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- South China Sea Dispute Spreads to San Francisco
- Photo: Dali Blue, by Michael Steverson
- Netizen Voices: Sign Brother Speaks Truth
- Gu Kailai Found Guilty of Heywood Killing
- Wang Lijun Awaits Trial, Fate
- The Daily Twit – 8/20/12: There Once Was a Woman Named Gu
- Internet Addiction: I Guess There’s No Pill for That Yet
- Wal-Mart, Yihaodian, and the Mystery of the VIE
| South China Sea Dispute Spreads to San Francisco Posted: 21 Aug 2012 01:18 AM PDT
Wow, interesting. Asian-Americans going after a Chinese bank for discriminating against racial minorities, including other Asians? Definitely a legal dispute worth my time, I'd say. But wait, that's not really what's going on here. You might have noticed that these allegations include the financing of China military actions in the South China Sea. Huh? What does that have to do with racial discrimination? The answer, of course, that it doesn't. This entire kerfuffle, which I suspect is entirely bollocks, stems from the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines (and almost everyone else in Asia at this point). No, really. I'm not making this stuff up. The two groups who ginned up this whole thing are the The US Pinoys for Good Governance (US4PGG) and the National Asian American Coalition (NAAC) and reported by the Asian Journal, which calls itself "The Filipino-American Community Newspaper." The Asian Journal's coverage of this "protest" is inflammatory, as you'd expect. It goes back at least a year, too. Here are a couple of representative bits:
These folks certainly are motivated, but in the end, I can't say I'm a fan of what they're doing. Going after ICBC is a clever move, seeing as how they (and the Philippines) don't have a hell of a lot of leverage. Gotta love that asymmetric warfare, Ho Chi Minh kind of thing. But mucking about with the U.S. banking regulatory process is a bit much. They're going to meet with (and waste the time of) Ben Bernanke? Come on. As to the charge that ICBC finances military action, give me a break. All the SOE banks here indirectly finance government activity, but that doesn't persuade me that the U.S. should shut its doors to all Chinese banks. Moreover, who do these guys think finances U.S. weapons sales around the globe? The World Bank? The South China Sea dispute sucks, I get that. And the Philippines has very limited options. But these Asian-American groups are not making me feel very sympathetic with this brand of activism. We've already got nationalist lunatics running around planting flags in soggy clumps of coral. This doesn't help the dialogue. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Photo: Dali Blue, by Michael Steverson Posted: 20 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Netizen Voices: Sign Brother Speaks Truth Posted: 20 Aug 2012 08:27 AM PDT "Sign Brother" (举牌哥) was seen at the Xinjiekou stop in the Nanjing subway last week. His makeshift sandwich board reads:
Surprisingly, the text of the Weibo pictured above ("A handsome guy suddenly appeared at Xinjiekou in Nanjing, really handsome" 南京新街口惊现一帅哥,真帅) still returns search results. The username has been cut off, but this one post alone received 6062 reposts and 1452 comments. CDT Chinese has collected words of praise and caution for their brother-in-arms:
Via CDT Chinese. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Gu Kailai Found Guilty of Heywood Killing Posted: 20 Aug 2012 06:01 AM PDT Gu Kailai, wife of deposed Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, and family aide Zhang Xiaojun were declared guilty on Monday of the intentional homicide of British businessman Neil Heywood. Zhang was sentenced to nine years for his lesser role in the killing, while Gu received a suspended death sentence which, like that of former business tycoon Wu Ying, will likely be commuted to life imprisonment. From Andrew Jacobs at The New York Times:
The British embassy issued a statement welcoming the investigation and trial, at which two of its diplomats were present as observers, and restated its opposition to the execution of Heywood's killers. Donald Clarke at China Law Prof Blog explained the probable reality of Gu's punishment, which could ultimately be reduced to as little as nine years in prison.
