When I visited the 17 miles drive in Pebble beach of California, I was not only amazed by the scenery, but as a business reporter, I also remembered that was the place Zhang Enzhao, former chairman of China Construction Bank took millions of bribes. The economy engineer and top official in major Chinese banks, was caught and accused of accepting bribes in a civil law suit filed in 2004 in California, the United States .
And nowadays, another Chinese businessman Huang Guangyu is in trouble. Huang Guangyu used to be the wealthiest person in the country, according to Hurun’s Report on top 100 billionaires in China. He built up a fortune of $6.3bn (€5bn, £4.1bn) from the Gome electronics retail chain he founded.
Yet for the past week he has been missing. Gome suspended its shares on Monday as rumors of Mr Huang’s arrest swirled around the capital and company officials could not explain his whereabouts. Only late on Friday evening did the authorities give the first details about the case – a two-line statement saying Mr Huang was suspected of manipulating the share price of two small companies with links to Gome.
The mystery of his disappearance does not reflect well on the rule of law in a country that has promoted market reforms for 30 years but where political connections and personal feuds still often trump legal due process. It has also exposed the complex attitude to wealth and business in modern China where the new rich are lionised for their dynamism but are also considered suspect at a time when social inequality is widening.
The updated news is that the Chinese authorities confirmed last night Huang was suspected of manipulating the share prices of two small companies. Born in a small rice-farming village near Shantou, Huang was a typical example among the richest in China of overnight fortunes abound. However, when the economy downturn raised the social unrest and anger to billionaires in China, the Communist Party has to find out some scapegoats.
Gome’s rivals, such as Suning and Yongle electronics retail chains, would be happy to see the crisis in Gome. But some analysts believed that Gome’s executives can calmly settle down the founder’s crisis and make it stock trading back to Hongkong Stock market.
When a close friend working in Silicon Valley as senior manager was fired last month, I asked him if he had interests to go back to China. Then we began to talk about the career opportunities and culture difference between the U.S. and China. Our conclusion was that we were always outsiders, no matter how hard we tried to fit in. But he still wanted to pursue his career dream in the high-tech center of the world.
I’ve heard from other friends in China, since the financial crisis hit the New York and Wall Street so hard that lots of senior traders, brokers, and managers were fired. Some lost their jobs only because they were Chinese. So Chinese financial institutions came to the U.S. to recruit high-level managers and talents.
Financial Times reported:
The Shanghai Financial Service Office has told state media the city is sending a delegation to New York, Chicago and London to recruit specialists in risk management, asset management, product research and development, macroeconomics and policy analysis.
The head of human resources at the office said at least 27 financial institutions in Shanghai, China’s commercial and financial hub, had listed more than 170 vacancies for foreigners.
China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign wealth fund has begun their global recruitment since the beginning of this year. They even published advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, but no one knows if they have recruit appropriate talents yet.
Working in China, in the booming market or the financial industry, the companies need candidates can speak and write fluent Mandarin, sophisticated social skills, know the global financial system and China’s local regulations. Some extra capabilities would be good alcoholic drinking capacity, sensitivity of political risks and issues.
My previous employers were all multinational companies, which have rare experience on dealing with officials successfully. Companies, such as Proctor & Gamble was dragged into troubles or crisis easily. So while the whole world tries to find its way out of the global financial crisis, if you decided to go back to China, my friends, you need to figure your way out of dealing with the under-the-table rules.
Shortly before the financial crisis hit the whole world, Coco Kee decided to quit her job and set up her own company, doing financial consulting between China and the U.S. Kate Zhao has the story.
Daniell Rumore finished a 26 mile marathon running in New York today. This year is her fifth marathon race.
High technology creations helped her make the Marathon miracle in her life. She began her training in the summer of 2000, and she finished her first marathon in January 2001 at the Bermuda Marathon.
