to improve your knowledge, that is, if the link is not blocked in China.

Update: The editors involved in this incident have been fired, reports Reuters.

Minutes from the Xiamen march

The yellow ribbon has become the symbol of the protest against the expansion of the chemical industry in Xiamen and yesterdays march has been remarkable for many reasons. Up to 20,000 people marched in a reasonable peaceful demonstration, asking for the local party secretary to resign. And then went home.
The march has been organized through mobile phones and the internet, by using up to a million SMS-messages to mobilize people. China Mobile must love those protesters, until of course the government ordered China Mobile to switch off they systems, reports John Kennedy on Global Voices. His minute to minute account of the demonstration shows how the local blackout of local media to report on the march gives the internet a free ride.

09：02：05　　群众推进了5米。　　现人群聚集在市府门口右侧十米处，警察三道人墙，僵持中。
The crowd has pushed forward five meters. The crowd is gathered about ten meters to the right of the city gov’t gates, police are lined up three rows deep, refusing to budge.

Xiamen demonstration in full swing

Danwei summerizes the reports on the internet on the massive demonstration in Xiamen against the expansion of the chemical industry. Citizen reporter Zuola is sending pictures from the scene.

The local government has already been suspending the expension as the protest, for a large part online and through SMS's took shake. A nice example of growing citizen's activism.

Update: According to Reuters up to 20,000 people have joined the demonstration, mainly mobilized by SMS-messages

prompting the government to block mobile phone text messages to stop residents from joining the demonstrations.

Beijing real estate dispute turns nasty

It is still a long way to a really harmonious society. Billsdue reports on a real estate dispute in Beijing that really turned nasty as the real estate developer last night hired some thugs to beat up residents.

Update: More media reports and pictures at Danwei.

Family planning triggers disturbance in Guangxi

burning government offices at Bobai

ESWN translates reports about massive disturbances triggered off by rigid family policies in Guangxi province. In Bobai county, fights between local people and local governments have been reported in ten towns. Local family planning officials were told by officials higher in the command chain they had not done enough to maintain the family planning regulations.

Some reports, denied by the local government, spoke about five casualities. Rumors on larger scale demonstrations are also going around.

Since the beginning of this month, there has been continuous clashes in Bobai county. The biggest disturbance occurred at 11:40am on May 19. In Shabo town (Bobai county), a large number of citizens went to demonstrate at the Shabo town government office building to protest the brutal law enforcement. The officials had allegedly been apply the "Three Alls Policy 三光政策" (arrest everyone, fine everything, confiscate everything 抓光﹑罰光﹑抄光) to those citizens who violated the family planning strictures (note: the original Three Alls Policy is the Japanese scorched earth policy of 'kill all, loot all, burn all' during the WWII).

Three shot dead at Dalian police station

pictures taken after the shooting

At the police office of the Xiongyyecheng town in Dalian Railroad Department three citizens have been shot to dead by police officer named Su Kai on April 26. The local authorities are trying to suppress the news, writes ESWN in a translation of Observechina.

The three citizens were in the police station to ask for compensation. The circumstances have not been clarified yet.

Hu Jintao beats Bush in Time top-100

Liu Qi next to IOC-president Rogge

Time magazine published its list of the top-100 most influential people and again I had to struggle through a list of people I have often never heard off. (Here is the list, here the link to Time.)

US president Bush has lost his position, while his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao still goes strong. Beijing Party Secretary Liu Qi made it and that seems closely connected to his efforts to get the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in place. Liu doubles also as the chairman of the Beijing Olympic Committee.
Of course Time had also to include one of the modern Chinese power brokers with weblogger Zeng Jinya, the wife of dissident Hu Jia, to keep the list nicely balanced.

Comparing the Hong Kong and Macau media

Simon World picks up the discussion on the May day riots in Macao and how the media have covered that event. A nice summery in a quote from Ivan Choy Chi-keung of the Chinese University:

"The big newspapers in Hong Kong are kind of anti-government - cynical about the government," he said. "The two biggest Macau newspapers, the Macau Daily News and Jornal Va Kio, are owned by pro-China people and in sympathy with the government."

Shooting at Macao labor rally

ESWN translates different accounts of the violent incidents at a labor rally yesterday in Macao. One police officer drew his handgun and shot into the air, according to one account with blank bullets, according to another with real.
Just wonder why armed police officers would walk around with blank bullets in their handgun anyway. From the pictures at ESWN it looked like the police did not expect violence and were only dressed lightly.

The power of a blog: the nail house revisited

A 26-year old vegetable seller from Hunan province, Zhou Shugang, used his weblog last month to tell the story about the Chongqing nailhouse, a story he covered in person, after the traditional media were banned from writing about it.

Now the weblog has only gained in popularity, writes the South China Morning Post, in a follow-up story.

Homeowners across the country flocked to the site in hopes of attracting attention to similar causes, among them 45-year-old Shanghai resident Chen Jialiang, whose house was flattened in his absence last year.
Mr Chen's trip to Chongqing did not yield him any mainstream media headlines, but he did secure a lengthy report with pictures on Mr Zhou's blog for himself and 12 other households in his district. Mr Chen said the exposure might lead to a breakthrough in his dispute with the developer.
"I'm very grateful to Zhou Shuguang for putting forward the case about our houses. Our problems would have been solved long ago if we had got the same attention that the Chongqing couple did."

Car producer Brilliance accused

One guy in a suit at the Shanghai Auto Show is not enough to create a mass incident, as the China Car Times suggests. Unless you can of course add the journalists and security people who jumped on the guy.

The text accuses car marker Brilliance of cheating and expresses the hope the government can do something about it. China Car Times could not really find out what the problem was. The traditional media did not mention the incident yet, so perhaps tomorrow we will have to check additional sources.

The Shanghai Nailhouses

The Crash Test Dummy Video Blog went on his bike to investigate the state of two Shanghai-based nail houses after the upheaval about the Chongqing one. The second one was gone.

Rule of law moving ahead

China Law Blog points at this story in Asia Times that illustrates the way how the Chinese government is pushing ahead the "rule of law".

In December 2003, farmers in Changting village in Fenghua city of Zhejiang province were told that all of the village's 180 hectares of land would be requisitioned for construction, and they should approach the village committee for compensation as soon as possible.

One villager Zhang Zhaoling decides to push the issue ahead, and with success. Massive media interest indicates that the central government is supporting the case. A typical Chinese way of pushing ahead with changes.