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?

Worry about the Next Generation

Who's going to take over Dalian Wanda if Wang Jianlin's son won't?

Economists must find it interesting to watch how businesses develop in China, as private companies only began running again three decades ago.

As we have seen, some family-owned businesses have flourished spectacularly, the best example of which is Dalian Wanda run by Wang Jianlin, who recently purchased World Triathlon Corporation, which runs Ironman Triathlon Races for $650 million.

However, Wang's son, Sicong, has already said he does not want to take over the cinema and property conglomerate.

Wang Sicong's dog has two Apple watches. Does yours?

Maybe he's too busy playing with his dog, whom he recently purchased two Apple watches for each front paw.

However Wang Sicong is not alone in refusing to join the family firm. A study has found that only one in five of the mainland's second generation is keen to take over, which may spell trouble in the next decade.

The majority of second generation rich or fuerdai (富二代) would like to start their own business, while the rest would rather take traditional career paths.

The research was conducted by Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, and led by its associate dean, Professor Jin Li. The school is also launching a program in conjunction with the University of Oxford and Harvard Business School, aimed at executives of family businesses in China.

"Chinese family businesses are at a historic turning point," says Eric Thun, an associate professor in Chinese business studies at Oxford. "At the same time as confronting the challenges in the domestic market that are common to all Chinese firms, many are making leadership transitions from the first to second generation."

The study covered two years, based on interviews with more than 500 family-owned Chinese firms. Only 20.5 percent of those surveyed expressed an interest in following in their parents' footsteps, while nearly 70 percent wanted to start their own business; the rest wanted a traditional job like a doctor or lawyer.

Wang Sicong has set up his own gaming company

This latest finding spells trouble for China's economy because family-run businesses play a major role, with more than 85 percent of the country's private companies are family-owned. By July last year 747 of these firms were listed on the mainland stock exchange.

It's also an interesting contrast to family-run businesses in Europe and North America that have gone through several generations; but if not many second generation kids in China don't want to take over the family business, what's going to happen?

As expected, the profiles of the fuerdai reveal more than half of them have studied abroad, two-thirds of which majored in business management -- knowledge that would serve them well in guiding the family firm forward.

However, the study found many appeared to lack self confidence in dealing with businessmen from their parents' generation as well as senior staff within their family firm's management.

Another important issue is the kids feel too much pressure in living up to their parents' legacies, which could threaten business stability, the report said. This is the opposite thinking of the parents, who are focused on the best interests of the family and have high expectations for their child -- only child in most cases.

About two in every five entrepreneurs hoped their children would take over the business, while 55 percent said they would allow professionals to manage the company, but still have the family has main shareholders.

It sounds like there is no real nurturing of children to grow into the family business. In many multi-generational family businesses, young children are always encouraged to help out on the weekends or summer holidays, not just to have an extra pair of hands, but to see how they like the work.

And with many studying business management, but instead wanting to do something else may indicate the parents were trying to plan their children's career path without the kid having much say in what they wanted to study in university.

But the intimidation the fuerdai feel in taking over the business is palpable -- Chinese parents always seem to have very high expectations, sometimes to the point of being unrealistic. Wang Sicong has had a habit of shooting his mouth off, making outrageous comments that must leave his father red in the face with embarrassment.

So in this case maybe it's a good thing Sicong has decided not to take the reins of the family business...