Awarding "Meaningless" Titles for Money

There are questions why Oxford University is making up titles for donations

Wealthy people donating to institutions is not new, but the latter doing it shamelessly is at another level altogether.

The Guardian reports an academic at Oxford University gave a "meaningless" university qualification to a Chinese businessman who has ties to Beijing in a high profile ceremony last year in Shanghai and raises questions about how easily institutions can be influenced by Chinese money.

Hudson and Chan at the ceremony in Shanghai last May

Alan Hudson who has since retired, was director of programmes in Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Oxford. Previous to that he was director of Social and Political Science at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

Last May, Hudson awarded the title "Belt and Road Academician from Oxford University" to Chan King-wai, who is a businessman based in Hong Kong and is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference, among a string of other titles.

"I looked up the meaning of 'academician' and it is absolutely meaningless, it means anybody involved with the university, of any description. So I said there you go, we can put that on the certificate. In recognition of his contributions to the programme.

Hudson said the title was an incentive for a donation

"The incentive for this was a potential donation to the university or the department, and for a number of programmes," Hudson said. He added that he did not plan the lavish ceremony that was attended by an official from the British consulate. Hudson was surprised it was such a big event.

However, if you're getting money from a rich person, surely you have to pull out the stops?

"I was contacted by the Hong Kong development office [of Oxford University] who wanted to approach Chan King-wai... from the point of view of a substantial donation to the university," Hudson added.

Neither Oxford University nor the Oxford Chinese Studies department responded to The Guardian's requests for comments or if Chan did indeed donate money.

Chan was born in Shantou City in Guangdong province and in 1979 migrated to Hong Kong. He set up King Wai Group in 1982 and it focuses on property and construction in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Bangkok.

Chan made money in construction and property

Like many mainland Chinese, Chan loves having a long list of titles and associations on his name card. They include: chairman of the Hong Kong China Chamber of Commerce; vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce; vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament; and chairman of Bauhinia Valley Innovation and Development Center.

Oh and Chan is also a member of the election committee that chooses the Hong Kong chief executive.

MP Neil O'Brien, who is also a founding member of the China Research Group, which brings together Conservative politicians who are critical of Beijing, said British universities needed to be more careful about fundraising in China.

"Universities need to fundraise but the fear is that if academics are prepared to hand out fake academic qualifications to chase money what worse are they prepared to do? There have been a number of concerning cases of UK universities being easily politically influenced for a bit of cash," O'Brien said.

O'Brien questions the political influence of donations

"I'd welcome a deep look by the Department of Education at where corporate and individual donations are from, and what political impact this is having," he added.

The award for China was also condemned by Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chair of the campaign group Hong Kong Watch.

"This sorry episode is yet another example of the growing influence the Chinese Communist party has in our leading academic institutions, which remains largely uncontested and free from scrutiny," he said.

Now that it has been revealed the title "Belt and Road Academician from Oxford University" is "meaningless", how does Chan feel about it? Would he be too embarrassed to have this "title" on his name card, knowing now it was just conjured up to get money from him? 

Or maybe he thinks no one will notice?

Tiger's Taste for Maotai Takes him Down

Wang Xiaoguang is the latest official to be jailed for 20 years for corruption

While you may think Chinese President Xi Jinping has been busy with Belt and Road, and the Greater Bay Area, don't think he hasn't had time to bag more tigers. One more was recently taken down, the former vice-governor of Guizhou province.

Wang Xiaoguang, who was in power from 2009-2016 was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined a record 174 million yuan (US$26 million) for taking bribes, embezzlement and insider trading.

Wang was known as the "Maotai collector"

The prosecution claimed that Wang had taken advantage of his position to receive 49 million yuan in bribes, made 163 million yuan from insider trading of stocks and embezzled 4.8 million in land sales proceeds in 2000.

What did he do with all that money? Apparently he liked to collect rare orchids and Maotai, a kind of baijiu that is distilled from sorghum.

The court said Wang's sentence was light because the 57-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges.

In a confession, Wang said he was "addicted to orchids" and the National Supervisory Commission or anti-corruption watchdog said he had amassed so much Maotai that he became known as the "Maotai collector" and even obtained liquor licenses for his relatives to help him sell it. His wife reportedly dunked a lot of the prized Maotai down the sink before the authorities came to arrest him.

