Fact of the Day: China Needs More Malls

Does China really need more malls like this?

Singapore developer CapitaLand believes China needs more shopping malls so it's planning to build 45 more in the next three to five years to make its total to 100.

"Today China has no more than 2,000 malls," said Liew Mun Leong, president and chief executive of CapitaLand. "How many shopping malls will China need? We did our calculations -- 15,000," Liew said.

"If you look at China's consumption, it is now at 35 percent [of the gross domestic product]. We think it will go up to at least 50 percent."

That's a lot of retail therapy.

He may be right when looking at the National Statistics Bureau numbers that disposable per capita income is growing at 13 percent a year on average. Retail sales were up 18.4 percent last year and analysts believe the rise will continue.

But does China really need 15,000 malls? And with the huge wealth gap, the per capita numbers look good, but in reality the income disparity reveals most of the money is in the hands of the few super rich, while the rest are still just managing financially.

Anyway after a certain point all the malls start to look the same with the same stores... what's so special about that?

Why not support local businesses and try to create homegrown brands... isn't that what the Chinese government want to do -- show the world that China doesn't just manufacture products but designs them too?

Comrades! Time to get out of the mall and get creative!

Giving Sharks Some Reprieve

Shark fins drying on the sidewalk in Western District

A bill was recently introduced in California, Oregon and Washington State to not only ban the sale and possession of shark fin but also to serve it.

Reaction in San Francisco's Chinatown was mixed, with allegations that the ban amounted to "the Chinese Exclusion Act in a bowl" from those who sold shark fin and served it, while the younger generation embraced the bill.

The piece of legislation, which is similar to the one in Hawaii, is meant to stop the practice of shark finning, where fins are hacked off live sharks and then they are thrown back into the ocean to die a slow death.

In Hong Kong, there has been a renewed uproar over the continued sale of shark fin in the last few months, when a British photographer took pictures of thousands of shark fins laid out on the sidewalk to dry in Western district.

However, the government hasn't done or said anything to curtail it. Some companies publicly declare they will not order the thick soup at banquets, but upscale hotels and Chinese restaurants continue to have it on the menu. Hong Kong's Disneyland seems to be the only one saying it doesn't serve shark's fin for banquets, and while the decisive decision hurt business in the beginning, environmentally aware wedding couples are still keen to hold their nuptials there.

It's an uncomfortable balancing act the city is doing as market demands outweigh environmental ones, even if scientists claim as much as 90 percent of the shark species have disappeared as 73 million sharks are killed each year.

The Hong Kong government doesn't seem willing to put its foot down to take a stand on the issue (apparently Hong Kong handles 50 to 80 percent of the world's shark fin trade) so it's going to be up to consumers to make the choice with their wallets.

Personally if the soup was placed in front of me, I wouldn't refuse it. It's more about the flavour of the broth than the actual shark fin, which does prove the culinary skills of the chef.

I would never order it -- mostly because I can't afford it. These days the cheap shark fin soups have tiny strands of shark's fin mixed in with other ingredients. I remember the days of having a bowl of clear chicken broth seasoned with Chinese ham and in it a thick chunk of shark fin.

Those days are long gone and probably never to return.

Wishful Thinking

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) wants to get more young Hong Kong people involved and groom them into "patriotic forces".

The proposal was laid out by CPPCC chairman Jia Qinglin Thursday at the opening of the plenary session.

"We will expand channels of communication with influential figures from all walks of life in Hong Kong and Macau, strengthen contacts with political groups, social groups and representative figures from the two regions, and increase the strength of our work related to young people from the two regions," he said.

Jia added the aim was to constantly develop and expand the patriotic forces in the two cities.

The announcement followed the rise in protests by young people in Hong Kong, especially earlier this week when 25-year-old Steve Wong Chun-kit allegedly assaulted Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen at an event at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Wong was protesting about the government's budget.

Professor Lau Siu-kai, a local delegate to the CPPCC and head of Hong Kong's Central Policy Unit said Beijing was very concerned about the grievances of the post-80s generation.

"It is not only in this report," Lau said. "He [Jia] has told me about this before. In my understanding, the central government pays close attention to Hong Kong's young people, especially post-80s. The government is concerned about their future development, and also their knowledge of China.

"Their anxiety and discontent about the development of the current political system is rising and being expressed through many different channels," continued Lau. "They are questioning the rationality of the current situation and the legitimacy of the current system."

How does Beijing propose to reach out to the young people of Hong Kong and Macau?

Do they really think the post-80s generation in these two cities want to have a dialogue with the Communist Party of China?

To them, China stands for everything they are not.

They read the news about how Chinese citizens are suppressed there and don't get to practice human rights like freedom of speech and protest, and they see the government's mentality that money can solve all its problems which isn't always the case. The environment is one of them.

There is a huge gulf between the establishment and the younger generation, and the CPPCC's hope of bringing these young rebels into the fold is very slim. If one of them did cross over to the dark side, he or she would be considered a traitor or accused of selling out.

These people are not the relatively docile and obedient peers found within the mainland.

For the government, these post-80s know too much to be controlled, which for Beijing is a dangerous thing.

Trying to Preempt Again

With the 兩會 or two sessions starting tomorrow in Beijing, the government is extremely nervous about any kind of "jasmine revolution" happening near Tiananmen Square this weekend.

So much so that it has hauled in foreign journalists for off-the-record talks on how they are not to go to Wangfujing and do any reporting there without any permission beforehand. While some have tried to apply for permission this week, none have been approved to do any reporting this weekend.

Hmmm.

And on top of that Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu insists the rules on foreign journalists reporting in the country has not changed but that the police had the authority to designate which areas were off limits and this could change at any time.

The government seems to have the view that these "jasmine revolutions" are an idea imported into China and that it is those foreign devils -- the foreign journalists -- who are to blame for inciting them.

Right.

We'll have to see what happens this weekend, if people do come out in droves to Wangfujing and other main public areas in other Chinese cities. Maybe there's a big sale on in Wangfujing?

As I said before the protesters need to create a more sophisticated messaging system that will be undetected by the government.

If the Falun Gong did it in 1999, showing up en masse in front of Zhongnanhai without Facebook and Twitter, surely people today can figure out a more covert method...