BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF NEW CHINESE ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS LEADERS
From Wenxian To Karen Du, Michelle and Nathan Zhang From Ilan To Anna, Kareen and Maya
Biographical Dictionary of New Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders Ё㒣⌢亢ѥҎ⠽
Edited by
Wenxian Zhang Rollins College, USA
Ilan Alon Rollins-China Center, Rollins College, USA
Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Wenxian Zhang and Ilan Alon 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited The Lypiatts 15 Lansdown Road Cheltenham Glos GL50 2JA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. William Pratt House 9 Dewey Court Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943830
ISBN 978 1 84720 636 7 Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK
Contents Contributors to the volume and their entries About the editors List of abbreviations Foreword Introduction Acknowledgements Bao, Yugang (Pao, Yue-Kong) ࣙ⥝߮ Bi, Dongjiang (James Bi) ↩ϰ∳ Bo, Xilai 㭘❭ᴹ Cao, Guowei (Charles Cao) ӳ Chai, Songyue ᷈ᵒኇ Chang, Chung-Mou ‘Morris’ (Zhang, Zhongmou) ᓴᖴ䇟 Chang, Steve (Zhang, Mingzheng) ᓴᯢℷ Chang, Xiaobing ᐌᇣ݉ Chang, Xing ᐌᑌ Chen, Feng 䰜ዄ Chen, Jinyi 䰜䞥Н Chen, Lihua (Chan, Laiwa) 䰜Бढ Chen, Tianqiao 䰜ḹ Chen, Xiao 䰜ᰧ Chen, Xiaoxian 䰜ᇣᅾ Chen, Yun 䰜ѥ Cheng, William Hengjem (Zhong, Tingshen) 䩳ᓋỂ Chi, Yufeng ∴ᅛዄ Dai, Zhikang ᠈ᖫᒋ Deng, Xiaoping 䙧ᇣᑇ Deng, Zhonghan 䙧Ё㗄 Ding, Jian ϕع Ding, Lei ϕ⺞ Dong, Mingzhu 㨷ᯢ⦴ Duan, Qiang ↉ᔎ Duan, Yongping ↉∌ᑇ Eysayup, Ekrem (Aikelamu Aishayoufu) 㡒≭⬅· 㡒ܟᢝ Fan, Gang ῞߮
viii xii xiii xv xvii xxi Feng, Lun ރҥ Fok, Henry Ying Tung (Huo, Yingdong) 䳡㣅ϰ Fu, Chengyu ٙ៤⥝ Gao, Dekang 催ᖋᒋ Ge, Wenyao 㨯᭛㗔 Geng, Xiaoping 㘓ᇣᑇ Gu, Chujun 乒䲣ݯ Guo, Guangchang 䛁ᑓᯠ Guo, Hao (Kwok, Ho) 䛁⌽ Guo, Xianchen 䛁ܜ㞷 Guo, Zeli 䛁߭⧚ He, Boquan ԩԃᴗ Ho, Stanley (He, Hongshen) ԩ吓➞ Hou, Weigui փЎ䌉 Hu, Angang 㚵䵡䩶 Hu, Maoyuan 㚵㣖ܗ Hu, Shuli 㚵㟦ゟ Huang, Guangyu (Wong Kwong Yu) 咘ܝ㺩 Jiang, Nanchun (Jason Jiang) ∳फ Jin, Zhiguo 䞥ᖫ Jing, Shuping 㒣নᑇ Kadeer, Rebiya वᖋᇨ. ⛁↨࿙ Kong, Dan ᄨЍ Kuo, Terry (Guo, Taiming) 䛁ৄ䫁 Kuok, Robert Hock Nien (Guo, Henian) 䛁吸ᑈ Lai, Changxing 䌪ᯠ᯳ Lam, Barry (Lin, Baili) ᵫⱒ䞠 Lang, Xianping (Lang Hsien Ping, Larry Lang) 䚢ઌᑇ
1 2 3 6 6 7 8 10 11 12 14 14 15 17 18 19 20 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
34 36 v
37 38 39 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 50 51 52 53 55 56 58 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 70 71 72
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Contents
Lee, Rie-Ho (Li, Ruihe) ᴢ⨲⊇ Li, Dongsheng ᴢϰ⫳ Li, Jingwei ᴢ㒣㒀 Li, Jinhua ᴢ䞥ढ Li, Jun ᴢݯ Li, Ka Shing (Li, Jiacheng) ᴢ䆮 Li, Lihui ᴢ⼐䕝 Li, Ning ᴢᅕ Li, Rucheng ᴢབ៤ Li, Shufu ᴢк⽣ Li, Xiaohua ᴢᰧढ Li, Xiaopeng ᴢᇣ吣 Li, Yanhong (Robin Li) ᴢᔺᅣ Li, Yining ढ़ҹᅕ Li, Zekai (Richard Li, Tzar Kai Li) ᴢ⋑Ὃ Liang, Jianzhang ṕᓎゴ Liu, Bo ߬⊶ Liu, Changping ߬ᯠᑇ Liu, Chuanzhi ᷇Ӵᖫ Liu, Hanyuan ߬∝ܗ Liu, Ji ߬ঢ় Liu, Jiren ߬⿃ҕ Liu, Xiaoguang ߬ᰧܝ Liu, Yonghao ߬∌ད Long, Yongtu 啭∌ Lu, Guanqiu 剕⧗ݴ Ma, Hong 偀⋾ Ma, Huateng 偀࣪㝒 Ma, Wanqi (Ma, Man Kei) 偀ϛ⽎ Ma, Weihua 偀㫮ढ Ma, Yun 偀ѥ Mai, Boliang 呺ԃ㡃 Mayirjon (Mayierjiang) 偀ձᇨ∳ Mi, Enhua ㉇ᘽढ Miao, Shouliang 㓾ᇓ㡃 Miao, Wei 㢫 Mou, Qizhong ⠳݊Ё Mu, Xinsheng ⠳ᮄ⫳ Mu, Zhanying 〚ऴ㣅 Nan, Cunhui फᄬ䕝 Ni, Runfeng ⍺ዄ Nian, Guangjiu ᑈᑓЙ Ning, Gaoning ᅕ催ᅕ
74 75 77 78 80 81 83 84 86 87 87 89 90 92 93 94 96 97 98 100 101 103 104 105 107 108 110 111 113 114 115 116 118 119 120 121 122 124 125 127 128 129 130
Ning, Xiangdong ᅕϰ Pan, Gang ┬߮ Pan, Ning ┬ᅕ Pan, Shiyi ┬ቍ Peng, Xiaofeng ᕁᇣዄ Qiu, Bojun ∖ԃ৯ Ren, Zhengfei ӏℷ䴲 Rong, Yiren 㤷↙ҕ Rong, Zhijian (Larry Rong) 㤷ᱎع Shang, Fulin ᇮ⽣ᵫ Shaw, Runrun (Shao, Yifu) 䚉䘌 Shen, Taifu ≜⽣ Shi, Xiaoyan ᰧ➩ Shi, Yuzhu ⥝᷅ Shi, Zhengrong ᮑℷ㤷 Shi, Stan (Shi, Zhenrong) ᮑᤃ㤷 Song, Weiping ᅟिᑇ Sun, Guangxin ᄭᑓֵ Sun, Hongbin ᄭᅣ᭠ Sy, Henry Sr (Shi, Zhicheng) ᮑ㟇៤ Tan, Xuguang 䈁ᯁܝ Tang, Wanxin ϛᮄ Tian, Deju ⬄ᖋВ Tian, Suning (Edward Tian) ⬄⒃ᅕ Tsang, Donald (Zeng, Yinquan, Tsang Yam-Kuen) ᳒㤿ᴗ Tsang, Hin Chi (Zeng, Xianzi) ᳒ᅾṧ Wang, Guangying ⥟ܝ㣅 Wang, Jiafen ⥟Շ㢀 Wang, Liheng ⥟⼐ᘦ Wang, Linxiang ⥟ᵫ⼹ Wang, Mengkui ⥟Ṻ༢ Wang, Shi ⥟ Wang, Weibin ⥟ӳ᭠ Wang, Wenjing ⥟᭛Ҁ Wang, Xuan ⥟䗝 Wang, Xuebing ⥟䲾ބ Wang, Yan ∾ᓊ Wang, Yung-ching (Wang, Yongqing) ⥟∌ᑚ Wang, Zhidong ⥟ᖫϰ
132 134 134 136 137 140 142 144 145 148 148 150 151 152 154 155 157 158 159 160 163 164 166 167 169 170 172 173 174 176 177 178 180 181 182 183 185 186 188
Contents Wang, Zhongjun ⥟Ёݯ Wei, Jiafu 儣ᆊ⽣ Wen, Jiabao ⏽ᆊᅱ Wen, Sayling (Wen, Shiren) ⏽Ϫҕ Wen, Tiejun ⏽䪕ݯ Wu, Dingfu ਈᅮᆠ Wu, Jinglian ਈᭀ⧣ Wu, Renbao ਈҕᅱ Wu, Yi ਈҾ Wu, Yijian ਈϔമ Wu, Ying ਈ呄 Xiang, Huaicheng 乍ᗔ䆮 Xie, Fuzhan 䇶ӣⶏ Xie, Qihua 䇶ӕढ Xie, Tielan 䇶䪕╰ Xie, Xuren 䇶ᯁҎ Xu, Kuangdi ᕤࣵ䖾 Xu, Ming ᕤᯢ Xu, Rongmao (Hui, Wingmau) 䆌㤷㣖 Xu, Shaochun (Robert S. Xu) ᕤᇥ Xu, Xiaoping ᕤᇣᑇ Yang, Bin ᴼ᭠ Yang, Chih-Yuan Jerry (Yang Zhiyuan) ᴼ㟈䖰 Yang, Guoping ᴼᑇ Yang, Guoqiang ᴼᔎ Yang, Kaisheng ᴼ߃⫳ Yang, Lan ᴼ╰ Yang, Mingsheng ᴼᯢ⫳ Yang, Rong ӄ㵡 Yang, Yuanqing ᴼܗᑚ Yang, Yuanyuan ᴼܗܗ
189 190 191 192 194 195 196 197 198 200 201 203 204 206 207 208 210 211 213 214 215 217 218 219 220 221 223 224 225 226 228
Ye, Lipei (Eddie Ye) ゟ Ye, Long 啭 Yi, Gang ᯧ㒆 Yin, Tongyao ልৠ㗔 Yu, Shumin Ѣ⎥⦝ Yu, Yu ֲ⏱ Yu, Zuomin ⾍ᬣ Yuan, Longping 㹕䱚ᑇ Zhang, Chaoyang (Charles Zhang) ᓴᳱ䰇 Zhang, Enzhao ᓴᘽ✻ Zhang, Gang ᓴ䩶 Zhang, Jianguo ᓴᓎ Zhang, Jindong ᓴࢆϰ Zhang, Qingwei ᓴᑚӳ Zhang, Ruimin ᓴ⨲ᬣ Zhang, Simin ᓴᗱ⇥ Zhang, Weiying ᓴ㓈䖢 Zhang, Yin (Cheung, Yan) ᓴ㤉 Zhang, Yue ᓴ䎗 Zhao, Xinxian 䍉ᮄܜ Zhao, Ziyang 䍉㋿䰇 Zheng, Shengtao 䚥㚰⍯ Zheng, Yonggang 䚥∌߮ Zhou, Bohua ਼ԃढ Zhou, Dahu ਼㰢 Zhou, Houjian ਼८ع Zhou, Xiaochuan ਼ᇣᎱ Zhou, Zhengyi (Chau, Ching-ngai) ਼ℷ↙ Zhu, Mengyi (Chu, Mengyi) ᴅᄳձ Zhu, Rongji ᴅ䬩 Zhu, Yanfeng ノᓊ亢 Zong, Qinghou ᅫᑚৢ
vii 229 230 231 232 234 235 236 237 239 240 241 242 244 245 246 248 249 250 251 253 254 255 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 265 266 267
Contributors to the volume and their entries Aldo Ahlers Jr, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Sun Guangxin Matthew Amick, Walt Disney, Orlando, FL, USA Chang Chung-Mou (Zhang Zhongmou), Jiang Nanchun (Jason Jiang), Barry Lam (Lin Baili), Wen Sayling (Wen Shiren), Wu Yijian Dongmei Cao, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA Chen Jinyi, Liang Jianzhang, Wu Ying, Zhao Xinxian, Zhu Mengyi Julian Chambliss, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Bao Yugang, Chai Songyue, Feng Lun, Henry Ying Tung Fok (Huo Yingdong), Shen Taifu Howard Chiang, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA Zhang Weiying Victoria Chu, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA Ma Hong, Ning Xiangdong, Wu Dingfu, Xie Fuzhan, Xie Xuren Mary Conway Dato-on, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Li Rucheng, Henry Sy Sr (Shi Zhicheng), Yang Rong, Zheng Yonggang Huijuan Cui, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Ma Weihua Xiaodong Du, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Guo Zeli, Ni Runfeng Quek Kia Fatt, Monash University, Sunway, Malaysia William Hengjem Cheng (Zhong Tingshen), Hu Maoyuan, Robert Hock Nien Kuok (Guo Henian), Yang Guoping, Yin Tongyao Marc Fetscherin, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Chen Lihua, Gu Chujun, Guo Hao, Li Xiaohua, Liu Hanyuan, Sun Guangxin, Xu Ming, Xu Rongmao, Zhang Simin Mareike Fetscherin, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Henry Ying Tung Fok (Huo Yingdong), Shen Taifu Charlotte Froehlich, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Chen Lihua Daniel Galvez, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Xu Ming Adeta Gayah, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Li Xiaohua
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Contributors to the volume and their entries
ix
James P. Gilbert, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Li Lihui, Wang Xuebing, Yi Gang, Zhang Enzhao, Zhang Jianguo, Zhou Xiaochuan Hui He, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Li Jun, Li Yanhong, Rong Yiren, Wu Yi, Xiang Huaicheng Alex Hellberg, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Liu Hanyuan Arthur Holst, City of Philadelphia, PA, USA Chen Feng, Duan Qiang, Ma Wanqi (Ma Man-Kei), Mu Xinsheng, Wei Jiafu Lujin Huang, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China Cao Guowei, Chang Xing, Chen Xiao, Chen Xiaoxian, Ding Jian, Fan Gang, Gao Dekang, Jing Shuping, Pan Shiyi, Song Weiping, Wen Tiejun, Xie Tielan, Xu Xiaoping, Yang Kaisheng, Yang Mingsheng, Yu Shumin, Yu Yu, Zhang Chaoyang (Charles Zhang), Zheng Shengtao, Zhou Bohua Loi Teck Hui, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia William Hengjem Cheng (Zhong Tingshen), Hu Maoyuan, Robert Hock Nien Kuok (Guo Henian), Yang Guoping, Yin Tongyao David Irving, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Chai Songyue, Feng Lun Jonatan Jelen, New School University, New York, NY, USA Miao Shouliang, Peng Xiaofeng, Sun Hongbin, Yang Guoqiang, Ye Lipei (Eddie Ye), Zhang Jindong Hong Jiang, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Yang Yuanqing Qian Hu, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Li Dongsheng Thomas D. Lairson, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, Wen Jiabao, Zhao Ziyang, Zhu Rongji Christoph Lattemann, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany Huang Guangyu, Liu Yonghao, Lu Guanqiu, Nan Cunhui Jen-Kai Liu, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany Bo Xilai, Xu Kuangdi, Yang Yuanyuan, Zhang Qingwei, Zhu Yanfeng Francisco Lutz, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Gu Chujun Michael J. Miske, Dawson & Clark, Detroit, MI, USA Fu Chengyu, Jin Zhiguo, Li Shufu, Shang Fulin, Tian Deju Xiafang Mo, Freelance writer, Beijing, China Li Yining, Ma Yun, Wang Shi, Wu Jinglian, Yang Lan
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Contributors to the volume and their entries
Michael A. Moodian, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA Li Zekai (Richard Li, Tzar Kai Li), Yang Bin, Yuan Longping, Zhang Yin, Zhou Zhengyi Rebecca Montaner, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Geng Xiaoping Guibin Mu, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Zhou Houjian Tim Poplin, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Zhang Simin Natalie Powers, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Xu Rongmao Martina Jing Quan, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA Li Ning, Ma Huateng, Mai Boliang, Ren Zhengfei, Wang Wenjing Hui Shi, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Dong Mingzhu, Ning Gaoning Amir Shoham, College of Management, Tel Aviv, Israel Li Jun, Li Yanhong, Rong Yiren, Wu Yi, Xiang Huaicheng Sangeeta Singh, BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway Ding Lei, Guo Guangchang, Li Ka Shing (Li Jiacheng), Liu Chuanzhi, Zong Qinghou Linda G. Sprague, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Liu Ji Clay Stanfield, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Dai Zhikang, Liu Bo, Liu Xiaoguang David Straub, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA Eysayup Ekrem (Aikelamu Aishayoufu), Rebiya Kadeer, Mayirjon (Mayierjiang), Mi Enhua, Tang Wanxin Jianmin Sun, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Dong Mingzhu, He Boquan, Hou Weigui, Li Dongsheng, Ma Weihua, Ning Gaoning, Xie Qihua, Yang Yuanqing, Ye Long, Zhang Yue, Zhou Houjian Sunny Li Sun, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA Li Ning, Ma Huateng, Mai Boliang, Ren Zhengfei, Wang Wenjing Shawn Tavares, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Guo Hao Siri Terjesen, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA Zhang Gang Rachel Todd, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Donald Tsang (Zeng Yinquan) Min Tong, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA Chi Yufeng, Guo Xianchen, Mu Zhanying, Pan Ning, Wang Weibin
Contributors to the volume and their entries
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Fu-Sheng Tsai, Cheng Shiu University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Steve Chang (Zhang Mingzheng), Terry Kuo (Guo Taiming), Lee Rie-Ho (Li Ruihe), Stan Shi (Shi Zhenrong), Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (Yang Zhiyuan) Denise Tsang, University of Reading, Reading, UK Chen Tianqiao, Stanley Ho (He Hongshen), Liu Jiren, Qiu Bojun, Xu Shaochun Hua Wang, Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management, Marseille, France Liu Changping, Miao Wei, Tan Xuguang, Wang Linxiang, Wang Yung-ching (Wang Yongqing) Zhen Wang, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Ye Long Joshua Wickerham, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA Hu Shuli, Li Jinhua, Li Xiaopeng, Wang Mengkui, Wang Zhidong Audrey Wu, China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, China Liu Ji Depin Yang, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Zhang Yue Tao Yang, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China He Boquan, Hou Weigui Shirley Ze Yu, Yu Financial, Altamonte Springs, FL, USA Li Jingwei, Long Yongtu, Shi Xiaoyan, Tsang Hin Chi (Zeng Xianzi), Wang Yan Xiaoqi Yu, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA Duan Yongping, Ge Wenyao, Kong Dan, Shaw Runrun (Shao Yifu), Wang Liheng Hong Zhang, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA Lang Xianping, Shi Yuzhu, Wang Guangying, Wang Jiafen, Yu Zuomin Jian Zhang, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Hu Angang, Rong Zhijian Weidong Zhang, Winona State University, Winona, MN, USA Lai Changxing, Mou Qizhong, Nian Guangjiu, Shi Zhengrong, Wang Xuan Wenxian Zhang, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA Chang Xiaobing, Li Xiaopeng, Donald Tsang (Zeng Yinquan), Wang Mengkui, Wang Zhidong, Wang Zhongjun, Wu Renbao, Zhang Ruimin Ying Zhang, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA Bi Dongjiang, Deng Zhonghan, Pan Gang, Tian Suning, Zhou Dahu Yi Zhao, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Xie Qihua
About the editors A Chinese native and graduate of Peking University and Southern Connecticut State University, Wenxian Zhang is Professor of Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, where he joined the faculty in 1995. He has published many articles on information studies, international librarianship, historical research, and Chinese business management. In addition, he has team-taught courses on Chinese history and culture and frequently taken students on field study trips to China. Dr Ilan Alon is Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Visiting Scholar and Asia Fellow, and Rollins College Petters Chair of International Business and Executive Director of Rollins China Center. He has published 20 books, and over 100 peerreviewed articles and chapters. His most recent four books on China are Chinese Culture, Organizational Behavior and International Business Management (Greenwood, 2003); Chinese Economic Transition and International Marketing Strategy (Greenwood, 2003); Business and Management Education in China: Transition, Pedagogy and Training (World Scientific, 2005); and The Globalization of Chinese Enterprises (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Alon is a recipient of the Chinese Marketing Award, a dual award from the Tripod Marketing Association (China) and the Society for Marketing Advances (USA), and the prestigious Rollins College McKean Award for his work on education in China. He has taught courses in top Chinese MBA programs at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University and China Europe International Business School among others. He is also an international business consultant, with experience in China as well as other countries, and is a featured speaker in many professional associations.
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Abbreviations APEC API ASME CAS CASS CCC CCID CCMS CCP CCPCC CCTV CDMA CE CEO CFO CITIC CMM CPPCC EMC ESP ETL GATT GDP GS GSM IC ICT IDC IPO NBA NPC ODPS OEM PBX PCS PV R&D SAR SARS SAT SETC
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation application programming interface American Society of Mechanical Engineers Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Social Sciences China compulsory certification China Center for Information Industry Development China Certification Center of Machinery Safety Chinese Communist Party Chinese Communist Party Central Committee China Central Television code division multiple access Conformité Européenne chief executive officer chief financial officer China International Trust and Investment Corporation capability maturity model Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference electromagnetic compatibility embedded server pages environmental technology laboratory General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade gross domestic product Geprüfte Sicherheit global system for mobile integrated circuit information and communication technologies International Data Corporation initial public offering National Basketball Association (USA) National People’s Congress operational data processing system original equipment manufacturer private branch exchange personal communications service photovoltaics research and development special administrative region severe acute respiratory syndrome state administration of taxation State Economic and Trade Commission xiii
xiv
Abbreviations
SOE SPC TVB TVE UL WTO
state-owned enterprise stored program control Television Broadcasts Limited (Hong Kong) Television Entertainment Holdings Limited (Hong Kong) Underwriters Laboratories World Trade Organization
Foreword China is the dominant business power of the twenty-first century and already the second largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing parity power (Bryant, 2008). Based on these facts the Biographical Dictionary of New Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders is a necessary handbook at a time when Chinese enterprises are becoming increasingly global at an ever faster pace (Alon, 2008). Most of us only know the names of a few Chinese business leaders and if we were asked to describe these leaders we would not be able to say much. One reason could be, as stated by the editors Professor Wenxian Zhang and Professor Ilan Ilon in their call for contributions, that China’s business elite is such a recent phenomenon. Despite the novelty of the globalization of Chinese firms, a book like this has been needed for several years, because foreign direct investments, both outward and inward, have been skyrocketing, and the trend in investments continues to grow in both directions (‘Market Profile on Chinese Mainland’, 2008). The result is a very informative book with 200 entries, each of which consists of 400– 1000 words. The definition of business leaders in this handbook is broad, comprising important politicians, researchers, and overseas Chinese business leaders as well as leaders from different periods of China’s recent development from the 1980s and 1990s to the present. This broad definition fits well with Chinese practice as it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the different investment entities and their impact on Chinese development. For example, Chinese state-owned sovereign funds are becoming increasingly active investors in Western companies (Anderlini, 2008). With such a broad approach to Chinese entrepreneurs, obviously everybody cannot be included, but the editorial team has managed to collect descriptions of a broad spectrum of business leaders. The profiles not only describe the individuals but frequently also touch upon their companies and other relevant activities. The names of the writers accompany each entry and references to the sources used are also given. This enhances the transparency of the handbook, which is something other handbooks often lack. An interesting observation is that the richest and most entrepreneurial people in China are predominantly older than 50. IT people tend to be younger, but the Chinese economy is not dominated by young fund managers as is becoming the trend in the West. This volume is a good and necessary complement to other handbooks, such as the official Who’s Who – Current Chinese Leaders (2006), which focuses on political leaders in a more narrow sense and Who’s Who of Chinese Origin Worldwide, which is only available in Chinese and in an electronic version (www.whoswhochinese.com). Therefore I will not hesitate to recommend this book to libraries and other institutions as well as to individuals interested in the development and globalization of Chinese business. Verner Worm Professor of Chinese Business and Development Asia Research Centre Copenhagen Business School Denmark xv
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Foreword
References Alon, I. (2008), ‘Introduction’, in I. Alon and J. Mctyre (eds), Globalization of Chinese Enterprises, New York: Palgrave. Anderlini, J. (2008), ‘Chinese sovereign fund raises its global spending power to US$90 billion’, Financial Times, 24 April. Bryant, C. (2008), ‘China is second place in purchasing power table’, Financial Times, 12 April. ‘Market Profile on Chinese Mainland, 2008’, accessed 26 April 2008 at www.hktdc.com/main/china.htm. Who’s Who – Current Chinese Leaders (2006), Hong Kong: Wen Wei Publishing Co. Who’s Who of Chinese Origin Worldwide (2008), accessed 30 April 2008 at www.whoswhochinese.com.
Introduction The year 2008 can be said to be a pivotal year for China, a year in which the country is challenged not only with the Summer Olympic Games, but also with the ‘coming-of-age’ of the Communist Party of China. The year also marks the 30th anniversary of the country’s economic reform, which began in earnest in 1978, after the third plenum session of the 11th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held in Beijing. The decisions made at that historic meeting changed both China and the world. Under the pragmatic leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China opened its doors and marched into a new era. As noted by Sull (2005), the successful yet bumpy reform drive can be divided into two periods: (1) economic liberalization (1978–89), and (2) the resumption of growth after Tiananmen Square (1992 to the present). Over the past three decades, the transition from a planned to a market economy has unleashed an extraordinary series of changes in China: private enterprises have sprouted, foreign investment has soared, the standard of living has improved, regional disparities have grown, the urban–rural divide has widened, and, by some standards, the level of corruption has increased (Alon and McIntyre, 2008). Another result of economic reform has been the creation of a new class – China’s new business elite – which includes private property owners, former government officials, factory directors, village leaders, and professional and technocratic managers. These socalled first-generation modern Chinese entrepreneurs have become the elite driving economic progress. One epoch that many of today’s business leaders and entrepreneurs had to live through was the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), but despite their suffering during the ten-year turmoil, many of today’s business leaders have risen to the top on the basis of their intelligence, determination and business acumen. A few have built on their political and social connections (also called guanxi), on questionable dealings and/or have achieved success through other illegitimate means. Since the 1990s, when the government reaffirmed its commitment to market reform while still retaining political control, a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs has emerged. These new entrepreneurs are not only better educated than their forebears, but are also globally ambitious and have a firm understanding of China’s position in the global economy. These notable business leaders and players have reshaped the country’s economic landscape, and have begun to play a more active role in the social and political arenas as well. As agents of change, their actions will have a profound impact on China and the rest of the world in years to come. This is the first book of its kind to review, summarize and compile extensive biographical information on a list of important business and economic leaders and entrepreneurs in China. Surprisingly, despite their undoubted influence, very little can be found about the lives of these individuals in typical reference publications. What information there is tends to be scattered across a variety of sources and media, such as newspapers, magazines, web pages, journals, and scholarly books that may not be readily accessible. Much of the available data is in Chinese, making wide accessibility difficult. China’s rising global influence has inspired increasing interest in the study of the country’s economy and the fast-growing class of Chinese entrepreneurs. Among the xvii
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Introduction
recent English titles are Sull’s Made in China: What Western Managers Can Learn from Trailblazing Chinese Entrepreneurs, Dickson’s Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entrepreneurs, and Prospects for Political Change, and Pearson’s China’s New Business Elite: The Political Consequences of Economic Reform. A large number of academic researches have also been conducted on Chinese entrepreneurship and reports published in scholarly journals and conference papers. For example, Xiang and Teng (2007) classified Chinese entrepreneurs into three generations: the first was in the manufacturing sector, the second was concerned with the service sector and business model innovation, and the third undertook the consolidation of global resources; Li and Yeh (2007) examined Mao’s pervasive influence on Chinese CEOs; and Li (2005) studied the Chinese young and urban yuppie executives. Our current compilation of information on Chinese business leaders and entrepreneurs is more extensive, descriptive and personal than any of the previous published research. We also reviewed the career and life of some among the business elite who had great influence, but later failed to meet the regulatory or political structures to sustain their position. Some have ended their careers in jail. As a biographical dictionary, this book focuses exclusively on business leaders and key figures in modern China. The book strives to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of major players in the Chinese economy since the reform era began in 1978, highlighting notable individuals from both the initial economic liberalization period and the period of renewed growth from the early 1990s to the present time. With a core emphasis on the movers and shakers of China’s new economy, the selection criteria were based mainly on people’s roles in the larger economic development of China, and were less concerned with the positions that individuals may hold at a particular moment. Thus we include executives of manufacturing powerhouses such as Zhang Ruimin of Haier Group, township entrepreneurs such as Wu Renbao of Huaxi village, powerful individuals such as media mogul Wang Zhongjun of Huayi Brothers, and directors of China’s high-tech start-ups such as Liu Chuanzhi of Lenovo. Besides successful executives, the book also includes some influential Chinese economists such as Li Yining of Peking University and Fan Gang of Tsinghua University, and high-ranking business officials such as Li Jinhua and Zhou Xiaochuan. Representing not only large state-owned enterprises and collective companies but also private firms, joint ventures and family operations, the subjects range from Chinese business pioneers and veteran businessmen to innovators and new urban elites, covering the full spectrum of the Chinese economy from banking, finance and investment, real estate, transportation and infrastructure, to manufacturing, telecommunication, media, agriculture, automobile, pharmaceutical, food, trade, service, and retail industries. With a geographic focus on mainland China, the majority of the subjects are mainland Chinese, although a few people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia who conduct significant business in the People’s Republic of China are also included, such as Wang Yung-Ching of Formosa Plastics Corporation. In addition, a very few high-profile government officials are included in the dictionary as well, such as vice premier Wu Yi and former commerce minister Bo Xilai, because of the key roles they played in the development of the Chinese economy. While a few individuals have been selected for their historical contributions, such as Rong Yiren of CITIC, the vast majority of the subjects are alive and still active in Chinese economic reforms. Furthermore, the editors
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made special efforts not to shun controversial figures whose actions have had profound impacts on the Chinese economy, even though they are either out of power or ran into trouble with the law, such as Lai Changxing of the Yuanhua Group. It is our genuine hope that readers and users of the dictionary will therefore gain a comprehensive understanding of the turbulent and ever-changing nature of Chinese economic development over the past 30 years. Precisely because of this constant changing of the Chinese economic landscape, however, it is very likely that we have omitted some individuals who arguably belong in this type of dictionary. While this work is breakthrough in its breadth and scope, future editions are likely to consider other influential business leaders worth covering. The dictionary is the result of collaborative efforts across the globe. Over 40 scholars from the United States, mainland China and Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Norway, Israel, and Malaysia contributed over 200 entries. Depending on the importance and complexity of the individual entry, contributions are roughly 400–1000 words in length, both briefly summarizing an individual’s life and career, with a central focus on his or her accomplishments and the key roles played in the new Chinese economy. Sources are provided at the end of each entry. The book is arranged in alphabetical order by the last names of the subjects. It should be noted that all Chinese personal names in the dictionary are listed following the East Asian custom, with family name first, followed by the given name (for example, Deng Xiaoping). For typical Westerners, the romanization of Chinese words has generated confusing variations in spelling over recent decades. This book follows the current common practice by listing all personal and place names in the standard Chinese Pinyin system, except for people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas, whose names are spelled following the traditional Wade-Giles system or their preferred Western names (for example, Li Ka Shing). When a company uses an alternative spelling in their official English language documents, we adopt the company’s preferred spelling. For clarification and cross-reference purposes, Chinese names are provided in both the contents list and individual entries. It is a daunting task to compile a biographical dictionary of business people from the world’s most populous country while the nation is still undergoing rapid and unprecedented economic development. In consideration of the swift changes in China’s economic landscapes, we will make rigorous efforts to update and revise the dictionary in subsequent editions. Wenxian Zhang and Ilan Alon Rollins College Winter Park, Florida References Alon, I. and J. McIntyre (eds) (2008), The Globalization of Chinese Enterprises, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Dickson, Bruce J. (2003), Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entrepreneurs, and Prospects for Political Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Li, Cheng (2005), ‘The rise of China’s yuppie corps: top CEOs to watch’, China Leadership Monitor, 14, accessed 20 September 2008 at www.hoover.org/publications/clm/issues/2903791.html. Li, Shaomin and Kuang S. Yeh (2007), ‘Mao’s pervasive influence on Chinese CEOs’, Harvard Business Review, 85 (12) (December), 16–17.
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Pearson, Margaret M. (1997), China’s New Business Elite: The Political Consequences of Economic Reform, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Sull, Donald N. with Yong Wang (2005), Made in China: What Western Managers can Learn from Trailblazing Chinese Entrepreneurs, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Xiang, Bing and Bling-Sheng Teng (2007), ‘Three generations of Chinese entrepreneurs: will the third generation be as successful?’, Ivey Business Journal, 71 (8), accessed 20 September 2008 at www.iveybusinessjournal. com/article.asp?intArticle_ID=724.
Acknowledgements The publication of this dictionary is the result of the generous support of many people. The editors would like to thank all contributors, many of whom are well-known scholars in the field, hailing from both the East and the West, for their scholarly contributions. We are very grateful to Alan Sturmer, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Edward Elgar Publishing, for helping us move towards final publication. We also would like to express our special appreciation to Bob Pickens, desk editor at Edward Elgar, for reviewing and proofing the manuscript. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support of the Critchfield grant at Rollins College, which made this research project possible. We would also like to thank the Humboldt Foundation for their generous grant to support research relating to the internationalization of the Chinese economy.
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Bao, Yugang (Pao, Yue-Kong ࣙ⥝߮ 1918–91) Nicknamed ‘the World Lord of Ships’, Bao Yugang was a well-known Hong Kong tycoon and philanthropist. According to Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister: ‘Sir Y.K.’s outstanding skills are recognized and appreciated throughout the world. But it is with Hong Kong – and the unique business ethos of the territory – that his achievements are most closely associated. For Hong Kong has provided the conditions in which his extraordinary entrepreneurial skills and energy have been applied in full’ (Thatcher, 1990). Born in Ningbo in 1918, Bao was the second son of a prestigious family. He is said to be the twenty-ninth generation in a direct line from the famous official Bao Zheng of the Northern Song Dynasty, well known in Chinese history and literature. Bao received his education in Hankou while working for his father’s shoe manufacturing business. By the time he was twenty years old, Bao had dedicated himself to self-improvement, rejected a future in the family shoe business, and agreed to an arranged marriage to a respectable girl from the same upper-middle class Ningbo community from which his family originated. He would remain married until his death. In the midst of the Japanese invasion in 1938, Bao relocated to Shanghai. Employed at the Central Trust of China, Bao moved into banking and quickly rose through the company ranks during the war years. After the war, he was charged with the establishment and management of the new Municipal Bank where he eventually reached the position of deputy general manager. With the communist takeover of China in 1949, Bao and his family moved to Hong Kong, managing to save the majority of their wealth. Rejecting investments in real estate and other fixed assets because of the uncertainty surrounding Hong Kong’s future, Bao’s initial business was a small trading company started with two business associates. The import-export business grew quickly, helped along by a trade embargo against China as a result of its intervention in the Korean War in 1950. Exploiting loopholes in the trade embargo, Bao’s firm – the New United Company – moved into new trading areas, including chemicals and iron. Working to trade goods through the ‘Bamboo Curtain’, Bao was able to weather anti-capitalist campaigns on the mainland aimed at the destruction of those capitalists, landlords, and bureaucrats who had not fled the communist takeover. Bao’s business improved, owing to his decision to seek expansion capital through the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. Making connections with senior banking officials John Saunder and Guy Sayer in 1952 – both of whom would have a long business relationship with Bao – provided him with the necessary capital for expansion. Still concerned to avoid fixed assets, Bao sought out new ventures as his business grew, and in 1955 decided to move into shipping. Believing travel was essential to build his business, Bao went to London and Washington DC to make connections and troubleshoot problems related to his business interests. Considered a dubious enterprise at the time, Bao’s first ship was acquired without financing. Yet, his meticulous management and prudent decision-making inspired the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank to approve a loan for further ship purchases. As a result, his shipping business grew quickly, with all new vessels dubbed with the second name ‘Golden’, then ‘Eastern’, and finally ‘World’, Bao’s World-Wide Shipping grew to meet the expanding demand of the postwar Japanese market. Bao’s philosophy concerning shipping was careful management of machine, personnel, cargo, and clients to minimize risk and maximize rewards, training 1
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officers and crews extensively, and choosing charter customers based on their ability to pay. Moreover, using a system called shikumisen, Bao shifted the fiscal burden of ship maintenance by creating long-term (10–20 years) charter agreements where ship operations and upkeep became the charter’s responsibility. This system allowed World-Wide Shipping to expand rapidly between 1965 and 1975. By 1980, Bao’s World-Wide Shipping had the world’s largest shipping fleet and he was internationally known. He had been made a member of the board of directors of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (1971), received an honorary law degree from Hong Kong University (1975), appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine (1976), spoken at the Harvard Business School (1976) and he was knighted in 1978. In the late 1970s, Bao recognized a need to diversify to avoid downturns in the world shipping market. He expanded his holdings in real estate using the proceeds from ship sales as World-Wide reduced its fleet by selling off older ships. Bao acquired a 10 percent stake in the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co. Ltd, and worked to increase this stake to 49 percent. The acquisitions of Wheelock Marden in 1985 further expanded Bao’s real estate holdings putting several hotels, offices, and retail spaces under his control. In the late 1980s, Bao retired from day-to-day operations, and stepped down from active membership of most corporate boards. After divesting his family trust by selling most hard assets, Bao worked on philanthropic campaigns. In July 1981, Bao donated 10 million dollars for the construction of a new library named after his father at the Shanghai Jiaotong University. Bao died in 1991, but his legacy continues in the business world and through charities. In December of that same year a 14 000 square-meter library was constructed in his honor on the Minhang campus of Jiaotong University in Shanghai. Julian Chambliss Sources Hong Kong Pao Foundation (2008), ‘About Mr. Pao’, accessed at www.pao.hk/new/en/index.asp. Hutchinson, Robin (1990), The First Sea Lord, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, vii and chapter 2. Thatcher, Margaret (1990), ‘Foreword’, in Robert Hutchinson, The First Sea Lord, Chinese University Press: Hong Kong, p. vii.
Bi, Dongjiang (James Bi ↩ϰ∳ b. 1946) President of US-based Pi Associates LLC, which manages Victoria Cruises Inc., Bi is a successful Chinese American businessman who invests his fortune back in his native land. Born in Shanghai into a wealthy family that was friendly with the biggest Chinese shipping tycoons, Bi had an early exposure to the shipping business. He attended Taiwan Marine University and served in the navy. Dreaming of a maritime career Bi was inspired to pursue a masters degree in naval management at the State University of New York in 1972. Bi’s first business venture after graduation, however, was in wholesale product distribution followed by retail. It was in photo developing and real estate that Bi built his wealth. In 1991, Bi’s Photo Experts Inc. launched a partnership with the largest film manufacturer in China and in 1993 he took part in a joint venture with China Photo Service. A life-changing opportunity then presented itself to Bi. After learning about Bi’s
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academic background, Li Jinming, the chief economist for the Yangtze River Maritime Authority (YRMA) revealed the blueprint for a Yangtze cruise ship to Bi and invited him on a tour of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River. The breathtaking scenery along the 192 km route reawakened Bi’s youthful dream. As a shrewd businessman, he also recognized the tremendous profit potential. At the time, there were a couple of dozen cruise ships serving tourists on the Yangtze River. They were old ships with sparse customer services. Bi decided to start an upscale cruise line, Victoria Cruises, primarily targeting overseas tourists. He wanted to bring Western standards of travel comfort to the beauty of the Three Gorges. Victoria I (Prince) was inaugurated on 12 July 1994 from Chongqing. It differentiated itself from its peers on the Yangtze River by its impeccable service, friendly staff, delicious food and deluxe accommodation. Victoria II and III followed, launched in 1995 and 1997. After 13 years, Bi’s Victoria Cruises Inc. owns seven cruise ships, each running 56 trips per year. Victoria has transformed itself into a well-recognized brand for sightseeing on the Yangtze. Each year since 2002, more than 70 000 guests took Victoria cruises. As demand for touring China increases exponentially, Bi Dongjiang’s Victoria Cruises on the Yangtze have become one of the top destinations for American and European tourists. Besides Victoria Cruises, Bi Dongjiang’s Pi Associates LLC develops commercial real estate throughout New York City and also recently acquired Tung Shing House, a fine Chinese restaurant that is famous among New Yorkers for its Peking duck. Ying Zhang Sources Pi Associates LLC (2007), ‘Company founder’, accessed 28 November at www.team-pi.com/about_us.html. Who’s Who of Chinese Origin Worldwide (2007), ‘Bi Dongjiang’ accessed 28 November at www.whoswhochinese. com/wsw10/bidongjiang.htm.
Bo, Xilai (㭘❭ᴹb. 1949) Former Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai is a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee (CC) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), elected at the first plenary session of the 17th CCP CC on 22 October 2007. One month later he was appointed party secretary of Chongqing Municipality. Before being appointed Minister of Commerce, Bo was mayor of Dalian City and governor of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Bo Xilai is the second son of late party veteran Bo Yibo (1908–2007), a Long March veteran who, like leader Deng Xiaoping, was one of the ‘Eight Immortals’. Because of his father, Bo is considered to be one of the elite group of ‘princelings’ (children of incumbent, retired and late high-ranking party and government functionaries). He is a native of Dingxiang County in Shanxi Province. In 1966, at the start of the Cultural Revolution, Bo Yibo was labelled a ‘counterrevolutionary revisionist’ and imprisoned for 12 years. His wife Hu Ming was driven to her death as a result of persecution by Red Guards, and their children were jailed or sent to the countryside. Bo Xilai himself was imprisoned for five years.
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After the rehabilitation of Bo Yibo in 1978, Deng Xiaoping made him a vice-premier of the State Council. Bo Xilai worked in a factory in Beijing for five years before being admitted in 1977 to Beijing University. He graduated with a baccalaureate in world history, and in 1979 began studies at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences where he received his masters degree in journalism in 1982. This specialty distinguishes him from the crowd of engineers who make up the political elite in China. Bo had joined the Communist Party in October 1980. After graduation he worked as a staff member in the research office of the CCPCC Secretariat and the CCPCC General Office. In 1985 he was transferred to Dalian City in Northeastern Liaoning Province. He spent almost 20 years in Liaoning, 16 of them in Dalian, where he first served as party secretary of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone and party secretary of Jinzhou Prefecture, before becoming mayor of Dalian in 1993 and party secretary in 1999. The port city of Dalian is part of China’s northeastern industrial heartland and was a grey, polluted city when Bo Xilai took office. Petrochemical and fuel plants were the main culprits in the fouling of the air and waterways. Bo fought to implement stricter emission controls and to shut down the worst polluters. Since then Dalian has been among the cleanest cities in China. Bo made it a model location by attracting investment from South Korea and Japan. He wanted to make the city an international fashion and trade center. To this end, he started successful infrastructure and urban beautification projects. China’s first expressway, the Shenyang-Dalian Expressway, was built in the early 1990s. Since his term in Dalian, Bo has been viewed as a rising political star. In 2001 Bo Xilai was chosen by then General Secretary Jiang Zemin as the new governor of Liaoning Province and appointed deputy party secretary of Liaoning. Bo is said to be a follower of Jiang Zemin. Liaoning used to serve as an important industrial base under China’s planned economy, but slipped into the doldrums when China launched its economic reform and opening-up drive and gradually endorsed a market economy. As governor in the northeastern rust belt, which was marked by ailing state-owned heavy industry, Bo Xilai successfully courted foreign investors and campaigned for the central government’s strategy to invigorate the region. Meanwhile, Liaoning had developed into one of the most economically powerful provinces in China and had seen fast expansion in the equipment manufacturing business, characterized by machine tools and shipbuilding. Its GDP is estimated to have grown by a record 14.5 percent in 2007, and the province is the eighth in the country to have a GDP above one trillion yuan. In 2002 Bo Xilai was elected a member of the 16th CCPCC. At the 15th National Party Congress in 1997 he had failed to win enough votes to enter the Central Committee, even as an alternate member. He succeeded in joining the highly regarded committee only in 2002, and by February 2004, Bo Xilai was appointed Minister of Commerce, a post he held until December 2007. This super-ministry was formed in March 2003 from the State Economic and Trade Commission, responsible for the domestic economy, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), as part of the restructuring of the State Council. Among his urgent duties as minister were the restructuring of domestic trade, drafting the first national antitrust law and supervising China’s compliance with WTO requirements. He had to deal with trade disputes between China and both the EU and the United States, and held negotiations with the EU on the issue of exports of China’s textile products. Bo is well known for his vigorous defence of China’s trade interests.
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In 1995 Bo Xilai received the title of ‘National Model for Respecting the Elderly’, and in 1999 he was distinguished with the ‘UN-HABITAT Scroll of Honour Award’. He speaks English well, is relaxed in front of the media, and presents himself well in the international arena. His transfer to Chongqing may bring more policy and financial assistance for the municipality, strengthen its leading role in the development of western China, and drive the region’s economy. Jen-Kai Liu Sources Hsieh, David (1999), ‘In China’s industrial north, Dalian shows cleaning up the environment is good for business’, Asiaweek Online, 17 November, accessed 5 October 2008 at www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/ features/asiacities/ac1999/data/improved.dalian.html. Nathan, Andrew J. and Bruce Gilley (2002), China’s New Rulers: The Secret Files, New York: New York Review of Books, pp. 127–30. NationMaster Encyclopaedia (2008), ‘Bo Xilai’, accessed 5 October at www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/ Bo-Xilai.
Cao, Guowei (Charles Cao ӳ b. 1965) A member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Cao Guowei is the president and CEO of Sina.com. As the first Chinese portal going public on the NASDAQ, Sina.com once topped the internet market in China. The number of registered users in Sina.com has exceeded 230 million, and daily searching has reached over 700 million hits. Sina.com has become the most highly praised internet brand in both mainland China and among the global Chinese community. Born in Shanghai, Cao Guowei received his degree in journalism from Fudan University in 1988, and worked for the Shanghai Television Station for one year. He then went to the US to study journalism at Oklahoma University, where he earned his masters degree. In 1991, Cao enrolled in an MBA program concentrating on accounting at the University of Texas in Austin. After graduation he went directly to Silicon Valley, while most of his classmates headed to New York for better paid jobs. Cao first worked as a senior manager for Price Waterhouse Coopers Accounting, where he was responsible for providing audit and consultation services to high-tech enterprises in Silicon Valley, and had a chance to participate in the listing of several high-profile enterprises on the NASDAQ. Cao joined Sina.com in September 1999, holding various titles including executive financial vice-president, chief financial officer, and joint chief operating officer. In 2004, when Sina.com’s advertisement revenue was threatened by its main competitor, Cao Guowei, who had been a CFO for five years, was put in charge of the advertisement business. The decision surprised many people but was proved right a year later. In 2005, the advertisement growth rate in Sina.com exceeded that of Sohu.com for the first time in three years, and Cao’s ability was acknowledged by the leadership of Sina.com. On 10 May 2006, Cao was named the fifth CEO of Sina.com. In terms of management style, Cao is quite different from Wang Yan, the former CEO of Sina.com. Guided by his ‘careful, rational, and designed’ business principles, Cao will likely lead Sina.com to a new stage in the coming years. Huang, Lujin Sources Cheng, Lingfeng (2006), ‘Walking man: Cao Guowei’, China Entrepreneur, 11. Dong, Xiaochang (2006), ‘Time of Cao Guowei’, Internet Weekly, 15 May. Sina.com, (2006), ‘ӳ˖ᮄ⌾佪ᐁᠻ㸠ᅬݐᘏ㺕’ [‘Cao Guowei, President and CEO of Sina.com’], accessed at http://corp.sina.com.cn/chn/sina_mng.html.
Chai, Songyue (᷈ᵒኇ b. 1941) Former governor of Zhejiang Province, Chai Songyue is the current chairman of the China State Electricity Commission, a key position that has tremendous influence on the rapid growth of the Chinese economy in the twenty-first century. Born in 1941, Chai is a native of Putuo, Zhejiang Province. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at age 20, and for the next 27 years held managerial and party positions in a power plant and a coal mine, later being named deputy secretary of the CCP Commission for Discipline Inspection in his home province. In 1988, he was 6
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appointed vice-governor of Zhejiang Province, in 1997 acting governor, and from 1998, Chai was governor of the province. Located on the southeast coast next to the booming Shanghai metropolitan area, Zhejiang is one of the most prosperous provinces in China, and the regional economic development certainly helped Chai’s political career. As with other high-ranking officials in China, Chai’s party positions in the province have run in parallel with his government posts. In 2003, Chai was brought in to serve as chairman of the China Electricity Regulatory Commission. His appointment was part of a wider effort to strengthen the management of key developmental sectors from 2003 to 2007. Chai and many other popular and successful provincial leaders were appointed as part of a new generation of national party congress members. Chai’s chairmanship appointment was supposed to relieve the State Council’s control over the regulation of that industry; it was also part of a government action to replace old third-generation national leaders with new and fresh-faced local officials. In this new capacity, Chai worked on the issue of massive power shortages in various provinces. He supported an increase in generating capacity and expressed confidence that the problem would disappear as the new generators would be able to handle the increased need for power. The rolling blackouts were never more than a temporary solution to the problem, and under his leadership fewer and fewer provinces have needed to use this method of conserving power across China in recent years. Julian Chambliss and David Irving Sources Tsang, Denise and Bei Hu (2002), ‘Key men named in reform drive for power sector’, South China Morning Post, 16 October. Xinhua News (2006), ‘China’s power shortage to be checked as more supply comes online’, 7 October, accessed at http://www1.cei.gov.cn/ce/doc/cenm/200610082248.htm.
Chang, Chung-Mou ‘Morris’ (Zhang, Zhongmou ᓴᖴ䇟b. 1931) Dr Chung-Mou ‘Morris’ Chang is the founding chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). Founded in 1987, TSMC pioneered the ‘dedicated silicon foundry’ and is today the largest silicon manufacturer in the world. In his role as chairman of TSMC, Chang has been responsible for leading an organization in the development and manufacture of semiconductor products that have since become the foundation for the electronic industry’s biggest successes all across the globe. Born in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on 10 July 1931, Chang had originally planned to become an author, however, his father persuaded him otherwise. In 1949, at the height of the Chinese Civil War, Chang moved to the United States to attend Harvard University, but later transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his BS in 1952 and his MS degree a year later, both in mechanical engineering. In 1964, Chang earned a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In the US, he worked for Texas Instruments for a period of 25 years from 1958 to 1983. At one point he was responsible for the company’s worldwide semiconductor business. In 1984, he left Texas Instruments to become the president and CEO of the General Instrument Corporation. In 1986, the Taiwan government recruited Chang to become chairman and president
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of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). As head of the governmentsponsored organization whose purpose was to encourage and drive industrial and technological development in Taiwan, Chang founded TSMC at a critical time when corporations were increasingly looking to outsource manufacturing to Asia. As a result, TSMC became one of the world’s most profitable chipmakers. Chang left ITRI in 1994 to serve as chairman of Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation, while still continuing to serve as chairman of TSMC. Founded in Hsinchu (Xinzhu), Taiwan, TSMC manufactures chips on a contract basis for a diverse client base. The largest independent fabricator of wafers for logic semiconductors, TSMC under Chang’s leadership has constructed state-of-the-art plants with the lowest break-even operating levels in the industry. In addition, the company has led the way in research and development and in its production, continually developing and utilizing the most advanced processes to increase the speed and enhance the performance of chips. In 2008, the firm announced that they would be spending US$5 billion to expand their Hsinchu plant and add further research and development capabilities. Today, Chang serves on the advisory boards of the New York Stock Exchange, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1998 he was selected by BusinessWeek as one of the ‘Top 25 Managers of the Year’ and ‘Stars of Asia’. During the same year he was named by BancAmerica as ‘One of the Most Significant Contributors in the 50 Years of Semiconductor Industry’. In addition he has received honorary doctorates from Chiao-Tung University, Tsinghua University, the Central University in Taiwan and Polytechnic University in the United States. Matthew Amick Sources Chang, Shenglin (2005), The Global Silicon Valley Home: Lives and Landscapes within Taiwanese, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Forbes (2007), ‘Morris Chang profile’, accessed 22 November at www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/ personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=922769. Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2007), ‘Chang, Morris’, accessed 22 November at http://search.eb.com. ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/eb/article-9342055. Who’s Who in ROC (2001), ‘Chang, Morris’, Taiwan, http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/who/2001/ who1.htm.
Chang, Steve (Zhang, Mingzheng ᓴᯢℷ b. 1956) Steve Chang is the co-founder, CEO and chief of the board of directors of Trend Micro Enterprise. Trend Micro is a leading company for integrative information security services, owning branch operations in major technological economies including the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Japan (where the current headquarters are located), China (Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, the company’s core research center) and other regions. Growing up in Ping Tung, Taiwan, Chang worked part-time at a small bowling alley owned by his parents, and picked up on managerial skills at a young age. When he was studying in school, he had an insight that the computer industry would soon become predominant in both the business world and in the lives of ordinary people. After receiving a masters degree in computer science from Lehigh University, Chang returned to Taiwan and worked for Hewlett-Packard as a software salesman. Foreseeing the
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importance of software translation, together with friends he invested US$50 000 in buying out the copyright of a database program from the USA, which was later translated into Chinese. While initial sales were successful, illegal copies of the software soon followed. This helped Chang realize the growth potential of computer security software. Soon after, in 1988, Chang started a new company, Trend Micro, along with Jenny Chen, his wife and entrepreneurial partner. Started in an office located in a California parking lot, the business headquarters soon moved back to Taiwan, although Chang insisted that the R&D center should stay in the USA. Under his leadership, the recruitment of highly-skilled software engineers from around the world became major company policy. All Chang’s strategic actions were based on his belief that successful Asian software companies must be rooted in exceptional human resources and a superior knowledge base. Over the years, the company has experienced three major brand-building processes: an OEM for Intel, struggling for autonomy, and centralization. By 2004, Trend Micro had earned first prize at the Top Taiwanese International Brand Awards, with a brand value nearing NT$25.9 billion. Today the company is still growing at a steady pace, with its main focus on information security for enterprises of various sizes, while still maintaining a minor but important role in anti-virus software for end-users. Chang’s managerial style has greatly influenced the corporate culture of Trend Micro, and innovation and a relaxed atmosphere are stressed in the working environment. Viewing the world with a ‘laissez-faire’ attitude, Chang always speaks with a loud and confident voice, and believes that failure is not a big deal – it is only natural. Such a philosophy has given Chang the courage to bounce back every time that he has experienced difficult challenges. However, even with Chang’s adventurous personality, he ensures that the future growth of Trend Micro will always be based on its solid foundation of information security. For Chang, the key to a successful business is strategy, and its implementation is basically a process of careful trade-offs. For instance, while competitors were expanding their product lines horizontally, Trend Micro focused on vertical integration to enrich their products’ functionality, thus enhanced their business competitiveness. Extending from this product-focused strategy, Chang and Chen have successfully set up an internal FAME (Focus, Alliance, Major accounts, and Experts) program, and the company has faithfully adhered to this approach, even when facing serious challenges during its various developmental stages. Currently, Chang travels around the world to keep abreast of his global business and customers, as well as to search for new opportunities in innovative business software. As the company’s research and development are based on diverse customer needs and knowledge, innovations and structural changes at Trend Micro have become increasingly customer-oriented, resulting in continual growth in recent years. For example in Japan, Trend Micro has generated sales that amount to almost half of their global total. Furthermore, Chang has led the company in expanding their business into emerging markets, including mainland China, Eastern Europe and India. More recently, Chang and Chen have sponsored a number of social entrepreneurship activities such as the establishment of Flow Venture Capital. Chang’s advice for young people is always ‘If I can do it, you can do it too!’ After achieving business success, he is seeking new ways to serve as a mentor and facilitator and to contribute to society. Fu-Sheng Tsai
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Sources Barnathan, J. (1999), ‘The stars of Asia: 50 Asian leaders at the forefront of change’, BusinessWeek, 14 June, accessed at www.businessweek.com/1999/99_24/b3633031.htm. BusinessWeek (1999), ‘Steve Chang, CEO, Trend Micro, Taiwan’, 14 June. Business Wire (2001), ‘Trend Micro CEO Steve Chang named one of “Asia’s 25 Movers and Shakers’”, 9 April. Hsieh, W.Z. (2004), ‘The software industry has become a sunset industry!’ TechVantage Magazine, January, accessed at www.techvantage.com.tw/content/037/037104.asp. Kunii, I.M. (2001), ‘Staying one step ahead of the worms. But can virus fighter Trend Micro keep its lead over rivals?’, BusinessWeek, 12 November. Trend Micro (2005), website accessed 13 November 2007 at http://tw.trendmicro.com/tw/home/. Xinhua Net (2005), ‘Steve Zhang: Why I Can Succeed?’, accessed 17 June at http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/ big5/news.xinhuanet.com/ec/2005-06/17/content_3096847.htm.
Chang, Xiaobing (ᐌᇣ݉ b. 1957) An engineer by training, Chang Xiaobing is the Chairman of the board of directors and Chief Executive Officer of the China Unicom Group, the second largest Chinese mobile telephone operator after China Mobile. A native of Hebei Province, Chang graduated in 1982 from the Nanjing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications with a BS degree in telecommunication engineering. He also received a masters degree in business administration from Tsinghua University in 2001, and a doctorate in business administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2005. Chang has over 25 years of operational and managerial experience in the telecommunications industry in China. Prior to joining the Unicom Group, he served as a deputy director of the Bureau of Posts and Telecommunications in Jiangsu Province from 1993 to 1996, and for the next four years as a deputy director-general of the Department of Telecommunications Administration under the Ministry of Information Industry. In 2000 he was named the director of Telecommunications Administration, Ministry of Information Industry, a position he held until November 2004 when he was appointed the chairman of Unicom Group. While in the Ministry of Information Industry, he also served as vice president of China Telecom Group. Founded as a state-owned corporation, China Unicom is a telecommunication operator in the People’s Republic of China, with 52.6 percent of the company controlled by the state-owned China Unicom Limited and China United Telecommunications Corporation Limited, while the remainder is traded on the Shenzhen, Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges. China Unicom was established on 19 July 1994, by the then Ministry of Electronic Industry (now the Ministry of Information Industry) and approved by the State Council. Started as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a wide range of services including nationwide GSM and CDMA mobile networks, long-distance, local calling, data communication, internet services and IP telephony in mainland China, and has operated a CDMA network in Macau since 18 October 2006. China Unicom is ranked as the second-largest CDMA provider in the world and the third-biggest mobile provider. Chang has played a key role in the unprecedented growth of the Chinese telecommunication industry over recent years. While serving as vice president of China Telecom, the largest fixed-line telecommunication service provider in China, Chang oversaw its expansion into the North American market. In 2002, China Telecom became the first Chinese
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telecommunication company to establish operations in the United States with the opening of its Washington DC headquarters and a suite of single-provider, end-to-end telecom services to American corporations doing business in China. According to Chang, ‘China continues to be a leading investment destination for American companies. They need a telecom partner who has the local experience and know-how to get things done. Last year, China Telecom wired 20 million new residential and business lines to our voice network. That’s the equivalent of adding all the phone lines in the State of California in one year. We’re used to getting things done in China. Setting up China Telecom USA is the first step in our overseas development strategy. We’ll keep on this way’ (Business Wire, 2002). After Chang took over China Unicom, he still regarded international cooperation as a vital strategy for corporate success. In 2006, the company entered into a strategic alliance framework agreement with SK Telecom of South Korea, and issued convertible bonds in an aggregated principal amount of 1 billion US dollars to the same company. Under Chang’s able leadership, China Unicom experienced tremendous growth. By the end of June 2006, it had reached over 135 million cellular subscribers, representing a net increase of 7.29 million as compared with the previous year. Apart from a steady expansion in its mobile business, the company’s value-added services also achieved robust growth, as total revenue from wireless value-added services reached 8 billion yuan (1 billion US dollars), representing an increase of 49 percent over 2005. The company’s long-distance, data and internet business also saw significant profitability improvements after China Unicom restructured its product mix. More recently, the returns in 2008 more than doubled 2007 earnings as the company vied with China Mobile for rural subscribers and more users switched from traditional phones to wireless services. Related to the ongoing reform of the ministries and the re-shuffling of state-owned companies under the State Council, the year 2008 will be critical for all major telecommunication providers in China. As the industry is gearing up for the largest restructuring in history, the shake-up will affect every telecom giant including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom. Regardless of the outcome, Chang Xiaobing will likely play an important role in the continual development of the telecommunications industry in China, already the largest in the world. Wenxian Zhang Sources Business Wire (2002), ‘China Telecom-USA Corporation becomes first Chinese telecommunications company to establish operations in the United States’, 1 November, accessed at www.allbusiness.com/companyactivities-management/operations-customer/6003273-1.html. China Vitae (2002), ‘Chang Xiaobing’, accessed at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Chang_Xiaobing/bio. Shenzhen Daily (2007), ‘SK Telecom to be Unicom’s no. 2 shareholder’, accessed 24 November at http://e.cnci. gov.cn/doce/news/news_detail.aspx?news_id=2354. Xinhua News (2006), ‘China Unicom has 135 million cellular subscribers’, accessed 28 August at http://fec2. mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/news/200608/20060802991578.html.
Chang, Xing (ᐌᑌ b. 1952) A native of Yutian County, Hebei Province, in 2003 Chang Xing became board chairman and party secretary of the North China Pharmaceutical Group Corp. (NCPC), a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in China.
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Under China’s planned economy, NCPC was one of the key construction projects of the First Five-Year Plan that began in 1953. After five years of construction, the factory was put into operation in 1958. Being one of the world’s leading producers of antibiotics, both in terms of technology and scale of production at that time, NCPC contributed significantly to the commercial production of antibiotics in China. Over 50 years NCPC has been continually growing and taking the lead in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry in key economic indexes, ranking as one of the top 500 enterprises and the best profit-makers in China. In 2002, NCPC achieved domestic sales revenue of US$700million and export sales of US$100 million. With 18 500 employees, its total assets reached US$2 billion. Graduated from the Beijing University of Iron and Steel Technology, Chang joined the Chinese Communist Party in September 1976, and in 1993 he enrolled in the graduate program of the Central Party School, majoring in world economy. Since 1984, he has held various titles in the Chengde municipal government including deputy director (April 1984 to May 1986), deputy secretary-general and director of economic research (May 1986 to April 1990), and deputy mayor (April 1990 to June 2001). In 2001, Chang was named the deputy director of the Hebei Economic and Trade Commission, a position he held for two years. This role led to Chang’s involvement with the North China Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, and in 2003 he was named board chairman and party secretary of NCPC. Chang believed that only through innovation could a company sustain continuous development. For maximum gain, technology should combine organically with the concept and system of innovation; and for long-term achievement, internal and external resources should integrate efficiently. Under his leadership, the North China Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd has made major progress and received numerous awards, including recognition as one of the top 500 Chinese companies, an enterprise honor for quality and efficiency, recognition as one of the national enterprises with the greatest customer satisfaction, and as one of the top three exporting companies in Western medicine. In 2004, Forbes recognized NCPC as one of the most valuable industrial brands in China; the company was also named as a national enterprise with excellence in quality management, and ranked among the top ten most competitive public enterprises in the fast-growing Chinese pharmaceutical industry. Huang, Lujin Source Sina Finance (2004), ‘ढ࣫ࠊ㥃ᐌᑌㅔग़ ᮄ⌾䋶㒣’ [‘Chang Xing, chairman of the North China Pharmaceutical Group Corp.’], 8 August, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20040808/1239932765. shtml.
Chen, Feng (䰜ዄ b. 1953) President and CEO of the China Grand Airlines conglomerate, and former president of Hainan Airlines, Chen Feng has brought his small, regional airline to the forefront of China’s air industry through a dynamic business strategy. Chen has seen every side of air travel: from time spent in the People’s Republic of China Air Force, through flight-training school and positions in the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to private airline management. After graduating from the Lufthansa Group Air Transport Management College in 1984 Chen went on to study
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for an MBA at Maastricht School of Management in 1995 and advanced senior management courses at Harvard Business School in 2002. While a student in school, Chen helped with the establishment of an airline company for the government of Hainan Province, a small tourism-based province in China. The Hainan Province Airline Company launched in 1993 with an initial funding of 10 million RMB ($1.332 million) and was partially sponsored by friends Chen had made on Wall Street, making it the first Chinese airline to attract foreign investment. Chen’s connections to Wall Street acquainted him with big-time investor George Soros who Chen convinced to invest $25 million for 25 percent of the recently renamed Hainan Air (NYSE: HNA). The move brought Chen and his company worldwide attention as a beacon of capitalism in the Chinese communist machine. For the next eight years Hainan Air grew steadily as a provincial airline rarely straying from Hainan. In 2002 Chen faced a daunting challenge when the CAAC announced that it would consolidate its ten airlines into three large firms. With a market share of only 9 percent, Hainan was dwarfed by the giants. But Chen took the competition in his stride, expanding Hainan Air from ‘a regional niche carrier’ to a national airline. The company absorbed regional Chinese carriers to acquire numerous hubs throughout China. Today Chen’s airline has a fleet of 129 aircraft and is nationally acclaimed. Now the fourth largest carrier in China (behind the three government conglomerates), it has over 500 routes to 90 destinations across the country. Many of these are destinations that the larger airlines neglect and the convenience is greatly appreciated by airline consumers. But the company is best known for its style and service. One can easily spot a Hainan Air jet, as the aircraft bodies are always vividly decorated with colorful flowers or cartoons. At the end of each flight free tickets to any Hainan Air destination are auctioned off. Hainan is not your regular airline by any stretch of imagination. Chen has let supply and demand mold it into an exciting, efficient, high-service corporation. Chen says that his competitors have ‘one family, one system, one boss;’ but his motto is ‘we belong to the public.’ Chen is known in the Chinese business world as a leader with a dynamic personality, and has been officially recognized for much of his work, receiving, among others, the National Model Worker award, an award for the top 20 Most Influential Chinese Entrepreneurs in the Last 20 Years and Asia Business Leader of the Year 2005. But his most lasting achievement is his impact: he faced government-run competition with a market-based formula and survived. On 30 November 2007, Chen was named the president and CEO of the China Grand Airlines conglomerate, after Hainan Airlines merged with Shanxi Airlines, Chang’an Airlines, and China Xinhua Airlines to form Grand China Air, the fourth-largest airline in China. Arthur Holst Sources Asia Business Leaders Awards (2005), ‘Finalists’, accessed 2 October 2007 at www.cnbcasia.com/abla2005/ finalist9.shtm. Dolven, B. (2002), ‘The best little airline in China’, Far Eastern Economic Review, (32). Gang, T.(2001), ‘SOE reform blazes trail for successful enterprise operation’, People’s Daily, 4 June, 7. Hainan Air (2007), ‘About HNA’, accessed 2 October at www.hnair.com/hnairweben/ABOUTHNAIR/wfm default.aspx. Zeng, Qingkai (2005), ‘Soros injects another US$25m into Hainan Airlines’, China Daily, 17 October accessed 2 October 2007 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/17/content_485469.htm.
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Chen, Jinyi (䰜䞥Н b. 1960) Board Chairman of the Jinyi (Kingsea) Group, Chen Jinyi was China’s first stock market millionaire. He was ranked thirty-fifth among the richest Chinese in 2000 by Forbes magazine with personal assets of US$80 million. Although his position in the list dropped to 61 in the following year, his personal wealth increased to $96 million. Chen was born in a poor mountain village in Tonglu, Zhejiang Province in 1960. After completing high school at the age of 18, he started off by raising bees and built up a very successful honey business. In three years he managed to save 10 000 yuan, a substantial amount at that time. However his business only really took off when China began to implement security reforms years later. Recognizing the importance of the stock market to Chinese economic development, Chen obtained a license and began to trade stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. He was among the first group of private entrepreneurs to purchase state-sector enterprises, investing in six bankrupt state-owned factories in Shanghai in 1992. Using the financial market as leverage, Chen subsequently built up a food and beverage business. In 2000, in partnership with local government in Heilongjiang Province, he invested 300 million yuan (US$36 million) in the development of a new mineral water product line, which had a design capacity of 300 000 to 500 000 tons annually in three years. Chen’s flagship enterprise, Kingsea Group, is a large corporation with thousands of employees and many subsidiaries, including a joint venture in textiles with a Taiwanese investor, and joint investments in property development with a number of local Chinese governments. The Kingsea Group was initially to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but Chen eventually withdrew from the Hong Kong listing, fearing the market there was not stable. The company later merged with a Singapore-listed company and became one of the first Chinese firms to list abroad in 2003. More recently, however, the company ran into some serious financial difficulties. Although a well-known enterprise, Kingsea Group was revealed by a court paper in 2006 as top debtor among 20 defaulters, with three debts of 677 600 yuan (US$85 017). Dongmei Cao Sources EuroBiz Magazine (2003), ‘Jinyi gets Singapore listing’, May. Robison, Richard and David S.G. Goodman (1996), The New Rich in Asia: Mobile Phones, McDonalds and Middle-Class Revolution, London: Routledge, p. 232. People’s Daily (2008), ‘Zhejiang private company develops new mineral water product’, 7 October.
Chen, Lihua (Chan, Laiwa 䰜Бढ b. 1941) Growing up in a poor family living in Beijing appears to have been a source of great encouragement to Chen. She has been ranked among China’s wealthiest business people for several consecutive years and ranked fifth in 2002 with $665 million. In 1976, after finishing high school, Chen began a furniture repairing business. With an interest in international trade, in the 1980s she sought opportunities in Hong Kong, and in 1988 she founded the Fuhua (Fu Wah) International Group in Beijing, which has interests in real estate, hospitality, international business efforts, and tourism among
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others. She has since worked as president and chairwoman of the $625 million corporation. She was able to take over the real estate market in Beijing through connections with leaders within the Communist Party. Fuhua targets the high-end consumer and works on market-oriented projects. Since 1988, the projects have exceeded real estate of over 1 million square meters and Fuhua has become the most successful real estate company in China. In 1995, Chen founded the Chang An Club, a luxurious elite club for wealthy self-made top business people. The club holds conferences for Chinese and foreign business people and strives to meet the international business demands of China. Currently there are approximately 800 members who enjoy the business and recreational activities that are offered. Initially it was difficult for many Chinese to grasp the idea of the Chang An Club because it is not traditionally Chinese and has an extreme Western influence. However, this innovative project strengthened the company, increasing its success and popularity. More clubs are being developed in major Chinese cities. In 1999 Chen invested 200 million yuan in building the China Red Sandalwood Museum in Beijing. The 10 000 square meter museum is an act of generosity on the part of Chen who contributed $25 million to the preservation of rare art and furniture and the promotion of Chinese culture and history. On 27 May 1999, Chen was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the largest private art college in the United States, in recognition of her contribution to the art community. In 2004 and 2005 Chen donated about $50 million towards disaster relief and has also contributed to education and poverty relief. In 2006, Chen was third on the Hurun’s Richest Women in China’s List, which noted that she was worth $750 million. Chen, one of the most successful women in China, is recognized as being a loyal member of the Central Government State Unification Commission, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the China Association of Industry and Commerce. Chen has large plans for the future. Currently the multinational firm is working on several different projects, the first of which is the $500 million ‘Jinbao Street’ project in downtown Beijing, which will restore the historic city. The second is the ‘Li Shan’ project, which is a plan for luxury residences and other buildings. At age 67, Chen is still busy making her environment a better place for herself and others. Charlotte Froehlich and Marc Fetscherin Sources Who’s Who in Asia, ‘Chen, Lihua’. China Daily (2006), ‘Boss Mum: Chan Laiwa’, 23 November. China’s Foreign Trade (2000), ‘The life’s value is devotion’, September. Forbe’s Global (2001), ‘China’s 100 Richest Business People: Chan Laiwa’, 11 December. Fu Wah International Group, accessed at www.fuwahgroup.com/en.htm.
Chen, Tianqiao (䰜ḹb. 1973) Founder and CEO of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, Chen Tianqiao is one of the most high-profile entrepreneurs associated with the creation of China’s multi-player, online, role-playing games market. Originally from Zhejiang Province, Chen founded Shanda with his wife and his younger brother in Shanghai in 1999, focusing on online
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cartoons. Chen was 27 at the time, with a business degree from the prestigious Fudan University and prior work experience at a state-owned property firm. Nevertheless, the original business idea did not work out; Chen then decided to use the firm’s remaining funds to obtain the license to operate ‘The Legend of Mir II’ in China from the Korean game developer Wemade Entertainment. The game was launched in November 2001. To work around the problem of rampant software piracy in China, Chen formulated the free-play strategy and sold players access to the online game rather than the game itself. Shanda offered the game’s software to players free of charge but designed a prepaid system using stored-value cards where players could buy time (by hours) on Shanda servers. Hence, the game’s software on Shanda servers was secured against counterfeiting. The prepaid cards were distributed through internet cafes, where most of the gamers gained access to internet PCs. This ingenious payment system enabled Shanda to receive payment despite the inadequate online credit infrastructure in China. Shanda was profitable within two months. Chen re-invested the profit in a call center facility, which, since May 2002, has provided round-the-clock service to support Shanda’s game users seven days a week. Shanda also acquired majority ownership of a mobile phone game development firm in Shenzhen in January 2003. Shanda received US$40 million funding from a private equity firm in March 2003 and continued to strengthen its online games portfolios through acquisitions. It systematically built an extensive infrastructure to improve the gaming experience, including messaging services and an online payment system. Between 2001 and 2003, Shanda’s revenues increased 130-fold; it was listed on NASDAQ in May 2004. By the end of 2004, Shanda was attracting some 2 million concurrent users for its games during peak hours. Despite its leadership position in the Chinese online games market, Shanda moved towards a free-entry strategy in late 2005, which resulted in losses of US$69 million in the fourth quarter of 2005 and a sharp fall in share prices for six months. Under this new strategy, gamers could enjoy Shanda’s online games without any charge but they were required to pay for virtual goods such as ammunition, weapons and costumes for their avatars in the online world. Hence, players could design the online avatars with unique identities. The strategy eventually reaped financial benefits after 12 months and Shanda’s share prices gradually recovered. Though industry analysts forecast that the Chinese online games industry would continue to grow very fast throughout the 2000s, Chen wanted Shanda to expand its target markets and continue its rapid growth. His dream was for Shanda to become a successful global firm, with market capitalization comparable to Disney. To achieve this, Chen not only undertook equity investment in game development firms with the capital raised in the stock market, he also diversified Shanda’s portfolio. In 2005, Shanda acquired 19.5 percent of Sina (the Chinese internet portal and online news giant) and signed a partnership agreement with the California-based Universal Music Group, which allowed Shanda users to download music from the internet. Shanda further launched, in 2005, a handheld gaming device and a set-top box to allow television viewers to connect to the internet. Chen has combined US professional management with Chinese human resources. He strengthened the founding management team with managers trained in US firms. The most high profile recruitment was of Tang Jun, in February 2004, the former president of Microsoft China, whose name is in ‘Who’s Who in China’s IT’. Shanda’s human
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resources system is familial in character, which is typical of Chinese firms. Its policy is to send presents or cash to celebrate employees’ birthdays or marriages. In fact, Chen would personally ring up employees on special occasions such as birthdays, the arrival of new babies or when their children studied abroad for the first time. The company also provides cash to employees for family funerals, covering not only the employee’s spouse and children, but also the parents and the in-laws. Chen Tianqiao is a CEO who is characterized by intuition and creative thinking, he might therefore be the entrepreneur who could lead Shanda to become a heavyweight global interactive entertainment firm. Denise Tsang Sources BusinessWeek (2005), ‘China: no time to play games’, 11 July. Forbes (2005), ‘House of flying fingers’, 23 May. Fortune (2005), ‘Meet the next Disney: Shanda, China’s hottest online-game company, is betting that it can become an entertainment giant’, 28 November.
Chen, Xiao (䰜ᰧb. 1958) Now CEO of GOME, Chen Xiao is the former president of Yongle, the third largest home electronic appliance retailer in China, which was founded by Chen in 1996 and acquired by GOME in 2006. Chen is also an executive member of the China Franchising Association, and deputy director-general of the China Retailing Industry Association. Born in Shanghai in 1958, Chen received a masters degree in international business management. He began his career in Chinese home appliance retailing in 1985, and by 1992 he had been promoted to deputy general manager of a state-owned appliance company. Four years later, Chen launched Shanghai Yongle with RMB1 million and 47 employees. Initially focused on both wholesale and retail sales of home electronic appliances, Yongle was able to break the monopoly of the state-owned companies. However Chen later decided to drop the wholesale business and focus exclusively on retail as the core business. Under his leadership Yongle introduced a franchise business model and delivered high-quality appliances for free, a popular move that greatly boosted the company’s reputation. With its quality service and low prices, by 2001 Yongle had become the largest home appliance retailer in the Shanghai metropolitan region. In the next year, Yongle’s sales reached RMB1 million and the company was ranked third in the domestic market after GOME and Suning. In January 2005, Morgan Stanley invested US$50 million in Yongle to become the third largest shareholder. In the same year, Yongle was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its market value rose to HK$4.7 billion. A year later, Yongle was merged with GOME in a deal worth US$677 million. Chen himself had considerable experience in mergers and acquisitions in the appliance industry. In the late 1990s, to enlarge Yongle’s market share Chen bought Dongze Electronic Appliance, Xiamen Siwen, Henan Tongli and Taiwan Chankun. Following his belief that mergers and acquisitions were an effective way to control competition costs between big magnates, which could otherwise lead to a substantial loss of resources for both sides, Chen agreed to the merger between Yongle and GOME. Fully aware of the devastating effects of price wars, he regarded them as irrational activities that would
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bring losses to all participants. Despite the low profit margins in the home appliance retail industry, Chen has remained loyal to his trade and has put all his energies into the development of Yongle. Although Huang Guangyu, the president of GOME, used to regard Chen as one of his most fervent rivals because of Chen’s long-term insight, management skills and innovative power, the biggest merger in China’s home appliance retail industry has made them colleagues. As the decision-maker in Yongle, Chen spent a lot of his time on strategic issues, and he admitted that it would have taken at least ten years for Yongle to establish a market share equal to that of the combined company. After his role change from president to CEO, Chen now has to pay more attention to executive operations at GOME. Facing the new challenge, Chen believes the merger between Yongle and GOME has provided him with a much bigger platform for his capabilities. Huang, Lujin Sources Talents (2006), ᓴᇣᑇ‘䇕᪂ড়њ咘ܝ㺩䰜ᰧ’, 㣅ᠡ [Zhang, Xiaoping, ‘Who matched Huang Guangyu and Chen Xiao’], 12 September, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/ msypl/20060912/08592906042.shtml. Nandu Weekly (2007), 㪱㓈㓈 ‘䰜ᰧⱘᮄ㕢䞢ᖗ’, फ䛑਼ߞ [Lan, Weiwei, ‘Chen Xiao’s new ambition in GOME’], 11 September, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/ 20070911/10513966817.shtml.
Chen, Xiaoxian (䰜ᇣᅾ b.1954) Since 6 December 2004, Chen Xiaoxian has been the president of China CITIC Bank Corp. Ltd, an affiliate of China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC). Founded in 1987, CITIC Industrial Bank was one of the earliest commercial banks established during China’s reform era. In 2005, it was renamed CITIC Bank in order better to represent its business characteristics. Born in 1954, Chen graduated from the Renmin University of China in Beijing in 1982. He also received a PhD degree in finance from Northeast University of Finance and Economics and became a senior economist. From 1982 to 1993, he worked in the Beijing Branch of the People’s Bank of China, rising gradually through the corporate ranks and holding various positions, including deputy section chief of the planning department, section chief, assistant to president, and vice president of the bank. In April 2000, he was appointed as deputy chief of China Merchants Bank and in 2004, he was promoted to the position of president of China CITIC Bank Corp. Since taking up the leadership post, Chen has made special efforts to upgrade China CITIC Bank. His first task was brand development. To Chen, brand reputation is the most valuable property for a bank, and to this end he established the capital marketing department to promote a high-quality image for the bank. Under his leadership, China CITIC Bank received the Technical Development and Innovation Achievement Award from the IBM Corporation in 2005. A year later Chen was named among the Top Ten Financial Personalities of the Year by Chinese Banker magazine, and China CITIC Bank was ranked fourth in terms of core competence among the domestic commercial banks. During the same year the bank also received recognition as one of the ten fastest growing financial organizations in China.
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With vision and leadership, Chen has developed China CITIC Bank into a comprehensive commercial bank. Its business not only includes RMB deposits, loans, traveler’s checks, and credit cards, but also covers collection and payment agency and custody of property settlements, financial guarantees and credit checking, economic consulting, foreign exchange deposits, remittances, trade or non-trade balance, foreign currency securities and export credit. Huang, Lujin Sources China’s Financial Network, http://www.zgjrw.com. Ministry of Commerce, ‘Invest in China, Brief Introduction of China CITIC Bank’, http://www.fdi.gov.cn. Sina Financial Figures, accessed at http://finance.sina.com.cn.
Chen, Yun (䰜ѥ 1905–95) One of the most important leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, Chen is significant as someone who spanned the Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping eras and influenced events for nearly 60 years. Chen had great experience in managing the command economy and is noted for his support of a limited version of economic reform after 1978. From a working-class family and a survivor of the Long March, Chen’s main international experience was in Moscow in the 1930s. Though lacking formal education, Chen focused much of his work on the economy. More conservative than Deng and even more willing to stick to Mao Zedong’s thought, Chen nonetheless adopted a more pragmatic approach to economic management than Mao. Chen was a main architect of the centrally planned economy and of the first Five Year Plan in the early 1950s. Within that context, Chen favored greater importance for markets and for decentralization of decision-making, even during the early years of the construction of a command economy. He was critical of the Great Leap and was accused of following the ‘capitalist road’ during the Cultural Revolution. In the aftermath of the disasters of the Great Leap, Chen worked to reconstruct the economy on the basis of a limited but significant role for market incentives. This contrasted sharply with Mao’s approach of using mass mobilization and ideological fervor to spark growth. For these efforts Chen was purged during the Cultural Revolution. Following Mao’s death, Chen returned to positions of influence and became an important advocate against using Mao’s thought as the basis for policy. Expressing concern over the Party’s ability to retain its legitimacy among the people, Chen asserted the need to expand production and to improve the life of the Chinese people. His political support was essential to the success of Deng Xiaoping in gaining pre-eminent power and in moving toward economic reforms. His main contribution to economic reform was to promote a greater role for markets even as central planning provided a basic framework for production decisions. Probably inadvertently, this effort to introduce markets gradually helped promote the ultimate success of the reforms as contrasted to the much more radical introduction of markets in the former Soviet Union. Chen’s preference for gradualism led in 1984 to significant differences with Deng over the pace of marketization,
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which led to considerable inflation and later to political unrest at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Though an advocate of markets, Chen was firmly committed to socialism and not to capitalism. Chen favored economic growth and was ready to use Western technology and even capital to accomplish this. But he was also very suspicious of the influence of foreigners and concerned about retaining socialism as the ultimate goal for China. His conservatism about the capitalist features of China’s economic reform resulted in his resignation from the Central Committee in 1982. Nonetheless, he retained considerable influence until 1989 and the Tiananmen Square crisis. Chen remained an important political source of the turn to reform but he also reflected the considerable challenge that reform presented to the communist tradition in China. Thomas D. Lairson Sources Lardy, Nicholas R. and Kenneth Lieberthal (eds) (1983), Chen Yun’s Strategy for China’s Development: A NonMaoist Alternative, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Lieberthal, Kenneth (2003), Governing China, 2nd edn, New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Cheng, William Hengjem (Zhong, Tingshen 䩳ᓋỂ b. 1943) Cheng is the chairman of the Lion Group, a well-known conglomerate in Southeast Asia with considerable market exposure in mainland China in recent years. The business operations of the group encompass steel, tire, automotive assembly, information and communication technologies (ICT), retail and property. Born in Singapore, Cheng is married with three children. He is the son of an emigrant from Guangdong province, China. He was at primary school in Singapore before moving to an English secondary school in Kuala Lumpur. At the age of ten, Cheng began to learn how to do business from his father, who started making and selling lionbranded steel furniture in the 1940s. The family-run business included the manufacture of rubber-based products and food processing, which began when the business expanded to Malaysia in 1956. Cheng moved to Malaysia in 1958 to oversee operations there. From that point, Malaysia became the focus of the Lion Group’s business expansion and success. In 1971, Cheng managed to convince his brother jointly to invest RM600 000 in order to set up a steel-based furniture-making mill in Indonesia. The business encountered some difficulties, such as gaining financiers’ support at the initial stage as the country faced considerable political and economic uncertainties. Nonetheless, in 1976, he remitted profits made in Indonesia to Malaysia for investing in the steel business. Cheng visited most of the world’s leading steel mills in order to gain an understanding of the business. An Italian firm was keen to expand into the Far East at that time, and Cheng made the most of this opportunity, buying the related equipment at a good price. He recruited workers and re-assembled the equipment in order to produce two different products at the same time. In 1978, Cheng secured a license from the Malaysian government. He pumped in RM12 million to expand the size of the steel mills in Malaysia and invested in another two production lines in 1983. Production reached 5 million tons in 2006 and it is expected to reach 7.8 million tons by 2009. As the Lion
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Group accounts for more than half of the steel production in Malaysia, Cheng earned his nickname, the ‘Steel King.’ The Lion Group was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 1981. The growth of the Malaysian economy and the rise in the price of steel fueled the Lion Group’s prosperity in the 1980s. Using the lucrative profits earned from the steel business, Cheng carried out some management takeovers between 1986 and 1988 on some ailing retail firms in Malaysia. It was during this period that Cheng began venturing into the retail sector, though this strategic move was not well received at the time. He invested RM50 million, and in 1986, he founded the Parkson Retail Group, now the largest retailer in Malaysia. To understand the vast potential market of mainland China, Cheng visited the country almost every month between February 1992 and August 1993. He learned that in China the gradual approach is the key to doing business. Cheng formed a feasibility study team to carry out research on several key issues on the Chinese market before setting up the first Parkson in Beijing in 1994, in joint venture with Goalmark, a big state-owned enterprise. At that time, the local retailers were mostly state-owned and were seen to lack sensitivity to their customers’ needs. With a belief that ‘satisfying the customer is the key to success,’ Parkson targets the middle and upper-middle class market segments. Over the years, Parkson has developed well-established relationships with various distinguished international and domestic brands. Its outlets in China operate on the concessionaire model. The concessionaire sales accounted for about 80 percent of the revenue. Cheng has said, ‘to win in competition and reduce the gap with the market leader, we need scale and to sell quality items’ (China-ASEAN Business Weekly, 2006). Parkson Retail Group in China uses ICT to track customers’ purchasing habits and links compensation to performance. With ample cash in hand, Parkson opened several other outlets in major Chinese cities. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2005. In April 2007, it completed the acquisition of Golden Village Group Ltd for RMB510 million. The acquisition expands the department store network of Parkson in mainland China. Apart from retail, the Lion Group also has joint ventures with local firms in the following sectors in mainland China: automotive assembly, tire production, food manufacturing and beer brewing. The considerable diversification was probably one of the reasons why Cheng faced problems in servicing corporate debts during the 1997–98 Asian currency crisis. His ventures in China registered huge losses. As part of the Lion Group’s corporate rationalization plan, Cheng divested the tire production operation in mainland China to Double Star Group in 2005 and the beer brewing business to InBev in 2004. The flagship Parkson stores, however, are projected to be more profitable in the future, as consumer spending power in mainland China continues to grow. Cheng uses modern management techniques such as decentralized control, delegation, and empowerment in managing the Lion Group: approaches that differ considerably from those of a traditional Chinese family firm. He selects managers first on the basis of their dedication to the company, second, on their ability to lead, and finally, on their qualifications. He is well thought of at the China-ASEAN Expo, the trading bridge between China and ASEAN. Cheng encouraged Malaysians to use the platform to enter the Chinese market. Loi Teck Hui and Quek Kia Fatt
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Sources AFTA Online, ‘Lion Group: growth in China’, accessed at www.aftaonline.com/aol%20archives/company/96 %20below/lion_grp.htm. China-ASEAN Business Weekly (2006), Ҏ⠽ᬙџ: 䞥⣂䲚ಶ䩳ᓋỂⱘᬙџ Ё-ϰⲳଚࡵ਼ߞ [‘The Story of Lion Group and William Cheng’], 14 February, accessed 30 September 2008 at http://www.caexpo.org/gb/ news/hotnews/t20060214_57939.html. China Chemical Reporter (2005), ‘Double Star involved in regrouping of Dongfeng Tire’, April. Fong, Kathy (2006), ‘Parkson success an eye-opener’, Global Malaysian Networks, 16 May, accessed at http:// globalmalaysians.com/news/story.asp?file=/2006/5/16/gmn/14162511&sec=GMN. Fong, Kathy (2007), ‘Parkson Retail Group eyes another store in China’, China Supply Chain Council, 27 April, accessed at www.supplychain.cn/en/art/?1697. ‘Goalmark’, accessed at www.goalmark.com. Lion Group (2004), ‘Acquisition Lion Group activities in China close’, 30 September, accessed at www.inbev. com/press_releases/20040930.1.e.cfm. Lion Group (2006), ‘The Lion Group of Companies’ Annual Report 2006’, accessed at www.lion.com.my. ‘Parkson’, accessed at www.parkson.com.cn.
Chi, Yufeng (∴ᅛዄ b. 1971) Chi Yufeng is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Perfect World Co., a leading online game software producer based in Beijing. Chi Yufeng received his bachelors degree in chemistry from Tsinghua University in 1993. After working as a chemical engineer for a short period of time with P&G Inc. in Guangzhou, Chi co-founded Shenzhen Human Corporation Limited in 1994. By the end of 1995 the company had become the largest computer supplier in Shenzhen. Embracing a bigger dream, Chi went back to Beijing and founded Beijing Golden Human Co. Ltd, which has become a leading Chinese education software company. In 2001, Chi was named one of the ‘Top Ten Entrepreneurs of the Year’ in the initial start-up category by Zhongguancun Science Park. When Golden Human was successfully merged into Tsinghua Holdings in 2003, Chi became the Executive Vice President of Tsinghua Unisplendour Corporation Ltd, an information technology company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. After the popular science education software ‘The Creation of the World’ (Kai Tian Pi Di) and ‘Nothing to Worry About’ (Wan Shi Wu You) became bestsellers, the company launched a series of teaching software in the network and English fields that also achieved enormous success. Although Golden Human retained the largest market share, its success attracted piracy, which had been a bottleneck issue in the growth of the company. After considerable research, Chi found that it was easier to protect the intellectual property rights of online games than to protect those of teaching software. Knowledge of graphics and network security can be utilized in online games to create major entry barriers. Consequently, in 2004 Chi founded Beijing Perfect World Co. Ltd. Aiming to develop and market online games with Chinese characteristics, the company has more than 300 staff, 17 percent of whom have masters or doctoral degrees. A significant portion of the company’s technical team graduated from Tsinghua University. Targeting their products at young people, the Beijing Perfect World Co. Ltd signed an agreement with Nestlé in August 2007 to promote their new online game Zhuxian Online. Nestlé has kept the top spot in coffee production in China for the last couple of years and Nescafé brand coffee has become very popular among young Chinese consumers.
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Chi has won much recognition for his contribution to the information technology field in the past decade. In 2001, he was named one of the ‘Outstanding Youths’ of China’s Software Industry by the Ministry of Information Industry and the All-China Youth Federation. In 2002, Chi was also named one of the Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs in Beijing by the Beijing Youth Federation and the Beijing Young Entrepreneur Association, and one of the Outstanding Private Entrepreneurs by the All-China Association of Industry & Commerce and the China Non-Governmental Science Technology Entrepreneurs Association. In addition, he was named 2006 Personality of the Year in the China Game Industry by the Game Industry Branch of the China Software Association. Min Tong Sources Multimedia Publisher (2007), ‘Beijing Perfect World signs an agreement with Nestlé’, 18(8), August, 7–8. Wu, Ming (2002), ‘⋾ᘽ៤ࡳਃ⼎ᔩ’ [‘Inspirational story from the success of human technology’], ᮄ⏙ढ [New Tsinghua], 27 September, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://news.tsinghua.edu.cn/xqh/xqhnews/read. php?id=1683.
Dai, Zhikang (᠈ᖫᒋ b. 1959) Dai Zhikang is the founder and chairman of Shanghai Zendai Property Limited, an investment holding company engaged in the development and sale of properties in Shanghai. Currently ranked number 65 on China’s Rich List, Dai is said to be worth $215 million dollars according to the Hurun Report. Dai, born into a large family from Jiangsu Province and the fourth of six children, graduated from Renmin University of China with a bachelors degree in economics. He also received a postgraduate degree from the prestigious Graduate Research Program of the People’s Bank of China. After his graduation in 1987, Dai went to work as an assistant to the head of CITIC Bank. Two years later, Dai set up a business with two friends, which failed in six months, leaving him unemployed. Though he joined Dresdner Bank shortly after, the entrepreneurial itch was too strong for Dai. In 1990 he headed down to Hainan, soon to set up one of China’s earliest fund management businesses. In 1994 Dai founded Zendai, and later restructured the group and became chairman in 1998. Dai Zhikang dreamed of becoming the Warren Buffet of China. By age 28, he won permission to set up the first public equity fund in China and raised US$7 million in the first round. ‘We invested continually,’ he noted, ‘There came a point when I realized that the fund was in debt to the tune of US$25 million.’ Dai then asked of every debtor: ‘Give me time and I will pay you back.’ (Chen, 2003) When the market finally rebounded, the investment returned more than US$25 million. Dai next turned his attention to real estate, especially in Pudong. The establishment of Zendai Property in August 1999 was the beginning of Dai’s real estate fortune. Although he had great confidence in Chinese stocks, Dai withdrew at what he considered to be the right time to seek better returns in real estate development. In July 2002, Zendai invested in Shanghai Century, a Hong Kong-listed entity, and Dai has since continued investing heavily in real estate. By 2003, with assets of US$180 million to his name, Dai was still asking for time but for a different reason, ‘Give me time and I will turn Zendai into a multinational corporation.’ While he was running his real estate business, Dai was also an art collector. Notable among the charitable art organizations funded by Dai is the Zendai Museum of Modern Arts in Shanghai. While not quite the Warren Buffet of China, Dai Zhikang and the Shanghai Zendai Property Limited and Investment Group continue to grow in the up and coming Chinese market. Only time will tell as to whether one day Dai can indeed announce that he is the Warren Buffet of China. Clay Stanfield Sources Chen, Lily Bin (2003), ‘Dai Zhikang: Warren Buffet dream’, Asiamoney, 1 November. Hurun Report (2004), ‘Dai Zhikang: 2004 China Rich List No. 57’, accessed 2 October 2008 at www.hurun.net/ detailen3,people57.aspx. Pollack, Barbara (2003), ‘Making 1,200 museums bloom’, ARTnews, 107(3) (March), accessed 2 October 2008 at http://artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2456.