While state media have presented Gu's trial as proof that all are equal before the law, the possibility of early parole has cultivated the opposite impression. Josh Chin surveyed some online reactions at The Wall Street Journal:
According to WSJ Chinese editor Li Yuan, however, the verdict's moment in the Weibo spotlight quickly passed:
(Myanmar announced the abolition of direct censorship on Monday, though as Reuters' Aung Hla Tun reports, other restrictions on press freedom will remain.) A number of legal scholars and other observers have expressed scepticism about the trial based on second-hand accounts of the evidence presented. On Monday, a new inconsistency apparently emerged between the official version of events and the unheard testimony of Gu's son, as reported by a family friend. From William Wan at The Washington Post:
Those suspicious that the woman on trial was not Gu Kailai at all received unexpected support on Sunday. According to The Financial Times, "two security experts familiar with facial recognition software said the person shown in state television footage of the courtroom was not Ms Gu." Meanwhile, still more outlandish rumours surfaced on Boxun—"which often makes claims difficult to prove", as Want China Times delicately put it—that a former rival of Gu's had been murdered, plastinated and put on display as part of the famous Body Worlds exhibition. (See a similar rumour debunked by Roland Soong at EastSouthWestNorth, via Bill Bishop). With Gu's case, for now, apparently closed, The Wall Street Journal's Jeremy Page looked ahead to future developments in the Bo Xilai saga:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Posted: 20 Aug 2012 04:55 AM PDT The New York Times' Edward Wong recaps the saga of Wang Lijun, the former police chief under Bo Xilai's Chongqing regime, whose early February dash to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu set off a chain of events that saw Bo purged from power and Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, convicted of murdering a British businessman. While Wang is expected to face treason charges as soon as this month, though Wong writes that his role in the Bo Xilai scandal remains cloudy:
A Hong Kong television channel reported last Monday that Wang had been tried behind closed doors in Chengdu, according to The Telegraph, though no other sources have confirmed that story. See also a profile of Wang published last Friday by BBC News, as well as previous coverage by CDT. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| The Daily Twit – 8/20/12: There Once Was a Woman Named Gu Posted: 20 Aug 2012 04:18 AM PDT Today was billed as a BIG NEWS day, when we'd all get to hear the verdict in the Gu Kailai murder trial. Everyone already knew what it was going to be, but like the sheep we all were, that didn't matter. It's news, damnit! Pay attention! As a result, the "news" itself was underwhelming, and since no one was paying attention to anything else today, there's nothing else to talk about. Funky. So anyway, the verdict was a suspended death sentence. Of course. If you're unfamiliar with Chinese criminal law, that basically means that she was given the death penalty, but it's commuted to a life sentence as long as she doesn't poison to death any other people in the next few years. I'll give you a couple links, but honestly, there's nothing much exciting to read about this. The best thing I've seen thus far is this bit of doggerel from @twitmericks (h/t Melissa Chan) There once was a woman named Gu Pretty much says it all. But if that's not enough for you: Guardian: Gu Kailai given suspended death sentence over Heywood murder — your basic news report, although at this point, you already know the punchline. Chinese Law Prof Blog: How much time will Gu Kailai actually have to serve under Chinese law? — Prof Don Clarke with some criminal law background for you wonks out there. China Law & Policy: The Trial of Gu Kailai – Did the CCP Bite Itself in the Butt? — Elizabeth Lynch muses on the big picture. NBC News: With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai? So yeah. The only actual news out there today concerns the clusterfuck that is the South China Sea dispute, specifically the idiot nationalists in Japan and China who are making things worse. Here's the latest: Wall Street Journal: China Conflicted Over Anti-Japan Protests — the stupid, it hurts. Caijing: Anti-Japan Protests Held in Over 10 Chinese cities — disturbing pics. Some other stuff: Global Times: Deaths in custody — Pilot program concerning treatment of prisoners. I think the idea here is to avoid those situations where prisoners mysteriously wind up dead from "drinking hot water" or "playing hide and seek." Xinhua: Addresses avoiding unlucky figures forbidden — Rather amazing. The Beijing government says it will not approve building plans that call, for example, for skipping floors with "unlucky" numbers, like four, thirteen, fourteen, etc. Somehow I have a feeling this will only be enforced against private projects, not government buildings. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us |
| Internet Addiction: I Guess There’s No Pill for That Yet Posted: 20 Aug 2012 03:20 AM PDT
