The Rice Tank

Another PR Problem – Morgan Stanley’s Andy Xie Resigned On an Email Critisizing S’pore?

yuimi — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:52:13 +0000

Would rather hear from Imagethief his view on this. Hope he come back from the exotic holidays soon..

OK. When I read this WSJ report saying the leaked email was supposed to be circulated within a small group (which turned out to be the rolling snow ball) and eventually could result in the sudden resignation of the Morgan Stanley’s Asian econ guy, I felt excuse me? Is this another S’pore PR problem?
As there have been some updates since the event, including bloomburg, it seems to me that there IS a causal relation between the comments Xie made and his subsequent leave.

Though one argument that S’pore PR guys (who actually refused to comment on the thing. ha. sounds very familiar right) will use to argue on the fallacy of logic could be – post hoc, ergo propter hoc. However this won’t do much on its image, as some netizen already posted the excerpts from the above mentioned leaked email. It is here.
His email comprised two parts, seems, one is numbers which are easily can be verified; the other are where the problem rises – some comments are a little more than harsh.

From a legal perspective of view, there is no case in the whole thing.
The guy said something that pissed his firm’s big (very big) client, whom happened to be a economically developed country’s government. Maybe he got pressure from the boss, or was asked to leave the firm to comfort the client. For whatever reason, essentially he resigned on a short statement that the resignation was due to personal reasons.

From the PR stand of point, tri-parte all have problem – Xie as a senior executive/econmist, should be more careful when sending out an email which might be too sensitive for someone’s eye. At least to me, his image as an economist is tarnished a bit because of the non-deliberation. While the investment bank might never drew a line between the things its guys can say and those cannot be said even not intended for public. But the biggest (potential) problem is still with S’pore. You can’t jail someone or ban a magazine because they say something not favorable to you. You let them express what they want. You let them kill themselves (this is not a specific strategy)

There must be really good PR advise on these things, which would love to read later.

I got this feeling that maybe, perhaps Chinese, ethinical Chinese are really bad at PR-related areas?

An offrecord topic- almost all the reports that I read about Andy Xie have mentioned he is a “Shanghai-born” economist.

I am also Shanghai-born, I guess if someday I am caught for carrying a durian on a plain, i would be reported as a Shanghai-born durian smurgler (provided ONLY that I am super famous in the country).

Screw da Press, Let the Doctor Work

yuimi — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:06:31 +0000

6 people dead. 16 severely injured. Due to a traffic accident happened just a couple of hours ago.

Who are they? Chinese tourists

Where did the accident happen? Tainam, Taiwan.

I saw the live news broadcasted by Taiwan’s tvbs (or some other channel) and it got this male journalist who tried to interview the woman who survived the accident and injured.

He asked with a tone that shows not a bit sympathy but keep bothering the poor lady with series of questions. The questions were okay. The timing to ask these questions is wrong. The journalist is annoying me until the doctors appeared on the live news and asked the lady gently how she felt. What you could see from the scene is mess, doctors and nurses are busy caring too many patients.

These doctors in Taitam treated the Chinese patients equilly with care and expertise. Aren’t doctors like angels sometimes? Besides there is a symbolism meaning in it.

At that moment, I realised why the late Chinese writer Ru Xun would go to medical school in the first place…

So just this single moment, I want to shout to the jounalist ‘can’t you shut up and let the doctors work’.

A Successful Case of Branding

yuimi — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:00:27 +0000

I just watched an interview of the hit Chinese lyrics writer Fan Wen Shan and was impressed by what he said about how he started up in the pop music industry as a lyrics writer. He recognized what the market had too much/lacked and he saw what he already had- the perfect match point is that the market is filled with whining lyrics describing feelings, but weak in providing time, place and the detailed background, ie the space for recipiants to imagine. Fan, being a novice to the industry eight years ago, had a very deep understanding and grip of Chinese culture and poetry though.

Poetry is what I am into. I like ancient Chinese poets more accurately. I love Chinese poetry. One of the few priviliages that I am born with as a Chinese, is the ability to read Chinese poetry and understand the beauty of it. Translation can hardly convey that sort of beauty. My little touch on poetry is very personale and I insist poetry is not marketable, which is proof why Fan can be successful in selling his “poetry” in the modern media and why I cannot. (of course essentially I don’t write well enough to be a poet)

Before watching this interview, I just like this guy’s lyrics- of cource with the presentation by the most popular Chinese hip hop star who has sold his albums for million dollars. And in my guess, the lyrics-writer should be a very poet type person. Poet sometimes means unrealistic, and feeling-driven.

“When I first came to this [pop music] industry, I thought I must need to be one that is indispensable, that cannot be replaced any one else. So I need to have my own characteristics…”, said Fan in the interview. He talked in a totally cool way, same cool as a business man. This guy knows how to do business. I would think of him as a successful businessman rather than a writer or an aritist. You think hip hop cannot be mixed well with ancient Chinese culture? well, people buy that.