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Deng, Xiaoping (䙧ᇣᑇ 1904–97) Chinese paramount leader after Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping was the chief architect of Chinese economic reform after 1978 and promoted the socialist market economy and opened China to the global economy. Born into a locally prominent landlord family in Sichuan Province, Deng’s elite status allowed him to travel to France for five years of study and work from 1920–25 and then to Moscow for almost two years. In 1924 he joined the French branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and worked with Zhou Enlai. In 1926 he returned to China and engaged in military and political work to support revolutionary change. He attached himself to Mao Zedong’s faction, survived the Long March and assumed important military responsibilities in the war with Japan. Following the CCP victory in the civil war in 1949, Deng assumed increasing responsibility in government positions reaching the Standing Committee of the Politburo. The Great Leap Forward (1958–60) was the beginning of a conflict between Deng and Mao, which eventually resulted in his purge during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). Condemned as ‘China’s Khrushchev’ and for following the ‘capitalist road,’ Deng was sent into rural exile. After publicly apologizing to Mao for his errors, Deng was rehabilitated and reinstated in the leadership in 1973. His efforts to reestablish order in the wake of the Cultural Revolution led to conflict with the radicals and he was purged a second time in 1976. Following Mao’s death in 1976, the Chinese Communist Party experienced considerable internal political struggle, focused on whether to reject the Cultural Revolution and its leaders. The arrest of the ‘Gang of Four,’ Deng’s return to the leadership and the demotion of Mao’s successor Hua Guofeng marked the ascendance of Deng to control of the party by 1980. Rejecting ideology, Deng launched China on an effort to increase the productive forces of the nation. This was based on a belief in the role of national economic strength, linked to a dynamic, market-based economy, in promoting the regional and global power of China. Deng understood, at least in general terms, the necessity for attracting capital, technology and knowledge to China via global capitalist firms. His reference point was the great success of other Asian powers, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, in achieving economic growth. The first steps were taken in reforming agriculture, where the huge system of collective farms was changed to expand the incentives for family production, resulting in rapid growth in output. Acutely aware of the need for foreign capital and technology, Deng moved to create special economic zones with incentives, infrastructure and rules to entice foreign firms to invest and produce in China. Deng’s greatest contribution to economic reform was the ability to use his pre-eminent political position to develop and refashion a coalition favoring change. He helped shift thinking in the party toward pragmatism and merit, sustained a commitment to an opening to the capitalist world, and pressed for a much greater role for freer markets as the basis for economic development. Deng maintained the party’s monopoly over political power, supported the crackdown at Tiananmen Square and opposed democracy for China. Nonetheless, his actions contributed greatly to dramatic economic improvement
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for hundreds of millions of Chinese and ultimately to a more open and responsible China. Thomas D. Lairson Sources Dittmer, Lowell (1994), China Under Reform, Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Naughton, Barry (1993), ‘Deng Xiaoping: the economist’, China Quarterly, 135 (September), 491–514. Shambaugh, David (ed.) (1995), Deng Xiaoping: Portrait of a Chinese Statesman, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Deng, Zhonghan (䙧Ё㗄b. 1968) President and CEO of Vimicro Corp., Deng epitomizes the new generation of Chinese innovators returning from Silicon Valley. Born in Jiangsu Province, in 1987 Deng attended the University of Science and Technology of China. After graduation, he went abroad to study at the University of California. In five years at Berkeley, Deng became the first student in the university’s 130-year history to earn degrees from three colleges: the College of Sciences with an MS in physics, the College of Business with an MS in economics, and the College of Engineering with a PhD in electrical engineering. In 1997, Deng was hired by IBM as a senior research fellow and obtained a number of patents. Meanwhile, inspired by the dot. com boom in Silicon Valley and the emerging information industry in China, Deng began his plans for entrepreneurship. In 1999, Deng returned to Beijing. With venture capital of RMB10 million from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, Deng co-founded Vimicro Corporation with a few other members of the Chinese IT elite from Silicon Valley. Vimicro’s mission was to develop a domestic chip, and by 2001, Starlight I, the first grand scale integration (GSI) chipset developed and patented by a Chinese company, was launched into the global market. This chipset is embedded in various multimedia applications such as PC camera, and mobile phone handsets with advanced multimedia features including mobile video, graphics, music, ringtones, and karaoke. Starlight I ended China’s dependence on foreign chip technology. It has been dubbed the ‘China Chip’. Starlight has now been adopted by IT giants such as Microsoft, Samsung and Sony. In 2006, Vimicro had captured 60 percent of the market share of computer image input chips worldwide. The company has annual sales of 5 million chipsets grossing 40 billion yuan. In 2005, Vimicro successfully launched its initial public offering (IPO) and became the first fabless chip company from China listed on the NASDAQ. Deng has received numerous awards for his contribution to the Chinese information industry. The Starlight chipset developed under his leadership won the top prize in the National Science & Technology Advancement awards 2004. His honors include ‘2005 China Top Ten Scientific and Technological News Persons’ and ‘2005 CCTV Economic Person of the Year’ and many others. Besides his post in Vimicro, Dr Deng Zhonghan also serves as visiting professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University and is a standing committee member of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology. Ying Zhang
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Sources China Daily (2006), ‘Technology Innovations Make the Mark’, 14 March, accessed 28 November 2007 at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-03/14/content_535655.htm. Vimicro (2007), ‘Milestones’, accessed 28 November at www.vimicro.com/english/corporates/milestones. htm. Ye, Zi (2006), ‘The China chip: one man’s enduring innovation and the gain of a nation’, China Pictorial, December, accessed 28 November 2007 at www.rmhb.com.cn/chpic/htdocs/english/200612/8-1.htm.
Ding, Jian (ϕ عb. 1965) President of AsiaInfo Holdings Inc., Ding Jian co-founded AsiaInfo with Tian Shuoning in Texas in 1993. Two years later they returned to China to start AsiaInfo Technology (China) Co., Ltd, which has since been listed in the top 300 excellent small companies in the world by Forbes. Born in Beijing in 1965, Ding graduated from Peking University in 1986 with a bachelor of science in chemistry. In 1990, he received his masters degree in information science and technology from the University of California, and later his EMBA from the Hass School of Business at UC Berkeley. Because of his sensitivity to market changes and his technical background, Ding is a skilled strategist and implementer. With Ding in charge of the technical department, AsiaInfo kept ahead in technology and market share of building infrastructure for the internet and telecom industries. When Ding and Tian returned to China in 1995, which was the critical time that the internet began to emerge in China, AsiaInfo’s main business was transferred from information service to internet system integration. Under their leadership, AsiaInfo has become the first and the largest internet system integration supplier in the domestic market. Ding’s hard work and rational style of management contributed greatly to the success of AsiaInfo, and in 1999 Ding became CEO of the company. Although hesitant about his managerial responsibilities, Ding demonstrated his tenacity and strength in strategic and technological issues, and his employees regarded Ding as a person of persistence who gave a new meaning to the title of CEO. On 3 March 2000, AsiaInfo was listed on the NASDAQ Securities Exchange and became one of the most successful initial public offerings of the time. Since being listed, AsiaInfo has grown at a fast pace. To secure market dominance, Ding bought Bonsoninfo Co. Ltd and turned the merged company into the largest supplier of plans and communication software in the Chinese domestic market. In 2003, after occupying the position for four years, Ding handed the CEO position to Zhang Xingsheng, former executive vice president of Ericsson, and became the president of AsiaInfo. People familiar with Ding note that he is a rational and inspirational leader, who can transfer his passion into action and profits. Ding himself believes that with the rapid development of the Chinese economy and growth of market, there must be some real world-class multinational corporations, and he and his colleagues at AsiaInfo are striving to achieve such an ambitious goal. With global vision, knowledge and management experience, Ding has recommended that the Chinese government should establish full and detailed regulation, while improving the investment environment and enhancing financing options for corporations operating in China. Huang, Lujin
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Sources News Figures (2007), ᮄ䯏Ҏ⠽, ᴢ⩤⩤, ‘ϕⱘعVCṺ’ [‘Ding Jian’s venture capital dream’], accessed 26 September 2008 at www.epeople.cn/web/fortune1.html. Sina Tech (2004), ᮄ⌾⾥ᡔ, ‘Ѯֵ⾥ᡔ (Ё) ݀ৌ㨷џ䭓ϕعㅔҟ’ [‘Brief introduction of Ding Jian, President of AsiaInfo Technology (China) Co., Ltd’], 9 January, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://tech. sina.com.cn/roll/2004-01-09/1021279926.shtml.
Ding, Lei (ϕ⺞ b. 1971) Founder and CTO of Netease.com, Ding Lei is considered to have contributed greatly to the development of the internet in China while becoming the richest man on mainland China in the process. Ding Lei, also known as William Ding, was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Chengdu College of Electronic Science and Technology (now the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) with a bachelors degree in engineering. After graduation, he worked in a local government department in Ningbo as an engineer and then went to Guangzhou to work for Sybase. In 1997, he left Sybase to found NetEase as an internet portal, which he took public on the NASDAQ in 2000. He became the richest man on mainland China in 2003 and according to Forbes, his net worth as of 2007 was estimated to be US$1.1 billion. NetEase was started as a private enterprise with only a dozen staff members but is now a well-known web-based company that employs 300 people. During the first two years of its inception, Ding Lei paid great attention to R&D and injected capital into the development of internet application software, including a bilingual email system that was the first of its kind in China. The system, launched in November 1997, spurred the popularization and development of the internet in China. Since then, NetEase has developed a number of popular web-based products, including China’s first free email service, the first online community and the first personalized information service. The company was originally set up to develop software products to facilitate internet use, however, Ding soon realized the great potential of the internet sector. In mid-1998, he switched the focus of NetEase from developing software to providing internet services. Thus, in addition to offering free email, the site developed and offered personalized homepages, virtual communities, chat rooms, games, and entertainment channels. In July 1999, NetEase conducted the first online auction in China and in November 1999, it launched both business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer business platforms. Ding’s site soon became a leading online service provider in China along with another well-known site, sohu.com, thus originating the popular saying, ‘The North has Sohu and the South has NetEase.’ In July 1999, Ding Lei brought NetEase wider geographical and consumer markets by forming alliances and launching new services. In July 1999, a portal alliance with partners Hong Kong Cable & Wireless’s Netvigator and Taiwan’s Kimo was formed so as to enable the three companies to jointly develop the internet market in Greater China. An office in Shanghai was opened in October 1999 to expand the site’s reach to northern China and to launch a content channel specially dedicated to female users. In the past, Ding Lei strongly supported the Ministry of Information Industry’s regulations banning foreign investment in the domestic internet sector and initially refused
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foreign investment, relying instead on the proceeds from software sales, advertisements, and sales of computers and digital cameras online. However, he has changed his position more recently. On 28 March 2000, NetEase filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering on the NASDAQ. In order to do so and still comply with the prohibition against foreign investment in China’s internet sector, the company excluded its China-based assets from the listing but offered shares in a sister company. Ding Lei resigned as CEO of the company and appointed a group of high-level managers with international experience before the company applied to list. According to analysts, this was done to make the company more attractive to international investors, a claim that Ding Lei refutes, offering the desire to do more technical research as the reason for his resignation. This emphasis on technical development is reflected by the channeling of more funds into R&D and the fact that NetEase’s software development team is considered one of the most capable in China. In February 2007, the company unveiled plans to offer a new search engine based on proprietary technology that would challenge Google and Baidu, the market leaders in the internet search market. Sangeeta Singh Sources BIZCHINA (2004), ‘William Ding Lei’, 25 February, accessed at www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2004-02/25/ content_555287.htm. Burns, Simon (2007), ‘NetEase takes on Google and Baidu in China’, IT Week, 28 February, accessed at www. itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2184364/challenge-google-baidu-china. Einhorn, Bruce (2005), ‘China’s not-so-jolly gaming giants’, BusinessWeek, 16 November, accessed at www. businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2005/nf20051116_3993_db065.htm. Forbes.com (2007), ‘World’s Billionaires: #840 William Ding’, 8 March, accessed at www.forbes.com/ lists/2007/10/07billionaires_William-Ding_WIXE.html.
Dong, Mingzhu (㨷ᯢ⦴b. 1954) Vice chairperson and general manager of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co. Ltd, Dong Mingzhu has built Gree from a small local company into one of the world’s leading air conditioner manufacturers, and is widely recognized as one of the most respected and successful businesswomen in China. In 1990, Dong Mingzhu began working for Gree Electric Appliance of Zhuhai, and rose steadily, serving as business manager of marketing and sales, director of operations, and deputy general manager. During the summer of 1995, when Dong was still Gree’s director of sales, China’s young air conditioning industry faced a crisis when several companies engaged in a vicious price war, throwing all manufacturers into turmoil. Facing intense pressure to cut prices, Gree was ready to take action. However Dong convinced her top management not to jump into the price war; her experience told her that the current slip in sales was largely a result of unseasonably rainy and cool weather. Within months, when temperatures climbed, sales rose as well. By leaving prices untouched, Gree was able to maintain a healthy profit margin. A year later, when another price war broke out, Dong’s stubborn refusal to slash prices helped Gree to gain ground against major competitors, a strategic move that eventually led to Gree’s dominance in the market. In April 2001, Dong was named general manager and under her leadership, the
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company has experienced further remarkable growth. Again Dong found out that she had to stand up and say no, this time to China’s powerful home appliances retailers, who preferred to squeeze the profit margin of suppliers in order to provide the lowest possible price to consumers. Foreseeing trouble, Dong started to build Gree’s own distribution network based on provincial sales companies that each managed independent retailers in the region and a centralized distribution system for each province. So when the chain stores began to squeeze suppliers’ profit margins to almost zero in early 2004, Dong ordered distribution via Gree’s own system. As a result, Gree achieved enviable sales revenue of RMB13.8 billion that year, an increase of nearly 38 percent over 2003. This strong performance, mainly attributed to Dong’s audacious marketing strategy, shocked the whole industry. In order to further integrate all retailers, Dong established a distribution system that has been dubbed ‘the Gree’s Model’ by Chinese economists. She has kept Gree’s retail partners satisfied through what she called a win-win rebate system, which is one of China’s most successful and innovative recent business practices. In 2006, Gree received the National Quality Award from the China Association for Quality, and was named the most ‘Remarkable Brand’ by the China Brand Research Institute. Dong is now the vice director of the Chinese Household Appliances Association, vice chair of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Guangdong Province, and chairperson of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Zhuhai. For her vision, innovation and entrepreneurship, Dong was twice named among the World’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune, in 2004 and 2005, the Top Ten Chinese Business Figures of the Year by CCTV in 2006, and ranked number 93 of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes in 2007. Sun, Jianmin and Shi, Hui Sources Chief Executive (2007), ‘Gree’s Dong Mingzhu: a career woman full of great ideas’, 28 March. China Entrepreneur (2006), ЁӕϮᆊ, ‘㨷ᯢ⦴: कᄫ䏃ষⱘ亢ᷛ’ [‘Dong Mingzhu: wind signal at crossroad’], December. Human Capitals (2007), Ҏ䌘ᴀ, ‘㨷ᯢ⦴: ៥ⱘॳ߭ᰃ“އϡཹण”’ [‘Dong Mingzhu: my principle is “never compromise”’], January. Pearl River Evening News (2007), ⦴∳ᰮ, ᴢṙᆍ, 䰜Б৯, ‘㨷ᯢ⦴Ϟὰ“ܼ⧗᳔ᕅડཇᗻ”’ [Li, Meirong and Chen Lijun, ‘Dong Mingzhu named among “world’s most influential women”’], 11 September www. gree.com/chinese/news-detail.asp?id=254&columncode=001001.
Duan, Qiang (↉ᔎ b. 1956) Chairman of the Beijing Tourism Group (BTG), Dr Duan Qiang has gone from proactive communist to city mayor to tour group tycoon in less than half a century. Born in June 1956, Duan was no more than ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. He graduated with a physics degree from Beijing Normal University in 1982 but soon became interested in government. He became secretary of the Communist Youth League, township party secretary and director of the Beijing Municipal Economic and Trade Commission in his home of Miyun County, Beijing. In 1993 Duan was appointed vice-mayor of Beijing. He left politics in 1998 to found the Beijing Tourism Group LLC (BTG) and pursue a PhD in economics at Tsinghua University. But in China a businessman can never really leave politics. Duan found
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himself working very closely with the Chinese government while still retaining control of his company. BTG was formed after a merger between Beijing Quanjude Group and Beijing New Yansha Group to form a giant 15 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) state-owned tourism enterprise. Duan took an innovative approach to the tourism industry. First, instead of seeing tourism as mere attractions with hotels and dining services, he regarded it as a temporary lifestyle based around entertainment. Duan believed that BTG should focus not only on the usual attractions, but on all aspects of the temporary lifestyle, food, housing, transportation, shopping and so on. Second, Duan believed in a capital-based market strategy. The tourism market would mold his company more than the Communist Party of China. He preferred to hold physical assets rather than loaded bank accounts. These assets could still be bought and sold like other companies buy and sell stocks. But Duan’s company, given its consumers’ temporary lifestyles, could quickly utilize physical assets without the need to have them for very long. This makes his physical assets far more liquid than is usually the case. Duan’s strategies have brought results. Today BTG is a gigantic enterprise, and one of the largest tourism groups in China. Events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization exhibit China’s gradually globalizing economy, politics, and even culture, providing an environment where BTG can attract both national and international tourists. With more than 100 hotels across the country, scenic areas, car rental companies, restaurants, travel service, shopping areas, exhibition and conference centers and even tourism training, Duan has built BTG into a galaxy of tourism services. Arthur Holst Sources Duan Qiang (2002), ‘䙧ᇣᑇᮙ␌㒣⌢ᗱᛇϢᔧҷЁᮙ␌㒣⌢ⱘথሩ’ [‘Deng Xiaoping’s thoughts on tourist economy and the development of contemporary Chinese tourism industry’], PhD dissertation, Tsinghua University, published in Contemporary China History Studies, accessed 6 October 2007 at http://nulog.cn/ detail.htm?2702215. China Tourism Weekly (2006), Duan Qiang, ‘Out of the tourism industry’s myth’, 23 March, accessed 6 October 2007 at www.davost.cn/html/xinwenpindao/hangyejujiao/20060323/2175.html.
Duan, Yongping (↉∌ᑇb. 1961) As chairman of BBK Electronics Corp. Ltd, Duan Yongping is one of the most famous entrepreneurs in China. In 2007 his wealth was listed at approximately US$330 million on Hurun’s China Rich List. Starting his business career in Southern China in 1989, Duan has successfully built two of the best-known brands in China, SUBOR (Xiao Ba Wang) and BBK (Bu Bu Gao). Graduating from Zhejiang University in 1978, Duan majored in wireless electronics engineering. He first worked in Beijing in a small factory manufacturing electronic parts. While there he was enrolled in Renmin University and obtained his masters degree in econometrics. In the 1980s, southern China was at the frontline of the economic reform movement, so Duan, like many other young people, went to Guangdong to seek new career opportunities. When he joined SUBOR in 1989, it was only a small factory with
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fewer than 20 workers, RMB2 million debt and only RMB3000 cash. Within five years, Duan transformed SUBOR into a leading manufacturer for learning and gaming machines in China, generating as much as RMB100 million profit a month during 1994– 95. However in 1995, Duan left SUBOR and founded BBK. Commenting on his bold move, Duan told a newspaper during an interview: ‘In order to obtain a long-term development, an enterprise must experience systematical reform. When I realized that the direction of development is not correct, I have to stop; the later I stop, the worse the situation will be’ (Linglai and Yu, 2007). The ‘wrong direction’ in this case was SUBOR’s disapproval of his stock ownership reform. Under Duan’s leadership, BBK has become a very successful company with a 20 percent market share of DVD players in China from 2001 to 2003. It is also a leading brand in the Chinese telephone and stereo markets. In 2005, BBK also moved into high-end electronic products and established the OPPO brand for its MP3 players, taking BBK into the top three manufacturers of MP3 players in China. Before Duan’s time, electronic products made in Guangdong were known for their inferior quality. Under his strict quality control and efficiency management, BBK products, although still made in Guangdong, have established a brand value nationwide to the extent that when a Chinese considers buying a DVD player or a wireless telephone, Bu Bu Gao is more than likely the first brand to consider. Although still chairman of BBK, Duan believes that his entrepreneurial mission there is complete and that there is a new territory waiting to be explored. Duan has left his routine management responsibility of BBK to young managers, claiming that he will only interfere with decisions related to major company changes. Having emigrated to California, Duan has made a name for himself by investing in undervalued US stocks. His most famous call was buying NASDAQ-listed NetEase at below US$1 in 2001, the year he arrived in the United States. He quickly accumulated a 5 percent stake, which is now worth more than 50 times what he paid for it. In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, Duan revealed that he made most of his wealth through investing, following Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy. Like his role model, he holds only single Chinese stock in his portfolio, China Vanke, a Shenzhen property firm. In 2006, Duan finally met his idol in person, winning a weeklong auction on eBay under the screen name ‘fastisslow.’ For US$620 100, Duan got to bring seven friends to a New York steakhouse to question billionaire Warren Buffett about his business strategy and investment philosophy. As a successful businessman and philanthropist, Duan and his wife established a family foundation in 2005. Duan and Ding Lei (William Ding) donated $40 million to Zhejiang University of which $30 million came from Duan’s foundation. Duan also donated a library to the company where his parents used to work. Reviewing his career, Duan summarized the key to his success as the ability to find the vulnerability of the leading companies in a certain industry, and then try to establish his own stronghold. China has witnessed his initial success in electrical manufacturing, and only time will tell how his investment strategies will be successfully sustained over the long-term. Xiaoqi Yu Sources Bloomberg News, Financial Post (national edn), ‘Dinner with investor guru Buffett, auctioned for record US$620 100’, 1 July.
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Harvard China (2003), ‘From graduate to CEO in China’, 16 February, accessed at www.harvardchina.org/ SpecialEvents/02-16-2003.html. Hurun Report (2007), ‘2007 China Rich List’, accessed at www.hurun.net/detailen72,people329.aspx. Sina Finance (2003), ᮄ⌾䋶㒣, ‘ℹℹ催⬉ᄤ᳝䰤݀ৌᘏ㒣⧚↉∌ᑇ’ [‘Chairman of BBK Electronics Corp Ltd Duan Yongping’], 31 July, accessed 25 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20030731/172138 9020.shtml. Wang Linglai and Yang Yu (2007), ∾Ҹᴹ, 䰇⨰, ‘↉∌ᑇ: ҢᠧᎹⱛᏱࠄᡩ䌘⥟㗙’, 㕞ජᰮ [‘Duan Yongping: from the emperor of freelance to the king of investment’], Yangcheng Evening News 23 July, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.techweb.com.cn/people/2007-07-24/226558.shtml.
Eysayup, Ekrem (Aikelamu Aishayoufu 㡒≭⬅, 㡒ܟᢝ b. 1958) CEO of Xinjiang Hops, Eysayup ran one of the country’s largest beer companies and was once the twenty-second wealthiest man in China before he was brought down by scandal and fled the country in 2003. Eysayup was born into a family of ethnic Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, Northwestern China. In the late 1970s, he served a stint as an army paratrooper and in 1980 he began work at the People’s Bank of China in a local branch in the city of Ili. A year later he enrolled at Xinjiang College of Finance and Economics. After graduating in 1983 Eysayup returned to the People’s Bank of China, where he became the director of the Finance Administration Division and then director of the Bank Administration Division. After more than a decade in the public sector, Eysayup left his position and in July 1996 he purchased a 70 percent stake in Xinjiang Hengyu Development Co. Ltd for 7 million yuan. His first major transaction was the purchase of 1.82 million shares, at a cost of 2 million yuan, in Xinjiang Hops, a state-owned company and one of the premier brand names in a province famous for its beers. Eysayup was appointed deputy chairman of Xinjiang Hops and was at this time the seventh largest shareholder. A year later he orchestrated the listing of 30 million shares of Xinjiang Hops at 4.05 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Xinjiang Hops would become the country’s biggest hop supplier and the largest hops beer company at a time when China emerged as the world’s second biggest beer producer with the world’s third largest hops industry. Eysayup soon branched into real estate, acquiring the Yinhe Plaza, a governmentowned property that had yet to be completed, in Urumqi in 1997 for 28 million yuan. Eysayup later sold this for more than double the cost of his investment. He also purchased a controlling interest in the Yinsheng Real Estate Group and in 1999 merged his assets into Xinjiang Hengyuan Investment, which was the largest shareholder in Xinjiang Hops. He went on to purchase several more valuable properties and expanded his holdings into juices and bioengineering. In 2002 Xinjiang Hops merged with the Xinjiang Beer Group, producing 150 000 tons of beer a month. The company’s stock reflected Xinjiang Hops’ good fortunes and during a 12-month period from 2002–03 its shares surged more than 20 percent at a time when the markets experienced heavy losses. At the same time Eysayup’s personal fortune soared and in 2003 Asia Money named him the twenty-second wealthiest individual in China with assets totaling $351 million. While Eysayup’s personal savvy played a part in the increased fortunes of Xinjiang Hops, behind the scenes manipulation of share prices and undisclosed debts also fueled the rise. Unbeknownst to investors Eysayup had made 27 credit guarantees with other companies. Worth nearly a billion yuan, he used this money to drive up the price of Xinjiang Hops shares to unsustainable highs and to enrich himself. By the fall of 2003 Eysayup’s financial maneuverings had reached a tipping point, but he had planned carefully. In September 2003 Eysayup sold his Shanghai villa at nearly half the price he paid for it, emptied his bank accounts, paid the rent on his company office, and fled abroad. Executives at Xinjiang Hops later discovered that their CEO had not only disappeared, but he had had left them with 1.94 billion yuan in liabilities, against 600 million in assets, and 1.44 billion in debt guarantees. Eysayup’s disappearance created an international media buzz. Years earlier his family had moved to the USA and speculation was rife that 34
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he was in hiding in the United States, Canada or the Middle East. There were even rumors reported in the press that he had left the country because of ties to Uygur nationalists, who were seeking independence for Xinjiang. Local government officials, hoping to limit economic and political fallout, at first whitewashed Eysayup’s disappearance, referring to it as a ‘personal matter’ unrelated to his business operations, only later to condemn the fallen executive. For Xinjiang Hops Eysayup’s departure resulted in economic disaster. The company’s stock price plummeted 65 percent in two weeks, or 4 billion yuan, and trading in shares was halted. Local and national officials froze the assets of Eysayup and Xinjiang Hops and production was stopped. The company was then purchased for a fraction of its pre-scandal price by Xinjiang Bluesword Brewing Investment Co. and Danish brewers Carlsberg. David Straub Sources AFX – Asia (2003), ‘China Court Freezes Assets of Scandal-hit Xinjiang Hops’, 17 November. Modern Brewery Age (2003), ‘Chinese Government Investigates Vanished Beer Baron’, 15 December, 54 (50), 1. O’Neill, Mark (2003), ‘Hops chief carefully plotted exit’, South China Morning Post, 20 November. Vicziany, Marika and Guibin Zhang (2004), ‘The rise of the private sector in Xinjiang (Western China): Han and Uygur entrepreneurship’, 1 August, Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, accessed 20 November 2007 at coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/Vicziany+Zhang-ASAA2004.pdf.
Fan, Gang (῞߮ b. 1953) One of China’s best-known economists, Fan Gang is the director of the National Economic Research Institute, a Beijing think-tank affiliated with the China Reform Foundation. He is also an adviser to the Chinese government, and a consultant to the World Bank, the UN Development Program, and other international agencies. As a prolific author, he has published eight books and more than 100 academic papers on macroeconomics and the economy in the transitional period. Born in Beijing, Fan went to Northeast China in 1969 to work as a farmer in the Heilongjiang Production and Constructions Group. After the conclusion of the Chinese Cultural Revolution he passed the national college entrance examination in 1978 and graduated from Hebei University four years later with a major in political economics. From 1982 to 1985 Fan studied Western economics at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. After graduation he first became a researcher in the National Economy Research Bureau and then studied at Harvard University from 1985 to 1987, receiving his PhD in economics in 1988. Returning to China in 1988, Fan began his career at the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an elite government think-tank. He was later promoted to deputy director of the institute before becoming secretary-general of the China Reform Foundation, where he directed researchers conducting studies on issues related to Chinese economic growth. As an economic adviser, Fan devoted considerable energy not only to the Chinese government, but also to a number of international organizations. In 2003, he became a non-executive director of the Pingan Insurance Group of China. Fan has been a proponent of tight monetary policy coupled with an expansionary macroeconomic strategy to stimulate Chinese domestic demand. Although people were critical of massive public investment in infrastructure by the Chinese government, which resulted in increasing government debt, Fan pointed out that macroeconomic policies would take some time to show their effectiveness, and that without adequate private investment, the government was obliged to step in until the market economy became firmly established. Fan is a professor at Peking University as well as at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His writings focus on macroeconomics and shunt economics, including⦄ҷϝ㒣⌢⧚䆎ԧ㋏ⱘ↨䕗Ϣ㓐ড় [Comparison and Integration of the Three Main Modern Economic Theory Systems] in 1994. In 2000, he edited 䞥㵡Ꮦ എϢӕᬍ䴽 [Financial Market and State-owned Enterprises Reform], and co-wrote 䴶 ᮄϪ㑾ⱘЁᅣ㾖㒣⌢ᬓㄪ [Chinese Macroeconomic Policies of the New Era] with Zhang Xiaojing. Huang, Lujin Sources Baidu Encyclopedia, ⱒᑺⱒ⾥, ‘῞߮’ [‘Fan Gang’], accessed 26 September, 2008 at http://bk.baidu.com/ view/198805.htm. BusinessWeek (2005), ‘Economist’s View: Interview with Chinese Economist Fan Gang’, 19 August, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2005/08/businessweek_in.html. China Vitae, ‘Fan Gang’, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Fan_Gang.
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Feng, Lun (ރҥ b. 1959) Chairman of Beijing Vantone Company, Feng Lun is a pioneer and leader in the fastgrowing area of real estate development in China. Feng Lun is a native of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. He holds a bachelors degree in economics from the Northwest University in Xi’an, a masters degree in political science from the Central Party School in Beijing and a PhD in law from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. From 1984, Feng served in a succession of posts in the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and lectured in the Marxism and Leninism Research Institute. In addition to studying culture and ideology and advocating system reform, he served temporarily in the Theoretical Research Office of the CCP Central Committee before accepting a deputy chief post in the Comparative System Research Office of the China Economic Restructuring Research Institute under the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy. He was later sent to the newly established Hainan Province to set up the Hainan Reform and Development Research Institute, where he held the position of executive deputy director. In the late 1980s when Hainan Island was made the largest special economic zone and the newest province in China, it became a top destination for many ambitious Chinese. Following the national trend, Feng made a swift career change in 1991, leaving his government post to found Vantone. Two years later, after the cooling down of Hainan’s marketing zeal, he moved his operation back to Beijing, the nation’s capital and center of real estate development. With a reputation as a ‘thought leader in the real estate industry’, Feng has since become one of the industry’s pioneers and innovators. After extensive research and consideration, he made a decision to shift Vantone away from the ‘Hong Kong’ model to the ‘US model’. In 2003, Feng Lun planned and actively promoted the filming of a major television program ‘Residences Changing China’, which promoted the development of the real estate business, and strove to raise the image of the real estate industry in China. In addition to the chairmanship of the board of directors of Vantone Real Estate Co. Ltd, Feng also serves as chairman of the board of directors at the Wantong Industrial Group, as a board member of China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd, the standing chairman of the All-China Residential Property Association, and an assistant director of the City Development Professional Committee of the China Real Estate Association. Under Feng, Vantone is ranked among the top real estate companies in China, holding many of the top ten spots in multiple categories in commercial and residential real estate. When taking into account its capital gains, Vantone is considered to be the third largest developer in mainland China. To this day Vantone continues to prosper while other real estate companies struggle with finance. Feng’s intelligent strategies for development and success allowed Vantone to become the first mainland Chinese company to make it to the US market. In fact Vantone plans to conduct more business in New York including leasing 750 000 square feet in the Freedom Tower that is to be built in New York by 2014. Julian Chambliss and David Irving Sources Boao Forum for Asia (2005), ‘Feng Lun, chairman of Vantone Group’, 7 April, accessed at www.boaoforum. org/boao/eng-ziliao/200504/07/t20050407_3542689.htm.
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Beijing Vantone (2007), ‘݇Ѣރҥ’, ࣫Ҁϛ䗮ഄѻ [‘Chairman Feng Lun’, Beijing Vantone], accessed at http:// en.vantone.com/about/gyhd.asp. China Vitae, ‘Feng Lun’, accessed at http://chinavitae.com/biography/Feng_Lun/career. Huang, Cary (2006), ‘History shows way for the industrial thinker’, South China Morning Post, 1 May, p. 1.
Fok, Henry Ying Tung (Huo, Yingdong 䳡㣅ϰ 1923–2006) Fok, nicknamed ‘Godfather’ because of his close ties with the mainland, was a wellknown Hong Kong tycoon and an influential voice on the mainland as well. As one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest businessmen, Fok developed close ties with China’s leaders, cultivating relationships with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. From the 1950s, Mao, Zhou, and other first-generation leaders respected Fok and listened to his ideas. Among his civic activities, he was president of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong. He was also chairman of two corporations. He was actively involved in the Hong Kong handover, serving on the drafting committee for the basic law of Hong Kong SAR and on the preliminary preparatory committee. Fok was a standing committee member of the 7th National People’s Congress, a standing national committee member of the 5th and 6th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conferences (CPPCC) and vice-chairman of the 8th and 9th CPPCC National Committees. Fok was born in May 1923 in Panyu County, Guangdong Province, to a family of limited means. The loss of his father, who died in a boating accident when Fok was seven, did not prevent him from attending Queens College in Causeway Bay, a top high school in Hong Kong. However, the Japanese invasion prevented him from finishing his education. After he was forced to quit school, Fok ran the small family boat business while working as a laborer shoveling coal onto ferries. By the end of World War II, Fok had established a good reputation through his ability to mix business and politics, and to create unique relationships while smuggling necessities such as iron plates, pipes, gasoline, tires, and penicillin to the mainland. In the early 1950s, he reportedly circumvented a United Nations arms embargo to smuggle weapons during the Korean War. His involvement proved his loyalty to Beijing and helped establish close relationships with mainland leaders. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Fok was a successful businessman who managed to promote the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong even as he supported the growth and development of the Chinese economy. His business interests expanded to real estate development, including restaurants and hotels, and he helped develop the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou in 1983, China’s first fivestar hotel. Besides amassing a fortune in real estate, Fok was successful in the gambling industry. During the 1960s, Fok saw the potential of gaming and cooperated with the casino millionaire Stanley Ho Hung-Sun to create a gambling monopoly. Fok’s business acumen and connections allowed him to make investments in mainland China in the 1970s before widespread economic reform opened the market to large-scale investment. Fok’s success in business allowed him to emerge as an influential voice in politics. In 1980 he became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body, where he served as the vice-chairman and advised the party on economic issues. With an estimated fortune of US$3.5 billion dollars, Fok spent his later years
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contributing to the development of China’s sports program, since he believed that sports would improve China’s image. He was president of the Hong Kong Football Association numerous times beginning in the 1960s. He donated more than US$60 million to sporting projects following the establishment of the Fok Ying-tung Foundation in 1984. After Beijing’s successful bid for the 2008 Olympics, he donated US$25 million for the construction costs. Fok’s death on 26 October 2006 at the age of 83 at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital after a long struggle with cancer ended a colorful business career and long support of Chinese development. Julian Chambliss and Mareike Fetscherin Sources Cheng, Jonathan (2006), ‘Speculation mounts over who can fill Fok’s role’, The Standard: China Business Newspaper, 31 October. Cheng, Jonathan (2006), ‘A life that reflected change’, The Standard: China Business Newspaper, 30 October. China Vitae, ‘Henry Ying Tung Fok’, accessed 3 September 2008 at http://chinavitae.com/biography/ Henry%20Ying_Tung%20Fok%7C768/full. International Herald Tribune (2006), ‘Henry Fok Ying-tung, colorful Hong Kong Tycoon’, 29 October, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/29/news/obits.php.
Fu, Chengyu (ٙ៤⥝ b. 1951) CEO of the China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC), Fu Chengyu has led one of China’s most important industries into an era of growth and prosperity, exploding onto the international stage with bold plans and dynamic new approaches to the energy industry. Fu received his BS in petroleum engineering from the Northeast Petroleum Institute in China and his masters degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California. He has more than 30 years experience in China’s petroleum industry. Fu first joined CNOOC in 1982 and has since held executive leadership positions throughout the corporation and its subsidiaries. In October of 2003, he was appointed as president of CNOOC and as both chairman of the board and CEO of the company. His term of leadership has been highlighted by bold moves and aggressive undertakings in the international arena. 2005 saw CNOOC make a cash offer for American oil company Unocal. While political pressures prevented the deal from coming to fruition, it was a landmark event in which CNOOC, under Fu’s leadership, leapt out and announced its intent to compete globally, on even terms, with all the major global oil players. The proposed deal highlighted both the financial strength and the long-term, international strategic outlook of Fu and CNOOC. The deal illustrates the corporate commitment to growth through acquisition of key business units and a willingness to pursue sophisticated global financial transactions. Fu’s long-term strategies and international outlook seem to have paid off. In October 2007 CNOOC made its debut in the Fortune 500 top enterprises in the world at number 469, and among the 50 companies with the fastest growing operating income, CNOOC ranks number ten. In terms of sales, CNOOC is the fastest growing oil company in the world. Nonetheless, both Fu and CNOOC, face rapidly increasing market competition from
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both domestic and international energy players as China continues to make progress on its WTO commitments. Michael J. Miske Sources CNOOC Ltd (2007), press release ‘CNOOC makes debut in Fortune 500’, accessed 9 October 2007 at www. cnooc.com.cn/yyww/xwygg/246712.shtml. CNOOC Ltd (2007), ‘Directors and senior management’, accessed 9 October 2007 at www.cnoocltd.com/en/ Managerial_01.aspx. Powell, Bill (2005), ‘Uncharted Waters’, Time Magazine, 11 July, accessed 9 October 2007 at www.time.com/ time/nation/article/0,8599,1081438,00.html.
Gao, Dekang (催ᖋᒋ b. 1952) Gao Dekang is the president of the Kangbo Group, producer of Bosideng, a successful Chinese garment brand. He is also vice chairman of the China National Garment Association and deputy director of the China Feather and Down Industrial Association. With 30 years of experience in garment manufacturing and marketing, Gao has built up the largest and the most advanced down-coat production base in Asia. For the past 11 years, Bosideng has been the no. 1 down-coat producer in terms of sales volume, and has won recognition as one of China’s most famous brands. Born in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, Gao started his career as a tailor in 1972, after graduating from high school. It was a natural career choice for him because both his father and grandfather were tailors, and Gao proudly recalled the days when he could precisely assess customers’ sizes just by looking at them. Subsequently, he set up a factory in his hometown of Changshu, about 100 km from Shanghai, with eight sewing machines and 11 local people from the village. Every day Gao made a round trip to Shanghai to bring materials and supplies to his shop and to take finished garments to the city. One day he came across people waiting in line to buy winter coats on Nanjing Road. This suggested a good business opportunity, with huge potential. So Gao decided to learn firsthand how the business worked and began making down-coats for a Shanghai company in 1984. A decade later he incorporated his company, and after an initial failure to break into the northern market, he chose the name Bosideng, a transliteration of Boston, a US city known for its cold, snowy winters. He also streamlined his products, using his tailoring expertise to improve coat design and producing them in bright colors instead of drab blue or black. The company sold nearly all the 500 000 coats he made in 1995 and quickly became a market leader. Encouraged by this initial success, Gao planned to take his company further with a bold marketing strategy. He approached the country’s General Sports Administration to sponsor the first Chinese gold medal winner at the 2006 Winter Olympics, Han Xiaopeng. In addition, Bosideng sponsored a climbing expedition to Qomolangma (Mount Everest) and an Antarctic exploration, which saw the company’s flag flying in the coldest places on the planet. In recent years, Gao has been shifting his corporate strategies to tackle climate change. He has worked on the design of his coats to make them not only more fashionable but also better for the environment with the use of new technologies in the garment industry. His company is currently working with a local research institute to make clothes that can be worn in different temperatures. The plan is to produce garments that can be labeled with the temperatures to which they are suited. The company also plans to grow its business beyond winter clothing. While the focus will still be on the Chinese market, Bosideng is also looking to further expansion in countries where it has a market share already, such as Russia and Canada. China may be the world’s largest manufacturer of textiles and clothing, but the industry is rarely acknowledged for its fashion and brand development. Gao, who has moved from a humble Chinese tailor to an outstanding entrepreneur, has built China’s biggest winter wear company. Aiming at ‘building a global brand and inspiring the national spirit’, Gao strives to make Chinese clothes acknowledged and respected by the rest of the world. Huang, Lujin 41
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Sources CCTV (2007), ‘Gao Dekang: from China’s countryside to Harvard’, 3 May, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.cctv.com/program/bizchina/20070503/100988.shtml. Liu Weiling and Ding Yao (2007), ‘Bosideng: zipping ahead’, China Daily, 30 July, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.cnga.org.cn/engl/news/View.asp?NewsID=13626. China Textile Network, ‘Gao Dekang, “Individual brand creation and global competition participation”’, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://news.ctei.gov.cn/zhuanti/texforum/site_en/speeches/gaodegang.htm.
Ge, Wenyao (㨯᭛㗔 b. 1947) Chairman of Shanghai Jahwa Co., Ge Wenyao is also a senior economist, party secretary of Shanghai Jahwa Co., former director of the Shanghai Chemical Plants, vice president of the China Trademark Association, visiting professor of Shanghai University of Finance and Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Llewellyn consultant of Shanghai Enterprises. Well known for his four core strategies in managing Jahwa: exploring the market, new product development, internal product control, and talent import and management, Ge has been awarded the National Model Worker Award for his contribution to state-owned enterprises, particularly Jahwa, the largest Chinese domestic manufacturer of cosmetics and personal care products. By the end of the twentieth century, a large number of multinational companies had entered the Chinese market. Shanghai, the economic capital of China, was inevitably in the forefront of the battle between state-owned enterprises and foreign challengers. While many state-owned enterprises failed in the competition, Ge shouldered the responsibility of reforming Jahwa. As early as 1985, Ge realized that a planned economy would not meet the need for greater development in state-owned enterprises. Under his leadership, Shanghai Jahwa began to focus on market-oriented business strategies, and became the first company among its peers to establish a distribution network throughout the country, the first to open a customer hotline, and the first to start beauty salons and a beauty school. Because of Ge’s quick actions, Shanghai Jahwa was able to reorganize its business structure and benefit from the emerging consumer market. Under Ge, new value-added products were developed and manufactured, and the popularity of two traditional brands (Tremella and Maxam) was enhanced. In the1990s, when foreign capital entered the Chinese market, as Ge predicted, competition grew even fiercer among domestic and international companies. Nevertheless, Shanghai Jahwa has been enjoying a booming market with a growth rate of 35 percent a year. This spectacular development has attracted the attention of several multinationals seeking acquisitions of brands under Jahwa, among them Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido and Kao. By 2005, China’s cosmetic sales revenue ranked second in Asia and eighth in the world. There are 4000 cosmetic companies in China, with 25 000 product varieties. However, the industry as a whole does not have a sound development structure. Most of them are small to mid-sized companies with, on average, less than RMB10 million of revenue per year. Only Shanghai Jahwa, Beijing-based Dabao, and Chongqingbased Olive, can reach an annual production value of over 500 million yuan. In spite of competition, Shanghai Jahwa has retained its title as the nation’s largest and most profitable domestic enterprise in the cosmetics sector. In the face of the large-scale assault of foreign brands from some of the most powerful global players in the industry, Ge has
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carved out a viable position in the Chinese marketplace for his company. In 2004, Ge was named a top Innovative Entrepreneur in China. Xiaoqi Yu Sources China Enterprise Confederation (2004), ‘ϝሞЁ߯ϮӕϮᆊ䗝Ҏᚙމҟ㒡’ [‘Introductions of candidates: the 3rd Chinese Innovative Entrepreneur Award’], accessed 25 September 2008 at www.cec-ceda.org. cn/cyj2004/qyjjj_gewy.htm. China Net (2002), Ё㔥, ‘㨯᭛㗔: ⌧䞡ᔽкݭӕ䕝✠’ [‘Ge Wenyao: rewrite the glory of state-owned enterprise’], 19 October, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.china.com.cn/chinese/zhuanti/219785.htm. CriEnglish (2005), ‘Brand analysis for China’s cosmetics industry’, 7 February, accessed 25 September 2008 at http://english.cri.cn/2600/2005-2-7/116@204721_1.htm. Shanghai Enterprises (2004), ‘さߎ䞡ೈ: 㨯᭛㗔Ў᳝ӕϮᩥ䍋⇥ᮣક⠠ⱘϔ䴶᮫Ᏸ’, Ϟ⍋ӕϮ [‘Breaking through the siege: Gen Wenyao has raised the banner of national brands for state-owned enterprises’], (1), accessed 25 September 2008 at http://scholar.ilib.cn/A-shqy200401008.html. Shanghai Home Appliances (2005), Ϟ⍋ᆊ࣪, ‘݀ৌὖ‘[ ’މJahwa: brief introduction’], accessed 25 September 2008 at www.jahwa.com.cn/jahwa/about/?id=6.
Geng, Xiaoping (㘓ᇣᑇ b. 1948) President and CEO of the state-owned Zhejiang Expressway, Geng Xiaoping has been an essential contributor to the improvement of China’s transportation infrastructure. Through his hard work and leadership over the past 17 years, Geng has gained special insights and taken the Zhejiang Expressway into double-digit growth in both revenues and profits since its public listing in 1997. Blessed with a versatile persona, Geng was able to successfully move from one field to another with ease. He started his professional career in 1979 after serving in the Chinese Air Force for 12 years, where he developed the discipline and work ethic needed to excel in all his future endeavors. He decided to pursue a degree from the East China University of Political Science and Law. After successfully obtaining his law degree in 1984, Geng began to work as a state prosecutor, holding various positions in the People’s Court of Zhejiang Province including legal secretary, division chief and deputy prosecutor. In 1991, Geng was appointed as deputy director of the Executive Commission of the Zhejiang Provincial Expressway, where he was responsible for the business operation and administration of the expressway system in Zhejiang, Southeast China. He became the general manager in 1997, and the chairman of the company in 2002. Through his executive leadership Geng spread his corporate belief in excellence throughout the company: ‘In Zhejiang Expressway, the management and staff share the same value: Service as our mission, Excellence as our standard’ (Geng Xiaoping, 2004). Under his leadership the company experienced remarkable growth and corporate success. In May 1997 Zhejiang Expressway became a public company when it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Three years later the company further increased its international presence when it entered the London Stock Exchange in 2000; and in 2003 the company received its first international recognition, being named one of the 200 non-US companies in the ‘Best under a Billion’ list by Forbes. Asiamoney ranked the Zhejiang Expressway among the ‘Top Ten Best Managed Companies in the PRC’. Investment in infrastructure is pivotal in the growing economies of emerging markets.
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Throughout his business career of 17 years Geng has set the standard for excellence in corporate leadership in China, and made contributions to the improvement of the country’s transportation channels and distribution networks. He set up Zhejiang Expressway’s long-term development plan to build 5000 km of expressway network in China by 2020 as well as potential entry into India’s market. When a representative from Indian construction and engineering firm Larsen & Toubro asked if Zhejiang Expressway had the technology for building a 300-kilometer highway within two years, Geng proudly answered that his company’s R&D capabilities were among the best in China. Geng Xiaoping is a driven individual who has brought continuous success to Zhejiang Expressway, China, and now possibly Asia. Rebecca Montaner Sources BusinessWeek (2008), ‘Lessons for India in China’s infrastructure build up’, 15 January, accessed 2 October at www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb20080115_286401.htm?chan=search. Chinese Entrepreneurs (2005), Ё㒣㧹㗙, ‘㘓ᇣᑇ: ≳䗮ⱘ䞣’[‘Geng Xiaoping: power of communication’], 28 June, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/manage/cfrw/20050628/12081732861.shtml. Chinese News Agency (2000), Ёᮄ䯏⼒, ‘ҢݯҎ, Ẕᆳᅬࠄ≾ᵁ⬀催䗳݀䏃㨷џ䭓: ӕϮᆊ㘓ᇣᑇⱘ“ϟ⍋” Ӵ༛’ [‘From military officer, to prosecutor, and President of Zhejiang Expressway: legend of entrepreneur Geng Xiaoping’], 1 October, accessed at www.zaobao.com.sg/zaobao/stock/pages4/china100100.html. Geng Xiaoping (2004), ‘Chairaman’s statement’, Company Report of Zhejiang Expressway, 15 March, accessed 2 October 2008 at www.zjec.com.cn/extra/col11/2003_nb_en.pdf. Zhejiang Expressway (2008), ‘Management profile’, accessed 2 October at www.zjec.com.cn/aa/column/82. htm.
Gu, Chujun (乒䲣ݯb. 1959) A prominent Chinese entrepreneur, in 2001 Gu Chujun was listed by Forbes Magazine as China’s twentieth richest person with a fortune of $236 million. Born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Gu Chujun went to Tianjin University where he obtained his masters degree. He then taught at the university. In the 1980s he became interested in chlorofluorocarbon-free refrigerants and conducted some active research in thermodynamics and refrigeration engineering. After he invented an environmentally-friendly chlorofluorocarbon-free refrigerant, he patented the technology in 1990, and formed Greencool, based in Shunde, Guangdong Province. This invention became the benchmark for the refrigerant companies of China. Gu is responsible for funding and starting Greencool Technologies, as well as developing all corporate strategies. According to Caijing magazine, in 2001 Greencool Enterprises Development was the largest shareholder (20.64 percent) in Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings, then China’s largest refrigerator maker. In 2003 Gu Chujun was named the ‘most noteworthy Chinese entrepreneur’ by the Asia Times. Gu managed various other companies under the name of Greencool. In addition to the Kelon Group, the list also includes Hefei Meiling, Xiangyang Automobile and Yangzhou Motor Coach. As an appliance company, Kelon became one the largest refrigerator companies in China in the 1990s, with assets valued at 6.6 billion RMB (US$814.8 million). The company also had yearly revenues of 4.38 billion yuan (US$540.7 million). However in 2005, Kelon stopped all production following the arrest of company vice president Liu Congmeng and former auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. An investigation found that top executives had embezzled money. The scandal was
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linked to Gu Chujun who was arrested later that year, and all bank accounts for the company and top executives were frozen. The trigger for the investigation was that Kelon Group had a loss of 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million) in the 2004 annual report, and in the following year that loss had increased substantially to US$473 million. Gu was charged with inflating corporate profits and embezzlement. Because of his arrest and alleged economic fraud, Gu has been permanently banned from involvement in the securities business and serving on the board or in top management of any company in China. The 46-year-old former executive was expecting sentence for his criminal charges as of 2007. Francisco Lutz and Marc Fetscherin Sources China View (2006), ‘Former Kelon chairman hit with ban’, 7 July, accessed at http://news.xinhuanet.com/ english/2006-07/17/content_4842065.htm. Greencool (2007), ‘Management background’, accessed at www.Greencool.com.hk, August. People’s Daily online (2005), ‘Kelon’s future at stake as chairman detained’, 3 August. Ng, Sam and Yohji Yuan (2005), ‘Fridge-maker Kelon implodes’, Asia Times, 11 August. Who’s Who in the World (2007), ‘Gu Chujun’, 24th edn, also published in Who’s Who in Asia (2007), 1st edn. Xin Zhiming and Lauren Keane (2005), ‘The dramatic collapse of Kelon chairman Gu Chujun’, Caijing Magazine, 5 September, accessed 23 September 2008 at http--www_http://english.caijing.com./2005-09-0513847.html.
Guo, Guangchang (䛁ᑓᯠb. 1967) Guo Guangchang is president and CEO of Shanghai Fuxing Industrial Group, founded in 1992 with a mere US$4500. The young, energetic, wily and industrious Guo Guangchang has since built the company into a conglomerate with sales and assets of over US$1 billion each. Guo Guangchang, a native of Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, was born in 1967 and holds a bachelors degree in philosophy along with an MBA from Fudan University. In 1992, Guo set up Guangxin Science and Technology Consulting Company with four friends and an investment of US$4500. They developed a medical product that tested for hepatitis A and made their first US$100 000 by direct marketing. Guangxin has since been renamed Fuxing (or Fosun in English), and the business has expanded to include real estate, pharmaceuticals, retailing, information, emerging software, steel and sports industries. However, the group’s business can be divided into three main branches: stock market investments, industry operations, and venture capital investments. Guo describes his own business philosophy as a model that incorporates portfolio investments in other firms and capital investment in its own operations. Venture capital is the cornerstone of Fuxing Group’s business. Guo has been active in many social organizations, including the China Young Entrepreneurs Association and the Shanghai Youth Federation. He was named as Shanghai’s model worker in 1997 and honored by CCTV among the top ten business personalities of the year in 2004. Guo believes it is impossible to avoid politics when running a large enterprise in China, and he has been a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and is also a delegate to the NPC, the latter giving him a more active and direct involvement in the legislation governing businesses
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in China. He sees his participation in politics not only as bringing trust to his enterprise but also as being helpful to enterprise operations. Confidence in Guo’s business prowess is confirmed by the oversubscription of its shares on its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007 and the reported, though unconfirmed, investment of the legendary Li Ka Shing in the company. The principal executives of the group are still the same founding members with similar backgrounds, making communication with the management team easy and running the organization as a ‘quasi-family business.’ In 2005, Guo was ranked number seven among the 400 richest Chinese by Forbes, with a net worth of US$1.09 billion. Sangeeta Singh Sources Bing, Lily Chen (2003), Asiamoney (supplement) November, 36. Crienglish.com (2005), ‘Guo Guangchang: Chairman and President of Fuxing Industrial Group’, 13 January, accessed 26 November 2007 at http://english.cri.cn/2600/2005-1-14/
[email protected]. Forbes.com (2005), ‘China’s richest: #7 Guo Guangchang’, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.forbes.com/ lists/2005/74/CYTD.html. Leung, Wendy (2007), ‘Fosun shares climb in Hong Kong debut’, International Herald Tribune, 16 July accessed 26 November at www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/16/bloomberg/sxfosun.php.
Guo, Hao (Kwok, Ho 䛁⌽b. 1955) Chairman of the board of directors of Chaoda Modern Agricultural Holdings, Guo Hao established a revolutionary new business model for the Chinese agricultural industry when he founded Chaoda in 1994. Chaoda is currently one of China’s fastest growing agribusinesses, expanding its operations at a rate of roughly 25 percent each year. Guo was born in China’s Fujian Province. His education was limited to graduating from junior high school, as he went to work in a military factory at age 14. Guo served in the military until 1980, when he was discharged and started a business importing electronics for the defense industry. When the yuan was devalued, making importing unprofitable, Guo invested in agriculture. This led him away from his military background to a field in which he had no previous experience, but it proved to be extremely successful later in his career. Guo’s entry into the agriculture industry came at a time when food safety was a national issue. During the mid-1990s, there was growing concern in China over the health risks associated with the widespread use of pesticides by produce farmers. Consumers eagerly received Guo’s produce, which was grown without the heavy use of pesticides. Guo started Chaoda Modern Agricultural Holdings in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, which is where the company is still headquartered. Today Chaoda employs almost 15 000 people, and in 2006 the company reported net profits of US$168 million from revenues of US$347 million. According to the 2005/2006 annual report, Chaoda currently lists total assets of over US$1 billion. Guo’s success was based on the practice of consolidating the output from dozens of small farms. This approach to farming has drastically changed the Chinese agricultural industry. This process has been made possible by the village heads’ ability to negotiate for all the farms under their authority. If Chaoda were required to negotiate with each individual farmer, the process would take years. The farmers have the option to continue farming their land or to rent it out to
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Chaoda. After Chaoda acquires the rights to a given area, farming operations are conducted according to Chaoda’s standards, which includes drastically reduced use of pesticides. The low labor and rent costs, together with higher quality produce, give Chaoda an advantage in the produce export market, which accounts for 30 percent of Chaoda’s total output. This model is far more efficient than the previous method by which produce reached consumers. In the past, farmers would typically sell their produce to traders that in turn sold them to retailers. By providing retailers with a single dependable source for their produce, Chaoda has streamlined the process. Today Chaoda is expanding into the livestock market, importing select breeds of goats and dairy cattle for sale to farmers. The company is also continuing to consolidate farms and expand its market share. Its success has attracted a number of competitors, but Chaoda remains the most successful player in the produce industry under the leadership of Guo Hao. Shawn Tavares and Marc Fetscherin Sources ‘Chaoda Modern Agriculture (Holdings) Limited (2006), Annual Report 2005/2006’, accessed 10 September 2007 at http://202.66.146.82/listco/hk/chaoda/annual/2006/ar2006.pdf. ‘China’s 100 Richest Businesspeople 2001’, accessed 4 September 2007 at http://members.forbes.com/ global/2001/1112/032_27.html. Stone, Andy and Shu-Ching Jean Chen (2007), ‘The industrialized peasant’, Forbes Magazine, 8 January. US-China Exchange Association, ‘Guo Hao, CEO of Chaoda Modern Agriculture (Holdings) Ltd’, accessed 4 September 2007 at www.usachina.org/english/entre/detail.asp?filename=/export/home0/www/usachina.org/ english/entre/text/400_kwokho.txt.
Guo, Xianchen (䛁ܜ㞷 b. 1967) President of ChinaSoft Network Technology, Guo Xianchen has been with ChinaSoft for more than two decades, from software development to sales, from system software to application software, from managing software development projects to managing software developers. After graduating from Beijing Institute of Technology with an MS in computer science in 1991, Guo Xinchen joined the company, then called China Computer Software and Technology Service Corporation as a network engineer. At the age of 23, Guo was filled with zest for software development in China: ‘I believed that ChinaSoft was all about the software development industry in China at that time. Fully staffed with brilliant, talented people who work on a lot of projects, it must be a great platform providing great opportunities’. Just as he expected, ChinaSoft indeed turned out to be a launching pad for Guo. Equipped with solid knowledge and skills in computer intelligence, network administration, multimedia communication, databases and data mining, Guo quickly became a project leader at ChinaSoft and was appointed to chair the Golden Taxation project for the National Revenue Bureau, a key national project sponsored by the State Planning Committee with a grant of RMB150 million. His team successfully developed the National Revenue Comprehensive Management System, which has been widely used by revenue agencies at various levels and won the award for National Key New Product in 1999. In the same year, ChinaSoft also won a contract with the Bank of China to provide
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over 20 000 Microsoft desktops and servers, which became the first big break for Microsoft in China. Guo also chaired the development of the ODPS processing system and ChinaSoft office automation system, which garnered many awards from the Ministry of Electronics Industry, the China Software Association, and the National Economics and Trade Committee. The ChinaSoft office automation system has been widely used in the revenue agencies and has a market share of over 85 percent. Guo’s approaches to the promotion of technology innovation at ChinaSoft are ‘to have what others don’t’ and ‘to have something different from what others do’. Under Guo’s leadership, ChinaSoft developed a series of domestic Linux operating system products with independent intellectual property and thus filled a number of gaps in this field in China. Guo’s emphasis on innovation and the application of new technology resulted not only in great social benefits but also made enormous economic gains for the company. From a company with only 21 employees and a registered capital of RMB300 000, ChinaSoft evolved into a company with over 2600 employees and a registered capital of RMB101 million as of 2005. Their business scope has been expanded to include the development of operating systems, embedded, financial, and commercial security, military applications, industrial and commercial management, and machine translation software, digital products, information security products, and office automation products. It also provides software outsourcing, localization, and technical consulting, training, and services. In addition to advancing ChinaSoft’s leading role in software development in the domestic market, Guo also put great effort into international collaboration. Since its inception, ChinaSoft has contracted with many well-known international companies in the aspect of localization, including Microsoft, IBM, HP, Nokia, Oracle and Lucent, among others. It has branch offices in the USA, Japan and Hong Kong. To recognize his outstanding achievement, many awards have been granted to Guo, including ‘China’s Outstanding Young Scientists Innovation Award’ and ‘Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Central Enterprises’. Guo is a standing committee member of the China Computer Industry Association and the China Computer User Association, and the deputy chair of the China Software Industry Association, Network Branch. Min Tong Sources Guo, Xianchen (2005), ‘ϢԴৠ㸠݅ৠᠧ䗴䰙㑻ӕϮ: “Ё䕃ӊ”㫀থሩⱘ䰙ࣙϢߎষϮࡵ’ [‘Together we build up international enterprises: the prosperous localization and export business of ChinaSoft’], Ё⾥ᡔѻϮ, China Science and Technology Industries, February, pp. 132–3. Zhang Zhen (2002), ‘Ҏ⠽ᕅڣ: Ё䕃䏃ϞЁ䕃Ҏ’ [‘Profile: ChinaSoft employees along with the ChinaSoft journey’], 9 July, accessed at www.amteam.org/k/vertical/2002-7/447219.html.
Guo, Zeli (䛁߭⧚ b. 1955) As chairman and general manager of Xiahua Electronics Company, Guo Zeli has been a major player in the TV business in China. Guo Zeli is a native of Xiamen, Fujian Province. During the Cultural Revolution he worked in the countryside for three years beginning in 1973, and in 1976 he joined the People’s Liberation Army. After discharge, he worked for the Xiamen Special Trade
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Company for several years during the 1980s, and then joined Xiahua Electronics in 1995. In the fiercely competitive atmosphere of recent years, Guo has managed to adjust to drastic market changes and maneuver the business for future growth. During the price war, Guo was among a very few who realized that the price-cutting strategy would eventually destroy the business. Xiahua, under his leadership, did not become heavily involved in price-cutting measures. Guo was famous for pushing the company to apply modern business management approaches and driving business development via innovation. Realizing that too great a focus on the TV product line would put the company in jeopardy, Guo decided to expand into other communication products and computers in order to pursue more balanced growth for the company. Consequently, Xiahua invested heavily in its own R&D institute in China and 16 other facilities around the world. Accordingly Xiahua’s innovation has held many top honors in China, including the first plasma TV, first HDTV, and the first GSM cell phone, for which it holds its own intellectual property rights, and so on. The company has successfully exported TVs into North American, European and African markets under its own PRIMA and ODM brand names, in addition to computer products and video systems for automobiles. Guo was the first Chinese entrepreneur to respond to the anti-dumping lawsuit from the European Union in 1998. He has twice been named among the provincial most honorable entrepreneurs, in 1998 and 1999. With Guo’s dedication to modern management concepts and open-minded approach, Xiahua has become the third-largest flat-panel TV manufacturer in China and the eighth-largest in the world in 2005. However, as a result of poor decisions on product structures, domestic market issues and financial strategies, Xiahua has experienced operational losses in the last few years. Although a domestic market leader in high-end electronics Xiahua is still a far cry from its global peers, such as Toshiba and Sony. Furthermore, television sets have already become consumable items as the result of increasing household income in China, but Guo and his team still followed the seasonal pattern to schedule their manufacturing activities, resulting in situations that they could not sufficiently meet the market needs. Finally, insufficient attention was paid to the company’s logistics system, resulting in high operations costs. Confronting the dilemma, Guo stepped down voluntarily in 2006 and became director of the board. Xiaodong Du Sources China Vitae (2008), ‘Guo Zeli’, accessed 2 October at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Guo_Zeli/full. Sohu.com (2007), ‘䛁߭⧚Ⳍ݇䌘᭭’, 12 January, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://learning.sohu.com/20070112/ n247578251.shtml. Shengzhen News (2001), ‘ডؒ䫔᭫䛁߭⧚’, 3 January, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://pdf.sznews. com/k&d/big5/2001/0103/newsfile/20010103105121.htm. Xiahua Electronics (2008), ‘݀ৌὖ’މ, ॺढ⬉ᄤ [‘About us’], accessed 20 October at www.xoceco.com.cn. ‘ॺढᘏ㒣⧚䛁߭⧚“䗔ԡ” ㅵ⧚ሖᤶ㸔’ (2006), 19 September, accessed 2 October 2008 at www.go2work. com.cn/hr/2006-9-19/article_view_25492.htm. ‘ॺढⱘܿ༅䇃ঞᇍㄪ: ॺढ⬉ᄤ㙵ӑ᳝䰤݀ৌᘏ㒣⧚䛁߭⧚’ (2007) [‘Xiahua’s eight mistakes and counter measures as noted by CEO Guo Zeli’], 17 January, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://hi.baidu.com/00y0/ blog/item/37ea41b5b3928cce37d3ca2e.html.
He, Boquan (ԩԃᴗ b. 1960) Founder and former president of the Robust Group, He Boquan has turned a shabby plant of less than 10 square meters into a top-ten beverage enterprise in China. Born in Guangzhou, He Boquan worked as a farmer after graduating from high school, and then became a teacher in a rural high school. Later he went back to the city and enrolled in college, subsequently becoming the local secretary of the Communist Youth League. In 1987, after being appointed deputy director of Zhongshan Xiaolan Pharmaceutical Factory, a small plant manufacturing simple medicines, he realized that there were no health products particularly designed for teenagers in the market. After thorough research, He decided that a yogurt product would have the huge market potential he was seeking; thus a new business idea was born. On 21 February 1989, He founded the Zhongshan Robust Health Products Company with capital of RMB960 000 (about $17 000 at that time) acquired from four hometown friends. With Robust yogurt for teenagers as the new company’s main product, He began his career as a health product entrepreneur in China. By 1992, the company had become a cross-regional and cross-industrial collective entity, with 17 subsidiaries and over 200 operations across the country. In that year He Boquan restructured the company as the Guangdong Jinri Group Corporation. Focused primarily on infants and young customers, He successfully launched a series of nutritional dairy beverages that generated RMB130 million of gross production value. According to He, ‘Jinri means only today, and we should make progress day by day’ (Wu, 2002). By 1994 the group had risen to become one of the top five health products companies in China, and consequently He was named a Famous Entrepreneur in the National Health Products Industry and an Outstanding Entrepreneur in the National Food Industry. The success of the Jinri Group was recorded in the Case Study of China’s Famous Brands, compiled by the Policy Research Center of the Central Communist Party and the Development Research Center of the State Council in 1997. He Boquan experienced a banner year in 1998. First he spent RMB12 million to hire McKinsey for consultation on corporate strategy, organizational structure and financing, which made the Jinri Group the first Chinese township enterprise in the country to engage a leading global consulting company. He also took the lead in introducing the advanced SAP management system to the Chinese food and beverage industry, and the Jinri Group became the first Chinese food and beverage company and township enterprise ever selected for the Harvard Business Case Study. By the end of 1998, He had earned $85 million. In January 1999, Jinri was renamed the Robust Group to unify the brand image. Again ranked among the top-ten in the Chinese beverage industry, Robust was recognized as one of China’s most famous brands by the State Trademark Bureau in the same year. In March 2000 Robust reached an agreement with the Danone Group to set up a joint venture, the Robust Food and Beverage Corporation (Guangdong), with Danone acting as holding company. He was fully confident that the merger would make Robust better prepared for the challenge of China’s entry into the WTO. However, not only did Robust fall short of the scheduled sales target, the partners also failed to agree on a long-term corporate strategy. Thus He and four friends resigned from the top management on 30 November 2001. While He still remained as vice chairman of the board of directors, he 50
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noted that ‘this is the first lesson learned after China’s entry into the WTO. Chinese enterprises must accept the game rules of the Western world if they want to merge into the global markets’ (Li, 2001). Sun, Jianmin and Yang, Tao Sources Beverage Industry (2000), ‘Glory today: the history of Guangdong Jinri Corporation’, January. Li, Heng (2001), ‘Five senior leaders of Robust resigned: first lesson learned after WTO’, People’s Daily, 3 December, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://english.people.com.cn/200112/03/print20011203_85858.html. Meng, Xiaoyun (2007), ‘Refulgence today: interview with Robust’, 10 October, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://service.smeshx.gov.cn/g%5C20071010%5C182169250.htm. Wu, Zhaogui (2002), ‘Leader of Jinri: He Boquan’s history of entrepreneurship’, Science Square, September.
Ho, Stanley (He, Hongshen ԩ吓➞ b. 1921) Nicknamed ‘The King of Gambling,’ Stanley Ho is a legendary business tycoon who has made a tremendous contribution to the economy in Macau with his flagship firm Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM). He became the first living Macau resident to have a street named after him in 1998. Ho has been married four times and has 17 legitimate children; his high profile family members include his daughter Pansy Ho (Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings), his son Lawrence Ho (CEO of Melco PBL International) and his fourth wife Angela Leong (Director of STDM). Ho was born in Hong Kong, the ninth child of a prominent and wealthy family. However, his father went bankrupt and fled to Vietnam on his own when Ho was 13. Ho managed to continue his education with a scholarship and graduated from the University of Hong Kong. Ho left for Macau as a refugee after Hong Kong surrendered to Japan during the Second World War; he worked in a trading firm for some 16 hours a day and accumulated some savings. After marrying into a wealthy Macanese family, Ho went back to Hong Kong and used his savings to set up a construction firm. The firm profited tremendously in the post-Second World War construction boom in Hong Kong. In 1962 Ho successfully bid for the franchise for the gaming monopoly with three other businessmen and STDM was founded. Ho’s casino business targeted the mass market and offered no-frills gambling; in addition, it subcontracted VIP rooms to serious gamblers. This strategy provided a lucrative stream of income before the mass market gambling business took off in the 1980s. STDM was the only casino operator in Macau before its license expired in 2002; it was also the largest employer in Macau, contributing some 60 percent of total tax revenue to the Macau government in 1998. The new Macau government (returned to China in 1999) issued new licenses, which allowed two Las Vegas operators to invest in Macau. Macau has become the largest global international gambling attraction, with Las Vegas-style entertainment, such as cabarets, and five-star hotels. To meet the new competition, Ho expanded his target market and invested in the upmarket Grand Lisboa casino and other casino projects. Grand Lisboa was opened in February 2007 during the Chinese New Year holiday, and attracted some 500 000 visitors in ten days. Ho set up Shun Tak Holdings in 1972, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock
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Exchange the following year. Shun Tak is a diversified group which is involved in transportation (for example, the only high-speed jetfoils between Hong Kong and Macau), property, hospitality, and investment. Shun Tak is a leading business group in Hong Kong, with a turnover of $HK2508 million in 2006. Over his long business career, Ho has made a great contribution to Macau and Hong Kong. He was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2003. In addition, he was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Hong Kong and the University of Macau. He is also a standing committee member of the 9th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Denise Tsang Sources Asia Week (2001), ‘Rival claims’, 12 October. Hahn, Lorraine (2004), ‘Hong Kong business tycoon Stanley Ho TalkAsia interview transcript’, CNN World, 2 October, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/10/13/talkasia.ho.script/index. html. New York Times (2007), ‘It’s a brawl, China’s gamblers are the prize’, 25 March. Taipei Times (2007), ‘Macau’s Stanley Ho set to strike back at US rivals’, 11 February.
Hou, Weigui (փЎ䌉b. 1941) Chairman of ZTE Group, Hou Weigui is known for his key role in turning a tiny start-up into a large public corporation. ZTE is a major wireless equipment provider in China, with RMB35.7 billion of total assets in the telecom manufacturing industry. In early 1985, Hou started the Zhongxing Semiconductor Corporation in Shenzhen. In 1993 as incumbent chairman, Hou restructured the company into the Zhongxing New Telecom Corporation, a pioneer with a collective operation mechanism among stateowned enterprises. When the ZTE Group went public in A shares in 1997, Hou made a fortune of RMB154 million. Under his leadership, ZTE Group became the first telecom manufacturer in China to develop a digital SPC switch, with independent property rights, the first company in China to sell telecom products abroad, and the first Chinese enterprise to master the technology of separating the UIM card from CDMA mobile phones. As a pragmatic, courageous and innovative entrepreneur, Hou led ZTE’s march to become a giant telecom equipment provider. When the global telecom market experienced a downturn in 2003, Hou’s instincts for future opportunities led him to concentrate on wireless devices, network equipment and mobile phones for the domestic market, reaping an annual profit of RMB295 million, a startling increase of 72.4 percent over the previous year. Thus Hou was named among the Top-Ten Business Figures in the Information Industry in 2003. In the following year, ZTE successfully launched the smallest and lightest mobile phone with leading 3G technology, and became the first Chinese enterprise to be listed in both A and H shares, and the first Chinese telecom equipment provider ever to serve the Olympic Games. As a result, Hou was named among the China Business Figures of the Year by CCTV on 28 December 2004. Hou also demonstrated strategic insight in his unique approach to the global market. In order to break through and secure market presence, he implemented the International
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Falcon Strategy to target markets in developing countries. In 2005 Hou’s global strategy earned ZTE RMB13.6 billion in overseas sales, 40 percent of ZTE’s total revenue. The secret of ZTE’s success lay in the mechanism for attracting, retaining, and motivating employees. By adopting a multiple distribution system, Hou tried his best to meet the needs of every employee in terms of rewards, career development, and their physical and mental well-being. Keeping a close eye on their customers’ demands, Hou and senior managers of ZTE personally visited various clients during the week of the Spring Festival in 2004, and Hou remains extremely sensitive to the evolving trends in the telecom market both at home and abroad. As a reward for Hou’s vision and managerial philosophy, ZTE was recognized as among the world’s fastest-growing telecom equipment providers by BusinessWeek in 2004, and as one of China’s top-ten most influential foreign-listing companies and top-twenty Chinese brands in 2006, the only such company in the telecom industry. ZTE currently has a distribution presence in over 100 countries and regions, and is ranked among the top-30 world leading telecom providers. Hou has every confidence that the future of ZTE will be even brighter. Sun, Jianmin and Yang, Tao Sources Beijing Today (2004), ‘CCTV names 2004 top ten economic personalities’, 31 December, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/31/content_405076.htm. Cao, Hongbei (2005), ‘Hou Weigui: align with 50 million telecom providers in the world’, China News Weekly, 10 January. Huang, Fen (2001), ‘Hou Weigui: taking the opportunity and meeting the challenge’, Communications World, 8 May. ZTE Group (2007), ‘About ZTE’, 10 October, accessed at www.zte.com.cn.
Hu, Angang (㚵䵡䩶b. 1953) A famous economist in China, Hu Angang is currently a professor of Tsinghua University and the director of the Center for China Study, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As a leading scholar on contemporary Chinese studies in both China and overseas, Dr Hu is known for his research on economic development, social transition and public policy. Hu Angang was born on 27 April 1953 in Anshan, Liaoning Province. From 1969 to 1976, he was sent as an ‘educated youth’ to do hard labor in Beidahuang, Northeast China. His life changed in 1978, when he passed the nationwide standardized university entrance examination and enrolled at the Tangshan Mechanical Engineering University. After receiving his bachelor degree four years later, he then studied at the Beijing Technology University where he earned a masters degree. In 1988 he obtained his PhD in automation sciences from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1991 Hu conducted post-doctoral study in the Department of Economics at Yale, in 1991 he was a research fellow at the Center for International Study at MIT, and in 1998 he held another research fellowship in the Department of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition, he became a visiting professor at the College of Public Administration in Keio University of Japan in 2000, at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2001, and at the College of Social Sciences and Arts of France in 2003.
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Since 1985, Hu Angang has been involved with the Center for China Study of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which aims to become a first-tier think-tank devoted to macroeconomic policymaking and strategy for China. As a pioneer in the development of modern Chinese economic theories, Hu has become a leading scholar in Chinese macroeconomic studies, and in early 2000 he was appointed director of the center. Since then the reports published by the center have become important reading for provincial and ministry-level leaders in China. Focusing on China’s macroeconomic development, Dr Hu has been an expert researcher and a productive writer; by 2003, he had published 43 academic books, of which eight were published overseas and six were in English. In addition, Hu has published nearly 200 articles in the core academic journals in China, and was quoted more than 1400 times between 2000 and 2005 according to the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI). Among his most notable works are: Ёᆊ㛑ਞ China State Capacity Report, 1993), Ё㒣⌢⊶ࡼਞ(China Economic Fluctuation Report, 1994), ЁഄऎᏂ䎱ਞ(China Regional Disparities Report, 1995), ህϮϢথሩ: Ё༅Ϯ䯂 乬ϢህϮ⬹ (Employment and Development: China’s Unemployment Issue and Employment Strategies, 1998), Ёথሩࠡ᱃ (China Development Prospects, 1999), Ё ᣥ㜤䋹 (China: Fighting against Corruption, 2000), Ё⬹ᗱᛇ (China Strategic Framework, 2001), ᕅડއㄪⱘᚙਞ (Influential China Study Reports, 2002), Ё ⬹ (China’s Grant Strategies, 2002), Ѡ䕀ൟ: ᆊࠊᑺᓎ䆒 (China’s Second Transformation: National System Building, 2002), 䗣㾚SARS: عᒋϢথሩ (See Through SARS: Health and Development, 2003), and China: New Conception of Development (2004). Dr Hu and his projects have received multiple awards and prizes. In 1991, Hu was recognized as a ‘Doctor with Special Contributions to China’ by the State Education Commission and the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council. In 1995, he was named as an ‘Outstanding Young Scientist’ by the Natural Science Foundation of China, and was awarded funding for Chinese economic research from the Ford Foundation. In addition, Hu has won the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress Awards from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000, and he won the 9th Sun Yefang Economic Essay Award in 2001. After many years of research and diligent work, Hu Angang has established himself as a leading scholar on China’s economic development. His research has attracted the attention and recognition of the Chinese Communist Party, and Hu has been invited by the State Council to share his views on national longterm development plans. As his work is considered by top leaders in their decisionmaking, Hu is likely to have a significant impact on Chinese social and economic development in the coming years. Jian Zhang Sources MBAlib (2008), ‘Hu Angang: brief bio’ 㚵䵡䩶 accessed 23 September 2008 at http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/% E8%83%A1%E9%9E%8D%E9%92%A2. Tsinghua University (2007), ‘Hu Angang’, School of Public Policy and Management, 30 January, accessed at http://ggbg.cic.tsinghua.edu.cn/ggbg_en/board9/detail.jsp?seq=898&boardid=1601. Wang Zhengpeng (2002), ⥟ℷ吣, ‘㚵䵡䩶: തⓨㅫᴎϞ, ⊵᭄䞠ⱘ㒣⌢ᄺᆊ’, ࣫Ҁ᰼ [‘Hu Angang: an economist immersed with data’], Beijing Early News, 26 December, accessed 23 September 2008 at http:// finance.sina.com.cn/crz/20021226/0847295093.shtml.
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Hu, Maoyuan (㚵㣖 ܗb. 1951) Hu Maoyuan is the president and party secretary of Shanghai Automotive Co. Ltd (SA), founded in the early twentieth century as a manufacturer of automotive parts. The company was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1997 and listed for the first time in the 2004 Fortune Global 500. Its business activities include making passenger cars, tractors, trucks, buses, motorcycles and automotive parts, wholesale and retail, and carleasing. It negotiated 50-50 joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors to form Shanghai Volkswagen in 1985 and Shanghai General Motors in 1997. Hu was born into an ordinary Shanghai family. His father left the family when Hu was ten, and he had to revert mainly to self-learning to finish his high school education. Hu joined SA in 1968 as an entry-level worker, and rose to the posts of vice president in 1983 and president in 1997. In between, he earned a degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a masters from Fudan University. Hu became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1980 and was married in 1982. In the early years, Hu could only afford to ride an old bicycle to commute, even during cold winters, between his home, the factory and the school. Of his first monthly wage of only RMB18, Hu had to find RMB2 per month to pay for his education. Tough living conditions coupled with the exposure to work at the operational level have perhaps given Hu the opportunity to nurture crucial characteristics (for example, a capacity for hard work and a dedication to learning) and organizational skills (for example, communication and problem-solving) necessary for the leadership positions of the later part of his career. The tractor plant, of which Hu was in charge, reached a remarkable production milestone in 1983. Employee accommodation was built at this time, as proposed by Hu, to improve staff welfare. SA at that time also completed the assembly of the first ‘Santana’ unit with Volkswagen. This put an end to China’s history of making cars behind closed doors. The 1990s marked Hu’s era in Shanghai General Motors. Although he was not involved to a great degree in the SA-Volkswagen venture, Hu was called on in 1995 to lead the negotiations with General Motors on a potential US$1.5 billion joint-venture project to be based in Shanghai. The Shanghai municipal government placed very high expectations on the venture. SA and General Motors have different corporate cultures, and the negotiation process encountered many challenging issues. Hu decisively suggested that the joint-venture entity’s benefits should be above all other participants’ benefits. He and his US counterpart discussed the establishment of some basic communication rules for the workplace, applicable to both Chinese and US employees. Shanghai General Motors generated its first revenue from the ‘Buick’ model in 1998; highlighting the remarkably short time span taken to form and to put into operation the joint venture. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Hu’s most noticeable growth strategies for SA have been expansion, internationalization, and brand acquisition. Under his leadership SA has made several local acquisitions, such as on Wuling Automobile and Jiangsu Yizheng Automobile, and set up centers in key locations abroad. Hu also engaged SA in acquiring world-renowned car brands. The company acquired a 10 percent share in Daewoo Motor with US$59.7 million in 2002, and took a 48.9 percent stake in Ssangyong Motor in late 2004 with some US$500 million. More recently, SA has been
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defining its strategic role as a comprehensive investment corporation engaged in advanced manufacturing and modern service. Nonetheless, its withdrawal from the bid for MG Rover in 2005 indicates that the international merger and acquisition process is highly dynamic, and it may not always operate in favor of SA. SA sold more than 800 000 vehicles in 2004, more than half of which came from its joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen. As the global competitive landscape transforms, the company apparently needs to develop its own distinctive brands and R&D capabilities in order to accelerate the development of the Chinese car-making industry. With considerable corporate financial resources in hand, the greatest challenge perhaps for Hu now and for the next decade or so is to develop SA’s own brands and R&D capabilities as a new set of competitive advantages that can position the company favorably against its rivals. Loi Teck Hui and Quek Kia Fatt Sources Chen, Yudai (2004), 䰜,䲼咯, ‘㚵㣖ܗ: ҢᄺᕦᎹࠄܼ⧗㨫ৡ≑䔺Ҏ’, [‘Hu Maoyuan: from an apprentice to a world renowned car maker’] 29 September, accessed 30 September 2008 at www.hao86.com/jingyin grenwu/7963.htm. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) (2008), website accessed at www.saicgroup.com. Shanghai General Motors (2008), website accessed at www.gmchina.com. Shanghai Volkswagen (2008), website accessed at www.csvw.com. Sina.com (2006), ‘Ϟ⍋≑䔺ᎹϮ䲚ಶᘏ݀ৌ㨷џ䭓㚵㣖ܗㅔҟ’, [‘Brief biography of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation’s CEO Hu Maoyuan’], 29 November, accessed 30 September 2008 at http://auto.sina. com.cn/news/2006-11-29/0945234379.shtml. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Shanghai Automotive annual report 2005 and 2006’ in ‘Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Automotive_Industry_Corporation. Yu, Q. (2005), ‘MG Rover tries to resurrect SAIC merger’, China Daily, 12 April, accessed at www.chinadaily. com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/12/content_433488.htm
Hu, Shuli (㚵㟦ゟ b. 1953) Founder and editor of the financial and economic magazine Caijing, Hu Shuli, is one of China’s most influential women. Because of her direct role in, among other things, exposing securities fraud, bribery, and bank corruption, and calling for greater government transparency, she became known in many circles as China’s ‘most dangerous woman.’ Hu Shuli was born in Beijing into a family of journalists. Her mother worked at the Worker’s Daily and her grandfather worked as a news editor for an international publication. Her great uncle was also a famous editor. In 1978 Hu was assigned to study journalism at the Chinese People’s University, although she was also admitted to Peking University to study Chinese literature. As the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) had crushed any independent journalism in China, the People’s University journalism school had been shut down. Hu was sent with the first group of students to restart the program. Teachers there encouraged students to change the style of Chinese journalism, which up to that point in the People’s Republic had always had very close ties to the government. Hu’s hope was to travel abroad and become a famous international correspondent who would leave readers with a strong impression that would make them remember her name. She earned a poor grade on her thesis about the New York Time’s coverage of Ronald Reagan’s shooting because she failed to tie this to Marxist theory.
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After graduation in 1982, Hu first worked at the Worker’s Daily, opening the newspaper’s first branch in Xiamen, home to one of China’s first four special economic zones. Inspired by former Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping’s visions of economic reform, Hu participated in some of the first campaigns to crack down on economic crimes. She persuaded the managers of the paper to expand beyond four pages, observing that even papers published in American prisons were larger than that. In 1987, she won a World Press Institute fellowship to study journalism in the United States. Returning to China in the 1990s, she was transferred to the China Business Times where she served as international desk chief. In 1995 she became their chief reporter. Caijing, which means finance and economy, was founded in 1998 and funded by the Stock Exchange Executive Council (SEEC), a state-owned enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Caijing began as a monthly supplement to the Securities Market Weekly. Wang Boming helped secure funding from the SEEC Media Group. Because of the semi-official status of these investors, this funding has freed Caijing from the editorial constraints of both official publications and purely free-market advertising revenue funded magazines. On joining Caijing’s editorial team, Hu conceded that she had given up her idea of becoming a famous journalist and instead began focusing on creating a quality product. She found finance and business reporting to be more exciting than political reporting. She happened to be writing at a time of great economic transformation in China. Many attribute Caijing’s success to Hu Shuli’s ability to find the line in a story but not cross it. For example, Caijing has never written about the religious sect Falun Gong, which is banned in China. Instead, she has stuck to mostly financial and economic news. Hu sees herself as being someone who demystifies the Chinese market and helps China complete its goal of market reforms. She also sensed an opportunity to report on both human and business elements of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in early 2003. Caijing published four special editions on SARS and played a historic role in promoting media independence and government transparency. The first special edition on SARS coincided with the sacking of two Beijing officials for covering up the extent of the epidemic. Caijing has also published groundbreaking work on stock market manipulation, flooding, bank corruption, and falsified profit reports (over which it was later sued, and lost because the courts ruled that some minute details of the story were incorrect and therefore the story was ‘false’). Hu plays a personal role in the management and editorial direction of Caijing, offering her commentary in ‘Shuli’s Observations.’ In 1998, the Caijing Fellowship was introduced with the aim of funding ten students per year at Peking University for financial, economic, and journalistic training. Hu has authored several books, including New Financial Time, The Scenes Behind American Newspapers, and Reform Bears no Romance. In 2001, BusinessWeek named her a ‘Star of Asia’ and the World Press Review named her 2003 International Editor of the Year. Joshua Wickerham Sources Barboza, David (2005), ‘Pushing (and toeing) the line in China’, New York Times, 18 April, accessed 12 December 2007 at www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/business/worldbusiness/18shanghai.html?_r=1&oref= slogin.
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BusinessWeek (2001), ‘The Stars of Asia – opinion shapers: Hu Shuli, managing editor, Caijing’, 2 July, accessed 12 December 2007 at www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_27/b3739100.htm. Rong Jiaojiao and Xiong Lei (2003), ‘SARS and journalism in China interview: International Editor of the Year Hu Shuli’, World Press Review, 50 (10) (October) accessed 12 December 2007 at www.worldpress.org/ Asia/1510.cfm. Wikipedia (2008) ‘Caijing’, accessed 12 December 2007 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caijing.
Huang, Guangyu (Wong Kwong Yu 咘ܝ㺩 b. 1969) Huang Guangyu is founder and board chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd, the Chinese department store chain for electrical appliances, and China Eagle Group, which focuses mainly on real estate development in China. As a world retail giant in electronics, GOME under Huang has earned the nickname ‘price butcher’. Huang Guangyu comes from Shantou, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Huang’s is a classic Chinese rags-to-riches story. At age 16, with just a ninth-grade education, he quit school and tried to do business in Mongolia along with his older brother Huang Junqing. After one year of operation, the brothers decided to switch from clothing to consumer and entertainment electronics because they foresaw that an increasing level of income would likely be matched by an increasing demand for household appliances. Their prediction was right on target, and with $500 in seed capital and indefatigable drive, the young and entrepreneurial Huang set up a roadside stall in Beijing in 1986 to sell radios and gadgets purchased from factories near his home town in southern China. In a few years, household appliances and consumer electronics rose to the top of the shopping list for many Chinese families, and the Huang brothers’ business quickly developed. The brothers went their separate ways in business after 1993. While the older brother founded a new venture called Towercrest Group and tried to get a stake in the real estate market, Huang Guangyu built up the retail store chain GOME. Huang Guangyu opened his first retail store in Tianjin outside Beijing, and started an interlinked business strategy all over China. Since then, GOME has expanded into other large Chinese cities and gained the awareness and acceptance of Chinese consumers. After transferring 65 percent of the shares of GOME Appliance Co. Ltd to a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and after renaming the company as GOME Electrical Appliance Holding Ltd, shares in GOME have been traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange since 2004. Marketing its business strategy as ‘Business Opportunities for Mutual Prosperity’, GOME has become the biggest department store chain for electronic devices in China. In 2006 Guangyu started a strategic alliance with Warburg Pincus and merged with Yongle, the third largest department store chain for electronic devices in China and hence a strong competitor of GOME. At the end of 2006, GOME had 587 stores in more than 160 cities. More recently, Huang Guangyu began to expand into the real estate business, founding another venture in 2002, the China Eagle Group. In August 2007, GOME Group announced the extension of its clothing stores and real estate business. China Eagle Group invested RMB3.8 billion to build up an international fashion center, a bold move
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that reflects Huang’s new business model in China. The fashion center encompasses 600 000 square meters, which includes 330 000 square meters for wholesale clothing, 120 000 square meters for traditional retail stores, 36 000 square meters for offices, and 5000 square meters for a hotel. Huang’s ambition was ‘making GOME one of the 500 largest companies in the world by 2008’. For many, he has already succeeded in many ways. In 2006, Huang Guangyu was ranked number one on the Forbes list of the richest Chinese nationals with an estimated fortune of about RMB18 billion (US$2.3 billion). However, the top ranking brought him not only prestige, but also more attention from the public. In November 2008, the 39-year-old billionaire was detained by the Ministry of Public Security for alleged inside trading and has since resigned from the GOME board. Christoph Lattemann Sources China Eagle Group (2007), ‘Ё᳡णϢ吣⍺䲚ಶ⬹ড়ᮄ䯏থᏗӮ’ [‘News conference: China Eagle Group and CNGA enter strategic partnership agreement’], 14 June, accessed 22 Septembeer 2008 at http://news. sooe.cn/C/2007-6-14/168593.html. Gome Group (2008), ‘Gome Electronic Home Appliance Limited’, accessed www.gome.com.hk/eng. Liu Hongyan (2007), ߬吓䲕, ‘ⳟӴ༛Ҏ⠽咘ܝ㺩 བԩᠧ䗴㕢⬉఼ⱘ䴌Џഄԡ’ [‘The legend of Huang Guangyu’] (2007), 7 August, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://home.soufun.com/news/2007-0807/1169129.htm.
Jiang, Nanchun (Jason Jiang ∳फ b. 1973) Known as the richest man in China’s advertising market, Jiang Nanchun has been serving as the CEO of Focus Media since May 2003. With estimated revenue of RMB4 billion, Focus Media is the second largest media company in China (after CCTV) in terms of advertising revenue, and the country’s largest out-of-home lifestyle media company. The firm airs television commercials via a board network of flat-screen monitors. Born in Shanghai, Jiang received a bachelor of arts degree in Chinese language and literature from Huadong Normal University. He began his advertising career while a college student at Huadong, when he established the Everease Advertising Corporation in 1994 and served as CEO. Starting in 2003 Jiang became general manager of Aiqi Advertising, an advertising company founded by his immediate family members in 1997, and was renamed Focus Media Advertising in May 2003. The inspiration for Focus Media came while Jiang was waiting for an elevator in Shanghai. Realizing the opportunity offered by China’s slow elevators, Jiang saw the potential of replacing simple advertising posters with eye-catching video displays in elevator lobbies. Jiang eventually utilized his accumulated savings to leave Everease and to found Focus Media, quickly selling his innovative advertising concept and securing six-month deals with major clients in Shanghai. After securing additional financing through underwriters and venture capitalists, he went on to target buildings with affluent employees in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Guangzhou, eventually moving on to smaller cities. In addition to major office buildings, Focus also created deals to allow the firm to install their advertising screens in other high-traffic areas, including supermarkets and airport shuttle buses. Currently the company operates more than 35 000 screens in 53 cities. Focus Media has helped drive innovation in advertising throughout China, in addition to enabling further economic growth through delivering new and fresh creative advertising. Today the firm airs commercials in many locations. As well as commercial buildings, their networks also include a residential building network, an in-store network, a poster frame network, a mobile handset advertising network, and an outdoor LED network. Focus’ major clients include Samsung, Nokia, Eastman Kodak Co., General Motors Corp. and McDonald’s Corp. Jiang has also enabled Focus Media to sustain its growth as a media company through the acquisition of Wonder Ad, the largest advertising agency in China’s game industry. In addition, Focus recently acquired Shanghai Framedia Advertising Development Ltd, which installed the framed print ads in residential buildings that spurred Jiang’s initial idea for more eye-catching video advertising. Seen widely throughout China as a visionary leader, Jiang has received numerous honors for his ability to drive the company’s strong growth and his remarkable success in the Chinese advertising market. Along with being selected as a ‘Media Person of the Year’ by China News Publisher’s Media magazine, he has also been named as an ‘Outstanding Contemporary Advertising Personality’ by the Television and Newspaper Committee of the China Advertising Commission. In addition, he has been awarded the accolade of the ‘Best China Entrepreneur’ by Ernst & Young in 2007, the first business leader from the mainland to receive such an honor. Matthew Amick 60
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Sources BusinessWeek (2005), ‘China: Focus Media Holding Ltd: fast profits from slow elevators’, 14 November, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_46/b3959403.htm. China Daily (2007), ‘Focus Media Will Concentrate on China and Asia’, 5 June, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://chinadaily.com.cn. Focus Media (2008), ‘Corporate profile’, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://ir.focusmedia.cn. Forbes (2005), ‘400 richest Chinese: #58 Jason Jiang Nanchun’, accessed 29 September 2008 at www.forbes. com/lists/2005/74/V8U5.html. Jongo Knows (2008), ‘Jiang Nanchun: chairman and chief executive officer of Focus Media’, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://knows.jongo.com/res/article/18125.
