Options when the government wants your land back – Mark Schaub

 

Mark Schaub

China sees mass development and urbanization at a breathtaking speed. Sometimes local governments want land back from foreign companies for this development. Veteran lawyer Mark Schaub looks at options and strategies when this happens at China chit-chat.

Mark Schaub:

Over the years I have worked on many projects where the authorities have sought to take back the land. This is not unsurprising as China’s rapid development and mass urbanization have led to residential blocks and commercial towers encroaching on industrial land. On a due diligence I was surprised that a cat food factory was built bang in the middle of a residential area. On quick reflection it was not that the cat food factory had moved – the residential area had surrounded. And so, as people often do behave “I am moving to live next to the cat factory because it is cheap and convenient”. Shortly after moving in it quickly becomes “Cat food factory smells – someone must make them leave”

Traditionally, relocations always totally stress out management – Can we get enough compensation? Will we become rich? Can we get a block of land nearby? Our business has an environmental impact – will anyone let us in? Will we be stuck next to that bloody cat food factory? Will the employees stay with the company after we move? How do we organize transport? How do we deal with business interruption?

More details at the China chit-chat.

Mark Schaub is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more strategy experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

How China's urbanites create new identities - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

China's big cities are developing a new city life, including new identities, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at the opening chapter of, Shanghai Sacred: The Religious Landscape of a Global City, by photographer and anthropologist Liz Hingley, quoted in a review of the photo exhibition in Liverpool at Creative Boom.

Creative Boom:

With around 26 million inhabitants, the megalopolis is home to a multitude of religions from Buddhism and Islam, to Christianity and Baha'ism, to Hinduism and Daoism and many other alternative faiths, which are constantly growing and evolving. 

In the book's introduction, Ian Johnson, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and specialist in Chinese religion, adds: "Freed from being defined by where they were born, China’s urbanites have created new identities, discovering for themselves what they truly believe with the aid of new technologies, social media and convergence of faiths and cultures. 

"Some of this religious life takes place in skyscrapers and apartment blocks, but also in the pockets of the past that still dot Shanghai: a traditional New Year’s dinner, the persistence of burning paper houses, cars, and money for the dead, or a rambunctious music group announcing a wedding, birth, or funeral. Faith in China may be vulnerable, yet its unwavering importance is beyond doubt. Its very presence in people’s hearts makes it impossible to eradicate. More than economics or politics, it is these moments that are the new heart of China."

More in Creative Boom.

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 stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

The folly of man-made cities – Sara Hsu

+Sara Hsu 

Officially sustainability is high on China´s political agenda. But mountain leveling and other unsustainable practices to facilitate building of new cities for the country´s new urbanites borders to craziness, writes urbanization expert Sara Hsu in the Diplomat.

Sara Hsu:

China’s ambitious urbanization plan can be positive for the nation’s economic development, but the planning process must consider environmental compatibility. To date, evidence has shown that this is a difficult task for China. To think that, even when attempting to be eco-friendly, with the construction of cities just for that purpose, local governments have ended up destroying protected places, makes one wary of just how well future endeavors will be carried out, especially when they are done rapidly... 

First, the eyebrow raiser: mountain leveling in Lanzhou. China is right now leveling 700 mountains in Lanzhou to expand cities, and digging out artificial lakes to make the area more attractive to new residents. Mountain leveling and landscape changing has also occurred in Chongqing, Shiyan, Yichang and Yan’an. New land is created to bring in additional revenues to the local government. However, this process has a huge impact on the environment, and has led to dust storms, air and water pollution, erosion, and landslides. In Shiyan, for example, flattening mountains has led to landslides and flooding, and water diversion from rivers into canals has resulted in significant soil erosion. Environmental assessments for these projects have not been carried out, and the construction of these new living areas has already resulted in extensive air pollution due to increased air particulates, especially since local governments have not followed environmental regulations while building up these localities. 

Second, the eco cities, an idea that was born in 2007. China has planned to build 200 eco-cities, with many already in the process of being constructed. Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, one hour outside of Tianjin, was opened in 2012 and is expected to be completed by 2020. Hebei’s Caofeidian was started but construction ceased, as investment flagged due to the city’s poor location and unclear development strategy.

More in the Diplomat.

Sara Hsu 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.

Sara Hsu is an expert on both China´s finance and urbanization. For an overview of her latest articles, check our list here. 

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Shanghainese rush for the exit as pollution increases - Wei Gu

+Wei Gu 

Leaving China was already high on the agenda of expats, but now also Chinese are considering leaving as Shanghai suffered from the worst pollution ever in the past week. WSJ wealth editor Wei Gu talks to sustainability specialist +Richard Brubaker, who expects pollution is going to be worse in the next 5-15 years.

 Urbanization, energy inefficiency and more cars and trucks on the roads push pollution levels up, and the question is whether Chinese will accept a lower economic growth, to fight pollution.

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.

 Richard Brubaker AllRoadsLeadtoChina and CEIBS discussed on January 24 in the +China Weekly Hangout to discuss the rampant pollution in China. Is it getting worse, and what can be done?
 Moderator: +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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Urbanization needs building spree - Andrew Leung

 Andrew Leung

China keeps on building like crazy, and there is good reason for that, Andrew Leung explains in his weblog. To deal with the rapid and unprecedented urbanization, cities need to expand at an feverish speed.

According to a recent McKinsey research report, China will be adding 350 million more urbanites by 2025, more than the existing population of the United States. The total urban population will reach 1 billion by 2030. There will be 221 cities with a population over one million, compared with 35 such cites in Europe today. In the process, 5 million square meters of roads will have been paved, 170 mass transit systems built, 40 billion square meters of floor space created in 5 million buildings, of which 50,000 will be skyscrapers, equivalent to 10 New York Cities (Preparing for China’s Urban Billion, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2009)....

As for the housing bubble, private mortgage lending in China is extremely conservative. You would be extremely lucky if you could manage to get a mortgage loan approaching 70%. Moreover, China’s banks are much better capitalized in comparison with their Western counterparts and most are supported by the state’s massive currency reserve.

China is decisively switching course with the latest 12^th Five Year Plan (2011-15), channeling the country towards higher-quality, if slower, growth, with more domestic consumption and a more balanced, equitable, innovative and sustainable economy.

More in Andrew Leung's weblog.

Andrew Leung is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Next 5-year plan: a leaner and greener economy - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

China's economy is going to be much leaner and greener, says Shaun Rein in CNBC, as the plans for the 12th five-year plan have been made in Beijing over the weekend. Green technology is already getting much financial support.
Economic growth might be more moderate, but no lower than 7 percent, Rein says. And the next two decades will see another 400 million Chinese citizens moving to cities, as the drive for urbanization continues and all hands are needed in the cities to face the upcoming aging problem.

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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