Beijing Deja Vu

Here we go again... China bidding for another Olympic Games...

Have you heard that Beijing wants to do what no other city has ever done before and become the first metropolis to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games?

The Chinese capital has already put in its bid for 2022 and the only other city competing for the honour is Almaty, Kazakhstan because Oslo, Norway gave up, along with Lviv, Ukraine, and Krakow, Poland.

These other cities withdrew their applications either because their citizens were not interested in hosting the event, or the cost was too much -- particularly after it was revealed Russia spent $51 billion on the Sochi Games, more than the $40 billion China spent in 2008.

Here's the video to evoke the warm fuzzy feelings of the Olympic Games all over again:

It's pretty bizarre watching some of the Summer Olympics venues be turned into winter sport locations. The Water Cube transformed into the curling venue? Are they going to freeze the Olympic-sized swimming pool?

And Wukesong where basketball matches were held would be transformed into an ice hockey rink?

The city doesn't get much snow these days, which is why the downhill skiing portion would be held in Zhangjiakou, 200 kilometres northwest of Beijing.

So it pretty much looks like Beijing is the hands down winner -- but wait -- what about the air?

A few weeks ago the Beijing Marathon took place and city officials were embarrassed as runner had to breathe in the toxic air and several quit part way through the race, unable to breathe.

And now with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit happening in a few days, the Chinese capital is still covered with haze and dangerously high air pollution levels.

Media director of Beijing's bid committee Wang Hui -- who by the way was also the media spokesperson during the Summer Games -- said the city would implement a two-step plan to clean the air with targets for 2017 and 2022.

"Beijing has called upon cooperation in major provinces and districts in northern China and will mobilize all its resources to clean up the air and bring down the air quality index value," Wang said. "We'll make sure by 2022 the air quality in Beijing is the best for athletes to compete."

Why should they only be concerned about athletes? Why not clean up the air for the residents of the city?

The China Face machine is back up and running again, fulfilling this need to present an image to the world and not being concerned about its own citizens.

If China wins again, what will Ai Weiwei do in response?

Fact of the Day: A Stack of 200M Yuan is Really High

Only a small fraction of the bank notes stashed in Wei Pengyuan's flat...

We'd like to interrupt our daily programming to bring you this interesting factoid:

When you stack 200 million yuan ($32.68 million) in single 100-yuan notes on top of each other, it measures 200 metres high, which is 6 metres taller than Times Square in Causeway Bay.

This came up after investigators found a corrupt coal official had stashed 200 million yuan in local and foreign currency in his home.

Wei Pengyuan was deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission's coal department and it looks like he may have received a lot of kickbacks.

He bought several flats with his ill-gotten gains and used one of them to store his cash.

How much 200M yuan stacks up against an average-sized man, and a building

"It marks the largest amount of money in cash we have seized from a corrupt official during a single operation since 1949," said Xu Jinhui, an official from the Supreme People's Procuratorate overseeing the handling of graft cases.

Investigators used 16 cash-counting machines, and four of them broke down. Was that due to the overwhelming amount of cash or because the machines were made in China? Or is that not a relevant question to ask?

In any event, the powerful NDRC is responsible for both policy planning and approval for development projects, these officials are highly susceptible to taking a few bribes here and there...

News reports say Wei dressed plainly and even rode an old bicycle to work to avoid bringing attention to himself.

But why didn't Wei flee the country earlier? Or did he think he would never get caught? Or 200 million yuan wasn't enough?

It also makes us wonder how many others have as much or more than Wei stashed somewhere...

Continuing the Protest

A "tank" created by an artist using water bottles and a tent

Today is Day 36 of the Umbrella Movement and YTSL and another friend and I hung out in Admiralty for a few hours in the afternoon. The weather was perfect and lots of people were there.

A drawing of Lion Rock on a tent complete with banner

Every time we go there's new things springing up especially when it comes to art. This week it's images of Lion Rock that have inspired people these few days and even Totoro carries an umbrella with a silhouette of the mountain where a group of climbers had unfurled a yellow banner that said, "I want true democracy".

At one tent, a woman was handing out the paper version of the banner that was printed by Apple Daily. And at another stand there were mini ones passers-by could take and they even had tape at the back for people to stick on their foreheads to take pictures...

Some faces of the Umbrella Movement

We were very impressed by one artist who used a long roll of white paper and drew quick but realistic portraits of ordinary people willing to pose for him. Entitled "The Faces of Our Umbrella Movement 2014", there are all kinds of people there, young old, men and women. He was recording their presence there and already several people were lining up waiting for him to come back.

YTSL and I noticed there were even more tents than before -- there seemed to be additional ones posted towards the Wan Chai side which made us wonder if there really were more people literally occupying the streets.

There were some tents though that had signs that said the occupant was now back at work and would be back soon. Others really were there for the long term, hanging out in their tents, reading or chatting with friends.

There seems to be a growing number of tents in the area

As we sat at our usual spot on the flyover by the PLA barracks, we saw many people walking to and from Central, some were definitely tourists, others seemed to have a look of wonder -- were they just visiting for the first time?

After all this time?

Think Tanked-Out

A new think tank to help Hong Kong thanks to Tung Chee-hwa

In 2000 then former Legislative Councillor Christine Loh Kung-wai left politics and set up Civic Exchange, a think tank that focuses on public policy with regards to social development, the environment and economic analysis.

Then in April 2013, former Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fong On-sang set up Hong Kong 2020 to monitor constitutional reform progress to achieve universal suffrage to vote for the chief executive by 2017, and all members of the Legislative Council by 2020.

And now earlier this week former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa set up Our Hong Kong Foundation to improve Hong Kong's standing in the Happy Planet Index, conduct research to improve people's lives, and provide facilities for new leisure activities.

Allan Zeman is part of Our Hong Kong Foundation

Tung is particularly concerned about the Umbrella Movement protests and yesterday gathered over 70 directors for a two-hour meeting.

While we know Grandpa Tung has good intentions, can we point out a few of the people attached to this foundation?

They are: former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, former Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, Shun Tak managing director Pansy Ho Chiu-king, former Ocean Park CEO Allan Zeman and former chief justice Ti-Liang Yang.

The only person with a democratic background is Tik Chi-yuen.

Can we just stop here and observe that most of these people are tycoons and are certainly looking out for their own interests and not necessarily concerned about seriously engaging the protesters, most of whom are students.

Irons Sze says there should be more talks with young people

Leung remarked he was concerned about Hong Kong's economy if the protests continue to drag on. "I am worried it will also seriously affect the rule of law, which is a core value for the city's role as a financial centre," he said.

This is coming from the senior official who bought a luxury car shortly before announcing a proposal to sharply increase taxes on new cars...

And then Zeman mustered up this comment: "The most important thing is that we find the way that we can have harmony with the students and everyone can get back to the way Hong Kong was."

Zeman used to read trends and people well, but now he's completely lost touch with this statement. After these protests, Hong Kong will never be the same again. People have been greatly affected by the movement that was sparked by the police unleashing tear gas 87 times and resulted in the continued occupation of Causeway Bay, Admiralty and Mongkok. They have seen people's passion in their sacrifices in the hopes for universal suffrage.

How can he even begin to assume Hong Kong can be back to what it was before? That's what people don't want! They are trying to change things for the better.

So Tung's cozy club of some 70 people sounds very similar to those who visited Beijing over a month ago -- the uber rich who live in their own bubble. Irons Sze Wing-wai says it best. As Chinese Manufacturers' Association president, he suggested perhaps the think tank could work on improving communication with young people...

We wonder what that will entail...