Jin, Zhiguo (䞥ᖫb. 1956) President and vice-chairman of Tsingtao Brewery, Jin Zhiguo has led the company through an era of unprecedented growth and brand development, firmly entrenching Tsingtao beer as a household name throughout the world. Jin rose through the ranks of the Tsingtao Brewery and is no stranger to brand loyalty, having spent 25 years with the company. Since his early years as an assistant manager with China’s oldest and most famous brewery, Jin has demonstrated consistent strategies for success, leading to his appointment as general manager of the brewery’s Xi’an subsidiary in 1996 and eventually his appointment as general manager of the company in 2001. Jin has an EMBA degree from the China Europe International Business School. Taking the reins after a period of acquisition and expansion, Jin directed his efforts towards the development of existing markets and branding, successfully strengthening the company profile and establishing concrete international ties that have helped the company ensure consistent success. Under Jin’s leadership, Tsingtao has seen dramatically increased investment by Anheuser-Busch. Not content merely to ship beer for export, Jin’s strategy has included the establishment of Tsingtao subsidiary breweries throughout Southeast Asia, in locations including Taiwan and Thailand. Jin has been repeatedly acknowledged as an entrepreneurial leader and a driving force behind the development of one of China’s flagship brands. On 3 February 2007 he was recognized in the Great Hall of the People’s Congress and was awarded the honorable title of one of the 2006 top-ten ‘People’s Respected Entrepreneurs.’ Jin’s focus on reinforcing the Tsingtao brand and developing strong marketing and branding platforms seems to be paying off, with the company showing double-digit profit growth as it approached the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Tsingtao is an official Olympic sponsor, and Jin anticipated that the Olympics would drive sales and profits even higher: ‘The games are an exciting event, when people are excited, they only think of drinking beer’ (Niu, 2007). Michael J. Miske Sources Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) (2005), ‘Tsingtao Beer becomes sponsor of Beijing 2008 Games’, 11 August, accessed 9 October 2007 at www.china.org.cn/english/olympic/138617. htm. Murray, Barbara (2007), ‘Tsingtao Brewery Company Ltd’, 9 October 2007, accessed 9 October at www. hoovers.com. Niu Shuping (2007), ‘Tsingtao sees double-digit growth before Olympics’, 7 March, accessed 9 October at www.reuters.com./article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKPEK35078520070307.
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Jing, Shuping (㒣নᑇ b. 1918) An influential politician and businessman in China, Jing is an ex-deputy chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and ex-chairman of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the country’s semi-official chamber of commerce. In 2006, Jing retired from the post of chairman of China’s Minsheng Banking Corp. Jing Shuping’s life story embodies the economic development of modern China. The son of a wealthy Shanghai businessman, he received a British-style education in Shanghai in the 1930s. However Jing had to drop out of the elite St John’s University after an oil price war brought his father’s business to the edge of bankruptcy. He worked as a clerk, typist, and salesman before the family fortunes rebounded. In 1939, he began supervising work at his father’s cigarette and chemical manufacturing factories, remaining in Shanghai throughout the Japanese occupation. He was brought down again by the 1949 Communist revolution, being branded as a ‘reactionary capitalist’ and forced into hard labor during the Cultural Revolution. His career as a Chinese entrepreneur only resumed after the official conclusion of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. He was a manager in several companies in Shanghai, later becoming chairman of the Shanghai Association of the Cigarette Industry. Jing was also active in the China Democratic National Construction Association, and held various leadership roles in the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Rejuvenated, Jing also became involved in foreign affairs, serving on several commissions dedicated to trade and investment promotion, cross-straits relations and security issues. When he was 83, Jing became the chairman of the board of directors for the Beijing-based Minsheng Banking Corp., China’s first private bank. With $10 billion in assets, Minsheng is a minnow in a sea of whale-sized state-owned banks. But Jing has made it a model of what the big banks aspire to be. In comparison with most state banks, which usually have nonperforming loans close to 40 percent, Minsheng only has 4.4 percent. ‘We have an advantage over all the other banks,’ noted Jing, ‘they are all governed by the state. We have no mother-in-law’ (BusinessWeek, 2001). By 2001, the bank reached a milestone, raising $500 million in China’s second-largest domestic initial public offering. Retired in 2006, Jing was named the honorary chairman for the Minsheng Bank. Tall and courtly, Jing has the razor-sharp mind necessary for a successful businessman. He can reel off everything from oil prices in the 1930s to the latest figures from Minsheng’s operations. He has walked a long and winding road, but as Jing sees it, China’s economic future looks brighter than at any time since his youth. Huang, Lujin Sources BusinessWeek (2001), ‘The stars of Asia: financers’, 2 July, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.businessweek. com/magazine/content/01_63739076.htm. China Vitae (2003), ‘Biography of Jing Shuping’, accessed 18 September 2007 at www.chinavitae.com/ biography/Jing_Shuping/full. Fenews (2006), ‘China Minsheng Bank to get new chairman’, 23 May, accessed at www.fenews.pku.cn.
Kadeer, Rebiya (वᖋᇨ, ⛁↨࿙ b. 1947) Rebiya Kadeer was one of the wealthiest individuals in China until her imprisonment and exile for speaking out about the human rights situation of China’s ethnic Uygurs. Rebiya Kadeer was born on 15 November 1947 in the city of Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur Minority Autonomous Region. Kadeer’s family was Muslim and ethnic Uygur, the dominant ethnic group in Xinjiang. In the 1950s the Communist Party labeled Kadeer’s family ‘bourgeoisie’, due to the fact that they owned a small farm, hair salon, restaurant and bathhouse. The family property was confiscated and they were forced to relocate to the city of Aksu in the south of the province. At the age of 14 Kadeer received a marriage proposal from a deputy bank director 12 years her senior and a year later she was married. Two years later she gave birth to the first of 11 children. During the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution from the mid-1960s to the 1970s, Kadeer stayed at home and raised her six children while her husband worked, bringing home a meager wage. In order to supplement the family’s income, Kadeer secretly made and sold clothing, which during the Cultural Revolution was a dangerous act of counter-revolutionary capitalism. When government authorities discovered Kadeer’s activities they pressured her husband into divorcing her and their marriage ended in 1976. Only a year later she married Sidik Rouzi, a Uygur dissident who had recently been released from prison. Kadeer was 30 years old when Deng Xiaoping ushered in a new era of reform in China and she promptly took advantage of the new economic opportunities. She opened a laundry business in Aksu, later expanding into selling fruit, vegetables, and leather products. She made her first fortune in the 1980s when she opened a pair of department stores in the provincial capital Urumqi and rented space to merchants. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 Kadeer’s Akida Trading Company expanded business into Kazakhstan and Russia, making millions on imported iron and steel. At this time Kadeer’s personal wealth ran into the tens of millions of dollars and in 1994 she was identified by Forbes magazine as one of the wealthiest people in China. The government quickly promoted Kadeer politically and advertised her as an example of China’s humane policy towards ethnic Uygurs, Muslims, and women. In 1992 Kadeer was elected a member of the National People’s Congress and in 1995 she was a delegate to the United Nation’s World Conference on Women held in Beijing. But as ethnic hostilities rose between Uygurs and Han Chinese, Kadeer and her family were torn between her political loyalties and her conscience. In 1996 her husband fled to the United States, where he became active in the exiled-Uygur community, which is critical of China’s human rights policy and advocates an independent Uygur homeland. In February 1997 Kadeer was arrested and harassed by the Chinese military after investigating a bloody government crackdown on Uygurs in the city of Gulja (Yining). Nevertheless, Kadeer continued to be in the good graces of government officials and in the fall of 1997 she was asked to give a speech in Beijing at the People’s Congress in front of an audience of 4800 party members, including President Jiang Zemin and the Politburo. To the surprise of those in attendance Kadeer denounced in harsh terms the government’s policy towards ethnic Uygurs, called for religious freedom, and pleaded for an end to the arrest and execution of Uygur dissidents. A month after her speech her passport was revoked and she was expelled from the People’s Congress. Despite constant 63
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harassment by government agents, Kadeer continued to speak out against the human rights abuses in Xinjiang province. In August 1999, while going to meet a US congressman at a hotel in Urumqi, Kadeer was arrested and handed an eight-year prison sentence. Her crime was that she sent her husband in America copies of local newspapers, which the government described as ‘dissemination of state secrets’. In 2005 Kadeer earned an early release and was sent into exile in the United States. A year later she was elected president of the World Uygur Congress and in recent years she has visited numerous heads of state advocating for greater rights of Uygurs in China. Meanwhile her children have remained in Xinjiang, overseeing the family business and enduring constant government surveillance, including the recent beating and arrest of her sons for alleged tax evasion. David Straub Sources Der Spiegel (2005), ‘A woman vs. a superpower: Muslim human rights activist takes on China’, 47, 22 November, accessed 16 November 2007 at www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,386263,00.html. The Thorolf Rafto Foundation for Human Rights (2007), ‘Rebiya Kadeer: Curriculum Vitae, a Uygur Human Rights Activist and Former Prisoner of Conscience’, 16 November 2007, accessed 16 November at www. rafto.no/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=102. Uygur American Association (2006), ‘Biographical Sketch of Rebiya Kadeer’, 12 October, accessed 16 November 2007 at uyghuramerican.org/articles/595/1/Biographical-sketch-of-Rebiya-Kadeer/Biographicalsketch-of-Rebiya-Kadeer.html.
Kong, Dan (ᄨЍ b. 1947) After remaining in deputy positions at China’s two most important financial companies for nearly 22 years, Kong Dan finally emerged center stage as chairman and president of China International Trust and Investment Corporation Group (CITIC), one of the major state-owned financial companies under China’s State Council. The spokesman for CITIC described Kong as having ‘strong management abilities and rich financial expertise’ (Chinese Security Journal, 2006). He also praised him for his diligence, practical skills and integrity. However, Kong’s low profile and cautious personality means he is little known by the general public. Kong Dan joined the Chinese Communist Party when he was still a high school student in Beijing in 1965, just one year before the Cultural Revolution. Being one of the top students at school, he was appointed a student leader and was actively involved in advocating foreign language learning. However, the start of the Cultural Revolution radically changed Kong’s life. His father Kong Yuan, a former Minister of the Central Investigation Department, and his mother Xu Ming, former Secretary General of the State Council, were accused by red guards of being counter-revolutionary capitalist supporters. His mother committed suicide and his father was sent to jail. In April 1967, Kong was rescued by Zhou Enlai, then prime minister, and sent to Inner Mongolia to hide from hostile red guards. Like most of his peers of the time who were forced to poor, remote areas to be ‘re-educated’ by peasants, Kong went to Shanxi Province in late 1968 where he stayed until the end of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, Kong was admitted to the graduate program of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he studied economics under Wu Jinglian, one of China’s most
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prestigious economists. After obtaining his masters degree three years later, Kong worked for the Chinese government until 1983, when he decided to step into business by joining the newly established China Everbright Group in Hong Kong. In 1984, Kong was appointed as the vice chairman and president of China Everbright Group, a core state-owned enterprise operating under the supervision of the State Council of China whose business covers all aspects of financial services, including banking, securities, insurance, and investment management services. In 1993–94, the group stared to invest in the Hong Kong capital market, acquiring listed companies and restructuring into China Everbright Limited and China Everbright International Limited. During his tenure from 1984–2000, Kong’s contribution to China Everbright Group can only be measured by the success of the enterprise itself. By the time he left, the group had transformed into a grand operation that owned and controlled total assets valued at approximately HK$200 billion. Among the non-financial businesses and investments of the group are information technology, telecommunication, petroleum, property development and investment, timber, and industrial and manufacturing operations. CITIC, another major Chinese state-owned investment company, is even bigger and more complex than Everbright. Under Kong’s leadership since 2000, CITIC has grown into a large transnational conglomerate that owns 44 subsidiaries (banks) including banks in Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The company has also set up branch offices in Tokyo, New York, and Rotterdam. CITIC’s core business includes finance, industrial investment, and service industries. By the end of 2006, CITIC’s total assets stood at RMB929.2 billion (US$23.9 billion) with an aftertax profit of RMB6.09 billion (US$0.8 billion). CITIC has made significant contributions to China’s economic reform and along the way has established a good corporate reputation both domestically and internationally. To further expand CITIC’s core business, Kong believes that communication with investors and collaborations between institutions must be enhanced, so Kong will likely stay active in the spotlight of Chinese financial services in the near future. Xiaoqi Yu Sources Caijing online (2006), ‘Ёֵᮄᥠ䮼ᄨЍ݊Ҏ݊џ’, [‘Kong Dan: the new leader of CITIC, the person and his life’] 7 August, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.caijing.com.cn/newcn/home/todayspec/2006-08-07/10353. shtml. CITIC Group (2006), ‘Brief introduction’, accessed at www.citic.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/s.7_0_A/7_0_7U. Chinese Security Journal (2006), ‘Ёֵ䲚ಶ㨷џ䭓ᄨЍ˖ᄺ㗙ൟ䞥㵡ᆊ’, Ё䆕ࠌ [‘CITIC Chairman Kong Dan: a scholarly financier’], 5 September, accessed 25 September 2008 at http://economy.enorth.com. cn/system/2006/09/05/001401964.shtml. Xinhua English (2006), ‘Kong Dan appointed Chairman of CITIC Group’, 27 July, accessed at http://english. sina.com/business/p/1/2006/0727/84536.html.
Kuo, Terry (Guo, Taiming 䛁ৄ䫁 b. 1950) Terry Kuo is a prominent business leader whose Foxconn Technology Group, founded in 1974, has recently become an influential business force in Taiwan, China, and nearby regions. With a small capital fund of NT$300 000, Kuo founded Hon Hai Precision Industry
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Company Ltd. The company initially produced switches for mono televisions. When they were replaced by color TV, Kuo turned his core production to other categories, including connectors, computer cases, and power supplies. Realizing the importance of tracking and responding to changing market trends, Kuo always kept in direct touch with his major customers. High sensitivity toward the market and customers’ preferences is the hallmark and the most critical capability of Hon Hai Group. Today Hon Hai’s international brand title, the Foxconn Technology Group, has become the foremost provider of joint-design, joint-development, manufacturing, assembly and after-sale services to global computer, communication and consumer electronics industry leaders. From the beginning, Kuo aimed for steady growth by striving for order from major international companies. He first built strategic alliances with large international companies and absorbed their technological know-how through technology transfers. Hon Hai Group would then apply the newly gained technology to mass production with low-cost human resources worldwide. Kuo continued to expand the Group and developed into new and promising areas such as semi-systems, motherboards, mobile phone combinations, wireless communication devices, and motor electronics. While emphasizing research and development, Hon Hai Group also pays considerable attention to intellectual property (IP) rights. The legal department has hundreds of employees providing both external IP protection and internal IP consulting services for other units in the company group; thus the Group gains technological advantages with its intellectual capital, assisting the diversification of the company into new product areas. Moreover, when the Hon Hai Group steps into a new geographic market, it usually sets up a representative legal office to deal with IP issues in respective local markets. Intellectual property has been an important element of Hon Hai Group’s business culture. Kuo’s leadership style is one of centralized authority, demanding discipline and executive ability from his subordinates. For those he trusts, however, empowerment is a way of demonstrating respect for his managerial subordinates. Such a leadership style ensures a balance between efficient routine procedures and flexibility. Throughout Kuo’s business expansion process, he treats his partners and subordinates as family and his competitors as enemies, with clear rewards and penalties reflecting his values. He once confessed that those who did not know him in person often saw him as a powerful and dominating figure, while he was actually just trying to be a rational entrepreneur. Recently Kuo has shifted many of his production lines to mainland China, and his Hon Hai business conglomerate has begun to have an impact on larger economies, including the Chinese economy. These production lines include manufacturing plants for important international orders such as components for the Apple iPod and other leading companies, such as Nokia and Sony. By the end of 2006, Hon Hai had invested over US$1 billion in China, and had created many jobs. Furthermore, the low-cost labor advantage has ensured that Hon Hai can continue to manufacture quality products at competitive prices. It seems that Kuo intends to collaborate further with major Chinese business partners, including the e-commerce platform Alibaba.com. Kuo has also expanded his business into diverse industries, including movies and health care. He has invested his private capital in the Longmen Film Studio (Dragon Gate) in his ancestral town of Jincheng, Shanxi Province, which he considers an important channel for promoting Chinese culture to the rest of the world. Although new to this industry, Kuo is optimistic about the future of his investments, and believes that ‘failure
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is the mother of success’ in entrepreneurship. In addition, since Kuo’s wife and his younger brother both died of cancer in recent years, he has donated NT$15 billion (US$454.54 million) to the National Taiwan University (NTU) to fund biomedical engineering projects and the construction of a cancer hospital, a generous measure which may also have some potential for expanding his business map. From the original electronic products to the current broad range of product portfolios in both private business and the public arena, Kuo has led Hon Hai on an entrepreneurial journey, expanding into every aspect of human life. Fu-Sheng Tsai Sources Chang, D. (2005), Terry & Foxconn, Taipei: Commonwealth Publishing. Hon Hai Group (2007), official website, accessed 29 October at http://www.foxconn.com. Hsiung, J. (2006), ‘Terry Gou takes a shot at the movies’, Commonwealth Magazine, 8 November. Nystedt, D. (2006), ‘Hon Hai’s China investment soars over US$1 billion’, IDG News Service, 29 October, accessed at www.networkworld.com/news/2006/103006-hon-hais-china-investment-soars.html. Taipei Times (2007), ‘Tycoon Terry Gou Makes Massive Donation to NTU’, 5 September. Tan, J. (2007), ‘Investment plan shows Hon Hai’s tactics: analysts’, Taipei Times, 19 July. Zhang, T. (2007), ‘Taiwan’s richest businessman Terry Kuo invests in Alibaba.com’, Shan Hai Stock Information Service, 29 October.
Kuok, Robert Hock Nien (Guo, Henian 䛁吸ᑈ b. 1923) Robert Kuok is one of the owners and founders of the Kuok Group, a multinational with business interests in media, real estate, commodities trading, transportation and shipping, hotels, leisure and recreation, financial services and manufacturing. Born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Kuok, married twice with eight children, is the son of an emigrant from Fujian, China. He entered Raffles College, Singapore in 1941, and found work with Mitsubishi between 1942 and 1945 when the Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942. After Kuok’s moderately wealthy father died in 1948, Kuok and his two brothers founded Kuok Brothers Limited in 1949 in Malaysia trading rice, sugar, and wheat flour. The firm expanded in 1953 with the opening of a branch in Singapore. In the 1960s, Kuok invested heavily in sugar refining. At times, he controlled significant portions of the Malaysian sugar market and sugar production in Asia, and so earned his nickname, ‘Sugar King.’ From these humble beginnings, the Kuok Group now has investments in major Southeast Asia countries, Hong Kong, mainland China, Fiji, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Chile. Kuok expanded into hotels in the 1970s. Anticipating Singapore’s prosperous future and the potential shortage of hotel space on the island, he partnered with other local rice traders on land he owned, and in 1971 started building a hotel named Shangri-La, which turned out to be immensely profitable. Kuok built the second Shangri-La in Hong Kong in 1981 on a plot of land on the Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront. The Kualu Lumpur Shangri-La was not completed until 1985 in part due to the economic slowdown in the early 1980s and the fourth Shangri-La in Bangkok opened in 1986. Kuok continued to build hotels in different locations in Asia including mainland China, Fiji and South Korea, and also runs a hotel in Vancouver, Canada. Initially, the prominent American hotel firm, Westin, managed the hotel chain, but in 1983 Kuok formed Shangri-La
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Hotels & Resorts to manage his hotels. Kuok’s close personal ties with key political and business figures such as Lee Kuan Yew (Li Guangyao), Tun Hussein Onn, Surharto, Ferdinand Marcos, and Liem Sioe Liong in Southeast Asia to an extent smoothed his business dealings in the region and across Asia. Lee and Tun were Kuok’s contemporaries at college. Between the late 1970s and the 1990s Kuok focused on regional expansion in Hong Kong and China. Kerry Holdings Limited was established in Hong Kong in 1974 and ‘Kerry’ has since become identified with the Kuok Group’s extensive operations in both Hong Kong and China. Kuok ran his Hong Kong sugar and other commodities trading business principally through Kerry. He bought properties and built hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in the early 1980s. His companies, mostly in partnership with local Chinese firms, built office blocks, apartments, and car parks, often clustered around the hotels. In 1989 Kuok developed the Traders hotel chain, a sister brand of the Shangri-La hotel group, to cater mostly to business travelers with first-rate yet affordable accommodation. There are now Traders hotels in China, India, the United Arab Emirates and major cities throughout Southeast Asia. In 1993, Kuok acquired about 35 percent of the South China Morning Post, the largest English-language daily paper in Hong Kong, from the News Corporation, owned by Australia media magnate Rupert Murdoch. In the same year the Chinese authorities selected him as one of the advisers on the future of Hong Kong, and also appointed him as shareholder and director of China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), the Hong Kong-listed arm of a Beijing-based government agency to secure foreign investments. Kuok is also a major shareholder of TVB, the world’s largest library of Chinese-language commercial programming. He also controlled TVE, a media conglomerate, in 1996 in a takeover bid. Both media companies are based in Hong Kong. Around the same time, the Chinese authorities selected Kuok to sit on the Preparatory Committee established to oversee the return of Hong Kong to China. For Kuok, relationship-building is essential to any growth strategy. He had traded with China during the Cultural Revolution and began investing in China before it was fashionable to do so. Kuok seems to have invested on China’s terms rather than simply relying on his entrepreneurial capacity. Through a joint venture between Kerry and China Foreign Economic and Trade Consultants, Kuok made a sizeable investment in 1984 to construct the World Trade Center, initially estimated to cost US$300 million, in Beijing. Despite his own financial losses, he injected more capital into the project, which was delayed as a result of civil unrest in Beijing in the late 1980s and was only completed in 1990 at a cost of about US$530 million. Two executive directors of Kerry, quoted on the Hang Seng Index in 1996, sit on the board of China World Trade Center Co. Ltd, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Kuok’s commitment to China has won him many large construction projects. In 1993, Coca-Cola chose Kerry as its franchiser in mainland China. Kerry used its special relationship with the Chinese authorities to get a Coca-Cola bottling plant up and running within eight months (12 is more usual). Nonetheless, Kerry disposed of its majority stake in the bottling venture to Coca-Cola in 2006 so as to be more focused on its own core business. As a patriotic Chinese, Kuok donated US$50 million through Kerry in 2005 to the Hope Project, a national charity in mainland China that helps young school drop-outs in poor areas return to their education.
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The Kuok Group has built up a management team with great experience and knowledge. In the early 1990s, Kuok’s sons take over most of the day-to-day operations of his businesses. Though retired from formal positions of authority, Kuok continues to wield substantial influence over the group. Loi Teck Hui and Quek Kia Fatt Sources Chan, Y.Y. (2000), ‘The English-language media in Hong Kong’, World Englishes, 19(3), 323–35. Hsieh, T.Y. (1996), ‘Prospering through relationships in Asia’, McKinsey Quarterly, 4, 4–13. ‘Kerry Properties Limited’, http://www.kerryprops.com/kpl/en. The Kuok Group (2008), website accessed at www.kuokgroupresidences.com/kuokgrp/thekuokgroup.htm. Li Rushan (1995), ᴢ, བቅ ⼲⾬ᆠ䈾-䛁吸ᑈӴ, ᑓᎲ: ᑓᎲߎ⠜⼒ [A Mysterious Tycoon: Biography of Robert Kuok], Guangzhou: Guangzhou Press, accessed 30 September at www.bookcool.com.pdf/80/ts080019.pdf. Peoples Daily (2000), ‘Hope Project to aid children of layoffs’, 8 May, accessed at http://english.peopledaily. com.cn/english/200005/08/eng20000508_40319.html. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Robert Kuok’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kuok. Woodward, A. (2007), ‘Kerry Properties Limited’, Answers Corporation, accessed at www.answers.com/topic/ kerry-properties-limited?cat=biz-fin.
Lai, Changxing (䌪ᯠ᯳ b. 1958) A Chinese self-made businessman and entrepreneur, Lai Changxing was once the head of the Yuanhua Group based in coastal Xiamen City in southeast China’s Fujian Province. Lai was implicated in a smuggling and corruption scandal in the late 1990s, and became a principal suspect and putative criminal mastermind responsible for smuggling US$10 billion worth of goods in collaboration with corrupt officials in the biggest smuggling operation uncovered in China since 1949. He is now ‘China’s most wanted fugitive’ and remains under house arrest in Canada, where he has been held since 1999, while fighting a court battle against an extradition request from the Chinese government. Born one of eight siblings to a farmer’s family in Shaocuo village, Jinjiang, Fujian Province during the years of the disastrous Great Leap Forward (1958), Lai finished only three years of elementary school. However, he had a genius for making allies and money. His rise and fall is nothing short of legendary. After a few years growing and selling vegetables and digging wells, in the late 1970s Lai pooled together $150 with a couple of friends and started an automotive parts factory. China had just opened up to the idea of private enterprise, and Fujian Province was one of the first regions to embrace Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms. With barely any private enterprises around, his only real competition was the lumbering state-owned sector. Lai found that paying his employees slightly more than the state made them work harder – which in turn helped make him rich. Over the next few years, he reinvested the profits from his little car-parts plant into a series of new ventures. Soon the automotive factory had spawned a textile machine plant, a print shop, an electronics store, an umbrella factory, a shipping enterprise, an investment company, a cigarette plant, a paper-products factory and at least half-adozen other enterprises. Before he moved to Hong Kong in 1991, he had already amassed a substantial fortune. In Hong Kong, Lai registered and established Yuanhua, and began to speculate in real estate and learned to play the stock market. Two years later, he returned to Xiamen, and launched Yuanhua Group, and started building his business empire there. People describe him as being very good at making guanxi (approximately: personalized networks of influence) and all kinds of connections. Lai started trading in imported goods in the 1980s, and as alleged by the investigative report from the government, he used his access to once hard-to-get luxuries to corrupt officials from government, police, and the military. Realizing that connections were crucial to his business, Lai hired the children of high officials in customs, the prosecutors’ office, police, and border patrols, offering high compensation. Famous for his generosity, Lai maintained a seven-storey guesthouse in Xiamen known as the Small Red Chamber. This was Lai’s notorious night-club-cumbrothel, where he wined and dined officials. It was here that he allegedly invited government officials to cavort with prostitutes. Investigators claimed that he then captured them on hidden cameras and used the videos to blackmail and manipulate them. By this means the group seduced a number of government officials, forcing them to create an outlet for their illegal activities. In his heyday of 1996, two years after he set up Yuanhua, Lai bought Xiamen’s soccer team, built a 30-storey hotel, a replica of the Forbidden City as a tourist attraction, and started construction of the 88-storey hotel and office complex, the Yuanhua International 70
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Center, in Xiamen. When investigators finally cracked the smuggling case in 1999, Lai fled to Canada through Hong Kong, tipped-off by a high ranking official from Fujian. While Lai is fighting the extradition charges, China remains hopeful that the Canadian Government will deport him as soon as possible. According to the government investigation, Lai’s Yuanhua Group operated a massive scheme smuggling cars, oil, cigarettes, and other goods worth $6.4 billion into China and cost the Chinese treasury another $3.6 billion in lost import duties. China’s state oil companies estimated that they lost $360 million a year because of his smuggled oil. Trials in the Yuanhua case have so far led to the death sentence for 18 individuals; seven of them have been executed. In addition, at least 12 individuals are currently serving life sentences while 58 others went to jail for their involvement with Lai and the Yuanhua case. Weidong Zhang Sources August, Oliver (2007), ‘The most corrupt man in China’, Sunday Times, 1 July, accessed at www.timesonline. co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2009598.ece. Beech, Hannah (2002), ‘Smuggler’s blues’, Time Asia, 2 October, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.time. com/time/asia/covers/1101021014/story.html. Leggett, Karby (2001), ‘Bribery charges threaten a Chinese success story’, Wall Street Journal Online, 28 November, accessed 17 December 2007 at www.careerjournaleurope.com/myc/survive/20011128-leggett. html.
Lam, Barry (Lin, Baili ᵫⱒ䞠 b. 1947) Hailed as the ‘laptop king’ and recognized globally as a visionary leader, Lam is the founder of Quanta Computer, the largest original design manufacturer for notebook computers in the world. Quanta has an estimated $1.6 billion in annual sales and an 8.5 percent worldwide market share. Through Lam’s leadership, the company has helped Taiwan to emerge as a global leader in the manufacturing of technological products. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lam obtained a masters degree in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University. In his early career, Lam, along with classmates, launched his first company, Kimpo, in 1973 to manufacturer calculators. Lam went on to lead the company to become the world’s largest contract calculator manufacturer. After being unable to persuade Kimpo’s company directors to take a risk on manufacturing new product lines, he left the organization in 1988, and with the help of a colleague, C.C. Leung, Lam went on to develop one of the island’s largest laptop computer makers, Quanta Computer. Six months after founding Quanta, Lam completed work on the first version of a portable computer – a notebook prototype that was remembered as a ‘bulky, briefcase-sized machine.’ Although the response to Lam’s first prototype machine was not overwhelmingly positive, orders for the machine began to pour in, and the company opened its first production facility in Linkou, a suburb of Taipei, in August 1989. One in every four notebook computers sold in the world today is manufactured by Quanta, with the company producing an average of 2 million laptops a month, or one per second, and supplying laptops to leading manufacturers such as Dell, IBM, HewlettPackard, and Gateway. Lam has also led Quanta to expand beyond laptops, as the
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company currently manufactures a more diverse array of products, including mobile phones, servers, and storage products. In addition, the company recently teamed up with Sanyo Electric to form a joint venture to produce LCD TVs. As a leader who is passionate about continuous improvement and innovation, Lam has helped drive innovation in Quanta and throughout Taiwan. In addition, the company has had an enormous impact in underdeveloped areas within China and across the globe. The company established a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in late 2006 with the ultimate goal of developing and manufacturing the first ever $100 laptop. Known as the ‘One Laptop per Child’ initiative, Lam has led Quanta’s effort to contribute to this global initiative of making technology more accessible to underprivileged areas around the world and enabling a way in which ‘nations of the emerging world’ are enabled ‘to leapfrog decades of development.’ As of 2007, the company has already received orders for more than one million laptops. Lam serves on the boards of directors of 12 companies, including the Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd. He is also chairman of the Quanta Culture and Education Foundation, which has supported various charitable activities and promoted culture and arts to enrich people’s life in the greater China region over recent years. In 1999 and 2002, Lam was chosen by BusinessWeek as one of 50 ‘Stars of Asia’. For his achievements in leading Quanta to become the world’s largest notebook producer, he was also highlighted as one of the top 25 managers by BusinessWeek in 2002. Matthew Amick Sources BusinessWeek (1999), ‘Barry Lam: founder, Quanta Computer’, 14 June, accessed 22 November 2007 at www. businessweek.com/1999/99_24/b3633055.htm. BusinessWeek (2006), ‘InfoTech 100 Companies: #31 Quanta Computer’, accessed 22 November 2007 at www. businessweek.com/it100/2006/31.htm. Forbes (2006), ‘The world’s richest people: #486 Barry Lam’, accessed 22 November 2007 at www.forbes.com/ lists/2006/10/R8BJ.html. Landler, Mark (2002), ‘Taiwan maker of notebook PCs thrives quietly’, New York Times, 25 March, accessed 22 November 2007 at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE1DC143BF936A15750C0A96 49C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Quanta Computer (2007), ‘Executives: Barry Lam, chairman’, accessed 22 November 2007 at www.quantatw. com/Quanta/english/about/executives.aspx.
Lang, Xianping (Lang Hsien Ping, Larry Lang ᳫઌᑇ b. 1956) Also known as Larry Hsien Ping Lang, Lang Xianping is Professor of Finance in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He gained fame in China for his open tirades against the problems encountered in the economic reforms and for his popular television talk show in Shanghai, ‘Lang Chats about Finance,’ from 2004 to early 2006. In his weekly program, Lang would deliver monologues on sensitive economic issues ranging from problems with the rapid privatization of China’s state-owned enterprises to the endemic corruption. His animated talks, easy-to-follow metaphors, and sharp tones drew millions of viewers and earned him the title of the ‘Larry King of China.’ Born and raised in Taiwan, Lang received his doctoral degree in finance from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. While in the United States, he adopted the English name Larry. According to Lang, the fact that his adopted first name was the
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same as that of Larry King, the famous CNN talk show host, was just a coincidence. After receiving his doctorate, he taught for some years at universities in the United States and published a number of articles on topics related to economics and finance in well-established journals. In 1994, he left the United States for a teaching position in Hong Kong. However, it was Lang’s involvement in mainland China that enabled him to realize his dream of making a name for himself. In the early 2000s, he became well known in China for condemning the economic ills accompanying the country’s move to market economy and privatization. In his diatribes against such major companies as Greencool, Haier, and TCL for deceiving small shareholders, he gained the title of ‘Supervisor Lang.’ His arguments about protecting the interests of smaller investors gained him their support. In 2004, Lang began to host his weekly late night program. The show, launched on cable TV in Shanghai and with no studio guests, became an instant hit. In his show, Lang demonstrated great zeal in attacking the corruption surrounding the privatization of state-owned enterprises and urged a slower transition to a market economy. He minced no words in criticizing the practice of buying out state-owned assets by managers of listed firms, a process known as management buyout (MBO). He argued strongly against MBO, claiming that it hurt the public interest because managers were able to buy out state-owned enterprises at bargain prices. In Lang’s view, the practice was nothing short of plundering state property. He believed that the government should slow down or halt the process until a legal system capable of monitoring such acquisitions was established. He asserted that state-owned enterprises should still be kept in public ownership and that they should hire professional and well-paid managers to help turn them into profitmaking entities. Lang’s sharply-worded criticisms of the cheap sell-off of state enterprises generated controversy and led to heated debate among China’s leading economists. His talks on the so-called ‘iron triangle’ involving seamy collaborations between corrupt government officials, business people, and scholars also caught the attention of a general public concerned about the widespread corruption incurred in the process of the quick accumulation of wealth by a tiny minority. Interestingly, Lang’s views were more representative of the so-called ‘neo-leftists’ and failed to endear him to the more mainstream, pro-market or ‘neo-liberal’ economists. The latter characterized Lang’s views as contradicting the ethos of the era of economic reform. In their rebuttals, they argued that despite certain drains on assets experienced in the privatization process, the state-owned enterprises had been eroding private capital due to their monopolistic position. The cost and burden on the state would be enormous if these inefficient enterprises remained state-owned. For them, the privatization of state assets was essential to both the state and the private sector; therefore, steps toward ending the excessive state control of the economy should be quickened instead of being slowed down. Lang’s talk show ended in early 2006, allegedly because his Mandarin Chinese failed to meet the official standard. Ever since the termination of his talk show, Lang has remained in the spotlight, making public speeches and delivering talks both in and out of China on issues related to China’s economic reforms. His frank and often sensational statements strike a chord in a country caught in the whirlpool of decades of economic reform and where Marxist ideology has been replaced with unrestrained capitalism. Hong Zhang
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Sources Beach, Sophie (2006), ‘The unpublished Lang Xianping interview’, chinadigitaltimes.net, 29 September. Kwan, Chi Hung (2004), ‘China in transition: the huge debate over privatization and MBOs – can the drain on state-owned assets be justified?’, www.rieti.go.jp/en/china/04091501.html, 15 September.
Lee, Rie-Ho (Li Ruihe ᴢ⨲⊇ b. 1935) A resilient entrepreneur from Taiwan, Lee Rie-Ho is the founder of the Ten-Ren Group and the Ten-Fu Group. He is a traditional entrepreneur with new-age business concepts, whose personal virtue, knowledge in tea farming techniques, and managerial and marketing expertise have added value to the tea production industries in the economies of Eastern Asia, especially the greater China region. Lee was born into a tea farmer’s family, which allowed him to absorb a great deal of knowledge and skills regarding tea. He started working with the Min-Fong tea store in 1953 in the sales department. In 1961, Lee founded the Ten-Ren Tea Company – the first chain store in the Taiwanese tea market. As the company sales figures expanded, Lee diversified his fortune into hotels, hospitals, fast food chains, construction companies, and other financial investments. In 1988, when the stock market in Taiwan was experiencing a boom, Lee was encouraged by his family and friends to form a stock exchange company. Only one year later, the Taiwan stock index had risen to 10 000 points, and Lee’s company had doubled its original investment of NT$300 million. Exuberant, the company’s major stockholders urged Lee to add a financial service arm, which was not permissible by law at that time. Under great competitive pressure, Lee agreed to provide the unauthorized service through his company. However, this action led to unexpected negative returns, as in 1990 the Taiwan stock market went through its first negative growth as a result of continued losses. While Lee was doing business in Japan, a phone call from one of the major stockholders in Taiwan informed him that the stock exchange company lacked the approximately NT$200 million necessary for the next day’s stock transactions. If sufficient funding could not be secured, regulation violations would occur in the form of illegal transactions. This sudden event, described as a nightmare by the then 56-year-old Lee, exposed the company’s problems in terms of its top management structure. Financial strategy was not a significant part of the core capabilities of Lee’s business group at that time. Although Lee had recruited professionals to assist in running the business, most of the decision-making authority was centralized in the hands of several founding partners and managers of the company, who were not stock exchange business professionals. Though Lee delegated full authority to these non-professionals in top management, they did not reciprocate with informative, verifiable reports. The situation led Lee to consider suicide, but in the end, he decided to face up to the problems ahead. On top of organizing a special team to evaluate the risks facing the company, Lee also took responsibility for its poor organization and management, and sold his own stocks and real estate assets to gather the required NT$200 million. This measure clearly exemplifies Lee’s personal philosophy of accountability, which in turn earned him a great deal of respect from others involved in the same industry. However, due to the regulation violations, Lee still had to face charges. Fortunately, because he
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took full responsibility for the problem, Lee only received a mild probationary sentence of two years, even though he was preparing to step down and serve his time in prison. Encouraged by this outcome, Lee decided to start a new business that would give him another chance to prove himself. He went abroad to investigate foreign markets in Southeastern Asia and China. Eventually, he chose mainland China as the stage for his comeback, after careful consideration of the 1.2 billion potential customers there. He decided on a return to his specialized tea business. Moreover, Lee’s experience told him that the environment around the potential production base was very suitable for growing high-quality tea. Nevertheless, in the beginning Lee’s family opposed the idea of moving into China due to the unfamiliar business context. Also problematic was the fact that Lee’s old crew and close friends were greatly affected by the earlier entrepreneurial failure, and few had enough resources to invest in this second business. In the end, the resilient entrepreneur found a way to succeed. When Lee released information regarding his intention to start another business, his trustworthy style of business management and personality attracted several significant colleagues from various industries who were willing to take on the risk in the hopes that Lee could succeed again. He also collaborated with the local government and took over the Yu-Shan tea farm. Furthermore, Lee transferred more advanced tea articulation technology from Taiwan to mainland China. Today, the Ten-Ren and Ten-Fu Group has become one of the largest tea production and marketing systems in the pan-Chinese economy. Its business has expanded at an incredible speed. In 2003, Coca-Cola signed a licensing deal with Ten-Ren, allowing them to produce green tea, oolong tea, and other traditional Chinese drinks. For Lee, both success and failure have been precious: his business success not only represents a return to prominence by this entrepreneur, but it also signifies a vehicle for commercializing traditional and culturally-specific products in a modern age. Fu-Sheng Tsai Sources Song, B.C. (2006), ‘Lee Rie Ho: the chief of Ten-Ren Tea Group, spending three billion for one life’, Global View Monthly, 236 (January). Ten Ren Group (2007), official website, accessed 12 November at www.tenren.com.tw/. Tsai, H.C. (2002), Lee’s Retrospection – How Ten Ren Failed and Ten Fu Succeeded in China, Taipei: Common Wealth Publication.
Li, Dongsheng (ᴢϰ⫳b. 1957) Chairman of the board and president of TCL Group, Li Dongsheng has turned a tiny local company dependent on government finance for survival into a top electronic enterprise. The property rights reform of TCL also made him a paragon among Chinese enterprises. Li was born in Huizhou, a poor region in Guangdong Province. After graduating from high school, he was banished for three years to an agricultural cooperative where he continued his self-education. In 1977, after ten years of the Cultural Revolution, he seized the opportunity of the first National College Entrance Examination and enrolled
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at Guangdong Technical College, graduating in 1982. Wanting to be an engineer, which was a top career choice at the time, he first worked in a tiny company in his hometown. Because of his outstanding performance in the company, Li was appointed as general manager of TCL Electronic Group in 1993. After the retirement of his predecessor three years later, Li at age 39 became the president of TCL Group. Li’s success at TCL has mirrored China’s rising economy. After the economic reforms began in the early 1980s, Li noticed the popularity of imported tape recorders. With government investment, he helped form China’s first cassette-tape company. As revenues rose, telephones caught on, and Li’s company became China’s biggest phone manufacturer. Black-and-white TVs arrived in 1981; color in 1992. However the huge success of TCL color TVs was dependent on marketing strategy and brand influence rather than on the company’s research and manufacturing capabilities. In 1996, Li had the first crisis in his career. A major accident at his partner company meant that TCL lost all its product supplies. Luckily TCL pulled through by using an old product line, but from then on Li established his own manufacturing facilities. In 1997 TCL began gradual ownership reform. The total assets of the group increased about 30 percent annually, and Li made special efforts to avoid many sensitive problems and strove to pay back much to the enterprises and local government. By 2003 it finally went public, which successfully transferred the company from collectively-owned and locally controlled to a public-held stock ownership enterprise. Li became rich along the way, thus setting an example for other entrepreneurs to follow. Li also acquired some of the larger color TV manufacturers in the nation, such as Neimeng Caihong, Wuxi Hongmei, and Lehua. In 2003 TCL Group was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and overnight Li acquired an asset of RMB600 million, which made him the envy of many other presidents of state-owned enterprises. By the end of the year TCL’s brand equity was valued at RMB26.712 billion, ranking sixth in the nation. Although competition remained fierce among Chinese electronics firms, Li’s goal was to create a world-class enterprise. In 2002, Li focused on TV marketing in Europe, acquiring Schneider, an established brand in Germany, for €8.2 million. In 2004 TCL struck a $560 million deal to merge its television manufacturing facilities with those of French consumer electronics giant Thomson. TCL’s investment in Thomson is the latest and most dramatic example of China’s determination to put its own stamp on the global marketplace. No company had a better chance of becoming China’s first truly global corporation than TCL. Because of this audacious move, Li was named the Asia Businessman of the Year in 2004 by Fortune magazine. Even though Li initially received much international recognition as a bright star from China, the media considered him a failure because of TCL’s poor performance in the international merger business, conflict within the organization, and the group’s huge losses. Failing to turn the merged international business to profit within 18 months as promised, Li gained a more profound understanding of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises. Believing that the internationalization of the management team must be carried out systemically, Li restructured the overseas operation and made a major adjustment to personnel management. Although TCL’s global venture is still ongoing, Li as a pioneer has left his mark on the internationalist endeavor of Chinese enterprises in the world economy of the twenty-first century. Sun, Jianmin and Hu, Qian
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Sources Asian Economic News (2004), ‘Fortune names Li Dongsheng of China’s TCL top Asia businessman’, 2 February, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2004_Feb_2/ai_112902771. Business Weekly (2007), ‘Li Dongsheng’s lost and gain’, April. Chandler, Clay, Helen Kim and Annie Wang (2004), ‘TV’s Mr Big Li Dongsheng bought RCA and in the process became the world’s largest TV maker. Now can he create China’s first global megabrand?’, Fortune, 9 February, accessed at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/02/09/360117/index. htm. Global Entrepreneur (2004), ‘Li Dongsheng: an adventurer with the widest international imagination in China’, 15 July. Human Capital (2007), ‘The breakthrough of TCL after the personnel adjustment by Li Dongsheng’, September, accessed at http://www.cnki.net. The New Era of China (2007), ‘The eagle of TCL is flying’, August. The New Era of China (2007), ‘Li Dongsheng: the king of TCL kingdom’, July. The Chinese Entrepreneur (2006), ‘Li Dongsheng: the Eagle’s Renascence’. xj.lingqing.com (2008), ‘Li Dongsheng: learning from Zeng Guofan and Jack Welch at the same time’, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.xj-lingqing.com.cn/13107.html.
Li, Jingwei (ᴢ㒣㒀 b. 1937) Former chairman of Jianlibao Group, Li Jingwei pioneered the sports drink market in China and grew his company into a leading national producer of carbonated drinks. Li was born in 1937 in Sanshui County, Northwest Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Placed in an orphanage at age ten, he completed only four years of elementary school, and at 12 left to work in Guangzhou, first as a cook’s helper and then at various odd jobs. He returned to Sanshui several years later, where he became head of a tiny print shop in 1957. A tall man, he played basketball and remained active in sports activities, becoming a deputy head of the Sanshui Sports Federation. Considered very sociable, he had a wide circle of friends, joined the Youth League and later became a member of the Communist Party. In 1973, Li went to work in a small beer factory in Sanshui as an ordinary worker, but gradually assumed managerial responsibility until he was appointed manager in the early 1980s. At the time the factory made about 3000 tons of beer a year and was losing money. In line with new efforts to make enterprises self-sufficient, Li Jingwei was expected to erase the deficit. When Li heard through a friend in early 1983 that the All-China Sports Federation wanted to procure a sports drink for Chinese athletes in time for the 1984 Olympics, he sensed an opportunity for his factory and immediately inquired at the federation. From there he went to see Ouyang Xiao, a research technician at the Guangdong Physical Education Research Institute, who had just come up with a recipe after conducting scientific experiments on healthy drinks. Although the drink had a bad taste, Li was delighted with its potential and hired Ouyang as a consultant. When Li ran into an old basketball friend, Jiang Weiji, then working as a technician in light industry in Guangzhou, he persuaded him to come back to Sanshui to experiment with liquids that could be mixed with the tonic to improve its taste. Shortly after, Li and Jiang launched a promotion campaign. They gave free samples to many sports groups, including the national women’s volleyball team, whose members reportedly liked the new drink. In May 1984 Li found out through another of his contacts, the deputy director of the Provincial Sports Federation, that the Asian Soccer Federation were to hold a meeting at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Li hastened
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to send 100 cartons of Jianlibao free of charge so that all delegates could sample it. With their help, Li was able to work through sports circles to get Jianlibao accepted as one of the drinks for the Los Angeles Olympics, along with drinks from Beijing, Liaoning, Hebei, and Sichuan. Thus, the Jianlibao brand was officially launched and was on a path for quick success. Shortly after, Li and Jianlibao pledged significant financial support to Tibetan mountaineers, the Chinese national women’s volleyball team, and a large donation to the Hope Project to provide education funding for children from low-income families. Under Li’s leadership, Jianlibao became one of the top-ten most recognized Chinese brands in the 1990s. However, beneath the glory of Li’s Jianlibao empire, lay China’s old state-owned enterprise system. Jianlibao, founded by Li Jingwei, who had also masterminded its growth, was under total ownership of the municipal government. When the first batch of state-owned enterprises were successfully converted to private companies, Li hoped to be able to gain ownership of Jianlibao. However, tensions had built up over the years between Li and the local government, and Sanshui County rejected his proposal to use private funds to purchase a controlling interest in the Jianlibao Group, as well as his recommendation for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the meantime, local officials openly sought a qualified private buyer for the Jianlibao Group – so long as the buyer was not Li himself. On 15 January 2002, the Sanshui government signed an agreement to sell 75 percent of Jianlibao to Zhejiang International Trust & Investment Corp (ZITIC). Jianlibao, once a successful collective enterprise, became privatized, and Li stepped down as chairman of the company. Shirley Ze Yu Sources Long, Xueqing and Zhang Xiang (2005), ‘Jianlibao: the ups and downs of a beverage giant’, Caijing Magazine, 24 January, accessed at www.caijing.com.cn/English/industry&companies/2007-12-25/42970.shtml. People’s Daily (2002), ‘China’s leading beverage producer sold to new owner’, 17 January, accessed at http:// english.peopledaily.com.cn/200201/17/eng20020117_88802.shtml. Wu, Xiabo (2007), ਈ, ᰧ⊶ 䋹ሔ䚼II, ᵁᎲ, ⌭∳Ҏ⇥ߎ⠜⼒ [‘Great Collapse (II)’], Hangzhou: Zhejiang People’s Publisher, pp. 1–32.
Li, Jinhua (ᴢ䞥ढ b. 1943) Li Jinhua is the auditor general of the National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China. Because of his role in exposing government corruption, the media nicknamed Li the ‘iron-faced’ auditor general. He is widely acknowledged for his incorruptibility and role in the national ‘auditing storm’ resulting from his influential official audit reports. Because of this leadership, Li has become one of China’s most renowned and respected economic figures. Li came from a humble background, being born to a pastry cook in Rudong, Jiangsu Province. His mother died young and he was raised by his aunt. Li joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1965 and graduated from the Central Institute of Finance and Banking with a bachelors degree in economics the next year. After graduation, Li was sent to teach at the Northwest China Institute of Economics and Finance in Shaanxi Province for three years. In 1971, he was appointed to the post
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of accountant at Number 572 Aircraft Factory, directly under the Ministry of Aeronautics Industry. He rose through the ranks to hold several consecutive titles, including head of finance, deputy secretary of the factory’s party branch, and factory director. In 1983, Li was admitted to the Party School of the CCP Central Committee, a training ground for the country’s highest political bodies, where he studied for two years while maintaining his other posts and becoming director general of the Economy and Trade Department of Shaanxi Province. Li joined the National Audit Office in 1985 as deputy auditor general. The office was then a two-year old ministry under the State Council, and Li served there for 13 years. In 1998, Li was appointed auditor general, a five-year term which was renewed in 2003. He replaced Guo Zhenqian. In 1999, Li published the first public audit of China’s top ministries, revealing that up to 43 central government departments had misappropriated more than RMB3.12 billion. Li believes the auditing office to be the ‘watchdog’ of a country and promotes the ‘sunshine policy’ of increased reporting and transparency. He hopes auditing can serve as a source of feedback for the sociopolitical system in general. In Li’s opinion, the best cure for bureaucratic stagnation and corruption is to report audit findings directly to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and targeting and reforming those who make his ‘audit list’ is an important step in China’s transformation to a society under the rule of law. In 2004, Li criticized four government departments and started what the media dubbed a nationwide ‘auditing storm’ that sparked numerous audits of other organizations. Before Li’s public auditing reports, the National Audit Office was almost unknown. Yet he does not take personal credit for the influence of his audits, claiming that it is only the government’s determination to publicly identify its own shortcomings that gives his audits power. Li’s modesty and down-to-earth style are part of his charm. According to him, the key factor to the success of his reports is the central government’s willingness to support his work without interference. He claims to receive no ‘unofficial notes’ (secret orders) from superiors about how to do his job and has indicated that just about any capable person could publish his report with similar effect. Li believes this is part of a larger trend of government departments becoming more open, especially in matters concerning public funds. The Chinese media has recognized Li’s key role in national auditing, granting him numerous awards. In 2004, he was elected China’s ‘most influential economic person of the year’ by a wide margin in a contest sponsored by state-owned China Central Television, while Southern Weekend also named him ‘Person of the Year’. An honorary professor at several leading Chinese universities, Li is also a contributor to major journals and newspapers in China, a board member of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions and its chairman since October 2000. Joshua Wickerham Sources Callick, Rowan (2007), ‘Audit shows China’s embezzled billions’, The Australian, 28 June, accessed 12 January 2008 at www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21980868-2703,00.html. China Vitae (2008), ‘Li Jinhua’, accessed 12 January at www.chinavitae.org/biography/Li_Jinhua/full. National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China (2008), ‘Li Jinhua, Auditor General’, accessed 12 January at www.cnao.gov.cn/main/articleshow_ArtID_731.htm.
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OECD Forum (2004), ‘Li Jinhua: Auditor General of China’, 10 November, accessed 12 January 2008 at www. oecd.org/speaker/0,3438,fr_21571361_31834434_33720415_1_1_1_1,00.html. People’s Daily (2004), ‘Li Jinhua: openness and transparency an effective prescription for corruption’, 9 July, accessed 12 January 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200407/09/eng20040709_149088.html. Who’s Who in China’s Leadership (2008), ‘Li Jinhua’, accessed 12 January at www.china.org.cn/english/ chuangye/56944.htm. Xinhua English (2005), ‘Li Jinhua: China’s Undaunted Top Auditor’, 28 June, accessed 12 January 2008 at http://english.sina.com/china/1/2005/0628/36489.html.
Li, Jun (ᴢ ݯb. 1956) Since September 2006 Li Jun has been governor (president) and vice chairman of the board of China’s Bank of Communications (BOCOM), one of the largest five commercial banks in China, and the only major bank with headquarters in Shanghai. BOCOM is also the first Chinese bank to be listed in overseas financial markets, having gone public in June 2005 in Hong Kong. Not much is known about Li Jun’s origins. He completed a masters degree in economics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China in 1995, five years after he joined the Bank of Communications in 1990. However Li has been involved in the Chinese banking and finance sector since August 1975, first working with the People’s Bank of China, Wuhan branch, in Hubei Province. He stayed there for the better part of ten years before moving to the Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (ICBC). He was with the Wuhan branch of ICBC from October 1985 until October 1990, when he joined BOCOM, starting as vice general manager and later director of the Wuhan branch. In April 1998, Li Jun was transferred to the BOCOM headquarters in Shanghai. He has gone through nearly every department in the bank, having passed through stints as auditor general, director in many of the bank’s operating divisions, managing director, executive director, and vice governor (executive vice president). Li handled BOCOM’s fund management division for a while and made it the premier funds manager in China. He also developed an innovative system for internal analysis and rating of loans granted by the bank, the credit management information system, an idea which he may have started developing while working as manager of the technological renovation credit division at the Wuhan branch of ICBC. One of his most admired innovations is the ‘Zhanyetong’ credit support program that is targeted towards helping small businesses. The Zhanyetong program administers BOCOM’s loan portfolio to small and medium-size enterprises. At the time of his election as president of the Bank of Communications, Li Jun’s Zhanyetong program had 100 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion) in total assets, which was about equivalent to the Industrial and Commercial Bank, a bank with a bigger asset base than BOCOM. The program has earned the approval of China’s bank regulatory authorities, which have spoken of plans to replicate the program throughout the whole domestic banking industry. Li’s closest rival for the presidency of BOCOM played an important role during the marketing efforts in Hong Kong for the bank’s IPO and public listing. Li Jun, however, was a key architect of the bank’s joint equity reform plan, which included asset restructuring, the introduction of new capital and the infusion of new money through the public offering. Eventually, Li was chosen for his knowledge of the economy and finance, and his extensive experience in the management of diverse bank interests, which was deemed
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necessary to steer the bank into the future. Li will face growing competition, however, not only in the banking business in general but also in investor relations. Following BOCOM’s public offering, China Construction Bank, the Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (where Li used to work), China Merchants Bank and CITIC Bank have all conducted their own IPOs in the past three years. In addition, the BOCOM board is reputedly confrontational in dealing with management, which will pose a challenge for the low-key Li Jun. Within a year of Li’s assumption to the presidency, the Bank of Communications posted significant improvements in operating results. From its first half of 2007 interim report, as of end of June 2007, the total assets of BOCOM had reached 2.133 trillion yuan (US$273 billion with an exchange rate of 7.8 yuan per US$), which was 24.33 percent higher than 2006. Net profit for the first half of 2007 was 8.918 billion yuan, which was a 37.43 percent increase on the first half of 2006. With the continuing growth in bank assets and net profits, Li pushed the domestic listing of BOCOM. In May 2007, BOCOM had its domestic public offering and sold over 3 billion A shares on the Shanghai stock exchange. Li is known to be a brass tacks manager. He keeps a very low profile. Instead of becoming a public personality, which would be understandable as president of one of the biggest Chinese banks, Li focuses on internal operations and has a reputation for extreme attention to detail. A very hands-on manager, he tends to keep track of all assignments he gives to subordinates. He will need all this command of intricate detail and extensive experience to bring the Bank of Communications to greater heights. Li Jun is also vice chairman of the board for China Eastern Airlines Corporation and a director in the Yangtze River United Economic Development (Group) Co., Ltd. Amir Shoham and Hui He Sources BusinessWeek (2007), ‘Executive profile’, accessed 25 July 2007 at http://investing.businessweek.com/business week/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=29161248&capId=5870494&previousCapId=5870494& previousTitle=Bank%20Of%20Communications. Chinese Government official web portal (2006), ‘Bank of Communications appoints new governor’, 13 September, accessed 25 July 2007 at www.gov.cn/english/2006-09/13/content_388045.htm. Reuters (2006), ‘Bank of Communications Co. Ltd’, accessed 25 July 2007 at http://stocks.us.reuters.com/ stocks/officersDirectorsDetails.asp?symbol=601328.SS&WTmodLOC=C4-Officers-3&officerID=953785.
Li, Ka Shing (Li, Jiacheng ᴢ䆮 b. 1928) Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka Shing has the reputation of leading a modest lifestyle, despite holding the title of the wealthiest man of Chinese descent in the world. Apart from being considered the most influential and powerful businessman in Asia, he is also regarded as one of Asia’s most generous philanthropists. His political and financial clout has earned him the nickname of ‘Superman’ in Hong Kong, where his global empire is based. Li Ka Shing was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong Province in China but moved to Hong Kong when his family fled there in 1940 to avoid the turmoil after the Japanese invasion of China. Although his father was the head of a primary school, Li himself had little opportunity to obtain a formal education. After the early demise of his father, Li
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had to shoulder the responsibility of looking after the family at the young age of 15 by working in a plastics trading company for 16 hours a day. A teacher’s son, a refugee, and later a sales person, his hard work, prudence and pursuit of excellence helped him start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries in 1950, which he has since built up to an empire that includes banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping. After learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastics manufacturing company in Hong Kong with funds borrowed from family and friends and contacts he cultivated as a top-tier salesman. By 1958 he had a flourishing business manufacturing plastic flowers and was ready to expand. He named the firm Cheung Kong Industries, after the Cheung Kong River (Changjiang) – also known as the Yangtze – the longest river in China. The name was both an allusion to the river’s many tributaries and the need for business alliances. By the 1960s Cheung Kong had transformed into a property development and management company. Li’s strategy was to avoid debt by raising capital before building, both through the formation of joint ventures with landowners and by pre-selling apartments to friends and colleagues. As such Cheung Kong could incur fewer risks while still earning profits for both Li and his co-investors, fueling rapid growth. The company, renamed Cheung Kong Holdings in 1971, had its initial public offering in 1972. By 1979 Li was Hong Kong’s largest private landlord. In 1979 Li acquired a 23 percent stake in one of the oldest British ‘hongs’ or trading companies, Hutchison Whampoa, becoming the first Chinese to control one of the old British companies that had long dominated Hong Kong’s economy. This equity was gradually increased to 49.9 per cent by 2004 and Li used Hutchison Whampoa to move into a variety of other businesses, demonstrating a talent for deal-making that earned him the nickname ‘Superman.’ During the 1980s Hutchison Whampoa expanded to buy 33 percent of Hong Kong Electric Holdings. Since then Li has extended his empire beyond Asia, starting in Canada, where his two sons were educated, with investments in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Husky Oil. Hutchison Telecommunications, a Hong Kong mobile-phone service launched in 1985, became a major player in telecommunications in the 1990s, building the Orange PCS mobile network in Europe, which Li sold to Mannesmann in 1999 for $14.6 billion in cash and equity. Li’s two primary corporate entities, Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa, have been intertwined: Cheung Kong Holdings owns 49.9 percent of Hutchison Whampoa, and Hutchison Whampoa owns 85 percent of Cheung Kong Infrastructure. Cheung Kong, with 175 000 employees worldwide and operations in 39 countries, has moved into biotechnology and internet services. Hutchison Whampoa is the world’s largest port operator while its retail and manufacturing segments account for more than 40 percent of company sales with thousands of retail outlets selling wide varieties of products across Europe and Asia. Li has built strong political and economic ties with mainland China and is known to have advised the late Deng Xiaoping during the Sino-British talks that led to the 1984 Joint Declaration on Hong Kong’s future. He also served on the committee that drafted
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Hong Kong’s Constitution. He has invested billions of dollars in ports, infrastructure, and real estate development projects in China and founded Shantou University near his hometown in Guangdong in 1981, donating an estimated $150 million to build its campus. Today, the entrepreneur’s holdings span more than 40 countries and have interests in providing electricity, real estate development, retailing, shipping container terminals, and large investments. The value of Li’s businesses, including Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa, account for more than 10 percent of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Being a billionaire has allowed Li to be a generous philanthropist, setting up the Li Ka Shing Foundation in 1980 to create a culture of giving. Sangeeta Singh Sources BusinessWeek (2001), ‘Li Ka Shing, Hutchison Whampoa’, 8 January, accessed 28 November 2007 at www. businessweek.com/2001/01_02/b3714029.htm. referenceforbusiness.com (2008), ‘Li Ka Shing, 1928-’, accessed 28 November 2007 at www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/F-L/Li-Ka-shing-1928.html. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Li Ka Shing’, accessed 28 November 2007 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ka_Shing. Woopidoo Biographies (2008), ‘Business leaders: Li Ka Shing Biography’, accessed 28 November 2007 at www. woopidoo.com/biography/li-ka-shing/index.htm.
Li, Lihui (ᴢ⼐䕝 b. 1952) Vice-chairman of the board of directors and president of the Bank of China (BOC), Li Lihui has also served as vice governor of Hainan Province (2002–04). Born in Putian, Fujian Province, Li joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1975 while still a student in the economics department at Xiamen University in Fujian Province, where he graduated with a degree in finance in 1977. From 1988 to 1994 Li worked as general manager of the International Business Department in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). His other roles at the bank during this period included acting as chief representative of the Singapore Office and as deputy general manager for a city branch in Fujian Province. In 1994 Li was promoted to executive vice president of ICBC. After earning a doctorate in finance from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in 1999, Li became deputy governor of Hainan Province (2002–04), an island in the South China Sea. In August 2004 Li was named vice chairman of the board of directors and president of the Bank of China. Since June 2005, he has served as chairman of the board of directors in BOC. Li has also served as chairman of Bohai Industry Investment Management Ltd since December 2006. As president of the Bank of China, Li is a leading advocate of private banking services for wealthy Chinese citizens. The Bank of China and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have discreetly invited customers in Beijing and Shanghai with at least $1 million in liquid assets to open accounts. The banks will initially offer foreign exchange structured products, subscriptions to initial public offerings, and private equity lines. Li sees the number of Chinese millionaires increasing and states ‘Without a private banking service, it is impossible for a bank to become a top bank.’ Li has been active in growing the Bank of China’s presence both inside and outside mainland China. In 2005 a partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc was
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announced in which a $3.1 billion investment would give the British bank control of just under a 10 percent stake in the Bank of China. Other investments in the BOC were made with new partners the Swiss Bank UBS AG and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, amounting to an additional $500 million worth of BOC shares. In 2006, Li led BOC’s listing initiative on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the time this was the fourth largest IPO in the world, raising about $11.2 billion. A month later the BOC was successful in its mainland China IPO by offering up to 10 billion A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In 2007 the Bank of China bought a stake in the Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise and renamed it BOC Aviation. Li has positioned the Bank of China in the world of international sports with two initiatives. First, in his role as president of the Bank of China, Li has joined with China Network Communications Group, China Petrochemical Corporation, China Mobile Communications Corporation, Volkswagen Group China, Adidas Greater China, and Air China Limited to form the Beijing Olympic partners and to advance the concepts of ‘Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People’s Olympics’; second, under Li’s leadership, the Bank of China’s wholly-owned investment group, Bank of China Group Investment Limited (BOCGI), has partnered with ESPN, a division of the Walt Disney Company, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation, and China Merchants Investments to purchase an 11 percent stake in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Commenting on the occasion, NBA Commissioner David Stern believed that ‘the opportunity for basketball and the NBA in China is simply extraordinary . . . the expertise, resources and shared vision of these immensely successful companies will help us to achieve the potential we see in the region’ (NBA, 2008). Li’s enthusiasm for the investment is summed up in his comment: ‘The CBA is a truly extraordinary brand, backed by a passionate team of talented people and great fans all over China. The rapid growth of China’s basketball market will promise enormous business potential and strong growth for NBA China. We see great prospects in the cooperation’ (NBA, 2008). James P. Gilbert Sources Bank of China website (2007), ‘Board of Directors: Bank of China’, accessed 1 August at www.boc.cn/en/ common/third.jsp?category=1155525408100. China Vitae (2007), ‘Biography of Li Lihui’, 20 January, accessed 1 August at www.chinavitae.com/biography/ Li_Lihui. Li Ka Shing Foundation (2008), ‘NBA forms new China entity: five prominent global companies invest for 11% of NBA China’, accessed 14 January at www.lksf.org/eng/media/press/20080114.shtml. Maidment, Paul (2007), ‘Private banking with a Chinese face’, Forbes, 21 March, accessed 15 August at www. forbes.com/2007/03/21/china-private-bank-markets-emerge-cx_pm_0321markets10.html. NBA (2008), ‘NBA announces formation of NBA China’, 14 January, accessed 11 August at www.nba.com/ news/nba_china_080114.html.
Li, Ning (ᴢᅕb. 1963) First a national hero in gymnastics, Li has become a successful entrepreneur as the founder and chairman of Li-Ning Sports Goods Company, the largest domestic sports apparel firm in China. Li Ning is a native of Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southwest
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China. He began gymnastics when he was eight. After winning six gold medals (including the all-round) at the 1982 World Cup, he won three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and became a national hero (dubbed the ‘Prince of Gymnastics’) in China. In his 17-year long sports career, he won a total of 106 gold medals in national and world gymnastics competitions. After retiring from competitive gymnastics in 1989, Li Ning joined Guangdong Jianlibao Group and later founded the Li Ning Sports Goods Company in 1990, with the goal of creating the first nationwide sports brand in China. The company’s brand is named after Li Ning and positioned itself at an intermediate price/value range between the low price/poor quality domestic products and the high price/high quality international brands such as Nike. As the chairman of the board, Li Ning wisely uses his well-known name in China, and maintains good relationships and connections with sports officials. In 1992, Li Ning branded products were selected as the official sporting goods for the Chinese delegation to the 25th Barcelona Olympic Games. The company also regularly provided uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies and the torch relay in the National Games. At the same time, Li Ning started to develop a franchising and retail network in the PRC. Through intensive sponsorship of sporting events, local activities, and well-known athletes, the Li Ning brand began to penetrate the Chinese consumer market. After a decade’s efforts and persistence, Li Ning has led his company to become China’s largest domestic sports goods company with three main products: apparel (54 percent of sales in 2006), footwear (38 percent), and accessories (8 percent). The Li Ning brand is the company’s key sales contributor (99 percent in 2006, inclusive of 1 percent exports). In 2006, the Li Ning Company achieved $306 million sales revenue in China and seized a market share of 8.7 percent. It ranks among the top-three players, following Nike and Adidas and remaining well ahead of local competitors (its closest peer, Anta, has a 3 percent market share) as well as other international brands (for example, Reebok, Puma). In June 2004, the Li Ning Company reached an important milestone when it became the first domestic sportswear company to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the end of 2006, the market value of the company reached $1.629 billion, an increase of 128.5 percent over 2005. Among all sports goods companies, the market value of the Li Ning Company ranks fifth in the world. The Li Ning Company has not only focused on leading in the local market, but is also actively involved in internationalization. In 2002, it signed a deal with Spain’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, taking the first step toward internationalization. At the beginning of 2005, it forged a strategic partnership with the National Basketball Association. At the start of 2007, the Li Ning Company was a sponsor of NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal and the 2006 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) world championship team, Spain. ‘Aim not to become China’s Nike, but develop into World’s Li Ning.’ That’s the lifelong ambition of Li Ning as well as his company. On 8 August 2008, Li Ning ignited the flame at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan Sources Economist (2003), ‘Just Do It Chinese-style’, 2 August, 59. Li Ning Company (2005), annual report. Liu, Y. (2006), ‘Li-Ning rebounding with Shaq?’, Beijing Review, 34 (21 December). Peng, M.W. (2006), Global Strategy, Cincinnati, OH: Thomson South-Western.
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Tsui, A. (2001), ‘The story of Li Ning Sports Goods Company’, HKUST Hang Lung Center for Organizational Research Newsletter, 6, 2–5.
Li, Rucheng (ᴢབ៤ b. 1951) The art and science of reinventing oneself as well as the skills of repositioning a brand are perhaps the most important intangible contributions Li Rucheng has given to China. The tangible contributions are, of course, the shirts, garments, and profits manufactured under the internationally recognized Youngor brand. Li started work very young as a pig farmer but transformed himself into one of China’s top entrepreneurs whose global recognition is undeniable. While friends and competitors agree that Li used good feng shui to achieve his important role in the Chinese apparel industry, none can deny that tenacity and focus have also played a part. Born in 1951, Li suffered hardships in his youth, including the imprisonment of his father and a mother who became insane. During the difficult years of 1959–61, Li lost four family members, including his mother. But neither these personal difficulties nor his limited seven years of schooling kept him from gaining economic independence through hard work. Li found this willingness to endure arduous work valuable when Chinese economic reforms offered him the opportunity to escape farming and join the garment industry. Pioneering the idea that China must develop a unique management style, rather than copy one from more developed countries, Li has directed Youngor Group Co. Ltd through numerous industry changes to its current position in the top 100 private enterprises in Zhejiang Province. The rapid growth of Youngor took flight under Li’s leadership in 1994, when it obtained a license for import and export. The company quickly grew to become one of the top 1000 large and midsize Chinese companies in 1997. Youngor debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 19 November 1998. By 2001, Youngor shirts held a 15 percent market share in China, and were ranked first in the industry for seven consecutive years. That same year, Youngor’s Western-style clothes obtained an impressive 12.61 percent market share and had been ranked first in the industry for two consecutive years. When Li signed the 2005 garment development deal with Japan’s Itochu and Italy’s Marzotto, he brought the Youngor Group to truly global proportions, noting: ‘Our business will expand (after the deal) to cover more than 150 countries and regions . . . making us the biggest textile and garment manufacturing and exporting alliance in the world’ (AFX-Asia, 2005). As board chairman and president of Youngor Group, Li oversees the nearly 22 000 employees of Youngor Group Co. Ltd, whose 2007 revenues are estimated to be between US$750 million and 1 billion. Mary Conway Dato-on Sources AFX Asia (2005), ‘China’s Youngor teams up with Itochu, Marzotto in high-end garments’, 12 December. AsiaInfo Daily China News (2002), ‘Top 10 China entrepreneurs’, 30 July, 1. Murray, Geoffrey (1999), ‘Li Rucheng: betting his shirt on being the best’, Beijing Review, 19 July. SinoCast China Business Daily News (2005), ‘Zhejiang Top 100 private firm list issued’, 21 September, 1. SinoCast China Financial Watch (2004), ‘A second MBO over garment company Youngor in eastern China’, 31 December.
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Li, Shufu (ᴢк⽣ b. 1963) Chairman and CEO of Geely Automobile Holding Co. Ltd, Li Shufu has demonstrated to China and the world that perseverance and determination are the key ingredients in launching China’s first private automobile company. Li is a study in perseverance and the pursuit of a dream. He started out in 1984 manufacturing refrigerator components, but the venture was forced to close when it failed to get the necessary licenses. In 1994, seeing the great desire for expensive imported motorcycles, Li decided to design and manufacture motorcycles domestically. He was challenged by the difficulty of obtaining the appropriate licenses but this time around he successfully obtained the necessary government permission, and in just a few years his motorcycles could be found in 22 countries around the world, including the United States. A true entrepreneur, Li was not content to succeed in just one industry. Leveraging his manufacturing experience and entrepreneurial savvy, Li decided to move into automotive production. Despite continued difficulties in obtaining government licenses and numerous challenges in finding partners willing to work with a new automotive company, Li rose to the challenge and put together his dream of designing, manufacturing and selling automobiles in China. In 1997 Geely became China’s first privately owned automobile manufacturer and by 2000, Geely had sold more than 600 000 motorcycles and 150 000 automobiles, making Li one of the richest men in China. Geely’s entry into the market can be seen as a key point in China’s automotive history. Geely, under Li, found a market by producing affordable cars in a country where the high price of automobiles was curtailing the number of sales necessary to develop an economy of scale and reduce production costs. Li’s determination enabled him to exploit a great opportunity by providing a good to a segment of the population that was not being serviced by the state-owned auto manufacturers or the foreign car companies. Li has no intention of stopping here; he intends to produce and sell automobiles around the world and compete with the biggest domestic and global automobile producers. Li’s continued focus on competition and the setting of aggressive goals, such as the aim of selling two million cars by 2015, is a key strategy for the company. Michael J. Miske Sources CCTV (2004), ‘Ji Li Lao Zong Li Shufu: Wo Bu Shu Fu!’ news.sohu.com, 17 June. Chinadaily.com.cn (2006), ‘Li Shufu’, 27 March. Forbes.com (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November, accessed 9 October 2007 at www. forbes.com/global/2001/1112/052_54.html.
Li, Xiaohua (ᴢᰧढ b. 1951) Chairman of the Huada International Investment Group, Li Xiaohua is currently one of the richest men in China. But his success did not happen overnight. Rather, Li went through many failed attempts before tasting success. In his early days Li tried everything from farming and screening Kung Fu films to selling watches, iced drinks, and hair restorer. His luck changed, however, in 1989 when he established the Huada International
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Investment Group. Today Li heads the conglomerate that brings in $120 million in assets and profits exceeding $12.5 million annually. He has an estimated net asset worth of 2 billion yuan (US$265 million). In addition to his aptitude for business, Li’s hard work and determination combined with his many charitable contributions and good political connections have all helped him become the man he is today. Li was born into a poor family in January 1951. He was brought up in Beijing and graduated from middle school in 1967. Upon graduation he was sent, like many others, to the countryside to undergo ‘education through labor.’ Li spent eight years in Heilongjiang, a northern province bordering Russia and one of the coldest places in China. In 1978 he returned to Beijing where he began selling watches from Hong Kong. At that time, however, the only wages considered legal were those set by the government. The idea of a private economy was almost unheard of. Thus Li was arrested and sentenced to reform through labor for a period of two years. In 1979, China saw a change in Communist Party policy, allowing Li to go into business legally. Despite the odds stacked against him, Li decided to go the difficult route and become an individual entrepreneur. At the time he had only 6000 yuan (US$800) in savings. He invested about 3000 Yuan in a US made beverage dispenser. He used this iced-drink machine to sell beverages along the beaches of Beidaihe, a summer resort 300 kilometers northeast of Beijing. Li’s immediate success made him anticipate intense competition the following year. Consequently, he sold his machine and decided to try another trade: film screening. He invested in video equipment and began showing Hong Kong and Taiwanese films in the nearby city of Qinghuangdao, located in the northern Hebei Province. With the profits from his iced drinks and film screening, he purchased his first Mercedes Benz in 1984. This marked the beginning of his automobile collection, and he became the first mainland Chinese to purchase a Ferrari in 1993. In the late 1980s Li began taking classes at a business school in Tokyo, Japan. During this time he acquired the distribution rights for ‘101 Hair Regrowth Lotion,’ a Chinesemade hair restorer. He made a substantial profit off of each bottle by purchasing them for about 60 yuan (US$8) each and selling them for about 760 yuan (US$100). This brought in more than 100 million yuan (US$13 million) in profits. He then headed to Hong Kong. Following the Tiananmen incident of 1989, the Hong Kong property market was going down. Li invested the majority of his money in low-priced apartments and unsold residential properties. When the market rebounded six months later, he made a substantial amount of money, and as a result he established the Huada Group in the same year. The main interests of this group are in real estate, tourism, machine building, medical and health care products, and trade. It currently employs over 8800 people and owns 33 firms in 16 countries. Besides his talent for business, Li is also known for his generous donations to sports causes, medical research, and education. He became the first Chinese mainlander to fund a public school with private funds. The International Asteroid Committee even named an asteroid after him, in 1996, as an appreciation for his assistance. One of his most noted contributions was in September 1990 when he donated 1 million yuan (US$133 000) to the Asian Games. As a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference he hopes to actively lobby for the protection of private sectors. He also took advantage of the Asian crisis by looking to invest in companies in Southeast Asia and South Korea. Adeta Gayah and Marc Fetscherin
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Sources Asiaweek (1996), ‘Cover story China: people power’, 11 October. Financial Times (1998), ‘Chinese eye SE Asia buys’, 25 February. Forbes Global (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November. South China Morning Post (1998), ‘Connections keep modest entrepreneur in fast lane’, 27 April. The Strait Times (2002), ‘China’s 16th richest man wants more money’, 25 July.
Li, Xiaopeng (ᴢᇣ吣 b. 1959) Chairman of Huaneng Group, Li Xiaopeng is one of the most influential leaders in the international expansion of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE). Son of former State Council Premier Li Peng, Li Xiaopeng has experienced a meteoric rise from entry-level electrical engineer to head of one of China’s biggest SOEs. Known in the media as ‘Asia’s Electricity King’ and the man with iron connections, Li is a man with great vision and business sense who keeps a fairly low-key public persona. Li was born in June 1959 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a large industrial city in Western China. Li Xiaopeng’s paternal grandfather died at age 28 and was hailed as a revolutionary martyr. His grandmother, also a revolutionary, never remarried. Li attended North China Electric Power University, concentrating on power plant engineering and power systems. Upon graduation in 1982, Li began his career at the Electric Power Science Academy. After his first post as engineer in the power systems research division, Li became deputy division chief of planning and operations. He later became general manager of the power technology and economic research division of the Electric Power Research Institute. In 1985 Li joined the Chinese Communist Party. In the same year Huaneng was incorporated as a Sino-foreign joint venture that planned to turn a profit based on imported electricity generating equipment, with the Chinese government holding the majority stake. In 1994, Huaneng was incorporated as Huaneng International Power Development Corporation (HIPDC) with shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The group became the second Chinese energy utility to be listed overseas, following the regional company Shandong Huaneng. From 1994 onward, Li held a number of positions, including vice president of the China State Grid Corporation, vice president, president and vice chairman of Huaneng. Part of Li’s rise is certainly related to his connections, but he is also good at gaining the confidence of investors. In April 2000, he replaced Huang Jinkai to become chairman of the Huaneng board and instigated a complete restructuring. The State Council fully supported his reorganization plan, hoping that Huaneng would become independently managed and assume full responsibility for profits or losses. Under Li, Huaneng went from being a local electrical power company to a key Asian industry conglomerate. With approval from the State Council, Huaneng’s management became fully independent of its parent. Li took an active role in promoting Huaneng’s interests abroad. He emphasized the company’s image, talked about development plans, and used his English skills to convince a new generation of investors that China’s newly marketized companies were trustworthy, long-term performers. Despite these efforts, Huaneng’s lackluster performance as one of the first groups of Chinese companies to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange did not improve until it was listed in Hong Kong a few years later. Under Li’s leadership, Huaneng was on a fast path of expansion. In July 2000 Huaneng International
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acquired Shandong Huaneng to become the largest independent electricity producer in Asia. In an interview Li defended his purchase, claiming that the acquisition was not a result of his personal connections, but something that fitted the corporate interest and was ‘the job that he should be doing.’ Shortly thereafter, the company also bought 50 percent of an Australian power company. Li considered those purchases among the first requirements in becoming a world class, competitive company. Because of his strong connections, Li has always been a contentious character. While some people wonder how an ordinary energy engineer could become such a powerful leader almost overnight, others claim that ‘He could be a senior executive at any utility in the world, regardless of his family connections,’ as noted by David Kiefer, co-manager of Prudential’s $4 billion utility fund (Zuckerman, 1994). Part of the reason Li Xiaopeng remains low-key is because he does not need a high profile to get business done. Joshua Wickerham and Wenxian Zhang Sources ChinaDetail (2008), ‘Li Xiaopeng: president of China HuaNeng Group (CHNG)’, accessed at www.chinade tail.com/Who/BusinessLeadersHuaneng.php. China Vitae (2008), ‘Li Xiaopeng: Vice-President of the State Power Corporation’, accessed at http://chinavi tae.com/biography/Li_Xiaopeng. Guangzhou Digest (2005), ‘ᴢ吣Пᄤᴢᇣ吣: ᴹⱘѮ⌆⬉⥟’, ᑓᎲ᭛ᨬ [‘Li Xiaopeng: Li Peng’s son and future king of Asian electricity’], 27 April, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://xk.2000y.net/125773/index. asp?xAction=xReadNews&NewsID=153. Jinlin Daily (2007), ⥟Ҭট, ↩⦂⨇, ‘ढ㛑ঢ়ᵫথ⬉᳝䰤݀ৌ៤ゟ: ⥟⦝ᴢᇣ吣Ў݀ৌᧁ⠠’, ঢ়ᵫ᮹ [Wang Fuyou and Bi Weilin, ‘Jinlin Huaneng Incorporated’], 29 September, accessed 23 September 2008 at http:// cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64093/64102/6330046.html. People’s Daily (2003), ᴢ᱃ि, ‘ढ㛑䰙: ᴢᇣ吣ⳂᷛⳈᣛ䰙ϔ⌕’, Ҏ⇥᮹ [Li Jingwei, ‘Huaneng International: Li Xiaopeng’s goal is the first-class in the world’], 22 December 2003, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://stock.jrj.com.cn/news/2003-12-22/000000716144.html. United Morning News (2000), ԭᯢᯠ, ‘ᴢ吣Пᄤᇚ៤Ў“Ѯ⌆⬉⥟”’, 㘨ড়ᮽ [Yu Mingchang, ‘Li Peng’s son will become Asia’s electricity king’], 29 July 2000, accessed 23 September 2008 at www.zaobao.com/stock/ pages6/china290700.html. Zuckerman, Laurence (1994), ‘Market place: a Chinese utility is facing a big test on Wall Street’, New York Times, 3 October.
Li, Yanhong (Robin Li ᴢᔺᅣ b. 1968) Known in the West as Robin Li, Li Yanhong may one day be known for something beyond the success of Baidu, the search engine company he founded that has become the no. 1 website in China and outpaces Google in Chinese internet searches. On the day he took Baidu public, the share price started at $27 and when the NASDAQ closed later that day it had risen to $122, up by over 350 percent. In one fell swoop, Li Yanhong became a billionaire; in one glorious moment, the mindset of China’s IT business community broke free from its fetters and rose to greater heights. However, it is not that Li became a billionaire, although that is really phenomenal; it is the fact that he had developed many inventions in web search technology that are still in use, at a time when China was seen elsewhere in the IT world as having ‘alsoran’ technology. The Baidu moment was the result of a life’s work. But it also meant that China’s IT expertise was on par with the best there is in the world. For that achievement, Li Yanhong will be well remembered.
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He started modestly enough. When he was born in 1968, the fourth in a family of five children, his hometown of Yangquan, Shanxi, was still quite impoverished. He spent an active childhood collecting stamps and becoming a performer in traditional opera. His interest in computers developed when he was still in high school. He participated in the national youth programming competition and did not rank nationwide. By then he realized that he needed to look outside the county in which he grew up and compete with all the better programmers. He had a quick mind, and this enabled him to gain entrance into China’s most prestigious academic institution, Beijing University in 1987. He enrolled as a library and information science major but continued to follow an enduring interest in computer science. But he had a growing desire to study abroad and he started preparing to pursue further study in the United States. In fall 1991, after receiving his bachelor of science in information management, he was admitted to a computer science program at the State University of New York-Buffalo with a scholarship. He completed his masters degree in 1994 and started his career in information technology in Dow Jones and Infoseek. Li developed a real-time information system for Dow Jones, which has since been used in the websites of several Wall Street businesses including the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. Li then focused on trying to find a solution to one of the most perplexing problems in the early stages of the internet: how to sort information. Two years later, he had his eureka moment. He invented ESP technology, a search program that he called ‘link analysis,’ for its ability to study the links that one website had to others and to come up with a ranking of the website’s popularity. It was a moment of great excitement. He told his boss about it, but he wasn’t interested. However this technology caught the attention of William Chang, chief technology officer of Infoseek, where his ESP technology was later applied. In 1998, Li wrote a book titled Silicon Valley Business War, in which he tried to draw attention to the commercial possibilities of internet search and described his own insights on the industry as it was in the 1990s. In 1999, after Infoseek began shifting towards content, Li decided to establish his own internet search company with Eric Xu, a friend with a doctorate in biochemistry and a network of contacts in Silicon Valley. They raised money from venture capitalists and flew to China to establish Baidu. When the internet bubble was pricked in the United States, Baidu was beginning its ascent in China. The company began its life as a business offering search services to Chinese portals. Li soon changed course, despite some opposition from the board, as he was sure that the success of Overture, the company that made paid search engine advertising a real business, signaled a change in the industry. The Baidu.com website was launched in September 2001. It soon offered pay-per-click advertising, ahead of Google. The offering became popular among businesses and by 2004, Baidu became profitable. By that time, the company was ripe for an initial public offering, which it finally made in August 2005. Baidu still faces a strong challenge from its rivals Google and Yahoo. The two internet giants plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a China offensive. But Baidu believes the Chinese market has different characteristics than Western markets, and that they are better able to serve that market. Baidu may be right: it continues to gain market share in pay-per-click advertising with at least 50 percent, while Google and Yahoo both lost market share in 2006. There are also legal challenges involving copyright infringements. Lawsuits have been filed claiming that Baidu is breaking copyright laws on music
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files, however Baidu insists it only provides links. Investors are also concerned about its earnings, which are low relative to its share price; Baidu needs to find ways to increase income. Baidu will also face a technological challenge from Google and Yahoo. This is the challenge that analysts fear most because of the technology resources of the two giants. But Li is confident that Baidu will surmount the challenge. ‘Know ourselves, build our strength, cut our weakness, improve, improve and improve!’ The Baidu internal magazine carries this quotation from Li Yanhong on the front page. Li Yanhong is leading his team towards the day when every Chinese will know to ‘Baidu’ it whenever there is a problem. Amir Shoham and Hui He Sources baidu.com (2008), ‘The Baidu story’, accessed at http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irolhomeprofile. Barboza, David (2006), ‘The rise of Baidu (that’s Chinese for Google)’, New York Times, 17 September, accessed at www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/business/yourmoney/17baidu.html?ex=1185336000&en=fedbeba 9cb4214a8&ei=5070. China Daily News (2006), ‘Li Yanhong’, accessed at www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-03/13/ content_533967.htm. China Tech Stories (2005), ‘Baidu’s Six Years’, accessed at http://chinatechstory.blogspot.com/2005/09/baidussix-yearspart-1-91105.html.
Li, Yining (ढ़ҹᅕ b. 1930) As a prominent scholar of economics, Li Yining has made remarkable contributions to the theoretic development of China’s reforms. Not only has he applied market economy theories to China’s growth in an insightful and remarkable way, he has also proven time and again his ability to see clear economic trends during the turbulent time of economic reform over the past decades. A 1955 economics graduate of Beijing University, Professor Li has distinguished himself on numerous occasions, including the receipt of a Fukuoka Cultural Prize and a Sun Yefan Award, In addition, he has won the highest award for International Cooperation and Development and the State Education Commission’s first prize for scientific research. Li Yining has frequently been asked to participate in lectures and seminars across China and abroad. Despite all of these qualifications, what makes Li Yining stand out is his dedication to market solutions and his steadfast belief in their efficacy. In his book, Disequilibrium in the Chinese Economy (1990), he pointed out that not only had China’s economy been in a state of disequilibrium, but it also had issues with enterprises not being under budget constraint. He proposed a number of measures that would help the economy move away from these practices gradually, thus achieving a steady growth. Theories concerning disequilibrium were not the only scope of his influence, however, as Li has been active during the policy development of the reform process. When the choice between price reform and ownership reform was intensely debated in the mid1980s, Professor Li stood firm in his belief that ownership reform was the way of the future. In 1988 inflation skyrocketed due to the effects of price reform that he had
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opposed, thereby demonstrating Li Yining’s clear grasp of economic trends. It was only a decade later that ownership reform came into prominence both in academic circles and the halls of government. Pushing the advance of the market economy even further, Professor Li was an early proponent of reforming China’s enterprises to a share-holding system. After publishing his own theories and proposals in China’s Economic Reform and Share-Holding Systems (1992) and Share-Holding Systems and the Modern Market Economy (1994), Li faced heavy opposition. Once again, his perseverance paid off and now it appears that such systems are both feasible and necessary for China’s continual economic growth, a point that can be attested to with its wide acceptance amongst both scholars and policymakers. Professor Li has clearly had an impact throughout the course of China’s reforms. His persistence and insight have earned him multiple awards as well as a significant role in the shaping of China’s economic future. It should be noted that Li Yining is not just a simple proponent of the market economy, as he has also published a number of books on ethics in relation to economic forces. Xiafang Mo Source Guanghua Graduate School of Management (2008), ‘Li Yining, Professor and Dean Emeritus’, Peking University, accessed at www.gsm.pku.edu.cn/en/faculty_detail.asp?tid=12.
Li, Zekai (Richard Li, Tzar Kai Li ᴢ⋑Ὃ b. 1966) Li Zekai is a media mogul from Hong Kong, son of businessman Li Ka-Shing, and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent entrepreneurs. He was born on 8 November 1966 and is the brother of Hong Kong businessman Victor Li. He has built a $1.1 billion empire during the last 15 years. In 1991, Li borrowed $250 million from his father to start Star TV, a satellite television company. He later sold a non-profitable Star TV to Rupert Murdoch for nearly $1 billion before focusing his attention on internet ventures. After this endeavor, Li started the Pacific Century Group, and now leads PCCW, one of Asia’s largest internet companies and the leading provider of internet protocol TV. In April 1999, when announcing the formation of PCCW, an enormous stock-buying frenzy ensued, as investors shifted focus toward various technology stocks. Li is also a partial owner of the Marunouchi building in Tokyo, with an investment valued at more than $400 million. He has invested in several dozen start-ups, has been a major communications tycoon in Hong Kong, and has helped incorporate a smart ID card system in Hong Kong. With a keen interest in technology and business, Li has invested a significant amount in the Japanese and Hong Kong telecommunications infrastructure. Additionally, he started the first business news channel in Hong Kong and has created the world’s first mobile television service to broadcast in real time. With a proven background of leading various businesses through tremendous growth, Li obtained a massive loan to buy Cable and Wireless HKT, one of Asia’s largest corporate takeovers. In 2003, PCCW made an unsuccessful attempt to buy Cable and Wireless of Great Britain. Later that year, Li left
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his post as chairperson of PCCW. He was replaced by Jack So of Hong Kong’s MTR Corp, a subway operator. In 2006, Li purchased 50 percent of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, a leading business paper. In doing so, Li assured the public that the editorial content of the paper would not be altered as a result of his ownership. Li’s affiliations include the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ International Councillors Group, the Hong Kong Computer Society (where he is a Fellow), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (where he is a member of the council), and the Global Information Infrastructure Commission. He attended (but did not graduate from) Stanford University in the United States. He is also a non-executive director of the prominent Bank of East Asia, and the chairperson of Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited, which is based in Singapore. Li is a pilot and dive master. In 2003, he played an instrumental role in combating the SARS epidemic through monetary donations. As a result, his business earned the Outstanding Award for Fighting against SARS. He has continually worked to strengthen the IT industry in Hong Kong and has been a prominent investor in companies throughout the world. Michael A. Moodian Sources BusinessWeek (2000), ‘Richard Li’, 15 May, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.businessweek.com. facesofphilanthropy.com (2008), ‘Richard Li and PCCW: Meeting the Challenge of SARS’, accessed 16 February at www.facesofphilanthropy.com. forbes.com (2008), ‘The world’s richest people’, accessed 16 February at www.forbes.com. Lau, Debra (2001), ‘Forbes Faces: Richard Li’, Forbes, 30 March, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.forbes. com/2001/03/30/0330facesli.html. richardli.com (2008), ‘Richard Li official website’, accessed 16 February at www.richardli.com. richardli2006.com (2008), ‘Richard Li’, accessed 16 February at www.richardli2006.com.
Liang, Jianzhang (ṕᓎゴ b. 1969) One of the four co-founders of Ctrip.com International Ltd, Liang Jianzhang served as the company CEO from 2000 to January 2006, chairman of the board of directors since August 2003, and has played a key role in transforming Ctrip into a top ranked travel service company in China. Liang was academically gifted as a child, winning the gold prize of the first national computer programming contest at the age of 13. He taught himself the regular high school curriculum, and at the age of 15 was admitted into the nationally renowned Fudan University. A year later, Liang applied to and was accepted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, and graduated with masters and bachelors degrees in computer science at the young age of 20. However, after working in Oracle’s R&D department for three years, Liang sensed the huge potential for start-up companies during a visit to China. He decided to shift his focus from technology to management and asked for a transfer. In 1997, he was appointed as head of the Enterprise Resource Planning Consulting Division of Oracle China. In 1999, Liang left Oracle, and together with Ji Qi, Shen Nanpeng, and Fan Min, he co-founded Ctrip.com, China’s first business website providing travel services. Within one year, Ctrip completed two rounds of financing amounting to $5 million, and Ctrip.