“My real job is a public relationship manager at Peppercom company,” Rumore said. A friend mentioned to her one day that charity foundations looked for people to participate in marathon and raise money to help children. Her friend recommended her to join in the marathon. “It’s a good way to meet people and stay healthy, and raise money for charity purpose.” She did the NYC Marathon four more times in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Rumore’s best friend in her training with Team In Training organization is Nike+ system and ChampionChip in her shoes. The Nike+ system is basically a small pedometer that goes in her shoe and wirelessly transmits data to her Apple iPod Touch. Once Rumore was back to her home or office, she can upload her jogging data to her computer, and send to her coach in Team in Training. The coach would analyze her data, such as calories, heartbeat, pace speed and jumping heights, then give her feedback. This is what is interesting about the story, the focus; she nevers goes running without this technology, and it helps her in several ways
“It’s more mental struggling than body,” Rumore said. However, from online communication with her coach and data tracking everyday from her “secret weapons,” Rumore insisted on running everyday and overcame her mental barriers in training and every year’s Marathon.
The NYC Marathon is not only a personal challenge, but also a city festival for participants, relatives and friends, tourists and other watchers. “Gone Mommy, Gone!” Ashley Thomas and Katelyn Thomas were waving pink poster board for her mother Debb Thomas at the central park destination.
“No matter how much long you have run, it’s a victory for yourself,” said Janarima Bruns from Brazil. She ran a half Marathon in 2004. She pointed to the runner and excitedly claimed: “Next year, I hope I were there running.” Bruns also used ChampionChip to. People don’t use the chip in jogging, in training; only in racing
ChampionChip is a miniature chip that the race organizers give no to each runner to ensure they go through all the checkpoints of the race. ChampionChip doesn’t provide any performance data in and of itself, but it sets up electronic monitoring stations on the course that listen for the chips going by. Then athletes wearing a ChampionChip can be timed every time in training and race worldwide. Runometer, a startup company based in San Francisco, created a website — www.runometer.com to take information from Nike+ system and let every participant track and plot that data on a map. The interactive ways of training and participation made running joyful, as well as encouraging.
“Sometimes, jogging is boring and painful, but when you finished, you’ve found you accomplished so much.” Rumore said. She was going back home with her little yellow ChampionChip. Now she has one more record data in her ChampionChip, the 2008 NYC Marathon race.
Within one month, from the bankruptcy Lehman Brothers, to Bank of America’s buyout of Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia’s sale to Wells Fargo, in New York City, the biggest issue ahead of the new president – Obama is the financial crisis.
Sub-prime mortgage crisis hit the U.S. economy severely last year with hundreds of houses foreclosed, and rising rate of unemployment in the real estate industry.
Since more and more people cannot pay the monthly mortgage, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae slumped into the bankruptcy edge. The government rescued the twin housing mortgage giants with $90 billion. Furthermore, Congress voted for a 700 billion bailout plan after its revision, which will plan to buy problematic financial assets, including loans, mortgage bonds, and other junk bonds in the market.
The Federal Reserve Bank cut interest rate twice to encourage lending. However, it has to cut the rate again to bring back confidence. The top executives of financial institutions, who intended to satisfy their greediness with a wealthy compensation package and walk away from the crisis, were under the scrutiny of F.B.I with charges of fraud. Some other managing workers and stock traders lost their jobs on Wall Street.
Since the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index fell more than 700 points, the biggest since the 9.11 terrorism attack, global investors and hedge funds oversea lost confidence on the U.S. Stocks. Millions of the U.S. citizens worried about their retirement plan on 401(K) investment.
The financial crisis affected European countries and even emerging markets in Asia, such as China, India, and Vietnam. Globalization made a New York regional crisis impact badly around the world. How much time we will spend to walk out of the economical recession is an unknown question to most of the economists, bankers, and worldwide residents. And it is the biggest challenge to the new president for his long and hard journey.
And nowadays, another Chinese businessman Huang Guangyu is in trouble. Huang Guangyu used to be the wealthiest person in the country, according to Hurun’s Report on top 100 billionaires in China. He built up a fortune of $6.3bn (€5bn, £4.1bn) from the Gome electronics retail chain he founded.