What Does That Mean Anyway

yuimi — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:39:10 +0000

There are two English words that always confuse me with or without contexts: development and management. What is development? and what does management mean and what does a management consultant do?Managing things or developing things- empty and vague to me in the sense that I can’t generate a mental picture in my mind- for example PR in my mental picture is represented by women’s cosmetics.
Although my blog is not dedicated to linguistics or self-confessions, there are certain terms that I have used but I don’t understand what the hell they mean.Luckily I saw this post written by DiligenceChina and besides the useful informationo provided by the post, it clarified on one of my questions- a management consultant is a business entry consultant. That does make sense to me (my qustions are off-topic and are elementary school type though).From now on I will substitute ”management” with ”business entry” in my mental dictionary.And people really should read that post, not for linguistic purpose of course.

Rumors Come True

yuimi — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:50:00 +0000

Mind-boggling to me that the head of Shanghai government has been removed from his current position. It was not the news itself that shocked me. The thing is weeks ago, when I was in Shanghai, I talked to a property agent and he mentioned Chen was now detained in a suburb district (if not wrong, Chuansha) and was under shuang gui*. I didn’t believe it, because if so, he would be the biggest fish that the party ever caught on corruption.

And rumors, just like what has happened a lot of times, become true.

One more thoughts: the chinese policitics is the ongoing target of criticism, while I sometimes think, actually there is democracy in chinese politics- different interest groups inside the party, although what their conflict is not made transparent. Actually folks have their own name, like there used to be a shanghai group within the party…

* Shuang gui- a political (legal?) term which possibly means a policitian is under investigation or being subpoenaed.

It’s A Non-story

yuimi — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:11:00 +0000

Yesterday on my trip from Guangxi to Guangdong for transit, I had a little glimpse of the local Chinese newspaper.

One minute of self confession before going on with the non-story: I AM an extremist.
There was a time that I doubted myself so much whether I should stay in the legal industry after much efforts being put to improve myself to be more fit in the lawyering scene. Because lawyers are supposed to be calm and objective. Look at them, they are seldom extreme about anything. None of my lawyer friends is easily getting agetated actually. To be in line with the unspoken rule in pratice, I have tried to keep my extreme (crazy/mad/subjective…) ideas from any peers. This results in that I am less extreme now. But, in the breaks, I still got an appetite for kinky stories and things.

Some minutes of the readers (if any) of this post and of myself would never come back.

Continue with my trip. So I saw an interesting article about a UK lecturer teaching in some universties in Shanghai on [subject], who also happens to have been blogging on his private life in great details, has been condemned by a Chinese professor (for phychology if I recall correctly). The condemnation goes in this way: the Chinese guy firstly let the press know all the 'nasty things' that the UK guy did to the Chinese girls. And second stage would be endeavours are to be made to kick the guy out of China.

I couldn't help but think of this as another show, some how I wish I were not able to read Chinese to learn about the ugly thing. It was even too moronic to be propoganda. It won't do anything good unless to the sudden attention on himself. Later I saw some posts on my frequent forum, where some anonymous guests leave comments which are totally out of blue, such as Shanghainese are so submissive to foreigners. I didn't know any interlink between that comment and the newspaper article. I just know some people just don't like Shanghainese so much that anything that is not considered decently done is done by Shanghainese, more specifically, Shanghai girls.

Why I don't read the UK guy's blog frist before holding an negative view towards the Chinese professor? because I can't access it? Nay. I have got the access to the foresaid blog, thanks to the links posted on China Herald.
It is due to the reason that i don't like the appearance of the Sex And Shanghai (SAS) blog so much that it keeps me from reading any further, despite how juicy the contents might be. Too subjective? Yea.
A better reason would be- whatever have been blogged there, has little relation to the allegations that the Chinese professor made. The Chinese professor claimed that the SAS blog and the posts therein have severely darnished the reputation and 'image' of those Chinese girls who have been mentioned in the posts as well as such of all Chinese people. It hurts him that some Chinese girls were played by this UK guy. (might be not the same word as it was based on my memory). How ridiculous.

This sort of news steals people's eyeball majorly. I am interested in how the media gather their denominator. It happends all the time. Remember the Shanghai bar association wrote a memo to the department of justice on how foreign firms have violated Chinese law and take up too much market share? It didn't expressly say in the memo that the foreign law should be kicked out of China pratice, BUT if the authority decides to do what is proposed in the memo, i guess a lot of law firms got to shut down. (based on some post i read before) Do you find the resemblance in the two case?

Another thing is I am not sure whether the UK guy has violated any Chinese law, but he might want to check with a lawyer. Especially I am not sure whether blogger.com has a Chinese operation presence and whether they have obtained all the necessary approvals from the authority (very likely though). And whether the girls that he had sex with are all above 14 and were not against their will. Having sex by way of seduction might be considered as rape under Chinese law. Though I don't think it's likely that one of the girls would come out and report to police. Same unlikely he will be really kicked out of China. But just sometimes the press can get devastating in China. Particularly when the society is stil generally conservative about sex. Without saying the Chinese professor and his supporters might be lobbying.
However, it's very unlikey finally, there will be a win-lose situation. For the UK guy,to avoid any form of unwanted trouble, he should start to talke to someone. But rest assured, it's still not that bad. He can make hay out of these ugly things- he can write a book called Sex and Shanghai, subtitle ''how I fight with the stupid China man”. Press will want it. Big bucks will flood to his pocket.