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com became the largest travel website in China. As a start-up, Ctrip imitated the operations model of American travel e-commerce websites such as Expedia.com, and benefited from the profit model of portal websites by attracting internet users through information services. In November 2000, Ctrip purchased the earliest and largest national hotelbooking center, Modern Yuntong and became China’s biggest hotel distributor. Two years later Ctrip acquired the largest flight-booking center in Beijing, Seabank Air Service Company, and set up its own national flight reservation service center. On 9 November 2003, Ctrip was listed on the NASDAQ with a first issue price of $18, by closing time, its shares had risen to $33.94, thus creating a record one-day increase of 88.56 percent on the NASDAQ. From its IPO Ctrip raised capital of $75.6 million using it to fund more acquisitions in the following years, among them, two important travel agencies, Huacheng Southwest Travel Agency and Shanghai Cuimin International Travel Agency. Under Liang the company has been transformed from an internet travel website to a comprehensive travel service company. With Liang’s substantial IT skills and managerial experience, Ctrip formed the so-called ‘click + brick’ business model by combining both online and offline resources, contrary to the usual process from offline to online. Among the factors that have contributed to Ctrip’s success are the rapid development of the Chinese tourism market, the elite start-up and management team, international finance, strong customer service backup with call center, the acquisition of various companies, and the combination of a traditional travel service and information technology. Liang values customer service quality above all; in 2006 Ctrip’s call center employed more than 750 people, over half of the total workforce. In 2002, Ctrip established an economy hotel chain and Liang has served on the board of Home Inns & Hotels Management, Inc. After just three years, it was named among the top ten most influential brands of Chinese hotel groups. Ctrip is a leading comprehensive travel service company in China that provides hotel reservations, air ticketing, packaged vacation tours including hotel accommodation, flights and transportation, travel guidebooks, advertising and other related products and services. The company aims at business and independent leisure travelers. Although providing other products and services, hotel reservations and air ticketing are its core business. In 2006, 57 percent of its revenues were from the hotel reservation business and 36 percent were generated from the flight reservation business. It is the largest online consolidator of hotel accommodations in China by the number of room nights booked, and the largest online consolidator of air tickets in China in terms of the number of air tickets booked and sold. Ctrip’s own flight reservation online system covers all the major domestic airlines and many international airlines. By the end of 2006, it had contracted with approximately 4400 hotels in China and 16 000 hotels abroad. During that year the company reaped revenue of $106.9 million (up 49.2 percent on 2005) with net profits of $30.8 million (up 7.3 percent compared to 2005). With a personal wealth of $188 million, Liang was ranked number 20 among the top 50 IT tycoons in 2006 by the Hurun Report and was number 368 on the 400 Richest Chinese List in 2005 by Forbes. Although a very rich and successful entrepreneur, Liang remains calm and wise. When reflecting on his success story, he believes that every overseas Chinese student should have his or her own long-term goal and plan. Dongmei Cao
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Sources 55www.com (2006), ѨѨ, ‘ᨎᮙ㸠㔥CEOṕᓎゴ’ [‘Ctrip.com CEO Jianzhang Liang’], 26 December, accessed 5 November 2007 at www.55www.com/renwu/qiyejia/liangjianzhang.htm. China IT & Telecom Report (2007), ‘Ctrip.com International Ltd’, 7 September. cnetnews.com (2007), ‘36 ቕᘏ㺕ṕᓎゴᧁᓔϔ䖛ғⱘ⾬ボ’[‘36-year-old CEO Jianzhang Liang reveals his secret of making 100 million overnight’], 7 October, accessed 5 November at www.cnetnews.com. cn/2007/1007/538950.shtml. Sina.com (2005), ‘ṕᓎゴ: ᠡϢᮙ␌’ [‘Jianzhang Liang: genius and travel’], 8 December, accessed 5 November 2008 at www.sina.com.cn/i/2005-12-08/1618786666.shtml.
Liu, Bo (߬⊶ b. 1964) Former chairman of the Hainan-based Chengcheng Culture Development Group, Liu Bo was one of many up and coming Chinese businessmen who fled the country after coming under investigation for fraud and forgery. Chengcheng was one of the earliest media companies in China. Liu was said to be a virtual ‘genius’, entering college early, and studying at Peking where he earned a PhD in philosophy. In 1988, 24-year-old Liu was still an assistant editor-in-chief of a small local newspaper in Zhuzhou, Hunan. It was in Hainan Province that Liu first got his real taste of financial success when he invested in real estate programs, founded a medical equipment supply company, and made strong ties with local banks that were to become the foundations for his future success. Liu set up the Hainan Chengcheng Enterprise Group in 1995 and worked as its chairman and president. He bought a failing company as a shell, buying almost 21 percent of the total shares in 1998, renaming it the Chengcheng Culture Development Group, and becoming its board chairman. Liu refocused his business strategies towards the cultural and media sectors, where his career would take off. In 1999, after he gained the rights as agent for the bestselling magazine Hope, Chengcheng was named the first stock in the culture and media industry. Within eight weeks, the Chengcheng share price had skyrocketed from RMB6.47 yuan to 24.38 yuan, bringing Liu to the forefront as an up and coming Chinese businessman. Before it was sold to the Hunan Publishing Group, Chengcheng had total assets of 660 million yuan ($79.7 million), and net assets of 390 million yuan ($47.1 million). The company was involved in over a dozen business operations including publishing, media, culture, printing, real estate, education, travel, medicine, and advertising, all things that Liu had touched on earlier in his career. In cultural and media circles, no other company came close to matching its fame or notoriety. The company even had offices in the World Trade Center in New York as well as many locations worldwide. Managing such a large company proved to be beyond Liu’s capability. One of Liu’s acquaintances described him as a ‘giant in strategy but a dwarf in tactics’ (Ding, 2003). Although Liu had invested in over 40 different newspapers and magazines, he received very little profit in return – a situation that led to embezzlement charges against him. In 2001, Liu tried to find a new partner to join Chengcheng, but negotiations failed, ending Liu’s dream of issuing additional shares. After much controversy, the investigation into Chengcheng’s enterprises became more focused. Liu was alleged to have embezzled Chengcheng capital and to have transferred much of this money to his company in Tokyo.
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In 2002, falling short of working capital and defaulting on hundreds of loans to banks throughout China, Liu had to sell an estimated 12.2 percent stake of Chengcheng to Hunan Publishing Group, marking the end of his brief business career in China. After more allegations were proved, Liu fled to avoid the penalty for his crimes. Clay Stanfield Sources CNN (2001), ‘List of World Trade Center tenants’, accessed at www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/ tenants1.html. Ding, Ying (2003), ‘Fall of a media empire’, Beijing Review, 4 December, 34.
Liu, Changping (߬ᯠᑇ b. 1965) Vice president of Hanwang Technology Co. Ltd, and general manager of its R&D center, Liu Changping is also the researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is known as the ‘king of optical character recognition’ (OCR) for Chinese characters and as a genius in both theory and practice. Obtaining his PhD from the Institute of Computing Technology, CAS in 1989, Liu started to study OCR as a staff member of CAS. Compared with the traditional manual approach, OCR is capable of recognizing text in images, thus achieving fast, accurate, and low-cost text input and enhancing the operational efficiency of companies. Between 1990 and 1997, Liu piloted several national-level, fundamental research projects including OCR on handwritten numbers, printed Chinese characters, mixed English and Chinese texts, and multi-font Chinese characters. In August 1996, he began to develop OCR software, which was then bundled with Microtek scanners. This software significantly contributed to the prevalence of scanners. At the same time, Liu led the ‘multilanguage printed texts OCR’ project. Through collaboration with the China National Software & Service Co., Ltd (Chinasoft), his team successfully launched the Japanese version of OCR software in Japan. In 1998, Hanwang Technology Co. Ltd acquired the OCR R&D division of Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd – an affiliate of CAS. This acquisition shifted the career track of Liu, and translated his technical expertise into commercial value. At the time, China’s OCR market was dominated by three oligopolists, namely Hanwang, Dawning, and Wintone Information Technology Ltd, the affiliate of Tsinghua University. In 1998 Hanwang’s revenue increased by 600 percent and exceeded RMB 100 million. With such rapid growth, Hanwang invested both in hardware manufacturing bases and newly applied technologies such as OCR. The acquisition of Liu and his research team ensured Hanwang’s leading position. Liu Changping has commercialized his technical knowhow, and four out of the five leading scanner brands have bundled Hanwang’s OCR software. The majority of domestic banks are using Hanwang’s OCR systems for banknote recognition. The company’s hardware and software have been widely applied to banks, security firms, insurance companies, tax authorities, public security, customs, airports, commercial administration, dossier management, mobile phone-based recognition of business cards, and other domains. Since the arrival of Liu, Hanwang’s success ratio in R&D has increased from 5 percent
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to 50 percent, substantially higher than the industry level of 5–15 percent. This is mainly attributable to the fact that Hanwang’s innovation system was properly aligned to its development system. Liu’s research team had fixed two principles: the first was to improve the research activities on a long-term and sustainable basis; and the second was to build R&D excellence as the company’s core competence, leaving the hardware in a supporting role. Facing the need of massive digitalization, Liu commented on the prospects for the OCR industry: ‘We probably can’t give an exhaustive list of OCR’s applications today, but in the future, text recognition technology will be increasingly used to the place where there is text, its utility will be further increased in our daily life. We simply can’t imagine how big this market is going to be’ (China Youth Daily, 2007). Therefore, he is determined to devote himself to this domain, as a herald of theory, technology and business operation. Hua Wang Sources Chen, Hu (1999), ‘Comments on the acquisition of Dawning by Hanwang’, China Computer World, 12 July. China Youth Daily (2007), ‘OCR, imagine the future applications’, 18 January.
Liu, Chuanzhi (᷇Ӵᖫ b. 1944) Liu Chuanzhi is president, CEO and co-founder of Legend Holdings Ltd. Lenovo, the world’s third largest manufacturer of personal computers, belongs to the Legend Holdings Group. Liu graduated with an engineering degree from Xian Military Communication and Engineering College of China in 1966 and began his career as a research scientist at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He founded the Legend Group in 1984 with ten other engineers and a capital of 200 000 yuan (approximately US$25 000) borrowed from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, his employer from 1970 to 1984. The company began producing its own personal computers in the early 1990s and by 1996 had surpassed IBM as the largest seller of PCs in China. What had started out as a business venture designed to overcome the frustration of the scientists at not being able to commercialize their research efforts soon became one of the most important companies in China. It now employs around 20 000 people worldwide and has a turnover in excess of US$13 billion. The humble beginnings of Liu’s company in a small room – barely 20 square yards in size – in Beijing are often compared with the origins of Apple Computers in Steve Jobs’ garage in California in the 1970s. The firm’s early years were a period of slow growth and consisted of many bumpy rides. Slow because Legend could only grow by distributing foreign-made computers and peripherals and bumpy because its staff was comprised primarily of scientists who did not understand the market. The management team often differed on which commercial road to travel, leading to serious discussions. They learned from trial and error, and Liu studied experienced and successful companies such as Hewlett Packard and IBM to learn from their management structures and techniques. One of the early tasks of Legend involved research into magnetic storage technology for computers with the aim of finding commercial applications for these discoveries. In its
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early days, in 1985, Legend developed a character set for computers that incorporated the vast number of Chinese characters on a keyboard. In the 1990s, it developed a technology that provided character recognition of the Chinese language that allowed users to write Chinese characters on a digital pad and translate the characters onto a computer screen. China’s move from a planned to a market economy both posed a challenge for Liu Chuanzhi and presented opportunities. The Chinese government granted Legend permission to brand and sell its own PCs, at the same time it also reduced tariffs that allowed foreign computer makers to gain access to the Chinese market. Liu had to compete with the very same companies that he had studied and learned from. However, Legend had the competitive advantages of owning the Chinese character set that it had developed in 1985, lower Chinese wage levels, lack of tariff and shipping charges, and freedom from various other taxes on computer-related products that its foreign competitors had to pay. Liu ensured that his company would remain competitive and at the top of the market by introducing innovations. Legend was one of the first Chinese companies to offer its employees stock options and Liu promoted talented young people to higher-level staff positions. By 1996 Legend had surpassed IBM in terms of China’s market share in computer sales, its managers were young and the company had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Liu made sure that Legend remained on the cutting edge of technology by beating its competitors in introducing innovations like the Pentium II processor, taking advantage of the internet to boost sales, and focusing its attention on marketing computer services in addition to equipment – very much along the same lines that IBM followed in the 1980s. In 2003 Legend officially changed its English name to Lenovo Group. This was prompted by the company’s initial attempts at selling computers in Europe, where the name ‘Legend’ had already been trademarked in the United Kingdom and Germany by its competitors. The first two characters, ‘Le’, were taken from its original name ‘Legend’ and ‘novo’ to signify the spirit of innovation that is central to the company’s mission. Another step in its strategy to achieve growth from international markets was the acquisition of IBM’s PC division in 2004. Liu has been the principal architect behind this acquisition and though relatively small when compared with the scale of the usual global mergers and acquisitions, it is of significant importance to China, marking the arrival of Chinese companies on the global economic scene. The growth of Lenovo has been possible because of Liu’s bold vision and what Liu himself describes as his ‘very authoritarian management’ style. Liu has been heralded by The Economist as a leader of a ‘corporate cultural revolution’ in China because of the role he has played in his company’s development and growth; such accomplishments also earned him the titles of ‘Star of Asia’ from BusinessWeek and ‘Asian Business Man of the Year’ from Forbes in 2000. In November 2001 Liu was selected as one of the ‘Twenty-five Business Leaders with Global Influence’ by The Times, the only executive from China to be thus honored. The awards have not been limited to the business world: in 2006 Liu was named the Distinguished Executive of the Year by the Academy of International Business, the leading association in the world of researchers and scholars in the field of international business. Sangeeta Singh
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Sources Clifford, Mark and Sheri Prasso (2000), ‘The stars of Asia: 50 leaders at the forefront of change’, BusinessWeek (international edition), 3 July, accessed 28 November 2007 at www.businessweek.com/2000/00_27/b3688009. htm. The Economist (2001), ‘Legend in the making’, 15 September, 74. Liu Chuanzhi (2007), ‘Lenovo: an example of globalization of Chinese entrepreneurs’, Journal of International Business Studies, 38(4), 573–7. McKinsey Quarterly (2001), ‘A computer legend in the making’, 14 July, accessed 28 November 2007 at http:// att.com.com/2009-1017-269929.html. referenceforbusiness.com (2007), ‘Liu Chuanzhi 1944–’, accessed 28 November 2007 at www.referenceforbusi ness.com/biography/F-L/Liu-Chuanzhi-1944.html. Shenzhen Daily (2004), ‘Liu Chuanzhi: the man who acquired IBM PC’, 24 December, accessed 28 November 2007 at www.china.org.cn/english/NM-e/115844.htm#.
Liu, Hanyuan (߬∝ܗb. 1964) The life of Liu has taken an extraordinary oath, born a peasant, he has become one of the richest private businessmen in China. His entrepreneurial skills launched what has become China’s largest producer of aquatic and animal feed. Liu has revolutionized the economy of a country with the longest history of aquaculture in the world and has given meaning to the Chinese proverb, ‘give a man a fish; he will have fish for one day. Teach him to fish and he will fish for the rest of his life.’ Born in 1964, the year of the dragon, Liu Hanyuan grew up in Meishan, Sichuan, China. He attended the local Sichuan University, one of the earliest institutes of higher education, established back in 1896 and one of China’s key universities under the State Ministry of Education. Growing up in a peasant family, Liu became interested in his future profession by farming fish in the local Meishan canal, but it was the sale of his family pigs in 1983, to raise $60 to fund his fish-farm, that gave Liu his first experience of business. A combination of the two sparked the entrepreneurial spirit of the man who would become one of the wealthiest private business owners in China. On 20 September 1992, Liu founded the Tongwei Group, which currently controls the following companies: Chengdu Care Pet Food Co. Ltd, Chengdu Xinrui Technology Development Co. Ltd, Sichuan Tonly Construction Engineering Co. Ltd, and Leshan Yongxiang Resin Co. Ltd. Nearly 80 branches and subsidiaries of the group manufacture feed, including those in Tianjin, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guangdong, Xiamen, Wuhan, and Wuxi. Tongwei Co. Ltd has become the largest aquatic feed producer and the primary distributor for poultry and livestock feed products in the world, with a total annual capacity of over 5 million tons. In 2005, aquatic feed manufactured by Tongwei dominated 15 percent of the national market share, ranking a clear first in the country for ten consecutive years. The Tongwei Group has become exceedingly successful. In 1993, the director of the National Feed Office, after hearing Liu’s report on Tongwei’s development, hoped that Liu could help rejuvenate China’s feed industry. A year later, an evaluation and appraisal was taken on Tongwei’s products. They were certified by the vice president of the Animal Nurition Research Institute in the Ministry of Agriculture as being scientifically formulated and possessed of high value. After many years of producing high quality products and sticking to their four-word creed, ‘Honesty, Trust, Fairness, Excellence,’ the Tongwei Group has become one of the largest private enterprises in China. It has helped
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boost a market that had an average annual growth rate of 15 percent in 1990 to an output of 66 million tons in 1998. Liu has received numerous awards in recognition of his hard and dedicated work. In September 2004, he was elected as one of China’s most influential business leaders. In addition, he was nominated for Top Ten Excellent Private Entrepreneurs. In 2005, Liu won the honorary title of one of the year’s Most Creative Chinese Business Leaders in the Asia-Pacific Region. His company was chosen as one of the Top 100 Listed Companies in China’s Private Sector, Top 50 Most Competitive Private Companies in China, and Top 50 Most Competitive Brands in China’s Private Sector. Between 2000–04, Liu was ranked in the top 30 of Forbes list of the richest Chinese business people and in the past two years he has been ranked in the top 215 of the richest people in China. At age 42 and number 123 on the 400 richest Chinese list, Liu is worth $253 million and the company is worth $3.3 billion. While being the CEO of the Tongwei Group, a multi-billion dollar company, Liu served his civic duty and was elected to the tenth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is a political advisory board in the People’s Republic of China. Liu is commissioner on the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association. He is also a member of various committees, such as the National Agriculture, Science, and Technology Association. He is the vice president of the China Fishery Association, the vice president of the Academy of Forestry, Livestock, and Fishery Sciences China, and the vice president of the China Feed Industry Association. Alex Hellberg and Marc Fetscherin Sources Agricultural Outlook (1999), ‘Tongwei Group Co., Ltd, the long-term boom in China’s feed manufacturing industry’, December. EasyChinaSupply.com (2008), ‘Hanyuan Liu’. Forbes (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November. Hamilton, Roger (2003), ‘Competitive edge, Tongwei Group’, Stealth Wealth E-Newsletter, September. Marquis Who’s Who on the Web (2008), ‘Hanyuan Liu’. Who’s Who in the World (2008), ‘Hanyuan Liu’, 24th edn.
Liu, Ji (߬ঢ় b. 1935) Former executive president of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) from 2000 to 2004, Liu Ji is the honorary president of CEIBS, and since 1999 he has also been a research fellow, member of the Academic Board and graduate supervisor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Liu was born in Anqing, Anhui Province. When his father moved inland to Chongqing during the Sino-Japanese War, Liu was raised by his mother, a teacher who believed in knowledge and was strict with her children. From early childhood, Liu was an avid reader with a wide range of interests. He attended several middle schools in the Yangtze Delta, notably Hangzhou Middle School with its glorious revolutionary and cultural traditions. Liu still remembers his teachers there, noting that they played a crucial role in the shaping of his outlook on the world and on life. In 1953 China’s first Five Year Plan was implemented, giving priority to science. Since China was then unable to manufacture automobiles, automotive engineering became
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one of the hottest majors and Liu found himself one of the lucky students. His five years of study gave him a foundation in science. Liu believes that this education fostered his down-to-earth attitude with precise logic, systematic thinking and a spirit of teamwork that has benefited him throughout his life. After graduating from the Power Mechanical Engineering Department at Tsinghua University in 1958, Liu joined the Ministry of Electro-Mechanics, starting as an assistant engineer and rising to director. For his first job, he was among the first batch of engineers dispatched to the Shanghai Internal Combustion Engine Research Institute. By 1964 he had already reached the official rank of engineer. Just as he was feeling proud of living up to the expectations of the Party and his country, the Cultural Revolution broke out. From 1966 he was ‘under control’ and sent to a factory for labor reform. Workers there cared for him and let him read secretly in the changing room. With no access to technical books, he memorized the four great books by Chairman Mao, then Lenin’s complete works as well as Marx and Engels’ anthologies. His surreptitious reading had made him a Marxist scholar. As soon as the Cultural Revolution ended, Liu regained his freedom, made friends with research fellows of natural dialectics, and began his research on the social sciences. In 1979 Liu became a research fellow and later deputy director at the Shanghai Scientific Research Institute. From 1983 to 1987, Liu was executive chairman of the Association of Science and Technology of the Shanghai Municipality. Collaboration with other similarly minded colleagues resulted in the foundation of leadership science, a discipline new to China. In concert with China’s policy of reform and opening up, Liu was committed to research on economic development strategies and economic restructuring. His research gained wide attention and recognition, resulting in his appointments to leadership roles as deputy director of the publicity department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, director of the Commission for Economic Restructuring under the Shanghai municipal government and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. While working in the publicity department, Liu initiated and hosted the now-famous ‘Bimonthly Seminar’ to which intellectuals from all fields in Shanghai were invited to air their views and share insights with municipal officials. One result of this seminar was the idea of joint-stock enterprises, a controversial issue in the early 1990s. The Shanghai municipal government eventually decided to experiment with a joint-stock system that has proven to be correct and timely. Later, in regard to the development of Chinese enterprises in the context of globalization, Liu suggested that Chinese entrepreneurs should embrace the concept of global thinking. This profound interest in globalization and the development of Chinese enterprises led to his appointment as honorary chairman of the China Mergers & Acquisitions Association (CMAA), an organization that promotes the globalization of Chinese enterprises. In 2000, Liu became executive president of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. Established as a joint venture between the European Union and the People’s Republic of China in November 1994, CEIBS is now home to the top-ranked MBA and EMBA programs in Asia, and is the first MBA/EMBA school to receive EQUIS Accreditation through the European Foundation for Management Development. Through his work at CEIBS Liu has become a champion of entrepreneurship within Chinese organizations.
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The CEIBS mission is the education of managers for China to an international standard. Liu cautions that it is not enough for the school simply to transmit management knowledge and skills. He advocates a CEIBS culture that includes a humanitarian spirit, philosophic thinking, rich knowledge and broad vision. Liu defines his motto for CEIBS in three words: conscientiousness, innovation, and excellence. According to Liu: ‘. . . without proper cultural tutelage, entrepreneurs or senior managers of the 21st century would be merely part of a vulgar money-making machine’ (The Link, 2006). With his enthusiastic support, CEIBS regularly hosts a variety of cultural seminars and conferences. Linda G. Sprague and Audrey Wu Source The Link: CEIBS Alumni Magazine (2006), ‘Liu Ji: an energetic intellectual and charismatic leader’, (winter), 9–15.
Liu, Jiren (߬⿃ҕ b. 1955) Liu is the founder and CEO of Neusoft Group, one of the largest private software firms in China, with 8000 employees and over US$300 million sales revenues in 2006. Liu went to junior and high schools in Liaoning. He obtained his first degree from Northeastern University, Shenyang. He also gained a year of research experience in America at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, between 1986 and 1987. He was at the forefront of Chinese software programming when he gained his PhD from Northeastern University in 1987. Liu was, in fact, the first individual in China to complete a doctorate in computer applications, thereby becoming one of the few local experts who could offer advice to government users in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Liu, who was a junior academic at Northeastern University, was the lead founder of the Software and Network Engineering Research Laboratory (the predecessor of Neusoft) in 1988. Liu’s US$4000 initial capital derived from his personal savings as a computing researcher. The new venture, which was based at the university’s premises, had very basic facilities, that is, three IBM286 personal computers but no telephone line. Liu had to run two or three minutes to a neighboring office to answer calls or simply to use the telephone. On top of this, the new venture also suffered from sudden power disruptions that were typical in the region at the time. In 1990, a software research center was established, based at Liu’s laboratory. Kutsuzawa, the founder of Alpine Electronics in Japan, met Liu during a visit to the center in 1991. He was impressed by Liu’s knowledge and enthusiasm for developing business software and offered him a project worth US$300 000. Alpine set up a joint venture with Liu in 1993. Hence, Neu-Alpine Software Company was formed. Neu-Alpine was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1996, being the first software firm to utilize public funding in China. In 1993, China’s State Planning Commission named Neusoft as the first National Engineering Research Center for Computer Software. Neusoft took advantage of its early mover advantage and provided programming services for Chinese state banks and telecommunication firms as they began to modernize their infrastructure. Its software also facilitated the computerization of the social security system in China. From the
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mid-1990s onwards, Neusoft took over Northeastern University’s failing medical equipment business, diversified into IT education and training and participated in joint ventures with Toshiba and Philips. It also consistently improved its technological capabilities and became the first Chinese software firm to obtain CMM Level 5 accreditation in 2004. The accreditation enabled Neusoft to compete internationally with Indian firms in offshore outsourcing; Neusoft’s outsourcing business grew rapidly from US$33 million to US$62 million between 2003 and 2006. Neusoft’s three major businesses are grouped into software and service, digital medical equipment, and IT education and training; these businesses have been incorporated under Neusoft Group Ltd, formed in 1996. Other than transforming Neusoft into a global firm, Liu has engaged in various research activities. For example, he took part in China’s leading technology projects such as the 863 Program, which was initiated in March 1986. In addition, Liu has been active in national and international political, economic, and educational bodies, including memberships in the National People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Business Advisory Council of APEC and Northeastern University (vice-president). Denise Tsang Sources China Daily (2007), ‘Neusoft readies for global outsourcing wave’, 5 September. Forbes (2006), ‘Neusoft grows up and out’, 24 July. Kyodo News (2005), ‘N.E. China’s decrepit industry reviving with IT leverage’, 3 October.
Liu, Xiaoguang (߬ᰧ ܝb. 1955) Chairman of a Hong Kong-listed company, Liu Xiaoguang is the general manager of the state-owned Beijing Capital Group, one of the largest real estate property groups in China. Liu Xiaoguang, a senior economist, was given the position as the chairman of the Beijing Capital group in December 2002. He had previously served as the vice chairman and the general manager of the Capital Group since 1995, and as chairman of S.C. Real Estate Development Company and of Beijing Capital Sunshine Real Estate Development Co. Ltd since 2000. Before his appointment with the Capital Group, Liu had worked in various departments of the Beijing municipal government including serving as vice chairman of the Development and Planning Commission of the Beijing municipality and deputy secretary general of the Capital Planning and Construction Committee of the Beijing municipal government. Liu obtained his bachelors degree in economics from the Beijing Technology and Business University in 1982. Founded in 1995 following the combination of 17 local giant government-backed enterprises, the Capital Group’s business lines mainly focused on six areas: finance, infrastructure development, real estate, industry and high technology, tourism and hotels, and trade and commerce. The Capital Group under the direction of Liu has a total capital base of 23.2 billion yuan and is the nineteenth largest enterprise group by assets under the government’s jurisdiction. The Beijing Capital Group currently controls 142 companies in both domestic and overseas markets, including four listed companies, one listed mutual fund in the A-share market and one listed mutual fund in the Hong Kong market.
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Much controversy has surrounded Liu Xiaguang because he held an especially sensitive position in charge of construction for the 2008 Olympics, an event that marks a milestone in modern Chinese history. Liu was recently brought into the limelight as result of a scandal that has already toppled one senior official in the municipal government. The questioning of Liu, confirmed by company officials and local property developers, followed the abrupt sacking of the Beijing vice mayor, Liu Zhihua, who was accused in a dispatch by the official news agency of leading a corrupt and ‘dissolute’ life. The disrepute was said to be because of concerns with the auction at the end of May 2006 of the Morgan Center, a half-finished building on a prime site close to an Olympic venue in northern Beijing. Clay Stanfield Sources AsiaInfo (2002), ‘Capital Group to list key arm overseas’, 1 August, 1. Beijing Capital Land (2004), ‘Beijing Capital Land’s chairman, Mr. Liu Xiaoguang, received the Director of The Year Award 2004’, 30 November, accessed at http://202.66.146.82/listco/hk/bjcapitalland/press/p041130. pdf. Kahn, Joseph (2006), ‘China, citing corruption, fires Olympic building chief’, New York Times, 12 June, accessed at www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/world/asia/12beijing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. McGregor, Richard (2006), ‘Head of big Beijing company held’, Financial Times, 21 June, 2.
Liu, Yonghao (߬∌ད b. 1948) As chairman of China’s New Hope Group, president of the Hope Group, and vice chairman of the China Minsheng Banking Corporation, in 2004 Liu Yonghao was regarded by Fortune magazine, along with his three brothers (Yongyan, Yongxing, and Yongmei), as one of China’s wealthiest entrepreneurs with assets totalling RMB600 million. Liu Yonghao was born in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, to a Chinese farmer’s family. He is of Han nationality and a native of Xinjin. In the village of Guojia the Liu family was well known. Liu’s father was an intellectual who participated first in the revolutionary war and then worked as a manager in the local agricultural office. His mother attended the esteemed Huangpu Military School and after 1949 she became a teacher. The names of the four brothers – Liu Yongyan, Liu Yongxing, Liu Yongmei, and Liu Yonghao – together indicate ‘always nicely and well in words and actions.’ In an interview with the Beijing Review in 2002, Liu reflected: ‘in my childhood my family was very poor. In my first 20 years I have never worn new shoes. I bought old shoes, repaired them and wore them. Because my family lacked firewood, I had to collect brushwood after school.’ The poverty of his childhood was, in Liu’s eyes, a valuable learning experience and powerful motivation, ‘I have worked as a farmer and teacher. With these experiences of life I have no fear of the fact that I will have one day nothing; I can be active over and over again in the agriculture and have a new beginning . . .’ Liu Yonghao studied mathematics at the Chengdu Normal College from 1978 to 1982. In the early 1980s when the government modified its policy to introduce science and technology into the agriculture industry to vitalize the economy, the Liu brothers had just completed their education at universities or vocational schools, and they wanted to
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benefit from the economic reforms. After numerous discussions, the brothers decided to sell their wristwatches and bicycles to raise 1000 yuan as their first capital for a breeding farm for chickens in the village. However, the business did not go well at first, and the brothers had to work hard to avoid bankruptcy. They would twist bamboo baskets in the evenings, then get up at 4 a.m. and pedal for three hours to the market to sell their chickens. Later the brothers decided to breed quails, which brought their respective abilities fully into play. They used computers in the feed arrangement and developed a biologically recyclable method of feeding. This was the beginning of their prosperity. After six years the Liu brothers had collected RMB10 millions. By the end of the 1980s they had begun to develop animal feed. In 1992, the family enterprise was named the ‘Hope Group.’ Over 15 years, the small family company developed into an enterprise group with over 35 000 employees. Since 1995, the Hope Group has been the biggest Chinese enterprise in the feed industry and was honored by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce as the ‘most successful private enterprise.’ In 1996, New Hope invested heavily in research in order to roll out a steady stream of new products, improve on production techniques and productivity, and maintain high product quality. In the 1990s, the group went through several restructuring exercises as differences arose between the four brothers regarding the future direction of the business. Liu believes it is vitally important to use every opportunity to pursue various markets and to expand the capital thereby. When the government decided to open and liberalize the banking sector in the 1990s, Liu seized the opportunity and entered the banking business. He assisted with the initial development of the Minsheng Bank from 1993 to 1996, and when the bank went public in 2000, Liu became its largest stockholder. Liu Yonghao is the visionary of the Liu brothers. Because of his innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, he was named among the Top Ten Best Entrepreneurs of Chinese Privately-run Enterprises, and named by BusinessWeek as a ‘Star of Asia.’ Liu is vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, a standing committee member of the Chinese Political Consulting Conference, and vice president of the Federation for the Chinese Feed Industry. Liu is modest about his talents, saying that he could neither dance, nor play golf and was not interested in celebrities or famous brands. When asked why he continued to work so hard, being already one of the richest men in China, Liu replied: ‘You do not understand the mind of entrepreneurs. Whenever I had reached good achievements, I focus my eyes onto the next target and begin to work untiringly for it to achieve still better results. I hope that my business will develop year after year to become a top enterprise in the world. My knowledge, experiences, and abilities are more important than money’ (Beijing Review, 2002). Christoph Lattemann Sources Beijing Review (2002), ‘Liu Yonghao: a success story’, 21. China Vitae (2008), ‘Liu Yonghao’, accessed at http://chinavitae.com/biography/Liu_Yonghao%7C513. Clifford, Mark and Sheri Prasso (2000), ‘The stars of Asia’, Businessweek Online, 3 July, accessed at www. businessweek.com/2000/00_27/b3688009.htm. Forbes Magazine (2001), ‘The world’s richest people’, 21 June, accessed at www.forbes.com/2001/06/21/billionairesindex.html. People’s Daily (2002), ‘China’s richest man: I received MBA course in countryside’, 28 January, accessed at http://english.people.com.cn/200201/28/eng20020128_89501.shtml.
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Long, Yongtu (啭∌ b. 1943) Aside from the career highlight of being the chief negotiator for China’s accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Long Yongtu is the secretary-general of Boao Forum for Asia, elected by its board of directors on 21 January 2003. After serving as the assistant minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Long Yongtu has raised the stature of the Boao Forum, which has become one of the most important platforms for prominent world and Asian business leaders to share ideas and seek common ground. Born in Hunan Province, Long received his BA degree in British and American literature from Guizhou University in 1965, and conducted postgraduate studies in economics at the London School of Economics from 1973 to 1974. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) in 1965, and from 1978 to 1980 served as a diplomat in China’s mission to the United Nations in New York. For the next six years he worked in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), first in its New York headquarters and then in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, serving as the deputy resident representative of the UNDP Office. After eight years of diplomatic service abroad, Long returned to China in 1986 and became deputy director of the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE). In January 1992, Long was appointed director of the Department of International Relations, MOFTEC, and assistant minister of the Ministry in April 1994; three years later, he was named vice minister and the chief representative for trade negotiations of MOFTEC. As the chief negotiator for China’s resumption of GATT contracting party status and its accession to the World Trade Organization, Long dedicated over ten years to this prolonged negotiation to bring China into the global trading system. Apart from trade negotiations, Long was also in charge of multilateral economic and trade affairs between China and the United Nations development agencies. He was fully involved in APEC affairs and attended the APEC meetings of trade ministers each year from 1992–2001. Long has also been active in promoting regional economic cooperation. He was involved in creating the Regional Economic Development Cooperation Committee of the Tumen River Area in Northeast Asia and chaired the committee’s first ministerial meeting in Beijing in April 1996. Apart from his official duties, Long is the dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University and visiting professor of many renowned Chinese academic institutions, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Nankai University, Zhejiang University, and Wuhan University. He is also a board member of Shantou University. In July 2006, Long was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics by the London School of Economics and Political Science. In October 2004, Long received a special award from the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, for his outstanding contribution to the UN partnership with China and in promoting the values of the UN. On 8 August 2005, King Albert II of Belgium decreed the Insignia of Officer in the Order of Leopold to Long, for his outstanding contributions to the facilitation of regional cooperation in Asia, and the promotion of Sino-European and Sino-Belgian economic and trade relations. Shirley Ze Yu
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Sources Boao Forum for Asia (2008), ‘Asia searching for Win-Win’, accessed 22 September at www.boaoforum.org/ Html/home-en.asp. China Daily (2005), ‘Long Yongtu: Secretary-General, Boao Forum for Asia’, 11 April, accessed 22 September 2008 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/11/content_433150.htm. China Vitae (2008), ‘Long Yongtu’, accessed 22 September at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Long_Yongtu.
Lu, Guanqiu (剕 ⧗ݴb. 1945) Founder and CEO of the Wanxiang Group Corporation, Lu Guanqiu is a classic example of a Chinese entrepreneur in the reform era. The Wanxiang Group Corporation was the largest privately-owned company in mainland China until 2004, and is still the biggest automobile appliance maker in the country. In addition, the company is also active in sectors such as real estate, infrastructure development, and financial services. Born a Chinese farmer’s son in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province, Lu Guanqiu left school at the age of 15 and worked for three years as an apprentice in a blacksmith’s shop. In 1965 he established a small repair shop for agricultural machinery, producing items such as ploughs, harrows, universal joints and so on. In 1969, Lu started his own operation, which later became the Wangxiang Group. By 1979, he had realized that his small workshop would never have chance to grow if it remained in the same business. At that time, with a strong belief in the huge potential market for automobiles in China, Lu strategically reorganized his business towards the production of automobile and industrial bearings, and the company was renamed after its main product, ‘Wanxiangjie’ (joint drive shaft). In 1983, Lu took a mortgage on his property and signed a three-year contract with the commune to run the universal joint factory. In the 1980s, Lu excelled in manufacture and management of the company. During those years, despite the fact that the cost of steel more than doubled, Lu managed to keep the price of his products unchanged, while achieving an average annual growth rate of about 40 percent and a six-fold increase in employee compensation. In 1988, Lu Guanqiu bought out shares of the universal joint factory from the local government with RMB15 million. He started to acquire smaller factories and combine them into a group. In two years he had acquired eight enterprises through buying shares, or through mergers and acquisitions, and in 1990 Lu founded the Wanxiang Group, which was officially approved by the Zhejiang provincial government. The new Wanxiang Group focused mainly on developing the product lines of Cardan-type U-joints, constant velocity drive shafts, transmission shafts, bearings, needle rollers, and oil seals for both the OEM and after-market sectors. In December 1992, the group reorganized its leadership team, with Lu Guanqiu as the chairman and general manager, and made its affiliated companies independent legal entities. In November 1994, Wanxiang Qianchao Holding Limited, an affiliate of Wanxiang Group, launched its IPO on the Shenzhen stock exchange. In the same year Wanxiang America Inc. was established in Chicago. In a relatively short time, Wanxiang became a global market player because of its large international orientation and numerous spin-offs in the 1990s. In 1996, when the Wanxiang Group went through another restructuring, Qianchao acquired 60 percent shares in seven auto parts and components companies. In 1997, Wanxiang Europe and Wanxiang South America were founded. In the same year, Wanxiang received an order
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from General Motors (GM) in the USA, making it the first Chinese auto parts supplier for first-class whole-car manufacturers. In total, the Wangxiang Group incorporated over 30 subsidiaries by joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. Wangxiang is the majority shareholder in Universal Automotive Industries in Alsip, Illinois, which produces components for brakes. The group is also majority stakeholder of Rockford Powertrain Inc. in Lovepark, Illinois, which also produces universal joints. Furthermore, Wanxiang maintains strategic alliances with technical licensing partners to establish a global distribution network. Its main products have a 70 percent market share in China, and it supplies both GM and Ford. Wanxiang Group Company is well diversified. In addition to the automotive market, Wanxiang is also involved in large-scale agriculture, aquaculture, real estate development, infrastructure development, and a unique China Bridge program to aid US companies doing business in China. Today the group has about 40 000 employees and an annual turnover of US$4.2 billion. Since 1996 Wanxiang has registered 42 new patents and mass-produces more than 300 products. Lu’s biography and the development of the Wanxiang Group was featured on the cover of Newsweek in May 1991. Christoph Lattemann Sources business.sohu.com (2003), ‘ϛ䲚ಶ㨷џ䭓剕‘[ ’⧗ݴCEO of Wanxiang Group: Lu Guanqiu’], 28 November, accessed at http://business.sohu.com/2003/11/28/23/article216202392.shtml. China Economic Times (2003), ‘剕⧗ݴ: ϝकᑈ㑶᮫ϡצᐌ䴦ᷥ⾬䆔ԩ’ [‘Secrets of Lu Guanqiu’], 11 June, accessed at http://business.sohu.com/35/09/article210000935.shtml. Newsweek (1991), ‘Making China work: against all odds, capitalism is taking hold’, 6 May.
Ma, Hong (偀⋾ b. 1920) Considered one of the most influential contemporary Chinese economists, Ma Hong was one of four recipients of the first Chinese Economic Prize in 2005 for his theoretical contribution towards boosting China’s market-oriented reform policies and its subsequent move away from a planned economy. Ma’s career has been intertwined with China’s economic reform and restructuring especially since December 1978 when China’s open door policy was officially adopted during the 3rd Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Ma was one of the earliest advocates of replacing the traditional economy and its dominant state-owned enterprises with a socialist commodity and market economy. Besides being then-premier Zhao Ziyang’s personal adviser, Ma also held many significant academic, administrative and advisory positions related to China’s economic development and reform. The more significant positions held since late 1978 include: vice president, Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences (CASS), 1979–82; vice president, Enterprise Management Association, 1981; permanent secretary, Development Research Center for the State Council (DRC), 1981; adviser, Federation of Economic Societies, 1982; adviser, State Planning Commission, 1982; president, CASS, 1982–85; director general, DRC, 1985; adviser, China-Japan Personnel Exchange Committee, 1985; delegate, 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, 1987; vice chairman, Finance and Economics Committee, 7th National People’s Congress, 1988; director general (reappointment), DRC, 1990. Honorary appointments and titles include: director general, DRC, 1993; faculty of Qinghua, Shanghai Jiaotong, Beijing, People’s and Fudan universities; research fellow, CASS. Ma’s major research areas include macroeconomic control, economic restructuring and reform, industrial policy, economy and management, economic development strategies and enterprise management. His numerous writings include research reports, newspaper and magazine articles, books, edited works, chronologies, dictionaries and encyclopedic works, spanning a period of 40 years and translated into Russian, English and Japanese. Born Niu Renquan (⠯ҕᴗ), Ma Hong joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1937 and went to Yan’an in 1939. Chen Yun, then director of the CCP’s Organization Department, changed Niu’s name to Ma Hong in preparation for a secret mission. Ma has used Niu Huang (⠯咘), Niu Zhonghuang (⠯Ё咘) and Ma Zhongjun (偀Ё偣) as pen names. Ma’s political involvement began in 1936 when he joined the Society for National Salvation in Shanxi as a teenager. Ma was elected Yan’an’s model youth in 1939 and received a medal from Chairman Mao Zedong. Ma graduated from the Marxism-Leninism College in 1939. In 1940, Ma started publishing articles in The Communist and he worked there as an editor. In 1941, as a research fellow at Yan’an’s Central Research Institute, he gained familiarity with both rural and urban economies through fieldwork. Ma’s analyses in a report on the Northeast regional economy were incorporated by Mao when Mao was planning China’s new economic direction at the 2nd Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the CPC in 1949. In 1952, Ma became a member of the State Planning Commission (SPC) in Beijing and participated in formulating the First Five Year Plan (1953–57). Although branded a member of the Gao Gang Anti-Party Clique in 1954, he rebounded and became both 110
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secretary general of the SPC and adviser to the Policy Research Office, State Economic Restructuring Commission. He also participated in the drafting of the ‘Industrial 70’ for which he was criticized and denounced as a revisionist during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). After the fall of the Gang of Four, Ma headed the Research Institute of Industrial Economy at the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences. Many of the economic propositions that Ma formulated on reforming and opening the economy were officially adopted and written into official communiqués. Ma aimed to improve the economic structure within the socialist context to meet the actual and growing material demands of the people. He opined that production should be carried out according to the needs of the consumers and the market. He also emphasized the importance of conducting Sino-foreign joint ventures. According to Ma, political and economic reforms go hand in hand. Political and economic structures are co-dependent. Both reforms should be carried out under socialist leadership. As the ultimate goal is to improve economic performance within a socialist political structure, a socialist market economy was written into the resolution of the 3rd Plenum of the 12th Central Committee of the CCP in 1984. In 1993, then-president Jiang Zemin appointed Ma to work on a publication to explain the basic principles of a socialist market economy to the general populace. This publication, ҔМᰃ⼒ӮЏНᏖഎ㒣⌢ (What is a Socialist Market Economy), successfully disseminated the idea and was well received. Ma led academic delegations to the United States and Asia in the late 1970s and 1980s to learn about foreign industrial and commercial management. He also founded the Sino-Japanese Economic Knowledge Exchange Society in 1981 and the China Development Institute in Shenzhen in 1989. Victoria Chu Sources CASS Biographies (2008), ‘㞾ᄺߎᴹⱘЁ㒣⌢ᄺᏜ: 䆄៥䰶ࠡ䰶䭓偀⋾’, Ё⼒Ӯ⾥ᄺ䰶—Ҏ⠽Ӵ䆄 [‘Remembering the former CASS dean MA Hong: the self-taught Chinese economist’], accessed 1 October at www.cass.net.cn/y_09/y_09_04/y_09_04_14.htm. Dai, Yan (2005), ‘偀⋾: ᡞᬍ⫳⌏䋼䞣ЎথሩⱘЏ㽕Ⳃᷛ: 㒣⌢ᄺᆊ偀⋾䆓䇜ᔩ’, ࣫Ҁ᮹ [‘Interview with economist Ma Hong: standard of living improvement as a development goal’], Beijing Daily, 14 September, accessed 1 October 2008 at http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/40553/3694961.html. Ma, Hong (1981), ‘A new road for developing China’s socialist economy’, Ta Kung Pao (Hong Kong), 11 December, and Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 21 January 1982, W3-6. Wu, Zhifei (2005), ‘ᗾᵄ偀⋾’, ⱒྦྷ [‘The strange and brilliant Ma Hong’], Baixing, November, pp. 48–9. Xia, Xunge (2005), ‘㋶⼒ӮЏНᏖഎ㒣⌢П䏃: 偀⋾ৠᖫᄺᴃ៤ህᴁ䆄’, ᓔᬒᇐ [‘In search of a road for socialist market economy: on Ma Hong’s academic achievements’], China Opening Herald, February (1), 23–9.
Ma, Huateng (偀࣪㝒b. 1971) Founder, chairman of the board and CEO of Tencent, Ma Huateng was ranked no. 68 among Forbes’ ‘400 Richest Chinese’ in 2005 at age 34, and was listed as among ‘the most influential people in the world’ by Time magazine in 2007. Ma Huateng is a native of Chaoyang, Guangdong Province. After graduating from the computer science department of Shenzhen University in 1993, he joined China Motion Telecom Development Limited and was later put in charge of R&D on internet
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paging systems. In November 1998, he founded Tencent Computer System Co. with few resources. At first, Ma focused on text messaging, but soon he transformed Tencent into a Chinese answer to America Online’s AIM, enabling users to contact one another instantly while online. In February 1999, with the QQ instant messaging service at its fore, Ma launched an instant messaging service platform, ensuring that Tencent appealed to his target audience. As chairman of the board and CEO of Tencent, Ma built the company through pure determination, listening to consumers rather than to internet analysts or critics. In late 1999, Tencent received funding of US$2.2 million from venture capitalists IDG Technology Venture Investments and PCCW (Millennium Vocal Limited, a division of a South African media company, bought the shares from the two venture capitalists later). After years of strong business growth, on 16 July 2004 Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK 700) went public on the main board of Hong Kong stock exchange as a leading provider of internet, mobile, and telecommunication value-added services in China. Ma showed an uncanny ability to adapt international models for the Chinese market and a strong insight into consumer desires. He developed a talented team, expanded business networks, and struck a balance between providing free services to attract users and benefiting financially from growing user bases. Through its various online platforms, including instant messaging QQ, web portal QQ.com, mobile QQ, mobile chat, QQ dating, QQ show, QQ mail, QQ game portal, and multi-media blog service Qzone, Tencent fulfills the user’s needs for communication, information, entertainment, and e-commerce. Today Tencent dominates China’s instant-messaging market with a share of more than 60 percent, and has defeated fierce rivals such as Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL. Ma’s success is largely a result of promoting the company’s cute brand. Tencent derives a big part of its revenue from sales of ‘avatars,’ cartoon characters that Tencent users pay to adopt as their online personalities. Tencent currently operates three principal lines of business: internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunication value-added services, and online advertising. The QQ community now comprises more than 100 million users worldwide, and QQ.com is recognized as the highest-traffic portal website in China. To foster rapid growth, Ma built strong strategic relationships with telecommunication operators and terminal device manufacturers in China. In February 2005, Ma formed an alliance with Google, and integrated Google’s search facility into Tencent’s portal. Ma’s vision for the web is personalization, and he came up with a new strategy: ‘Online Lifestyle’ after Tencent’s IPO in 2004. Sales in 2004 were US$138 million, up 55 percent on the previous year, and sales in 2006 soared to US$368 million, up 96.3 percent over 2005. The firm’s stock value has increased eightfold in three years. Tencent has grown into a powerhouse that has crushed everyone else in the field. Even China’s Central Bank is monitoring Tencent’s virtual currency, Q-coins, which allow customers to shop online for games, music, and even virtual furniture. Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan Sources Barboza, David (2007), ‘In China’s virtual world, an internet powerhouse’, International Herald Tribune, 5 February. BusinessWeek (2005), ‘China: Tencent holdings: march of the penguin’, 14 November.
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Ma, Jack (2007), ‘Pony Ma’, Time (special issue), accessed 22 September, 2008 at www.time.com/time/ specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1615710,00.html. Ma, Jack, Tencent (2004–2006) Annual report.
Ma, Wanqi (Ma, Man Kei 偀ϛ⽎ b. 1919) Macao-based business tycoon and national vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Ma Wanqi has persevered through troubled times to achieve a position of national renown as businessman and political leader. Born 21 October 1919 to a farming family in Nanhai County, Guangdong Province, Ma grew up learning the food trade. His father died when Ma was only 15, and Ma was soon forced to run his father’s local food wholesale business. With a strong belief in traditional values and entrepreneurial instincts, Ma quickly found his way and began to build up the family business. However in 1938, after the Japanese invasion of Guangzhou, the Sino-Japanese War got too close for comfort. His business headquarters, then called Wing Wo Hing Foods, were bombed and he was left with nothing. But Ma was determined to keep going. He escaped to Hong Kong, and with the help of some friends, began working with Hong Kong and Thai firms importing and exporting cotton, gauze, and grain products. This successful venture gave him a strong foothold in the business world. Unfortunately, his activities were interrupted again when Hong Kong fell to Japan in 1941. Ma left Hong Kong for Macao, then a small Portuguese-ruled island off the coast of mainland China, to found Dafeng Bank and the Tsuneki Company. Ma used these companies to help support China during the years of war with Japan, using Macao’s position in the transport of much needed goods past the Japanese blockade. Ma will always be remembered as an instrumental non-military patriot. When the war ended, Ma began to play a vigorous role in supporting China’s recovery. He was chairman of the board of Mirror Lake Charitable Hospital, helped to organize the Bank of China, represented Macao in the China General Chamber of Commerce, and was appointed the Director of Education for all of China. Ma then began investing in his hometown of Guangdong. However, his greatest direct influence was on Macao. After the economic reforms began in the late 1970s, Ma has greatly expanded his business operation on the Chinese mainland, contributed to closer economic and trade cooperation between Macao and the mainland, and established a number of enterprises in Guangdong, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia in the 1980s and 1990s. Ma has also been politically active throughout his long career, and played a pivotal role in preparation for Macao’s handover to China. He was a member of the 5th CPPCC National Committee (1978–83) and the 6th CPPCC Standing Committee (1983–88), deputy to the 7th National People’s Congress (1988–93), vice chairman of both the 8th and 9th CPPCC National Committees (1993–2003), vice chairman of the Committee for Drafting of the Basic Law for the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), and vice chairman of Macao SAR Preparatory Committee (1998–99). Ma was chosen to represent not only himself but also the interests of Guangdong and Macao. As the current vice chairman of the 11th CPPCC National Committee, he comes together with party and non-party members to discuss the political and economic situation of the country. Arthur Holst
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Sources China Association of Social Workers (2004), ‘Ma Man-kei: integrity of dream’. China Vitae (2008), ‘Ma Man-kei’, accessed 6 October at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Ma_Man%20 Kei%7C792/career. News.sina.com (2008), ‘ܼᬓणࡃЏᐁ偀ϛ⽎ㅔग़’ [‘Man Man-Kei: Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee’], 19 February, accessed 6 October at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-02-19/161114971084. shtml. Who’s Who in Chinese Leadership (2008), ‘Ma Man Kei’, accessed 6 October at www.china.org.cn/english/ features/58210.htm.
Ma, Weihua (偀㫮ढ b. 1951) Ma Weihua is president and CEO of China Merchant Bank (CMB), the first public commercial bank of which all shareholders are corporate legal representatives. He has integrated information technology into the traditionally static industry, and turned CMB from an obscure operation located in Shenzhen into the country’s most profitable bank. Ma received his doctorate in economics from Southwest University of Finance and Economics in China. In addition, he received the title of honorary doctor and senior economist from the University of Southern California. Before joining CMB, he was an official in the local planning offices of Liaoning Province between 1982–88. In the following decade, he held various managerial positions in the People’s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, and then as an entrepreneurial banker, responsible for networking, capital marketing, and internationalization of CMB. Ma became the CEO of CMB in 1999 at a time when electronic banking had become a strategic choice in the banking industry. Ma adopted and enhanced information technology within the business, and launched a series of online banking business, including corporate and personal banking systems, internet payment, and security systems. The new measures provided not only an impeccable loss-reporting service, but also a roundthe-clock hotline, thus providing a great convenience to his clients. CMB’s internet service has since become the first or the only choice for many famous enterprises and e-business websites in China. Ma believed that a bank should be operated like any other enterprise in terms of marketing strategies. Based on its advanced online network system, Ma greatly expanded CMB’s retail banking capabilities, even though the bank did not have enough retail sites in the country. With its innovative personal financing product portfolio, CMB managed to cater to the needs of the growing middle class in China. In October 2002, CMB took the lead in launching Sunflower Wealth Management, a new brand of individual business banking product that helped people manage cards issued by different banks. In December 2002, CMB’s first credit card, combining an RMB account with US$ account, came out. This measured up to international standards and is accepted around the world. By the end of 2005, the number of credit cards issued by CMB reached over 50 million, establishing its dominant position in the areas of credit card and personal wealth management in China. Ma is also credited with the commercialization of CMB’s capital. In 2002, CMB became the only merchant bank in China listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In September 2006, CMB successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, through which CMB not only raised some $2.4 billion in a spectacular debut, but also improved
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its brand image. CMB is also a pioneer among Chinese enterprises in terms of compliance with international accounting standards. If China’s financial market were to be a vital component of the global financial system, Ma believed that enhancing the bank’s international presence must be a critical part of CMB’s development strategy, especially after China’s entry into WTO. Under Ma, the bank has been making special efforts to upgrade its business practices and bring in advanced banking management systems by cooperating with foreign investors. For his innovation in integrating information technology into the banking industry, Ma was named by CCTV the Business Figure of the Year in 2001. In addition, he was ranked among the top 50 Chinese entrepreneurs in the transformation of the Chinese economy by Asian Capital, and was recognized as one of the most creative Chinese leaders during the 4th China International Finance Forum in 2007. However, Ma will not sit on his laurels. He is clearly aware of the distance between CMB and top international banks, and has called for the relaxation of bank regulations in China. According to Ma, besides keeping the traditional banking businesses, commercial banks should be allowed to extend their business into areas such as securities, insurance, and other financial operations to diversify their income sources, which would enable them to mitigate and diversify the operational risk of concentrating on only one or two business sectors. With his strategic vision, Ma pledges to develop CMB into the best retail bank in the country and to promote the transformation of the banking industry in China. Sun, Jianmin and Cui, Huijuan Sources CCTV (2001), ‘CCTV names 2001 top ten business figures of the year’, 31 December, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.cctv.com/financial/fengyun/sanji/p02.html. Entrepreneur Management (2004), ‘The entrepreneur spirit in a time of transformation’, (05). SinoCast China Business Daily News (2007), ‘Ma Weihua calls for mixed operation of banks in China’, 8 March, p. 1. Ye, Steve (2006), ‘Stock strategist looking overseas: China Merchants Bank’, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, 26 September, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.morningstar.ca/globalhome/Industry/news. asp?articleid=MStarUS174814_2006-10-02_06-00-00&lang=eng.
Ma, Yun (偀ѥ b. 1968) Ma Yun stands out among Chinese entrepreneurs not only as a leader in the internet business, but also because of the colorful history behind his introduction to this line of work. Through his perseverance and ability to capitalize on growing trends, he has managed to build alibaba.com from a simple internet start-up into one of the largest Chinese online empires. Originally an English teacher from Zhejiang Province, Ma Yun, ‘Jack’ to his English speaking friends, early on showed a clear knack for entrepreneurship. He began a translation company, putting his English skills to use in the market. However this was only a beginning for Jack Ma, and he soon began to find other opportunities in the burgeoning Chinese marketplace. Entry into the world of e-commerce was not entirely smooth for Ma Yun, nevertheless. In 1995 he went to Malibu, California, intending to collect a debt owed by a foreign
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businessman to a Chinese joint venture. At the time, he had little knowledge of the wide world of the internet, but negotiations went poorly and Ma found himself held at gunpoint for two days, able to secure his release only by convincing his captor that he would assist him in creating a Chinese website business. After his release, Ma had, to his great relief, no further contact with that individual. However, on returning to China, he got together with a few American friends, gathered up a bit of capital, and got his internet company off the ground. From this striking and modest beginning, Ma crafted his new creation, Alibaba Networking Technology Company, into one of China’s online giants. Even the name itself reveals a certain flair on the part of its CEO and founder, as Alibaba is a wellknown metaphor for unlocking the gates to a store of wealth. However, the choice of name is also well grounded in the realities of today’s world, as it is similarly written in nearly all of the world’s languages, a calculated advantage showing initiative and international savvy. Today, Ma Yun’s company is a very significant player on China’s information technology scene. Although Alibaba had difficult times during the dot.com doldrums of 2001–02, 2003 rewarded their efforts. When SARS hit China, traffic of all sorts was reduced, if not halted altogether. With the country facing many difficulties in international business transactions, Alibaba stepped up to the plate. Their ability to arrange virtual connections greatly facilitated business growth for many who struggled to get through those times, thereby laying a solid foundation for the company’s dramatic expansion in China’s internet business landscape. Xiafang Mo Sources China Daily (2005), ‘The Yangtze Crocodile’, 26 December, accessed at www.chinadaily.cn/bizchina/2005-12/26/ content_534918.htm. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Jack Ma’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Yun.
Mai, Boliang (呺ԃ㡃 b. 1959) President of China International Marine Containers (Group) Co. Ltd, Mai Boliang also serves as chairman of the China Container Industry Association and vice chairman of the China Distribution Association. He was awarded the honor of being among ‘China’s top ten valuable managers’ in 2002 for his vision and entrepreneurship. Mai Boliang was born into an intellectual family in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. After graduating from South China University of Technology in 1982 among the first generation of college students after ‘the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ in China, he joined China International Marine Containers Co. (CIMC) as an engineer, and learned technology in Denmark from CIMC’s joint venture partner. A downturn in shipping in 1986 forced CIMC almost into bankruptcy. Mai, as a manager in the production and technology department, persuaded many middle managers to stay on until CIMC’s largest customer, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, injected fresh capital in 1987. After the company’s restructuring, Mai was promoted to vice president. Under his leadership, CIMC got its first order from a demanding Japanese client, and then grew fast.
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With the ambition to build the firm into a global player, Mai was promoted to president of CIMC in 1992 and became a director of the board in 1994. After reorganizing, CIMC acquired another Chinese container builder in 1993. In 1994 it floated shares on the Shenzhen exchange. During the next five years, the company made a string of acquisitions along China’s coast from Dalian in the northeast to Xinhui in the Pearl River delta, built two new factories and grew to control 42 subsidiaries. CIMC has dominated container manufacturing in the global market since 1996, and increased its global market share by over 50 percent in 2006, with an annual production capacity of 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and nearly 400 product lines. Sales were around US$4.355 billion in 2006, 40 times what they were in 1993. Since 1993, Mai’s strategy has been aimed at consolidating the industry to support CIMC’s fast growth, especially when the Asian financial crisis forced many Korean and Taiwanese container manufacturers out of business. Mai developed a skill for acquiring capacity, imposing stringent management controls on newly acquired subsidiaries, and coordinating operations throughout China as a means of achieving a decisive cost advantage in the container industry. He was able to install uniform business controls at CIMC’s every acquisition and rapidly to absorb acquired subsidiaries into the group. Under his leadership, economies of scale allowed CIMC to reduce costs and offer competitive prices. Mai is very sensitive to industrial trends. He said to other entrepreneurs at the 2007 International Competitiveness of China Industry Forum: ‘We cannot precisely predict what will happen tomorrow. Everything is possible tomorrow. Therefore, what we can do is prepare our own competitive advantages, and establish a strong ability to adapt to the external environment.’ As a bold captain, Mai would face any kind of storm. He strategically accumulated capacity in the period of industrial decline, and seized opportunities in the period of industrial growth. ‘I would like to say that the corporate strategic capability is not built overnight, it is the result of a long-term upgrading process with a strong focus.’ Over the years Mai has sturdily maintained CIMC’s momentum for steady growth. He strategically extended CIMC’s business to container wooden floors, depot and airport equipment. From its inception in 2002, CIMC’s transport vehicle business rapidly developed its operational scale and product series with 13 production bases. Pursuing Mai’s vision of ‘globalizing business based on the competitive strengths of the PRC,’ Vanguard National Trailer Corp., a subsidiary of CIMC in the USA, acquired the assets of bankrupt HPA Monon for $4.5 million in 2003, and became one of the US trailer industry’s largest companies in the following year. In 2007, CIMC purchased 80 percent equity in Burg Industries at the price of €108 million. Burg is well known in Europe as one of the leading suppliers of transport equipment, containers and special tanks, with €226 million sales in 2006. In August 2007, CIMC brought a stake worth US$145 million in Enric Energy Equipment Holdings. This was the first time that a Hong Kong listed firm became a merger target of a mainland Chinese firm. Mai’s strategy here is to extend CIMC’s production capacity and technical expertise in making containers to the transportation and storage of natural gas, Enric Energy’s specialty. Mai has also developed CIMC’s R&D capabilities and pushed innovation. CIMC developed 366 new products and applied for 356 patents in 2006. CIMC also actively participated in the formulation of industry standards, and held or participated in the formulation of 33 items of international, national and industry standards. CIMC was
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among the Top 150 Asia Listed Companies in 2006 chosen by BusinessWeek magazine, and in 2006 among the Top 100 Emerging Global Companies identified by the Boston Consulting Group. Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan Sources BusinessWeek (2008), Asia edn, accessed 22 September at http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/ snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=CHABF.PK. China Daily (2005), ‘Ten Faces of 2004’s Economy’, 7 January. CIMC (2001–2006) year reports. Meyer, Marshall and Xiaohui Lu (2005), ‘Managing indefinite boundaries: the strategy and structure of a Chinese business firm’, Management and Organization Review, 1 (1), 57–86. Sina.com (2007), ‘The international competitiveness of Chinese Industry Forum’, 9 November, Shenzhen, accessed 22 September, 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/hy/20071109/18104158113.shtml.
Mayirjon (Mayierjiang 偀ձᇨ∳ b. 1968) Head of the Mayierjiang Group, Mayirjon is a wealthy international trader and noted philanthropist in the Xinjiang Uygur Minority Autonomous Region. Mayirjon was born on 20 April 1968 in Taxkorgan (Tashkorgan) Tajik Autonomous County in Southern Xinjiang. Raised in a family of impoverished ethnic Tajik Muslims, Mayirjon’s parents divorced when he was five years old. In middle school he studied Arabic and Persian and at the age of 16 he moved to Hetian (Hotan), a city famous for silk, rugs, and jade, where he added Urdu to his studies. By 18 he had started buying rugs in Hetian and shipping them back to Taxkorgan. His first trip netted him a profit of 1200 yuan, but soon he was earning tens of thousands of yuan a month. Located in the underdeveloped south of the Xinjiang region, Mayirjon’s hometown of Taxkorgan straddles China’s border with Afghanistan and Tajikistan and is the main point of entry and exit for trade between Pakistan and China. When Mayirjon came of age in the late 1980s, trade was just opening up between Pakistan and China along the recently completed Karakoram Highway, which connected Northern Pakistan with the regional trade hubs of Kashgar and Hetian in Southern Xinjiang. By the late 1980s Mayirjon was making regular trips to the markets in Northern Pakistan where he sold cloth, silk, ginger, and toys. On his way back into China he would import pine nuts, apricot and almond wood. Each trip made him several hundred thousand yuan profit. At the turn of the century, Mayirjon, by this time proficient in seven languages, had expanded his trade to 160 countries, opened two hotels in Northern Pakistan, and had accumulated a fortune of hundreds of millions of yuan. Taxkorgan is endowed with a beautiful landscape dotted with idyllic villages nestled between snowcapped mountain peaks and lush green herdsmen’s fields, but its climate is harsh with torrential summer floods and long cold winters. Washed-out roads and other weather-induced deprivations are common for villagers, as well as the thousands of border guards stationed in the region. In the last decade and a half Mayirjon has gained fame for his philanthropic work on behalf of local citizens and the border troops stationed in Taxkorgan. Annually Mayirjon makes a personal delivery of donated motor vehicles, electronics, and foodstuffs for border guards during the ‘Spring Festival’ celebrations, which take place in the dead of winter, and the ‘August 1st’ anniversary of the
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founding of the People’s Liberation Army. Farmers and herdsmen in Taxkorgan also regularly receive supplies and aid, as do local students. More than 1800 individuals have received university scholarships and the ‘Mayierjiang Foundation’ was established at Xinjiang Normal University in Urumqi to assist needy students. Mayirjon even arranged for 1000 tons of coal to be sent to a school in his hometown because the facilities lacked adequate heating. In total Mayirjon has donated more than 30 million yuan worth of goods, earning him wide respect, as well as press coverage. His wealth, philanthropic work, and outspoken loyalty to the Communist Party have gained him the attention of government officials, who are looking to promote the image of a ‘harmonious society’ in a region that has seen unrest by the Muslim majority population. Official publications have lauded Mayirjon as a loyal member of the Communist Party and a patriotic citizen of China. The local media has bestowed upon him the title ‘The Pamirs’ Mighty Falcon’, eliciting the imagery of traditional Central Asian falconry, and CCTV documented his philanthropic activities in a program entitled, The Falcon of the Pamirs. In September 2001 Mayirjon was invited to attend the tenth anniversary independence celebration in Tajikistan by Tajik President Emomalii Rahmon. In numerous interviews with the local media he praised China’s leadership and its treatment of ethnic minorities, and emphasized the patriotic spirit of ethnic Tajiks in China. In November 2001 Mayirjon toured Japan and North America as part of an official government trade delegation, where he again vigilantly defended government policy. David Straub Sources Shao, Cuiying, Xu Ruling, and Liang Shixin (2004), ‘“݀ⲞП᯳”ⱘӴ༛Ҏ⫳’ [‘Legendary life of the “Community Star”’], Western, 7, 58–62. Xinjiang News Network (2007), ‘偀ձᇨ∳’ [‘Mayierjiang’], accessed 20 November at http://jj.xjnews.cn/mr/ index.asp?SpecialID=110. Xinjiang Today (2006), ‘䖍⭚䌸ᄤ: ศঢ়ܟᮣ䴦ᑈӕϮᆊ偀ձᇨ∳⠅ᢹݯ, ᡊ䋿⌢ೄ㑾’ [‘Frontier son: young Tajik entrepreneur Mayierjiang’s patriotic support, as well as aid in poor areas’], (5).
Mi, Enhua (㉇ᘽढ b. 1958) President of Xinjiang Hualing Group, Mi Enhua has grown his company from a small border bazaar into the dominant construction materials center in China’s Northwest. Mi Enhua was born in the city of Tai’an in Shandong Province to a family of ethnic Hui Muslims. When he was four, Mi’s family moved to Xinjiang, located on China’s northwestern frontier. At the age of 14 at the peak of the Cultural Revolution Mi dropped out of school and took a series of jobs, including work in a quarry and as a construction laborer and waiter. In 1980 he landed a job in the Urumqi Municipal Urban Management Office as an inspector, where he worked for eight years. In 1988 Mi borrowed 30 000 yuan from friends to build a construction materials market named Red October Market in the provincial capital Urumqi and founded his new company, Xinjiang Hualing Group. Xinjiang shared a border with what were then Soviet Central Asian republics and political and trade barriers were only just beginning to thaw. At first business was slow, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 Mi was well placed to take advantage of the emerging market in Central Asia. Mi was twice
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forced to relocate his market at great personal cost, but by the mid-1990s trade between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan and Russia was booming. Mi Enhua’s personal wealth grew to the point that in 2003 Asia Money ranked Mi as the 38th wealthiest individual in China, with estimated assets of $170 million. Hualing has expanded into meat processing, recently opening a $155 million processing plant to meet the surge in demand for mutton and beef. The company has also opened a five-star hotel and the region’s largest shopping mall, the International Trade and Commerce Plaza in Urumqi. The complex also serves as a conference center and hosted the 2005 Western China International Economic Summit, which included an address by former American president Bill Clinton. In 2001 Mi initiated a program that sponsored 150 orphans in Urumqi, and since that time he has supported more than 500 orphaned children. David Straub Sources Asia Money (2003),‘Lives of the rich and famous: profiles’, 1 November, 14 (9). Chinadaily.com.cn (2006), ‘West’, 3 March. shm.com.cn (2005), ❞⍋➩‘㉇ᘽढϸᑺ㗗偠⥽䕀Ꮦഎ儨ᮍ’[‘Mi Enhua twice tested the magic of market’], 19 November, accessed 20 November 2007 at http://web.archive.org/web/20070303102135/http://www.shm. com.cn/shan-dong/2005-09/19/content_953079.htm.
Miao, Shouliang (㓾ᇓ㡃 b. 1955) Miao Shouliang, with a net worth of US$405 million and ranked number 61 in Forbes’ 400 Richest Chinese List in 2006, is a somewhat controversial figure in China’s real estate industry. He is the founder and chairman of Guangdong-based Shenzhen Fuyuan Group, which has investments in Shenzhen real estate, household electronic appliances, and a shopping mall. His interests also include a martial arts school and a university. Born in Meizhou, Guangdong Province, Miao is a Hakka, one of a subgroup of Han Chinese who live predominantly in Southern China. A sort of capitalist activist, he is also a delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. As a vocal proponent of China’s economic path to social market capitalism, Miao is quoted as saying about his exposure in Forbes’ richest Chinese list: ‘As long as I earn the money legally, there’s nothing for me to worry about at all . . . I am convinced that the Forbes list will help promote the popularity of my business as well as myself.’ And popular his business is. In 1987 he took over a bankrupt stone quarry and has since transformed the Fuyuan Group into a predominantly real estate business-based conglomerate. In 2002, Miao invested more than 200 million yuan towards the development of a school in Xixiang township under the auspices of London City College (LCC), a division of Schiller International University. LCC’s programs are accredited in England and focused on business and hotel management. With Miao’s financial support, the Xixiang operation is designed for Chinese cadre development by offering career-focused programs such as business administration, information technology for business applications, advertising and public relations, and English language courses. Despite his success, in recent years Miao and his company have been surrounded by controversy. In conjunction with the murder of a striking migrant worker in Guangdong Province in 2007,
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Miao’s name was tarnished by media representing workers’ rights. Through his alleged refusal to issue back pay totaling 5 million yuan (US$657 000), which triggered the strike and the ensuing violent conflict and its tragic consequences, he has been accused of symbolizing the greed and cruelty of China’s capitalist class. Jonatan Jelen Sources China Worker (2007), ‘Guangdong: Striking Migrant Worker Murdered’, 2 July, accessed at www.chinaworker.cc/en/content/news/226/. Hurun Report (2008), ‘Miao Shouliang – 2004 China Rich List: no. 57’, accessed at www.hurun.net/ detailen3,people59.aspx. People’s Daily (2003), ‘Chinese bid farewell to outworn doctrine of egalitarianism’, 20 January, accessed 4 October 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200301/20/eng20030120_110440.shtml.
Miao, Wei (㢫 b. 1955) The former president and deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Miao Wei has turned China’s second biggest automobile group from a heavily indebted company into a highly profitable car-maker and a world-class automobile company in less than ten years. Graduated from the College of Agricultural Machinery in Hefei Industrial University with a major in internal combustion engines, Miao Wei worked for ten years in the China Auto Import-Export Corporation. Reporting directly to the central government, this company both regulated the industry and conducted its own business. Miao became deputy general manager of the sales and service division of the corporation, and deputy manager of the manufacturing department at the age of 30. Two years later, he was promoted to deputy director of the manufacturing business unit. He then moved to the Ministry of Machinery Industry between 1993 and 1997 as the deputy director and assistant general engineer of the automobile department, with a tenure of two years in each position. Over these 15 years, Miao developed a deep understanding of the overall situation of the Chinese automobile industry. In September 1997, Miao was transferred from the ministry to the Dongfeng Motor Company Ltd (DFM) by the central government, in an attempt to revitalize the giant, which was in great difficulties. Established in 1969, DFM was one of three auto groups directly under the jurisdiction of the Chinese central government. With a staff of over 120 000, DFM lost more than 500 million yuan in 1998. Miao Wei set the goal of turning losses into profits within two years. To kick-start the process, the central government injected an order of 1.6 billion yuan for military trucks. In addition, previous debts were converted to stocks owned by the government. After this initial boost and the relief of the historical burden of debt, Miao progressively implemented radical reforms in the company, which was deeply ingrained with the culture of the planned economy. He first implemented Western management and operational methodology, and then reformed the ownership of some of the company’s affiliates, changing them from the wholly state-owned enterprises to a mixture of diversified ownership, including stocks owned by employees. The experimental reform was conducted first in a ‘special zone’ (or certain business unit) of the company. Under his leadership, DFM established strategic alliances
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with Nissan and PSA with the aim of raising capital, technology and management levels, and acquired domestic companies at low cost, resulting in fast expansion of the group. In addition, Miao optimized the product portfolio of a full-range of commercial vehicles and most categories of passenger cars. These efforts paid off in two years. Profits reached 16 million yuan in 1999 and had rocketed to 6.1 billion yuan by 2003. A year later, Miao Wei was nominated as a ‘Star of Asia’ by BusinessWeek because ‘he has transformed Dongfeng from an almost bankrupt military truck maker into a profitable manufacturer of both trucks and passenger cars with sticker prices from $9000 to $30 000.’ On 20 December 2006, the central government appointed Miao as secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at Wuhan municipality. Wuhan already had the regional advantage of industrial capacity in steel and iron, petrochemicals and tobacco. The most urgent task for this city was to further develop the auto industry and conduct advanced reforms on state-owned enterprises. The central government hoped that Miao Wei could duplicate his success in managing local government and developing regional economies. In around ten years, from the ministry to enterprise and then back to regional government, Miao Wei has completed a circle between governmental officialdom and professional management. Hua Wang Sources BusinessWeek Online (2004), ‘Miao Wei, chairman and chief executive, Dongfeng Motor Corp., China’, special report Stars of Asia, 12 July, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/ content/04_28/b3891419.htm. Nanfang Weekend (2005), ‘Miao Wei: from leader of Dongfeng to the mayor of Wuhan’, 26 May.
Mou, Qizhong (⠳݊Ёb. 1941) Once known as the richest man in the Chinese mainland, Mou Qizhong is the former president of the Nande Economic Group, a large private company based in the port city of Tianjin in Northern China. In 2000, Mou was accused of defrauding a state bank to obtain a loan worth $75 million, and was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life, although his life sentence was later reduced to 18 years. The son of poor farmers from Wanxian, Sichuan Province, Mou told people that his father, Mou Pingzi was a famous financier in Chongqing before 1949. Mou displayed his verbal talent from an early age. He wanted to become a journalist, but failed to get into college and went to work at a local glass plant, where he read widely and actively participated in all kinds of debates and discussions. During the Cultural Revolution Mou was thrown into prison for writing a book titled Where is China Headed? and in 1974 he was sentenced to death. However, Mou narrowly escaped death when another person claimed responsibility for the book, and the sentence was lifted soon after Mao Zedong died in 1976. Mou was released from prison in 1979 and a year later he took advantage of a more relaxed political climate, quit his job at the glass plant and started out on his own business journey with a small capital of 300 yuan to trade rattan chairs. Later he opened Zhongde Store, the first private enterprise in Sichuan Province. The company did not manufacture any products, but helped other people’s merchandise, especially surplus
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goods, to find a market. He quickly discovered that a certain 555-brand desk clock made by a factory in Shanghai sold well in the local marketplace, as every young couple getting married would buy one. He found a military factory in Chongqing that was half-idle, and asked them to make 10 000 duplicates of the 555-brand desk clock at 25 yuan apiece. He then went to Shanghai and sold the copied clocks for 32 yuan apiece to a trading company. This exchange earned him a net 70 000 yuan. However for this, he spent another year in jail in 1983 on charges of speculation and profiteering. What Mou specialized in was to ‘assemble market’, that is, to utilize the intermediary means to adjust and optimize the market supply and demand and to reallocate resources. He was once quoted in the Washington Post: ‘Politics can’t motivate people. The desire to get rich – that is the only way to mobilize the whole society’. Another milestone on his way to becoming the richest man in China was the 1991 launching of the Nande Economic Group in the Tianjin Special Economic Zone. In 1992 Mou seized a historic opportunity and stuffed 500 railroad cars with surplus pork, clothes, and cheap electronic goods and sent them to Russia. He received four Tupelov 154-passenger jet planes in exchange which he sold to Sichuan Airlines, netting $11 million. Mou had always been good at amassing a fortune out of nothing. From practically nothing before the 1990s, by 1994 Mou already claimed a personal wealth of 800 million yuan, according to Forbes. A man of ambition and imagination, Mou was never short of dreams, whether they were practical or not. He once proposed to ‘level the Himalayas to the ground to divert warm air-currents into China from the Indian Ocean’. Mou also dreamed of developing Manzhouli, a Sino-Russian border city in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, into a continental trading spot, linking Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. In addition, Mou wanted to launch 88 satellites and form a close-knit network to provide cheap communications. He even considered purchasing an aircraft carrier for the Chinese Navy from Russia for $3.1 billion. Besides his wilder dreams, Mou also sponsored football clubs and a Chinese New Year party organized by the Ministry of Culture, contributed $360 000 to support China’s first research expedition to the North Pole and gave $120 000 in 1996 for space exploration. However, as China’s economy slowed, Mou’s company accumulated major debts – reported to be $80 million – through various undertakings, and was unable to resume normal operations. After employees complained that their wages had been unpaid, Mou and four key staff members, including his son, nephew, and sister-in-law, were accused of fraudulently obtaining a $75 million loan. The company had nearly collapsed before he was detained on 7 January 1999, and on 8 February Mou was formally charged with business fraud. Since Nande Group was a private company, it was not qualified for a business loan under Chinese banking rules. However Mou had turned to a state firm, Hubei Light Industrial Import and Export, for a letter of credit from the government Bank of China. Prosecutors revealed that Mou was applying for funds for a fabricated import deal. Hubei Light reportedly handed over $22 million to the Nande Group, but it is unclear what happened to the remainder. Mou’s employees claimed the money was legally borrowed and then loaned to the Nande Group at an exorbitant interest rate, a common practice in a country where private businesses have often faced severe problems in obtaining bank loans. Weidong Zhang
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Sources Hewitt, Duncan (1999), ‘China’s richest man on trial’, BBC News, 1 November, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/501163.stm. People’s Daily (2000), ‘Richest man on mainland gets life imprisonment’, 31 May, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200005/31/eng20000531_41997.html. People’s Daily (2000), ‘Higher court upholds verdict on entrepreneur charged with fraud’, 23 August, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200008/22/eng20000822_48752.html. Rao Xue (1999),‘ۦଚ⠳݊Ё’ in 买❭П, Ϫ⬠ᆠ䈾ᬙџ100㆛ [‘Confucian merchant Mou Qizhong,’ in Yan Xizhi eds., 100 Stories of the World’s Richest], accessed 27 September 2008 at http://www.tianyabook.com/ renwu2005/js/y/yanxuzhi/sjfh/086.htm. Smith, Craig (2000), ‘China’s high-flying capitalist crashes to earth’, New York Times, 31 May. Turner, Mia (2000), ‘Fall from grace: China’s once-richest man is sentenced to life in prison’, Time Asia, May.
Mu, Xinsheng (⠳ᮄ⫳ b. 1943) Commissioner for Customs General Administration for the People’s Republic of China (CGAC), Mu Xinsheng has risen in the ranks of government to a position of responsibility for the integrity of China’s import and export policies. Born and raised in Fufeng, Shanxi Province, Mu graduated from China Northwest Institute of Political Science and Law with a bachelor of law degree in 1967. In 1970, Mu began a 30-year career with the Ministry of Public Security, working in the petrochemical sector, where he advanced to the level of deputy minister, before being appointed deputy commissioner of CGAC. In 2001 Mu was appointed commissioner of CGAC, the chief position of that administration. As commissioner for CGAC, Mu found himself in the spotlight of China’s growing economic influence. Not only were China’s trade relationships with other nations changing, so was the entire international trade system. When Mu took hold of the CGAC, China was under mounting pressure to adapt its trade policies to those of its chief trading partners. Faced with the complex issues of international trade, Mu operated according to the motto, ‘instead of criticism and confrontation, communication and cooperation are better ways to resolve disputes.’ Previously, China had traded on its own terms, with little regard for quality standards or the concept of intellectual property. Mu facilitated the establishment of multiple international agreements defending intellectual property rights, including an agreement with the United States that allows for the exchange of statistical information regarding counterfeit and pirated goods being transported between the United States and China. Mu has made similar agreements with the European Union, as it has become a stronger trading partner with China. With China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization, Mu is now working on various customs agreements regarding tariffs, law making, and law enforcement. All of Mu’s actions have been made with China’s economic future in mind. He hopes to bolster the growth and quality of trade between China and its global interests by reforming China’s longstanding policy of exporting labor-intensive products while importing quality-intensive products in favor of a more balanced trade structure. Arthur Holst Sources Asia Pacific Customs News (2001), ‘New commissioner of China Customs’, Hong Kong Customs, 10, 21.
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Asia Pacific Customs News (2005), ‘Preface’, Hong Kong Customs, 20, 2. Asia Pacific Customs News (2006), ‘China joins WCO in celebrating International Customs Day’, Hong Kong Customs, 23, 6. China Daily (2006), ‘China, US Customs to swap IPR data’, 5 June, accessed 7 October 2007, at http://english. peopledaily.com.cn/200706/05/eng20070605_380918.html. Xinhuanet (2006), ‘China vows to upgrade trade structure in next five years’, 3 April, accessed 7 October 2007, at http://wto2.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/chinanews/200604/20060401818701.html.
Mu, Zhanying (〚ऴ㣅b. 1955) General Manager of China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNEC), Mu must have inherited his strong interest in nuclear technology from his father, who was among the first generation of nuclear construction workers back in the 1960s. Like many of his peers, Mu joined the Number 23 China Nuclear Engineering Construction Company as a construction worker right after his graduation from high school in 1971. He went back to school after seven years and received his BS degree from Tongji University in 1978. Mu’s leadership at CNEC started from his becoming the deputy manager of the Number 23 China Nuclear Engineering Construction Company in 1988. In the following year, the China Nuclear Corporation was divided into two groups, and Mu became the president of the China Nuclear Engineering Corporation. In 1997, with the approval of the State Council, the Chinese government reorganized the top-ten defense and technology corporations, which are all large state-owned enterprises (SOE) under the direct supervision of the State Council, CNEC among them. Under Mu’s leadership, CNEC’s business has expanded from nuclear plant engineering and construction to general construction and engineering projects ranging from apartment blocks, bridge and road construction to overseas construction contracts and so on. As a result, the corporation’s revenue has increased at a rate of 10 percent annually. In 2001, the corporation became profitable after running deficits for six years in a row, and in 2002 the revenue from civilian work exceeded that of the nuclear industry for the first time. In the same year, the ‘Outline for Strategic Development of the China Nuclear Engineering Corporation’ was drafted, marking the first time that the group had proposed a systematic development strategy. Their goal is crystal clear: to become China’s main contractor for national defense engineering, including supporting national defense engineering design, procurement, construction, maintenance, and research and development. In relation to the commercialization of research findings in nuclear science, CNEC has made full use of its strength in nuclear engineering technology. Together with Tsinghua University, Mu led CNEC in a joint venture, China Nuclear Power Science and Technology Ltd, to promote cooperation in the area of high-tech achievements in low temperature nuclear heating reactors and high temperature reactors (HTR). In addition, CNEC has signed an investment agreement on the building of the high temperature gas cooled reactor nuclear power demonstration project with both China Huaneng Group, the nation’s largest power company, and Tsinghua University. The three partners pledged to cooperate in the commercial implementation of the HTR model, a key step in nuclear power plant construction. Mu has been quoted as saying: ‘All the nuclear power facilities in China were built by
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CNEC.’ Indeed, CNEC has undertaken the construction of all the country’s nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment plants, fuel components, nuclear test bases, fuel production facilities, and various research institutions, in addition to its construction services in aviation, aerospace, shipbuilding, weapons, and other military industries related to national defense and technology projects. In the peaceful use of atomic energy, CNEC has undertaken the construction of all six of China’s nuclear power plants, and was responsible for the design, construction, installation, and debugging of nuclear reactor units at 11 project sites, including Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, the first nuclear power plant in China. In November 2004, the China Nuclear Engineering Corporation was named one of the 49 key government enterprises approved by the National Property Supervising Management Committee of the State Council, and its three main business categories were confirmed as military construction, nuclear power engineering, application of nuclear power, and research. As the general manager of such a large state-owned enterprise, Mu has also been active in the political arena. He has been elected as a representative to the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the National People’s Congress, and as a member of the National Committee of the 10th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Min Tong Sources Diao, Jihai and Cheng Peng (2007), ‘ᡧԣᮄᴎ䘛䖢ᮄᣥ: 䆓ЁḌᎹϮᓎ䆒䲚ಶᘏ㒣⧚ܮ㒘к䆄〚ऴ㣅’ [‘Seize the new opportunity and meet the new challenge: an interview with Mr. Mu Zhanying, the general manager of CNEC’], Enterprise Civilization, 14 April. National Trade Data Bank (1999), ‘China: Top Ten Defense and Technology Industry’, 22 December, accessed 24 September 2008 at www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/contractor/mark0055.htm. Tongji University Alumni Association (2007), ‘䫌ࠥЎ⡕: 〚ऴ㣅ЁḌᎹϮᓎ䆒䲚ಶ݀ৌ’ [‘Beating swords into ploughshares: Mu Zhanying and China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation’], 27 March, accessed 24 September 2008 at www.tongjiren.org/user_news_show.asp?data=hero_jingying&id =38.
Nan, Cunhui (फᄬ䕝 b. 1963) As CEO of CHINT Electrics Co. Ltd, Nan Cunhui aims to create large low-voltage industrial appliances, measurement technologies, power distributors, communication electronics, and electronic equipment for the automotive industry. He has turned CHINT into a worldwide brand, which has been nominated as the National Best-known Trademark, one of the most prestigious honors for outstanding enterprises from the China State Administration of Industry and Commerce. Nan Cunhui is of Han nationality and was born in Yueqing, a small city in the Southeastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. At the age of 13 he began work as a shoemaker in order to support his family. Life was tough in Wenzhou and Nan Cunhui’s first business was set up as a means of survival. He started a small commercial venture dealing in electrical appliances with a small amount of seed capital, saved from his work as a shoemaker. Together with his former school-friend Hu Chengzhong, a tailor, in 1984 Nan Cunhui founded a factory for switches. However, after a short period, they went into different ventures. Nan Cunhui founded CHINT Electric Appliance while Hu founded Delixi Electric Appliance. By the early 1990s, Nan Cunhui had developed CHINT into a joint stock company. In addition to US$150 000 invested by his brother-in-law, Nan’s own brother and other relatives also became shareholders of his company. As a result his personal ownership in the company decreased from 100 percent to 60 percent while his relatives owned the rest of the stocks. By means of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances, Nan began to transform the shareholder structure in 1994. All in all he merged about 50 companies, creating a conglomerate with separate ownership and management structures. As the number of shareholders increased to 40, Nan’s personal interest in the conglomerate decreased to 40 percent. However, CHINT’s net assets increased from RMB4 million (US$500 000) to RMB50 million (US$6 million) in 2003. In three years, Nan’s personal income increased by a factor of 19. The CHINT Group is one of the biggest manufacturers of electric industrial devices in China. With net assets of 1.7 billion yuan in 2006, CHINT had six branches, more than 50 holding companies and 800 mutual partnerships. With 16 000 employees worldwide, the company is currently ranked eighth among the 100 largest private enterprises in China, and has been recognised as a famous brand by both industry and government. Since 2006, CHINT has become a market leader in the power transmission and distribution industry and in low-voltage electrical products in China. With around US$2 billion in sales turnover, which accounts for approximately 40 percent of the share of the market of low-voltage electrical appliances in China, CHINT has also become one of the top five companies in this area in the world. More recently, the CHINT Group has founded a research and development center in Silicon Valley, and established marketing networks in the USA, Brazil, South Africa and the Middle East as well as in several European countries. Looking forward, Nan and CHINT plan to make an IPO on the stock market to further improve the company’s financial position and administrative capability. As a prominent Chinese entrepreneur, Nan Cunhui has received many individual honors. In 2002 he was named as an ‘outstanding business person in China’ and one of the ‘Top Ten Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs.’ In addition, Nan has served as a representative to the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC). Christoph Lattemann 127
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Sources Beijing Review (2005), ‘Family Owned Companies in China’, 37. Zhang, Yange and Shuiming Peng (2004), ‘ℷ⋄䲚ಶ:ᆊᮣ㙵ᴗ⿔䞞ⱘḋᴀ’ [‘CHINT Group: model for the dilution of a family owned company’], China Economic Net Ё㒣⌢㔥 28 September, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://www.ce.cn/new_hgjj/hgplun/more/200409/28/t20040928_1869534.shtml.
Ni, Runfeng (⍺ዄ b. l944) Chairman of the board of Changhong Electronics Corporation, Ni is a TV business guru in China. Under his leadership, the 36 000-employee company became the number one TV supplier and the leading brand name in the Chinese market. Ni went to the Dalian Institute of Technology in 1962, majoring in mechanical engineering. After graduation in 1967, he began work as a structural designer for Changhong, which is located in the city of Mianyang, in Sichuan Province, Southwestern China. Since the late 1960s the enterprise had gone through quite a transformation. In 1982 Ni joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) and two years later he was named deputy director. Sensing the pulse of economic reform, Ni took the company out of the defense industry and into televisions, reforming the state-owned enterprise along market lines with such novel ideas as employee bonuses. Under Ni, Changhong grew to be the biggest TV maker in China. Thanks to Ni’s efforts, TV sets became affordable to average families in China. TV was no longer a luxury item, in part because of the price-cutting war that Ni led. In the mid1990s, the TV price war became fierce, dragging many CRT tube manufacturers into turmoil. Slashing prices was Ni Runfeng’s claim to fame and he has been called ‘China’s Matsushita’ (after Panasonic’s founder). Ni has cut prices three times since he has been with the company. ‘Changhong depended on price-cutting to succeed, but price-cutting is not its only means,’ he once said, ‘in the long term, management and technology are the two fundamentals that allow companies to survive’ (Asiaweek, 1999). When it comes to management, Ni is famed for his acute market strategy and his ability to quickly translate ideas and information into innovative products. Ni was a pioneer in the conversion of state-owned companies into well-run private businesses, and under his leadership, Changhong grew to become a billion-dollar, token public enterprise. The property rights reform in China entered a critical period between 2000 and 2003. Some state-owned companies started to go public while the state still owned the majority controlling stake in the business. During this period Ni was eager to take on North American markets, especially the US market. However, Changhong’s aggressive expansion both domestically and internationally, and its lack of contemporary management concepts and global experience, meant that Ni did not fully evaluate the risk in setting strategic plans for developing the brand in the new markets, and the company ran into serious deficit. Specifically, Changhong experienced a two-year legal ordeal with its sole agent, APEX Digital. The lawsuit in dispute of US$468 million losses with the California-based company triggered the involvement of the local government. As a result of complex intertwined political and governmental regulations, Ni, in his 60s, stepped down with regrets from the leadership of Changhong in 2004. Despite the setback, Ni is still nicknamed ‘General Patton’ in Chinese business. He has
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won numerous honors in China and Asia for his work as an entrepreneur. In 1998 he was awarded the Nikkei Asian prize; in l999, Ni was ranked fourteenth among China’s richest people, and named one of the ‘Ten Most Outstanding Entrepreneurs’ among other accolades. In addition, Ni was a delegate to the 14th CPC National Congress (1992–97), an alternate member of the l5th CPC Central Committee (1997–2002), and a deputy to the 8th National People’s Congress (1993–98). Xiaodong Du Sources Asiaweek (1999), ‘China at 50: nation builders: Ni Runfeng: China’s TV king is set to take on the world’, 24 September, accessed 2 October 2008 at www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/0924/voc50people/ content/ni.runfeng.html. Buckley, Chris (2004), ‘Changhong, China’s largest TV exporter, announces a huge loss’, International Herald Tribune, 28 December, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/28/business/yuan. php. Changhong.com (2008), ‘݇Ѣ䭓㱍’ [‘About Changhong’], accessed 2 October at www.changhong.com.cn/ changhong/china/7927.htm. China Vitae (2008), ‘Ni Runfeng’, accessed 2 October at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Ni_runfeng/full. CRI Online (2004), ‘⍺ዄ: ⦄ҷଚϞⱘ “ЁᏈ乓”’ [‘Chinese “General Patton” in business’], 䰙 㒓, 1 September, accessed 2 October 2008 at http://gb1.chinabroadcast.cn/1827/2004/09/01/1166@286952. htm.