Another no-no was that Wang had "enthusiasm for reading politically incorrect overseas publications", a veiled reference to books and journals about Chinese political gossip that people would buy on their trips to Hong Kong.

He also had a penchant for collecting rare orchids like these

But sadly those days are over for Wang.

While a number officials were caught for having mistresses or too much sex, Wang was nabbed for too much Maotai and orchids. Guess each to their own...

The Ultimate Eye-Roll

Liang Xiangyi (left) encapsulated how reporters feel about the Two Sessions

For journalists covering the Two Sessions (NPC and CPPCC) in Beijing these two weeks, it's a tedious event to cover. Even though important decisions are being made as to how China will be run, ie Chinese President Xi Jinping can theoretically rule for life now, and how departments are being merged for efficiency, they are mostly bureaucratic measures.

And to ensure everything goes smoothly, the government plants questions printed on pieces of paper that are given to specific state media reporters. They are expected to raise their hands in the hopes of being chosen to ask the question so that the official knows exactly what to say and have license to drone on because he loves listening to his own voice.

So this is what happened the other day -- Zhang Huijun of American Multimedia Television USA asked a question to state assets chief Xiao Yaqing about the Belt and Road initiative and it seemed to go on for a while -- over 40 seconds in fact.

Next to her was China Business News journalist Liang Xiangyi, who couldn't help herself and did a major eye-roll. She forgot all the cameras were trained on not only Zhang but her too.

Liang's eye-roll and exasperated looks encapsulated what all journalists felt covering the Two Sessions in seconds.

"Nicely done! You gave an eye-roll on our behalf!" one commenter said.

"I am clapping for your honesty! Such questions are annoying and do not have any meaning," said another.

Her eye-roll immediately sparked memes, people copying her, or superimposing her on top of Xi giving a speech while she does her eye-roll. 

Memes like this cartoon picture of her cropped up online

Despite being praised by many, Liang was soon swiftly punished -- her accreditation to cover the NPC was revoked.

Not only that, but her personal Weibo page was taken down and search results for her name were censored.

Like that she was wiped out of Chinese cyberspace. Liang will probably have to change careers now that she's a persona non grata in the state media industry.

It's a sad and pathetic the Chinese government has to be so controlling of this event in particular, but that only reveals its deep insecurities and its weakness.

Regardless of what happens to Liang, she will be remembered for a long time, as the one who, with her eye-roll, summed up what it's like to cover the Two Sessions.

Xi President for Life

The Communist Party is changing the rules for Xi Jinping to rule for life

The big news today -- there have been rumblings about it for a while -- the Chinese Communist Party is going to abolish its two-term limit for the presidency to allow Xi Jinping, 64, to effectively rule for life, making it the biggest political change in decades.

Previous leaders typically had two five-year terms, but Xi's ability to consolidate so much power since his ascent in 2012 puts him in the ranks of "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping and the "Great Helmsman" Mao Zedong. 

"Xi Jinping thought" will also be added into the constitution, making any challenge against him a threat to Communist Party rule.

Wang Qishan may replace Li Keqiang as Premier

Originally the two-term limit was meant to prevent the cultivation of cult of personality like what happened with Mao.

But with no heir apparent in sight, or perhaps Xi isn't interested in cultivating one, it seems the authoritarian Xi is keen to continue his grip on power for a while yet. And why not with his signature project Belt and Road still underway, perhaps he wants to see it through.

Sinologists have also been discussing the possibility of Wang Qishan, Xi's right hand man in the anti-corruption campaign, to become his next Premier, replacing Li Keqiang, who has been really quiet for a few years. Maybe he and Xi didn't see eye-to-eye.

With Xi amassing so much power, one really doesn't want to mess with him.

Social media post of Winnie the Pooh making the rounds

As China expert Willy Lam, adjunct professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong and in 2015 wrote a biography about Xi, notes, the Chinese leader needs to be careful with his even greater power.

"Xi Jinping is susceptible to making big mistakes because there are now almost no checks or balances. Essentially, he has become emperor for life."

Meanwhile on social media in China, there's an image of Winnie the Pooh (in a Disney cartoon reference to Xi), hugging a big honey pot.

It says: "Find the thing you love and stick with it."

Makes sense, no?