All in all, my view towards the whole thing is, even though this is just a show presented by some clowns, it signals the on-going hostile (mixed with hospitality) attitute some Chinese have towards foreigners, and vice versa.

Seperate from above, personally I would feel horrible (cringe actually) if the guy I sleep with last night is blogging about the thing and about myself. Further, as a Shanghai girl, thanks to the SAS blog, we have a more and more prominent, if not too notorious reputation now.

The rule is, you dig it, there will be a story and noices along the way. If just leave it there, it's a non-story.

Silicon Hutong- Imagethief- Gizmo’s China Blog

yuimi — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:56:00 +0000

The above-captioned shows my itenerary this morning where I finally found what I've been looking for- the insights on the recent New M&A Rules.

In a nutshell, as Gizmo quoted a Chinese report, the new rules were backed by the protest against the number and pace of Chinese firms being acquired by foreign investors. That's what happened in this year's NPC session.

I am wondering if this kind of top-down rules will ever be reasonable and not funny. To change this and improve the debate level, I can't do anything until I improve myself so much that I become one of the rule-makers.

That's going to be on my list of new year resolution. Aha.

Ok, the foresaid Gizmo post is

here.

The Effect of the New Rules (Ordinance 10)

yuimi — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:28:00 +0000

The above new law was actually out last week, Aug 8. It was not totally out of blue, yet there've been some buzz going on about its unpredictability.

The Reuters report, as well as Wall Street Journal's, in my view, are both a little off the target. They talked a lot about share swaps, as though they were totally novice.

Entrepreneurs and firms are concerned about the real effect of the new rules: whether the supervision will be more costly both in time and money? and whether several rounds of approval will abort a plan at its final stage? Will the new rules increase risks in reality or it's just a another 'policy'?

Waiting for an insider's analysis on this.

Just came across the brief on All Roads Lead To China blog and it gave 10 out of 10 for its overall impact and opined that hte impact will be spreaded to all industries.

Whoa.

Ok, found another one done by Heller Ehrman. I am going to read it. Here.

Proposed Change in Mergers& Acquisition Provisions (1) – Comments

yuimi — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:28:00 +0000

I think the draft new rules show China wants more reins on foreign investment, especially those through swap of shares in the offshore co. and domestic co., whether in a RTO or IPO. The measures are aimed at requiring regulatory fillings, disclosure of the ultimate controller, and imposing a tight timeframe. (see Article 16 and the whole new Chapter 4)

For example, for IPOs, it requires that after a domestic company is taken over (in consideration for shares) by an offshore SPC and consequently being converted to be a FIE, the approval from MOFCOM is only valid for one year. Pratically, the IPO must happen within one year after the business license of FIE is issued. (see Article 42)

Another tighten-up is, if a deal is done through swap of share in the offshore and the domestic company, the FIE is not considered FIE anymore and thus can't enjoy FIE preferential policies, eg. 2 years' tax exemption, unless at least 25% of the shares in the FIE are held by the foreign investors, which must NOT be the same people as the PRC Shareholders. (Article 47)

On the other side, for take-over by using the real money, the new rules don't seem to have much attention on it, except it requires disclosure of ultimate controller of the parties to a deal, if the deal involves IPTs such as both the acquirer and acquiree are controlled by the same people etc.(Article 14)

Shush! We’re Making Laws

yuimi — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:30:00 +0000

It was said among lawyers there'd a proposed change in the law pertaining to mergers and acquisitions which, will possibly affect PRC companies who intended to be listed on oversea stock exchanges and take-over pratices, among other things. The amendments were said to have happened by the end of the month, but turned out to be at least later this year, or even by the end of the year. While I am looking through these amendments (of course, proposed changes), I feel, ok, quite similar to when I was reading the Company Law 2005. A lot more sections. And a lot more detailed provisions. This might be trouble for the law students, professionals to be updated (because the law is always changing!) with the latest position, however, on the other hand, I can see the lawmakers (or more accurately, the drafters of these provisions) are getting better on their job.

The only thing I am not so happy about is, and it's always been a problem in China I guess, that the consultation paper of the bill (so called, because there is NO such thing ever. It;s always a sketchy document circulated among don't know whom) shall be made to public so that various interest groups can get access to what is going on. But this is just a wish. And as we all know, the law making in China is always secretly and quietly done by a small group of people. (then whereelse is not?) It is fine that politians do not want others see the law making, so as the sausages making, because the more interest group get involved, the harder a bill may become the law.

I am going to post the translation to these provisions, in the next few posts.