Nian, Guangjiu (ᑈᑓЙ b. 1937) Founder of the Anhui Fool Group, Nian Guangjiu is known as ‘number one vendor in China.’ Nian was the chairman of the Fool Economic Development Company, which holds the trademark Shazi, one of the most famous brands for roasted seeds, a traditional Chinese snack. The trademark Shazi, meaning ‘fool’ in Chinese, was taken from his childhood nickname. As a colorful entrepreneur, Nian was not only named as one of the ‘heroes of reform,’ but was also arrested for ‘corruption,’ ‘misuse of public funds,’ and ‘hooliganism.’ His name was twice mentioned by Deng Xiaoping. Nian was born in 1937, the year in which the Sino-Japanese war erupted. A heavy flood in the Huaihe River region displaced Nian’s family, forcing his parents to live as beggars. The family moved to Wuhu, Anhui Province, where, without any other source of income, Nian’s father set up a vending stand at a street corner and Nian started learning business. However, doing business was not glorious in those days. In 1963, Nian was thrown into prison for a year on charges of speculation and profiteering. During the Cultural Revolution, Nian was again sent to prison for ‘taking the capitalist road’. Nonetheless, it was at that time that Nian started his ‘underground’ watermelon seeds business. By the late 1970s, although still a street peddler, Nian had developed special seed-roasting skills, and was ready to set up a firm to challenge state-run roasted-seed producers. Wuhu is known to many Chinese as the ‘hometown of roasted seeds.’ In 1981, Nian Guangjiu invented a special formula to roast melon seeds and named it after his nickname, ‘Shazi Seed.’ Roasted seed was one of the three products that the Wuhu municipal government wanted its self-employed producers and traders to develop as local specialties. The city government sponsored special reports on the ‘Shazi Seed’ in newspapers and on television. As a result of its special taste, reduced price and advertising,
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‘Shazi Seed’ became a popular product in Anhui and other parts of China. In the following years, Nian expanded production and hired more workers. Gradually his employees increased from just three workers in 1981 to a sizable labor force of 103 in 1983, and the yearly output of ‘Shazi Seed’ climbed from several tons up to several thousand tons. Nian’s profits also grew from just RMB1000 to more than RMB1 million. As his products were both delicious and inexpensive, the ‘Shazi’ brand took a giant slice of the seed snack market in China, and Nian became one of the country’s first millionaires. However, Nian has had his ups and downs in both his business career and personal life. In 1983, he hired more than 100 employees, far more than the 20 employees allowed by the government, which was a serious issue in the early years of reform. Some people accused Nian of ‘capitalist exploitation,’ and feared that his expanding enterprise would have a negative impact on state-owned or collective businesses. After the issue was investigated and reported to high-level officials in Beijing, however, then-leader Deng Xiaoping, commented at a meeting on 22 October 1984 that the ‘Shazi Seed’ business should be allowed to operate for another two years to see what would happen next. This is the first time Nian’s name was mentioned by Deng, who believed that private business would neither harm Chinese socialism, nor damage the overall economy and cause social instability. Before the Spring Festival in 1986, ‘Shazi Seed’ launched a nationwide promotion campaign, with a Shanghai sedan as its first prize. With such a huge incentive, sales skyrocketed and profits reached RMB1 million in just three months. However, central government soon banned all prize-induced sale activities. Since the prize could no longer be awarded, many goods were returned, resulting in a chaotic situation in production and marketing, and the company suffered heavy losses. Wuhu municipal government subsequently launched an investigation and in 1991, Nian was charged with maintaining an improper relationship with a female employee, and sentenced to three years of probation. Nian’s business career appeared to be over, but in 1992, Deng Xiaoping again mentioned his name, this time during the famous Southern tour that put Chinese economic reform back on track. After serving 30 months in jail, Nian’s name was cleared without any formal charge of economic crimes. Although Nian tried to make a comeback by resuming his old business, his influence was largely over. In 2000, he sold his shares to his two sons, and has since lived a quiet life in Wuhu, where even locals rarely mention his name any more. Weidong Zhang Sources Chen Lei (2004), 䰜⺞, ‘ᑈᑓЙ: ϔଚ䋽’ [‘Nian Guangjiu: the no. 1 vendor’], Southern People Weekly, फᮍ Ҏ⠽਼ߞ, 17 August, accessed at http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/southnews/zt/dxp/nfrwzk/200408170088. asp. Wang, Yanlai (2003), China’s Economic Development and Democratization, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Ning, Gaoning (ᅕ催ᅕ b. 1958) Chairman of the Board of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Co. (COFCO), Ning Gaoning is a pioneer of capital integration in China. Nicknamed China’s Morgan,
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although GE’s former CEO Jack Welch is his idol, Ning Gaoning has successfully implemented a series of mergers and acquisitions that have reshaped industry integration in China. A native of Shandong Province, Ning Gaoning holds a bachelors degree in economics from Shandong University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. After graduation in 1987, Ning joined Huarun and devoted 18 years of his career to the group. Based in Hong Kong, Huarun is a large, state-owned holding company designed to attract international capital to the Chinese market. Three years after joining the company, he was appointed a subsidiary director. Later he served as general manager of several different Huarun companies. In 1999, he was named as vice chairman and general manager of China Resources (Holding) Co. Ltd as well as serving as general manager of China Resources National Corp. Since Ning took charge of Huarun in 1999, he has implemented two strategies, one was internal restructuring, and the other was enterprise mergers and acquisitions, with the aim of transforming the multi-billion dollar enterprise from commercial to industrial development. Intending to make the Huarun Group a competitive leader in each of its industries, Ning led the company in a series of mergers and acquisitions through effective use of powerful capital forces in the areas of real estate, beer, and other retail product industries. In June 2006, Ning divided the large and overlapping Huarun Group into four business units: distribution, real estate, technology, and strategic investment. Another important move was to relocate Huarun’s business center from Hong Kong to the mainland, which attracted considerable attention within the Hong Kong financial market. Under Ning’s leadership, the Huarun Group integrated in many areas and focused on six key industries: retail, textile, food, beer, property, and garment distribution. In 2003, Huarun’s turnover reached HK$46.7 billion, of which more than 20 billion was attributed to the business in the mainland. In 2004, Ning was appointed the chairman of COFCO, the largest food and oil import and export firm in China and a leading food manufacturer. Not familiar with COFCO, Ning took time to study its management, corporate culture, mission, and core values. He organized extensive training for high-level leaders and had face-to-face discussions on enterprise strategy with managers of each business unit. Based on his experience of making Huarun the industry leader in many areas, Ning decided to integrate COFCO’s jumbled business units into specialized and strategy-oriented groups. Eventually, 50 business units were divided into seven parts and 34 units, which are directly incorporated into the group. With a belief in harmony between nature and man, Ning also led COFCO into the new energy industry by launching an ethanol fuel project in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, the first such project in the nation. In 2006, Ning launched a new logo for COFCO, composed of the sky, the earth, and the sun, to reflect its new corporate philosophy ‘Nature Shapes Us.’ Already famous for his work on industry integration, two years later Ning launched another round of ambitious restructuring, including a group operation platform based on all business units, which was dubbed ‘limited diversification.’ For his efforts to make his companies the most powerful businesses in China, Ning Gaoning was named by the Chinese media as among the Most Influential People in the Global Financial Industry in 1999 and the Most Influential Entrepreneurs in China from 2003 to 2006. Sun, Jianmin and Shi, Hui
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Sources Financial Times (2006), ‘ᅕ催ᅕ: 䞡ลЁ㊂’ [‘Ning Gaoning: reshaping COFCO’], 10 November, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://finance.people.com.cn/GB/71364/5022406.html. Xiao Feng (2002), ‘ᅕ催ᅕ: 䌘ᴀЎ⥟’ [‘Ning Gaoning: capital is the king’], Accomplishment of Entrepreneurs, August 2002. Zhou Yi (2006), ‘ᅕ催ᅕᮄᬓ’ [‘The new management of Ning Gaoning’], China Entrepreneur, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/cr2/20061123/19063104655.shtml.
Ning, Xiangdong (ᅕϰ b. 1965) A well-known contemporary economist, Ning Xiangdong initially chose to study electrical machinery when he entered Tsinghua University in 1983. With the founding of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) in Tsinghua in 1984, Ning transferred to the SEM and received his BS (1988), MS (1990), and PhD (2002) degrees from Tsinghua. He has since been a faculty member there, first with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and later as a professor of economics at the SEM and the School of Public Policy and Management. Ning is the current deputy director of the National Center for Economic Research (NCER). According to Ning, the dual mission of a professor is to discover and study problems and to nurture students. He has won many teaching awards. Ning considers the Chinese economy to be unique, and that it is important to study its historical development. It would be incorrect to adopt Western theories and practices on a wholesale basis. His master’s thesis involved a study of the history of the Chinese rural economy. With the economic reform and development in the late 1980s, Ning’s doctoral research focused on current economic developments involving corporate governance and state-owned property management. He has since carried out in-depth research on corporate governance and enterprise management in state-owned and private enterprises, economics of transition in state-planned versus market economies, economic policies, conditions and development, property and industrial management. Ning’s other areas of research include dividends and shares in listed companies, unbalanced regional economic development and the ethical responsibilities of multinational companies. Ning has travelled widely as a visiting scholar, observing and learning from foreign institutions. He was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995, 1996 and 1999 where he first conceived the proposal of having an masters of public administration program and a school of public policy and management at Tsinghua; the University of Sydney in 1999 where he was involved with international programs and worked with the well-known Australian economist Peter Swan; Harvard Business School in 2001; the University of New South Wales in 2002–03; and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. Besides teaching at the SEM, Ning has been involved in numerous academic programs outside Tsinghua. In May 2004, he participated in a joint program on ‘China’s Policy Reforms: Progress and Challenges’ with the Stanford Center for International Development and NCER; and in August 2005 in the conference on ‘China at the Crossroads: FX and Capital Markets Policies for the Coming Decade’ with Columbia University and NCER; he was program director of the ‘Tsinghua SEM-McKinsey & Company Joint Program: Study on Key Factors for the Success of China’s Leading High-Tech Firms’ in 2006–07; he participated in the Philanthropy Forum at SEM held
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by the Hurun Report to debate ‘Individual and Corporate Philanthropy’ in April 2006; dialoged in the Tsinghua SEM-EMBA Graduation Forum with other SEM professors and graduate students in July 2007; was a member of the teaching faculty on corporate governance and values at the Harvard Business School’s Senior Executive Program for China in 2007–08; and worked with an international intern from Harvard’s Weissman International Internship Program to conduct research on the corporate governance of Chinese state-owned enterprises in 2008. In addition, Ning has held many non-academic appointments. He was a project consultant for the World Bank in 2000, research project consultant for McKinsey & Company in 2004, is a current board member of many large state-owned enterprises, a board member of the Beijing Economics Association, an independent trustee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a special inspector of the State Council, a member of Beijing’s One Hundred Talents Programs, and a contributor to the early part of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006–10). Ning is also a prolific writer. Actively publishing prior to obtaining his doctorate in 2002, his selected works since include: ⧚ᗻ⚍҂Ё [Enlightening China Rationally (Collected Works)] (2006); Development of Bohai Rim 2006: History Reality and Future (2006); Corporate Governance: Theory and Cases (2005); Insights on Management: Enhancing the Core Competence for Chinese Enterprises (2004); and State-Owned Assets Management and Corporate Governance (2003). He has written many articles in a number of journals, including: the Chinese Journal of Management Science; China National Conditions and Strength; Enterprise Management; Finance and Economics; the Journal of Central University of Finance and Economics; Management World Magazine; Nankai Business Review; Research on Financial and Economics Issues; Shanghai Business; Special Zone Economy; and Quantitative and Technical Economics. Ning is a well-known media voice in newspapers, magazines, and on the web, as author or critic on current economic development trends and issues. Among these, he has appeared in CEOCIO China, China Business Feature, China Daily, China Human Resources Development Network, China View, china.com.cn, finance.sina.com.cn, The Standard (Hong Kong) and the Taipei Times. He also has a blog on my.opera.com. As an outspoken economist, Ning believes that the Chinese government needs a complete overhaul in order to continue to make economic progress; fundamental reforms are necessary to deal with structural problems in the Chinese economy; and structural adjustment and effective cooling measures are essential for the overheating economy. Victoria Chu Sources China Trainers’ Alliance (2007), ‘ᅕϰ’ [‘Ning Xiangdong’], 15 August, accessed 10 October 2008 at www. china-trainers.com/Trainers/Info/20057714587.html. Dai, Lu (2007), ‘ᅕϰ: ϔ㆛᭛ゴܿݭᑈ’, ЁҎ䌘⑤ᓔথ㔥 [‘Ning Xiangdong: eight years to write an article’], China Human Resources Development Network, 28 July, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.chinahrd. net/zhi_sk/jt_page.asp?articleid=131448. National Center for Economic Research at Tsinghua University (2001), ‘ᅕϰ’ [‘Ning Xiandong’], 26 March, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.ncer.tsinghua.edu.cn/people/peoplecopy.htm. Tsinghua SEM Alumni (2005), ‘ᅕϰ: ᄺ䯂Пೄ’ [‘Ning Xiangdong: perplexity of knowledge’], 29 March 2005, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.tsinghuasem.org.cn/Alumni/ShowNews.aspx?ItemID=593&Mode IID=4.
Pan, Gang (┬߮b. 1970) Board chairman and CEO of Yili Industrial Group Ltd, Pan Gang was instrumental to the company’s position as an industry leader in China. Born and brought up in Inner Mongolia, Pan attended Inner Mongolia Agriculture University from 1989–92 and then worked for a dairy company that later became Yili. Rising quickly into management at various divisions within the company, in 1999 Pan became the general manager for the Liquid Milk Division. Recognizing the increasing market demand for liquid milk rather than powdered milk, he led Yili to adopt advanced foreign technologies in achieving a 20-fold extension in the shelf life of liquid milk. The longer shelf life fundamentally changed the liquid milk industry, expanding the geographical reach of the product; more importantly still, it enabled Yili to aggressively capture a major market share in liquid milk in China. Since liquid milk accounts for over 65 percent of Yili’s revenue, Yili was nicknamed the ‘Milk Expert’. In 2002, Pan Gang was appointed Yili’s CEO while remaining the general manager for the Liquid Milk Division. Under Pan’s leadership, the Yili Group enjoyed a series of astonishing growth rates per annum of around 50 percent. However in 2004, Pan Gang and Yili encountered their greatest challenge when the company’s top five managers, including the board chairman, were sued for embezzlement. The scandal shook investors’ confidence and threatened the company morale and reputation. Responding to the crisis, Yili’s board of directors unanimously voted Pan Gang to become the chairman. Through reorganization, he implemented measures to increase transparency in communication and accountability and to build synergy. Pan turned Yili around, generating the three highest consecutive quarterly revenues in 2005, and as an industry leader in China Yili’s gross profit reached 10 billion yuan. Integrity and hardwork are Pan’s watchwords. Today Pan Gang and Yili have risen to the top tier of Chinese business. He was recognized as a ‘Young Global Leader’ by the World Economic Forum, and won the ‘CCTV Economic Person of The Year’ award in 2005. Ying Zhang Sources Cnceo.com (2007), ‘Pan Gang’, Ёᘏ㒣⧚㔥 [Chinese CEOs], accessed 28 November at www.cnceo.com/ person/ceominglu1.jsp?un=_ceo_508_112012. ᮄ⌾䋶㒣[Sina Finance] (2006), ‘Pan Gang’, 5 January, accessed 28 November 2007 at http://finance.sina.com. cn.
Pan, Ning (┬ᅕ b. 1937) Former president of Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings, Pan Ning hand-made the first two-door refrigerator in China in 1984, using some simple tools, soda bottle, hammers, pliers, and a multimeter. Pan was a leader of the booming manufacturing economy in Southern China, but fell victim to the property ownership reform of later years. Though only attending school until the fourth grade, Pan developed an exceptionally forward-looking mentality. During the mid-1980s, township enterprises grew like mushrooms after rain in Guangdong Province, China. As the deputy director of the Industry 134
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and Transportation Office in Ronggui, a small town in Guangdong, and together with two partners, Pan founded the Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory in October 1984, and named their brand Rongsheng. The factory sought technical assistance from Beijing Snowflake Refrigerator Factory, and experimented financially with funds of only RMB90 000 from the township government. This unique combination dictated the nature of the factory as a township collective enterprise, which was what led to Pan’s downfall almost two decades later. Initially it was difficult for Pan to market his new products. People looked down on township enterprises at that time, and he was refused numerous times when trying to introduce his product at big department stores. However Pan was not discouraged by those setbacks; instead, he and his team strove to counter the prejudice against township enterprises by demonstrating the high quality of their products. Pan was very strict with quality control and put a great emphasis on innovative technology. He insisted on purchasing the best equipment available, and his assembly lines were as long as 6 km, imported from Europe, North America, and Japan. In the late 1980s, all well-known brands of refrigerators in China were manufactured on imported assembly lines. During a period when about 79 imported assembly lines were active, a war on refrigerators broke out. At that time Pan’s factory was among the least known, but with strategic marketing his products stood out for their attractive and innovative looks, and high quality. By the end of the 1980s, Rongsheng refrigerators were the best-known brand in Southern China, often compared with Haier, a famous Northern Chinese brand. In January 1992, touring the Zhujiang Refrigerator factory and impressed by the most advanced assembly lines of the time, Deng Xiaoping uttered his famous saying ‘Development is the hard truth,’ which has been widely circulated since. After Deng’s visit, Rongsheng emerged as the first among the top ten household appliances list in China, an honor that the company held for the next eight years. The success of Rongsheng made Pan a famous national public figure. At 60 years of age, the normal retirement age in China, Pan himself did not feel the need to retire, and no one in the company dared to initiate this sensitive topic. However, a more significant issue was the property ownership of the enterprise. Though the Zhujiang Refrigerator factory was founded by Pan, it belonged to the town government. Even as the company grew over the years, the management team did not hold a single share of the enterprise. Pan raised this issue many times to the town government, but never received clear answers. A further problem was that many other small townshipowned enterprises began to take advantage of the Rongsheng brand by manufacturing household appliances with the same name, generating negative responses to the reputation of the Zhujiang Refrigerator Factory. In 1994, Pan decided to rename the company as Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings, and to free the enterprise from the control of the local government, and venture into the air conditioner industry. But Pan’s plan for independence had aroused suspicion within the township government, and Pan and his enterprise were doomed. In 1995, Kelon sold more than one million refrigerators and had 13.4 percent of the national market share, which rose to 18 percent in the first quarter of 1996. In the same year, Kelon went public, becoming the first Chinese township enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With newly raised funds of RMB1.2 billion, Pan expanded the production bases to two other provinces, Liaoning and Sichuan, in order to reduce
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transportation costs. He made another strategic move by investing RMB1 billion to build a technology center for Kelon in Japan, with the aim of strengthening the domestic research and development capability in the refrigerator manufacturing industry in China. Though regarded as a costly investment, it was an important strategy, since the core refrigerator technology was all controlled by Japanese companies, such as Toshiba, Sanyo, and National, and Chinese refrigerator factories were nothing more than assemblers. Pan believed that his company needed to acquire the core technology in order to maintain and grow its market share. Pan once stated: ‘If we cannot manufacture a 100 percent made-in-China refrigerator in our lifetime, we would feel shameful to our later generations’ (Economics Observer News, 2007). However ten years later this ambition was still not fulfilled. In 1997, with sales revenue reaching RMB3.4 billion and a profit of RMB660 million, Kelon was named the Best Management Company in China and the Best Investors Relation Company in China by Asian Currency in Hong Kong. However, in the same year, the local government started to tighten its control on Kelon. Without prior warning, the Kelon Group suddenly announced Pan’s resignation from the presidency of the company in December 1998 and as board chairman in the following April. Pan never gave any public explanation of his resignation, and he emigrated to Canada a few years later. Min Tong Sources Wu, Xiaobo (2007), ‘┬ᅕПᚆ’ [‘Pan Ning’s tragedy’], 㒣⌢㾖ᆳ [Economics Observer News], 8 April, accessed 24 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20070408/15333482136.shtml. Zhang, Gang (2006), ‘“ҕ㗙”┬ᅕ: ⾥啭ᥠ䮼Ҏϔሞϡབϔሞ’ [‘Pan Ning – a man full of passion: the leaders of Kelon getting less and less capable’], Ёᮄᯊҷ [China New Times], April, 124–5.
Pan, Shiyi (┬ቍ b. 1963) A legendary figure in real estate circles, Pan Shiyi is the chairman and co-CEO of SOHO China Ltd, a major real estate development firm in mainland China. Pan Shiyi is regarded as being in the vanguard in the Chinese property development market and is well known for the creativity and originality of his projects, which blend architecture and art. Apparently shy and unassuming, Pan is actually an extremely unconventional and dynamic real estate developer in contemporary China. Born in a poor village in Gansu Province, Northwest China, Pan went to Beijing Petroleum Institute in 1982 and on his graduation in 1984, he was assigned a job in the Pipeline Administration Bureau under the China Ministry of Petroleum. This was a turning point, enabling a rural boy’s dream of being able to work in Beijing to come true. However in 1987 he resigned from his work and started a career in real estate. He first went to Shenzhen to work for the Asia-Pacific Management & Consulting Co., and then to Hainan, where he founded the Hainan Agro High-tech Investment & Development Co., predecessor to the Vantone Company. In 1992, Pan co-founded Beijing Vantone Co. Ltd, and successfully developed several properties in Beijing, including the Vantone New World Plaza, the Air China Tower, and the Vantone Lishan Plaza, later renamed as Central Park. In the early 1990s, real estate in Beijing was a sellers’ market. After adopting the attractive Hong Kong marketing methods regarding his office sales, Pan immediately
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created a real estate sensation in Beijing. His office space was sold for US$3600 per square meter, which tripled the market price at that time. Within a week, Pan and his partners had sold HK$500 million worth of real estate from one project alone. Although from a poor family background and educated at a little known college, Pan captured the heart of a well-educated young woman, Zhang Xin, who later became his wife. Zhang Xin had received her masters degree from Cambridge University in the UK. When Pan met her, she was working for a famous Wall Street firm, earning a six-figure salary. Pan’s marriage was the talk of the town, and he was presented as a model of success achieved through hard work and diligence. In 1995, Pan and his wife co-founded SOHO China Ltd. Together they have developed a variety of projects ranging from business venues with mixed usage in the central business district in Beijing to riverfront luxury villas in Hainan and contemporary private houses designed by avant-garde Asian architects. In 2002, one of the latter was the first Chinese project to win an award at the Venice Biennale. Within Beijing’s real estate circles, Pan’s new concepts are the first word in consumer guidance. His original slogan, ‘Are you ready to SOHO (Small Office, Home Office)?’ and his SOHO New Town project became synonymous with the latest housing trends. It has since been regarded as an ideal office and residential housing project, and media criticism made it even more popular. It seems that anyone who does not ‘SOHO’ is out of touch – something quite beyond the pale to today’s trend-conscious Beijingers. Every new project taken by Pan in recent years has been preceded by a completely new architectural concept, which he promotes in a similar way as auto firms do their latest models. Many people buy houses specifically developed by Pan’s company, because they like their avant-garde ambience. Pan has a unique understanding of the property market. He does not simply pursue the highest sales revenue or the largest development. Instead, he emphasizes the longterm value of his projects. In 2003, SOHO China paid over RMB177 million in taxes, which ranked second overall in the nation; and a year later that figure increased by 70 percent to over RMB300 million, confirming SOHO China as one of the most profitable developers in China. As further confirmation of their success, Pan and his wife Zhang have consistently been ranked among the richest Chinese by both Forbes and Hurun Report over recent years. Huang, Lujin Sources CRIENGLISH.com (2007), ‘Chinese entrepreneurs special: Pan Shiyi’, 18 May, accessed 26 November 2007 at http://english.cri.cn/4406/2007/05/18/
[email protected]. Daily Life Times (2006), ‘The poor days of the real estate tycoon, Pan Shiyi’, 19 July, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.robroad.com/data/2006/0719/article_65641.htm. Harvard China View (2005), ‘Speaker profile: Pan Shiyi’, accessed 26 November 2007 at http://www.harvard china.org/conference/conf2005/speakers/PanShiyi.html. Zhan, Ni (2003), ‘Pan Shiyi: Avant-garde Real Estate Developer’, China Today, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e20033/pan.htm.
Peng, Xiaofeng (ᕁᇣዄb. 1975) Ranked among the world’s 500 richest people in 2007, Peng Xiaofeng is the sixth richest Chinese according to Forbes magazine, and is the founder, chairman and CEO of LDK
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Solar Co. Ltd, a world-class manufacturer of multi-crystalline solar wafers, the principal raw material in the production of solar cells. After graduating from the Jiangxi Foreign Trade School in 1993 with a diploma in international business, Peng first worked for the Jian Foreign Trade Bureau in Jiangxi Province. Then in early 1997, with a hard-earned 20 000 yuan in his pocket, he ventured to Shanghai and after some disappointments while searching for work founded his own Suzhou Liuxing foreign trade business. In a few years Peng built his company into a leading Asian manufacturer of personal protective equipment (such as gloves, occupational clothing, labor insurance, and safety shoes), employing 12 000 people. However, recognizing the difficulties and complexities of foreign trade, Peng was not sure whether he should devote all his energy to this sector, and complemented his education with an executive MBA degree from the renowned Guanghua School of Management at Beijing University in 2002. He continued his education by learning to speak fluent Japanese, and when his original business was showing signs of maturity and decline, he traveled to Europe and the United States looking into new opportunities. He remained as CEO of his old company until February 2006 while forming LDK Solar, which was founded in 2005. Peng has several winning attributes in addition to his intellectual abilities: he is said to be extremely hard working, he is known for his seriousness, but more importantly, he is a master of relationships. Peng founded LDK Solar Hi-Tech Limited in July 2005, putting $30 million of his own money and $80 million of venture financing into building factories in Xinyu. He surrounded himself with a vastly experienced panel of internationally qualified and knowledgeable executives, and rallied behind him 12 000 employees at Suzhou Liuxing while enjoying strong support from the regional governments in China. Headquartered with manufacturing facilities in the Hi-Tech Industrial Park of Xinyu, Jiangxi Province, LDK sells multi-crystalline wafers globally to manufacturers of photovoltaic products, such as solar cells and modules, and also provides them with wafer processing services. In April 2006 the first commercial shipment of solar wafers was made, and by the end of year capacity had reached 200 megawatts, with sales revenue of RMB950 million. LDK also maintains a US office in Sunnyvale, CA and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2007 through American Depository Receipts. At the time it was the largest IPO for a Chinese enterprise and the first from Jiangxi Province, and it raised an impressive sum of US$469 million. However the nature of its business as well as its US listing have drawn very prominent analysts to follow the company’s evolution and activities. This turned out to be a mixed blessing and contributed to a turbulent ride. In October 2007, the stock dropped sharply by as much as 50 percent, after an ex-accounting officer publicly alleged that LDK inflated inventory figures of a key raw material, polysilicon. While the company and Peng denied the allegations and the stock subsequently recovered some lost ground, it was still down about 30 percent from its early October 2007 high. Despite the setback, LDK is still regarded as a leading company with promising technologies in China. With 7000 employees, it is ranked among the top 100 enterprises in Asia by Red Herring, and Peng is determined to develop his new business into a world-class corporation in the fast-growing renewable energy business around the globe. Jonatan Jelen
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Sources Forbes (2008), ‘The world’s billionaires: #462 Xiaofeng Peng’, 5 March, accessed at www.forbes.com/ lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Xiaofeng-Peng_FRGA.html. Kho, Jennifer (2008), ‘LDK defends its inventory accounting’, greentechmedia, 6 March, accessed at www. greentechmedia.com/articles/ldk-defends-its-inventory-accounting-671.html. LDK Solar (2008), ‘Company profile’, accessed at www.ldksolar.com.
Qiu, Bojun (∖ԃ৯ b. 1964) Founder and executive chairman of Kingsoft Corporation, Qiu is a gifted programmer who single-handedly wrote the first Chinese word processing program, and is regarded as one of the most important persons in the Chinese software industry. Kingsoft’s flagship office system (a Microsoft Office compatible suite of applications) has been and continues to be a formidable competitor to Microsoft Office since its launch in China. Qiu was born into a farming family in Zhejiang Province. He went to local junior and high schools, and was a talented mathematician at a young age. He gained a BS in management information systems from the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defense Science and Technology University, Hunan in 1984. In 1996, he received an honorary professorship from the university. After graduation, Qiu was assigned to work in a state machinery plant in Hubei Province for two years. He resigned and joined a private software firm in Beijing, which transferred him to its Shenzhen branch after one year. He was then headhunted by Jin Shan, the CEO of the Hong Kong-based firm, who recruited him to work on Chinese word processing software. Qiu worked non-stop for about 17 months and even continued to write the program while he was hospitalized; the word processing program was a great success and had sold over 2 million copies by 1993. Though Jin Shan rewarded Qiu with a generous bonus and a property in Zhuhai, Qiu felt that it was the firm that had obtained most of the value from his personal innovation. Qiu therefore founded Kingsoft in 1994 with his own savings. The five-person new venture developed the Pangu Office System, which performed a similar function to Microsoft’s Office System. Kingsoft, however, was in financial difficulty in 1995 after dismal sales of only 2000 copies of Pangu. Qiu sold his Zhuhai property and moved his family into the office premises to finance further product development – the upgrade of the office system as well as research and development in games software. Led by Qiu, the team of ten responsible for Kingsoft’s Office System worked 12 hours a day for two years and completed WPS 97. The office system was an instant hit and established Kingsoft’s position in the Chinese software market. Due to the high piracy rate of software products in China at the time, Kingsoft did not manage to appropriate all the value associated with the product. Nevertheless, it was able to attract the personal computer manufacturer Lenovo’s equity investment to finance its expansion in 1998. Kingsoft launched an upgrade of its office system every one or two years. The latest version, Kingsoft Office 2007 is positioned as Microsoft compatible; it incorporates word processing, spreadsheets, multimedia and graphics and has established itself in some regional government departments. Kingsoft entered online games in 2003 with JX Online. The popular title, which was launched in September of that year, allowed players to create their own characters, strike cyber alliances, and fight virtual attackers. Another successful online game, The First Myth, an adaptation of a classic Chinese novel, was launched by Kingsoft at the end of 2004. The First Myth further confirmed Kingsoft’s position as a leading online game firm in China; in addition, this game was introduced into Taiwan in 2006. Kingsoft was listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2007. Qiu has received various awards for his technological and entrepreneurial contributions during the past decade, including the Canton New Technology Award, Outstanding 140
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Contribution in New Technology of Zhuhai, CCTV’s Top Ten Entrepreneurs and China’s Top 10 IT Figures. Denise Tsang Sources BusinessWeek (2004), ‘China.net’, 15 March. Financial Times (2007), ‘Kingsoft enters Hong Kong Stock Exchange’, 19 October, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/10/09/3001702.htm. The Standard (1997), ‘King of programs declares it’s his word that counts’, 11 December.
Ren, Zhengfei (ӏℷ䴲 b. 1944) Founder and president of Huawei Technologies Co., Ren was a member of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1982, ranked no. 190 among the 400 Richest Chinese in 2005, and listed among ‘Builders and Titans’ in the Time 100 in 2005. Ren Zhengfei was born in Guizhou, the eldest of seven children. After completing secondary school (he almost failed in the second year because of a major famine in China), he attended Chongqing Construction Engineering College, and then joined the army as a military technologist. There Ren led a military research institute, made two remarkable technological inventions, and attended the national science conference in 1978. When China cut down the construction engineer and railway corps, Ren retired from the army around 1982. Ren founded Huawei in 1988 with 30 employees. Starting as a small distributor of imported PBX products, Huawei accumulated knowledge and developed its own PBX in 1989. Huawei invested heavily in R&D and launched the C&C08 digital telephone switch into China’s mainstream telecommunication market in 1993, which grew rapidly in the 1990s and was dominated by foreign suppliers, such as Siemens and Alcatel. Based on excellent technology and low price on equity, Huawei triumphed over foreign companies, and was ranked fourth in domestic switch vendors by 1998. In the early years of its development, Huawei’s culture was strongly influenced by Ren’s military background. Discipline, hard work, and purpose were the main drivers of Huawei’s employees. Ren asked each new employee to take an oath on ‘Duty, Honor, Company and Country’ when they first entered Huawei (the character of ‘Huawei’ also has strong connections to the glory of the country of China). Huawei incorporated the ‘wolf’ spirit as part of its indispensable corporate culture: a sensitive nose for good opportunities, aggressiveness, and unyieldingness. This spirit drove the company to achieve a six-fold growth between 1996 and 1998. In 1999, it developed the world-class GSM mobile switch system. Huawei grew rapidly, with revenues of US$1.2 billion in 1998, and Ren set an ambitious goal to catch up the sales of IBM in the coming eight years as a world-class enterprise. Ren consulted innovation management from IBM and advocated a Western management style: ‘We are against the traditional Chinese management culture or the insistence on Huawei’s own system. If we were going to innovate and survive, we would have to learn the successful management skills of western countries . . . So we must know IBM’s way and learn its advanced experiences’ (Wu and Ji, 2006). Ren set the schedule for Huawei, benchmarked with IBM, and consulted many world-leading companies such as Hay Group, PwC and FhG, and applied advanced management techniques such as IPD (integrated product development), ISC (integrated supply chain), and ESOP (employee stock option plan). Although Huawei gained 85 percent sales growth in 2000, Ren alarmed the managers of Huawei with the prospects of the collapse of the global communication equity market in his famous lecture called ‘The Chill Winter of Huawei’ in 2001. After selling its subsidiary of telecom power conversion products to Emerson, Huawei got US$750 million cash to increase the speed of its expansion into overseas market. Under the banner of ‘valiantly, spiritedly, cross the Pacific Ocean,’ Ren had a stirring lecture for the overseas campaigners on 18 January 2001: ‘every manager in every department needs to be 142
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internationalized. Anyone who cannot fit the internationalization priority standard will lose his position . . . In this era, an entrepreneur could be awesome if he has the vision of global strategy.’ Huawei’s first attack on the US market was interrupted by Cisco’s patent litigation in 2003. However, Huawei made its mark in European and emerging markets, and by 2004, its overseas sales had surpassed those of the domestic market. In 2006, Huwei’s contract sales reached US$11 billion, and 65 percent of the contract sales came from the international market, which had become the major driver of sales growth. As many Chinese companies’ benchmark in internationalization, Huawei in 2006 redesigned its global brand and set a new mission: that ‘Huawei has maintained a strategy of continuous customer-centric innovation. Product R&D is responsive to projected and actual customer needs’ (Huawei Year Report, 2006). In 2007, Huawei became a leading communication equipment vendor in the global market, with 62 000 employees worldwide, serving 31 of the top 50 telecom operators, including Vodafone, BT, Telefonica, FT/Orange, and China Mobile. As far as market share is concerned, Huawei is no. 2 in the worldwide share of the optical network hardware market; no. 2 in the worldwide share of the broadband access market; and no. 3 in the worldwide share of the carrier ethernet switch/ router market. Huawei has also become one of the few vendors in the world to provide end-to-end 3G solutions. Under Ren’s leadership, Huawei invests over 10 percent of its sales revenue in R&D every year, and its registered patent amount is no.1 among all companies in China. Ren has further demonstrated his confidence and skill in cooperation with foreign partners. Based on their enterprise networking business asset, which was valued at US$178 million in 2003, Huawei entered into a joint venture named Huawei-3Com with 3Com for internet protocol-based routers and switches, eventually selling its 49 percent stake to 3Com in 2007 for US$882 million. Huawei and American security firm Symantec formed a joint venture company in May 2007, developing security and storage appliances to market to telecommunication carriers. Ren is CEO and Huawei owns 51 percent of the new company, Huawei-Symantec Inc. Ren is committed to fulfilling Huawei’s responsibility as a global corporate citizen. Huawei has established many kinds of scholarship in Chinese and African universities, and has donated telecom equipment in rural areas of Africa. After the tsunami that devastated parts of Southeast Asia in 2004, a total of US$2.5 million worth of emergency communications equipment and US$2.5 million cash were donated to affected countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. Ren sees Huawei’s role: ‘as an integral part of the society in which we operate, Huawei firmly believes in contributing back to the local countries and communities in which we operate’ (Huawei Year Report, 2006). Ren is shrewd, courageous and resolute in management, but filial at home, which is vividly expressed in his affectionate essay, ‘My Father and Mother,’ in Huawei’s company newsletter. Ren called on all new employees to mail their first year’s bonus to their parents, and suggested that all employees wash their parents’ feet in holiday-time family reunions. It is said that Ren has contributed most of his stock to his employees and only owns about 1 percent of the shares in the company. Nonetheless, he is undoubtedly the spiritual leader of Huawei, and an exemplary model for many Chinese entrepreneurs. Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan
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Sources Goldsmith, Julian (2007), ‘Huawei’s R&D pot rivals western firms’, BusinessWeek, 11 September. Huawei Year Report (2006–2007), accessed 22 September 2008 at www.huawei.com/corporate_information/ annual_report.do. Ren, Zhengfei (2006), ‘The new year letter’, Huawei People, 2006, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://www. huawei.com/cn/publications/view.do?id=594&cid=201&pid=87. Tang, Shengping (2004), Out of Huawei, Beijing: China Social Science Press. Wu, Jiangguo and Ji Yongqing (2006), The World of Huawei, Beijing: CITIC Press.
Rong, Yiren (㤷↙ҕ 1916–2005) Rong Yiren was known as the ‘Red Capitalist’ of China. It was a title well earned, but it can hardly describe the tumultuous journey he had to undergo before becoming chief executive of China’s biggest business organization. The irony was that Rong Yiren was not really a communist, and he never thought of himself as a capitalist. His life was a tribute to the longevity, patience, and resilience of the true entrepreneur. When Rong Yiren was born in 1916, in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, his family was already rich. His father and uncle did not start out rich, but they had carved out their little empire in textiles and flour milling through hard work and grit in Shanghai. They established their first bank in 1896, their first flourmill in 1902, and by the time Rong Yiren inherited the business at age 30, there were 24 mills in all. The family were known as ‘cotton tycoons and flour kings.’ Rong Yiren graduated with a history major in 1937 from St John’s University in Shanghai, one of the most prestigious institutions in China at the time. It was a period of turbulence. There was the war with Japan, and hardly had the guns of the Second World War fallen silent when the civil war erupted. In 1947, Communist armies began their march from the rural hinterland into the big cities; the Communist conquest of Shanghai and the rest of China became a certainty soon after. Many Chinese businessmen fled to Hong Kong and Taiwan, including most of Rong’s family. However Rong Yiren chose to stay in Shanghai, putting his faith in the Communist Party’s promises for ‘national capitalists’ and hoping to keep the family enterprises. In later years, he acknowledged that life would have been more comfortable had he also fled, but he was reported also to have said that he wanted to be useful and help overcome China’s poverty. In 1950, Rong Yiren became the general office manager of Shanghai Shenfang Textile and Printing Company, board director of Hengda Textile Limited and a member of the Shanghai Finance and Economic Committee. During the socialist reform of capitalist industry and commerce, his family’s business became state-owned in 1956 and the state gave Rong’s family $6 million for compensation. His active role in the socialist reform and dedication to the country won him support from the Communist Party. He was appointed vice mayor of Shanghai in 1957 and, after two years, became vice minister of textiles. Vice Premier Chen Yi called him the ‘Red Capitalist’ and the nickname stuck. It seemed then that he would spend the rest of his working life in such mid-level, mildly important jobs. Then came two more upheavals. The social convulsion of Cultural Revolution, from 1966 through 1976, brought reprisals against those people who Mao said were working against the revolution. Rong Yiren, as a denounced capitalist, became the target of the red guards. His home was ransacked, his belongings destroyed or looted, and his property confiscated. He and his wife were reportedly beaten. For a while, he was
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humiliated and forced to work as a janitor. The intervention of top officials, including then-premier Zhou Enlai, saved him from further abuse or imprisonment. The modernization of China was started by Deng Xiaoping two years after Mao’s death in 1976. With it, Rong’s fortunes reversed again. Deng’s goal was to make China prosper, and this required a more vigorous free market and a calibrated engagement with world trade. Deng knew that business experience, technology, and financial capital were needed, and he wanted China’s capitalists to help in his program. Deng encouraged Rong, by then a respectable 63 years old, to form China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), whose role was to initiate reforms in the financial sector, attract foreign direct investment and modern technology to China, and develop China’s capability to conduct international trade. Under Rong’s leadership, the company became the first window of China opening to the outside world. CITIC built the first modern skyscraper in China, and expanded rapidly from finance into other businesses. From the 1980s, CITIC, largely a state-controlled enterprise, started to invest overseas and became the country’s first transnational conglomerate. Rong Yiren’s business acumen was undoubtedly a significant factor in CITIC’s success. As its fortunes grew, so did Rong Yiren’s. Forbes magazine named Rong Yiren the richest man in China in 1999. Rong did not like being called a capitalist; he wanted to be called an entrepreneur. He was the exemplar of an entrepreneur, enduring even in the most adverse conditions. And he knew when to make a stand. In 1989, when the prodemocracy movement was at its height, he risked everything he had by issuing an open letter urging Chinese leaders to open talks with the students. After the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, it was thought he would be severely punished for this defiance. Perhaps he was, but not for long. Rong Yiren’s contributions to modern China were acknowledged and honored when he was appointed the state’s vice-president in 1993. This was a ceremonial position which he retained until 1998. It was designed by the party leadership as a safe position. Rong did not much mind, as he never had the inclination to turn these honorary positions into a lever to gain real political power. He never wanted to play politics; all he wanted was to do business. His official obituary states that he had been a member of the Communist Party of China since 1985, but he requested that this be revealed only after his death. Amir Shoham and Hui He Sources Lague, D. (2005), ‘Rong Yiren, China’s famed Red Capitalist’, International Herald Tribune, 27 October, accessed at www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/27/news/obit.php. Mackerras, C. (2001), The New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Times online (2005), ‘Rong Yiren’, 1 November, accessed at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/ article585003.ece.
Rong, Zhijian (Larry Rong 㤷ᱎ عb. 1942) Like his father Rong Yiren, Rong Zhijian was also known as a ‘Red Capitalist’, and his life was also a series of ups and downs as his family went through their turbulent journey in twentieth-century China. Keeping a low profile, this son of a former vice president
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worked in the Chinese Ministry of Electric Power for 14 years. In the 1980s with assistance from his father, Rong Zhijian went to Hong Kong and established the CITIC Pacific Group, one of China’s most successful conglomerates with investments in steel, real estate, and power companies. The CITIC Group is based on the former China International Trust and Investment Company founded by his father in 1979. Now with a net wealth of US$1.64 billion, Rong has become one of the richest and most influential entrepreneurs in China. Rong Zhijian was born in 1942 in Shanghai, although his father originally came from Wuxi, an old industrial city in Jiangsu Province. Being the only son of one of the richest business families in Shanghai, Rong enjoyed a good life during his childhood. However by 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded, their prosperous life was coming to an end. After his father became vice major of Shanghai, the family business was integrated with state-owned enterprises. By 1959 when Rong Zhijian graduated from the Nanyang Mofan high school, his father had been promoted to the position of vice minister of the Textile Industry in Beijing. Rong enrolled in Tianjin University and majored in electrical engineering. While there he became deeply involved with the school’s sport programs, he learned to be strong and determined in pursuing specific goals, and he realized the importance of cooperation between teammates. Since his college years were right after the Great Leap Forward, when many Chinese suffered the disastrous consequences of Mao’s policy failure, Rong’s family wealth meant he had a much easier time than many of his peers, and he always treated his friends to meals, and was widely regarded as a kind, generous person. After Rong graduated from Tianjin University in 1965, he had an internship in a hydraulic power plant in Jilin Province. In the following year, when the Cultural Revolution started, Rong’s life changed again. As his father was targeted by red guards and his family houses were destroyed, Rong was forced to work in the remote Liangshan minority region of Sichuan Province until the end of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, Rong Zhijian went to Hong Kong and met his grand-uncle Rong Zhongjin. With assistance from his family, he became active in the Hong Kong business world. Using family funds, Rong and his cousins Rong Zhijin and Rong Zhiqian jointly established the Elcap Electronics Plant in the New Territory. The company originally produced capacitors and toys, but later switched to integrated circuits and computer memory chips. In 1982, Rong Zhijian invested in the United States with funds earned from the plant. During the same year, he cooperated with a number of former IBM engineers to establish the California-based Automation Design Co., the first to specialize in computer-aided design software in the United States. Four years later, Rong Zhijian joined his father at CITIC and became a vice president and general manager of CITIC (Hong Kong), a part of CITIC Pacific. Rong’s first business success in Hong Kong came in 1989, when he sold his shares of AI stock to an American company. However it was the establishment of CITIC that marked the new beginning of his business career. With the help of his father, he became good friends with top businessmen such as Ka Shing (Jiacheng) Li and Helian Guo. Benefiting from China’s economic boom, CITIC Pacific’s earnings soared dramatically during the early 1990s. It owns 26 percent of Cathay Pacific Airways and is a partner of Wal-Mart in the Shanghai area. In December 1996, Rong and the CITIC Pacific Group purchased 330 million shares of CITIC Beijing stock from Jun Wang (CITIC Beijing) at 33 yuan per share, a 25
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percent discount; 290 million of those shares went directly to Rong’s personal account. In the following year, when his father was named vice president of China, his shares of stock increased to 380 million, making him the second largest stock owner in China next to CITIC Beijing. In August 1997, CITIC Pacific Group’s stock jumped to 53 yuan, and Rong’s assets increased to more than RMB200 billion. However during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Rong’s business also experienced fluctuations. When the CITIC Pacific price fell to 13.2 yuan, his stock mortgage account at the Commercial Bank was frozen, and rumors began to spread about the instability of his business. At this critical point, CITIC Beijing pumped RMB1.9 billion cash into the CITIC Pacific Group to bring the stock price back to a more normal level. Since then, Rong has never again denied that CITIC Pacific Group is a ‘red stock,’ and acknowledged for the first time that his company is a joint venture between private and state-owned enterprises. Currently, Rong continues to live a billionaire’s life in China, owning a luxurious house, a yacht, a private jet, and a forest, and each summer he invites his family and friends to vacation at a castle in southern England. Jian Zhang Sources China Vitae (2008), ‘Rong Zhijian, president of CITIC Pacific Limited’, accessed at http://chinavitae.com/ biography/Rong_Zhijian/bio. Forbes (2005), ‘Larry Rong Zhijian: China Richest list’, accessed at www.forbes-global.com/lists/2005/74/ JFGY.html. Wikipedia (2008), ‘CITIC’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITIC. Zhou, Zhong (2002), ਼ᖴ, ‘㤷ᱎع: 㑶㡆䌘ᴀᆊ’ [‘Rong Zhijian: Red Capitalist’], 㕞ජᰮ [Yangcheng Evening News], 2 March, accessed at http://finance.sina.com.cn/o/20020302/176235.html.
Shang, Fulin (ᇮ⽣ᵫb. 1951) State Security Exchange Commissioner Shang Fulin is the top regulatory official overseeing the Chinese exchange markets and has been instrumental in developing and implementing China’s investment oversight, market stability, and corporate governance initiatives. Shang brings 20 years in the banking sector to China’s Securities Regulation Commission. After serving in the army for four years and working for the Bank of China for five years, Shang pursued a university degree in finance from the Beijing Finance and Trade College. He went on to serve in numerous different banking management roles until 1993, when he attended the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, where he earned a doctorate in finance. Dedicated to public service, Shang is a party member and has served several times over the course of his career in various political roles, culminating with his current role as a member of the Central Planning Committee. Shang is directly involved in the systemic reform of China’s investment, market, and corporate governance systems. A believer in both the power of financial investment and balanced development investment, Shang has repeatedly vowed to embrace and promote market-oriented strategies for China’s investment markets. He continues to face the great responsibility of developing and implementing strategies that have to meet the growing pressures of double-digit growth and the differing pace of development in key sectors throughout the domestic economy. Shang must concurrently balance the many critical state goals inherent in his position, such as the promotion of financial markets, the diversification of investment instruments, the nurturing of institutional investors, and the establishment of a multi-layer market system, all while maintaining a position as the last word on corporate governance. Michael J. Miske Sources China Vitae (2007), ‘Biography of Shang Fulin’, accessed 9 October at www.chinavitae.org/biography/ Shang_Fulin. People’s Daily (2004), ‘Shang Fulin: enterprise board and an integrated securities market’, 20 May, accessed 9 October 2007 at http://englishpeopledaily.com.cn/200405/20/eng20040520_143857.html. people.com.cn (2008), ‘Shang Fu Lin Tong Zhi Tong Li’.
Shaw, Runrun (Shao, Yifu 䚉䘌b. 1907) A legendary Hong Kong media tycoon, Shaw is the chairman of the Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited, and the Shaw Brothers Film Company, a studio established by Shaw Runrun and his brother Shaw Runmei (Shao, Renmei). Many people believe that without the Shaw brothers, there would not have been a Kung Fu movie industry as we know it today. Sixth of eight siblings, Shaw was born in Shanghai in 1907. His father was the owner of the Shanghai Jin Tai Chang Paint Company. His affluent family background allowed Shaw to receive a Western education in the US. Graduating from high school at age 19, Shaw first followed his brother Runmei to Singapore to pursue a business opportunity; 148
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it was around that time that he began to develop personal interests in film production. In 1925, the Shaw brothers established the Tianyi Film Company in Shanghai and made Platinum Dragon, the first movie in Chinese film history to have a soundtrack. In the next few years, Shaw went to Singapore, Malaysia, and other regions to assist his brother in developing movie distribution networks. In addition to film distribution, the Shaw brothers also acquired and developed cinemas throughout the region, and grew to become a dominant firm in film production, distribution, and exhibition. In 1958, Shaw and his brother established Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. In the 1960s and 1970s, Shaw Brothers Studios was Hong Kong’s main driving force in film production. The brothers began by buying up cinemas all over Southeast Asia, creating an almost monopoly situation whereby they controlled what was shown. Their profits were reinvested in the company in the form of finance for their own movie productions, Shaw Brothers Films. Those films found a receptive audience, and as the money poured in from all over Asia, the quality of the films improved, which further enhanced their success. By the 1970s, the size of their group exceeded 200 screens, in addition to 600 more with distribution agreements, and several over 1000-seat grand houses in Hong Kong. The company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1971. Besides its own productions, Shaw Brothers also distributed international films, and invested in a number of co-productions, among them was Blade Runner in 1982, a Ridley Scott film classic starring Harrison Ford. In 1967, Shaw launched TVB, Hong Kong’s first wireless commercial television station. However by the 1980s, Hong Kong real estate values had begun to soar, and many of Shaw’s large cinemas were gradually converted for other commercial developments. Meanwhile Shaw had grown TVB into one of the top five television producers in the world based on output, and the world’s largest Chinese-language content provider. In order to focus on the burgeoning television business, Shaw Brothers started to pull back on feature film production in 1987. By that time, Shaw Brothers had produced more than 1000 films, many of which are now Chinese cinema classics. However, Shaw’s passion for film production did not cease with his new success in TV production and communication. In 2000, with little fanfare, the world’s most advanced film production and digital post-production facility started construction in Hong Kong. It became fully operational in March 2008, and situated at the gateway to China, and potentially the world’s largest film market, the US$180 million Shaw Studios is testimony to Shaw’s commitment to filmmaking in Hong Kong and the rest of the world. Besides his success in the media business, Shaw has donated more than HK$2 billion over the years to charities, schools, and hospitals, and many institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China are named after Shaw to honor his generosity, among them the Yifu Theater in Shanghai, and the Shaw College at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1974, Shaw was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his professional achievement and worldwide philanthropic contributions over several decades. In 2005, Shaw donated HK$10 million to the areas affected by the tsunami. Xiaoqi Yu Sources Hongsheng, Cai, Song Jialing and Liu Guiqing (eds) (2000), Xianggang Dianying Bashi Nian [80 Years of Hong Kong Film Industry], Beijing: Beijing Broadcasting Institute Press.
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Sina Entertainment (2005), ‘Ӵ༛Ҏ⠽䚉䘌ㅔҟ’ [‘Brief introduction of the legendary Shaw Runrun’], 12 April, accessed 25 September 2008 at http://ent.sina.com.cn/s/h/2005-04-12/1100700798.html. Time Online (1976), ‘The empire of Run Run Shaw’, 28 June, accessed at www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,911822,00.html.
Shen, Taifu (≜⽣ 1954–94) In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Shen Taifu was the chairperson and president of the Beijing Great Wall Machining and Electronic Co. He was known as a northeastern outsider and is forever linked to a major bribery and fraud scandal. His actions led to the loss of more than US$120 million and he was subsequently convicted of corruption and executed in 1994. In the aftermath of the scandal, information regarding Shen is limited. His case was one of the most high-profile business scandals in recent history for the People’s Republic of China. Called ‘the Great Wall bubble’, the crisis raised serious questions about the Chinese legal system and investor protection in China’s new market economy. Even though the case involved more than 100 government officials, Shen emerged as the major player in the scandal and paid with his life. Shen encouraged over 100 000 Chinese to purchase ‘junk bonds’ in order to support an electrical machine research project that was supposed to focus on power generation and energy. Shen needed start-up funds in order to finance the project and promised a 24 percent interest rate for investors. He bribed many officials, among them officials in the State Department of Science and Technology, so that they would confirm his company’s claims. While he took investors’ money, he failed to conduct research. Instead Shen used funds from investor A to pay interest to investor B, and so on in a classic pyramid scheme. At the same time, he opened branch offices and acquired hard assets, sinking deeply into debt. Shen, along with the government officials he bribed, pocketed the majority of investor funds. At the height of his ‘success’ Shen spent lavishly on luxury goods and entertaining. Shen was able to convince so many investors in part because he bribed several journalists to write positive articles about his company. With press and public officials, such as Li Xiaoshi, a deputy minister at the State Science and Technology Commission, supporting his claims, Shen was given greater and greater access to resource and capital and drew widespread investor support. The Chinese government finally got suspicious of Shen’s machinations when they discovered that he sold his shares through dance hall girls and other illegal means. They froze all his bank accounts and he was caught in March 1993 at the airport, just as he tried to flee the country. He was executed by firing squad on 11 April 1994. Only one accomplice, Li Xiaoshi, was arrested. No other government officials were implicated. While corruption and bribery were not unknown in business circles, Shen’s lack of party connections combined with his immoral business methods prompted Chinese officials to act decisively. Despite his fate, it should be noted that Shen was regarded as a smart and innovative businessman who researched and developed many legitimate products, such as a packaging and card reader machines. In the aftermath of Shen’s death little effort has been made to review the methods that allowed his actions to go unchecked. Julian Chambliss and Mareike Fetscherin
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Sources Miles, James A.R. (1996), The Legacy of Tiananmen: China in Disarray, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 157–61. Murray, Geoffrey (1995), Doing Business in China: The Last Great Market, New York: Routledge Curzon, p. 284. Weston, Timothy B. and Lionel M. Jensen (2000), China Beyond the Headlines, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, p. 40. Wu, Xiaobo [ਈᰧ⊶] (2008 , ЁӕϮ1978–2008:▔㤵ϝकᑈ [Chinese Enterprises 1978–2008: Thirty Years of Turbulence], Beijing: Zhongxin Press, accessed 5 October at http://blog.scol.com.cn/zsh21608/ archives/87890.html. Wudunn, Sheryl (1993), ‘China’s rude awakening to the art of the swindle’, New York Times, 30 June, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D7133BF933A05755C0 A965958260.
Shi, Xiaoyan (ᰧ➩ b. 1962) Shi Xiaoyang is CEO of the Beijing-based Illinois Investment Company Limited, a furniture company targeting middle-class, white-collar workers. In seven years, Shi has made a huge leap forward in her life: from a nurse in a Beijing hospital to a student studying abroad, from a housewife to a millionaire and the boss of a famous furniture company, and from owning a small shop to running a large auto theme park. With personal assets amounting to US$160 million, she was ranked in 2006 by the Hurun Report as the thirty-second richest Chinese retailer and the twenty-first richest woman in China. After graduating from a nursing school in Beijing, Shi first worked as a nurse at the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital. However not only was she frustrated by the tedious and boring nature of her assignment, but her low monthly salary of 70 yuan meant that life in the Chinese capital was a struggle. In 1984, therefore, Shi job-hopped to a foreign company, although at that time changing careers was very unusual in China. Shi did not know how to use a typewriter or a computer, but as a smart, capable, and quick minded individual, she still won the appreciation of her employer. Later Shi reflected upon this experience: ‘even today I am not really able to use the computer. What I am interested in is dealing with people. That is my principle: I will do what I can and I won’t bother to do what I am not skilled at’ (Women of China, 2007). After marriage, she could not be satisfied as a housewife, and a trip abroad inspired her entry into the furniture industry. In 1989, her husband moved to Singapore to work in the headquarters of an IT company. There she realized that in developed countries people’s personal values are embodied in their lifestyles. She also observed the delicate design of furniture and other household appliances. Therefore she decided to major in interior design at the University of Chicago, while keeping an eye on both international fashion trends and China’s economic development. From 1993 to 1994, she studied highquality materials, brands, and design concepts, constructing a solid foundation for her future career success. ‘Almost all my lessons in the US were taught in museums, instead of the classrooms with boring theories,’ Shi noted, ‘for example, I learnt most of the knowledge about the wooden veneer from a veneer processing manufacturer. So I know about wooden skin products and ways they combine together’ (Ibid). Even today, Shi still spends time visiting museums and art exhibitions to seek inspiration. Realizing the huge potential of the domestic furniture industry, Shi returned to China
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in the mid-1990s to begin a new career in the field. After a few setbacks, including losing US$3 million, she and her husband established a small furniture factory imitating the design and style of foreign brands as well as importing actual foreign products. Because of the low price and novel style, her Illinois brand was gradually accepted by customers in Beijing. Yet this strategy of copying Western designs did not last long, and Shi started to think about establishing her own furniture design shop. Since 2000, after researching the international furniture market, she has defined and developed Illinois’ unique style – new classic, postmodernism. This soon became a real hit, attracting not only Chinese customers, but also interest from abroad. Shi often says, ‘Style keeps changing and I never stop working’ (Ibid). Whenever she encounters difficulties, she is able to find a solution. She brings her camera to every exhibition, and takes pictures of whatever she likes. She continues to travel abroad monthly to keep up with the latest trends, and invites top designers around the world to design in her studio. Her insight into the market and her sense of aesthetics enables her company to stay at the cutting edge of furniture design. Shi’s business continues to expand. In addition to the 10 000-square meter furniture outlet and her own product lines, Illinois is also an agent for many famous brands, including Giorgetti from Italy, Rolf Benz from Germany, and Roche Bobois from France. Apart from running a furniture company, Shi has also established China’s first auto theme park located near Beijing Capital International Airport. With an investment of over 50 million yuan, it is the only one of its kind in Northern China. It is a place where people can purchase automobiles, and participate in auto racing and other related activities. Looking forward, Shi has even more ambitious plans to build shopping malls, hotels, and golf courses in the surrounding area. Shirley Ze Yu Sources Women of China (2007), ‘Shi Xiaoyan: from a nurse to a billionaire’, 3 December, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.womenofchina.cn/Profiles/Businesswomen/200571.jsp. Hurun Report (2006), ‘2006 richest women in China list’, December, accessed at www.hurun.net/ detailcn57,people36.aspx.
Shi, Yuzhu (⥝᷅ b. 1962) Founder and CEO of the Giant Hi-Tech Group, Shi Yuzhu was also a major force behind such famous health supplements as ‘Platinum Gold’ [Nao Bai Jin] and ‘Golden Partners’ [Huangjin Dadang]. Most recently, he created a stir by developing and launching hit online multiplayer videogame, Zhengtu. A pioneering private entrepreneur, Shi’s career has been colorful and controversial. Quick success and nationwide fame in the early 1990s was followed by a financial collapse in 1997 when his new business ventures failed miserably and turned him into one of the biggest private debtors in China. However, he has enjoyed an amazing comeback since the early 2000s. Shi Yuzhu graduated from Zhejiang University with a degree in mathematics in 1984, and completed a masters degree in computer software and management from Shenzhen University in 1989. Soon after that, he quit his uninspiring civil servant job in Anhui Province, moved back to Shenzhen, and ventured into the business world. With only 4000 yuan start-up money and no business connections, he plunged into software
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development. Within a few months, through hard work and good advertising strategies, he made a fortune by selling the M-6401 word processing software that he himself had developed. Shi was only 27 years old at the time. In the following year, he founded the Giant New Tech Group. He named the company ‘giant’ hoping someday to turn it into China’s IBM and a great computer company of the East. Two years later, the company was moved from Shenzhen to Zhuhai in Guangdong Province. It was renamed Zhuhai Giant Hi-Tech Group and continued its successful streak by selling a series of word processing software. As a result of software development and good marketing, the company’s revenue grew rapidly. By the end of 1992, the Giant Company had established eight branch offices and made a net profit of 35 million yuan. In 1993, Shi was acclaimed as an Outstanding Scientific Entrepreneur of Guangdong Province. In 1994, he was selected as one of the Top Ten Reform Celebrities in China. In 1995, Forbes ranked him as the eighth richest person in China. In the meantime, however, growing nationwide fame, the entry into the competitive Chinese market of many reputable international computer companies and the declaration of bankruptcy in 1992 by the renounced Wang An Company, a computer company headquartered in Massachusetts specializing especially in word processing, all made Shi Yuzhu rethink the future of the company. He initiated new business strategies essentially through diversifying the company’s activities. The company’s major new ventures were in real estate investment and healthcare products. The real estate venture failed as a result of a number of problems within the company including mismanagement, overexpansion and overinvestment. The planned construction of a 70-story skyscraper failed to materialize and the company fell into a grave financial crisis as it had borrowed money heavily from various places. By 1997, Shi Yuzhu had become a notorious financial failure and was even referred to as China’s number-one debtor as a result of the massive debt his company had incurred. Over the next few years, he seemed to disappear from the public scene. Meanwhile, he quietly led a small group of researchers working on a new health supplement in Shanghai. Thus, in the early 2000s, Shi re-entered the business community, launching onto the market Nao Bai Jin (platinum gold), a melatonin health product. Shi started a vigorous television campaign, proclaiming the brand as something pertaining to a miracle substance and essential to facilitate sleep, maintain good health, and prolong life. Using catchy phrases, the advertising campaign proclaimed Nao Bai Jin as the most desirable gift to one’s parents. The highly effective (if somewhat controversial) television ads for the brand helped build a solid sales base and generated billions of yuan for Shi and his company. The spectacular sales of Nao Bai Jin became one of the great growth and marketing stories. Shi Yuzhu was successful once again. Gradually as television viewers experienced fatigue with the bombardment of Shi’s advertisement, they also began to express doubts about the miraculous effects of the health products as proclaimed by Shi Yuzhu’s company. Consequently, sales started to fall. Shi made a surprise move once again, selling the business and then launching an online game, Zhengtu, in 2004. Over the next few years, the multiplayer online game attracted over one million players, became one of the largest gaming sites in China, and generated huge revenue for Shi’s company. Shi came under fire again for his marketing strategies as the company ran TV adverts despite the official ban on video game commercials on TV and also, among other things, for Zhengtu’s alleged violent content. Shi
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Yuzhu, however, continued with his expansion plans by having his online gaming company, Giant Interactive, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007. He was ranked as China’s fifteenth richest person by the Hurun Report in 2007. Hong Zhang Sources economy.enorth.com.cn (2006), ‘“ᎼҎ”⥝᷅ Ё᳔㨫ৡⱘ༅䋹㗙’ [‘“Giant” Shi Yuzhu: China’s most famous failure’] (2006), 11 July. Zhu, Yingzhi (2007), ≝⍂⥝᷅ [The Story of Shi Yuzhu], Beijing: Contemporary Publisher of China.
Shi, Zhengrong (ᮑℷ㤷 b. 1963) Shi Zhengrong is the founder, chairman and CEO of Suntech Power (Shangde), a leading solar energy company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: STP), and the largest solar module manufacturer in the world. Hailed as ‘China’s sunshine boy’, and ‘hero of the environment’, Shi was ranked 350th among the world’s richest people in 2006 by Forbes. Shi and his older twin brother were born in a farming community on Yangzhong Island in Jiangsu Province in 1963. Destitute after the great famine and already supporting two children, Shi’s parents gave him up for adoption. Growing up, Shi excelled in school and by age 16 he had enrolled in Changchun University of Science and Technology in Northeast Jilin Province, where he received a bachelors degree in optical science in 1983. Three years later Shi earned a masters degree in laser physics from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Arriving in Australia as a foreign exchange scholar in 1988, Shi received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of New South Wales in 1992 under the supervision of Martin A. Green, a renowned world leader in photovoltaics. From 1992 to 1995, Shi was a senior research scientist and the leader of the thin film solar cells research group in the Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales, the only government-sponsored PV industry research center in Australia. From 1995 to 2001, he worked as a research and executive director of Pacific Solar Ltd, an Australian PV company engaged in the commercialization of next-generation thin film technology. In 2001, Shi returned to China as an Australian citizen, and headed a solar-cell startup company in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province with 20 workers. With unrelenting motivation, $6 million from the local Wuxi government and the additional assistance of his former UNSW colleagues, Shi soon had his first factory up and running, and sales boomed as the market for solar technology rapidly expanded. Shi belongs to China’s new generation of entrepreneurs. He holds 11 patents in PV technologies and has published or presented a number of articles and papers in scientific journals and at conferences. In recognition of his contribution to China’s PV industry and the worldwide applications of PV technology, Shi was awarded in October 2005 the ‘PV-SEC Prize’ at the International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, the only award winner who was from business. On 15 December 2005, Suntech successfully completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. As China’s first private high-
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tech corporation, the company has attracted investment from the mainstream international capital market and earned the highest market value in the world PV industry. In May of the following year Shi was awarded the ‘Best Entrepreneur Prize’ by the Southern California Asian Society, and in August he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the NYSE. With a current market value of $6 billion, Suntech Power continues to expand at a phenomenal rate. Full of energy himself, Shi envisions his company growing to the size of oil conglomerates, as the world increasingly shifts from fossil fuels to renewable energy. His trailblazing efforts have also inspired six other former UNSW students to play a leading role in successful Chinese solar ventures of their own. As a result, China seems poised to overtake Japan as the global leader in solar-cell manufacturing. Weidong Zhang Sources Green, Martin (2007), ‘Heroes of the environment: Shi Zhengrong’, Time, accessed 26 September 2008 at www. time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1663317_1663322_1669932,00.html. Suntech (2008), ‘Biographies: Shi Zhengrong’, accessed 26 September at www.suntech-power.com/Default. aspx?tabid=383.
Shih, Stan (Shi, Zhenrong ᮑᤃ㤷 b. 1944) Stan Shih is the founder of the top-ranked computer company, Acer. With its brand value and R&D capability, Acer’s expansion of manufacturing bases into the Chinese mainland has greatly improved the overall strength in computer production and market potential, both for the company itself and for the greater China region. Stan Shih started his career as an R&D engineer for an IC company, Uniworld. Among his engineer colleagues, Shih was the first person to commercialize the results of his own research, and he believes that companies should consider commercialization carefully and as early as possible. He invented the first desktop calculator in Taiwan, after which he was promoted to serve as the head of the semi-conductor unit. Shih’s hard work and professional achievement had earned him respect in the industry, but in search of better growth opportunities he decided to leave the company and join an entrepreneurial team at Qualitron electronics. His major responsibility was to develop new computers and explore business opportunities in this product area. After working diligently on the assignment, he devised several attractive products including palm-top calculators. When Shih became the vice president of the company, he was sent to Los Angeles, California to attend the PPS4 conference held by the Rockwell Company, which was aimed to enable professionals to exchange ideas about computer central processing units (CPUs). This was the first time that Shih had come into contact with advanced microprocessor knowledge and technology, and it opened a new horizon for him. Leaving Qualitron for personal reasons, in 1976 Shih decided to start a new venture of his own, the Acer Company, in which microprocessors would be the core product in his business blueprint. In the beginning, Acer was the sales and marketing agent for Zilog microprocessors, which were compatible with Intel’s microprocessor structure. Acer gained much information from this experience and turned the information into published knowledge, with
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its magazines entitled 0 and 1 Technology and The Third Wave. The outlets not only helped in marketing the Microprofessors computer series, but also made Third Wave Publishing one of the largest publishers of computer-related books. Furthermore, Shih’s global vision convinced him to incorporate international collaboration into the company’s growth strategy. Under his leadership, Acer was also the agent for Texas Instrument (TI) and AMD (Advanced Micro Devices). Meanwhile, Shih made great efforts in establishing global supplier and customer networks and tried to learn as much as he could from those strategic actions. By the time the Microprofessors II series had been developed, Acer owned over 40 distributors in more than 20 countries and a logistics center in the Netherlands. In order to take Acer from good to great, Shih firmly believed the best approach was to operate globally in diverse markets. To accomplish this goal, Shih instilled a number of critical elements into the company’s strategy and actions. These included, among others, becoming an international brand, mergers and acquisitions with international companies, and attracting international capital and funds. Acer recruited internationally to support its globalization and transformation goal. However, the inclusion of new human resources created drastic changes in the original personnel structure and was resisted by tenured employees. Furthermore, the rapid expansion through M&A did not generate the expected revenue. On the contrary, the cost and investment for the merged or acquired companies constituted potential impediments for profit sharing. The overzealous transformation and misinterpretation of market trends forced Acer to face a difficult period. Nevertheless, Acer managed to grow more gradually by applying its global marketing and brand strategies. Besides the US market, Acer’s experience in European markets has become an unrivaled success story. The smart design of effective products, and segment and channel strategies increased Acer’s shipment from 800 000 units in 1998 to over 2.8 million by 2003. In more recent years, expansion has been directed to mainland China because of the unstoppable trend of the powerful Chinese market in terms of both volume and human resources. From the beginning, Acer contributed to Chinese economic development by setting up production plants in the mainland. For instance, Acer Peripherals has moved its whole monitor manufacturing business to Suzhou. Moreover, Acer collaborated with major distributors in China, such as Digital China, to broaden the sales channels. Acer also entered a partnership with Suning, a Chinese electronics retailer, to bring Acer products to Suning’s chain stores in the Chinese mainland. This approach may enable Acer to continue to expand in China and reach its customers more directly. As an intelligent businessman, Shih has made continual efforts to learn and to master new management and strategic concepts. The concepts he proposed, like the smiling curve that emphasized both research and development and brand marketing, has helped transform his tiny start-up into the number-4 branded PC vendor in the world. The wellrespected entrepreneur has now reconstructed his identity as a teacher for business foundation and growth. After retirement from business, he has transformed himself into a business knowledge promoter and consultant for other firms. His newest venture, iD SoftCapital Group, currently manages assets worth NT$33 billion, and a total fund size of NT$14.5 billion divided between venture capital, incubation, and engineering funds, facilitating more innovative activities for new generation business entrepreneurs. Fu-Sheng Tsai
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Sources Acer (2007), official website accessed at http://global.acer.com/index.asp. Chen, R.H. (1997), Made in Taiwan: The Story of Acer Computer, New York: McGraw Hill. China Tech News (2007), ‘Suning enters strategic partnership with Acer’, 31 October. Kajita, H. and P. Paoli (2005), ‘Acer in Europe: strategy and key success factor analysis’, IDC Research. Shih, S. (2000), iO – Management in Knowledge Economy, Taipei: Commonwealth Publishing. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Microprofessor I’, accessed 23 September at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Microprofessor_I.
Song, Weiping (ᅟिᑇ b. 1957) Ranked twenty-seventh on the Hurun Report 400 richest Chinese list with $1 billion in assets, Song Weiping made his money through his real estate business, Greentown China Group, which was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2006. Greentown China Group has developed many real estate projects in Hangzhou, a beautiful tourist city and one of the best business locations in China. Song is also known across China for his soccer team, which goes by his company name, Greentown. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, Song’s parents moved to the Zhoushan Islands where the family experienced first-hand the bitter period of the Chinese natural disasters in the early 1960s, when people had hardly enough food to eat. Despite the hardship, Song found the experience helpful in strengthening his willpower. As an elementary school student, he read many classical works and demonstrated an interest in arts, which greatly influenced his later career in many ways. In 1982 Song graduated from Hangzhou University with a bachelor of arts in history. After working for five years as a teacher in a school for members of the Chinese Communist Party, he left for Zhuhai in 1987 and worked at a computer company, where he rose from a secretary to become group manager. In 1994, Song returned to Hangzhou and decided to do business in real estate, which he thought required less technology than other industries. With faith in his own management skills and RMB150 000 borrowed from friends, he embarked on the journey with five colleagues. Later he borrowed 3 million yuan for land bidding and gradually expanded Greentown China Group to its current size. Song is well known for his sense of timing and exploitation of opportunity, always wining the targets for which he bids. He has the razor-sharp mind that is so necessary for a successful businessman. In little over a decade, Greentown China Group has accumulated property worth RMB2 billion, and made Song one of the richest people in China. However, there is more to Song than business. He developed a passion for soccer at a young age, when he was still a PE instructor. On 15 January 1998, he launched his Zhejiang Lücheng Soccer Club, which made him an overnight sensation among diehard Chinese sports fans. Two years later he bought a soccer team, renamed it Lücheng and invested RMB85 million – equal to two-thirds of his revenue in 2001. Shortly after he ignited a media war on the so-called ‘black whistles’, and for months made himself a celebrity in sports news. From the end of 2001 to April 2002, Song was at the center of the storm, revealing a list of corrupt referees in the Chinese Professional Soccer League. After several years’ endeavour, Lücheng Soccer succeeded in becoming one of China’s Super League (Level A) teams in 2006, ranked 9th out of 15 teams in the league.
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Although soccer has been both his love and sorrow, Song has more recently once again devoted his energy to his real estate business, which he describes as his true battlefield. A tycoon in real estate while still modest and thrifty in person, Song has forever changed the business landscape and left his mark in the Hangzhou metro region of Southeastern China. Huang, Lujin Sources 21fuhao.com (2007), ‘Song Weiping: An Idealist’, 2 April. Forbes.com (2007), ‘The world’s billionaires’, 3 August. Hurun.com (2006), ‘The 400 richest Chinese: no. 27 Song Weiping’, 11 February. Shanghai Star (2007), ‘In the name of fair play’, 3 July.
Sun, Guangxin (ᄭᑓֵ b. 1962) In 2002 Sun Guangxin was ninety-second on the Forbes list of the 100 richest people in China. At age 44, his estimated net worth of $316 million had increased from $272 million in the previous year. His influence on western China has chiefly been the result of his role in the economic development of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. His company, the Guanghui Group, accounts for almost 10 percent of Urumuqi’s tax bill. Also he has successfully persuaded the government of Xinjiang to transport liquefied natural gas by rail and road to the rest of China. Sun was born into a large Han family in Urumuqi, capital and largest city of Xinjiang, Northwest China. His family originally migrated from their ancestral home in Shandong Province on the east coast. Sun is the youngest of five children, and his father worked as a cobbler. Joining the army at the age of 18 allowed Sun to receive a college education, eventually earning him a postgraduate degree from the Anhui Military College. He served nine years in the People’s Liberation Army and participated in the China-Vietnam border war. At the age of 27, after he was denied a promotion to army commander, he resigned and began to work as a sales agent for a company specializing in bulldozing equipment in Xinjiang. In 1989, he formed the Xinjiang Guanghui Limited Company along with seven other decommissioned army men. He purchased the loss-making Guangdong Wine House for RMB670 000 and converted the space into a seafood restaurant. Seafood dining was particularly unusual in Xinjiang because it is a landlocked province, and eating at restaurants was not very common at the end of the 1980s in China. In order to ensure the best quality of food and service at the new venture, he brought fresh seafood from over 2000 miles away. The restaurant did, however, attract many wealthy patrons; some were even willing to spend up to RMB5000 (approximately US$400) for a single meal. In the early 1990s, during an oil exploration boom in Xinjiang, Sun learned through his co-workers of the potentially lucrative business opportunities that oil-drilling equipment had to offer. Within three years of deciding to enter the oil-drilling industry, Guanghui imported approximately $87 million worth of oil-drilling equipment, which accounted for approximately 20 percent of the total import bill of Xinjiang. In early 1993, Sun decided to expand his company into other industries. He began to learn about realty by working in real estate firms for one week at a time to gather sufficient
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information to enter the industry successfully on his own. Today, Sun controls about 60 percent of apartment sales in Urumuqi. Over time, the Xinjiang Guanghui Limited Company has evolved into what is known today as the Guanghui Enterprise Group, of which Sun is CEO and chairman of the board of directors. The group is comprised of three main levels: the Guanghui Industry Investment (Group) Co., acting as the center of investment and decision-making; the All Industrial Groups Level, which coordinates business, share-holding, and market development; and the Subsidiary Companies Level, which ensures that goals are met, as well as maintaining contacts with production and business entities. Aldo Ahlers Jr and Marc Fetscherin Sources aboutxinjiang.com (2006), ‘Management of Guanghui Group’, 6 December, accessed 22 September 2008 at www.aboutxinjiang.com/Biz/content/2006-12/06/content_1446500.htm. China Vitae (2006), ‘Sun Guangxin’, accessed 22 September 2008 at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Sun_ Guangxin/bio. Forbes (2002), ‘The 400 richest Chinese’, 11 November, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://members.forbes. com/global/2002/1111/058.html. Vicziany, M. and G. Zhang (2004), ‘The rise of the private sector in Xinjiang: Han and Uygur entrepreneurship’, 1 August, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-con ference/2004/Vicziany+Zhang-ASAA2004.pdf.
Sun, Hongbin (ᄭᅣ᭠ b. 1964) Until early 2007, Sun Hongbin, the founder of Beijing-based Sunco Property Group, was the instrumental mastermind behind the group’s ascension to its position as China’s largest real estate developer. Since 1994, Sunco has been shaking up China’s real estate industry through speedy development, rapid growth, and aggressive advertising campaigns in a quest to outpace the best, such as main rival Vanke, with which it competed head-to-head in 2005 with sales of US$1.2 billion based on purchases. Sun Hongbin’s rise was achieved in some 13 years, starting out with a property agency business in his hometown of Tianjin in 1994, and expanding into a real estate brokerage chain by 1996. His experience as a property agent was also the foundation of his secret strategy for gaining local intelligence: ‘We normally send our property agency into a new city first, allowing it to get a firm understanding of market demand, before starting with developments’ (Hoogewerf, 2004). Sun’s big breakthrough arrived in July 2002, when the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources issued a directive stipulating that henceforth all government land was to be exclusively sold at public auctions, which triggered Sunco’s nationwide expansion. Under Sun’s aggressive growth and marketing strategies, sales nearly tripled each year thereafter, from US$110 million in 2001 to US$1.2 billion in 2005. Content with this success, Sun prided himself on the advantages of size: ‘We will benefit from financing advantages, human capital advantages (the better people will want to work at the best place) and execution advantages’ (Ibid). Besides fierce competition, Sun Hongbin also understood the value of partnership. Among of his favorite partners were Tianjin Trust, Tianjin municipal government, Binhai municipal government, Jinbin Development, Tianbao Holdings, Tianjin Daily,
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and Lenovo, Sun’s former employer. In April 2004 he also explored partnerships with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Trust as well as two other international investors, and since 2006 Softbank Asia has paid US$30 million for a 15 percent holding and the US venture firm Carlyle invested another US$15 million for 7.5 percent of his company. After reaching the highpoint of his success in 2005, Sun unsuccessfully waged a drive for a listing, and then began to divest into other businesses. First he resigned all official positions and began giving out shares to his key cadres who were already compensated more plentifully than the high-ranking employees at Motorola, also headquartered in Tianjin, to which Sun liked to compare his management salaries. By early 2007, Sun retained only a 5.26 percent stake in Sunco, which was after the Hong Kong-listed Road King Infrastructure Ltd acquired 39.74 percent for 1.3 billion yuan in January 2007, on top of the 55 percent that it had already acquired in September 2006 for 1.27 billion yuan. Analysts attributed this divestiture to cash flow problems at Sunco. It seemed unrealistically aggressive for a RMB1 billion company to develop over 7 million square meters simultaneously. This was complicated by several coinciding factors: after an initially lax period, the central government finally began to implement more forcefully the 2002 directive, which would have benefited companies like Sunco since it would close loopholes and make it harder for small land speculators to maintain their businesses using connections with the banks or local governments; however at the same time, the government also enforced better protection to former occupiers of land, as reflected in a recent change in the constitution, which offered legal protection of private property. Consequently it has become much more expensive to tear down old houses and relocate the former occupants. While lamenting his extraordinary US$1.2 billion expenditure in the first half of 2005, Sun still denied that all this, coming amidst the credit crunch that started in China in May 2005, would affect Sunco: ‘We already have our land bank, so our advantages will become more obvious. The only change is that the credit crunch will slow down our expansion because of the difficulty to gain bank financing in the near future’ (Ibid). However Sun did not stick around to test his assumptions as Sunco was sold at the end of January, 2007. Prior to his real estate fame, Sun received a masters from China’s elite Tsinghua University, and worked for Lenovo for several years. He is also notorious for serving a fouryear prison sentence in the early 1990s for a conviction that was later overturned. He also completed a two-month executive management course at the Harvard Business School. Jonatan Jelen Sources China Daily (2007), ‘Road king acquires Sunco’, 30 January, accessed at http://china.org.cn/english/ BAT/198148.htm. Forbes (2005), ‘China rich list: #36 Sun Hongbin’, accessed at www.forbes.com/lists/2005/74/S995.html. Hoogewerf, Rupert (2004), ‘Sung Hongbin: spoiling the party’, Hurun Report, accessed 4 October 2008 at www.hurun.net/showmagazineencontent12.aspx.
Sy, Henry Sr (Shi, Zhicheng ᮑ㟇៤ b. 1924) Henry Sy Sr serves as an example of how individual drive and the Chinese cultural passion for entrepreneurship can combine to serve oneself, one’s native land and one’s
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new, adopted homeland. Through tenacity during hard economic and political times Henry Sy Sr grew opportunities into wealth and connected that wealth back to the Chinese economy in the form of the supplier/manufacture relationships that feed his ever-growing retail conglomerate. Mr Sy is a retailer extraordinaire with investments throughout Asia, focusing on the Philippines and China. His current position as chairman and owner of SM Investments Corporation (Philippines), with a personal net worth of over $2.6 billion emphasizes the drive that has taken him so far from his humble beginnings in Jinjiang, China. Sy left China at the age of 12 to join his entrepreneurial father who operated a small business in Manila, Philippines. During World War II, Sy’s father returned to China but Henry stayed in Manila to make a life for himself in the world of retail. At 19, the future SM founder and chairman became a well-rounded merchandising middleman in his own right. Never one to rest on his laurels, however, Sy became store manager and partnered with an American shoe trader to take advantage of the local shoe manufacturing industry and develop relationships with the new foreign power in Manila. Sy opened his first sole-proprietor shoe store in Quiapo (a market center within Metro Manila) in 1948. The first Shoemart (SM) store opened in Carriedo (also in Metro Manila) in 1958. SM eventually supplemented its shoe and apparel lines with accessories and developed into a household name synonymous with retailing throughout the Philippines. In time, department stores were transformed into ‘supermalls,’ which included a company-owned supermarket and appliance store, several retail tenants, and skating rinks in select malls. Sy pioneered the concept of one-stop shopping for leisure, dining, and entertainment, with SM supermalls positioned as the ideal place for families and friends to gather in airconditioned comfort. The feel of the SM supermalls is represented in their slogan: ‘We’ve got it all for you.’ Henry Sy led his family’s economic return to China in 2003 with the opening of the first mall (120 000 square meters), in Xiamen. By 2007 Sy operated three malls located in Xiamen (Fujian Province), Chengdu (Sichuan Province), and Jiaxing City (Zhejiang Province). A fourth mall located on a seven-hectare property in Chongqing, China should be operational by 2009. The year 2007 was a busy one for Henry Sy Sr as he received accolades and continued to expand his business empire. Sy, owner of the biggest chain of shopping malls in the Philippines (SM Prime operated 30 malls nationwide as of end 2007, 13 of which are in Metro Manila with a combined gross floor area of 3.9 million sq. meters and average daily shopping traffic of 2.5 million), received the award of Philippine Top Retailer at the 2007 Retail Asia Top 500 in Tokyo, Japan, and was conferred an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Management (Honoris Causa) from the Board of Regents of the University of Guam (UOG). At the same time, the SM Mall of Asia and SM Megamall were cited by Forbes as two of the largest malls in the world. In addition to shopping centers and retail merchandising (SM Prime Holdings and SM Department Stores), Mr Sy and his family oversee the dynamic SM group including businesses in banking (Banco de Oro Universal Bank), real estate and tourism (SM Development Corp. and Highlands Prime, Inc.). As a business leader, Sy is known to take well-calculated risks. On a personal level, the 82-year old maintains a low profile, preferring to work at home surrounded by his wife, Felicidad, and his six children. Sy generally avoids publicity and is known as a man of
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few words. At the same time, he is admired for his foresight, innovation, and passion for business and is an inspiration to entrepreneurs. In addition to his business empire, Sy contributes to the community through the SM Foundation Inc. Under the foundation’s four advocacy areas – education, mall-based outreach, health, and religious community projects – Sy helps the less fortunate in the communities SM serves. Mary Conway Dato-on Sources Business World (Philippines) (2007), ‘Top retailer: Henry Sy, Sr’, 16 December. Forbes (2007), ‘The world’s billionaires: #349 Henry Sr’, 8 March, accessed 8 February 2008 at http://www. forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Henry-Sy_8U2J.html. Lopez, Tony (2005), ‘Management lessons from Henry Sy’, 5 September, accessed 8 February 2008 at http:// finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/esef_phils/message/102. Philippine Star (2006), ‘Henry Sy’s climb up to his personal Mt Everest’, 23 May. The SM Foundation (2008), accessed 12 February 2008 at http://www.sm-foundation.org/. SM Investments (2008), accessed 12 February 2008 at http://www.storyland.com.ph/News.php.
Tan, Xuguang (䈁ᯁܝb. 1961) Former plant manager of the Weifang Diesel Engine Factory, Tan Xuguang is the president and CEO of Weichai Power Co., and president of the Torch Automobile Group Co., Ltd. Striving with wisdom and good faith, Tan successfully steered a loss-making state-owned enterprise into the position of a leading diesel engine producer in the country. Tan received his primary and secondary education from 1968–77, the ten troubled years when China was convulsed with the Cultural Revolution. In 1977, when his father was due for retirement, following the common practice at the time in China’s planned economy, Tan took his father’s place and started a career in the Weifang Diesel Engine Factory, the precursor of Weichai Power. From the age of 16, he worked as a member of the technical staff for ten years, moving on to take up managerial positions, including the deputy director of the factory’s foreign trade department, the general manager of Weichai Import & Export Co., assistant to the manager, and deputy manager of the factory. However in 1998, the factory ran into financial difficulties. It was unable to meet its payroll obligations for six months for its 13 600 employees, and had 300 million yuan of debts and a deficit of another 300 million yuan. These were the circumstances under which the 37-year-old Tan was appointed as plant manager. With great effort, he managed to obtain a loan from the state bank and covered the payments to the employees. Shortly after, he restarted the production line and undertook a series of reforms, making the factory more market-oriented. By 2001, the factory finally erased its debts and began to make profits. In 2004, Weichai Power became the first Chinese diesel engine enterprise to be listed in Hong Kong and to achieve sales revenue of above 10 billion yuan. It was also the first domestic enterprise to develop and attain completely independent intellectual property rights for its Euro III high-power engine. More significantly, its sales volume for 10L engines exceeded 140 000 units, breaking the world record for single brand sales. In 2005, with RMB1 billion, Weichai Power acquired Torch Automobile Group, China’s largest gearbox producer, together with a vehicle factory. This was not only the largest cash-for-stock acquisition at the time, but also achieved integration between power train, auto parts, and commercial vehicles – the three major elements of the heavy-duty truck value chain. By the end of 2007, Weichai Power had reached a revenue of more than 40 billion yuan through the sales of 300 000 engines, 500 000 gearboxes, and 60 000 heavy-duty trucks. Tan attributes his success to continual innovation. First of all, Weichai Power became ever more market-oriented after various institutional innovations. Technological innovation is embodied in a progressive process from technology transfer and assimilation to the generation of indigenous technology and brands. By applying its power technology to heavy-duty vehicles, engineering machines, buses and in other fields, the group managed to duplicate its success in product innovation. More than 30 new products have been developed every year, accounting for over 43 percent of the company’s total industrial output value. Meanwhile, the group launched service innovation through establishing a wide after-sales network consisting of over 2000 service stations in and outside China. In particular, the 16 offices and 20 service stations abroad ensured the company’s smooth expansion into global markets. What is more, Weichai Power has undergone a series of organizational innovations. A large engine manufacturer by nature, the group 163
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not only became a listed company through acquisition and capital operation, but also accomplished organic as well as external expansion through better management and resource integration. Three decades have passed since his first day in Weichai Power and Tan is senior technician, foreign trader, executive and more. His next objective is to guide Weichai Power towards capital, brand, technology, and management globalization, and to achieve annual sales revenue of 50 billion yuan before 2010. Hua Wang Sources ‘Tan Xuguang: Weichai Group goes beyond 40 billion sales’, CCTV (2007), 21 December, accessed 29 September 2007 at http://hd.cctv.com/special/C19755/20071221/103847.shtml. Ϫ⬠㒣⧚Ҏ [World Executive Network] (2005), ‘Tan Xuguang from Weichai Power talks about innovation’, 12 December, accessed 29 September 2007 at http://machine.icxo.com/htmlnews/2005/12/12/736915_0. htm.
Tang, Wanxin (ϛᮄ b. 1964) President of D’Long Strategic Investments, Tang Wanxin was once one of China’s most prosperous entrepreneurs, only to succumb to a scandalous fall in 2004 that resulted in the loss of billions of yuan and a lengthy prison term. Tang Wanxin was born on 3 April 1964 into a family of mid-level government bureaucrats in Urumqi, capital city of the Xinjiang Uygur Minority Autonomous Region. Tang’s father, an engineer in the Urumqi Municipal Urban Construction Bureau, and his mother, a director in the city’s park and recreation office, were natives of Shaanxi Province. The youngest of five children, Tang enrolled in the China Petroleum University in Shandong Province in 1981, only to drop out of school a year later and move to Beijing. In 1983 he restarted his studies at the Xinjiang Petroleum Institute in Urumqi, but entrepreneurial desires again caused him to quit school in 1985. In 1986 Tang, his brothers and several ex-classmates founded a company named the D’Long Group. Their first business venture was to ship camera film from Xinjiang to Guangdong Province in Eastern China, where the cost of development was substantially cheaper. D’Long soon branched out into entertainment, computers, and tourism industries. In the early 1990s the Tang brothers took their chances in China’s nascent stock market and quickly made tens of millions of yuan, which was used to expand their business. In the late 1990s D’Long subsidiary Xinjiang Tunhe, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1996, emerged to become Xinjiang’s largest tomato paste producer, outcompeting government-run facilities in this lucrative export market. Within a few short years Tunhe controlled 80 percent of the region’s tomato paste production. By the end of the decade the Tang brothers had become some of the wealthiest individuals in the country and headed one of the fastest growing companies in China. By 2003 D’Long was the controlling partner in five firms, worth billions of yuan, and all listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges: agro-business giant Xinjiang Tunhe Group Co. Ltd, 9.5 billion yuan; alloy supplier Shenyang Hejin, 683 million yuan; auto parts manufacturer Torch Investment, 611 million yuan; Zhongyan Textile, 119 million yuan; and cement producer Xinjiang Tianshan, 56 million yuan. From 2000 to
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2004 the group aggressively sought to acquire companies both in China and abroad, leveraging their buyouts with borrowed money that carried annual interest rates as high as 20 percent from private sources and 5 percent from banks. In 2003 alone D’Long took over textile producer Qingfeng Group Co. Ltd in Jiangsu Province; purchased a controlling stake in GZL International Travel Service in Guangdong; and announced that subsidiary Torch Investment planned to acquire a majority stake in Aerospace Brilliance Holdings Co., which produced minivans in a joint venture with France’s Renault. D’Long investments even included a decommissioned Soviet-era aircraft carrier, The Minsk, converted into a theme park in Shenzhen. The Tang brother’s most ambitious acquisitions, and notable failures, were abroad. In 2000 D’Long purchased US-based lawnmower and bicycle manufacturer Murray for $400 million, though the company quickly filed for bankruptcy. Later an attempted billion-dollar investment by D’Long in German aircraft manufacturer Dornier Fairchild failed to materialize. Despite these setbacks, Tang and his brother Tang Wanli, the top executives at D’Long, were rising stars in the Chinese financial market. In 2002 the Tang brothers were listed as the twenty-seventh wealthiest mainlanders by Forbes magazine, with an estimated wealth of $195 million. The following year China Money estimated their wealth at $250 million and in 2003 Asia Money bestowed upon the Tang brothers the title, ‘kings of Chinese capital.’ Unfortunately for the company and its investors, D’Long’s performance was impressive, but unsustainable. D’Long used its stock holdings as collateral for loans from government-run banks and then used this money to purchase more shares to drive up their value, creating a dangerous cycle of accumulating debt and creating a bubble in China’s stock market. D’Long even went so far as to open thousands of fake accounts to manipulate stock prices in their favor. Tang’s economic empire began to unravel in April 2004 when the central government ordered a tightening of lending to stave off a looming bad loans crisis in China’s banking system. With credit cut off, the value of D’Long’s stock listings crashed, down 80 percent by July. The epicenter of the crisis was in Shanghai, where nearly all banks were creditors of D’Long. In June the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Bureau ordered banks in Shanghai to minimize their lending risk to D’Long, the company’s assets were frozen by creditors, and banks sued D’Long for repayment of outstanding loans. Tang looked for funding abroad, but when that failed he fled to neighboring Burma in May, only to fly back to Beijing in July, where he was placed under house arrest. The fall of D’Long, which controlled 200 companies and had 60 000 employees, was the largest financial scandal in China’s history and affected 2500 institutions and 32 000 shareholders. In December 2004 Tang, his brother Tang Wanli, and D’Long’s 60 top managers were officially arrested. In January 2006 Tang and six of his colleagues went on trial. Government charges included illegal operations in the stock market for a gain of 9.8 billion yuan, illegally offering guarantees on 43.7 billion yuan invested by public shareholders, and failure to repay investors 16.7 billion yuan. In April 2006, Tang received an eight-year prison sentence and was fined 400 000 yuan. D’Long was hit with stiff sanctions as well, including a fine of more than 10 billion yuan. The landmark D’Long mansion headquarters in the Pudong financial district in Shanghai was sold off to a government-owned investment firm and the assets of the D’Long Group were transferred to the China Huarong Asset Management Corp., a state-run asset company
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appointed by the central government to salvage what was left of the Tang brothers’ financial empire. David Straub Sources Goodman, Peter S. (2004), ‘China’s revolutionary tactic: bailout’, Washington Post, 26 August. Hoogerwerf, Rupert (2003), ‘The stock markets’ 50 movers and shakers’, Asia Money, 1 November. O’Neill, Mark (2006), ‘Shame and scandal on the road to riches’, South China Morning Post, 7 August. Tang, Lijiu (2007), ゟЙ, ‘ϛᮄϔ߯Ϯ’ [‘The first start for Tang Wanxin’], ㊒ક䌘᭭, [Boutique Info], 7 February, accessed 16 September at www.cnshu.cn/info/bxgc/119369_3.shtml. Wilson, Elliot (2006), ‘D’Long co-founder arrested over fraud’, The Standard, 30 December.