You thought it was a fad perpetuated by the brain dead, but no, Internet addiction appears to be going strong as a made-up ailment. It's important of course that these fake illnesses can be cured of course. If they were incurable, then no one could make any money off 'em. Thought experiment: in one room, put a Net addiction counselor with one of his patients, and in another room, do the same with a gay man and an American religious "Pray Away the Gay" counselor. Start the clock. Who gets "cured" fastest? Will the gay man find Jesus and instantly become straight, or will the Net addicted kid discover the joys of educational web sites instead of porn and MMORPGs? What I think is that the gay "patient" who, at least for the moment, thinks he's straight, will now spend all of his time online watching porn, perhaps necessitating the need for a Net addiction counselor. There's no free lunch, folks. The moral of this story: there is no limit to the stupidity that the human mind can create, and then unfortunately force upon others. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Wal-Mart, Yihaodian, and the Mystery of the VIE Posted: 20 Aug 2012 02:16 AM PDT
I've since had a chance to look at the actual approval language (in Chinese) as well as some of the conversations that have ensued, including this brief article from British firm Herbert Smith. In my post last week, I did not make a big deal of the VIE aspects of this case because frankly I didn't see it as the central issue, and besides, it didn't appear as if the MOFCOM ruling changed anything with respect to the legality of the VIE structure. I think I'm going to stick with that thinking. However, in light of the Herbert Smith article and other speculation out there, I figured a further comment might be a good idea. Let me start off by saying that I haven't yet read anything that suggests anyone really knows for sure what that MOFCOM ruling really means for VIEs. No, seriously. I've read it myself, along with several interpretations, and I have to say, more than one of them sounds feasible. I think I understand the shareholding structure at this point: 1. Wal-Mart was a minority shareholder of a company called Niuhai, which has a Hong Kong offshore structure as well as one or more onshore subsidiaries. Niuhai is the entity in which Wal-Mart increased its shareholding. 2. Yishiduo is a Chinese company HQ'd in Shanghai that is the holder of the necessary VATS license required to operate the Yihaodian e-commerce platform. This is the VIE. 3. Presumably, Niuhai's onshore company and Yishiduo have several contractual arrangements we all know and love, the basis of the VIE structure. OK, in other words, Niuhai was basically doing some old-style round-tripping, which means money from China was taken offshore and used to capitalize a foreign entity, which was in turn used to set up one or more foreign-invested enterprises. The original investor was Chinese, but the companies in China were considered foreign under Chinese FDI law. Classic stuff. Wal-Mart wanted to buy out one of the investors' offshore holding, which triggered the anti-monopoly review. Wal-Mart, therefore, was not buying the e-commerce operating platform directly, therefore, only the foreign portion and its rights under the VIE. So all is clear? Not exactly. The problem, as usual, is that the language from MOFCOM is mushy and unclear. Welcome to China law. FYI, the language in question is the following:
Before you Chinese speakers out there say "Hey, that language doesn't look all that complicated," take another look and explain to me exactly what it means. I'm genuinely not sure. For example, in that third paragraph, when it says that Wal-Mart may not use the Yishiduo network, via the VIE, I cannot really say for sure what that entails. I hope that Wal-Mart understands what it can/cannot do. Obviously Wal-Mart cannot jump on the Yishiduo platform and start expanding it as a Wal-Mart business, offering services to third parties. That would be a pretty blatant use of a restricted license. Similarly, it also seems clear that Niuhai (i.e., Wal-Mart) can use its own network, although I have questions there as well. The Herbert Smith article includes the following reaction:
I disagree with the emphasis here. Yes, it's true that MOFCOM is concerned about Wal-Mart's potential use of the Yihaodian platform. This is a normal competition law issue, one that we would expect in such a conditional ruling. The presence of the VIE is however, at least in my mind, purely incidental. This deal happens to involve a VIE structure, and so if Wal-Mart was going to abuse a post-deal dominant position by using the Yihaodian platform, then yes, that would include its VIE structure, a key asset. In other words, MOFCOM isn't so much worried about Wal-Mart's use of a VIE per se, but rather with a possible market concentration that could, in part, be built upon a VIE. Does that make sense? So has MOFCOM said anything concerning VIEs that is significant? Herbert Smith suggests yes, but is cagey about it:
There are three ways I could argue this. Being a lawyer, this comes second nature to me: 1. MOFCOM's warning about the use of the Yishiduo VIE suggests that it is adopting a policy of closer scrutiny of such structures. Investors beware! (King & Wood's Susan Ning supports this interpretation.) 2. MOFCOM's specific acknowledgement that the target company for which it is giving an approval operates a VIE structure is as close to a formal recognition of the legality of VIEs that we are going to get. Investors celebrate! 3. MOFCOM's chief concern with this approval was competition in the retail space. Yihaodian could just as easily owned the country's largest trucking or warehousing business instead of a VIE-operated e-commerce platform. MOFCOM seems neutral on VIEs and will probably only deal with them on a case-by-case basis. Investors go back to sleep! Me, I'm kinda thinking Argument #3 makes the most sense, but I'll admit that I'm speculating along with everyone else out there. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
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