Tian, Deju (⬄ᖋВb. 1948) Sichuan Jiannanchun Group president, Tian Deju has led his company through the difficult challenges of market reform into an era of unmatched prosperity through the adoption of modern management styles and employment benefits designed to develop a skilled labor force with a vested interest in promoting group sales and company profitability. Sichuan Jiannanchun Group is renowned as the owner of China’s second-largest baijiu or liquor producer, Jiannanchun. Its current president, Tian was appointed director of wineries for the Sichuan Jiannanchun Group in 1984, a time of major change throughout Chinese industry. The break-up of the large agricultural collectives and the government retreat from price controls in the agricultural sector led to a rapid rise in the price of grain and other basic inputs of alcohol that, by 1989, were crushing major alcohol producers around China. Combined with increasing competition from new market entrants, both domestic and foreign, producers of alcohol were facing an unprecedented crunch in sales at the same time that price spikes and privatization were increasing company responsibilities for direct costs associated with production. Tian saw an opportunity to reap the benefits of economies of scale by seizing market share and reaching out past regional markets to target customers throughout China, allowing the Jiannanchun Group to reduce costs and increase sales at a time when the market was proving challenging for its competitors. The group pursued a rigorous marketing program of promotional products, market development, city visits, and customer contact that directly impacted their bottom line. At the same time, Tian was radically changing the way the company approached its employees. Tian used the pressure of economic reform to implement incentive programs for the group’s employees, demanding minimum performance and eventually offering bonuses for top performers. He improved wages, bonuses, and benefits, which enabled his group to seek top performing employees and provide a competitive atmosphere that could attract employees of the highest caliber. Additionally, the company undertook measures to allow the group employees to study technical jobs and improve their expertise and value to the company while concurrently improving their own livelihood. Tian and his programs have seen Sichuan Jiannanchun establish itself as a giant in its field and enabled it to diversify its interests into many different areas. Over the past ten years the company has seen its total sales exceed 1.5 billion yuan and the development of
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partnerships with companies like V&S Group (makers of Absolut vodka) have enabled it to expand market share and develop opportunities in China’s massive market for alcohol. With annual growth and profit both well into double digits, Tian’s continued strategies of aggressive marketing and modern management would seem to have paid off. Michael J. Miske Sources Leu, Steve (2007), ‘People’s Republic of China product brief China spirits market 2007’, USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, 3 August. ucnu.com (2006), Ёᯢ᯳ӕϮ㔥, ‘ᥠ㠉ࠥफ⬄ᖋВ’ [‘Tian Deju: at the helm of the Jiannanchun Group’], 30 November, accessed 9 October 2007 at www.ucnu.com/ArticleView/2006-11-30/Article_View_25036. Htm. V&S Group Pressroom (2007), ‘V&S Group Enters China’s Domestic Spirits Industry’, 30 May, accessed 9 October at www.vsgroup.com/en/Press/Press-releases/Corporate/3570/.
Tian, Suning (Edward Tian ⬄⒃ᅕ b. 1963) Founder and chairman of a fast growing private equity fund China Broadband Capital Partners LP (CBC), Tian Suning is a trailblazer in China’s finance and technology industries. Presiding over one of the largest Chinese telecom companies for seven years, Dr Tian is regarded as among the ten most powerful CEOs in Chinese business. Tian was born in Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu Province in Northwestern China, where both of his parents worked as leading ecology researchers. When the Cultural Revolution started, his parents, as persecuted intellectuals, sent three-year-old Tian across the country to Shenyang, the capital city of the Northeastern province of Liaoning, to be raised by his grandparents. Despite the following ten-year turmoil and the disruption of the Chinese school system, Tian received a solid educational foundation from his erudite family and relatives. After Chinese education returned to normalcy, Tian attended high school and was admitted to Liaoning University. Following in his parents’ footsteps, he earned his bachelors in environmental biology in 1985. Like many outstanding Chinese students of his time, Tian went to the US for his graduate studies, and in 1992 received his PhD in natural resources management from Texas Tech University. While working as a Chinese government-contracted environmental biologist in Washington DC in the early 1990s, Tian discovered the power of the budding world wide web. He became increasingly intrigued by the capacity it had to bring a wealth of information across physical boundaries and thus predicted its economic implications. AsiaInfo was born in 1993, funded by venture capital and co-founded by Tian in Dallas, TX. From a humble start with only four employees, AsiaInfo began operations, providing much needed information about China to American businesses venturing into the Chinese market. Before long, it grew into a software and system solutions firm for the emerging Chinese telecom industry. By the time of its IPO on the NASDAQ in 1999, AsiaInfo had moved its headquarters to mainland China, employed nearly 400 engineers, and was involved in an array of large projects. That same year, China Netcom Group, founded by a group of Chinese government agencies to develop a broadband internet structure, was in search of its first president,
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whose top priority was to break into a market monopolized by China Telecom. Much to everyone’s surprise, the environmental biologist Tian was offered the position. To complement his own background, Tian aggressively recruited technical talents both from China and overseas. In the following years, the Chinese telecom industry went through a massive reorganization that ended China Telecom’s monopoly. Tian led China Netcom through a series of acquisitions. He envisaged a niche market for multinationals in China who would have higher demands for customer services, and Tian’s US education and entrepreneurial experience proved to be essential to build that service-oriented niche market. By 2002, China Netcom had formed a group from the previous ten telecom providers in the Northern Chinese provinces. Tian then relentlessly pursued the expansion of the market to Southern Chinese cities, such as Shanghai and Guangdong. In November 2004, China Netcom went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Tian was named the CEO and director of the board of the newly formed public corporation. On 17 May 2006, Tian stepped down from his high-profile CEO position to devote more time to his new venture, China Broadband Capital Partners (CBC), a private equity fund that invests primarily in companies in the telecommunications, internet, media, and technology sectors. In July 2007, he resigned the position of non-executive director that he had held since 2006 and left the telecom industry. Tian’s seven-year reign over one of the nation’s largest telecom corporations made him indisputably one of the most powerful figures in the industry. In addition to China Netcom, Tian sat on the boards of numerous other heavyweight IT companies. During his tenure as the CEO and director at China Netcom, Tian also served as vice chairman and a non-executive director of PCCW Limited, the largest telecommunication enterprise in Hong Kong. Shortly after leaving China Netcom, he was appointed by Lenovo as independent non-executive director. After leaving China Netcom, Tian successfully transitioned from the chief executive of a state-owned enterprise to a private equity investor. His multidimensional experience as an entrepreneur and executive in the information technology business not only provided him with key contacts and a wide network, it also gave him a unique angle to discover a company’s value. In April 2007, MySpace China launched in the world’s most populous country. The joint investors behind the deal were Tian’s CBC, Murdoch’s News Corp., and US venture capital firm IDG (International Data Group). Tian has high ambitions for his private equity fund. In a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, he acknowledged that he dreamed of seeing China Broadband Capital Fund in ten years as a recognized contributor in building China’s digital ecosystem, and a domestic/foreign dual fund in both US currency and Chinese RMB. He also revealed that his private equity organization was on a mission to fund China’s next revolutionized technology – a ‘Chinese Edison or Wright Brothers.’ Since his departure, Tian may still be best known and introduced as the ‘former CEO of China Netcom.’ However, there is little doubt that Tian’s rising achievement in capitalization will soon earn him another distinguished title as one of China’s top financiers. Ying Zhang Sources Billsdue (2007), ‘MySpace China launching Friday’, 26 April, accessed at http://bbb.typepad.com/bills due/2007/04/myspace_china_l.html. Chan, Elain (2008), ‘Tian dreams of funding next big tech discovery’, South China Morning Post, 24 March. Ge Quing (2006), 㨯⏙, ‘⬄⒃ᅕਞ߿“叵㙟”䞡䍄߯Ϯ䏃’ [‘Bowing out, Tian Suning reinvents a new career’],
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फᮍ਼ [Southern Weekend], 25 May, accessed 26 November 2007 at http://telecom.chinabyte. com/339/2414339.shtml. Ingelbrecht, Nick (1999), ‘Ecologist sows seeds of change in China: Edward Tian, now CEO of China Netcom’, CommunicationsWeek International, 19 July, accessed at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UKG/ is_1999_July_19/ai_55303853. Mufson, Steven (1998), ‘The next revolution is online’, Washington Post, 16 June, accessed at www.washing tonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/chinanext/chinanext16full.htm.
Tsang, Donald (Zeng, Yinquan, Tsang Yam-Kuen ᳒㤿ᴗ b. 1944) Chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Sir Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen has been in office since 21 June 2005. He was re-elected on 25 March 2007 for a second and final term from 2007 to 2012. Born in Hong Kong, Tsang completed his secondary education at Wah Yan College in 1964, and in 1982 received a masters degree in public administration from Harvard University. Tsang has also received honorary degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the University of Hong Kong. A devout Roman Catholic, Tsang is often called ‘Bow-Tie Tsang,’ for his love of bowties and flamboyant persona. Ever the proponent of British gentility, Tsang was knighted by Prince Charles in 1997 as Knight Commander in the Order of the British Empire for his considerable service to Hong Kong. Tsang has an extensive background in politics and finance. He began his career working in sales for the Pfizer Corporation, but felt the call of public service and joined the Hong Kong Civil Service in 1967. He held several positions in finance and trade, including senior administrative officer for the Asian Development Bank in Manila and administrative officer for the Island District Office. He was sponsored to attend Harvard University in 1981 and graduated with a master of public administration degree in 1982. Afterwards, Tsang continued working in the civil service and was appointed deputy secretary of the General Duties Branch from 1985 to 1989. In this position, he helped to implement the Sino-British Joint Declaration, ensuring the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Tsang then served as director-general of trade from 1991 to 1993 and led all trade negotiations and administration. He was subsequently promoted to secretary for the Treasury where he had considerable influence over the finances of Hong Kong, directing the taxation system among other things. He was then appointed as financial secretary in 1995, the first ethnic Chinese to hold the position under British rule. Tsang became chief secretary for administration in 2001 under chief executive Tung Chee Hwa (Dong, Jianhua) after Anson Chan resigned. This position was the second highest governmental position in Hong Kong and a huge step for Tsang. Only four years later, Tsang became chief executive after the resignation of Tung Chee Hwa, obtaining the highest position in the Hong Kong government. His lengthy civil service background and dedication to the advancement of Hong Kong had come to a tremendous culmination. Throughout his career as chief executive and financial secretary, Tsang has been praised for his management of Hong Kong’s financial economy. He guided Hong Kong through Asia’s financial crisis during the late 1990s and strengthened the local financial infrastructure with several reforms. Unemployment dropped to a seven-year low. Tsang
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was also responsible for strengthening the Hong Kong dollar through government intervention in the stock market in 1998. In recent years, Tsang has promoted the development of an RMB market and strengthening ties to the financial market of mainland China. There has also been an increased effort to forge bonds with international investors. Though Tsang has been applauded for his financial policies, he has also been strongly criticized for his slow-to-democracy actions and lack of concern for the environment. However, overall Sir Donald Tsang has seen a great deal of success in his position as chief executive of Hong Kong. Rachel Todd and Wenxian Zhang Sources China View (2007), ‘Tsang pledges efforts to consolidate HK’s financial status’, 10 October. People’s Daily Online (2008), ‘Biography of Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR’, 13 June, accessed 23 September at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/people/Donald_Tsang.html. Reuters (2007), ‘FACTBOX: Five facts on Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang’, 25 March. Time (2005), ‘Bow-tied bureaucrat’, 14 March.
Tsang, Hin Chi (Zeng, Xianzi ᳒ᅾṧ b. 1934) Tsang Hin Chi is the founder and president of Goldlion Group Co. Ltd, and director of the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, Tsang was also elected a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of People’s Republic of China. Tsang was born in 1934 into a poor farmer’s family in Guangdong Province. His father passed away when Tsang was only four years old. Brought up by his mother, Tsang and his brother lived a very tough life. After the founding of the PRC, Tsang was able to complete his middle school and college education with government grants. In 1961, he graduated from Zhongshan University majoring in biology. Two years later he went to Thailand via Hong Kong and was united with other family members. In 1968, the whole family emigrated to Hong Kong. When Tsang first arrived in Hong Kong, he had nothing. He even worked as a babysitter to make a living. However, he had a vision, and he decided to create a designer tie brand. Together with his wife Huang Liqun, he started a career in tie manufacturing. After over 50 years, Goldlion has become a world-leading brand, and Tsang’s ties have been exported to more than 100 countries in Europe, America, Australia, Asia, and other regions, and Tsang himself is nicknamed the ‘Tie King’. Tsang’s success could be reflected in four keywords: diligence, frugality, honesty, and integrity, which summarize Tsang’s personal belief and business philosophy. Tsang began with only HK$6000, squeezed out of family living expenses. He cleared half of his house for use as a workshop, bought a sewing machine and scissors, and did the designing, cutting, sewing, and ironing by himself, working 20 hours a day. With perseverance, he finally finished the first batch of ties. However his products failed to generate market interest, even after prices were lowered. Despite the setback, Tsang remained unruffled. He initially believed that cheap ties would be an easier way to enter the market, but the reality proved otherwise. Through market analysis, he realized that his material was rough, his design was simple, his technique was poor, and, more
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importantly, cheap products could not generate profits. Recognizing that in a modern society he had to produce an equivalent to designer standard products, Tsang unloaded all his goods to street vendors, and then bought some internationally famous brand ties and studied them carefully. Taking the designer brands as samples, Tsang imported expensive materials from France, and made four ties with his own designs. He mixed his products with other famous brands, and invited a professional examination. Upon careful comparison, the expert insisted that the ties were all from foreign countries, because the high-quality material, fine technique, and superior design could only be imported. Quickly Goldlion became a well-known brand name in Hong Kong and people rushed to purchase the ties. Over the years the import and export volume of Goldlion amounted to hundreds of millions of HK dollars, but computers were still not widely used in the company’s business operations. Finally realizing that his old-fashioned managerial approach hindered further enterprise development, in 2000 Tsang launched his second revolution. This included revamping the organizational structure and operating mechanism, the design and production, marketing policies, and financial management. Within a year, Goldlion re-emerged with great success in the market, with a new fashionable image, reduced sales agencies, and a new management board and information management system. While thriving on Goldlion’s success, since the1980s Tsang has also devoted himself to philanthropic activities in education, medical care, and sports, with donations of over HK$570 million in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Since 1992, the establishment of the Tsang Hin Chi Education Fund has assisted many poor students. In 2003, Tsang announced a donation of HK$100 million to set up the Tsang Hi Chi Manned Space Foundation, aimed at promoting Chinese space initiatives. To honor his contributions, in 1993 an asteroid numbered 3388, which was discovered by the Zijingshan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was named after him. In July 1997, Tsang was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honor of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in appreciation of his outstanding contributions to Hong Kong and China. In addition, Tsang has been named an honorary citizen by several major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Harbin, Shenyang, Dalian, and Guangzhou. Shirley Ze Yu Sources China Vitae (2004), ‘Tsang Hin Chi’, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Tsang_ Hin-chi%7C531. Goldlion.com (2008), ‘Dr. Tsang Hin-Chi’, accessed 25 September at www.goldlion.com/eng/dr_tsang.php. Hong Kong Chamber of Business Website (2008), accessed 25 September at www.chamber.org.hk/hkdir/r_ detail.asp?single=true&cb=HKG0125. runsky.com (2004), ‘Case study of a leader: Zeng Xianzi’, 13 May, accessed 25 September 2008 at www.runsky. com/homepage/dl/spec/2004/usa4/guo/userobject1ai551523.html.
Wang, Guangying (⥟ܝ㣅 b. 1919) Chairman and general manager of Everbright Group [Guangda] in the 1980s, Wang Guangying has also held a number of important political positions in the central government, including vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Being both an industrialist and a politician, he has been called a ‘red capitalist.’ Born into an industrialist’s family in 1919 in Beijing, Wang Guangying graduated from the Chemistry Department of Furen Catholic University in 1942. One of his sisters was Wang Guangmei, the famous wife of Liu Shaoqi, late president of the state and vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. Throughout his life, Wang Guangying has been heavily involved in both industry and politics because of his family background and connections. Soon after he graduated from college in 1943, Wang founded the Modern Chemical Factory with a friend in Tianjin. As Tianjin was occupied by the Japanese at the time, Wang’s factory had difficulties obtaining the machines necessary for its proper functioning. In desperation and as a result of his resourcefulness and creativity, Wang invented methods related to machinery and materials that enabled him to overcome the shortages and eventually allowed the factory to run well and to make a profit. As the chemical factory was making headway, Wang also established a knitwear factory in Tianjin. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party gained control over China. When the government under Mao Zedong began the process of nationalizing private businesses and enterprises, Wang was among the first industrialists in Tianjin to turn over his factories to the state while he himself became a manager. At a lunch party held by Premier Zhou Enlai to entertain Soviet guests in 1957, Wang Guangying and several other figures in industry and commerce were also invited. At the party, Zhou Enlai laughingly referred to Wang as a ‘red capitalist,’ most likely the first time the term was publicly used. A capitalist to begin with, Wang Guangying also became a high-profile political figure, holding political positions in the 1950s and early 1960s. However, during the years of the Cultural Revolution, Wang Guangying suffered heavy persecution and was imprisoned for years because of his background as a capitalist and especially as a result of his family connection to President Liu Shaoqi, who was condemned by Mao Zedong as the ‘No. 1 Capitalist Roader’ in China and died miserably in prison in 1969. When the Cultural Revolution was over, Liu Shaoqi and Wang Guangying, along with numerous other persecuted people, were rehabilitated politically. Wang’s career began to flourish once again. He served as vice mayor of Tianjin between 1979 and 1982. With the onset of economic reform, his background as an industrialist led him to the business world once again. In 1983, he was named chairman and general manager of the state-owned Everbright Group Ltd, located in Hong Kong. The main goals of the company were to attract foreign investment, introduce new technologies to China, and provide funds for China’s new projects in areas such as energy, electronics, raw materials, and transportation. The Everbright Corporation in Hong Kong thus played an important role in China’s economic development. In the 1980s, when China was still at the initial stage of opening up to the outside world, the company also played a significant political role as an intermediary between China and the West. Many famous foreign dignitaries, including former US president Richard Nixon and 172
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former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, were guests at Everbright Group and were entertained by Wang Guangying. Wang left Everbright Group in 1989 for political posts in China, although he continued to hold the title of honorary chairman of the company. Close to 90 years old, Wang has led a colorful life. His career as an industrialist and businessman has been intertwined with politics. His sharp mind, shrewdness, and vision along with his unusual family background have made him a success in both areas. Despite his accomplishments, eyewitness accounts suggest that he remains personable and approachable. Hong Zhang Sources Wang, Huizhang (1999), ⥟ܝ㣅Ӵ [Biography of Wang Guangying], Beijing: People’s Publisher. Yi Jie (2006), ‘ग़亢⌕Ҏ⠽: “㑶㡆䌘ᴀᆊ” ⥟ܝ㣅’ [‘Colorful historical figure: “Red Capitalist” Wang Guangying’], 14 September, accessed 30 September 2008 at www.enorth.com.cn/system/2006/69/14/0014 10242.shtml.
Wang, Jiafen (⥟Շ㢀 b. 1951) President and CEO of Bright Dairy Co. Ltd, Wang Jiafen has been instrumental in turning the company from a local brand into a leading national dairy producer. Bright Dairy, based in Shanghai, Mengniu of Inner Mongolia, and Yili of Xinjiang constitute the three giant dairy product companies in China today. Because of her accomplishments, Wang Jiafen has been called an ‘iron lady’ in the dairy business. A native of Shanghai, Wang Jiafen joined millions of young people in China during the Cultural Revolution and left for a farming community in the suburbs of Shanghai in response to Chairman Mao Zedong’s call for urban youths to go to the countryside to re-educate themselves through physical labor. As a result of her outstanding performance on the farm, she was named vice party secretary of the farm in charge of over 20 000 people in 1974. When the Cultural Revolution came to an end, urban youths, including Wang Jiafen, trekked back to the cities. In 1986, Wang graduated from Shanghai Television University with a major in economic management in industry. In 1992, she chose to leave behind the security of a government office job and took over the leadership of the Shanghai Dairy Company, precursor of Bright Dairy [guangming naiyie]. As she made the new move, she claimed firmly, ‘Once I join the enterprise, there is no turning back for me’ (Wang, 2006). She has been the mainstay of the company ever since. From the start, Wang Jiafen has visited dairy manufacturers in a number of countries and has been determined to carry out reforms in order to make the company competitive in the dairy products market. Her dedication, vision, and hard work made possible the rapid growth of the company. In 1996, the company formed a joint venture with a company in Hong Kong and changed its name to Bright Dairy Co. Ltd. Wang introduced a new slogan for the company: ‘let brightness (bright dairy) shine all over China.’ In 2002, Bright Dairy became a listed company. For many years since 1996 Bright Dairy has been ranked number one in the sales of dairy products such as fresh milk and yogurt, comprehensive market share and profit-making in the dairy market. In 2001, Fortune
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named Bright Dairy as ‘China’s most admirable joint venture.’ Wang Jiafen was then viewed as the ‘Queen of Dairy Products.’ 2003 was an unusual year for Wang and the company. In that year, two newer dairy manufacturing companies, Yili and Mengniu, began to challenge Bright Dairy’s no. 1 position in the dairy market. They soon surpassed Bright Dairy in terms of overall profit-making. In the face of stiff competition, Wang remained determined to continue strengthening and diversifying what had been Bright Dairy’s main selling point – marketing fresh dairy products. Bright Dairy also established more fresh milk [xiannai] production facilities in major cities beyond Bright Dairy’s main market in Southeastern China. Wang Jiafen’s new slogan was aimed to encourage consumers to ‘return to freshness’ as a way of competing with the other two milk manufacturing companies which focus more on producing UHT liquid milk or changwennai. Wang Jiafen experienced a low point in her career in 2005 when a branch milk producer for Bright Dairy located in Zhengzhou was exposed for reprocessing overstocked milk for sale as fresh milk. The subsequent wide coverage of the devastating news and the discovery of other Bright Dairy products failing to meet the desired quality put Wang Jiafen and the company on the defensive. In the days to come, Wang Jiafen found herself and the company she cared about in a most difficult situation. With her usual toughness and determination, she made repeated claims and promises about the company’s full attention to the quality of dairy products. The incident involving reprocessed milk cast a dark shadow over Wang’s otherwise brilliant career at Bright Dairy. In January 2007, the company went through reorganization. During the subsequent personnel changes, Wang Jiafen resigned from the position of general manager although she remained as CEO of the company. Regardless of her future ties with Bright Dairy, Wang Jiafen has contributed greatly to turning it into one of the largest dairy products producers in China. Hong Zhang Sources Jin, Qiumei and Luo Tian (2006), ‘“䌠ᕦ” 催ㅵ⥟Շ㢀: ڣᇪߔϔḋѝ༎ܝᯢᑨ᳝ഄԡ’[‘High-level “gambler” manager Wang Jiafen: fighting to gain the well-deserved position of Bright Dairy as if with a sharp knife’], ϰᮍ㔥 [dongfang net], 19 October, accessed 30 September 2008 at http://biz.163.com/ 06/1019/04/2TP5VTSV00020QFB.html. Wang, Xiaren (2006), ⥟ᰧ✊ˈ‘ܝᯢ䲚ಶҎџববࡼ: ⥟Շ㢀⬭ ᗉ’ [‘Personnel changes within Bright Dairy Products Group: suspense concerning Wang Jiafen’], Ϫ⬠ଚϮᇐ [World Business Reports], 7 August, accessed 30 September 2008 at http://biz.icxo.com/htmlnews/2006/08/07/894312_2.htm.
Wang, Liheng (⥟⼐ᘦ b. 1938) A research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and an expert in missile propulsion technology and aerospace engineering management, Wang Liheng is president and general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). Previously, he worked as chief engineer and vice minister of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, and executive vice president of the China Aerospace Corporation. He is also the director of the Science and Technology Committee of CASC as well as a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. Born in Zhengjiang, Jiangsu Province, Wang graduated in 1962 from Shanghai
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Jiaotong University specializing in missile propulsion. Since then he has been engaged in research into missile propulsion technology and aerospace engineering management. Wang led the technical breakthrough and the eventual development of China’s first solid motor for a coastal defense missile, which was successfully implemented in China’s antiship missile system. Later he worked as the director of the ‘Five-Satellite Working Group’ in the Ministry of Aerospace Industry in 1990 and achieved complete success, launching five satellites in one year for the first time by using system engineering management. As vice commander of China’s first Manned Space Flight Program during 1999–2002, he was in charge of the development and testing of the manned spaceship and launch vehicle, and contributed to the successful launch and recovery of the Shenzhou-1 and 2 spaceships. Shenzhou-1 was designed mainly to test five particular technologies, namely, spaceship section connection and separation, posture moderating and braking technology, lifting control technology, heat insulation technology, and recovery technology. Shenzhou-2 tested the whole flight from launch, through orbit to return, and further verified the compatibility of all systems. The success of launching and recovering these two spaceships has laid solid foundations for the development of China’s space projects. During his professional career, Wang has led and implemented many major aerospace projects of national significance. He was the person primarily responsible for the maiden flight of key defense equipment, completing successful tests, proposal log, phased development, and launches of five new satellites. In 2003, Wang was elected a member of the CAE. Founded in 1993, the CAE is a national, independent organization whose elected members are those of the highest honor in the professional engineering and technological sciences in China. Along with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAE not only promotes research and development in scientific fields, but also provides the country with scientific data and advice for government policymaking. At 70 years old, Wang was still actively involved in promoting innovations in management and the mechanisms to implement them into the Chinese economic system. For his contributions to the sustainable development of the aerospace industry, Wang has received two national awards in science and technology. More recently, in September 2007, Wang was awarded the grand prize of the 3rd China Aerospace Laureate Honor – Lifelong Achievement Award in Beijing. Sponsored by the China Military Association, the Laureate Award is the most authoritative and influential award in China to recognize the contribution of scientists in the fields of air equipment, technology, and industry for national defense, the civil aviation administration, and the aviation and aerospace enterprises. Xiaoqi Yu Sources Sina Military (2007), ‘ϝሞ᳜Ḗ༪乕༪ᅲᔩ: ⥟⼐ᘦㄝ㤷㦋༪’ [‘The 3rd Aerospace Laurel Award: Wang Liheng and others won great honors’], ᮄ⌾ݯџ, 19 September, accessed 25 September 2008 at http://mil. news.sina.com.cn/2007-09-19/2221464865.html. Chinese Academy of Engineering (2008), ‘⥟⼐ᘦㅔҟ’ [‘Wang Liheng: a brief bio’], accessed 25 September at www.cae.cn/experts/detail.jsp?id=56. Wikipedia (2008), ‘China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’, accessed 25 September at http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Aerospace_Science_and_Technology_Corporation.
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Wang, Linxiang (⥟ᵫ⼹ b. 1951) Chairman of the board and president of Inner Mongolia Eerduosi Cashmere Products Co. Ltd since 1991, Wang Linxiang has built Eerduosi, now an international brand, into the biggest cashmere group in the world, and has maintained continuous profits for over 20 years. His success provides a good example for the development of a region with rich natural resources. Born in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Wang Linxiang was a teenager during the Cultural Revolution. Because of his family background, Wang was refused work 11 times. Finally he started work at the age of 19 but four years later he was thrown into prison because he uttered the words that ‘the Cultural Revolution is a disaster.’ In 1978 he went back to work. Two years later, Yike Zhao League Cashmere Clothing Factory introduced new equipment for the processing of cashmere, and the 29-year-old Wang Linxiang was appointed as the deputy general director in the installation department where he demonstrated his talent and achieved his first success. A year later, Wang became the deputy director of the factory, which subsequently became the Eerduosi Cashmere Products Co. Ltd. At the end of 1983, Wang was appointed as director and began to transform the state-owned enterprise through implementing new managerial practices, including the association between compensation and performance, the abolition of the cadre system of life-long employment, the establishment of employment contracts and so on. In 1991, the Eerduosi Cashmere Group was established, and eight years later it was turned into a state-owned shareholding limited corporation with employee ownership participation. The A shares of Eerduosi were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2002. One year later, a management buy-out acquired the equity of the state and the company became privatized, with Wang holding about 10 percent of stock. In 2006, Eerduosi’s annual sales reached 4 billion yuan, with 350 million yuan gross profits and 204 million yuan net profit. Since the early 1980s, Wang Linxiang has led Eerduosi into the international market. In 1988, Eerduosi received a license for direct export, and 95 percent of its products were exported as raw materials. However a price war among Chinese cashmere enterprises in the late 1980s greatly trimmed the profit margin. Wang decided to explore the domestic market instead, and to turn the company from a raw material provider to a manufacturer of cashmere clothes. Currently, the ‘Eerduosi’ brand is valued at 3.416 billion yuan. Eerduosi has six stores in America and two in England. In France, Eerduosi purchased 20 percent shares of 14 stores and sells products under its own brand name. Wang has the ambition to turn Eerduosi into an internationally-recognized brand in the coming seven to ten years. Although the profit margin in the cashmere industry is considerable, the room for further expansion is limited. The total quantity of cashmere worldwide is about 12 000 tons, of which China contributes 8000 tons, already a lion’s share. Wang’s ambitions for expansion eventually led to the diversification of the group. After the failure of pharmaceutical and high-tech projects to the cost of 100 million yuan in the late 1990s, Wang refocused on those industries that have regional comparative advantages in Inner Mongolia. In 2003, Wang initiated his second career through the new strategy of ‘continuing to consolidate the cashmere industry and developing the coal power, metallurgy and chemicals industry.’ Those new businesses were expected to contribute the same level of profit as the cashmere business by the end of 2007. The goal of
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the group is to reach a sales volume of 20 billion yuan by 2010, generating 250 million yuan profits and an annual 10 percent salary increase for employees. The ambition is to build the group as a global player in the ferroalloy industry in five years, making the Eerduosi Group a world-class company. Currently Eerduosi has more than 100 affiliates and 26 000 employees. It is now a conglomerate dealing in cashmere, coal, electric power, metallurgy, and chemicals. The group has 19 representative offices, 33 logistic companies, and more than 1500 sales outlets. Wang Linxiang had decided to quit the position of president at the age of 57, and that of chairman of the board when reaching 60. However as of 2007, Wang’s daughter was still pursuing her masters degree in photoelectronics from Cambridge University, and showed little interest in inheriting her father’s business. Hua Wang Sources Bai, Yuli (2005), ‘ᗻḐ៤ህҎ⫳ 䆄䛖ᇨᮃ䲚ಶᘏ㺕⥟ᵫ⼹’ [‘Personality and fate: Mr Wang Linxiang, president of Group Erduosi’], Ё᳡㺙 [China Garment], 30–33. Pan Ruichun and Gan Fengling (2007), ‘⥟ᵫ⼹: 䅽䛖ᇨᮃ⏽ᱪܼϪ⬠’ [‘Wang Linxiang; let Eerduosi warm the world’, ࣫ᮍᮄ䯏㔥NorthNews], 14 June, accessed 16 June 2008 at www.northnews.cn/news/2007/2007 06/2007-06-14/89626.html. Yi, Ding (2004), ‘⏽ᱪՓ㗙䛖ᇨᮃ䲚ಶᘏ㺕⥟ᵫ⼹’[‘The messenger of warmth, Mr. Wang Linxiang, president of Group Eerduosi’], ⦃⧗ӕϮᆊ [Global Entrepreneur], July.
Wang, Mengkui (⥟Ṻ༢ b. 1938) Wang Mengkui is the director of the Development Research Center of the Chinese State Council, whose research and recommendations on sustainable development and the strategic drive for Western China have had considerable influence on the formation of Chinese economic policies in recent years. Wang was born in April 1938, in Wenxian, a small, poor county in Henan Province, Central China. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1956. After graduating from Peking University in 1964 with a degree in economics, Wang joined the editorial staff of Red Flag magazine, one of the most influential publications of the 1960s. However during the Cultural Revolution he was sent to a cadre school to be re-educated through manual labor, where he stayed for six years until his return to Beijing in 1975. He joined the No. 1 Ministry of Machinery Industry and began to conduct systematic economic research. In 1979 Wang became an associate research fellow in the Research Office of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee, and was later promoted to be the deputy head of the Economic Group. In 1987 Wang joined the Economic Research Center of the State Planning Commission. Three years later he was appointed as assistant director, and in 1995 he became the director of the Research Office under the Chinese State Council. Finally in 1998, he was named the director of the Development Research Center of the State Council. It is in this capacity that Wang made his most important contributions, providing both theoretical foundations and practical recommendations to the Chinese government on various key issues faced in economic reform. With a passion for the Chinese language, Wang is known for his concise yet smooth and easy-to-understand essays on the Chinese economy. As a recognized scholar, Wang is regarded as an ‘official’ spokesperson for the Chinese economic reforms. Since the
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mid-1990s, he has drafted the economic section of the State Council’s annual reports to the People’s Congress, and his knowledge and insights have won the trust and respect of both premiers Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao. Among his most influential works are: ៥ ⼒ӮЏНᓎ䆒䘧䏃ⱘ㋶ [An Exploration of the Road of Chinese Socialist Construction] (1984); ⥟Ṻ༢䗝䲚 [Selected Works of Wang Mengkui] (1987); ⼒ӮЏН߱㑻䰊↉ⱘ㒣 ⌢ [Economy at the Elementary Socialist Stage] (1988); 䗮䋻㝼㚔ⱘ៤ᇍㄪ [The Causes and Ways of Dealing with Inflation] (1989); Ё㒣⌢ⱘಲ乒ሩᳯ [Chinese Economy: Review and Outlook] (1993); Ϫ㑾ПѸⱘЁ㒣⌢ [Chinese Economy at the Turn of the Century] (1997); Ё⼒Ӯֱ䱰ԧࠊᬍ䴽 [Reform of China’s Social Security System] (2001). Wang was among the first group of economists to promote the importance of a shareholding system in the Chinese economy, and his recommendations helped the central government rein-in the soaring inflation of the late 1980s. More recently Wang became a champion for the strategic development of Western China. He believes that China’s rapid growth has brought a number of contradictions, but those contradictions can be considered as simple growing pains if managed carefully: among them are resource and environmental restrictions, uneven development, lagging social development, and challenging social issues such as unequal wealth distribution. How does China continue to use economic growth to increase social stability? Can China’s rich material life be translated into sustainable development? Can China bring about harmonious development between cities and the countryside? The answer, according to Wang, is to pay attention to sustainable development, rural development, social development, and social equality. As a leading economist in China, his research and recommendations are likely to continue to have a profound impact on the country’s macroeconomic development in years to come. Besides his government post, Wang is a professor and PhD adviser at Peking University. He was also an alternate member of the Central Committee of the 14th Chinese Communist Party Congress (1992–97), and a member of the 15th CCP Central Committee (1997–2002). Wenxian Zhang and Joshua Wickerham Sources China Vitae (2008), ‘Wang Mengkui’, accessed 23 September at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Wang_ Mengkui/full. Market News (2005), ‘⥟Ṻ༢: 䆫ᛣ㒣⌢ᄺ’ [‘Wang Mengkui: poetic economics’], Ꮦഎ, 23 December, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/manage/cfrw/20051223/08232222656.shtml. Xinhua.net (2002), ‘⥟Ṻ༢ㅔग़’, [‘Biography of Wang Mengkui’], 5 March, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2002-03/05/content_300467.htm. Zhang Liang (2007), ᓴ䞣, ‘⥟Ṻ༢, ᭛℺ঠܼⱘࡵ䰶ϔヨ’ [‘Wang Mengkui: the first pen of the State Council’], ഄ [Dadi], 4 December, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://politics.people.com.cn/ GB/1026/6608679.html.
Wang, Shi (⥟ b. 1951) Board chairman of Shenzhen Vanke Co. Ltd, Wang Shi led Vanke from a small corntrading company to the largest listed real estate developer in China. Wang joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1968 and graduated from the Drainage
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Department of Lanzhou Railroad College in 1978. After his graduation, Wang first worked for the Guangzhou Railway Bureau, and then for Guangdong Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In 1984, with Deng Xiaoping’s call to explore the virtues of capitalism, Wang made a spectacular decision to move to Shenzhen, which was still a small town. He organized a trading company named the Shenzhen Exhibition Center of Modern Science and Education Equipment, which moved everything from copying machines to foodstuffs. With the support of the government, the company made its first profits. In 1988, a spin-off from the original state-owned company was reorganized into China Vanke Co. Ltd, a shareholding company of which Wang became the chairman, general manager and legal representative. Vanke was one of the first shareholding companies in China. Under Wang’s leadership, Vanke turned into a multi-business corporation. During its initial growth period, in addition to investing in two movies, its mineral water, Yibao, was the best-selling product among the local brands in Guangdong Province, and the Wanjia supermarket was among Shenzhen’s top-ten supermarkets. In the late 1980s, the Chinese government started its housing reforms and encouraged people to own their own homes. Sensing the change in policies, Wang believed that real estate would become the next booming industry and a main driving force of China’s economy in the coming decades. As a result, unlike most Chinese companies of the time, Vanke announced in 1993 that it was giving up its multiple-line operations and focusing solely on real estate. This meant selling Yibao, still among the most popular brands. Wang emphasized that Vanke should develop steadily. Once he said Vanke would not touch any projects claiming more than a 25 percent rate of profit, a remark that was widely quoted by the mass media. In 1991, Vanke became a listed company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). Within 17 years, it was the largest property developer listed in the People’s Republic of China, with projects in more than 20 major cities across the Pearl River Delta, the Yangzi River Delta, and the Bohai Economic Rim. In 2006 it had revenues of around US$30 billion. Vanke is well known for its continuous success. It has delivered uninterrupted profits for the longest period of all Chinese listed companies. In addition, Vanke has become a famous real estate brand with a good reputation. Throughout the history of the company, Wang has made changes, and each time the change initially seemed incompatible with the business situation; however, as time passed, Wang’s decisions have proved prophetic. After stepping down as Vanke CEO in 1999, Wang, who remains board chairman, found a new passion and began to climb mountains – which has made him a national star. He is one of four native Chinese who have successfully climbed the world’s highest peaks, and he holds the record as the oldest mountaineer in the PRC to conquer those peaks. As a prominent and responsible business leader, Wang has also served as an official on several national associations dealing with real estate and commerce. In order to contribute to the building of a more harmonious society, Vanke under Wang started to construct inexpensive rental apartments for low-income people in 2006. Xiafang Mo Sources Vanke (2008), ‘݀ৌὖ‘[’މAbout us’], accessed at www.vanke.com/main/CatalogAboutUs_9610.aspx.
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Wang, Shi and Miao Chuan ⥟ˈ㓾Ꮁ (2006), 䘧䏃ϢṺᛇ: ៥Ϣϛ⾥Ѡकᑈ [The Path and the Dream: Twenty Years with Vanke], China CITIC Press.
Wang, Weibin (⥟ӳ᭠ b. 1971) Chairman of China Beijing Suntrans Group Co. Ltd, Wang Weibin was the youngest entrepreneur among the awardees in 2003 to be recognized as one of the Top Ten Most Outstanding Youths of China. At the age of 25, Wang set up Suntrans Group with an initial fund of RMB100 000. After eight years, the company had become a diversified group with 11 sub-companies dealing primarily in software and real estate development, and with total assets of RMB2 billion in 2004. Wang’s interest in developing educational software might have been inspired by his own bumpy academic journey. After graduating from junior high, Wang did not have a chance to continue his education, but fell into a variety of jobs in areas such as hospitality, printing, and trading. As a result of his entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, Wang made a name for himself in the fields of biology, information technology, and real estate in Beijing, with assets of RMB1 billion – all before reaching the age of 30. Wang’s financial success and sparse educational background did not sway his belief in the importance of education. The chance to do something practical for Chinese education came when Wang read the news about a breakthrough on the theory of ‘machine proving of geometric rules’ developed by Dr Zhang Jingzhong, an academic from the China Academy of Sciences. Wang sensed the potential of applying this scientific finding to the development of educational software, which could help solve the problem of the shortage of qualified teachers in many rural areas of China. It was a perfect match for both sides: one needed funding; the other was looking for good technology to make an investment. Soon after Wang and Zhang met, they decided to establish the Beijing Suntrans Tiandi Technological Development Corporation in 2000. Wang became president and invested RMB20 million into the development of the Suntrans Intelligent Educational Software, which was to serve both junior and senior high school students in subject areas such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The earliest independent development of educational software in China could be traced back to 1987. Those software products, however, were little more than a collection of examination questions. They were dull and hated by all students. Although not the first educational software developed in China, Wang’s product is the first intelligent educational software in the nation, with characteristics such as human-machine interaction, dynamic graphing, and artificial intelligence key. Learning lessons from the previous failed products, the Suntrans software was developed in an innovative and interesting way, including functions such as dynamic drawing, question generation, interactive intelligence problem solving, and artificial intelligence. Aimed at the potentially huge educational market in China, Wang’s ambitious plan prompted the development of the first intelligence network platform, which became the most influential network-based educational server provider in China in 2001. However piracy has long been a major problem in the Chinese software market. Soon after its release Wang discovered pirate versions of Suntrans software, but he has set the Suntrans
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educational network platform at the core of his company, where teachers and students can interact, and the pirate versions are unable seriously to jeopardize this core component of his business. Along with his entrepreneurial efforts, Wang has also been enthusiastically engaged in community service. At his EMBA commencement at the China Europe International Business School in 2001, Wang stated his business belief: ‘as an entrepreneur, I regard it as a necessity to energize my company to provide more job opportunities, to create more wealth, and to make more contributions to the common good. This, actually, is what we can do and what we should do’ (Wang, 2001). In addition to the donation of Suntrans Intelligent Educational Software worth RMB25 million, since 1997 he has contributed hundreds of hours of volunteer work, and given nearly RMB8 million to national philanthropic causes such as Project Hope, flood and disaster prevention, and SARS relief work. As recognition for his community service efforts, in 2001 he was awarded a gold medal for being one of the Excellent Young Volunteers in China. Min Tong Sources China Youth (2003), ‘⥟ӳ᭠⧚џᔧ䗝ЎकಯሞЁकᵄߎ䴦ᑈ’ [‘Wang Weibin won the award of the 14th “Ten Most Outstanding Youth of China”’], 25 December, accessed at www.cofa.org.cn/rwzx/ fxsh/80200401060076.htm. Wang, Weibin (2001), ‘My heartfelt gratitude: to all my peers in China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)’, accessed 29 September 2008 at http://www.ceibs.edu/emba/students/studentlife/6486.shtml.
Wang, Wenjing (⥟᭛Ҁ b. 1964) Winner of ‘the most influential business people’ honor from China Central Television in 2001, Wang Wenjing is the founder, president and CEO of UFsoft (Yongyou software), and was ranked tenth by Forbes among the 400 richest Chinese in 2006. Wang Wenjing was born in a peasant family in the province of Jiangxi. At age 15, he was admitted to Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics and became one of the youngest freshmen there. Graduating with honors, Wang was given a government job in Beijing – the only person from his village ever to attain such a posting. His task was to develop computerized financial software for the State Council’s offices of administration. Wang appeared to be at the peak of his success, however, in 1988 he quit this stable job and set up UFsoft Service, with a loan of RMB50 000. The move dismayed his parents, who feared that going into private business was too risky. At first, software orders were few and far between, and financing was always a challenge. However, Wang believed in his own capabilities and in the opportunities ahead. The company soon won national fame in developing proprietary accounting software. In 1991, UFsoft became the no. 1 Chinese management software company and has strengthened this position since. From the 1990s, UFsoft began to transform the accounting software product into the ERP (enterprise resource planning) product. In defining his corporate strategies, Wang Wenjing emphasizes the simplicity and practicality of software design. This idea is reflected in the name of the company (UF means ‘user’s friend’ in Mandarin Chinese), and also underpins the development of all kinds of UFsoft products, which include ERP, SCM (supply chain management), CRM
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(customer relationship management), HR (human resource management), EAM (enterprise asset management), OA (office automation), industry management business and so on. Specifically, UFsoft offers three main kinds of products and services: management software products, vertical industry solutions such as e-government, finance and asset management, and software-related services such as outsourcing development for customers worldwide. Thanks to its high-quality products and professional services, UFsoft has become the largest software supplier in ERP, management and finance in China. In May 2001, UFsoft was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE code: 600588). Since 2000, according to the annual market report from independent market surveys such as CCID and IDC, UFsoft has occupied the no. 1 annual ranking in the management solutions market in China for five years. UFsoft has invested in five overseas companies, 31 joint ventures, and 35 branches and 15 offices throughout the country, with over 1000 software developers, 1000 software consultants, and more than 3000 employees. As president and CEO of UFsoft, Wang Wenjing is good at encouraging his staff and inspiring their enthusiasm and the spirit of dedication. Under his direction, a series of international product versions have been delivered to the international market and continuously upgraded. Market expansion has reached Hong Kong, Japan, and other Asian areas. UFsoft aims to be a world-class software provider in the near future and, by 2010, to become one of the top 50 software companies in the world. The next target? ‘We want to be a world-class company,’ says Wang. Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan Sources BusinessWeek (2002), ‘The stars of Asia – entrepreneurs: Wang Wenjing’, 8 July. BusinessWeek (2004), ‘Wang Wenjing: transforming UFsoft into an international enterprise with a plane speed’, 2 December. IT Weekly (2006), ‘The impression of Wang Wenjing’, 24 August. Li Sun, Sunny and Kevin Au (2005), ‘Kingdee vs. UFsoft: two leaders in the software industry of China’, Peking University Business Review, 5 (12), 77–92. The Elite of IT Industry (2005), ‘Wang Wenjing: the CEO of UFsoft’, 1 April.
Wang, Xuan (⥟䗝 1937–2006) The founder and chairman of Founder (Holding) Ltd, Wang Xuan was a well-known computer application specialist and an innovator in the modern Chinese printing industry. As an academician at both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Wang was awarded the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award in 2001, the highest prize in science and technology in China. In addition, Wang also served as vice president of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Born in February 1937 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Wang was admitted to the elite Beijing University in 1954, majoring in mathematics and mechanics. After graduation, he taught at the Mathematics and Mechanics Department and then at the Wireless Electronics Department of Beijing University for about 20 years, researching computer applications, particularly the digitalization of words, graphics, and images. In August 1974, China launched the ‘748 project’ to boost the development of the automatic
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processing of Chinese characters. Wang was in charge of the research and development of laser typesetting systems in the Chinese language and of electronic publishing systems. He invented a computerized laser photocomposition system for Chinese character typesetting, a breakthrough he patented in Europe in 1982. This technology revolutionized printing in China and enabled a giant leap forward in the Chinese publishing industry. Since 1985, the computerized laser photo typesetting system has been widely used in China’s printing processes. In addition, Wang helped create a Chinese-language newspaper editing and publishing system using large computer terminals, a Chinese-language laser typesetting system for color printing and a management system for news collection and editing, among others. In 1986, Wang was bestowed with the title of a national junior expert for his significant contributions to China’s science and technology development. His invention is described as only the second major invention in the printing of Chinese characters since Bi Sheng’s invention of movable clay type in the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), which ushered in the first revolution in the history of printing. Thus Wang was often dubbed the ‘Modern Bi Sheng’ and ‘the Father of Chinese Language Laser Typesetting.’ Beijing University Founder Group Corp. was set up in 1986 to commercialize hightech products developed at the university. As chairman and director, Wang handled Founder’s overall management and strategic planning until his resignation in 2002. Insisting that enterprises should improve technology to meet market demand, Wang developed Founder into a renowned high-tech pioneer in China’s software industry. Currently, the Founder Group has six public companies listed on the stock market, and over 20 sole proprietorships and joint ventures at home and abroad, with 15 000 employees. It is ranked in the top ten of the 100 best enterprises in China’s software industry. In 2002, Wang donated RMB9 million yuan to establish the Wang Xuan Science Research Fund, aimed to support scientific research at the Computer Institute of Beijing University. Although he died in 2006, Wang is still remembered as an unassuming and amicable person who helped young people with his noble heart. Weidong Zhang Sources Dong, Shanfeng (2006), 㨷ቅዄ, ‘⥟䗝: ߯ⱘݭᮄ’, ܝᯢ᮹ [‘Wang Xuan: capitalized innovation’, Guangming Daily], 15 February, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://www.gmw.cn/01gmrb/2006-02/15/content_373697.htm. Xinhua (2006), ‘Wang Xuan: modern Bi Sheng’, 17 February.
Wang, Xuebing (⥟䲾 ބb. 1946) Former president and CEO of the China Construction Bank (CCB), Wang Xuebing is a flamboyant protégé of former premier Zhu Rongji. Once regarded as a leader in efforts to modernize China, Wang was convicted in 2003 of taking bribes and accepting expensive gifts at the Bank of China’s New York office. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and ordered to pay US$20 million in fines. After graduating from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, Wang started a long and successful career in banking. He was an adviser to the Steering Group of the Gold and Exchange Rate Manager of the State Council. In 1988, the Bank of China (BOC), China’s largest foreign exchange bank, selected him as its
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general manager for US operations, a position he held until 1993, when he became chair and president of BOC, where he remained until 2000. In 1994 Wang was honored with a Distinguished Leadership Award in bullion trading by the New York Commodity Exchange. Wang is credited with making the BOC China’s most profitable state commercial bank. As competition both within China and from international banks intensified, Wang advocated reforms within China’s financial institutions and the state-run companies to which they lend. He chaired the China International Capital Corporation (CICC), an investment bank joint venture with minority partner Morgan Stanley, and was director of international finance for the Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research. He was a frequent international speaker on Chinese banking reform at conferences such as the World Economic Forum and the Asia Society. In 1997 he was inducted into the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Wang moved to the CCB in 2000 as president and CEO. BOC and CCB are two of the four big state-owned banks that collectively control about 70 percent of the nation’s financial resources and market share. As CCB president, Wang introduced new products such as securities-backed loans, and began to offer agent services for insurers to bolster cooperation between financial institutions. He relaxed restrictions on housing loans and introduced individual credit ratings. In addition, Wang regrouped the CCB’s domestic subsidiaries, expanded overseas and promoted the bank’s global competitiveness. In late 2001 Wang became the only banker listed among China’s Top 21 Corporate Leaders in an award by a prestigious national business magazine. Shortly thereafter he won an accolade from the Wall Street Journal as ‘one of the shrewdest faces of corporate China.’ As head of the China Construction Bank and former leader of the Bank of China, with cabinet-level rank in the CCP and an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Wang was at the pinnacle of power in Chinese financial circles. However, concerns about his bank practices had surfaced as early as 1995, with the publication of an article in the Hong Kong weekly Next Magazine about a $23 million loan that was issued under unclear circumstances. The loan was originated in Los Angeles and was paid back not by the borrowers but by the Bank of China through its New York branch. Wang, who speaks fluent English, had long been engaged in financial dealings overseas in his roles with the BOC, CCB, and CICC. In 2002 there were several international news reports that the BOC office in New York was under investigation for potential irregularities. Although Wang denied the charges, the Chinese authorities began to review the major loans he made while leading the Bank of China. An investigation into illegal loans was also taking place within the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is a part of the US Treasury Department. Close scrutiny revealed that the questionable deal was related to friends of Wang who had a financial relationship with his wife, and that the $23 million loan was secured by vastly insufficient collateral, and was not repaid until the bank itself covered the cost of the credit through its New York office. As a result, the Bank of China was fined $20 million in penalties paid to Chinese and US regulators for ‘misconduct’ by the New York branch. In the end, Wang tendered a forced resignation in disgrace, and was replaced at the CCB by Zhang Enzhao, who in 2006 was also found guilty of bribery charges and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence. The Communist Party’s
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Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and its Central Financial Working Committee recommended to the Party that Wang be stripped of his post at the CCP and his chairmanship of the China International Capital Corporation. He was expelled from the Party on charges of taking bribes, leading a decadent life and breaking financial rules. According to the ruling by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court on 10 December 2003, Wang was guilty of taking bribes worth 1.15 million yuan (US$139 000) during 1993 and 2001. On 14 January 2004 The Beijing Municipal Higher People’s Court rejected Wang’s appeal and sentenced him to 12 years in jail for corruption. James P. Gilbert Sources Clifford, Mark L. et al. (2002), ‘China’s banks under a cloud: scandal at Bank of China highlights questions about China’s Big Four’, BusinessWeek, 28 January, accessed 15 July 2007 at www.businessweek.com/ magazine/content/02_04/b3767049.htm. CNN Business (2002), ‘China Bank president fired over BOC loans’, 14 January, accessed 17 July 2007 at http:// archives.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/asia/01/14/hk.bocfiring/index.html. International Who’s Who (n.d.), ‘Wang Xuebing’, London and New York: Routledge, p. 1773. Simmons, Dave (2002), ‘Sacking shocks bank industry’, Asia Times, 17 January, accessed 15 July 2007 www. atimes.com/china/DA17Ad02.html. Wang Xuebing (2001), ‘China’s banking reform’, Asia Society, 22 May, accessed 1 August 2007 at www.asia society.org/speeches/xuebing.html.
Wang, Yan (∾ᓊ b. 1972) Co-founder of SRSNET.com, one of the first Chinese commercial websites in 1996, Wang Yan was instrumental in the incorporation of Sina.com, based on the merger of SRSNET.com and SinaNet.com in 1998. He became Sina president in June 2001, and CEO in May 2003. Wang Yan was born in Beijing in May 1972. His parents emigrated to France, and after high school, Wang Yan followed them, receiving his law degree from the University of Paris in 1996. While Wang was working on his law degree in Paris in 1993, China underwent a tremendous change with the emergence of the first generation of entrepreneurs taking the lead in China’s economic development. Wang began to feel the urge to return to China and pioneer his own venture. After two years, a visit to China in which he saw the dramatic changes taking place in his hometown Beijing reaffirmed his intentions. Fueled by his entrepreneurial spirit, Wang initiated a ‘multi-national’ Entrepreneur Liaison Group with two other like-minded individuals, one from Shenzhen, and the other from Beijing, with the internet as the most common communication vehicle for these three young enthusiasts. Foreseeing that the internet would become the most crucial communication vehicle in the world, Wang realized that ‘there would be no greater business opportunity than utilizing the Internet to introduce China to the world’ (Wang, 2005). So in 1996 he and his friends co-founded SRSNET, one of the first Chinese commercial websites, which became the prototype of Sina.com. The speedy growth of this internet venture led to the merger of SRSNET.com and SinaNet.com in December 1998 and the founding of Sina. com, a global Chinese online community.
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With the goal of creating the best internet company in China, running Sina.com has led Wang Yan to grow and mature from an ambitious young entrepreneur to a seasoned businessman. Although the company’s fame spread quickly across the globe, Sina was not profitable for the first eight years. Wang understood that from the business perspective, the company had not been successful. So he sent an internal memo to all Sina employees when he first took over as CEO, stating that ‘I am confident that if there is one Internet company that can become profitable in China, it will be Sina.com.’ Under his leadership, Sina has expanded its core competencies from news reporting and internet advertisements into internet search engines and e-commerce. However, Wang also firmly believes that the importance of maintaining the leadership position for Sina.com far outweighs its profitability. The key to Sina.com’s success is to maintain its market share. Quick to identify the right opportunities, Wang has carried out large-scale financing and acquisitions since he was appointed CEO. Owing to his successful strategies, Sina issued some US$100 million corporate bonds on the NASDAQ market, acquired Shanghai Fortune Trip and Shenzhen Crillion Corporation, partnered with Yahoo! to enter the online auction business, and launched a game portal service in association with the Korean game portal company Plenus in a bid to develop new revenue lines in tourism, wireless value-added services (VAS), and online games. Sina has become the leading provider of internet content service and wireless VAS in China, the revenue of both ranking top in the industry. Sina’s share price has soared to over US$40, more than double its IPO price, and its quarterly fiscal revenue has kept growing. Under Wang’s leadership, Sina operated a branded network of 15 localized websites with more than 100 million registered users and the highest daily page viewing of 300 million, boasting the most popular website among global Chinese communities. Although he stepped down as CEO in May 2006, Wang continued to serve on the board of directors and as vice chairman of the company. Shirley Ze Yu Sources Sina.com (2006), ‘Board of directors: Wang Yan’, accessed at http://corp.sina.com.cn/eng/sina_dire_eng. htm#YanWang. Wang, Huiyao and Chen Hai [⥟䕝㗔, 䰜⍋] (2005), ߯ϮЁ: ⍋ᔦ㊒㣅 50Ҏ, ࣫Ҁ: Ё༂㓪䆥ߎ⠜⼒ [Venturing in China: The 50 Elites from Overseas], Central Translation Press, pp. 83–8. ‘∾ᓊ ᮄ⌾ [CEO] ݐᘏ㺕’ (2005), http://bj.house.sina.com.cn/ad/p/2005-02-21/164662907.html.
Wang, Yung-ching (Wang, Yongqing ⥟∌ᑚb. 1917–2008) Born in January 1917 in an impoverished family, Wang Yung-ching was the founder of the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group, one of the world’s top 50 chemical producers and a Fortune 500 company. As the wealthiest man in Taiwan, Wang Yung-ching was known as the Taiwanese ‘godfather of business’ and was also a pioneer in investing in mainland China. After finishing school at the age of 15, Wang Yung-ching worked in a rice store for about a year and then started his own venture with 200 Taiwanese dollars borrowed from his father. As his business grew, he built a factory for rice hulling and polishing,
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and also invested in the lumber industry. In 1954, when he was 38, Wang made an audacious attempt on a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) powder project, widely regarded as unpromising, and founded the Formosa Plastics Industry Ltd. The adventure paid off and the company became a record-breaking success in the young and fast-growing Taiwanese petrochemical industry. From then on, Wang Yung-ching, together with his brother Wang Yung-tsai, began to develop the company through vertical integration as well as diversification, and eventually built a gigantic family business. At 47, Wang established the Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corporation, which grew into one of the largest fiber producers in the world. At 50, he restructured his diversified businesses and set up the Formosa Plastics Group, the biggest private enterprise in Taiwan. When he was 60, the group began to develop rapidly. By 1984, according to incomplete statistics, it reached a total capital of $4.5 billion and an annual turnover of $3 billion, accounting for 5.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP. Its turnover in 2007 was estimated to be more than $16.6 billion. As the only private Taiwanese enterprise among the Fortune 500 companies, Formosa Plastics Group is a conglomerate of petrochemical processing, fiber chemicals, electronics, power industry, transportation, automobiles, biotechnology, education, medical and healthcare. The group has nine subsidiaries employing over 70 000 employees. There are more than 1500 downstream providers working in the supply chain led by Formosa Plastics. In December 1989, when foreign investors were moving out of mainland China in the wake of political disturbances, Wang Yung-ching paid a secret visit to the country and was granted a meeting with Deng Xiaoping and other leaders in Beijing, initiating his interests in mainland China. Wang signed a deal to invest in a $7 billion petrochemical complex in Haicang, Fujian Province. However the scale of the project, which would have included an oil refinery and two naphtha-cracker plants, and the sheer audacity of the move stunned the Taiwan administration. So Wang was forced to give up the plan, which nonetheless motivated many other Taiwanese businessmen to invest in mainland China, relieving the country of a financial crisis. Later, Wang split the investment into smaller projects and built over 30 companies in China, the total investment surpassing US$500 million. Wang’s biggest investment, however, was the US$3 billion Hwa Yang power plant located in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. Besides a petrochemical complex and power plants, Formosa Plastics’ investment portfolio in China also includes biotech ventures, automobiles, steel, logistics, and hospitals. Wang is devoted to elementary education as well, and plans to set up 10 000 primary schools in mainland China. From 2004–07, over 2000 such schools have been established, costing more than RMB900 million. Meanwhile, Wang has set up a ‘Chang Gung Scholarship,’ named after his father, covering all 31 cities and provinces throughout the country, and every year 1000 students in each region should benefit. In June 2006, after chairing the group for over half a century, Wang relinquished his position. It is said that the Wang brothers hope to follow the model of the Rockefeller family and trust their property shares to professional management, so that the family empire would never dissolve. Currently, the reins have passed to the second generation of Wang’s family as well as professional managers, but Wang’s spiritual influence is sure to stay for the coming decades. On 15 October, 2008, Wang passed away in his sleep at the age of 91. Hua Wang
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Sources ϔ䋶㒣᮹ [China Business News] (2008), ‘ॺ䮼䭓ᑮए䰶ᓔ䆞䆩㧹⥟∌ᑚϗᑈ㒜Ṻ’[‘Xiamen Changgung Hospital opened, the seven-year dream of Wang Yung-ching’], 16 January. Tang, Wen (2007), ⥟∌ᑚⱘㅔऩᄺ [The Simple Philosophy of Wang Yung-ching], Beijing: Jiuzhou Press.
Wang, Zhidong (⥟ᖫϰ b. 1967) A pioneer and visionary leader of the Chinese high-tech industry, Wang Zhidong is the founder of Sina.com’s predecessor, Stone Rich Sight (SRS), a leading software company in China founded in 1993. After the merger between SRS and SinaNet in December 1998, Wang served as the president of Sina.com responsible for daily operations, and successfully transformed the company into the leading internet destination site in China. Wang graduated from Peking University with a degree in radio electronics in 1988. At Peking, he was such an outstanding student that his professors would not let him switch to his real interest, computers, so Wang taught himself. Even before graduating he worked for a host of computer firms in Beijing’s Haidian district. In 1991 he shut himself away in a tiny apartment to write the first Chinese-language software for PCs, earning him enough money to set up his own firm. Two years later he founded Stone Rich Sight, a high-tech start-up devoted to Chinese software development. Under his leadership, the RichWin Chinese platform was successfully launched. Because of its full compatibility with multiple operation systems and support of internet protocols, the program became very popular among Chinese computer users across the globe. Installed on more than five million machines, it became the highest-used Chinese software up to that time. Besides being a capable technical leader, Wang also demonstrated his talents and skills as an entrepreneur. He is one of the early advocates of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises, actively promoting new concepts and managerial practices learned from Western companies. As a vote of confidence in his vision and capabilities, Wang and SRS received international venture capital investments of US$6.5 million in 1997, the first among IT companies in China. At that time Wang began writing software for the internet. Realizing the huge market potential, he made a strategic decision at the end of 1998 to merge his own firm with a Silicon Valley-based Chinese portal set up by three Taiwanese students from Stanford University. Wang renamed the site Sina, shifted its main operations to Beijing and concentrated on web-based news. Sina exploded onto the larger Chinese scene a year later. When NATO planes bombed China’s embassy in Belgrade, Sina.com was the quickest, most reliable source of news for an outraged nation. Its coverage of the bombing and its mix of mainland Chinese talent with US technology boosted the portal past its biggest rival, SOHU. Today Sina has become the world’s largest Chinese language portal, with comprehensive web operations not only in Beijing, but also in North America, Hong Kong, and Taipei. In 2001 Wang resigned as the president, CEO and director of Sina.com. However he did not leave the internet sector. Instead, he launched another high tech start-up, Dianji. com, which specializes in network-based business management and communication tools including GK-Star, GK-Express and Lava-Lava. Wang’s ambition is to be China’s Bill Gates, and his name has been associated with the growth of China’s booming internet industry over the past decade. Wenxian Zhang and Joshua Wickerham
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Sources Business Wire (1999), ‘Sina.com announces promotion of Wang Zhidong to CEO’, 6 September, http://findar ticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1999_Sept_6/ai_55662241. Li, Yan (2001), ‘Wang Zhidong: I will never be a deserter’, People’s Daily, 8 June, accessed at http://english. peopledaily.com.cn/english/200106/08/eng20010608_72160.html. Sina Tech (2001), ‘ᮄ⌾㔥ॳᘏ㺕ݐCEO⥟ᖫϰㅔҟ’ [‘Wang Zhidong: former president and CEO of Sina’], ᮄ ⌾⾥ᡔ, 8 June, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/c/70273.shtml. Time (2000), ‘Wang Zhidong: Sina.com’, 28 February, accessed at www.time.com/time/asia/ magazine/2000/0228/cover.zhidong.html. Zhang Liming (2006), ᓴ咢ᯢ, ‘⥟ᖫϰᴔಲѦ㘨㔥佪QQ ⿄㽕“ℎ䋳”ϞᏖ݀ৌ’ [‘Wang Zhidong fights back on the Internet’], ࣫Ҁ᰼ [Beijing Morning News], 4 July, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://news.xin huanet.com/fortune/2006-07/04/content_4792245.htm.
Wang, Zhongjun (⥟Ё ݯb. 1960) President and CEO of the Huayi Brothers Media Group, Wang Zhongjun, with his brother Wang Zhonglei, has grown their company from a small advertising firm in 1994 into a media conglomerate running film, television, music, advertising, and talent management operations in China. Wang joined the People’s Liberation Army as a reconnaissance scout in 1976 while still a high school student. Discharged a few years later, Wang secured a position at the Chinese National Commodities Bureau in Beijing. However, unlike many Chinese of that time who were content with lifelong employment at government agencies, he soon quit his work because of his strong personal interests in arts and photography. In 1985, Wang became a self-employed professional designer and photographer, first making children’s pictorial books, commercials, and calendars, then managing the marketing department of a local company. In 1989 Wang went to Michigan to study mass media communication, and later transferred to the State University of New York, where he received his masters degree in mass communication in 1994. While a student in the US, Wang also worked as a part-time cartoon artist and photographer, typically laboring 13 to 16 hours each day during weekends. By the time of his graduation, Wang had accumulated personal savings of $100 000. Again unlike many other mainland Chinese students who settled for a comfortable living in America, Wang’s dreams were of fame and success in his native country. He promptly returned to China in 1994, and spent all his money setting himself up as boss of a privately-owned company that he believed could one day be the ‘Chinese Warner Brothers.’ Nevertheless, the road to success was neither easy nor straightforward. At the beginning, Wang published a small magazine with commercials tailored for upscale clientele and foreign diplomats in Beijing. The breakthrough came when Wang presented his design to the Bank of China for its first standardized corporate image plan. When his winning design was implemented in 15 000 branches of the Bank of China across the country, other banks and large corporations quickly followed, and business began to boom. In a few years, Wang’s Huayi Brothers Media grew to become one of the top ten advertising firms in China, with clients including China State Power and the Sinopec Group among others. Now with plenty of money, Wang first tried to expand his business into the fields of medical and automobile sales without much success. His luck turned in 1998 when a former colleague convinced him to make a popular drama series for the massive Chinese television market. Though he had no experience in TV production,
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Wang reaped a 100 percent return on his investment as a result of a successful promotional campaign. On 18 December 2000, the Huayi Brothers’ Taihe Film and Television Investment Company was incorporated with Wang as president and CEO. Following the commercial model of the Hollywood film industry, Wang brought talented Chinese directors and stars on board and made a succession of hit films. One of his primary partners and stockholders was Feng Xiaogang, a leading ‘Fifth Generation’ director in China, whose six films have been successful both at the box office and with critics. In 2004, Huayi Brothers’ four films, A World Without Thieves, Kung Fu Hustle, Kekexili Mountain Patrol and Breaking News, took over 350 million yuan ($43.75 million) at the box office, a staggering 35 percent of total sales in the Chinese film industry that year and a record for a single film company in China. With a successful track record, Huayi Brothers became the first film company in China to receive loans from banks without collateral. More recent hits include the Banquet, a $20 million production starring Memoirs of a Geisha actress Zhang Ziyi, and the Battle of Wits, an epic movie released in late 2006. Although the Chinese commercial film and television industry is still relatively young compared with Hollywood, Wang is confident that ‘given the speed at which China’s economy is developing, a world-class Chinese entertainment and media group is sure to emerge in the near future’ (Zuo, 2006), and his ambition is to make Huayi Brothers ‘the largest private entertainment group in China. Then maybe we can become number one in Asia and even in the world’ (Ibid). Wenxian Zhang Sources Hou, Liang (2006), ‘⥟Ёⱘݯ㘠Ϯᑌ⽣’ [‘Professional happiness of Wang Zhongjun’], ӫ⬉ᕅ [Popular Cinema], December, 12–17. Zuo, Yuanfeng (2006), ‘Man behind “Banquet” aspires to be China’s Warner’, www.chinaview.cn, 6 October.
Wei, Jiafu (儣ᆊ⽣ b. 1950) President and CEO of the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), Captain Wei Jiafu has worked his way to the top of the global shipping and logistics industry while devoting his career to reforming the Chinese shipping industry for the next generation of economic development. Wei was raised on the coast of Jiangsu Province in a family of farmers. But his dreams took him elsewhere. He became not only a high-powered executive but also a master of ships. His ten years of experience on the sea earned him the rank of captain, and his degrees have earned him the titles of senior engineer and doctor of ship and ocean structural design. Wei’s shipping career began with subsidiaries of COSCO, a Chinese stateoperated shipping firm that included Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Co., a joint Chinese-Tanzanian Shipping Company, COSCO Holdings Ltd in Singapore, and a bulk shipping division of COSCO based in Tanjian. Through these companies he worked his way up COSCO’s executive ladder, eventually becoming president and CEO. But Captain Wei was not satisfied with the direction in which either his company or the shipping industry was headed. At the time, COSCO was a large group that dealt only with shipping and reacted to party directives rather than market needs. Wei believed that if COSCO were to remain a key player in the shipping industry, it would
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have to drastically alter its relationship with the Chinese government as well as developing its products and services. Captain Wei felt that a market-oriented strategy was the only way to remain successful. Under his leadership COSCO was restructured so that the group would ultimately concede power to the government but was nonetheless targeted on fulfilling demand and making profits. In addition, Wei understood that the shipping business was pegged to freight rates that fluctuated wildly, whereas logistical services are far more stable. So Captain Wei sought to further expand the business when he began moving COSCO toward logistics, a service of rapidly growing global importance. His leadership and foresight allowed the company to thrive both in China and internationally. Today Wei’s COSCO is larger than ever before. With over 600 vessels able to carry 35 million deadweight tons at any one time, the $17 billion company is one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world. It employs 80 000 staff members around the world with ties in 1300 ports in more than 160 countries. His work at COSCO brought him attention and accolades. He was named on the Journal of Commerce Leadership Roll (2006), listed in International Who’s Who Professional, and honored as China’s Most Valuable Manager of the Year (2004). He also received the Economic Booster Award from the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (2004), the CCTV Economic Personality of the year (2005), and the Port Pilot Award from the Port Authority of Long Beach (2004). His reputation has earned him positions on various international shipping organizations, everywhere from the Panama Canal to Harvard University to the Chinese Central Committee for Discipline Inspection. Recognizing that there is an immense trade imbalance between trans-Pacific shippers and carriers, which burdens carriers with excessively high costs, Wei believes that the whole supply chain industry should recognize that a more collaborative relationship is a must, and he has been using his influence in those leadership positions to effectively express his strong opinions regarding the global shipping industry in the coming decades. Arthur Holst Sources Cassidy, W. (2006), ‘China official decries U.S. infrastructure’, Traffic World, 20 November, 11, Commonwealth Business Media. COSCO (2007), ‘About COSCO’, accessed 3 October at www.Cosco.com/en/about/index.jsp?leftnav=/1/1. Journal of Commerce (2006), ‘Capt. Wei Jiafu awarded in JOC leadership roll’, 2 February, accessed 2 October 2007 at www.Cosco.com.cn/en/news/detail.jsp?docId=7240. Tirschwell, P. (2003), ‘Political watchdog’, Journal of Commerce, 31 March, 43, Shipper Group.
Wen, Jiabao (⏽ᆊᅱ b. 1942) Wen Jiabao was born in Tianjin and joined the Communist Party in 1965. He has served as the premier in China since 2003, which means he is the head of the government bureaucracy. Wen is also a key member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party, and has been playing a primary role in managing economic reform since 1998. Wen’s training is as a geological engineer and he has served in several roles relevant to his expertise, such as minister of natural resources. His rise into the leadership ranks came in
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the 1980s under Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. Wen survived his attachment to Zhao and in the 1990s assumed various responsibilities for environmental, financial, and agricultural policies. Wen’s success in China during the reform era is testimony to his ability to combine technical competence with effectiveness in building relationships with a variety of patrons. In his time as premier, Wen has emerged as a technocrat with a penchant for public engagement, at least Chinese-style. Wen operates in public to a much greater degree than previous Chinese leaders, even to the point of holding press conferences with the foreign press included. He has frequently engaged in Western-style public appearances, such as visiting a housing project in Singapore, practicing tai chi in a park on a visit to Tokyo, or in unannounced visits to the Chinese countryside to examine economic conditions. The position of premier places Wen in charge of the management of China’s economic reform. Much of his energy is devoted to dealing with the difficulties arising from continuing double-digit growth, such as judging when and how this growth must be restrained. Further, Wen deals frequently with a variety of complex economic problems, such as the large trade surplus with the United States and the accompanying build-up of foreign exchange reserves by China. Wen is thought to have been involved in pushing for the legal recognition of private property, placing it on an equal legal basis with public property, even though this proposal prompted considerable criticism from inside the Communist Party as contrary to the basic premises of socialism. He has also been forced to tackle the myriad of issues that now emerge as China’s economic growth has persisted for nearly three decades. Wen must now seek to balance numerous, at times competing goals, as economic growth must be balanced against environmental damage, growing income gaps between urban and rural populations, and problems in providing adequate health care in rural areas. The grossly inefficient use of energy in China contributes much to its environmental crisis, but developing mechanisms to shift to greater energy efficiency while maintaining economic growth is a difficult problem. Not surprisingly, Wen’s experience in agricultural policy and his rural background contribute to his sensitivity to many of these issues. The repeal of the millennia-old tax on peasants and increasing the resources to support rural education are a tangible reflection of these concerns. Wen has taken a leading role in expressing China’s willingness to participate in global talks relating to controlling greenhouse gases, even as China becomes one of the world’s largest contributors of such gases. Wen is also noted for his efforts to address issues such as SARS and AIDS in a more forthright and effective manner than many Chinese leaders. Balancing his image as a populist, Wen takes a somewhat hard-line view on Taiwan and his term as premier has witnessed a substantial military build-up. Thomas D. Lairson Sources Goldman, Merle (2007), ‘Authoritarian populists for now’, Current History, 106 (September), 247–9. Onishi, Norimitsu (2007), ‘China leader pledges amity, but warns Japan’, New York Times, 13 April. Zhang, Zhongxiang (2007), ‘China’s reds embrace green’, Far Eastern Economic Review, 170 (June), 33–7.
Wen, Sayling (Wen, Shiren ⏽Ϫҕ 1948–2003) As the former president of the Inventec Group, Wen Sayling was a successful IT entrepreneur from Taiwan who helped pave the way for Taiwan’s transition into a hardware
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manufacturing powerhouse. In addition to his leadership of Inventec, Wen is also widely recognized for his poverty relief efforts and promotion of computer education in Western China. Wen was born in Taipei on 21 January 1948 and did his undergraduate and graduate studies in electronic engineering at the National Taiwan University. In 1972 he and classmate Barry Lam, now chairman of Quanta Computer (the world’s largest made-to-order notebook computer maker), founded San Ai Electronics, which made simple electronic devices such as calculators. In 1973, Wen and Lam, along with another IT entrepreneur Rock Hsu, founded Kinpo Electronics, whose affiliate company, Compal, is now the world’s second largest made-to-order notebook PC maker. Together, the founding of these companies has helped promote Taiwan’s emergence as a global leader in electronic manufacturing. In 1975 Wen and classmate Yeh Kuo-yi founded the Inventec Group, in which Wen served as president and vice chairman. Today, the Inventec Corporation has grown to become one of the world’s top computer manufacturers, making notebook computers, servers, and mobile devices, with major customers including Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, and Siemens. In addition, the company has become one of China’s largest exporters, with configuration and service centers in the United States, Europe, and Mexico and a workforce of over 23 000 employees. Wen had a strong commitment not only to the economic development of China, but also to its intellectual development. In 1998 he founded the Tomorrow Studio as a trailblazing outfit with the aim of developing digital multimedia content, publishing works for both digital and print platforms, and as a way to cultivate writers, cartoonists, and other artists. In addition, Wen established himself as a prolific writer on a wide range of subjects, with written works covering everything from digital content to the economy and ways to improve one’s English skills. Based on his personal encounters and work experience, his numerous publications include: Success with Wealth and Joy, Prospect, Taiwan Experience, The East Asian Financial Crisis, Leadership, Future of the Enterprise, Future of E-commerce, Develop Western China in 10 Years, and Facing the Tofflers: Provisioning the Future. Several of his works are published in English, Japanese, and Korean. Wen was a strong advocate for popularizing computers in schools and using the internet as a tool to further the development of Western China. With vision and strong financial support, he launched the very ambitious ‘Thousands of Local Talents’ program, which sought to establish 1000 online education centers in poor village schools in 12 provinces across Western China within five years. As such, the goal of the program was to develop local talents at each school through accessing the company’s website for software training. Ultimately, the program would help establish Chinese computer programming talents and future economic advancements that would otherwise be beyond the reach of locals with limited resources. Wen died after suffering a stroke in December 2003, at the age of 55. Matthew Amick Sources Abaconline.org (2007), ‘Sayling Wen, ABAC member biography’, accessed 22 November at http://abaconline. org/aboutus/bio. China Post (2003), ‘Sayling Wen, IT Entrepreneur and Writer, Dies at 55’, 8 December.
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Shen, Celine and Ge, Jianqiao (2005), ‘Women and ICT: from the Chinese perspective’, ACM International Conference Proceeding, 126, accessed 22 November 2007 at http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1120000/1117 431/p14-shen.pdf.
Wen, Tiejun (⏽䪕 ݯb. 1951) A leading scholar on the rural economy, Wen Tiejun is the dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the Renmin University of China. He is also the founder of the James Yen Institute of Rural Reconstruction, as well as a consultant to numerous international institutions on issues related to the Chinese agricultural industry. From 1968, Wen worked for 11 years as a peasant, a worker and a soldier in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Since 1985, after obtaining his bachelor degree in law from the Renmin University of China in Beijing and his PhD in economic management from the Chinese Agricultural University, Wen has devoted his career to rural economic reform, doing grassroots research on rural policymaking by the State Council. He has worked on policy studies at both central and local government levels on current affairs and macroeconomic and geo-strategy, on long-term issues, agriculture, and rural development. His academic research topics have focused on land rights, processing and market affairs, rural reconstruction and grassroots organizations, the burdens borne by farmers, taxation reform, financial affairs, and urbanization and migration. Regarded as ‘one of China’s movers and shakers’ (Chinabiz Speakers, 2007) Wen is a prolific researcher who often speaks on rural reforms and development. For more than two decades, he has been advocating and leading the experimental rural reforms in China. Not simply a man of pure theory, Wen based his researches on massive field investigations across the country. Consequently, he has left his mark on the shaping of important policy issues related to the Chinese rural economy, including the abolishment of the agricultural tax, the necessity of medical reform, organic farming, urbanization of the countryside, and organization-building. Wen is an influential adviser to the Chinese central government on its agricultural policies. He has also provided research and consultancy to numerous international organizations, and served as a visiting scholar to more than 30 countries and regions all over the world. Besides being a senior consultant for the State Information and Research Center of Rural Economics, China Ministry of Agriculture, Wen also holds various titles, including the deputy secretary general for both the China Society of Economic Reform and the China Macroeconomic Research Foundation. For his research and professional accomplishment, Wen received the Government Special Award to the Outstanding Experts from the China State Council in 1998, the Science and Technology Progress Award from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in 1999, the Top Ten Economic Talents of the Year from CCTV in 2003, and the Best Thesis Award from the Du Runsheng Foundation in 2004. Huang, Lujin Sources BBC News (2000), ‘Chinese farmers face bleak future’, 14 December, accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/1070919.stm.
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ChinaBiz Speakers (2007), ‘Wen Tiejun’, accessed 20 September at www.chinabizspeakers.com/en/speakers/ wentiejun/index.asp. Renmin University of China (2006), ‘Wen Tiejun’, accessed at http://ard.ruc.edu.cn/en/20837.html.
Wu, Dingfu (ਈᅮᆠ b. 1946) Regarded as the official spokesperson for the newly established and fast growing Chinese insurance industry, Wu Dingfu is the chair of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC). After graduating from Hubei University with a specialization in Chinese language and literature, Wu Dingfu, a native of Wuxue City, Hubei Province, worked as a teacher in Wuxue Middle School in Guangji County from 1969 to 1980. He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1972. After leaving teaching, Wu held numerous positions within the county, including deputy director, CPC County Committee, Publicity Department (1980–83); deputy magistrate/magistrate, Guangji People’s Court (1983–84); and secretary, CPC County Committee (1984–87). Wu then became deputy commissioner, People’s Government at Huanggang Prefecture from 1987 to 1990. His next two posts were at the provincial level, first as deputy auditor-general at the Provincial Auditing Office (1990–91) then as auditor-general at the same office (1991–95). Wu then moved to positions at the national level. From 1995 to 1998, he was a member of the Party Leadership Group at the CPC National Audit Office (NAO). In 1997, he was elected a member of the CPC Central Committee (CPC CC), Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). From 1998–2000, he was the inaugural vice chair of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) (established in November 1998) as well as the head of the Party Committee, CPC NAO, CCDI. In 2000, Wu was elected a member of the Standing Committee, CPC CC, CCDI. From 2001–02, he was secretary general of the CPC CC, CCDI. In 2002, he became chair of the CIRC. Wu is an alternate member of both the 16th and the 17th CPC CC (2002–present). Appointed by the State Council, he is also one of the 12 members of the Bank of China’s Monetary Policy Committee, established in July 1997. As the chair of the CIRC, Wu is the official spokesperson for the Chinese insurance industry. He is a familiar media presence, giving interviews and making speeches, and appearing in newspapers, on television, in magazines and journals. His analyses and opinions cover sectors including insurance, finance, and economics. He attends major insurance conferences both domestically and internationally. He has been a member of the Chinese delegation at the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogues since they were launched in September 2006. Representing the CIRC, Wu opines that the Chinese insurance industry is still in an emerging stage, as insurance companies, regulators and the insurance market are still immature. Its development has been notable. The report, ‘The Opinions’, or ‘The Opinions of the State Council regarding the Reform and Development of the Industry’ (15 June 2006), marks a milestone for the Chinese insurance industry. The report calls for speeding up the insurance industry’s development and that its development should be consistent with China’s rapid economic growth and the establishment of a marketoriented economic system. The report also states the need to expand the types of insurance products and services available in the Chinese market.
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The insurance industry has been adopting the recommendations detailed in ‘The Opinions’. Wu and the CIRC have pledged to encourage more insurance companies to seek business overseas, to support more insurance companies to list on international markets, and to raise funds in international capital markets. There is a huge potential within the Chinese insurance industry, and Wu predicts that by 2010, the industry will have ‘a big size, sound market operation and functions, a wide service network, sufficient repayment capacities, strong competitiveness and vitality’ (China Daily, 2006). Victoria Chu Sources The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China (2006), ‘ࡵ䰶݇Ѣֱ䰽Ϯᬍ䴽থሩⱘ㢹 ᑆᛣ㾕’ [‘The opinions of the State Council regarding the reform and development of the industry’], 15 June, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.gov.cn/zwgk/2006-06/26/content_320050.htm. China Daily (2006), ‘Chinese insurers record 8.5% income rise’, 23 April, accessed 1 October 2008 at www. chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-04/23/content_574298.htm. China Vitae (2008), ‘Wu Dingfu’, 7 January, accessed 10 October at http://chinavitae.com/biography/Wu_ Dingfu/full. Jiang, Fan (2006), ‘China’s insurance sector in steady growth’, China Economic Net, 8 February, accessed 1 October 2008 at http://en.ce.cn/Insight/200702/08//t20070208_10357896.shtml#. Who’s Who: Current Chinese Leaders (2003), ‘Wu Dingfu’, Beijing: Wen Wei Publishing Co.
Wu, Jinglian (ਈᭀ⧣b. 1930) Few scholars have had as significant an impact on China’s reforms as Wu Jinglian, who maintains numerous prestigious positions and has played an active role in the formation of China’s economic future. A professor of economics at both the China Europe International Business School and the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Wu is not only a senior research associate at the Development Research Centre of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, but also a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He serves as an independent board member of multiple companies and as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association as of 2005. These many accomplishments follow a long history of working closely with the policymaking process of China’s economic reforms. A 1954 graduate of the prestigious Fudan University, Wu Jinglian’s career has always been closely integrated with China’s economic decisions. In his historical work, Understanding and Interpreting Chinese Economic Reform (2005), Wu offered a thorough description of the progress and pitfalls of the past few decades of Chinese economic reform. He believed the initial attempts to decentralize power into lower levels of administration were flawed, and that the tumult caused by decisions based on poor market information and lack of budget constraint had led to a protracted period of reform that was never fully effective. According to Wu, the real Chinese economic reform began in 1978. In this period, reform measures were incrementally installed with mixed results. Early on, the thrust was centered on state-owned enterprises. However, a lack of market competition and a demand-based pricing system meant that little was accomplished. As the focus shifted to non-state enterprises and other peripheral areas, the first significant growth began to
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appear. While avoiding troubles associated with over-enthusiastic public enterprise reform, such measures created a dual-track system, which deprived non-state enterprises of much needed resources and created a fertile ground for corruption. Wu believed that those factors combined with rapid growth and insufficient macroeconomic control were undermining China’s economic stability. It is only since 1993 that significant dedication to reform is evidenced in China. Not only were major reforms to be enacted in fiscal and tax policies, but even banking, foreign exchange, and social security were included in the scope of policy changes. It was during this time that the significant changes necessary for stabilization were set in motion. It is only due to Professor Wu’s close involvement with the reform processes that he is able to write with such authority. He is in a unique position to reveal how piecemeal reform was counter-productive and often lent political capital to opponents of liberal reform. The ability to draw on this rich experience shows how Wu Jinglian is a scholar and politician of extraordinary caliber. Xiafang Mo Sources China Europe International Business School (2008), ‘Wu Jinglian’, accessed at www.ceibs.edu/faculty/cv/1106. shtml. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Wu Jinglian’, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Jinglian.
Wu, Renbao (ਈҕᅱ b. 1928) Communist Party secretary of the Huaxi Village Committee for more than 40 years, Wu Renbao has been the chief economic engineer of the transformation of his remote and backward village into arguably the wealthiest township in China. A socialist throughout his 50-year career, Wu Renbao joined the Chinese Communist Party in October 1954, and was appointed Party chief of Huaxi village in 1961. Three years later, Wu and other village leaders formualted a 15-year development plan for Huaxi village. Equipped with both political intelligence and business acumen, Wu adopted a strategy of ‘outward obedience and secret independence’ (China Daily News, 2003). Realizing that traditional agriculture would never move his people out of poverty, he disregarded official government policy and started up a secret machine parts factory in 1969, in the heyday of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) when money-making was despised. After the national economic reform was launched in the late 1970s, Wu once again bucked the trend of dividing up and distributing village land for individual household farming. Instead he decided to keep the land communal and shifted focus from agriculture to developing industry. In 1984, Wu set up a successful operation making fertilizer spray bottles, generating a net profit of 2 million yuan ($242 000) for the village. Reportedly a leader with strict self-discipline, Wu devoted his wisdom and energy towards providing a good material life for all his villagers. ‘No matter whether it’s a new kind of ism or an old kind of ism, our aim is to make everyone rich’ (Watts, 2005). Wu’s approach to prosperity and glory was to combine the strict political control of the ruling Communist Party with the get-rich-quick economics of the market, a model later hailed for the whole country to follow. With most of its labor force devoted to industry, the
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village has established enterprises one after another in textiles, metals, and machinery. Under Wu, large-scale aquaculture production was also undertaken. The rise of industry paved the way for the stable development of modern agriculture, and Huaxi quickly became the biggest township enterprise group at the village level in Jiangsu Province. In 1995, Huaxi became the first commune in China to list shares on a stock exchange. By 2005, Huaxi had fixed assets exceeding 7 billion yuan ($870 million), and was home to 58 village-owned businesses. Each household has been assigned a car and a single-family, two-storey house of 400 square meters with landscaped lots and guaranteed power and gas services. The entire population of 30 000 has health insurance and pensions, and annual per capita income has risen to $8000, seven times the national average and 20 times the average for farmers. Huaxi was proclaimed as a model of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ (Ibid.) and tens of thousands of people from all over China began to flock to the village each year to see Wu and his phenomenal achievement. Honored as a ‘National Model Worker’ and ‘Outstanding CCP Member’ of Jiangsu Province, Wu was recognized for his integrity, managerial flair, and contributions to poverty alleviation and township enterprise development. Currently, Wu is a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, President of the National Research Institute of Well-Off Villages, Vice President of the China Association for Poverty Alleviation and Development, Deputy Board Chairman and Deputy General Manager of the Huaxi Group. In spite of being hailed as a national hero, Wu has also generated much controversy, and his system of management has been criticized as feudal, resembling the old imperial dynasties rather than communism. Not only are some of the top village posts held by his relatives, but Wu himself was succeeded by his fourth son in 2003 with 100 percent of communal votes. While all the village’s official residents enjoy a life of luxury, thousands more migrant workers labor in the village’s factories, performing all kinds of manual jobs and living in overcrowded, shabby structures. The village is managed as if it were an army compound, where gambling and drugs are strictly forbidden, and no one is allowed to strike up a casual conversation with an outsider. Bars and restaurants are ordered to close before 10 pm so that workers do not oversleep. While residents are nominally richer than those of any other community, villagers get little cash from their paper assets, as 80 percent of their bonuses and 95 percent of their dividends must be reinvested in the commune. Huaxi under Wu has been described as both a ‘paradise’ and a ‘dictatorship.’ Wenxian Zhang Sources China Daily News (2003), ‘China’s richest village: it takes brains and guts’, 19 August. People’s Daily (1999), ‘Wu Renbao: leader of Rural Common Prosperity’, 6 September. Watts, Jonathan (2005), ‘In China’s richest village, peasants are all shareholders now – by order of the Party’, Guardian, 10 May.
Wu, Yi (ਈҾ b. 1938) Wu Yi has been dubbed the ‘Iron Lady’ of China for good reason: she brings a toughness and quick intelligence to the international negotiating table and to the crisis management
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of hot domestic issues. The ‘Iron Lady’ showed her negotiating skills as minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation from 1993 through 1998 – a stint that included the tense period at the height of trade friction with the United States. Her able handling of this job, among other accomplishments, catapulted Wu to her present job: one of only four vice premiers in the country’s State Council, a member of the Politburo of the 16th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, and Minister of Health of the PRC. In 2006 Forbes magazine described Wu Yi as the third most powerful woman in the world. Wu has been in the central government apparatus for only a decade and a half, since joining the bureaucracy in 1991 as vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, where she later became minister in 1993. She is credited with having been a vital force in the negotiations that led to the entry of the People’s Republic of China into the World Trade Organization. When the United States began complaining about China’s alleged violations of intellectual property rights, the task of reorganizing the Chinese customs service fell into her hands. In 1998, Wu Yi was appointed as a state councilor, the select group of only five members that runs the government of China. The Council is also called the ‘cabinet’ of Premier Zhu Rongji, and Wu Yi was put in charge of foreign trade issues. She was appointed vice premier of the State Council in March 2003. The promotion to the State Council elevated Wu Yi to the more lofty intricacies of running the government and she has tackled both foreign trade affairs and health issues. During the height of the SARS crisis, China was criticized for its handling of the emergency, and the health minister was subsequently fired for covering up the extent of the crisis in the country. Wu took over the reins in the health ministry and headed the task force that eventually solved the crisis. One of the actions that earned her the gratitude of people all over the world was her policy of transparency. She authorized the release of all information on China’s efforts to resolve the crisis and welcomed help from outside the country. For this, Time magazine admiringly gave her the title ‘goddess of transparency’ and included her in the magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2004. During the same year, Wu Yi turned her attention to AIDS in China and became the director of the State Council’s Working Committee on AIDS Prevention. Wu Yi would not have anticipated that she would one day run the complex affairs of government in China. She was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province. After finishing her education at Beijing Petroleum College, she became a qualified petrochemical engineer. She began working at the Lanzhou Oil Refinery in Gansu Province, after graduation in 1962. Three years later, she moved to the Technology Department of the Petroleum Ministry. She transferred to the Dongfanghong Refinery in 1967, where she stayed for 16 years, until 1983, working her way up from a technician’s job to deputy director of the refinery. She was appointed deputy manager of the Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Corporation in 1983 and served until 1988. Although she joined the Communist Party of China in 1962, she was not really active in politics until she was elected vice mayor of Beijing in 1988. Her 26 years of technical and management experience in the petroleum industry served her well. She was tasked to look after the city’s foreign trade and industrial development. Three years later, she was appointed to a similar task that expanded to gargantuan proportions: the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. She has been quoted as saying, ‘in my youth, I never developed a desire to enter politics. My
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biggest wish was to become a great entrepreneur’ (Forbes, 2004). In her job as vice premier, she has become the exponent of the Chinese entrepreneur. Wu Yi is at the helm of government programs to develop China’s hinterland, through the engine of increased foreign trade. She supports the growth of high-tech exports and aims to attract foreign direct investment by instituting policies and laws favorable to foreign investors. Wu is a firm believer in bilateral trade cooperation. She encourages Chinese companies to establish assembly plants overseas. During a visit to the United States in 2006, she underscored her point on bilateral trade by wrapping up $18 billion in government contracts, including a $5 billion order from an American aircraft manufacturer. Wu Yi continues to deal with thorny issues. There have been problems with the United States and other trading partners over safety issues. Pet food exported from China to the USA and other countries has been found to be contaminated with toxic substances. A number of US companies have recalled toys made in China because of unacceptable levels of lead in the paint. Such issues will need the toughness and flexibility of China’s best trade negotiator, the Iron Lady, Wu Yi. In 2007, Wu Yi was appointed as the group leader for the Product Quality and Food Safety Working Group in the State Council. Amir Shoham and Hui He Sources China Aids Survey (2003), ‘Wu Yi: Biographic Profile’, 3 July, accessed at www.casy.org/Chindoc/wuyiprofile. htm. Serafin, T. (2006), ‘The 100 most powerful women’, Forbes, 31 August, accessed 27 July 2007 at www.forbes. com/lists/2006/11/06women_Wu-Yi_GGD7.html.
Wu, Yijian (ਈϔമb. 1960) Since its founding in 1996, Wu Yijian has been the chairman of the Shaanxi Jinhua Industrial Development Group, also known as the Ginwa Group. Headquartered in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, the company’s principal activities are manufacturing and distributing of bio-pharmaceuticals (with a focus on hepatitis medicines); Chinese and Western medicine in the form of liquids to be taken orally, capsules and tablets; health products and medicine logistics. In addition to pharmaceuticals, the Ginwa Group comprises a diverse mixture of business ventures that have contributed to the ongoing economic growth within Shaanxhi. The group has expanded its business ventures within the past five years to include investments in hospitality (including a five-star hotel), a golf course, and a retail chain, taking advantage of Xi’an’s position as one of China’s premier tourist spots. Other activities of the enterprise group include the development of computer software, expressways, media, and ventures into the entertainment business. Born into a poor family in Xi’an, Shaanxi, Wu’s early years were not without hardship. His grandfather, a local landlord, was killed during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, and his father was imprisoned. Fortunately Wu was able to obtain a good college education when the turmoil was finally over, receiving his BA from the Xi’an University of Science and Technology and his masters in economic management from Huazhong Normal University. After a period in the navy, in 1984 Wu set up his first
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business in Hainan producing television sets. He later pursued real estate ventures and eventually launched his pharmaceutical business in 1995 in Xi’an, his hometown. Through strong financial acumen, Wu developed his business virtually debt-free and it was in the vanguard of the industrial development of Shaanxi Province. Ginwa’s pharmaceutical business has served as a strong pillar of the province’s economic growth, which has helped promote the role of Xi’an as a business gateway to the vast western regions of China, making the city and province one of the main focal points for the Great Western Development project launched by the Chinese government in recent years. Wu is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He has been named as one of the ‘best and brightest within Asia’ as a 2005 Microsoft Fellow. In 2001, he was also ranked among the top ten richest people in China by Forbes magazine, with an estimated wealth of US$422 million. Matthew Amick Sources Forbes (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November. Hoogewerf, Rupert (2000), ‘China’s 50 richest entrepreneurs’, Forbes, 27 November. Hurun Report (2004), ‘Wu Yijian: 2004 China Philanthropists List No.12’, accessed 22 September 2008 at www.hurun.net/detailen11,people13.aspx. Wright Reports (2008), ‘Ginwa Enterprise Group, Inc.,’ accessed 22 September 2008 at http://wrightreports. ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/comsite5.pl?page=report_description&report=COMPANY&cusip=C156GH200.
Wu, Ying (ਈ呄 b. 1959) Former executive vice president and CEO of UT Starcom China, Wu Ying played an important role in growing the company into a rising power in the telecommunication hardware sector. Wu was born in Beijing and attended Beijing Industry University. Soon after his graduation in 1985, he went to the United States to pursue further studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology with only $27 in his pocket, and earned a graduate degree in electrical engineering. After working at Bell Labs for four years, in 1991 Wu founded a technological consultating company Starcom with another overseas Chinese student in New Jersey. Four years later, the company merged with Unitech to form UT Starcom. In the three years from its initial public offering of stock in March 2000 to 2003, the company’s revenues increased ten times. Its worldwide sales revenue reached over $2.9 billion in 2005, with $2 billion from outside China. UT Starcom is considered one of the best Chinese technological stocks on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company’s success is based on innovation. The first huge success were the PAS (personal access system) handsets, widely known to Chinese as ‘Xiao Ling Tong’ (‘Little Smart’). Wu fine-tuned the ‘personal handy-phone’ technology that is popular in Japan and launched Little Smart in China in 1998. In a regulatory environment where only licensed companies were allowed to provide mobile services, Wu managed to convince telecom officials that cell phones were just a wireless extension of fixed-line phones. He sold the system to China’s two giant fixed-line companies, China Telecom and China Netcom, who were eager to share the huge mobile market but could not because of strict government regulations. Serving as a bargain alternative to mobile phones, the Little
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Smart handsets allow ordinary Chinese citizens to receive cell-phone-like service at rates as low as 25 percent of those of regular carriers. As Wu sees it, this is a huge potential market of 650 million people who would like to use regular cell phones but cannot afford them. With its citywide mobility and low price, Little Smart is very popular among ordinary Chinese and gained around 90 million users by the end of March 2006. Under Wu’s leadership, the company initiated a digital TV solution called IPTV (internet protocol TV) as its new line of innovation. IPTV delivers digital TV service to subscribers via internet protocol over a broadband connection. Thus, IPTV does not have the traditional program constraints of fixed times and fixed channels. Besides selecting programs from a menu display, IPTV customers have the choice to pause, rewind and fast-forward the program that they are watching. They can also watch programs that were broadcast during the past two days or even earlier, at any time of their choice. Wu has predicted that IPTV will dominate the market in the post-digital age. Through its efforts in cooperating with two telecom giants, China Telecom and China Netcom, and radio and television stations, UT Starcom has served not only as an equipment supplier, but also as a promoter of IPTV’s development in China. This safe and inexpensive digital TV technology has also gained the Chinese government’s support. It had hundreds of thousands of customers in China by 2006. Since watching TV is a favorite pastime for most Chinese, Wu believed that IPTV’s development in China, with its huge potential market, would surpass that in Japan and the USA. In 2006, Wu shared his insights on innovation with Beijing Review. Encouraged by the Chinese government’s advocacy of innovation, he believes the usual inadequate implementation by the responsible departments or local governments needs to be improved; the social environment needs to be more supportive to innovative, small and start-up companies; the legal and financial environment also needs to be improved for start-ups; and preferential financing and tax policies should be used as a means to encourage independent innovation in companies, and to transform China from the world’s manufacturing center into an R&D center, China should start establishing a national R&D group in the IT sector which brings together innovative overseas returnees with local talents. Although a successful innovator, due to a dispute with the board, Wu reluctantly left the company in 2007. Dongmei Cao Sources Chinatechnews.com (2007), ‘Wu Ying leaves UTStarcom’, 4 June, accessed 20 November at www.chinatech news.com. Kuo, Kaiser (2003), ‘UTStarcom: Wu Ying/Beijing’, Time, 21 July. Yu, Shujun (2006), ‘Telecom innovator: UT Starcom eyes new opportunities with IPTV’, Beijing Review, 20 April.
Xiang, Huaicheng (乍ᗔ䆮 b. 1939) President of the National Council for Social Security Fund, Xiang Huaicheng has been at the forefront of Chinese fiscal policy through his various positions in the Ministry of Finance for a considerable time. After completing a degree in Chinese literature from Shandong University in 1960, he worked for two years as an assistant researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1962, he transferred to the Ministry of Finance and thus began a lifelong career in finance that was capped by his appointment as minister at the Ministry of Finance, from 1998 to 2003. In a speech before the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, Xiang Huaicheng explained the basic finance policy that he tried to pursue in China. He stressed that from the standpoint of state finance, China had never paused in its attempts to restructure its economy despite what had been reported by some. Economic reform had never stopped; indeed, he believed that China had come to the point where it could no longer stop economic restructuring (Xiang, 2002). Xiang Huaicheng as minister of finance was always conscious of the vital role that fiscal policies played in development, and felt he had to put in place development-orientated fiscal policies to support these economic targets. To him, it was inevitable that development would always be a dominant theme in China’s economy, as the ultimate target was to improve the living standards of the Chinese people. To achieve that desired end, the government had targeted five reforms: on state-owned enterprises, on the system of investment and financing, on overall fiscal and financial reform, on social security, and on tax conversion. In all of these reforms, Xiang Huaicheng played a key role. He placed top priority on social security reform, then on tax conversion to spur development in the rural areas of China, particularly in the western provinces, and third, financial and fiscal reforms. All of these reforms, in his view, would help to make stateowned enterprises more efficient. Conceding that these enterprises had too many employees, Xiang Huaicheng felt that the excess personnel should be removed from state enterprises, but that the state cannot just do that without making provisions for their welfare; thus it was necessary to have reforms in the social security system. Always conscious of the objective of raising living standards, Xiang Huaicheng included provisions to increase social security expenditures in the economic programs for each year. He believed that the social security programs would help to promote social stability. The establishment of a comprehensive system of social security would be one of the best ways to promote reform in state-owned enterprises, assuring that those who were no longer employed in the various companies of the state would still be provided for, and thus helping achieve sustainable social development. During his term as minister of finance, Xiang Huaicheng also pushed for fund allocations to stimulate development in Western China. The People’s Daily (English version, 6 March 2001) reported the proactive fiscal policy during his term. He proposed the flotation of 50 billion yuan in special Treasury bonds, which would be used to build largescale infrastructure projects. Among the projects that Xiang Huaicheng supported were a pipeline for natural gas and transmission lines for electricity from the western provinces to the eastern regions, water diversion projects to carry water from the south to the water-starved cities in the north, and finally the building of a railway from Qinghai to 203
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Tibet, which was inaugurated in 2006. His participation since 1992 as deputy head of the resettlement group for communities affected by the Three Gorges project underscored Xiang Huaicheng’s deep concern for the poor. In 1993, he was also selected as deputy head for the Aid-the-Poor projects. These were long-term commitments for him, and he remained in these posts even during his terms as minister of finance. Xiang Huaicheng retired from the Ministry of Finance in 2003, after a solid 40 years in service. Retirement liberated him to do things that were really close to his heart – continuing the reform in the country’s social security system. Shortly after his retirement from the ministry, he was appointed to the presidency of the National Council for Social Security Fund. Xiang Huaicheng is also a published author – not in Chinese literature, his college degree, but on fiscal reform in China. He set down in books all his ideas and strategies for undertaking reforms in the fiscal system and in China’s efforts to gain experience in macroeconomic management. He is an honorary professor at several institutions, including Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Wuhai University, and China National School of Administration. Amir Shoham and Hui He Sources China Vitae (2008), ‘Xiang Huaicheng, Member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, President of National Council for Social Security Fund’, accessed at www.chinavitae.com/biography/310. People’s Daily (2001), ‘Proactive fiscal policy success: Xiang Huaicheng’, 6 March, accessed at http://english. peopledaily.com.cn/english/200103/06/eng20010306_64229.html. Xiang, H. (2002), ‘Speech on China: fiscal policies for economic development’, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, 22 April, accessed at www.nixoncenter.org/Program%20 Briefs/vol8no7_XiangTranscript.htm.
Xie, Fuzhan (䇶ӣⶏ b. 1954) A native of Tianmen City, Hubei Province, Xie Fuzhan is the commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS). He was appointed to this post by the State Council on 12 October 2006, replacing Qiu Xiaohua. Prior to heading the NBS, Xie spent most of his career at the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). Xie received his bachelors degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1980 and worked as a reporter at the People’s Daily from 1980 to 1983. He joined the DRC after receiving a masters degree in engineering from the Machinery Industry Automation Research Institute in 1986. During his 20-year tenure at the DRC (1986–2006), he participated in and headed many research projects and held many positions, including assistant researcher, researcher, assistant head of the Information Center, assistant director of the Intelligence Center, director of the General Office (Personnel Bureau), secretary general of the Academic Committee, member of the DRC’s Party Leadership Group (PLG), and deputy director of the DRC. Xie also went abroad to study in the United States and England. In 1991 and 1992, he was a visiting scholar at Princeton University’s economics department. In 1993, he completed an executive program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Public Administration. In 2006, Xie completed another executive program at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Xie’s major research areas include macroeconomic policies, economic development,
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regional development strategies, and enterprise reform. Some of the more significant projects which Xie directed or co-directed at the DRC include a World Bank Assisted Program on Chinese property policies, a United Nations Development Program on comprehensive research into economic development policies and planning, an Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance Program on strategic research on China’s regional development, and other projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China, State Science and Technology Commission. In addition to his work at the DRC and the NBS, Xie has contributed as an adviser to the Consultative Committee of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is also a faculty member and adviser to doctoral students at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Since November 2007, he has been an adjunct faculty member at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management. Xie is also a current member of the People’s Bank of China’s Monetary Policy Committee, a member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee, secretary of the PLG at NBS, one of three vice-chairpersons and one of five member representatives for China at the 2007 UNESCO Statistical Commission. In 2007 he led overseas delegations to Germany and Austria. In addition, Xie is a prolific writer. His articles have appeared in journals and newspapers including the China Economic Times, China Securities, Economic Research, Economics Information, Management World and the People’s Daily. He has also authored and co-authored many works. Select works since 2000 include China Real Estate Taxation System Proposition (2006), China’s Real Estate Taxation System (2005), Road to Urbanization with Chinese Characteristics* (2004), Thirty Key Issues Related to Further Reform (2003), Fiscal Control and Reform* (2001), Real Estate: Strategic Development and Countermeasures* (2000), and Annual Collection of Chinese Economic Specialists’ New Thinking (2000, 2001). Xie won the Sun Zhifang Economics Prize in 1990 and 2000, as well as the National Science and Technology Award, and the title of State Council’s Exceptional Contribution Specialist in 1996. Since Xie became the NBS commissioner in October 2006, he has emphasized the need for cleaner and clearer statistical standards and improved accuracy and fairness in data collection. He is an advocate of new statistical methods and for improving economic, social, and environmental statistics. In January 2007, he openly stated his unwillingness to make any forecast on the Chinese economy for the year 2007, as he reasoned that any forecast would have the potential to affect data collection. Xie also spoke openly on China’s Second Agricultural Census 2006/2007 (the first was in 1996), reporting that in the efforts to ensure that census workers followed procedures and did not fabricate figures, 40 cases of false information collection had been uncovered. As NBS commissioner, Xie has made many public appearances and speeches on the current economic situation. With regard to China’s continuous economic boom, Xie is in agreement with other economists and fiscal experts, seeing the need to cool the economy, control inflation, and slow economic growth to a reasonable level using macroeconomic control measures in moderation, including fiscal and monetary policies. Note * Translations by contributor.
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Sources China Macroeconomic Information Network (2004), ‘China economics award’, 24 September, accessed 1 October 2008 at http://www.macrochina.com.cn/prize/brt/xiefuzhan.shtml. China Vitae (2006), ‘Xie Fuzhan’, 31 October, accessed 1 October 2008 at http://chinavitae.com/biography/ Xie_Fuzhan/full. Sina News Center (2007), ‘ᆊ㒳䅵ሔ䭓䇶ӣⶏ: ᇍ2007ᑈ㒣⌢ϡ乘⌟’ [‘NBS Commissioner Xie Fuzhan is not making any prediction for the 2007 economy’], ᮄ⌾㔥ᮄ䯏Ёᖗ, 25 January, accessed 1 October 2008 at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-01-25/112312136953.shtml.
Xie, Qihua (䇶ӕढb. 1943) As chairwoman of Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation, Xie Qihua made a tremendous contribution to the development of the group, which is China’s largest steel manufacturer and the sixth largest in the world. Called China’s ‘Woman of Steel,’ ‘Iron Lady,’ ‘Steel Queen’ and so on, she was one of a handful of female CEOs in Chinese stateowned enterprises, and a dominant force in an industry ruled mostly by men. Xie Qihua’s influence in the industry has been in step with China’s almost insatiable need for iron and steel, as the country’s appetite for skyscrapers, ships, and cars expands along with its economy. China is now the world’s largest producer and consumer of steel, and Xie Qihua is the industry’s public face. At the end of her tenure, she oversaw 100 000 workers, who roll out 21 million tons of steel each year, and Baosteel ranked as the world’s sixth-largest steel company in terms of capacity, with profits up to $22 billion. Xie Qihua lives in Shanghai, the largest commercial metropolis in China, where she was born in 1943. After graduation from Tsinghua University in 1968, she worked as a technician at the Shaanxi Steel Plant. In October 1978, Xie joined Baosteel when it was still under construction, heading up the technical division, and gradually rising through the ranks to become company president in 1994 and chair of the board of Baoshan Iron and Steel in 2000. A role model for many Chinese women, in February 2003 Xie became chair of the board of directors and general manager of Baosteel Group, and board chairwoman of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Since 1978, Xie has dedicated most of her energy to the development of the Baosteel Group. After receiving authorization from the State Council to acquire the Shanghai Iron and Steel Plant and Meishan Iron and Steel Company, she transformed the Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation into the largest iron and steel conglomerate in China. Throughout her career, Xie successfully implemented expansion through a strategy of acquisitions and mergers. In April 2001, after working diligently to improve the industrial concentration of Baosteel, Xie turned her attention to the strategic alliance between the Baosteel Group, the Capital Iron and Steel Company, and the Wuhan Iron and Steel Company, which propelled Baosteel Group into the world’s top 12 steel corporations with over 10-millionton yearly output. In January 2004, the Baosteel Group signed a cooperation framework agreement with France’s Arcelor, an international steel-maker, and Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), to jointly build a steel plant in Brazil. This was regarded as China’s largest direct investment in an overseas project at the time and became the entry point of Baosteel into the international market. On 12 July 2004, when Fortune published the 2003 rankings of the top 500 companies in the world, Baosteel Group was ranked 372nd with a 120.4 billion yuan ($14.548 billion)
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income, becoming the first Chinese manufacturer to enter the list; in 2005, Baosteel’s ranking leapt to 309th, advancing 63 places; in 2006, Baosteel Group Corp. was at 296 in the top 500 companies of the world. ‘Xie led the Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation in setting record earnings and revenue, and successfully pioneered a path in the trades traditionally dominated by men’ (China Daily, 2006). In addition, each year Fortune lists the 50 most powerful women outside the USA, and Xie’s rank jumped from 16th in 2004 to 2nd in 2005, and in 2006 she was ranked 6th. ‘Although she has passed the retirement age and has given up her chief executive title at China’s largest steel company, Xie is still in charge’ (Forbes, 2006). In Forbes magazine’s 2005 list of the Top 50 Businesswomen in the World Xie Qihua broke into the top ten rankings. As if to confirm her power status, Xie was simultaneously listed by the Wall Street Journal among its Top 50 Businesswomen to Watch, an honor of significant prestige. Clearly her able leadership and dynamic efforts have been recognized not only in China, but also in the world. Before her retirement Xie developed grand plans for Baosteel during the ’11th FiveYear Plan’ period (2007–12): ‘We will form the framework of our comprehensive operation system by the end of 2005 and realize our integrated operation by 2010, entering the ranks of the world’s top three steel corporations’ (China Daily, 2006). Since Chinese regulations set the mandatory retirement age for senior executives in state-owned enterprises at 60, Xie stepped down from her general manager position at Baosteel in 2005, then as chairwoman of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. in 2006, and finally at age 64, she resigned the chairmanship of Baosteel Group Corp. in 2007, marking a full exit from China’s biggest steel-mill. Still regarded among the most powerful women in the nation’s corporate world as well as in the steel industry, Xie boasts a string of other titles, including alternate member of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, President of the China Iron and Steel Association, and board member of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development. Sun, Jianmin and Zhao, Yi Sources Caijing (2006), ‘Ten women to watch in Asia’, 20 November, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://online.wsj.com/ public/resources/documents/WSJ061120Asia_10_final_2006.pdf. China Daily (2006), ‘Xie Qihua, made of steel’, 31 May, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/ china/2006-01/07/content_602989.htm. Fortune (2006), ‘Fifty most powerful women in business 2006’, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://money.cnn. com/popups/2006/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen_intl/6.html. People’s Daily (2004), ‘Xie Qihua, no. 2 on Fortune’s list of world top 50 businesswomen’, 13 October.
Xie, Tielan (䇶䪕╰ b. 1950) Xie Tielan is the chairman and general manager of Wenzhou Yuetu Electric Appliances Group Co. Ltd. In recognition of his business achievement, Xie was named an ‘excellent entrepreneur’ by the Wenzhou Municipal Government in 2005. Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, Xie’s childhood ambition was to become a world table tennis champion, and he hoped one day to win glory for China. To this end, he practiced table tennis diligently and was recruited into the junior provincial team. However, his dream was shattered when he was 13 as a result of a ‘political issue’ relating to his father.
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When he was 20, Xie went to Northeast China to join the wave of urban youth being ‘re-educated’ in the countryside and mountain areas. After several years, he returned to Wenzhou to work in an electrical machinery factory as its sole supply and marketing clerk. Through his efforts, the factory began to prosper. Based on his understanding of market demands, he recommended some new product lines, but his suggestions were not taken up by the factory leaders. So Xie submitted his resignation and decided to start his own business from scratch in 1981. Xie began assembling fans in his kitchen, and later rented an old farmhouse, renaming it the Gulou Fan factory. Finally, he successfully built a factory for large-scale production. Only a few years later, Gulou fans penetrated markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other large cities in China, and Xie became a famous entrepreneur in Wenzhou. However, he was not yet content with his achievements. Although Gulou fans were selling quite well, it was still not a widely known name and could not compete with existing famous brands. After some research, he discovered that there were not many wellknown brands in the new and growing air-conditioner market, so he decided to shift production from fans to air-conditioners. To achieve this new strategic goal, Xie had to overcome many obstacles. At one point he destroyed part-manufactured fans worth RMB1 million to make room for the new air-conditioner production. Xie also recruited many talented people and made a large investment in importing advanced technologies from developed countries. Furthermore, the company established a strict quality management system in its manufacturing facilities. Eventually, Yuetu air-conditioners were named among the ‘Best Products’ by the National Light Industry Association in China from 1993 to 1995, and the Yuetu air-conditioner series also obtained CCC safety certification in 2003, CB certificates and European CE, EMC, and GS authorization in 2004. Thus Yuetu has become one of the most famous Chinese national brands, and Yuetu products are perceived by both domestic and international customers as demonstrating reliable quality, competitive prices, and excellent service. Under Xie’s leadership, the company has established 106 000 square meters of manufacturing space with assets of RMB340 million, and a sales network in 28 provinces and 37 countries and regions around the world. Huang, Lujin Sources Baidu Encyclopedia ⱒᑺⱒ⾥ (2007), ‘䇶䪕╰’ [‘Xie Tielan’], 24 September, accessed 23 September 2008 at http://baike.baidu.com/view/68103.html. Wenzhou Yuetu Electric Appliances Group Co., Ltd (2008), company website accessed 23 September at www. china-yuetu.com/.
Xie, Xuren (䇶ᯁҎ b. 1947) A native of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, Xie Xuren was appointed minister at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on 31 August 2007 to replace Jin Renqing who had resigned on the previous day for ‘personal reasons’. Xie’s appointment was considered one of the significant ministerial personnel changes two months before the pivotal political gathering of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Congress held from 15–21 October 2007. A staunch advocate of President Hu Jintao’s policies and a finance technocrat, Xie
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would help with President Hu’s political maneuvring. Xie is a current member of the 17th CPC Central Committee (CC). Xie joined the CPC in 1980, and he has maintained a high level of involvement, holding numerous committee positions including, deputy secretary, Party County Committee, Yinxian, Zhejiang (1984–85); member, Party Leadership Group (PLG), Zhejiang Provincial Planning and Economics Commission (1986–90); member, PLG, MOF (1990–98); secretary, Party Committee, Agricultural Development Bank of China (1998–2000); deputy secretary, CPC CC, Work Committee Departments, Financial Work Committee (2000–01); deputy secretary, PLG, State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) (2001–03); secretary, PLG, State Administration of Taxation (SAT) (2003–07); alternate member, 16th CPC CC (2002–07); member, 17th CPC CC and secretary, PLG, MOF (from 2007). Xie majored in industrial economics and management at Zhejiang University (1981–84), and he holds the titles of senior economist and engineer. Since 1985, Xie has worked within the fiscal arena in different capacities. At the Zhejiang Provincial Planning and Economics Commission, he was director at the Investment Office, deputy director and then director at the Comprehensive Planning Office (1985–88), and deputy director of the Provincial Commission (1988–90). His long involvement with the MOF started in 1990. He was deputy director of the Budget Department (1990–91), deputy director of the Comprehensive Planning Department (1990–93), director of the Comprehensive Planning Department and assistant to the minister (1993–94), director of the Comprehensive Reforms Department (1994–95), and vice minister of the MOF (1995–98). Xie was appointed president of the Agricultural Development Bank of China (1998–2000), followed by an appointment as vice minister at the SETC (2001–03), and then director of the SAT (2003–07). During the last two decades, Xie has been actively involved with China’s major fiscal reforms in the transformation from a planned to a market economy. More specifically, Xie played an important role in key tax reforms by crafting the landmark Tax Distribution Reform in 1993–94 and proposing 2003’s Tax System Reform. This system, also known as ‘Xie’s Seven Propositions’ [䇶ϗᴵ], involved incremental taxation, consumer tax, enterprise and personal income tax, real estate construction tax in cities and towns, agricultural tax, and city-rural taxation. Xie ordered the abolition of the agricultural tax in 2005 to ease the burden on farmers, breaking the centuries-old tradition of the nation’s dependence on agriculture and farmers as its tax base. In 2006, Xie helped raise the threshold of personal income tax payment from 800 to 1600 yuan per month. He also worked on unifying enterprise income tax (33 percent for domestic and 15 percent for foreign funded firms) to eliminate unfair discrimination against Chinese enterprises. After he took office at the SAT, there was a rapid increase in revenue. Some regard Xie as the most effective SAT chief, the one who has made the greatest contribution to central finance, in the past five decades. Returning to the MOF after nine years, Xie is no stranger to the ministry. His proven fiscal expertise made him well qualified to head the MOF. Known to colleagues as personable, low-key, and with a mild disposition, Xie does not like publicity. He has a reputation as a diligent worker. When he first joined the SAT as director in 2003, he continued to read books on taxation to learn more about his job. He is also known for his practicality and simplicity. He used often to tour rural areas, and he would take few people with
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him, live austerely, eat at canteens, and refuse banquets. Reportedly he used to approach tax-collecting windows in different places to experience front-line services for himself. As President Hu continues to call for better use of ‘financial means’ to manage the economy, there is likely to be additional reform and breakthrough in the fiscal area. Among the many challenges facing the new Minister of Finance, the most pressing include continuing to adopt prudent fiscal policies to combat an overheating economy, to instill stability, and to narrow the wealth gap between the rich and the poor; putting into practice a proposal to establish a public finance system initiated in 1998; and coordinating fiscal and monetary policies in order to strengthen and improve macroeconomic management. Xie is in a unique position not only to participate in but also to direct another round of significant fiscal and taxation system reforms in China in the coming years. Victoria Chu Sources China Vitae (2007), ‘Xie Xuren’, 29 December, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.chinavitae.org/biography/ Xie_Xuren/full. jrj.com (2007), ‘݅ᮄㅵᆊ䇶ᯁҎѠϝџ’ [‘About China’s new “manager” Xie Xuren’], 31 August, accessed 10 October 2008 at http://finance.jrj.com.cn/news/2007-08-31/000002622765.html. Naughton, Barry (2007), ‘China anxiously faces a future of rising prices’, China Leadership Monitor, No. 22 (Fall), accessed 1 October 2008 at http://media.hoover.org/documents/CLM22BN.pdf. Who’s Who: Current Chinese Leaders (2003), ‘Xie Xuren’, Beijing: Wen Wei Publishing Co. Ltd. Zhang, Ming’ai (2007), ‘Xie, the new finance minister’, china.org.cn, 30 September, accessed 1 October 2008 at www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/226501.htm.
Xu, Kuangdi (ᕤࣵ䖾 b. 1937) President of the China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE) and of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Xu Kuangdi was mayor of Shanghai from 1995 to 2001. During his tenure, Shanghai was transformed into an international investment and trade center. Xu Kuangdi is a native of Tongxiang city in Zhejiang Province. He did not join the CCP until 1983. In 1959 he graduated from the Metallurgical Department of the Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel Technology. He then served as a teaching assistant in this department, and as teaching assistant and deputy director at the Teaching and Research Office of the Shanghai Institute of Technology. He subsequently worked at a ‘May Seventh’ Cadre School in Fengyang, Anhui Province, before he was transferred to the Shanghai Institute of Mechanics in 1972 to lecture in the Metallurgical Department. Between 1980 and 1989 he served as professor and dean of the Shanghai University of Technology and as the university’s executive vice president. From 1982 to 1983 he was a visiting scholar at Imperial College, United Kingdom, and from 1984 to 1985 he served as deputy chief engineer and technical manager of the Scandinavian Lance Corporation, Sweden. In 1989 then-Premier Zhu Rongji brought Xu into the Shanghai government where he became deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Higher Education Bureau. In 1991 Zhu Rongji appointed Xu to head the Municipal Planning Commission, allegedly because Xu had remarked that he hated central planning. In 1992 Xu Kuangdi was
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elected vice mayor of Shanghai, and in 1992 he became mayor, a post he held until December 2001. He also served as director of the Municipal Labor and Wages Committee. From 1994 to 2001 Xu served as deputy secretary of the CCP Shanghai Municipal Committee. In 1995, he was elected a member of CAE, and in 1996, as vice chairman of the Chinese Mayors Association. In 2001 he was suddenly demoted and transferred to a ‘pre-retirement job’ as party chief of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The following year he was appointed its president, and in 2003 elected president of the CFIE. He was considered to be a popular and dynamic mayor and was widely praised for promoting Shanghai as a world financial and industrial center. Among foreign investors, Xu enjoyed a good reputation. In March 2003, he was elected vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body and the highest body of the patriotic United Front. He also serves as vice chairman of the State Council’s Academic Degrees Committee and is a member of the State Leading Group for Science, Technology and Education (both posts held since 2003). In addition, Xu was elected a member of both the 15th and 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. He is considered a protégé of former premier Zhu Rongji. Currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at Shanghai University, Xu was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1998. In 2006 he was made a Commander Grand Cross of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, and received the German-Chinese Friendship Award. In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York. He won a national award for his design of a stainless steel pipe for use in aircraft production. His two-volume set Selected Works of Xu Kuangdi was published in 2005. Jen-Kai Liu Source Lam, Willy Wo-Lap (2001), ‘Factional intrigue hots up in China’, CNN, 12 December, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/11/china.willyxkd/index.html.
Xu, Ming (ᕤᯢ b. 1971) Xu Ming was born in Dalian city in Liaoning Province on the northeastern coast of China. At age 36, Xu Ming had a net worth of about US$1 billion, earning him fifteenth place on Forbes’ China’s Rich List in November 2006. Better known as owner of the Dalian Shide football club, Xu founded the Dalian Shide Group, now one of the world’s leading producer of chemical building materials. Xu Ming earned his masters degree at the Shenyang Institute of Aviation Industry and his MBA at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. One of his earliest jobs involved selling Chinese New Year greeting cards to his fellow students at the university. He started his career in 1990 working for the Foreign Economic and Trade Commission for Zhuanghe City. In 1991, he decided to leave his stable government position and founded several construction companies, two of which were awarded contracts on two earthwork projects, Shengli Square, in front of the Dalian Railway Station and Dalian
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Xinghaiwan Square. Both of these highly successful projects earned him high praise from leading officials of the Dalian municipal government, enabling him to get other similar contracts in the ensuing years. In 1992, Xu Ming founded Dalian Shide Group Co. Ltd, headquartered in his hometown of Dalian city. In August 1995, Xu Ming decided to move into the plastics industry, introducing a plastics project from Europe that led to the creation of his Shide Plastic Industry Corporation and later the Shide Kingdom of Plastic Sectional Materials. In January 1998, Xu decided to expand his company, investing 600 million yuan (US$72 million) to construct the second, third, and fourth phases of the company. In December 1998, the company received ISO9002 quality control system certification, the first enterprise in China to achieve this. Dalian Shide is now a leading manufacturer of chemical building materials and PVC sectional materials in the world. The group is also involved in petrochemical production and home appliances and offers services in the insurance and healthcare industries. Xu Ming decided to enter the realm of sports in January 2000, obtaining full ownership of the newly established Dalian Shide Football Club. Dalian Shide is widely considered to be the most successful club in Chinese football history, winning seven titles in the inaugural Jia-A league and an additional title in 2005 in the newly formed Chinese Premier League. Xu has become one of the most prominent figures in the attempt to make Chinese football internationally competitive, as his club seeks to earn an international reputation as one of the best sources of football talent for China and increasingly, the rest of the world. During recent years, Xu Ming has also diversified into the financial services sector, holding stakes in six companies and becoming the major shareholder of Dalian Commercial Bank in 2001. In 2003, Shide Group, along with Invesco Funds Co., established China Great-Wall Jingshun Funds Management Co. Shide Group continuously searches for new business ventures for expansion with a mission to ‘improve the living environment of humankind, and to enhance the quality of life for all humankind.’ Acknowledging his prominent role in the new Chinese economy, Xu Ming is also recognized as one of the leading charitable entrepreneurs in China through scholarship programs, community involvement, and poverty support in underdeveloped regions in China. Xu is married to Wen Chunru, the daughter of China’s current premier, Wen Jiabao, the second most important figure in the country. He has one son and his hobbies include art collecting. Daniel Galvez and Marc Fetscherin Sources The Age (2006), ‘The Wen dynasty’, 31 March, accessed at www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/the-wendynasty/2006/03/31/1143441318429.html. China Vitae (2008), ‘Xu Ming’, accessed at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Xu_Ming/bio. The Express (2003), ‘Mr. Xu’s Chinese takeaway’, 17 December, accessed at www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic. Forbes.com (2006), ‘The 400 richest Chinese’, 2 November, accessed at www.forbes-global.com/lists/2006/74/ biz_06china_Xu-Ming_C3NB.html. Hoovers.com (2008), ‘Dalian Shide Group Co. Ltd’, accessed at www.hoovers.com/dalian-shide-group/-ID__150187--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml. Marquis Who’s Who on the Web (2008), ‘Xu Ming’, accessed at www.marquiswhoswho.com/. Shide Group (2008), accessed at www.shide-global.com. World Economic Forum (2008), ‘Xu Ming’, accessed at www.weforum.org/en/KNContributors/index.htm? personid=151874.
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Xu, Rongmao (Hui, Wingmau 䆌㤷㣖b. 1951) As chairman of the Shimao Group, Xu Rongmao is not only one of the wealthiest businessmen in China, but also ranked in the top 250 world billionaires by Forbes in 2007. By age 56, Xu had amassed a fortune upwards of about US$3.5 billion through the remarkable success of his company Shimao Group, operating in the Chinese real estate industry. Through his company, Xu has done much to develop one of the country’s first luxury real estate brands. His promotion of the private real estate industry, together with the efforts of other developers like himself, has pushed growth in a sector of the Chinese economy that did not even exist until around 20 years ago. Born in Shishi, in the coastal Fujian Province just northeast of Guangdong and directly west of Taiwan, Xu shares the rags-to-riches story of many of China’s new real estate moguls. As the son of a machine worker and a doctor, and the eldest of eight children, he graduated from high school during the Cultural Revolution and was sent to the country to work as a laborer and barefoot doctor. Later he migrated to Hong Kong to work in a textile factory, where it is said that he made a fortune in stock trading. In the early to mid-1980s, he continued trading Hong Kong shares and began investing in textile factories. Xu returned to China and exported textiles, predominantly to the United States, before investing US$1.2 million into a knitting factory in his hometown of Shishi in 1988. This was his first major step into the realm of real estate, and the construction of this so-called ‘knitting factory’ would later be recognized as that of a hotel building. The entire construction process of the ‘factory’ followed the specifications of hotel standards and design. As soon as construction was completed, government policy changed, allowing investment in private hotels. Thus Xu Rongmao became the first private owner of a three-star hotel in China. Xu has focused strongly on areas of great business opportunity, leaving for Australia in the 1990s, when opportunities in Fujian died down, to take lucrative risks in the Australian real estate market. From there he moved towards the Beijing and Shanghai markets, and having made valuable friendships with high-ranking government officials throughout his career, acquired inexpensive land and began creating new building designs and pre-selling apartments to fund their construction. From this point on, Xu focused his efforts through the Shimao Property Group towards luxury properties, most notably restoring an area of dilapidated buildings to a massive high-end riverfront apartment complex in the Pudong district of Shanghai. Xu is chairman of the Shimao Group, an investment holding company engaged principally in property development through its subsidiaries. The group has two publicly listed companies: Shimao Property (0813.HKG) and Shimao Stock (600823.SHG). In June 2007, Shimao Property Holdings Limited employed around 3300 people and the group recorded revenues for the six months ended 30 June 2007 of US$322.2 million. With the opening of Shimao Property Group’s Hyatt on the Bund in June 2007, Xu’s company became the industry leader in the five-star hotel market in terms of total number of hotel rooms. Xu has stated that the company’s goal is to increase their portfolio of five-star hotels to ten by 2010 and he expected the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Expo to continue to provide opportunities in the Chinese hotel industry. In addition, in 2007 the company had another 25 projects in various stages of completion across the country.
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Xu is extensively involved in various committees including political organizations and is a member of the National Committee of the 10th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Standing Committee of Fujian Political Consultative Conference. He is also an honorary professor of Tong Ji University in Shanghai and vice chairman of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. He earned his MBA from the University of Southern Australia in 2003 and was the inaugural winner of the Hong Kong Alumni High Achiever Award in 2007. Natalie Powers and Marc Fetscherin Sources Forbes (2001), ‘China’s 100 Richest Business People, 2001’, 12 November, accessed at http://members.forbes. com/global/2001/1112 /032_10.html. Forbes (2007), ‘The World’s Billionaires’, 8 March, accessed at www.forbes.com/2007/03/07/billionairesworldsrichest_07billionaires_cz_lk_af_ 0308billie_land.html. Forbes.com (2007), ‘China Rich List’, 2 November 2006. International Herald Tribune (2005), ‘A Trump? Not the style of Chinese billionaire’, 29 December. Reuters (2008), ‘Shimao Property Holdings Ltd’, accessed at http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/financial Highlights.asp?symbol=0813.HK&WTmodLOC=L2-LeftNav-15-Highlights. Shimao Group (2008), ‘Profile of Shimao Group’, http://www.shimaogroup.com/english/about.asp. Shimao Group (2008), ‘Shimao Property announced 2007 interim results’, http://www.shimaogroup.com/ english/about.asp. Shimao Property (2007), ‘Shimao Property leads Shanghai’s international 5-Star hotel market upon the soft opening of Hyatt on The Bund’, 28 June, accessed at www.shimaoproperty.com/UserFiles/File/ Pdf/20070628%20Hyatt%20on %20The%20Bund%20Eng%20final%20clean.pdf.
Xu, Shaochun (Robert S. Xu ᕤᇥ b. 1963) Xu is the founder and executive chairman of the Kingdee International Software Group, which was one of the early entrants in the Chinese software industry. In 2001 Kingdee was the first mainland software firm to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since its formation in 1993, Kingdee has been pursuing its growth strategically. It achieved a leading position in the ERP (enterprise resource planning) segment in China in 2000, and aspires to gain significant market shares in Asia Pacific by 2010. Under Xu’s leadership, Kingdee’s long-term aim is to become a global firm. Xu is a native of Hunan Province and went to local junior and high schools. He obtained a BS in computer science from Nanjing Institute of Technology in 1983. After graduation, he was assigned work in a machinery plant with some 800 employees in Wuhan, where he wrote a program to manage the wages and even suggested ways to improve the management of the plant. This led to criticism by some workers and supervisors for his arrogance. So Xu applied for graduate study in the Science and Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Beijing in 1985, and after completing his masters degree in 1988, he was assigned a job in the Shandong Tax Bureau. However Xu did not like the business environment of Shandong at the time, and left for a government agency in Shenzhen – the IT department of a Shenzhen accountancy practice that dealt with firms engaged in business transactions with Hong Kong and Macau companies. Although Xu was made head of the IT department, he resigned from accountancy and founded Aipu Computer Technology in 1991 after Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Southern China and his official endorsement of the formation of private technological firms. The
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firm’s capital consisted of a lump sum of 360 yuan from Xu’s pension and his father-inlaw’s life savings of RMB5000. He used this to purchase the most critical fixed asset for the new venture – an IBM-compatible 286 personal computer. He also recruited a local graduate to work in the venture, providing accounting solutions to small businesses; in addition, Aipu undertook reselling work for AST personal computers. Xu acknowledged that Aipu was too small and that it was only just surviving; he therefore looked for additional capital that would allow it to pursue product development. Xu eventually secured investment from two sources (an American Chinese lady and a Shekou state insurance firm) to fund the expansion. Kingdee was founded in August 1993 with 20 employees. The new venture focused on the development of the first Chinese accounting software for Microsoft Windows, and successfully introduced its proprietary product to Shenzhen firms in 1995. Nevertheless, Xu recognized that the number of local users was finite and began to establish branches outside Shenzhen that served as bases for direct marketing. As Kingdee expanded, Xu tried to address the issue of financing for further growth, and in 1997 the company received US$20 million from the International Data Group to fund expansion (this was the largest venture capital investment in the Chinese information technology industry at the time). The capital injection enabled Kingdee to invest in the emerging ERP market segment and gain a first-mover advantage with its flagship K/3 ERP product in 1998. Kingdee had established itself in the ERP segment among small and medium-sized businesses by 2000. Since then, it has strengthened its product offerings and has established a firm position as the ERP solution provider among manufacturing firms in Southern China. Furthermore, Kingdee built on its ERP market shares and had positioned itself as a comprehensive enterprise software provider by the mid-2000s. In 2007 it also formed strategic alliances with CPCNet and IBM, targeting Hong Kong and foreign firms with business operations in Southern China. Xu has received various forms of recognition for his achievements in China and abroad, including the ‘Outstanding Young Technologist’ from Guangdong Province in 1998 and an award from the World Summit of Indigenous Entrepreneurs jointly organized by the World Trade University and the United Nations in 2003. He is also a committee member of the 9th Committee of the National Youth Federation of the PRC, and the 3rd General Committee of the People’s Congress of Shenzhen. Being a keen learner, Xu began his part-time MBA in China Europe International Business in 2002; he earned his degree in 2004. Denise Tsang Sources BusinessWeek Online (2002), ‘Shenzhen: the new Bangalore’, 16 December. Chinese Business Feature (2007), ‘Xu Shaochun’s paternal style’, 10 August. Shenzhen Daily (2005), ‘Robert S. Xu: latecomer sets pace’, 9 August, accessed at www.china.org.cn/english/ NM-e/137752.htm.
Xu, Xiaoping (ᕤᇣᑇ b. 1956) Co-founder of the New Oriental School (NOS) based in Beijing, Xu Xiaoping is the former director of the New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), the
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largest provider of private educational services in China. The group initially specialized in consulting and preparing Chinese to study abroad. Born in Taixing, Jiangsu Province, Xu received his bachelors degree from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1983. For the next four years he was engaged in some artistic work at Peking University, where he befriended Yu Minhong (Michael Yu), an English teacher who co-founded the New Oriental School with Xu ten years later. In late 1987 Xu went to the USA to pursue graduate studies and in 1989 he received a MA from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. After working for several years in North America, Xu returned to China in 1993, intending to create his own business. However Xu suffered a setback, having linked up with a dishonest partner, and had to go back to Canada, although he had not abandoned the idea of owning his own business. Three years later, at the age of 40, Xu received an invitation from Yu Minhong, and after the New Oriental Advisory Service was formally established in Beijing, Xu’s life changed completely. In the 1990s when the NOS was struggling, Xu was responsible for company marketing, public and government relations. With his excellent English and eloquent presentation skills, Xu soon became a notable person in Chinese education circles, where enthusiasm for studying abroad was booming. Xu’s competence played a vital role in the development of NOS. After ten years of rapid growth, the New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NOETG), as the largest private education institution in China, was listed successfully on the New York Stock Exchange on 7 September 2006. Developed from the Beijing New Oriental School, the NOETG is a multi-business group, whose interests include education training, education research and development, press publishing, audio and video publishing, overseas study service, vocational training, online education, R&D for education software and so on. NOETG has 37 schools, 149 study centers, 19 bookstores and approximately 2700 teachers in 35 cities nationwide; the company had trained about 4.5 million students by the end of 2006. Xu was involved in many fields of the group’s business, but he is best known as an expert on overseas study consultation, career planning, and development. As an influential speaker, Xu is very active and popular. In 2003, he was praised by the FOX Chinese Celebrities as a career designing and development consultant for Chinese youths. Xu’s main works include American Visa Philosophy (1998), How the Gold Was Made (2002), and Ride a Donkey to Look for a Horse (2003). His writings and insights about overseas studies, postgraduate entrance exams, and job-hunting have since inspired thousands of college students, who are facing similar challenges while trying to build a successful career in the era of economic transition. Huang, Lujin Sources Baidu.com (2007), ‘ᕤᇣᑇǃ䪅∌ᔎᅶᮄ⌾䇜ㅒ䆕㘞ᅲᔩ’ [‘How to successfully secure visa: conversations with Xu Xiaoping and Qian Yongquiang’], 29 January, accessed 26 September at http://hi.baidu.com/ computerscience/blog/item/b8b1d5399c2297f33a87cee1.html. New Oriental Education & Technology Group (2006), ‘Overview’, accessed 26 September 2007 at http:// english.neworiental.org/Default.aspx?tabid=3481. Sina.com (2007), ‘ᕤᇣᑇ: 䚂ㆅ䞠ⱘ♃‘[ ’ܝXu Xiaoping: light form mailbox’], accessed 26 September at http:// blog.sina.com.cn/xuxiaoping.
Yang, Bin (ᴼ᭠ b. 1963) Yang Bin headed the Euro-Asia Group and was listed as the second richest man in China by Forbes in 2001. Holding dual Chinese–Dutch citizenship, Yang developed his empire through the horticulture and real estate sectors. He is currently serving 18 years in prison for tax evasion. Yang was born in Nanjing, China. At the age of five, he was orphaned. From that age through his adulthood, he was raised by his grandmother and various other relatives. He graduated from the Chinese Naval Academy and served as a naval officer in the People’s Liberation Army. Yang won a scholarship to study in the Netherlands, emigrating there in 1987. He established a successful textile company and was granted dual citizenship. Growing his business with a Dutch textile company, Yang returned to China with $20 million to start a flower business. He started his orchid business in the city of Shenyang by utilizing many of the horticulture techniques that he learned during his time in the Netherlands. In 2001, the year that Forbes listed him as one of China’s richest people, his net worth was estimated to be approximately $900 million. Yang’s business practices were often subject to criticism. One particular instance involved the creation of a Dutch-inspired housing and theme park in Northeast China. The park, also known as Holland Village, expanded Yang’s reach to the real estate and tourism sectors but was shrouded in controversy. Allegations of improper business practices permeated the development of the park. Yang also extended his activities to North Korea, with the aim of merging its commerce with the world economy. In 2002, with great fanfare, the government of North Korea selected him to lead various economic development endeavors within the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region. It was assumed that Yang’s involvement would assist in stimulating the North Korean economy and help grow various business sectors in the country. He had developed the reputation of having a keen ability to generate investment capital in large sums from various international banks. This would help build the infrastructure necessary for his projects within North Korea. Soon after his appointment to the Special Administrative Region, the People’s Republic of China arrested Yang and ordered that he remain under house arrest pending the outcome of charges that had been filed against him, and that alleged that he had engaged in fraudulent behavior with regard to paying his taxes. The arrest followed other instances in which Yang was accused of improper activity relating to paying his taxes. In July 2003, Yang was convicted of fraud and fined 2.3 million yuan. The verdict pertained to his horticulture and property businesses. Specifically, he was convicted of bribery, illegally using land, forging documents, and administering contracts that were fraudulent. In addition to his personal conviction, his company, Shenyang Eurasia Industrial Co. Ltd, was fined 5.6 million yuan. Another of his companies, Shenyang Eurasia Agricultural Development Co. Ltd, was ordered to pay a fine of 400 000 yuan. Both were convicted of administering forged documents. Michael A. Moodian Sources www.forbes.com (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November 2001. People’s Daily (2003), ‘Yang Bin convicted of fraud, sentenced to 18 years’, 15 July, accessed 16 February 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200307/14/eng20030714_120183.shtml.
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Schuman, Michael (2002), ‘The hermit kingdom’s bizarre SAR’, Time, accessed 16 February 2008 at www. time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501021007-356131,00.html, 30 September.
Yang, Chih-Yuan Jerry (Yang Zhiyuan ᴼ㟈䖰 b. 1968) Jerry Yang is a Taiwanese American entrepreneur, and co-founder and CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Yang’s 2007 net worth was estimated at US$2.2 billion, ranking him as one of the world’s 500 richest people according to Forbes. This young, smart online business explorer has made a great impact not only on mature internet markets such as the US, but also on the developing economies such as China. His recent strategic actions have stressed the potential for e-commerce in pan-Chinese economies. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Yang moved to the United States at the age of ten. While studying electrical engineering at Stanford University, he and David Filo started an internet website as an indexing directory of other websites called ‘Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.’ Later renamed Yahoo, the site became wildly popular as a result of drastic improvements in surfing speeds. Realizing the potential of the website, they cofounded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995 as a multifunctional internet portal. Yang started Yahoo at a time when internet applications were just becoming a part of people’s daily lives. According to Yang, in such ‘virgin territory’, creativity and new forms of services became one source of entrepreneurial success on the internet. As one of the few early innovators in terms of portal websites, Yang saw his business expand, and he earned a great deal of respect from users whose needs in terms of integrative and directional information the site fulfilled. Yahoo was also a brand-building website, for as Yang stated: ‘If you believe the Internet is the next big medium and if you realize every medium has had a brand associated with it – like CNN with cable – then it is conceivable that Yahoo will become one of those brands’ (Stanford University, 2008). Yang retains the Chinese virtue of total dedication to his entrepreneurial business, and his traditional roots still underly his lifestyle. When Yang became a millionaire following Yahoo’s first IPO, he still wore casual clothes, and he and his brother still had dinner at their mother’s place on Sundays. He often turned his downtime into long explorations and refinements of his business, and spent a great deal of time in the Stanford trailer that functioned as his office. It almost seems that extra time for work has become his luxurious ‘fun time.’ Yahoo has been faced with strong competition from Google in recent years. The unanticipated exponential growth of Google led to Yahoo falling far behind in performance. In 2007 Yang was appointed CEO of Yahoo, enabling him to make executive decisions and respond to the increasing competitive intensity they were facing. In the first few months, Yang managed to stop the bleeding, and helped Yahoo earn back the positive expectations people had for the company. From entrepreneur to CEO, Yang continues to explore opportunities to expand his business and create a more virtually realistic internet world that will make people’s cyber experiences more innovative and satisfactory. After all, it is innovation and customer satisfaction that support Yahoo’s legitimacy to operate and profit in the market. Under Yang’s new leadership, Yahoo has established a number of short-term and long-term goals: first, with its portal, mail, finance, sports, news, and various other useful sites, Yahoo will strive to be the starting point for internet surfers; the second goal is to establish Yahoo as a ‘must-buy’ for advertisers; the third is
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to create a platform to attract developers using building services on open APIs. For Yang, the future roadmap of his entrepreneurial venture is clear. Besides his interest in and love for his company, Yang has additional titles and responsibilities with many other excellent internet companies. He has served on the board of directors of companies such as Alibaba (a top e-commerce service website in China), the Asian Pacific Fund, Cisco, and Yahoo! Japan. Moreover, Yahoo has assisted the development of other e-companies in emerging economies such as China. For instance, in addition to efforts to expand search engine-related businesses in China, Yahoo China has been collaborating with Alibaba.com group to utilize and facilitate the e-commerce value chain for small and medium-sized enterprises developed by Alibaba. Fu-Sheng Tsai Sources Guan, G.C. (2001), King of Internet: Jerry Yang, Taipei: Culture & Economics Press. Hayhurst, C. and M.R. Weston (2007), Jerry Yang and David Filo, New York: Rosen Publishing Group. Stanford University (2008), official website, accessed 23 September at http://soe.stanford.edu/AR95-96/jerry. html. Yahoo! (2008), official website (press room), accessed at http://yahoo.client.shareholder.com/press/manage ment.cfm.
Yang, Guoping (ᴼᑇb. 1959) Yang is the president of Shanghai Dazhong Transportation Group, one of China’s prime taxi companies, based in Shanghai. The company was founded in 1988 and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1992 as Dazhong Taxi. It changed its name to Dazhong Transportation (DZT) in 1999. Through its subsidiaries, the company also engages in automotive maintenance, home moving, real estate development, car leasing, hotel services, and advertising. Taxi services in Shanghai were disorganized in the 1980s, and passengers were often charged unreasonable fares. DZT was established by the then mayor of Shanghai, Zhu Rongji, who called for a reform of the city’s taxi services. (Zhu became premier of China between 1998 and 2003.) DZT turned out to be the cornerstone of Yang’s achievements. Before he was entrusted to lead the company in 1988 as the general manager, Yang had held a party-appointed post in the Shanghai Gas Company (1976–83), the Shanghai Yangshupu Gasworks (1983–84), the Shanghai Public Utilities Administration Bureau (1984) and the Shanghai Taxi Company (1984–88). He received an MBA degree in 1997 from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. ‘Responsiveness, accessibility, punctuality, cleanness, politeness and reasonable fares’ were among the standards that Yang set the taxi service when he joined DZT. Although these service criteria seem to be basic, it took DZT about 20 years to implement them. In 1988, the company secured a loan of RMB65 million to buy 500 Volkswagen Santanas as taxis, and it invested in another 200 vehicles the next year. It introduced Volkswagen Passats in 2000 and began to use Mercedes-Benz cars in 2004. Nonetheless, 45 of the total 100 Mercedes-Benz cars were pulled from service in 2006. Excessively high operating costs were cited as the main reason for the phasing out. Yang then limited the car brands to Santana and Passat. Apart from the car brand, Yang has taken several other
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measures to make DZT a top-rated taxi service provider. In 1995, DZT’s taxis were equipped with IC card machines to enable passengers to pay using the IC card allowed by DZT. As early as 1998, some taxis were fitted with GPS to provide satellite positioning, radio connections, and computerized dispatching. The intention was to cut passengers’ waiting time. The drivers should also feel more secure because of built-in safety devices. The GPS was upgraded to a general packet radio service (GPRS) in 2002. Yang has also grown the business through acquisitions and geographical expansion. The taxi industry in Shanghai was highly fragmented in the 1980s, and the following decade saw considerable consolidation to allow for the generation of economic scale. In the 1980s DZT’s revenue per taxi was stable at about RMB30 000 per annum. In 1996, when the Shanghai municipal government stopped issuing taxi licenses, Yang realized that DZT should acquire other smaller firms and expand outside Shanghai in order to improve its earnings. Consequently, DZT gained control over Harbin Dazhong Communication and Technology in 1996. It acquired 80 percent of the state-owned shares of Harbin Swan Taxi in 2004. The acquisitions added considerable numbers of taxi units to DZT’s existing portfolio while consolidating its position as a major taxi service provider in Harbin city, Heilongjiang. Between 1992 and 2004, Yang established DZT’s presence in ten different cities. As China is rapidly transitioning from a planned to a market economy, the ongoing radical environment and conceptual changes have left many domestic firms languishing in the dust. Yang intends to foster DZT into one of the world’s top-notch taxi companies. This sets the firm’s competitive core and strategic position. Looking forward with confidence, Yang intends that DZT driver teams should be good ambassadors for Shanghai when the city holds the World Expo in 2010. Loi Teck Hui and Quek Kia Fatt Sources BBC (1998), ‘Shanghai taxis get satellite guidance system’, 27 January, accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ world/monitoring/50957.stm. China Daily (2006), ‘No more Mercedes-Benz cabs in Shanghai’, 3 August, accessed at www.chinadaily.com. cn/bizchina/2006-08/03/content_656540.htm. Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co., Ltd (2006), ‘Annual Report 2006’. Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co., Ltd (2008), official website, accessed at http://www.96822.com. Jia, Weiling (2008), 䌒,ᚳྜ, ЎජᏖৡ⠛䕝’ [‘To polish the city’s image: Dazhong story’], accessed at http:// qywh.96822.com/e-book/03/901.htm. Liang, Y. (2001), ‘In the driver’s seat’, Shanghai Star, 20 September, accessed at http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/ star/2001/0920/pr22-1.html. Yang, Yanping (2004), ᴼ, 㡇㧡, ‘ᴼᑇ: ⫼༨偄Ўӫᦤ䗳’ [‘Yang Guoping: enhancing the profile of DZT with Benz’], ᮄ⇥਼ߞ [Xinmin Weekly], 3 August, accessed 30 September 2008 at www.cheagle.com/fArti cleView.exml?ArticleID=748.
Yang, Guoqiang (ᴼᔎ b. 1954) Since April 2007, Yang Guoqiang, founder and chairman of Hong Kong-listed Country Garden Holdings of the Biguiyuan Group, has been among the richest people in China. The group’s assets, nominally held by his second daughter Yang Huiyan, are valued at 45.5 billion yuan, or between US$16 and 17.5 billion according to Shanghai-based independent researcher Rupert Hoogewerf’s Hurun Report (China Daily, 2007).
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From very humble beginnings Yang has risen to become the largest real estate developer in Guangdong Province. Born in Southern China’s county town of Shunde in 1954, Yang is the son of a village farmer in Guangdong Province. He first worked as a migrant construction worker, as did many of his peers in the early years of the post-1978 reforms. In the 1990s Yang began his career in real estate development by acquiring wastelands. In 1997, he founded Country Garden along with several other Shunde residents, including Yang Erzhu, Lee Shau Kee, and Cheng Yu-Tung, leveraging on the boom in the residential property market triggered by China’s newly affluent middle class. On 20 April 2007, Country Garden Holdings was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as Biguiyuan Group, raising a respectable US$1.66 billion in its initial public offering. Although still actively managing the company, Yang is only the nominal chairman, as the stocks have officially been held by Yang Huiyan since 2005. Yang Huiyan joined the family business upon graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in marketing, and is being groomed by her father for leadership transition through a position as executive director, overseeing procurement, enterprise resource management, and development strategies. Yang is not only generous to his daughter. As a renowned philanthropist, respectful of his past and responsible with his wealth, since 1997 he has helped more than 4000 college students through a scholarship fund that has grown to US$2 million from its original 1 million yuan (US$135 000) annual contributions. In 2002, he founded a tuition-free middle school to assist poor students and has since poured over 260 million yuan (US$35 million) into the project. ‘He is a man who understands how to respect wealth instead of being obsessed by money, thanks to his previous life experience of hardship and difficulties’ (Beijing Review, 2007), close friends are quoted as saying about Yang Guoqiang. Jonatan Jelen Sources Beijing Review (2007), ‘Successful entrepreneur, generous father’, 18 October, accessed 4 October 2008 at www. bjreview.com.cn/newsmaker/txt/2007-10/12/content_80867.htm. China Daily (2007), ‘BIZCHINA: China’s richest, thanks to an IPO and Dad’, 24 April. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Yang Guoqiang’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Guoqiang.
Yang, Kaisheng (ᴼ߃⫳ b. 1949) President and vice chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Yang Kaisheng is seen as both an innovative and ambitious leader in the Chinese banking industry. Starting in 2007, he aimed at developing ICBC among the world’s largest profit-making banks within only five years. Yang graduated from Beijing College of Chemical Technology and in 2000 received a doctoral degree in economics from Wuhan University. For ten years he worked in the field of industrial protection technology and cost budget management, joining ICBC in 1985 as director of the Planning and Information Department. In 1990 he was promoted to general manager of ICBC’s Shenzhen branch. Because of his outstanding performance, Yang was named vice governor of ICBC in 1996. In 1999, Yang became the president of the China Huarong Asset Management Corporation, which is a wholly state-owned financial enterprise with an independent
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legal structure. The main scope of the corporation covers the purchase, management, and disposal of assets transferred from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The operational objective of the company is to take advantage of the special legal status given by the state government to preserving the assets and minimizing the losses incurred – including bad debts worth RMB400 billion (approximately US$50 billion) – of the ICBC. For years the issue of bad debts has been a major challenge to the further development of the Chinese banking industry, and Huarong was the first asset company in China to tackle the problem by cooperating with foreign banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanly. The experience of working in Huarong was very beneficial to Yang, enabling him to better understand and learn how foreign investment and commercial banks clean up bad debts and strengthen the ability of risk management. Five years later, in 2004, Yang returned to ICBC as vice president. He was seen as a behind-the-scenes hero for helping ICBC dispose of its bad debts in an innovative way. The year 2005 saw another arduous project for Yang, as ICBC planned to launch the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO) in 2006. Since mainland Chinese banks have a long track record of bad debts and lending scandals, and the two other major state banks – the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank – had already sold shares in Hong Kong, ICBC had to restructure its organization and wipe out billions of dollars in deficient loans. In this critical year, after ICBC restructured as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, Yang was named president. On 27 October 2006, ICBC was simultaneously listed on the Hong Kong and mainland stock exchanges, the first Chinese company to do so, which also created a number of records, including the largest scale in the global capital markets, with 65 billion shares and the RMB173.23 billion raised, by then the world’s largest-ever IPO (rmdbbbj.cn, 2008). The public offering marked ICBC’s successful transformation from a state-owned commercial bank to a joint-stock commercial bank and then to an international public shareholding corporation. In ICBC, Yang has long been regarded as a leader with an international perspective and practical expertise. Operating in the fast changing global environment, Yang lays much emphasis on overseas markets, especially newly emerging markets. In 2007, ICBC made an announcement on an equity deal and strategic cooperation with the Standard Bank of South Africa. After paying 36.67 billion rand (US$5.46 billion) for a 20 percent stake, ICBC became the single largest shareholder of the Standard Bank. Through this kind of tactical alliance with overseas financial corporations, Yang intends that ICBC will step up its efforts in streaming its deployment of assets around the world to give the customers far superior cross-border financial services, therefore creating higher returns for its shareholders. Currently Yang also serves as deputy director of the China International Economics and Trade Arbitration Commission, and as chairman of ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co. Ltd. Huang, Lujin Sources China Finance Online (2005), ‘ЁᎹଚ䫊㸠㸠䭓: ᴼ߃⫳’ [‘Yang Kaisheng: President of ICBC’], 7 December, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://active.zgjrw.com/News/2005127/Scene/382488274400.html. ICBC News Online (2007), ‘ICBC buys up 20 percent of Standard Bank (South Africa)’, 29 October, accessed at www.icbc.com.cn/e_detail.jsp?column=ICBC+NEWS&infoid=1193625041100&infotype=CMS.STD.
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ICBC Ltd (2008), ‘Brief introduction to ICBC’, accessed at http://www.icbc-ltd.com/jsp/en/template/docTemp. jsp?path=ROOT%3EAbout+Us%3EIntroduction%3EIntroduction. Sina Finance (2004), ‘ᴼ߃⫳ㅔҟ’, ᮄ⌾䋶㒣[‘Yang Kaisheng: a brief bio’], 12 April, accessed 26 September, 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/wealthperson/2004-04-12/47.html.
Yang, Lan (ᴼ╰ b. 1968) Co-founder and director of Sun Television Cyber Networks Holdings Limited, Yang enjoys a high reputation as a TV presenter and studio manager in China. She is also regarded as one of China’s 50 most successful entrepreneurs and is probably China’s wealthiest self-made woman. Yang’s mother was an engineer, and her father taught English literature at Beijing Foreign Language University and sometimes served as the official translator for former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. In 1990, Yang graduated from the English department of Beijing Foreign Language University. She was selected from over 1000 candidates as the presenter of a new entertainment program on CCTV, Zheng Da Variety. Yang’s style, talent, and personality made her stand out among Chinese presenters. Within a year Zheng Da, a prime-time Saturday celebrity quiz and talk show, was China’s top-rated TV program with an audience of 220 million, and Yang Lan became a household name. In 1994, Yang was honored with a Golden Microphone award at the first National Hosts Competition. Setting her sights even higher, in late 1994 Yang gave up her position at CCTV to go to the USA and study international media, and two years later, she received her masters degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In 1997, Yang became a studio producer and presenter for Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite Television Company, an experience greatly benefiting her professionally. The relaxed production environment allowed her to create a series of important programs, which brought her recognition in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Then in October 1999, at the height of her career, Yang left Phoenix in search of greater production freedom. Yang explained: ‘I like creation. I would like to fail in creation rather than succeed in making programs from old and tired ideas’ (Xinhua News, 2003). Leaving CCTV and Phoenix TV allowed her the freedom to make the kind of programs she wanted. Yang’s TV skills are matched by a keen mind for business. In 1999, with her husband, Bruno Wu Zheng, she started her own media company, Sun Television Cyber Networks (Sun TV). Sun TV went on air on 8 August 2000, and its programs about figures, science and civilization, and unsolved mysteries have since attracted large audiences. Yang hopes that Sun TV will help promote both China’s magnificent cultures and the world’s great historic achievements. Traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since April 2002, in November of the same year Sun TV was valued at US$179 million, of which Yang owned 35 percent, worth $63 million. In 1999, Yang was named by Asia Week as one of the 20 most influential leaders of the great Asia region, and in January 2001, she was appointed as an image ambassador for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, joining three other Chinese women to be so honored. Xiafang Mo
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Sources (Sina finance, 2001), ‘ᴼ╰ㅔҟ’, ᮄ⌾䋶㒣 [‘Profile of Yang Lang’], 20 April, accessed at http://finance.sina. com.cn/o/54547.html. ‘Famed anchorwoman Yang Lan’, Xinhua News (2003), 13 August, accessed 22 September 2008 at http://news. xinhuanet.com/english/2003-08/13/content_1024117.htm.
Yang, Mingsheng (ᴼᯢ⫳ b. 1952) Vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Yang Mingsheng is the former president of the Agriculture Bank of China (ABC), one of the four large stateowned banks in China. Yang started his career at ABC in 1980. After serving as the director of the Department of Industry Credit, he was appointed president of the Tianjin Branch. In 2001, Yang was promoted to deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party as well as the vice president of ABC. In the following year, he took on the responsibility of implementing new growth strategies for the ABC. In 2003, Yang was officially appointed by the Chinese State Council as the president of ABC. In 2007, he left his post to become the vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, which is also under the supervision of the Chinese State Council. Yang’s four-year experience of reforming ABC’s business operations caught the attention of many observers. When Yang took the leadership position in 2003, the bank had a very poor balance sheet and the ratio of non-performing loans (NPL) was 30.07 percent, 4 percent higher than the weighted average NPL (26.12 percent) of the four biggest stateowned commercial banks in China. However, through Yang’s hard work, ABC earned RMB5.8 billion profit in 2005 and the operational income effectively covered new risks. It was Yang’s leadership and efforts on the reform of the bank’s systems that enabled the turn-around. Under Yang, in 2003 ABC implemented four major projects, risk management, after-loan management, science and technological innovation, and cultivation of talent. To achieve the desired outcome and to meet the requirements of the projects, Deloitte Huayong Accounting Firm was invited to monitor financial statements in all ABC branches. Meanwhile, ABC also invited Mercer Consulting to help them on HR management reform. Yang set out three steps by which ABC should accomplish its reform goals: the first step was to optimize the customer base and to cultivate high quality human resources within the bank, to enlarge the influence of each outlet and to increase valid capital, to enhance internal management performance and to improve ABC’s market value; the second step was to reduce the ratio of non-performing loans, realize capital adequacy management and prepare for listing through ABC’s own efforts and with government support; the last step was to build up ABC as a financial corporation with high quality service and strong market competence. Although the other three state-owned commercial banks had successfully gone public, ABC had its own unique context and challenges. Many worried that reform of the ABC would reduce access to loans for China’s rural areas. However, Yang believed that ABC should play a major role in Chinese rural development and that it could benefit from the country’s growing agriculture industry. With positive and favorable policy changes for rural development, in many areas ABC has become the main driving force for economic growth. Concerning ABC’s reform, Yang believes that the ABC
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employees should identify the differences between the ABC and other state-owned commercial banks and control the ABC reform pace. As one of the biggest state-owned commercial banks, ABC has its obligation to follow the policy given by the central government and set a good example to the public (Sina.com, 2006). Many believe that it was Yang’s determination and devotion that brought about the great success of the Agriculture Bank of China over recent years, and there is reason to believe Yang could achieve further career success in his new post at the State Insurance Regulatory Commission. Huang, Lujin Sources China Insurance Regulatory Commission (2008), ‘Yang Mingsheng: vice chairman’, http://www.circ.gov.cn/ tabid/434/InfoID/50091/Default.aspx?SkinSrc=%5bL%5dSkins%7cindexej%7cindexer. Jiang, Yeqing (2005), ‘Yang Mingsheng: ABC never fears about the challenges’, Chinese Economic Times, 27 July, accessed at http://finance.people.com.cn/GB/1040/3573132.html. Sun, Ming (2007), ‘Xiang Junbo will follow the steps of ABC’s reform’, 21st Century Economic Report, 21 June, accessed at http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20070621/10103711792.shtml. Wang, Zhi (2006), ‘Yang Mingsheng: the reform of ABC would not abandon rural area’, Economic Journal, 14 July, accessed at http://news.xinhuanet.com/newcountryside/2006-07/04/content_4790967.htm. Yang Mingsheng (2006), ‘ABC should keep characteristics in bank reform’, 4 July, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn. zgjrw.com (2004), ‘Special topic on finance: ten questions for president of ABC’, 29 June, accessed at http:// www.zgjrw.com/zhuanti/20040629.shtml.
Yang, Rong (ӄ㵡 b. 1956) Yang Rong has contributed both fame and infamy to the Chinese economy. From a rather humble background he achieved the milestone of leading the first Chinese company to a global stock listing. He then brought perhaps unwanted attention to the state-controlled economy and himself when questionable business practices forced him to leave the country in disguise. Yang’s contribution to the booming Chinese economy is as uncertain as the legal battle that currently ensnarls him and the state. Born in Anhui, China, Yang Rong began his tumultuous career, as did most leaders who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, in the government. With a doctorate degree in hand, he first came to public attention in 1992 as a middle manager in the Chinese Central Bank. His reputation and ability for wheeling and dealing brought him both riches and risks during his career. Yang used his connections at the highest levels of the central bank to arrange for Brilliance China Automotive (later expanded to Brilliance China Holdings), based in Shenyang in Northeastern China, to become the first Chinese company of any kind to list its shares on the NYSE in 1992. The listing was for the joint venture with Shenyang Jinbei Passenger Vehicle Manufacturing, a producer of minibuses. In 1999 the minibus production arm obtained a secondary listing in Hong Kong, and the minibus distribution business was listed in Shanghai. In 2000, Brilliance’s total sales amounted to $760 million. Brilliance invested $500 million in the production of a Chinese-made passenger car and also benefited from a profitable joint venture with BMW of Germany. From this string of very public successes, Yang built a diverse, complex, financial and manufacturing conglomerate, with offices in Shenyang, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
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In 2001 Yang ranked number three on the Forbes’ 100 Richest Business People list with a net worth of $840 million. This achievement might have marked the beginning of the end for Yang’s business career in China. From this high point, Yang fell from favor with local Chinese government authorities and in November 2002 he was removed from his position as CEO of Brilliance. As the government investigated potentially illicit financial dealings that Yang was alleged to have conducted with Brilliance corporate stock, the former top-ranking company officer left China for refuge in the USA. In the USA, he spoke to the media for the first time, claiming that his life was in danger and he was being wrongly prosecuted. Since this falling-out with Chinese officials, Yang has remained in the USA fighting a legal battle to regain wealth and stock he claims is rightfully his as part of the Brilliance Auto Group (incorporated in Bermuda) holdings. Meanwhile, Chinese provincial officials, angry over Yang’s attempts to relocate BCA operations out of Shenyang as well as by alleged misappropriation of government assets, maintain that the former executive is ‘fabricating stories and trying to mislead other people’ (People’s Daily, 2003). The company’s troubles hurt Brilliance NY Stock listings, which fell more than 70 percent from their record high of $37.75 in 2000. In 2002, at the height of the scandal, shares traded at $11 in New York, well below the $16 at which they were initially sold to the public more than a decade earlier. On 5 July 2007, Brilliance China Automotive Holdings announced its withdrawal from the NYSE, though it still maintains listings in Hong Kong (www. brillianceauto.com). Not much else is known about Yang’s whereabouts or status. Mary Conway Dato-on Sources BBC (2002), ‘China car tycoon flees to US’, 1 October, accessed 26 February 2008 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/business/2290078.stm. Brilliance China Automotive Holdings (2007), website and investor information, accessed 26 February 2008 at www.brillianceauto.com and http://www.brillianceauto.com/investor/us_press_release/USPress_2007 0705_ eng.pdf. Forbes (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November, accessed 26 February 2008 at http://www. forbes.com/global/2001/1112/032_8.html. Kahn, Joseph (2002), ‘To be rich, Chinese and in trouble: 3 tales’, New York Times, 13 October, accessed 26 February 2008 at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E0DF123AF930A25753C1A9649C 8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all, 27 February 2008. People’s Daily (2003), ‘Official refutes Yang Rong’s private entrepreneur identity’, 30 September, accessed 26 September 2008 at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200309/30/eng20030930_125226.shtml.
Yang, Yuanqing (ᴼܗᑚ b. 1964) Chairman of the board of Lenovo Group, China’s largest computer manufacturer, Yang Yuanqing is a prominent Chinese entrepreneur who has been named by the media as among China’s Ten Star Entrepreneurs, China’s Ten Most Valuable Managers, CCTV Business Figure of the Year, and as one of the Stars of Asia by BusinessWeek. Yang was born in Hefei, Anhui Province. After graduating from the Shanghai Communications University with a BS, he attended the Chinese University of Science and Technology in 1986, where he obtained his masters degree in computer science. In 1989, Yang entered Lenovo Group, which became the most important turning point in his career. At Lenovo, he intended to engage in technological work that fitted his major,
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and then go abroad, but he was assigned to the sales department instead. Although he did not much enjoy sales, he devoted himself to the work and achieved remarkable success. In 1991, he was promoted to head the auxiliary equipment department, responsible for selling plotters from Hewlett-Packard. Though he has never studied the subject academically, Yang has progressively demonstrated his outstanding capability for marketing. Turnover increased 100 percent every year, and in only two years he had raised the total turnover of his department from RMB30 million to RMB300 million. As a result, Yang was a regular recipient of HP’s best global agency award. In 1993 China’s national computer industry went through a serious crisis, and for the first time Lenovo did not meet its goal. In the following year, 29-year-old Yang took the post of general manager, with responsibility for research and development, logistics, financial operation, production, and sale of Lenovo computers. Under his leadership, Lenovo sold 42 000 units of its own branded computer that year, ranking among the top three in the Chinese market. Since then Lenovo and other Chinese branded computers have gained market prestige and acceptance among users, and have reversed the alarming trend towards dominance of the Chinese computer market by foreign branded PCs. In 1996, when the Chinese market share of Lenovo computers was still less than a third that of Compaq, Yang determined to make Lenovo number one in the Chinese market within three years. He outlined his strategies, reorganized production and sales, and motivated his employees to work hard toward this ambitious goal. Within only one year, Lenovo had defeated foreign computer giants, such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, and had become the champion in sales volume in the Chinese PC market, an achievement which marked an important milestone in the development of the Chinese computer industry. In 1997, Lenovo computers emerged for the first time among the top six brands in the Asia-Pacific region. Under Yang’s leadership, Lenovo has since become China’s best-selling PC brand. In 1999, it ranked first in PC sales in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan and has maintained this position ever since. During the same time Lenovo also broadened its product lines, and its brand was included in computer board cards, server products, notebooks, household appliances, digital apparatus, consumer electronics, digital output products, and information value-added services, covering nearly the whole range of information products. In 2001, because of his exceptional talent and enormous contribution to Lenovo in both management and sales, 37-year-old Yang was named the president and CEO of Lenovo Group. On 8 December 2004, Yang took over as chairman of the board of Lenovo Group from Liu Chuanzhi. He and Liu have made great strides towards transforming Lenovo into a truly global company, not only by becoming the International Olympic Committee’s worldwide partner in March 2004, but also by winning the top sponsor honor at both the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Among the 500 most valuable brands in China, Lenovo ranked fourth in 2004, with a brand value of over RMB60 million. Yang was also responsible for spearheading Lenovo’s landmark acquisition of IBM’s PC business in May 2005, fulfilling the company’s internationalization strategy, and making Lenovo the third largest PC manufacturer worldwide. The acquisition also marked Lenovo’s entry into the world’s 500 top enterprises in terms of marketing scale. Under Yang’s leadership, Lenovo has become more internationalized and multicultural, while continually producing first-class Chinese-branded computer products. In
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addition to his entrepreneurial work, Yang is also a committee member of the National Youth Association, director of the Chinese Entrepreneurs Association, a visiting professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange. Sun, Jianmin and Jiang, Hong Sources Chinese Managerial News Ё㒣㧹 (2002), ‘ֵᙃ⾥ᡔঞ⾥ᡔϮӕϮᆊ༪ᕫЏIT ᴼܗᑚ’ [‘Yang Yuanqing: IT and technology category winner’], 2 February, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/ leadership/crz/20070202/18403308674.shtml. Ling, Zhijun ޠᖫ( ݯ2005), 㘨ᛇ亢ѥ, [Lenovo’s Story], ࣫Ҁ: Ёֵߎ⠜⼒, Beijing: Zhongxin Press. Zhu Jidong ᴅ㒻ϰ (2001), ‘ᴼܗᑚ: 㘨ᛇᇥᏙᮄᘏ㺕’ [‘Yang Yuanqing: the new president of Lenovo’], Ёӕ Ϯᆊ, Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs.
Yang, Yuanyuan (ᴼ ܗܗb. 1950) Former director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Yang Yuanyuan has dedicated his professional career to the development of the Chinese civil aviation industry, supervising its modernization and improving its safety for more than 25 years. Yang Yuanyuan is a native of Heyang County, Shaanxi Province. He joined the air force of the People’s Liberation Army in 1966 and became a Communist Party member in 1968. Yang graduated from the CAAC’s Senior Flight Institute in 1969. He is a firstgrade pilot. Since 1981 Yang has spent his career within the CAAC, an organization directly under the State Council. He had been a flight instructor, deputy chief of the flight brigade, and flight inspector with the CAAC’s Department of Science and Education, before he was transferred to CAAC’s Guangzhou Regional Administration in 1988. He then served as deputy chief of the flight brigade, deputy chief pilot, chief pilot and vice president of China Southern Airlines, and was appointed director of the CAAC’s Department of Flight Standards in 1998. In 1999, he became deputy director of the CAAC. From May 2002 to December 2007 he served concurrently as CAAC director and deputy head of the State Leading Group for Handling Hijacking. In January 2008 the former aviation regulator was appointed deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety, supervising accident prevention at workplaces including the world’s most dangerous coalmines. Yang headed the organizing committee for the Second International China Civil Aviation Development Forum in 2008 in Beijing. In 2004 Captain Yang Yuanyuan was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) President’s Citation, which honors those who have displayed ‘outstanding service on behalf of safety, whether it be valor, professionalism or service above and beyond normal expectations.’ In 2006 Yang was honored with the FSF-Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award ‘for guiding the transformation and modernization of the CAAC to enhance Chinese aviation safety at a time of unprecedented expansion of the air transportation system.’ ‘Under his leadership, China’s aviation accident rate has been reduced from 2.5 accidents per million flight hours to 0.5 per million flight hours during a period when China’s commercial airplane fleet nearly tripled.’ Yang mandated the merger of
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state-owned airlines to strengthen safety management by creating a large resource base of technical specialists. He founded the CAAC Flight Standards Training Center and the CAAC Civil Aviation Safety Academy of China. Yang became a member of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007. Jen-Kai Liu Sources Flight Safety Foundation (2004), ‘President’s Citation: Yang Yuanyuan’, 16 November, accessed 5 October, 2008 at www.flightsafety.org/citations/yuanyuan_cit.html. Flight Safety Foundation (2006), ‘FSF-Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award: Minister Yang Yuanyuan’, 25 October, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.flightsafety.org/citations/yuanyuan06_cit.html.
Ye, Lipei (Eddie Ye ゟ b. 1944) President of Zhongsheng Group and chairman of the Super Ocean Group, Ye Lipei is the richest man in Shanghai, with an estimated US$750 million in assets in 2006, and is consistently ranked among the richest people in China. In Forbes’ richest Chinese list he was fifth in 2003 and sixteenth in 2005, and in Rupert Hoogewerf’s Hurun Report he ranked ninth in the China Property Rich List and twenty-fifth in the China Rich List. ‘Eddie’, as he is affectively referred to by his peers, came from humble beginnings. Originally a math teacher, he emigrated to Australia in 1979, adopted his English first name ‘Eddie’ and obtained citizenship a year later. Ye then spent ten years as a trader in the food processing, grocery delivery, and garment industries. In 1989, with an accumulated US$12 million from his Australian endeavors, he began investing heavily in Shenzhen real estate. This early engagement in the Chinese real estate market soon yielded substantial returns as the depressed land prices of an originally agricultural city soared during its rise to one of China’s pre-eminent urban centers. In the following years, Ye continued developing offices, apartments, villas, golf courses, and commercial properties in the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, as well as in Beijing, and ultimately, Shanghai. In the 1990s Ye invested in the Shanghai Super Ocean Group, and sold in excess of 40 000 square meters in 2006, with another 100 000-plus square meters in development. While his focus on China’s most prominent metropolis may at first seem only a rational business decision, it may also be attributed to the fact that he is a native of Shanghai. In and around this booming commercial hub alone, in 2008 the real estate magnate was involved in three major developments with investments in excess of US$1 billion. These include a new tower in the center of Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial district, the high-end Mandarin City residential project in the Hongqiao airport area, and a shopping mall in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province. The latter is the group’s first commercial tourism real estate project with a total estimated investment exceeding US$80 million. Specializing in leather and fur products, this two-phase shopping complex is situated about an hour outside Shanghai, but more importantly, it is only 15 minutes from the scenic water town of Wuzhen, which receives 5 million visitors a year. By 2006, the first phase of the project was completed with a total gross floor area of 96 000 square meters, offering 400 plus fashion shops. The second phase is projected for completion in 2009 and is expected to offer a pedestrian mall and high-end international leather products.
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Eddie Ye has also made the news as a high roller in Melbourne’s Crown Casino where he is said to have been turning US$120 million-plus a year since the late 1990s with his preferred game of baccarat. According to Crown’s parent Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd (Melbourne, Australia), Ye owed the casino A$2.8 million after allegedly losing A$5 million at a visit in July 2000. He was able to return to the tables in October of 2000, though. What was not in dispute was his love of gambling. ‘I am a gambler,’ he admitted, ‘Going to casinos is just part of my life. It’s relaxation for me’ (McDonald, 2003). But while he may sometimes lose and sometimes win in Melbourne’s Crown Casino, he is surely winning consistently as Shanghai’s pre-eminent land and real estate property developer. Jonatan Jelen Sources Australasian Business Intelligence (2003), ‘How Eddie Ye’s federal court gamble went wrong’, 8 June, accessed 4 October 2008 at www.allbusiness.com/legal/torts-intentional-torts-libel-slander/9798104-1.html. Commercial Real Estate in China (2007), ‘Developer moves into Zhejiang’, 11 December, accessed at www.crechina.com/?id=583. Forbes (2003), ‘The top 15 China rich list members’, 24 November, accessed 4 October 2008 at www.forbes. com./forbes/2003/1124/156_2.html. Hurun Report (2006), ‘Eddie Ye Lipei – 2006 China rich list: No. 25’, accessed 4 October 2008 at www.hurun. net/detailen46.people26.aspx. Knows.jongo.com (2008), ‘Ye Lipei’, accessed at http://knows.jongo.com/res/article/13774. McDonald, H. (2003), ‘Gambling tycoon at odds with casino’, The Age, 9 June, accessed at www.theage.com. au/articles/2003/06/08/1055010875821.html.
Ye, Long (啭 b. 1963) Ye Long is the founder and president of Start Group, a computer company that has been embodied into a benchmark stock index for Chinese corporations on the grounds of its status and excellent financial performance. Under Ye’s leadership, in a little over ten years Start was transformed from a market follower to a vigorous industry leader. Born in 1963 in Putian, Fujian Province to an intellectual family, Ye received a good education. In 1984, after graduating from Shanghai Jiaotong University with a degree in computer science, he was assigned to a post in the Fujian branch of the China Computer Technological Service Corporation. His first task was to market company products. He sold computers door-to-door, and gradually built up a commercial network. By 1986, his individual sales amounted to RMB5 million, several times that of other employees. In the summer of 1988, Ye and 15 friends launched their own business, named Start, which began its operation with computer terminals. Ye served as vice president in charge of marketing, and guided a group of agents traveling widely to sell its products. Their hard work quickly paid off, and Start soon became the largest supplier of terminals within China. By 1993 when his sales exceeded RMB100 million, Ye was named as president and general manager of Start Computer Apparatus Co. After taking the leadership post, Ye embraced the concept of continuous management, and encouraged team-building in the collective enterprise with the corporate motto ‘winning the game by working together.’ He believed that Start had unique advantages in its human resource management and operations mechanism – areas in which state-owned enterprises are notoriously lacking – and in April 1995 he acquired the Fujian Computer Peripheral Factory, then a large computer hardware provider with
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R&D capability and an established manufacturing base. Convinced that only large companies could gain competitive advantage and dominant positions in the market, Ye continued this kind of consolidation over the following years. In 1996, Start Computer was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, generating new and much needed capital for mergers and acquisitions on a large scale. Start under Ye experienced tremendous growth and quickly developed into a hi-tech company focusing on consumer electronics including personal computers, software, and video products. In 1997, Start was ranked 38 of 100 listed companies in mainland China by Asian Fortune, a widely respected weekly magazine based in Hong Kong. In addition, Start was ranked twenty-second of the Top 100 National Listing Electronic Enterprises, and Ye was selected among the Most Outstanding Young Chinese of 1997. By its tenth anniversary in 1998, Start had become a company of 1600 employees with total assets of RMB1600 million, an increase of more than 2000 times. People have since argued that Start’s success revealed the power of China’s shareholding system and the future trend of Chinese corporate reforms. However, by 2001 when the dot.com bubble burst, Start suffered heavy losses and its stock price collapsed, Ye resigned as president of the group and left the company he founded shortly after. Sun, Jianmin and Wang, Zhen Sources Jin, Yunyi and Yang Yu (2003), ‘Start’s Paradox’, Knowledge-Based Economy, 8. nationalculture.com (2008), ‘ӕϮৡҎ: 啭’ [‘Ye Long: famous entrepreneur’], accessed 5 October, 2008 at www.nationculture.com/vip/cor/jis_04.htm.
Yi, Gang (ᯧ㒆 b. 1958) Yi Gang is deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, headquartered in Beijing. Yi grew up in Beijing, and studied economics in the Political Economy Department of Peking University from 1978–80, earning a BA in economics. He then traveled to St Paul, Minnesota, USA, to study at Hamline University where he earned a BA in management. Yi continued his studies at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, earning both an MA and PhD in economics between 1982–86. After his graduation, Yi joined the faculty at Indiana University, Indianapolis in 1986 as a visiting assistant professor for a year. In 1987 he joined the faculty full-time as an assistant professor of economics and taught and researched there until 1994, receiving the rank of tenured associate professor. Dr Yi has been president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at the University of Illinois and president of the Chinese Economists Society in the USA. In 1993, Yi initiated a conference on the theory and practice of China’s transition to a market economy with the Hainan Research Institute of Reform and Development of China and the Chinese Economics Association (UK). Since good economists were in high demand in government, industry, and universities across China, in late 1994 he returned to Peking University, this time as professor and PhD adviser in economics. Along with his professorial duties, Yi became deputy director of the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) of Peking University. In order to foster economic reform and development in China, the CCER was founded in 1994 with the aim of
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institutionalizing new teaching and research models at Peking University through the employment of Chinese economists, many of whom had received rigorous academic training outside China. Dr Yi has been an active scholar, publishing more than 40 articles in Chinese and 20 academic papers in English in such prestigious economics journals as the Journal of Econometrics, the China Economic Review, International Economics, Money and Banking, and Comparative Economic Studies. He is the author of ten books on economics and has served as a consultant for the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Comparative Economic Studies, Contemporary Policy Issues, and the Journal of Asian Economics. His research interests focus on econometrics and the banking and financial markets of China. His formal banking career started in 1997 when he was selected as deputy secretary general of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China. In 2002 he was named deputy director general of the Monetary Policy Department, during a deflationary period (1997–2003) that he had predicted, while continuing his duties with the Monetary Policy Committee. In 2004 he assumed the duties of director general, Monetary Policy Department of PBC. He continued in this role until December of 2007 when he was named as deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China. James P. Gilbert Sources China Center for Economic Research (CCER) (2002), ‘Gang Yi, Ph.D.’, Peking University, 18 March, accessed 29 August 2007 at http://ccer.edu.cn/en/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=1383. China European International Business School (CEIBS) (2008), presentation ‘Financial innovation’s impact on monetary policy’, July, www.ceibs.edu/clfc/forum/22211_11.shtml. Chow, Gregory C. (2000), ‘The teaching of modern economics in China’, Comparative Economic Studies, 22 June, 14, accessed 11 February 2008 at www.allbusiness.com/finance/617774-1.html. Xiu, Wen and Wang Zhen (2007), ‘Central Bank names new vice governors’, Caijing Magazine, December, accessed 11 February 2008 at www.caijing.com.cn/English/finance&economy/2008-01-04/44159.shtml.
Yin, Tongyao (ልৠ㗔b. 1962) Yin is the chairman, president, and party secretary of Chery Auto, an automobile manufacturer founded in 1997. Based in Wuhu, Anhui Province, Chery is the largest independent and the fastest growing automaker in China. The company began exporting its cars to Syria in 2001, becoming China’s first car exporter. Born in Anhui, Yin finished his high school education there in 1980. After receiving a college degree in automobile engineering from Hefei University of Technology in 1984, Yin started his career as a technician with First Automobile Works (FAW), a car plant that manufactured its self-designed ‘Hongqi’ model. He rose to a senior position in the assembly and logistics division of the FAW-Volkswagen venture before joining Chery as a deputy general manager in late 1996. Yin became the president of the company in 2004. Driven by the belief that Chinese automobile manufacturers needed to develop their own car brands, it nonetheless took courage for Yin to leave FAW-Volkswagen. At the time, the ‘Hongqi’ plant could only produce 300 units per day while the FAWVolkswagen plant produced 4000 units. Initially, the formation of Chery was not well received by the local government of Wuhu as it endorsed a ‘Three Big, Three Small’
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automakers strategy. Nonetheless, Chery was created from a combination of five stateowned enterprises based in Anhui with the aim of propping up the economy of Wuhu. Along with the other founding pioneers of Chery, Yin had to face challenges such as the lack of capital, know-how, vendor support, customer base, and competent personnel in the early years of operation. There were also delays in the installation of secondhand production machines that the company purchased from Ford Europe for its first factory. While Chery’s management was irresolute on the matter, in 1998 Yin decided to install the machines using Chery’s own personnel. This led to cost and time savings on the installation process, and Chery’s first automobile rolled off the assembly line in 1999, although the company was unable to obtain a license to sell its cars in China until 2001, when Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) bought a 20 percent stake in the company, allowing it to use SAIC’s national retail sales license. Chery bought back the 20 percent stake from SAIC in late 2004. Yin categorizes his search for talent into three major phases. Initially, he persuaded some former classmates, former colleagues, and hometown friends to join Chery while the company was still in the early stages of organizational development. Strangers were unwilling to commit to Chery’s uncertain future. When Chery’s operations became more established, Yin began to recruit personnel with R&D skills from other major local automakers to develop the company’s R&D capabilities. (A joint-venture entity, comprising local and foreign firms, does not normally need R&D personnel.) The third phase of recruiting relates to Chery’s ambitions to go global. Yin looked for talent from major foreign firms to oversee Chery’s key functional areas. Chery endorses continuous professional education and has an academic collaboration program with Hefei University of Technology. Yin attempts to distinguish Chery as China’s self-developed auto brand at home and abroad. The company founded an R&D organization in 2003, and began working with foreign experts to improve its technology and quality. In 2005, it formed a strategic partnership with a US-based firm, Visionary Vehicles. It also started manufacturing China’s first high-performance engines in cooperation with AVL List of Austria. Nevertheless, Yin’s strategic actions have encountered challenges. In 2005 General Motors Daewoo auto firm sued Chery for allegedly copying one of its vehicles. Yin stated in late 2005, ‘. . . we hope to export Chery to the US . . . the car can drive on the Manhattan street . . .’ However, Chery Auto cancelled plans to export vehicles to the USA in 2006 as its cars had yet to achieve a certain standard. To improve its competitive edge, in 2007 Chery signed a deal with the Chrysler Group to manufacture small cars for export to the USA and other markets. In the same year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Fiat to set up a 50-50 joint venture in China. Chery’s first decade of corporate performance could probably be characterized as impressive, albeit sometimes controversial. Under Yin’s leadership, the success of the independent automaker perhaps can be better measured in the future. For now, the firm continues to make major corporate changes and to engage with considerable external interfaces. Loi Teck Hui and Quek Kia Fatt Sources Associated Press (2007), ‘China’s Chery signs deal with Chrysler to make cars for North American market’, 4 July, accessed at www.komotv.com/news/business/8319602.html. Chery Automobile (2008), company website accessed at http://www.chery.cn.
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China Car Forums (2008), ‘Chery Automobile’, accessed at www.chinacarforums.com/chery_automobile. html. China Daily (2007), ‘China’s Chery produces millionth car’, 22 August, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ china/2007-08/22/content_6036836.htm. Forbes.com (2006), ‘China’s Chery Auto cancels plans to export to US: report’ 23 November, accessed at www. forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/11/23/afx3200872.html. Forbes.com (2007), ‘Fiat to set up 50:50 JV with China’s Chery Auto’, Forbes.com, 8 July, accessed at http:// www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/08/07/afx3993358.html. Liu, L. (2005), ‘GM Daewoo files suit against Chery’, China Daily, 5 September, http://www.chinadaily.com. cn/english/doc/2005–05/09/content_440334.htm. Tong, Zongli ұ, ᅫ㥝 (2005), ‘䆄ܼࢇࡼ㣗, ༛⨲≑䔺݀ৌᘏ㒣⧚ልৠ㗔’ [‘The national model worker: Chery Auto’s general manager, Yin Tongyao’], Ё≑䔺 [China Auto Journal], 9 May, accessed 30 September 2008 at http://auto.people.com.cn/GB/3391568.html. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Chery Automobile’, accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery.
Yu, Shumin (Ѣ⎥⦝ b. 1951) An outstanding female executive and senior economic engineer, Yu Shumin is president of the Qingdao-based Hisense Group. Prior to this post, Yu served as standing vice president, general manager, deputy secretary, and secretary of the party committee of Hisense Group. Yu believes that the only way to keep the leading position on market share is through independent technological innovation and new products. Under her leadership, Hisense founded its first chips R&D group in 2000 specializing in microchip research, and in 2005, the company developed China’s first video processing chips with proprietary intellectual property which has set a good example for producing non-pollution electric appliances. Besides being one of the country’s top household appliance makers, Hisense Group also produces mobile phones and communiation transceivers. During Yu’s eightyear tenure as the executive president of Hisense Group, the company has expanded at a rate of over 40 percent every year, profits have increased by 35 percent each year, and income from sales rose from RMB10 600 million in 1998 to RMB43 500 million in 2006. Hisense TV occupies the largest share in the domestic market, and its panel TV has been ranked first in the nation three years in a row. After a successful merger with Kelon in 2006, Hisense has become the only enterprise in China that owns three famous brands, Hisense, Kelon, and Rong Sheng. The company is listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Yu is known for her determination, leadership and management skills; at the same time, more conventionally feminine skills help her to negotiate a field dominated by male executives. In recent years Yu has been making special efforts to achieve sustainable growth for her large corporation. Her business accomplishments have several times won Yu recognition as a National Model Worker, and in 2007 she was elected as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in China, which is the country’s top honor for women in the professional world. Huang, Lujin Sources China’s CEOs (2008), ‘CEO namelist, Yu Shumin’, accessed 26 September at www.cnceo.com/person/ceominglu1.jsp?un=_ceo371111078. China International Business (2006), ‘Iron lady faces latest challenge’, 01.
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China Manager (2004), ‘Yu Shumin: managing Hisense softly’, 3–4, 53. Chen, Lingqing (2007), ‘Yu Shumin: CEO of Hisense’, 29 March, accessed at www.88088.com/manager/ ldys/2007/0329/190220.shtml. Wu, Xiaoyan (2006), ‘Yu Shumin brings good luck to Hisense’, Executive, 1, 16.
Yu, Yu (ֲ⏱ b. 1965) Also known as Peggy Yu, Yu Yu is the co-founder and co-president of Dangdang.com along with her husband Li Guoqing. Founded in 1999, Dangdang is China’s largest online retailer and the world’s leading online seller of Chinese language books, movies, and music. As one of the best-known ‘sea turtles’ (Hai Gui, students with overseas education returning to China), Yu Yu came back to China in 1998 after 11 years in the USA to start Dangdang.com, a successful online bookstore dubbed the Amazon.com of China. Born in Chongqing, China, Yu Yu received her bachelor degree in English literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1986. She worked as an interpreter and secretary for a joint venture in Beijing, and then went to the USA to pursue graduate studies. As a starry-eyed 22-year-old, Yu first enrolled at the University of Oregon, but found the courses uninteresting, so she went to New York University instead, and received her MBA degree in 1992. From there she began her adventures on Wall Street, working for five years for Tripod, a consulting firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions and providing an advisory service to corporate clients. In the mid-1990s, while engaged in financing on Wall Street, Yu became fascinated by the monumental success of online bookstore Amazon.com. At that time she conceptualized the idea of a similar e-commerce website for China. However on returning to China she found the country had only a tiny community of internet users, and that there was no comprehensive, up-to-date database on books in print in China, an essential piece in the construction of an online bookstore. Yu was not deterred by this. As an experienced financial professional, she understood the potential for an online bookstore, and she and her partners began to build a database of books in China, a tedious undertaking that required both money and time. To finance the work, Yu looked for foreign investment partners. Boston-based International Data Group and the Luxembourg Cambridge Holding Group became the main investors, holding the majority of equity stakes in the newly formed Beijing Science and Culture Book Information Corporation. This large database, finished in three years, laid the foundation for Yu’s future online bookstore. While the database construction was under way, the internet community in China was growing at a dizzying speed, and by late 1999 the country had over 8.9 million internet users. In that year, Yu and her husband founded Dangdang, which quickly became China’s leading online destination for retail shopping and recorded significant growth. Yu named the store for both cultural and business reasons. ‘A good company name should combine cultural cohesiveness and auspiciousness,’ she noted, ‘Dangdang can be read smoothly in any dialect’ (China Today, 2004). Managing an online bookstore in China was not an easy job. At the time Chinese people lacked meaningful online experience, and Yu had to change not only customers’ purchasing habits but also the employees’ attitudes. Moreover, she had to struggle with consumers’ reluctance to engage in online shopping, inhibiting credit card regulations,
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and an ineffectual delivery system. Despite all the drawbacks, however, Dangdang’s business has grown steadily. In a few years, Dangdang became the largest Chinese internet bookstore in the world. By 2005, the company began an aggressive transition from an online bookstore to a mass merchandiser featuring everything from digital products to cosmetics. Dangdang’s success has been truly remarkable, as noted by the chief of China’s Press and Publication Administration, ‘its tremendous help in accelerating the development of China’s book industry in the new millennium makes Dangdang the bellwether for China’s e-commerce’ (Ibid.). Huang, Lujin Sources Businesswomen (2007), ‘Peggy Yu: the clang of Dangdang.com’, 5 February. China Daily (2005), ‘A woman-created e-commerce legend’, 18 May. China Today (2004), ‘The return of China’s “Sea-turtles”’, May. New York Times (2003), ‘Dangdang: a Chinese Amazon?’, 25 October. TMCnet.com (2006), ‘Dangdang closes US$27 million round led by DCM’, 6 July.
Yu, Zuomin (⾍ᬣ1930–99) Famous peasant leader of the village of Daqiu Zhuang, Yu Zuomin was a pioneering rural entrepreneur during the age of economic reform. Under his leadership, Daqiu Zhuang, a poor village located some 45 kilometers from the coastal city of Tianjin in north China, rose to wealth and fame in the 1980s and early 1990s. An area of largely alkaline soil, Daqiu Zhuang had been prone to crop failures and was very poor. The opportunities for change arose in the late 1970s, a few years after the death of China’s revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, when the new leader, Deng Xiaoping, and his supporters launched drastic economic reforms. The most significant of the new policies was the so-called ‘Household Responsibility System’, by which land could be contracted to individual peasant households. Meanwhile, rural industrial enterprises, once condemned as being capitalistic, were encouraged. Frustrated with the economic plight of his village and its 2800 inhabitants, Yu Zuomin, party secretary of Daqiu Zhuang, seized the opportunities afforded by the rural reforms and led the village on the road to economic prosperity. Since agriculture could not serve as the source of wealth for Daqiu Zhuang, Yu Zuomin focused on pursuing industrial ventures. Daqiu Zhuang was among the first villages in China to build factories. In 1977, after borrowing money from a variety of sources, the village established its first small steel mill. Within a year, the steel mill earned more profit than the village had achieved since 1949. In the next few years, more factories, with products ranging from steel pipes to stationery for schoolchildren, were established, and profits soared. By the early 1980s, the individual factories in Daqiu Zhuang were incorporated into a village holding company called Daqiu Zhuang Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce United Company. Party Secretary Yu Zuomin became the president of this new rural conglomerate and was often called ‘Boss Yu.’ Under the new rural enterprise system, Daqiu Zhuang operated more like a collective. The guiding principle of Yu Zuomin was ‘economics first.’ He established an incentive system according to which factory managers received 1 percent of profits. Through the 1980s Daqiu
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Zhuang experienced by growing wealth as a result of the rapid development of rural industry in the economic reform era. In 1983, Yu invited the celebrated writer from Tianjin, Jiang Zilong, for a two-week visit to the village. During his visit, Jiang listened to Yu’s stories about the village’s poor past and its riches today. In spring 1984, Jiang published a short story entitled Yanzhao Elegy [Yanzhao Beige] in People’s Literature. The story is essentially an account of Daqiu Zhuang’s road from poverty to wealth, and its publication turned the village into a national sensation. Village cadres and government officials began to visit Daqiu to observe its success for themselves. By 1990, with 200 subsidiary companies hiring mainly migrant rural laborers, Daqiu Zhuang’s steel output constituted 3 percent of that of the country. The fame of Daqiu village reached its zenith in 1992 when the China Statistical Yearbook named it as the richest village in China. Daqiu Zhuang became a model village, and its new status was inseparable from its leader Yu Zuomin. However, with the wealth and fame of Daqiu Zhuang, Yu Zuomin became arrogant, and his behavior became increasingly dictatorial, with little tolerance of different opinions or criticism. Toward the end of 1992, in investigating the financial undertakings of one of the village companies, Yu ordered the arrest of a company clerk who was then beaten to death by village thugs during the interrogation. Yu subsequently ordered a cover-up and detained the policemen who arrived at the village to investigate the incident. What followed was a standoff between thousands of villagers and migrants organized by Yu and armed with steel pipes, and the military police who were blocked from entering the village. Yu Zuomin’s political fall occurred in 1993, when he was charged with a number of crimes including involvement in the death of the company clerk and instigating the military confrontation with the national paramilitary police. He was put on trial, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Yu died of a heart attack while on parole in Tianhe Hospital in Tianjin in 1999. According to some accounts, he committed suicide by taking an overdose in the hospital. Daqiu Zhuang experienced its golden age from 1984 to 1992 when it emerged as the richest village in China and used its wealth to build public facilities such as schools and roads. Today, the village has become a town and its source of wealth continues to be steel production. However, the kind of collective spirit of the earlier years when Yu was at its head is largely gone, and the public facilities built by Yu have fallen into disrepair. Hong Zhang Sources Fan, Yinhuai (2000), ‘䚅ᑘ“ᑘЏ”⾍ᬣ݈㹄䇰’ [‘The enigma involving the rise and fall of Daqiu Zhuang’s “boss” Yu Zuomin’], accessed 30 September 2008 at http://finance.sina.com.cn/management/ vision/2000-01-12/17624.html. Gilley, Bruce (2001), Modern Rebels: The Rise and Fall of China’s Richest Village, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Yuan, Longping (㹕䱚ᑇ b. 1931) Yuan Longping is an educator, agricultural scientist, and the director general of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in China. He is a past recipient of the State Supreme Science and Technology Award, a Chinese equivalent to the Nobel
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Prize, for his contributions to the development of hybrid rice. He is considered the ‘father of hybrid rice,’ with his rice varieties found throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas, most notably in famine-stricken areas. Yuan was born in Beijing into poverty-stricken circumstances and graduated from the Southwest Agriculture Institute in 1953. Throughout the early part of his career, he served on the faculty of an agricultural school in Anjiang, Hunan Province. Since the 1960s, Yuan has dedicated his life to the research and development of hybrid rice. The endeavor began when China suffered famine and mass deaths during a tumultuous period of the twentieth century. In 1973, with a team of researchers, Yuan created a rice species that generated 20 percent more per unit than other types of rice species. In 1974, Yuan developed an advanced process for creating rice that was both nonglutinous and long-grained. As a result of this scientific breakthrough, the People’s Republic of China became the world’s leader in rice production and Yuan earned his ‘father of hybrid rice’ nickname. In 1979, the process was introduced to the United States. This was the first time that intellectual property rights had been transferred from China to the United States. Today, it is estimated that approximately 50 percent of rice fields in China grow Yuan’s hybrid species. In particular, his contributions have diminished China’s reliance on food imports and assisted areas of the world that are stricken by famine and poverty. Yuan has spent much of his life traveling abroad to research, advise, and guide scientists working on various components of his hybrid rice cultivation process. In the 1980s and 1990s, Yuan directed a lengthy series of seminars in concert with the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center. The series extended to over 15 countries and involved numerous participants. By working with a coalition of esteemed scientists, the amount of hybrid rice production and acres of land dedicated to cultivating hybrid rice grew significantly in India and Vietnam in the late 1990s. Today, Yuan’s net worth is estimated to be more than 100 million yuan. He is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the US National Academy of Sciences, the China National Rice R&D Center (where he currently serves as the director general), and Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha (where he currently serves as a professor). He has been awarded the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award and the Wolf Prize. In addition, Yuan won the World Food Prize in 2004, which was also the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Year of Rice. He served as a head consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association in the 1990s. His goal is to introduce his latest breed of hybrid rice to every nation throughout the world. Michael A. Moodian Sources Li, Jinhui (2001), ‘Yuan Longping – father of hybrid rice’, 2 March, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.china. org.cn/english/MATERIAL/8505.htm. World Food Prize (2004), ‘2004 World Food Prize Laureates’, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.worldfoodprize. org/laureates/Past/2004.htm,
Zhang, Chaoyang (Charles Zhang ᓴᳱ䰇 b. 1964) Zhang Chaoyang is the founder, president, and chairman of the board of Sohu.com Inc., the first Chinese language search engine and the official internet content service sponsor for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Born in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Zhang graduated in 1986 from Tsinghua University in Beijing. After receiving the prestigious CUSPEA scholarship to pursue a graduate degree in the United States, he earned a PhD in experimental physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. First working as MIT liaison for developing strategic partnerships with China, Zhang returned home in November 1995 to establish Internet Securities Inc. A year later, he founded Internet Technologies China, which was later renamed Sohu.com, and in February 1998 the first Chinese language search engine was launched. A listing on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in 2000 provided Zhang with funds to upgrade Sohu’s networking and computer infrastructure and to boost marketing and sales efforts. The pioneering rollout of wireless services soon after blazed a trail for other portals in China. When online advertising was not enough to support further growth, Zhang developed and added new money-making services, such as wireless multimedia messaging that enabled users to send pictures and videos, new e-business and software applications and homepage storage with email. In 2003, Sohu.com became the first Chinese internet company to achieve full-year profitability. Annual revenue reached US$80 million, up 180 percent on the previous year, with the bulk of the income coming from non-advertising business. The acquisition of the game information website 17173. com and Focus.cn, a real estate information website, attracted more internet users and new advertisers. After a decade of operation, Sohu.com has become a household name in China. Through continuous product development and exclusive content partnerships, Sohu.com has established itself as the premier portal destination for internet users in China and the ideal platform for advertisers to reach the attractive consumer market segment of young, affluent urban Chinese. Zhang regularly participates in leading international conferences, including the Fortune Global 500 Forum, Fortune magazine roundtables, and World Economic Forum meetings. For his leadership and professional achievement, Zhang has been recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and was named among the world’s top 50 digital elite by Time magazine in 1998. The same publication also named him as one of 15 Global Tech Gurus in 2003, while BusinessWeek included Zhang in its list of 25 global e-Biz CEOs. During the same year he also became a member of the All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce, and in 2004 Zhang was the first Chinese national to receive the Academy of Management’s 2004 ‘Distinguished Executive of the Year’ award. A person with a spirit of adventure, in 2003 Zhang sponsored and joined a Chinese team for an expedition to Mount Everest to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first human to conquer the world’s tallest mountain. Huang, Lujin Sources Huo, Yongzhe (2001), ‘Sohu to reverse current trend’, China Daily, 25 May, accessed 5 October 2008 at www. chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2001-05/25/content_59264.htm.
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Sohu.com (2006), ‘Management team: board of directors’, accessed 5 October 2008 at http://corp.sohu. com/20051012/n240523741.shtml.
Zhang, Enzhao (ᓴᘽ✻ b. 1946) Former governor of the China Construction Bank (CCB), Zhang Enzhao started his career with CCB in 1964 and resigned in March 2005 amid accusations of corruption. The China Construction Bank is one of China’s ‘Big Four’ state-run banks. A civil suit was filed accusing him of accepting bribes worth US$1 million from an American financial services firm, Alltel Information Services (AIS). Zhang confessed during the trial to receiving cash, watches, and property, and he was convicted on 3 November 2006 by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, and sentenced to a 15-year jail term for corruption. Born in Juxian, China, Zhang is of Han nationality, and graduated from Fudan University with a degree in economic engineering. He joined the China Construction Bank in 1964 and continued at the bank in various roles until 1984. He left the CCB to join the Shanghai Division of the Investment Bank of China where he served as deputy governor for a year (1984–85), returning to the CCB as deputy general manager (1986–87), and then as general manager from 1987–99. His fast rise and experience in banking was noticed by bank executives, who quickly promoted him into the position of deputy governor, Shanghai Division where he served for two years. In 2002 he was appointed governor of the CCB, and in 2004 he was promoted to chairman. During his long banking career Zhang also served in several other roles, including chair of the China International Capital Corporation, deputy president of the China Banks Association, and secretary of the China Asset Management Company. In the convocation of the 16th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Congress in November 2002, in order to investigate and prosecute serious cases of corruption, specifically commercial bribery, initiatives were launched for disciplined inspection and supervision at many levels of government agencies and organizations across China. It was as a result of this crackdown that Zhang and a number of other bank executives were found to be involved in serious corruption. Among these others were Liu Jinbao, former vice-chairman of the board of the Bank of China, and Hu Chushou, former chairman of the supervision committee for key state financial organizations. According to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, in recent years more than 6800 individuals, including 325 senior executives, have been fired or prosecuted in China for engaging in improper activities in the financial industry. Ironically, Zhang’s predecessor as governor of the China Construction Bank was Wang Xuebing, who had been fired from the top post at CCB after charges that he accepted bribes while serving as chairman of another large government-owned bank, the Bank of China. Wang is now serving a 12-year prison sentence. In March 2005, Zhang was sued by Grace & Digital Information Technology in the US court on charges of accepting bribes from a US financial services company. Brought under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the civil suit accused Zhang of accepting bribes of $1 million and other favors from AIS, a US company specializing in computer systems for banking operations, then operating as Fidelity Information Services. Fidelity Information
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Services’ parent, Fidelity National Financial, based in Jacksonville, FL, denied the charges. Amid allegations of corruption, Zhang resigned immediately for ‘personal reasons’ from his post as chairman of China Construction Bank, and was put under house arrest while being investigated for alleged corruption at the bank. Court documents stated that Zhang and two friends were invited by AIS on an allexpenses paid visit to the Pebble Beach golf course, in Monterey, California in May 2002. While there, ‘AIS agreed to pay, and eventually actually paid, over US$1 million to Mr Zhang, disguised as a consulting fee’ in return for new contracts excluding Grace & Digital from any new commissions. The lawsuit stated that payment, and subsequent monthly payments of $3500, was made to Zhang through a Hong Kong-registered company controlled by the two friends who had joined him on the golf trip. James P. Gilbert Sources China Vitae (2007), ‘Zhang Enzhao’, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.chinavitae.com/biography/Zhang_ Enzhao/career. Buckley, Chris (2005), ‘Ex-leader of Chinese bank being sued in U.S.’, International Herald Tribune, 22 March, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/21/business/ccb.php. The International Who’s Who (2006), ‘Zhang, Enzhao’, 69th edn, London and New York: Routledge, p. 2205. Xinhua News (2007), ‘China makes “great effort” to curb corruption, commercial bribery’, 4 October, accessed 26 September 2008 at www.redorbit.com/news/science/1099993/china_makes_great_effort_to_curb_cor ruption_commercial_bribery_/index.html?source=r_science.
Zhang, Gang (ᓴ䩶 b. 1964) Zhang Gang is the founder and chairman of the Inner Mongolia Little Sheep Corporation, a chain of over 700 hot pot restaurants in six countries. In 2007, Little Sheep received the award ‘No. 1 Fastest Growing Chinese Enterprise.’ Zhang was born and raised in Baotou ‘Deer’ City, Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China. Following graduation from Bao Gang Technology Institute in 1984, Zhang began work at the Baotou Iron and Steel Company. After just four years, he left to pursue an independent business career. Zhang made his first foray into entrepreneurship in the clothing business, selling out in 1993. In 1995, Zhang and a partner developed a mobile phone business, importing mobile phones from South China for retail sale in Baotou city and later developed a new venture in the text-messaging sector. Soon after, many new competitors entered the desirable telecommunications sector and Zhang decided to exit this competitive marketplace. In early 1999, Zhang visited Huhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia and enjoyed a wonderful hot pot at a small local restaurant. He thought that the business might have potential and bought the restaurant’s formula. Zhang then experimented with improvements to the recipe, relying on friends and family for taste-testing. After numerous experiments, a new recipe was developed – one that is still under lock and key to all but a few inside Little Sheep. In August 1999, in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Zhang cofounded Little Sheep with Chen Hong Kai. By October, Zhang and Chen had opened a second store. Little Sheep customers enjoy a chafing dish of quickly boiled mutton or other meats, seafood, noodles, garden fresh vegetables and seasoning, which contains dozens of ingredients used in Chinese medicine, including dangshen, medlar, longan,
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chaoguo, and baikou. The need for dipping sauce is eliminated, and salt and fat content reduced. Zhang anticipated the entry of many potential competitors and decided to develop a stable, high quality supply of lamb meat, rather than buying in the open market. Little Sheep integrated backwards, developing a sheep farm in the pollution-free Zilinguole grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The mission of Little Sheep is to provide delicious, healthy food, develop pasture husbandry in Inner Mongolia, and promote Chinese food culture. The recipe for the soup base remains a secret. Zhang and Chen sought ways to expand the business. They attracted equity by selling 60 percent of the shares in the company over four rounds of financing. In the first round, Zhang brought senior management on board by offering shares at the original price or by providing stock options. In the second round, private equity was sought to extend the number of branches. In the third round, middle managers were attracted with stockholding plans and the public also invested. In July 2006, Zhang’s Little Sheep received US$25 million from 3i and Prax Capital. Zhang said of the funding, ‘we are delighted to have the 3i-led team as a partner in our business. We value 3i’s flexible and tailored approach to building a long-term relationship, their vast experience and strategic advance and contacts which are beneficial to the development of our business’ (Chinese Venture Capital Association, 2006). The venture capital was used, in part, to buy out franchises and to shut down under-performing franchises. In 2006, the firm had over 5.3 billion yuan in total revenues, ranking it first in the Chinese food/beverage industry. It was also ranked ninety-fifth of the ’500 Most Valuable Chinese Brands’ by the World Brand Lab and World Executive Network in 2006. Little Sheep has also received awards from the state for its efforts to alleviate poverty. The first North American branch was opened in Los Angeles in 2003 and the first directly owned store was established in Toronto in 2005. As of September 2007, there are seven North American restaurants, four in Hong Kong, one in Macao and two in Tokyo. Under Zhang’s leadership, Little Sheep devotes extra energy to hiring superior staff and providing extensive training in customer service. In 2005, Zhang was selected among the top ten people in Chinese catering. Zhang currently owns less than 20 percent of the company and continues to pursue international markets for Little Sheep. Siri Terjesen Sources Chinese Venture Capital Association (2006), ‘Zi supports growth of Inner Mongolian restaurant chain Little Sheep’, accessed 22 September 2008 at www.cvca.com.hk/template/mnewtemplate.asp?ArticleID=592. Little Sheep (2008), corporate website, accessed at www.xfy.cn. Wang, Freda (2008), Interview with Zhang Gang, Little Sheep Corporation.
Zhang, Jianguo (ᓴᓎb. 1955) A leader in the Chinese banking industry, Zhang Jianguo has been the president, executive director, and vice chairman of the board of the China Construction Bank (CCB) since July 2006. Previously the vice chairman and president of the Bank of Communications Ltd, Zhang joined the China Construction Bank upon the resignation of president Chang Zhenming, who joined the Citic Group.
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The China Construction Bank was founded in 1954, is headquartered in Beijing, and operates in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities under the direction of the central government. CCB operations are also found in Hong Kong, Singapore, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Tokyo, and Seoul. Altogether Zhang oversees the work of approximately 300 000 bank employees in 20 000 branches with about US$16 billion in assets. The China Construction Bank handles about two-thirds of the mortgage loans in China. In late November 2007 Zhang Jianguo presided over the opening of the China Construction Bank Sydney, Australia. This is important for the bank, as Australia is China’s ninth largest trading partner and a key supplier of energy and mineral resources to the mainland while China is the second largest trading partner with Australia. The CCB was the first state-owned commercial bank to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is now also listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Setting up the Australian office is an important strategic initiative as the China Construction Bank steps up its overseas business expansion plans. Zhang discussed his goals for this initiative into Australia, ‘We expect to bring benefits to Australia by promoting bilateral trade and would also like to assist Australian companies in Sydney to expand their business in China’ (Riseborough, 2007). The strategic initiative, based on a customer-driven operating concept, aims to improve business processes, expand markets, improve internal management, strengthen risk control, and assist in the rapid growth of the bank with the goal of increasing profitability for the CCB. The bank will turn its global attention to the principals of strengthening its Asian market, consolidating the European and African markets, and looking towards breaking into the American market. Zhang has much to be proud of during his tenure with the bank. The China Construction Bank was named the ‘Most Profitable Bank in Asia’ by Asiaweek magazine in 2006, the ‘Best Corporate Governance Company’ by Asset magazine in 2007, the ‘Best Banks in Emerging Markets – The Best Bank in China 2007’ by Global Finance magazine and gained the ‘Capital China Outstanding Bank Award’ from Capital magazine in 2007. To continue its development toward world markets, Zhang sees several directions for progress that are necessary for the CCB: learning how to meet customer needs in the context of local environments, learning from non-Chinese banks on the advancement of corporate governance, strengthening the reform of internal operations and management structures, and strengthening joint efforts with foreign banks while maintaining fair competition. Zhang has also served as deputy general manager and general manager of international business in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). He graduated in 1982 from the Department of Finance in Tianjin College of Finance and Economics, now known as Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, where he also received his masters degree in finance and economics in 1995. James P. Gilbert Sources China Daily (2006), ‘China Construction Bank appoints new chief’, 28 July, accessed 16 August 2007 at china daily.com.cn/china/2006-07/28/content_651657.htm. China University of Hong Kong (2007), ‘Future of banking industry – challenges and opportunities’, press release, 11 January, accessed at www.cuhk.edu.hk/ipro/pressrelease/070111e.htm. International Herald Tribune (2006), ‘Head of China bank tenders resignation’, 25 July, accessed 26 August 2007 at www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/24/bloomberg/sxbriefs.php.
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Reuters (2007), ‘Officers and directors detail: China Construction Bank Corporation’, accessed 21 August at stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/officersDirectorsDetails.asp?symbol=0939.HK&WTmodLOC=C4-Officers3&officerID=880196. Riseborough, Jesse (2007), ‘China Construction Bank opens first Australian office,’ International Herald Tribune, 3 December, accessed 2 October 2008 at www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/02/bloomberg/bxbank. php.
Zhang, Jindong (ᓴࢆϰb. 1963) Consistently ranked among the richest Chinese by the Hurun Report, in 2007 Zhang Jindong was the wealthiest individual in the Chinese retail industry and the ninth richest overall, with an estimated net worth of US$4.5 to 5 billion (RMB37 billion). While Zhang is active in real estate, his passion is retailing, in particular electronic appliances, which explains his top ranking in the China Retail List. This success may just run in the family: Zhang’s brother, property developer Zhang Guiping, debuted at no. 28 in 2007. A Chinese literature major, Zhang is known to occasionally intersperse his conversations with flowery Chinese adages and phrases. After working as a manager for a stateowned enterprise, he took advantage of China’s liberalizing economic policies and started selling air-conditioners in his native Nanjing in 1990. He is the founder, controlling stakeholder, chairman, and legal representative of Suning Appliance Co. Ltd, the nation’s second largest electrical appliance retail chain with an estimated market value of 55 billion yuan in late 2007. The company had 400 stores in early 2007 to which Zhang plans to add another 600 by 2010, and reaped sales revenue of 19 billion yuan and net profits of 578 million yuan during the first two quarters of 2007. Ironically, while his chain is the nation’s second, in terms of personal wealth he surpassed Huang Guangyu (Wong Kwong Yu), board chairman of the nation’s premier appliance retail chain Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd (97 billion yuan market value) in October 2007. To better compete with Gome and foreign retailers like American chain Best Buy, Zhang listed his company on China’s lucrative Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2004 in the A-share market. The feud between Suning and Gome was highlighted in December 2007 when Gome snapped up the smaller Dazhong Electrical Appliance after Suning first approached Dazhong a month earlier and was just about to finalize the deal. Zhang commented on the success of Suning at the 2007 Hong Kong Forum of China Economic Leaders, which was sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the China Chamber of International Commerce. He ascribed the rapid expansion of his company into the domestic appliance market to the changing attitudes of Chinese consumers along with the improved manufacturing capacity, productivity, and effectiveness of Chinese producers. Home appliances in China are morphing from luxury goods to consumer goods. While initially crazy about imports, and after accepting Chinese manufacturing of foreign brands, Chinese consumers are finally embracing domestic brands. Increasingly China-made brands have indeed built international reputation and prowess, something domestic consumers are very proud of. Zhang’s remarkable path models China’s dynamic economic development, and it is now increasingly reflected in the country’s political structures. Recently, Zhang joined the ranks of the 2237-member 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that opened 3 March 2008 in Beijing as a representative of the so-called ‘New Class’, a
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term originally used at the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which designates entrepreneurs, technologists, owners, ‘employees of intermediary organizations,’ and the self-employed in the private sector as well as managerial and technical staff in foreign-capital enterprises. Jonatan Jelen Sources Appliance Magazine (2007), ‘Chinese retailer Gome acquires Dazhong Electrical Appliances’, 21 December, accessed at www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?article=114387&zone=5&first=1. China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (2007), ‘Hong Kong Forum of China Economic Leaders Held Successfully’, 24 December, accessed at http://english.ccpit.org/Contents/Channel_410/ 2007/1224/82196/content_82196.htm. Forbes (2007), ‘The world’s billionaires: #488 Zhang Jindong’, 8 March, accessed at www.forbes.com/ lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Zhang-Jindong_VZ04.html.
Zhang, Qingwei (ᓴᑚӳ b. 1961) Second in command of China’s manned space program and described in official biographies as the wunderkind of China’s space industry, Zhang Qingwei serves as chairman of the State Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). Zhang was appointed chairman of COSTIND in August 2007, replacing Zhang Yunchuan, who was appointed party secretary of Hebei Province. At 46, Zhang Qingwei was one of the youngest individuals to hold a minister-level position in China. He serves concurrently as deputy head of the Lunar Exploration Program Leading Group (post held since 2004), deputy commander of the Human Spaceflight Program (post held since 2002), head of the Lunar Orbit Working Group (LOWG), and chairman of the Chinese Society of Astronautics and vice president of the 10th Committee of the All-China Youth Federation. It is widely believed that he will also replace Zhang Yunchuan as head of the Lunar Exploration Program Leading Group. Before his appointment as chairman of COSTIND, he served as president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space program (post held since 2001). According to Zhang Qingwei, one of COSTIND’s major tasks in 2008 was to be the restructuring of the state-owned, military-run aviation industry in order to meet China’s rapidly growing demand for advanced fighter aircraft, regional planes and jumbo passenger jets. Rumors are circulating about a merger between the large plane maker China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) and helicopter and propeller plane builder AVIC II. The government split AVIC into two companies in 1999 in an effort to make the business more flexible and competitive. Zhang Qingwei, born on 7 November 1961, is a native of Leting County, Hebei Province. From 1978 to 1982 he studied at the Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) majoring in aircraft design. After his graduation, Zhang was assigned to No. 603 Institute of the Ministry of the Aviation Industry, where he designed aircraft tails and was promoted to deputy director of the engineering department. In 1985 he returned to NPU to earn a masters degree. Beginning in 1988, he held various posts within the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, and later joined the China Academy of Launch Vehicle
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Technology (CALT), China’s largest and most important launch vehicle manufacturer, in its overall system design department. CALT was originally known as the 1st Academy of the Ministry of Astronautics. In 1990, Zhang was credited with the successful launch of the Asiasat-1 satellite on a Long March (LM) rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center for US satellite manufacturer Hughes, which marked the first time that the Long March had been used to launch a foreign satellite. Based on this success Zhang was promoted to senior engineer, and in the same year he also concluded the LM-2 rocket program. After the rocket’s successful launch in 1990, Zhang was tasked with determining the suitability of the LM-2 for the human space flight program. From 1992 he served as the deputy chief designer of the carrier rocket (LM-2F) for project 921 at the China Aerospace Industry Corporation. Project 921, the mission to put China’s first human in space, received the official go-ahead in 1992, and Zhang became deputy director of CALT in 1996. On 1 July 1999, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was established under a government restructuring plan intended to reform the defense industry. CASC took over 130 organizations from the former China Aerospace Industry Corporation, including eight primary research and design academies, such as CALT and the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which builds the majority of China’s satellites. CAST is the designer of China’s first man-made satellite, DFH-1. In October 2003 China completed its first manned space flight, when the Shenzhou V capsule with Astronaut Yang Liwei returned safely to earth. At the time, Zhang Qingwei remarked that China would turn its attention to establishing a space laboratory and then a space station. In October 2005 China sent two astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI rocket. Zhang’s impressive accomplishments have earned him a number of awards. In 1991 he was selected as one of the top ten young scientists in the space industry; in 1999 he was recognized as one of the top ten outstanding young people in China; and in 2003 he was named the CCTV business figure of the year. Although he did not join the Communist Party until 1992, Zhang was elected a member of both the 16th and 17th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Jen-Kai Liu Sources Chen, Stephen (2008), ‘Jumbo plans unveiled for aviation industry’, South China Morning Post, 8 January. China National Aerospace Administration (2005), ‘Zhang Yunchuan inspected the development of Chang’e satellite’, 25 March, accessed 5 October, 2008 at www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/n620682/n639462/54349.html. Pollpeter, Kevin (2007), ‘The stars of China’s space program: the rise of a “space gang”?’, China Brief, 7(17) (19 September), 2–6. Zhao Huanxin (2005), ‘Lunar exploration center launched’, China Daily, 23 August.
Zhang, Ruimin (ᓴ⨲ᬣb. 1949) CEO of Haier Group and a prominent Chinese entrepreneur, Zhang Ruimin is known for his role in building Haier into the country’s largest electronic appliance maker. Zhang Ruimin was born in Laizhou, Shandong Province; both his parents were workers in a Qingdao clothing factory. From 1962 to 1968, Zhang attended the No. 1 Qingdao Middle School for his middle and high school education, and then worked for
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the Qingdao Construction Hardware Factory for 12 years. In 1976 he became a member of the Chinese Communist Party. After a short stint as deputy manager of the Qingdao Home Appliances Company from 1981 to 1984, Zhang was named director of the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory on 26 December 1984, the fourth person appointed by the Chinese bureaucrats to run the small, ailing, and collectively-owned factory, which had debts of 1.47 million yuan ($182 759). Under his leadership and unique management philosophy, the company has since grown to become what is now the Haier Group, China’s leading home appliance brand, and one of the world’s largest home appliance makers, with a distribution presence in over 100 countries. Zhang began the turnaround of the company in 1985 with an order to destroy 76 defective refrigerators. ‘The real problem was that workers had no faith in the company and didn’t care. Quality didn’t even enter into anybody’s mind,’ recalled Zhang. After a customer complained, he lined up all the defective models on the factory floor, and told those responsible to smash them. ‘The message got through that there is no A, B, C, and D quality,’ he noted, ‘There is only acceptable and unacceptable’ (BusinessWeek, 1999). Zhang was famed for wielding a sledgehammer himself, and the tool is now preserved for its symbolism in Haier’s museum. His remarkable act of destruction impressed upon all his employees that poor quality would not be acceptable under the new management. One of his first steps was partnering with Liebherr, a German appliance maker that became a key source of technology. It was also the inspiration for Haier’s name, a Chinese approximation of the German original. To instill a sense of pride and improve productivity, Zhang reinforced his personal message with an aggressive Western-style quality control program, linking key employees’ pay to sales of their products and banning workplace drinking. His management philosophy is a blend of international management principles and Chinese wisdom, with innovation and excellence at its core. To enhance brand awareness and market growth, Zhang put forward his ‘brand strategy,’ established a market-chain management system, and directed his company towards a path of rapid development. In a period of 20 years, Haier has grown to become the no.1 Chinese household appliance giant with global sales of over RMB100 billion ($12 billion), 240 subsidiary companies, 110 design centers, plants and trading companies, and over 50 000 employees throughout the world. In 2004, the Haier trademark was valued at more than 60 billion yuan, the highest in China. In the following year, Haier was ranked among the top 100 of the World’s 500 Most Influential Brands by the World Brand Lab, and first among China’s Top 10 Global Brands by the Financial Times. Haier’s experience has since been introduced in 16 case studies on corporate culture, business mergers, and financial management by various educational institutions including Harvard University, and Zhang in 1998 became the first Chinese business leader ever to lecture at Harvard. In addition, he was honored with an Entrepreneur Award by Asia Weekly in 1997, as Businessman of the Year by CCTV in 2001, received a Global Business Leader Award in 2002, and was ranked first of the 25 Most Powerful Business Leaders Inside China by Fortune in 2005. Competing globally in the tough home appliances market, Zhang’s philosophy is ‘Always Cautious, Always Meticulous,’ and he believes Haier should accept talented people from around the world to attain its ambitious goal. As one of China’s most politically influential businessmen, Zhang in 2002 became an alternate member of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Receiving an MBA
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from the Chinese University of Science and Technology, Zhang is the current secretary of the Party Committee, chairman of the board, and CEO of Haier Group. He is also the vice president of both the Chinese Enterprise Management Association and the Chinese Home Appliance Association. Wenxian Zhang Sources BusinessWeek (1999), ‘Stars of Asia: 50 Asian leaders at the forefront of change’, 14 June, accessed 23 September 2008 at www.businessweek.com/1999/99_24/b3633071.htm. China Daily (2006), ‘BIZCHINA: Zhang Ruimin’, 14 March. Xinhua.net.com (2003), ‘China-view people: Zhang Ruimin’, accessed at http://news.xinhuanet.com/ english/2003-05/02/content_855995.htm.
Zhang, Simin (ᓴᗱ⇥ b. 1962) As the chairman and CEO of Shenzhen Neptunus Group Holding Co., Zhang Simin ranked ninth on Forbes’ list of the 50 richest people in China in 2006, with a net worth of about US$203 million. Zhang Simin was born in Changchun, Jilin Province, which is a major transportation hub in China, with rail, road, and air systems in place to connect this region to the rest of China and Asia. Growing up, he first went to Harbin Industrial University in Heilongjiang Province, and then continued his education and earned his doctorate from Nankai University, Tianjin. After graduation he began working at the China International Trust & Investment Corporation (CITIC), a state-owned corporation responsible for overseeing the government’s international and domestic investments. In the late 1980s he was transferred to Shenzhen, an eye-opening experience that made him think differently about his career choices. In 1989 Zhang left CITIC to set up his own business, Neptunus Bioengineering, in Shenzhen near Hong Kong, producing a marine organic health product made from oysters, which – together with many other products – was sold on the retail market and through the company’s own stores. In 2006 Neptunus Group Holding Co. employed about 2750 people, and the company produced approximately 400 different products, including chemical pharmaceuticals, biological pharmaceuticals, traditional Chinese medicines, and healthcare products. Neptunus operates mainly in the domestic market, whose expansion has contributed to the company’s success. During the year ending 31 December 2006, approximately 80 percent of the company’s total revenue was from Eastern China. Neptunus controls six wholly-owned subsidiaries, three partially-owned subsidiaries and five pharmaceutical manufacturing bases. The company is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. Neptunus came to the world’s attention in June 2004 when Goldman Sachs decided to invest US$40 million into this Chinese pharmaceutical giant. Neptunus is the most widely recognized pharmaceutical brand in China, and through the proposed acquisitions of companies such as AVT Plasma and further expansion, the company under Zhang’s leadership is on track to make further impacts within the Chinese pharmaceutical industry and on international publiclytraded companies. Zhang is called the ‘captain of the pharmaceutical industry in China.’ Although he has
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accumulated a remarkable personal fortune in a relatively short time, Zhang is also known as one of the most generous philanthropists in the areas of education and healthcare throughout China, and ranked fourteenth in the 2004 China Philanthropist List. Zhang has demonstrated the strength to persevere throughout his endeavors; he has also maintained the strict ethical standards which a national figure should uphold. As a true entrepreneur, he answers the call of the Chinese Central Government for the development of Chinese-born businesses, and thus exemplifies the model Chinese businessman for students and many others to strive for. Tim Poplin and Marc Fetscherin Sources biotechnews.com (2005), ‘AVT Plasma calls in liquidator after China about-face’, 7 June, accessed at www. biotechnews.com.au/index.php/id;1077821894. China Daily (2005), ‘College graduates answer “Go West” call’, 17 June, accessed at www.chinadaily.com.cn/ en/doc/2003-06/17/content_239357.htm. Forbes (2006), ‘The 400 Richest Chinese: #174 Zhang Simin’, 2 September, accessed at www.forbes.com/ lists/2006/74/biz_06china_Zhang-Simin_JIXT.html. google.com (2008), ‘Company profile’, accessed at http://finance.google.com/finance?q=SH E:000078. Hurun.net (2005), ‘China philanthropists list’, accessed at www.hurun.net/detailen11,people12.aspx. knows.jongo.com (2006), ‘Zhang Simin’, accessed at http://knows. jongo.com/res/article/3795. Marquis Who’s Who (2008), ‘Zhang Simin’, accessed at http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/executable/Search. aspx?db=ENetadvantage. Standard and Poors (2008), ‘International company data’, accessed at www.netadvantage.standardandpoors. com/NASApp/NetAdvantage/index.do.
Zhang, Weiying (ᓴ㓈䖢b. 1959) Executive dean of the Guanghua School of Management, director of the Institute of Business Research, and professor of economics, all at Peking University, Zhang Weiying is best known for his contribution as an academic economist to both the government sector and business community based on his innovative research on enterprise theory. Born in Wubao County, Shaanxi Province, Zhang received his bachelors degree in economics in 1982 and a masters degree in 1984 from Northwestern University at Xi’an. He then embarked on his academic career as a research fellow at the Economic System Reform institute of China under the State Commission of Restructuring Economic System. During his tenure at the Institute, he was heavily involved in economic reform policymaking. In September 1990, he went to England, where he stayed for four years to complete his higher education. He earned his MPhil in 1992 and DPhil in 1994, both in economics, from Oxford University. His doctoral dissertation was completed under the supervision of James Mirrlees (1996 Nobel Laureate) and Donald Hay. In August 1994, he returned to China and began working for Peking University, where he currently teaches courses on ‘Game and society’, ‘Theory of the firm’, ‘Managerial economics’, and ‘Incentive and corporate governance’. Zhang is well known as the Chinese economist who first proposed the ‘dual-track price system reform’ in 1984. He is also known for his contributions to macro-control policy debates, ownership reform debates, and entrepreneurship studies. When he first returned from Oxford, Zhang co-founded the China Center for Economic Research at Peking
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University in 1994, and worked with the center first as an associate professor and then as a professor until August 1997. He relocated to Guanghua School of Management in September 1997. Not only has he played a significant role in transforming business education in China, Zhang was also the chief architect of the Peking University faculty system reform in 2003. Being one of the most referenced contemporary Chinese economists, Zhang’s research focuses on industrial organization, corporate governance, information economics, and Chinese economic reform. He is widely recognized as an authority on the theory of the firm and ownership reform in China. This is reflected in his impressive record of publications, which include ten books and numerous academic articles to date. Most of his books are written in Chinese, the most representative of which include EntrepreneurialContractual Theory of the Firm (1995), Game and Information Economics (1996), Information, Trust and Law (2003), The Logic of the University (2004, 2006), Ownership, Incentive and Corporate Governance (2005), Core Competence and Growth of the Firm (2006), and Price, Market and Entrepreneurship (2006). His academic papers have appeared in prestigious international journals in economics, such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and the Journal of Comparative Economics, as well as in top Chinese journals including the Economic Research Journal and the Journal of Reform. As his publication record indicates, Zhang is also notable for his work on the theory of ‘capital-hiring-labor’, management selection, and the relationship between ownership and reputation. His works have had a considerable impact on the ongoing enterprise reform policy formulation and the development of economics in China. In 2000, Zhang was awarded the ‘National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars’ by the Natural Science Foundation of China. Two years later, in 2002, he was selected as ‘The Man of the Year in Chinese Economy’ by China Central Television (CCTV). Howard Chiang Sources ceibs.com (2001), ‘Professor Zhang Weiying’, accessed at www.ceibs.edu/forum/2001/zhang_weiying_cv.html. Guanghua School of Management (n.d.), ‘Zhang Weiying: Professor and Dean’, faculty and research, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, accessed at www.gsm.pku.edu.cn/en/faculty. asp?tid=15.
Zhang, Yin (Cheung, Yan ᓴ㤉b. 1958) Chairperson of China’s Nine Dragons Paper, Zhang Yin is regarded by many as China’s wealthiest individual, and the wealthiest self-made woman in the world (surpassing Oprah Winfrey of the United States and J.K. Rowling of the United Kingdom). Meanwhile, Nine Dragons is currently on target to be China’s number one producer of packaging paper, and the company’s current client list includes various multinational companies such as Sony, Coca-Cola, and Nike. Zhang’s fortune had grown to US$3.4 billion in 2006, and she is considered a pioneer among female leaders, breaking gender barriers in communist China and leading a very successful business from the start-up phase to immense growth. Zhang was the oldest of eight siblings and was born in Guangdong Province. Her
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father was a military officer who was jailed for many years for practicing capitalism during China’s Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s, Zhang relocated to Shenzhen, accepted a job as a finance associate with a paper-products company, and developed a keen interest in the industry. Additionally, she realized the enormous potential of the recycling sector. Based in Hong Kong, with only US$4000 in savings, she started Nine Dragons, a company that buys scrap paper from the United States and recycles it for use in China. Her goal was to grow Nine Dragons into a major Chinese corporation, and to attain global brand equity. In building the company from the initial start-up phase, Zhang has endured through numerous financial difficulties, unethical practices from unstable business partners, and acts of intimidation by local organized mafia groups. She overcame this by moving to the United States to build her empire, establishing herself as a tycoon in the waste paper and paper recycling industry. To date, she has retained nearly 75 percent of an equity stake in the company that she founded. The shares of Nine Dragons’ have nearly tripled in value since they were introduced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Zhang’s husband, Ming Chung Liu, currently helps run the company as a senior executive. The success of the company has springboarded Zhang to the number one ranking in the Hurun Report of the richest Chinese. One of only 35 women in the 500-person report, before the first announcement of her standing in 2003, Zhang kept a low profile, and it surprised many when her net worth was publicized within the Chinese business world. It is reported that Zhang attempted to communicate with the group that releases the report, requesting that her name not be included on the list. When she earned the number one ranking she surpassed Huang Guangyu, the retail mogul of Gome Electrical Supplies. What is perhaps most noteworthy is that she has succeeded as an entrepreneur in an economic and political system that is heavily skewed toward male dominance, and features a business system in which several male-dominated networks control the flow of commerce within the country. Zhang lives in Los Angeles, CA, USA, and is a member of a political advisory body in China. Michael A. Moodian Sources BBC News (2006), ‘Woman tops China’s new rich list’, 11 October, accessed 16 February 2008 at http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6039296.stm. China Daily (2006), ‘Woman tops list of China’s richest’, 11 October, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.chi nadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/11/content_705535.htm. Flannery, R. (2006), ‘Dragon Lady’, 13 November, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.forbes.com. Terra Daily (2007), ‘Cheung Yan: dragon queen of waste paper’, 23 September, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.terradaily.com/reports/Cheung_Yan_Dragon_queen_of_waste_paper_999.html. Watts, Jonathan (2006), ‘Worth $3.4 billion, Ms. Cheung is Richest in China’, 12 October, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/12/china.jonathanwatts.
Zhang, Yue (ᓴ䎗 b. 1960) Zhang Yue is the president and chief executive officer of the Broad Air Conditioning Limited Company, a private enterprise in China specializing in absorptive central
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air-conditioning products powered by heat energy and using lithium bromide as the cold intermediary. Zhang was born in a cadre family in Changsha, Hunan Province. He was very fond of painting, and demonstrated artistic talents when growing up. Majoring in arts, Zhang studied in Chenzhou Normal Junior College in Hunan Province during 1978–80. After graduation, he worked for several years as an art teacher in a middle school. In October 1984, he made a bold move by resigning and starting his entrepreneurial endeavor. He began with trading, which was very common among Chinese entrepreneurs at that time. Then he stepped into advertising, interior decoration, and construction. In 1988 Zhang Yue, along with his younger brother Zhang Jian, who had just graduated from the Harbin University of Technology, developed a straight-burning absorptive airconditioning system. Based on this technology, the two brothers formally established the Broad Air Conditioning Ltd Company in 1992. By 1996, Broad’s technology began to take a lead in sales. In 2003, Broad started to produce natural gas air-conditioning machines for domestic use, and moved the company headquarters from Hunan Province to Beijing, while keeping a production base of 320 000 square meters in Changsha. Under Zhang’s leadership, Broad has become the world’s largest manufacturer of technically advanced absorptive air-conditioning equipment. All Broad’s technologies are developed independently, with intellectual property rights and more than 70 patents. The company has branch offices in over 20 main cities in China, and in New York and Paris. Its products have passed security and technology authentication in many jurisdictions: CCMS in China, ASME, ETL, and UL in the USA, and CE in Europe, and have sold to over 30 countries. They have substantial market shares of the air-conditioner industry in China, the USA, Germany, Spain, and France. Focused on high quality and low prices, Broad has contributed to the improvement of the image of Chinese products in developed markets. The company has established its own international brand, and is making efforts to improve the country’s energy structure and consumption in light of the potential threat of a worldwide energy crisis. In terms of his business strategies, Zhang remains proud of the fact that Broad has no loans, and has resisted the urge to enter the stock market or participate in any joint capital project. In 1999 he was the only representative from Chinese private enterprises to participate in the Fortune Global Forum. In 2002 Zhang was named among the top ten private entrepreneurs in China. Because of his enthusiasm for continuous innovation within the company, the Broad Group has been ranked as one of the most respected companies in China for four consecutive years. A tenacious and brave person, Zhang believes the ‘farm principle,’ that is, no pain no gain, and more pay more harvest. A flying enthusiast, in 1997 Zhang received the first Chinese helicopter license issued to an individual, and became the owner of the first Chinese enterprise airplane. Sun, Jianmin and Yang, Depin Sources Lu Jong (n.d.), ‘䰚⚃, ‘ᷛᴚ: 䋶ᆠҎ⫳ᓴ䎗’ [‘Pacesetter: the life of Zhang Yue’], accessed 5 October 2008 at http://lianzai.china.com/books/html/379/1639/14556.html. Huang, Haichuan (2001), ‘䖰ᇏᡒ⇥ӕᷛᴚ: 䆓䖰ぎ䇗ᘏ㺕ᓴ䎗’ [‘Searching for the marker of private enterprises: an interview with Broad Air Conditioning CEO Zhang Yue’], Economic Observer, 22 April 2004, accessed 5 October 2008 at www.ceo.icxo.com. Sina Finance ᮄ⌾䋶㒣 (2003), ‘䖰ぎ䇗᳝䰤݀ৌ佪ᐁᠻ㸠ᅬᓴ䎗ㅔҟ’ [‘Broad Air Conditioning CEO Zhang Yue’], 15 October, accessed at http://finance.sina.com.cn.
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Zhao, Xinxian (䍉ᮄ ܜb. 1941) Zhao Xinxian was chairman and president of the Sanjiu Enterprise Group (Triple-Nine), which was founded on Zhao’s patented product, ‘999 Weitai.’ As a large state-owned enterprise, during its peak years Sanjiu had combined total assets of RMB18.6 billion and comprised some 100 companies. However due to unsustainable expansion strategies, the group collapsed a few years later and Zhao was arrested for alleged economic crimes. Born into a worker’s family in Yingkou, Liaoning Province in 1941, Zhao dreamed of becoming a sailor in his childhood years. However, nearsightedness kept him out of the Chinese navy. After earning his bachelors degree in pharmacology from the Shenyang Pharmaceutical Institute, he joined the Qiqihar Medical College of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1964. A few years later Zhao went to work for the Nanfang Hospital, an affiliate of the PLA’s First Military Medical University located in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. From there Zhao worked his way up from pharmacist to director of the hospital’s Pharmaceutical Bureau. In 1985, with a loan of RMB5 million yuan, he and six colleagues founded Nanfang Pharmaceutical in Shenzhen’s suburb. China’s first automated production line for traditional medicine, the factory was to commercialize Zhao’s herbal extract for treating gastric disorders. By 1987 Nanfang Pharmaceutical began to produce and market its ’999 Weitai,’ which became an instant hit as an effective treatment for chronic gastric disorders and sales reached RMB11 million. A year later, with an annual production of 1.8 billion and tax revenue of RMB400 million, Nanfang was ranked number 82 among the 500 largest industrial enterprises in the country, and was the best known, and most profitable, Chinese traditional medicine pharmaceutical company. Consequently Zhao became a celebrity entrepreneur, and received many awards, including those of Outstanding Army Entrepreneur and National Model Worker. Three years later, Zhao co-founded the Sanjiu Enterprise Group with Sanjiu Medical and Pharmaceutical Co. and by 1995, it was ranked among the top 12 of over 20 000 Chinese corporations. At the Fortune Global Forum in 1999, Zhao boasted his ambition to make Sanjiu ‘Asia’s largest pharmaceutical enterprise’ in ten years, and in the ranks of the ‘world’s top 500 enterprises’ in 15 years. Under Zhao, marketing strategies and management mechanisms were key to the rapid growth of the group. Believing that ‘marketing is the primary lifeline of an enterprise’, Zhao established sales networks in many large cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. He was the first Chinese to use taxi billboards and celebrity endorsement in advertising. By early 2000, Sanjiu’s sales and marketing team had risen to over 3000 college-educated people. Due to this intensive effort, Sanjiu’s product captured 58 percent of the Chinese market share in stomach medicines in just one year; and in three years, the company had developed a national network to further secure market shares. Encouraged by early success, Sanjiu undertook a massive expansion drive in the mid1990s, diversifying into eight lines of business including pharmaceutical, agricultural products, tourism, and real estate developments. Between 1996 and 2001, the conglomerate acquired some 140 companies, becoming the largest pharmaceutical enterprise in China. However, the group’s debt ratio increased drastically from 19 percent to 80 percent by 1998. It is widely believed that Zhao’s expansion strategy of non-relevant
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enterprises and the lack of integration after acquisitions were among the major reasons that lead to Sanjiu’s eventual collapse. In April 2000, Sanjiu Pharmaceutical was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, raising 1.67 billion yuan on the first day. Shortly after, Zhao also founded Sanjiu Shenzhen Finance, Sanjiu Biochemical, and Sanjiu Development, and invested heavily in the internet. He established arguably China’s biggest medicine and health website, 999 Health Web, which by 2003 had expanded to include 13 public service and 29 enterprise websites. However, 999 Health Web was never clearly defined, changing from a health portal to an education page, then to an e-commerce site, while substantial capital was wasted with each transformation. In August 2001, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a warning against Sanjiu Group for using more than 2.5 billion yuan or 96 percent of the company’s net assets, which directly endangered its asset security. In light of the public criticism, Zhao reduced the scale of expansion and went back to his roots, Chinese herbal medicine. He made two strategic plans, the ‘MacDonald Plan’ and the ‘Wal-Mart Strategy’: the former was to build a global chain of 1000 Chinese medicine clinics in five years; the latter was to establish a retail chain of 10 000 pharmacies. However both plans withered on the vine. By the end of 2002, Sanjiu’s net profit was only 22.71 million yuan, the asset debt ratio was 92 percent with debts of 19.1 billion yuan, and the asset return ratio was only 0.1 percent. The dire situation was soon exposed by the media and the group ran into financial crisis. Zhao was forced to resign from his positions as general manager and party secretary of the conglomerate. In May 2005, the group’s shares of Sanjiu Biochemical and Sanjiu Development were sold, symbolizing the collapse of Sanjiu Enterprise. While some considered Zhao as a self-disciplined figure and a role model for his employees, others reported that he liked to boast about his success and achievements. However when public prosecutors uncovered significant number of questionable transactions, Zhao was arrested for economic crime in 2005. After serving 20 months in jail, Zhao was released on 20 September 2007. Dongmei Cao Sources Cheung, Tai Ming (2001), China’s Entrepreneurial Army, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 77–8, 91–2. Jiu, Xuan (2000), ‘Zhao Xinxian: the leader of the Triple-Nine Group’, China Today, 49 (1) (January). Ou, Lu (2000), ‘Triple-Nine paves the way for state-owned enterprises’, China Today, 49 (1) (January). Wu, Xiaobo [ਈᰧ⊶] (2007), 䋹ሔII, [Great Collapse] ᵁᎲ: ⌭∳Ҏ⇥ߎ⠜⼒, Hangzhou: Zhejiang People’s Publisher, pp. 197–222.
Zhao, Ziyang (䍉㋿䰇 1919–2005) Zhao Ziyang was one of the most willing of the major Chinese leaders to couple political reform with economic reform. He is most famous for demonstrating sympathy for student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and during his time as general secretary Zhao moved the nation toward political liberalization. He proposed limiting the role of the Communist Party in the political life of the nation, particularly in the courts and in artistic expression. Combined with rising inflation, the significant rise in free discussion was partly responsible for the explosion of protest in 1989 that led to Zhao’s political demise.
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Zhao was born to a landlord family and joined the Communist Youth League (an outreach group of the Party) in 1932. He was involved in many of the dramatic events of the next 30 years and rose to party secretary in Guangdong Province in the 1960s. Zhao was purged during the Cultural Revolution, but his career was revived by Zhou Enlai in the mid-1970s and he was sent to the remote Sichuan Province. Charged with promoting economic reforms to help overcome the disastrous economic effects of the Cultural Revolution, he distinguished himself by expanding private plots and market opportunities for peasants, and dissolving the communal farms. The result was a rapid growth in agricultural production. Industrial reforms initiated by Zhao involved expanding market access and flexibility, resulting in even more rapid growth than in agriculture. These successes led to his position as prime minister from 1980 to 1987 and general secretary from 1987 to 1989. Zhao played a major role in developing the economic reforms of the 1980s, which meant working to create an economic space for freer markets and a correspondingly diminishing role for the planned economy. These changes were primarily incremental, based on a broad political consensus within the leadership of the Party. This included decentralizing economic responsibility to local and provincial governments, limited privatization of state-owned enterprises, and mitigating the effects of global market forces on China. Zhao’s previous successes in reforming agriculture were extended to the entire nation and he helped promote and later expand the creation of special economic zones to attract foreign direct investment. The relationship between markets and planning was complex, with efforts made to retain important features of central planning even as price controls were lifted for more products. Though not without considerable difficulties, these arrangements contributed to a relatively stable economic transformation in China. Zhao is most famous for his role in the events relating to Tiananmen Square. During the days culminating in the decision to use force against the demonstrators, Zhao appeared in the square to plead with the students to disband even as he made clear his anguish over the coming fate of the democracy movement. Zhao was removed from all his positions in the Party and lived out the remainder of his life in near house arrest. Thomas D. Lairson Sources Nathan, Andrew and Perry Link (eds) (2001), The Tiananmen Papers, New York: Public Affairs. Naughton, Barry (2007), The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Shirk, Susan (1994), How China Opened its Door, Washington: Brookings.
Zheng, Shengtao (䚥㚰⍯ b. 1952) Within a decade, Zheng Shengtao, chairman of the board and CEO of Shenli Group, has grown his business from a small family-owned workshop worth only RMB3000 to a regional conglomerate with integrated manufacturing and foreign trade, the value of which has reached over several hundred million RMB. Born to a poor family of ten, Zheng began to shoulder the household burden at age 16. He went to the countryside, hauled a wooden wheelbarrow and rushed to sell goods in local markets, enduring hardship of all sorts. In the 1960s and 1970s, he practiced
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weightlifting. While suffering from hunger, he amazingly broke a record in Wenzhou City, which became a highlight of his life. Zheng graduated from Zhejiang University, where he also earned his masters degree. In 1981, Zheng became vice president of a state-owned electric machine factory on the verge of collapse, and managed to successfully turn the business around in a short time. In the following year, he launched his own business by renting several houses and equipment from a factory facing bankruptcy. With those assets, he started to manufacture punching and shearing machines and square chests. Then he invested the profit, RMB3000, from the small machinery operation to lease additional equipment and expand his business. In 1984, shortly after he founded the Wenzhou Lucheng Printing Machine Factory, Zheng discovered a potential market while attending some trade fairs. He decided to change his business focus by producing splitting machines. At that time the market was dominated by expensive imports. Zheng and his staff worked day and night and finally made key breakthroughs in research and development. Soon, experts and clients acknowledged that the quality of his products was the equal of imported products. At only one fifth of the cost of the imported equivalents, the sale of Shenli splitting machines rose dramatically as a result. However, Zheng did not stop after his first success. He continued to develop other high-tech products, such as intaglio security-printing machines that went to the global market and brought his company great revenue. In 1994, he founded Wenzhou Shenli Corporation Ltd, and six years later the company was reorganized into the China Shenli Group. After consulting many renowned experts and scholars both home and abroad, Zheng formulated his new corporate strategy as ‘maintaining the core business and developing two wings.’ Maintaining the core business means continuing to strengthen printing machine manufacturing, which now has 148 different manufacturing lines for whole-set machinery products; developing two wings signifies expanding into the real estate market and developing high-tech and environmentally-friendly products. Currently Shenli Group has more than 23 branches in China with total assets of over RMB1 billion. More importantly, Shenli Group has grown to become a symbol of hightech and environmental industries in China. In 2004, Shenli Group joined forces with eight other corporations to form the Sinorich Consortium, the first real financial group created from individual businesses in China. In addition Zheng is a member of the Standing Committee of China Business Association and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Huang, Lujin Sources China Shenli Group, ‘Ё⼲䲚ಶ’, accessed 26 September, 2008 at www.shenli.com/. Who’s Who of Chinese Origin Worldwides [Ϫ⬠ढҎৡҎᔩ] (n.d.), ‘䚥㚰⍯: Ё“⼲”, ϰᮍⱘ⼲䆱’ [‘Zheng Shengtao: China’s “Magic Power” and the myth of the Orient’], accessed 26 September 2008 at www. whoswhochinese.com/wsw07/zhengshengtao.htm. Zhejiang Businessmen (2005), ‘䚥㚰⍯’, ⌭ଚ [‘Zheng Shengtao’], 3 June, accessed 26 September 2008 at http:// biz.zjol.com.cn/05biz/system/2005/06/03/006126813.shtml. Zhejiang TV (2003), ‘Ё⼲䲚ಶ㨷џ䭓䚥㚰⍯’ [‘Zheng Shengtao: China Shenli Group president’], ⌭∳⬉ 㾚ৄ䋶ᆠҎ⫳, 7 July, http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2003-07/07/content_957291.htm.
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Zheng, Yonggang (䚥∌߮ b. 1958) Chairman of Shanshan Investment Holdings, Zheng Yonggang has guided the fashion industry and thus the perceptions of the national economy of China as the nation strives to reposition itself beyond a low-cost manufacturer of unbranded garments as a global force in design and fashion. At the apex of his career, Zheng has applied innovation and vision to the highly competitive and increasingly global apparel industry, making a name for himself and for China. Prior to joining industry, Zheng graduated with a masters degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology. As a young manager, he demonstrated a strong leadership style and created tremendous growth momentum after restructuring an almost bankrupt state-owned clothing factory into the successful Firs Group, Ltd. In the early 1990s Firs Group was best known as a producer of Western-style men’s suits. Throughout the decade, under Zheng’s leadership, the company initiated cooperative agreements with US, French, Japanese, and Italian companies to develop their current offering of 18 brands. The Firs Group plans to have 30 brands by 2010. At the turn of the century, Zheng faced another difficult managerial decision, one that if handled correctly could turn the Chinese-centric business into a global competitor. The question facing Zheng was whether to move the headquarters of his garment manufacturing company from his hometown of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, to Shanghai, where the market might be unfamiliar but more amenable to expanding his business. If the company remained in Ningbo, they could continue to take advantage of an established good working relationship with the local government, a key success factor for many growing Chinese enterprises. After much consideration, Zheng relocated to Shanghai. In an interview with the Chinese press, he recalled the difficult choice, noting how the decision represented ‘. . . a battle between an enterprise and the traditional localism’ (China Daily, n.d.) Reflecting back, he celebrated the decision and acknowledged the resulting financial success. The newly expanded and diversified Shanshan Group reported total assets volume growth from 1.8 billion yuan (US$217 million) to over 5 billion yuan (US$604.6 million) within four years of the decision (2004) and growth continues to the present day. Perhaps more importantly, the company has not only secured its position in China’s apparel industry, but has also reaped the rewards of its expansion into other sectors as well. For example, Shanshan Group is the largest shareholder of Shanghai-listed China-Kinwa High Technology Co. Ltd, which controls almost 17 percent of 9you.com. Never forgetting his local ties, Zheng pursued a goal to open a manufacturing operation in his hometown of Ningbo to produce metal materials used in high-tech electronic products. Accolades celebrating Zheng’s success include ‘China Management Master’ from the Academic Committee of the Development Research Center of the State Council and recognition as one of China’s ‘National Extraordinary Entrepreneurs’ in 1999. In 2006 Zheng Yonggang, then Chairman of Shanshan Group Co. Ltd resigned his title to participate in the management of its subsidiaries as a financial investor and to play an essential role in the key decision-making for the conglomerate. This did not stop the magnate from being listed in the 2007 Forbes ranking of ‘The 400 Richest Chinese.’ Ranked at number 219, Zheng’s estimated net worth was $370 million. More recently, he has given invited presentations at the Fortune Global Forum, the APEC Forum, and
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the World Economic Forum. In 2007 he spoke at the Singapore Fashion Week conference on his passion for brands and Chinese fashion. ‘By cooperating and partnering with foreign brands,’ says Zheng, ‘China gains capital and experience that will serve as a base from which to launch competitive, global fashion brands from China’ (Lin, 2005). Mary Conway Dato-on Sources China Daily (n.d.), ‘Garment sector requires brands to win’, accessed 26 February 2008 at www.zjol.com.cn/gb/ node2/node138665/node139012/node139014/userobject15ai4105990.html. Forbes (2007), ‘The richest 400 Chinese’, 1 November, accessed 20 February 2008 at www.forbes.com. Liang Yu (2008), ‘Yangtze delta offers an attractive lure for entrepreneurs’, China Daily, 26 March, p. 5, accessed 26 February 2008 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-03/26/content_318091.htm. Lin Shujuan (2005), ‘Apparel revival’, China Daily, 3 November, accessed 27 February 2008 at http://www. chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/04/content_491105.htm. SinoCast China Business Daily News (2007), ‘Shanshan group chairman resigned’, 21 June, p. 1.
Zhou, Bohua (਼ԃढb. 1948) An elected member of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Zhou Bohua became the director of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce in October 2006, following a two-year term as governor of Hunan Province. Born in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, Zhou joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1970. For many years he worked at the Zhuzhou Metal Plant and the Zhuzhou Welding Materials Factory. In 1981, he became the deputy director of the Zhuzhou municipal economic commission and deputy secretary of the party’s economic committee. After studying for three years at the Central Party School where he acquired a masters degree, Zhou became the executive vice mayor of Zhuzhou municipality in 1986, a position he held until 1990, when he was named the mayor and deputy secretary of the party’s municipal committee. Later Zhou was promoted to the position of deputy governor of Hunan Province, and in 2003 he became the acting governor. Zhou is known for his strength in microeconomic management, his progressive management style and ability to handle complicated problems. As Hunan governor, Zhou encouraged the development of private business. By the second year of his term in 2005, non-state business contributed RMB316.7 billion, or 48.7 percent of Hunan’s overall GDP. As director of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, Zhou is working to improve supervision standards for product quality and food safety. He has pushed for tougher measures against unlicensed food vendors and the upgrading of quality standards for thousands of food and consumer products. Under Zhou, in an effort to promote public health and safeguard the international reputation of Chinese products, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce at the end of 2007 made it mandatory for all grocery stores, convenience stores, and roadside stalls to keep records, allowing inspectors to trace the origin of food products. Huang, Lujin
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Sources China Vitae (n.d.), ‘Zhou Bohua’, accessed 27 September 2008 at www.chinavitae.com/biography/ Zhou_Bohua. The State Administration of Industry and Commerce (n.d.), ‘Biography of Zhou Bohua’, accessed at http:// gsyj.saic.gov.cn/wcm/WCMData/pub/saic/english/default.htm. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Biography of Zhou Bohua’, accessed 27 September 2008 at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wikiZhou_Bohua.
Zhou, Dahu (਼㰢b. 1952) President of Zhejiang Tiger Lighter Ltd and the Wenzhou Lighter Producers’ Association in China’s Zhejiang Province, Zhou’s legendary journey from homelessness to a multimillionaire mirrors the socio-economic evolution of China during the last five decades. Born into a privileged ‘veteran revolutionist’ family in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province in 1952, Zhou enjoyed a comfortable childhood. However, the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s banished his parents and sent him to the countryside. Zhou subsequently became homeless and wandered across several nearby provinces until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. His family were cleared of the charges against them and he returned to Wenzhou to work as a postal worker. During the 1980s, many state-owned businesses started economic development followed by privatization. In 1991, Zhou’s wife was laid off by her soda factory with a severance payment of RMB5000. It was this RMB5000 that turned Zhou’s life around. He invested it in a lighter business, hired a few helpers, turned his home into an assembly line and himself became the salesman. A quick profit convinced him to expand the business into a factory with over 100 employees. However, by 1993, fierce competition in the lighter business in Wenzhou had depleted Zhou’s profit margin, and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. Things again turned around later that year, when Zhou’s insistence on high quality paid off in the form of a large order from a foreign business. As more contracts were signed, the Zhejiang Tiger Lighter company grew into a large business, producing over 15 million lighters a year, with revenue exceeding RMB200 million (US$28 million). Today, ‘Tiger’ lighters are trademarked and sold in over 80 countries around the world. Zhou’s prominence in the Wenzhou lighter industry, however, was not derived from his business success. It was his charisma that earned him the role of spokesperson for the industry. On 14 May 2002, the European Federation of Lighter Manufacturers (EFLM) filed an anti-dumping suit against Chinese-made lighters imported to the European Union. A loss would have been a huge blow to the lighter manufacturers of Wenzhou. Zhou led the Wenzhou Lighter Producer’s Association fight-back and eventually won the case in 2003. This was a landmark victory, as it was the first time that Chinese business had won an anti-dumping case filed by European firms since China joined the World Trade Organization. Ying Zhang Sources cye.com (2006), ‘਼㰢˖Ң⌕⌾∝ࠄғϛᆠ㖕’ [‘Zhou Dahu: from homeless man to billionaire, Chinese Entrepreneurs’], 28 June, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.cye.com.cn/chuangyegushi/chuangfugushi/ 20060628035040.htm.
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Xinhua News (2003), ‘Lighter producers win EU anti-dumping suit’, 14 September, accessed 26 November 2007 at http://www1.china.org.cn/english/2003/Sep/75039.htm.
Zhou, Houjian (਼८ عb. 1957) Zhou Houjian is the chairman of Hisense Group, a state-owned enterprise specializing in the manufacture of televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators, and telecommunication equipment in China. Born in Qingdao, Shandong Province, Zhou is the youngest and only son in a family with seven older sisters. Having achieved the highest scores in science of all high school graduates in Qingdao, Zhou entered the electronic department of Shandong University in 1978. After graduation, he was assigned to the Qingdao Television Factory where he worked as a technician, gradually being promoted a supervisor, assistant factory director, and at age 35, factory director. Zhou dismissed 20 workers who stole raw materials from the company, consolidated supervisory positions, trained employees with potential, and increased compensation for R&D staff. Through those actions Zhou built up his leadership prestige and set a good foundation for future growth. Based on the Qingdao Television factory, in 1994 Zhou established Hisense Group, which is now one of the largest home appliance makers in China, with a distribution presence in over 100 countries. Zhou emphasized R&D and innovation, which he regarded as central to any corporate success. In 1996, the Chinese color television industry experienced a bitter price war. Zhou declared that Hisense would not take part in such chaos. Instead, Zhou adopted the strategy of ‘high technology, high quality, high service, and global brand’ to remain competitive. When the number of Chinese television makers declined sharply from over 50 down to about ten, Hisense not only survived, but also achieved remarkable growth. By 1998 its production had already reached RMB10 billion, and with sales revenue of over RMB8.23 billion, it ranked seventh among the top 100 electronic product companies in China. With such noticeable success, Zhou captured the national Labor Day Medal of that year, the highest reward for people working in the Chinese industries. In 2000 Zhou was named chairman of Hisense. With executive matters transferred to Ms Yu Shumin, Zhou focused on strategic and developmental issues such as capital operation, structural adjustment, and enterprise ownership reform. Two years later, with help from Samsung Group, Zhou carried out TPM (total productivity maintenance) in Hisense while it was still enjoying sound growth. In June 2005 in Beijing, Hisense unveiled its Hiview chip, a digital video processing chip based on leading international standards, which marked the birth of Chinese chips and ended the use of imported chips in millions of color televisions made in China. Under Zhou, Hisense has since focused on technical innovation and structural optimization, established its ’3C’ dominant industries (consumer electronic products, communications, and computers), which includes such industries as televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators, software development, and network equipment. It has set up trading companies or offices in the USA, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia, the Middle East, and Hong Kong, and built a local production base in South Africa. By 2006, Hisense’s sales revenue reached RMB43.5 billion. With more than 20 subsidiary companies and a worldwide sales network, Hisense has grown to be one of the most influential electronic groups in China.
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Zhou’s dream is to make his company the Chinese Sony. To recognize his contribution to the electronic industry, Zhou has been honored with many rewards, such as the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award, National Model Worker, CCTV Business Figure of the Year in 2000, and the National Quality Management Fellow in 2002. Sun, Jianmin and Mu, Guibin Sources Chi, Yuzhou (2003), Hisense’s Experience, Sanya: Hainan Press. Chi, Yuzhou (2003a), The Saga of Hisense, Sanya: Hainan Press. Liu, Ren (2002), ‘Zhou Houjian lead Hisense 20 years’, Knowledge Economy, 11.
Zhou, Xiaochuan (਼ᇣᎱb. 1948) Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and a member of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Zhou Xiaochuan has been an influential Chinese banker since 1998 when he joined the China Construction Bank as its chair. Zhou Xiaochuan is the son of Zhou Jiannan and Yang Weizhe. He developed his interests in economics and engineering during his undergraduate days at the Beijing Chemical Engineering Institute. After graduating in 1975, he worked for three years as a technician at the No. 4 Research Office of the Beijing Institute of Automation. To pursue his interest in economics and engineering, he conducted graduate studies from 1978 to 1981, and then continued his research in engineering at the No. 1 Research Office from 1981 to 1985. Zhou completed his formal education by earning his doctorate in economic system engineering from Tsinghua University in 1985. Zhou put his degrees in economic system engineering to immediate use in 1986, when he became an assistant to the minister at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. After joining the CCP in 1986, he became a member and eventually the director of the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy. In the same year Zhou joined the China Economic Restructuring Research Institute, serving as deputy director of the Chinese Economic Reform Research. His work on economic system reform led him to roles in the State Council Economic Policy Group (1986–87), as assistant minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (1986–89), and as a member of the National Committee on Economic Reform (1986–91). Using his considerable experience in engineering economic systems and years of study in the field, Zhou became a respected scholar, professor, writer, and administrator. His publications include over ten books and over 100 journal articles on economic reform, including Rebuilding the Relationship between the Enterprise and the Bank, which received the Sun Zhifang Economics Thesis Prize in 1994; Marching Toward an Open Economic System, which received a Zijie International Trade Publications Award in 1994; and Social Security: Reform and Policy Recommendations, another Sun Zhifang Economics Thesis Prize-winner in 1997. His academic roles include professorship at the School of Management of Tsinghua University, Graduate School of PBOC, Business School of University of Science and Technology of China, and honorary president of the China Business School, University of Science and Technology. Zhou’s banking career began in earnest in 1991, when he joined the People’s Bank of
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China and became a member of the CCP Party Committee. During this period he oversaw the creation of asset-management companies charged with working out the banking system’s bad debt. Zhou also played a role in managing China’s vast foreign reserves. In the following year he became a student in the Central Party School, a typical and necessary step to prepare officials for higher promotions in the Chinese political system. By the mid-1990s Zhou had worked his way up to the position of director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), a role he undertook for three years. Respect for his work became evident in 1996 when he was promoted to vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, and in 1997 he became a member of the Chinese Monetary Policy Committee, 1st Council, a position he held through late 2008. With a successful record at the People’s Bank of China he joined the China Construction Bank as its governor in 1998. Two years later Zhou was called back to the People’s Bank of China as a member of the Monetary Policy Department and chairman of the State Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). In this capacity Zhou was nicknamed ‘Bapi’ (਼ᠦⲂ) – literally Zhou ‘the flayer’. He targeted corruption in listed companies, angering many small shareholders who blamed the fall of their shares on the crack-down. In July 2001, Zhou declared his intention to reduce state ownership in the stock market. The stock market quickly went into freefall, forcing him to abandon his plans that October. As a noted Chinese economist, reformist, and bureaucrat, Zhou is considered one of the most influential figures in the Chinese economy. His comments on Chinese currency and the stock market will likely continue to have significant impacts on the Chinese economy and on financial markets around the world. James P. Gilbert Sources BusinessWeek (2005), ‘Zhou Xiaochuan: a “princeling” central banker’, 12 December, accessed 1 August 2007 at http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50/b3963096.htm. China Vitae (2007), ‘Zhou Xiaochuan’, accessed 2 April 2008 at http://chinavitae.com/biography/Zhou_ Xiaochuan/career. International Who’s Who (2004), ‘Zhou Xiaochuan’, 67th edn, p. 1878. Li, Cheng (2007), ‘Anticipating Chinese leadership changes at the 17th Party Congress’, China Brief, 21 March, accessed 1 August at http://jamestown.org/images/pdf/cb_007_006.pdf. Wikipedia (2008), ‘Zhou Xiaochuan’, accessed 16 February at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Xiaochuan.
Zhou, Zhengyi (Chau, Ching-ngai ਼ℷ↙ b. 1961) Former head of the Nongkai Group, a major financial services company, in 2002 Zhou Zhengyi was listed as the 11th richest businessman in China. He was arrested in May 2003 and served a three-year jail sentence for stock market fraud. He is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for bribery, embezzlement, and tax fraud. Zhou was born in the Yanpu District of Shanghai into a family that included six other siblings. He began working at the age of 17, before completing his high school education. His first entrepreneurial venture took place in 1978, when he opened a store that served wonton. His restaurateur endeavors continued in 1989 when he opened Shanghai’s Meitong restaurant and an additional karaoke bar. In 1994, he opened the famed Ah Mao Boiled Food. Relying on his keen business acumen, he built his wealth throughout
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the 1990s by capitalizing on numerous ventures. He was considered an eccentric member of an emerging group of wealthy entrepreneurs (many of whom eventually faced charges) who made their fortunes during a prosperous decade. In 2000, Forbes listed Zhou as the ninety-fourth richest person in China. On the list, his main company was the Nongkai Group and he was considered a major investor in both the Hong Kong and mainland stock exchanges. A mere two years later, he had spring-boarded to number 11. He was the self-proclaimed richest man in Shanghai, and also owned a company named Shanghai Land Holdings. When he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for fraud, many critics considered the punishment to be light, and allegations arose that Zhou assisted officials with other investigative matters in return for a lesser sentence. The focus of his arrest was an investigation into loans from the Bank of China worth 2 billion yuan. Specifically, Zhou was accused of illegally acquiring both bank loans and state land. During the investigation against him, tabloid newspapers in Hong Kong were full of news of his impending jail sentence. The press also reported the persistent speculation that Zhou was cooperating with investigations in to other individuals in an attempt to gain a lighter sentence. It was also implied that Zhou’s sentence may have been affected by political affiliations with previous leaders and policymakers within China. In January 2006, Zhou’s wife, Sandy Mo Yuk-ping, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for allegedly trying to defraud a group of investors. In late 2007, Zhou was charged with bribery, embezzlement, and tax fraud. It was anticipated that, if convicted, he could receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. In November 2007, the Shanghai People’s Intermediate Court sentenced him to 16 years in prison, a term that he is currently serving. Reportedly, Zhou’s falsification of numerous documents resulted in an illegal gain of billions of dollars. Between prison terms, Zhou raised chickens and ran his popular restaurants in Shanghai. Michael A. Moodian Sources BBC News (2004), ‘Chinese magnate given jail term’, 1 June, accessed 16 February 2008 at http://news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/business/3767815.stm. economist.com (2003), ‘Scandal in Shanghai’, 14 August, accessed 16 February 2008 at www.economist.com. www.forbes.com (2001), ‘China’s 100 richest business people’, 12 November. Liu, Alfred (2007), ‘Black Friday Looms for Chau in Court’, 28 November, accessed 16 February 2008 at www. thestandard.com/hk.
Zhu, Mengyi (Chu, Mengyi ᴅᄳձ b. 1959) Board chairman of Hopson Development Holdings Limited, Zhu Mengyi has played a critical role in developing Hopson into a nationally famous property brand. Zhu was born in Fengshun, Guangdong Province. Before entering the real estate business, he was a government bureaucrat. After Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Southern China put Chinese economic reform back on track, Zhu launched the Hopson Development real estate business in 1992, and by 1998 it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A major property conglomerate, Hopson Development focuses on a wide range of real
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estate developments, including residential, commercial, and hotel properties. In little over a decade, Zhu has turned Hopson into a national real estate brand, and the company is involved in more than 30 projects in major cities, including Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. In addition, the company is a major player in the tourism and vacation businesses and in property management. Ranked by Forbes magazine as the second richest Chinese in 2005 and number four in 2006, Zhu’s personal fortune jumped from US$313 million in 2003 to US$1.9 billion in 2006. Well regarded within the property industry, the company has won many awards. In 2005, Hopson was fifth of the top ten real estate companies in China, a Blue Chip Property Enterprise in China, and among the Top Ten National Brands. In 2004 and 2005, the company also won business awards for its contribution in building a harmonious society in China. In addition, Hopson was described as a model of successful development in the real estate sector in 2002, and was named among the most competitive real estate enterprises for three consecutive years starting from 2001, and was ranked first in 2003. With its massive scale of development and the greatest number of property owners, Hopson has become one of the largest property developers with the best performance in mainland China over recent years. It is Zhu’s personal belief that business growth cannot be achieved without social development, and with this in mind he has emphasized the company’s commitment to its social responsibilities. Consequently, he gave $140 million to education and health causes in 2006, and was ranked number two in 2007 among the most generous Chinese philanthropists by the Hurun Report. Working with various government agencies and non-profit organizations, Hopson has contributed to education, culture, environmental protection, and public health, among others. Besides strong financial support, Hopson also encourages its staff actively to participate in volunteer community activities. Zhu advocates ‘benefiting others, fulfilling oneself and following the right path’ as Hopson’s guiding principles. Hopson is committed to bringing ‘world-class living’ to Chinese residents, combining the advantages of low construction costs in mainland China and the high quality living arrangements of Hong Kong. Facing the mega-trends of globalization and fast urbanization in China, Zhu is confident that his company will make an active contribution to the future of Chinese cities by developing Hopson into a ‘reputable and familiar brand known for its international and professional characteristics.’ Dongmei Cao Sources BBC News (2005), ‘Chinese billionaire on the rise’, 4 November, accessed 20 November 2007 at http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4406922.stm. China Daily (2003), ‘Forbes: the top 15 China rich list members’, 7 November, accessed 20 November 2007 at www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/07/content_279628.htm. hopson.com (2007), ‘Hopson Development: the impeccable realization of quality living’, accessed 20 November at www.hopson.com.cn/en. hurun.net (2007), ‘Hurun report 2007 China philanthropy list’, accessed 20 November at www.hurun.net/ listen61.aspx.
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Zhu, Rongji (ᴅ䬩 b. 1928) Born in Hunan Province, Zhu served as Chinese premier from 1998 to 2003, and from 1987 to 1991 he was head of the Communist Party and mayor of Shanghai. As premier, Zhu had the primary responsibility for managing economic reform. Zhu joined the Chinese Communist Party at a propitious moment, October 1949, just as Mao Zedong proclaimed victory in the civil war. His university training was as an electrical engineer, and his career reflects many of the critical events during Mao’s era in control of the nation, in particular the struggle between ideologues and pragmatists. Zhu was condemned as a ‘rightist’ during the Great Leap period and was purged from the Party. Restored to a position in the national economic planning bureaucracy, he was again purged during the Cultural Revolution. Later Zhu’s technical competence led to his return to various important positions in managing enterprises and academic institutes before being tapped for a series of governmental positions during the early years of economic reform. In 1987, he was appointed mayor of Shanghai, where he served until 1991. In Shanghai he played an important role in the promotion of the special economic zone in Pudong. In 1991, he moved to Beijing for a series of increasingly responsible posts in the government and later in the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Perhaps Zhu’s most important roles during this time were as vice premier and as governor of the central bank. In 1998, Zhu was elevated to the premiership where he served until 2003. Between 1993 and his retirement from public life in 2003, Zhu was probably the most important person in managing China’s economic reform. He moved this process in important new directions, primarily through policies designed to restructure China’s economy toward a greater role for markets, increased opening, and the creation of a more competitive Chinese business system. Partly this involved eliminating the dualtrack system of market prices and state-established prices for many goods. Equally important was redesigning the fiscal system for the central government and developing structures and policies designed to establish macroeconomic stability. New taxes were imposed equally on all firms, state-owned and private. The playing field was leveled further by a restructuring of the banking system, which established hard budget targets for state banks and reduced access to funding by state-owned enterprises. The state sector began to decline in absolute terms, as a result both of the privatization of many of these enterprises and from exposure to greater foreign competition. These factors led to a dramatic decline in the number of workers employed in state-owned enterprises, perhaps by 30–40 million between 1994–2004. However, the fact that economic growth remained at near double-digit levels meant that many, if by no means all, of these workers were able to shift to private sector jobs. Along with the establishment of a Chinese stock market composed primarily of these newly private firms, incentives to operate more efficiently were expanded dramatically. One of the most important consequences of this set of reforms was the significant decline in inflation rates. However, at the time of publication the banking system remains mired in bad debts and too many state-owned enterprises continue to exist and lose money and distort the allocation of resources in the economy. Perhaps Zhu’s greatest achievement as premier was China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Zhu was instrumental in these long and difficult negotiations, especially those with the United States. He received considerable criticism for
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concessions made to the USA to obtain its vote to enter the WTO. Nonetheless, WTO accession was essential to defining much of the economic reform under Zhu and has led to much greater economic opening to the world. China has become the most important destination for foreign direct investment, and efficient Chinese firms have emerged as players in global markets. This has resulted from the dramatic reductions in tariffs and greater opportunities for foreign firms in China. The WTO agreements have resulted in considerable growth of foreign operations in China in the services, finance, and trade sectors. One of the main consequences of Zhu’s reforms has been that many groups in China now experience very different levels of gains from economic growth. Other, more negative externalities of rapid growth also became evident. As a consequence, during his last years as premier, Zhu focused more attention on the problems of income inequality, especially rural poverty, corruption, environmental degradation, and local government failures and the unrest this foments. At the end of his time, Zhu’s record of significant reform and rapid growth was marred by important questions about the sustainability of the system. Thomas D. Lairson Sources Brahm, Laurence J. (2003), Zhu Rongji and the Transformation of Modern China, Singapore: Wiley. Naughton, Barry (2007), The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Zhu, Yanfeng (ノᓊ亢 b. 1961) As president of China First Automobile Works (FAW) Group Corporation until the end of 2007, Zhu oversaw the development of China’s second-largest vehicle maker, next only to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC). In 2001 FAW was selected as one of China’s ten most influential enterprises. With 136 000 employees in 2007, the corporation is ranked 385th on the Fortune Global 500 list, moving up from 470th in the previous year. Zhu Yanfeng was born in Zhejiang Province into a family with a long tradition in the automotive industry. He received a bachelors degree in engineering and is a senior engineer. Zhu joined the CCP in 1982, and after graduating from the Automation Department of Zhejiang University in 1983, he was assigned to work as a technician at Changchun First Automobile, the same company in which his father worked. In 1992 he was appointed deputy head of the Research Section of the Measurement Division, and in 1994, director of the FAW’s Foreign Economic Division. In 1997 he began serving as vice president of China FAW Group Corporation and was appointed president of FAW Limousine Co. Ltd. In 1998, he took up office as the executive vice president of the group. Zhu was appointed president of FAW Group on 28 February 1999. He served concurrently as chairman of the board of Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co. Ltd (a post held since 2002, when Tianjin Automobile was merged into the FAW Group), vice president of the All-China Youth Federation (post held since 2000), and chairman of the Presidium of the Fourth Council of China Industrial Economics Federation (CFIE). First Automobile was founded on 15 July 1953 with assistance from the former Soviet
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Union. Headquartered in Changchun City, Jilin Province, it is regarded as the cradle of China’s auto industry. Chairman Mao Zedong participated in its foundation stone-laying ceremony and inscribed its name. In 1956, the Jiefang (Liberation) truck, China’s first indigenous heavyweight vehicle, rolled off the assembly line. The company’s latest Jiefang J6 series, which took six years to develop, meets top internationally recognized standards. In addition to the Jiefang trucks, FAW produces the Hongqi (Red Flag) sedan. The first Dongfeng model automobile, the predecessor to the Hongqi luxury sedan, was produced in May 1958, and the first Hongqi model 72 on 1 August of the same year. The Hongqi was long used by Communist Party officials. In July 1991 Changchun First Automobile was reorganized as China First Automobile Works (FAW) Group Corporation. FAW cooperates with Volkswagen, Audi, Mazda, Toyota, and Hyundai. At the end of 2005, the first hybrid car entered the Chinese market. Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor Co. Ltd, a joint venture between FAW Group and Toyota Motor Corporation, began production of the Prius model exclusively for China in Changchun in December that year. It is Toyota’s first hybrid car not produced in Japan. In 2006 at the second Hamburg Summit, China Meets Europe, Zhu Yanfeng outlined the strategy of China’s automobile producers, who aim to conquer the low-price segment of the market, while cooperating with foreign producers or importers in the higher price classes. The FAW’s new motto is: ‘Our Dream: Let Every Chinese Family Own a Car.’ It announced in summer 2007 that it would spend 13 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in the next eight years to develop its own vehicle brands. Under Zhu, FAW aimed to lift its production to two million units by 2010, half of which would be self-branded models, worth a total of 200 billion yuan (US$25 billion). To recognize his contribution to the Chinese auto industry, Zhu was named a national model worker in 2000, and the CCTV business figure of the year in 2002. In December 2007, Zhu was elected vice governor of Jilin Province where FAW is located. He is an alternate member of both the 16th and 17th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Jen-Kai Liu Sources Roberts, Dexter (2000), ‘Tuning up a Chinese clunker, FAW, China’s giant carmaker, is trying to rev up’, BusinessWeek Online, 17 January, accessed 5 October 2007 at www.businessweek.com/2000/00_03/b3664147. htm. Woo, John (2002), ‘Zhu takes the driver’s seat’, Shenzhen Daily, 24 June, accessed 5 October 2007 at http://pdf. sznews.com/gb/content/2002-06/24/content_1035923.htm.
Zong, Qinghou (ᅫᑚৢ b. 1945) The founder, chairman and CEO of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Zong Qinghou has turned a failing school-owned factory into a $362 million conglomerate and the leading beverage company in China. Although lacking formal education, Zong has the spirit of an entrepreneur. As a young man, Zong spent 17 years on Zhejiang state farms under Mao’s drive to bring intellectuals and urban youth to the countryside. In 1987, he was hired to run the failing business. With two elderly workers and a US$16 900 debt, he launched Wahaha
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children’s nutritional drinks, which became an instant hit among hard-to-please ‘little emperors.’ What had started as a business to distribute fizzy soft drinks, ice and stationery, and produce milk drinks for distribution has under Zong’s autocratic style and workaholic ethic grown into the largest beverage company in the country. Today, Wahaha (the company is named after a word in Chinese that sounds like an infant laughing) leads the Chinese beverage industry in scale, profits, and equity ratio. The generous tax breaks the company enjoyed as a school-owned firm helped, of course, but over the years, the company under the much-admired leadership of Zong has launched more than 20 beverage lines. A joint venture Wahaha entered into with Groupe Danone in 1996 involved the inward investment of US$70 million in five Wahaha companies in exchange for 51 percent Groupe Danone ownership in each of the companies. The benchmark agreement gave the joint venture exclusive rights of production, distribution, and sales of products under the Wahaha brand. This investment has helped Wahaha not only to upgrade its equipment but also to expand production. Collaboration had grown into 39 joint venture entities by 2007. However in the same year, the relationship soured when Danone attempted to gain control of the company. Zong, who had been left to manage the business without any intervention from Danone, resigned as chairman of the joint ventures on 5 June 2007. Zong has become one of the most influential entrepreneurs in China and is regarded as a hero in the country – a David that is willing to take on Goliath. In 2004, his company introduced Future Cola after a year of development, as a local option to international brands Coca Cola and Pepsi. Even though Future Cola is in third place in the market, its sales are half of Pepsi’s and one-fourth of the market leader, Coca Cola. Future Cola has also been shipped to the USA. Zong says he does not intend to advertise in the USA or actively promote Future Cola, leaving that to its distributor, tiny Manpolo International Trading Co., a small import/export firm based in New York’s Chinatown. The cola is targeted to appeal to the patriotism of the overseas Chinese populations and the initial focus is on New York City and Los Angeles, two cities with some of the largest Chinese ethnic groups. Though Zong’s official title is general manager and chairman of the board, everyone knows he is the only boss who matters. He tastes every new product and works 16-hour days. It is his dedication to detail and his work ethic, combined with bold and aggressive marketing techniques, that has steered Wahaha to be not only one of China’s largest privately held businesses, with plants in 28 provinces but also to be present in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Zong believes that educated people are not fit to be entrepreneurs as their knowledge makes them cautious in taking chances. He himself has only a junior high school education and admires the likes of Bill Gates, a Harvard dropout and Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong tycoon who had little formal schooling. In 2006 Forbes magazine ranked Zong as China’s twenty-third richest man, with an estimated personal wealth of US$1 billion. Sangeeta Singh Sources Asia Week (1999), ‘A toast to darling ventures: Zong Qinghou, founder, Wahaha Foods’, 24 September, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/0924/voc50people/content/zong. qinghou.html.
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Chao, Julie (2004), ‘China’s homegrown cola sees Future in “fashionable” drinks’, Taipei Times, 20 June, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2004/06/20/2003175861. Forbes.com (2006), ’400 Richest Chinese, No. 23 Zong Qinghou’, 2 November, accessed 26 November 2007 at www.forbes.com/lists/2006/74/biz_06china_Zong-Qinghou_NW67.html. Humad, Aditya (2005), ‘Wahaha Corporation’, MarketBuster, 19 July, accessed 26 November 2007 at www. marketbusting.com/casestudies/Wahaha.pdf.
