Picture of the Day: Golfer Tiffany Chan

Hong Kong's Tiffany Chan will make her debut on the LPGA Tour

We are so thrilled to hear the news that Tiffany Chan Tsz-ching is the first Hong Kong golfer to qualify for the LPGA tour.

On Sunday she finished second to Nasa Hataoka of Japan at the qualifying tournament at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida.

"I don't know if I'm still dreaming," the 24-year-old Chan said on Monday.

"It's actually my mum's birthday today. She's not here, but I'm going to give this to her for her present. My parents don't really know golf, but they just encourage me and I can't wait to talk to them. Being the first one on the LPGA is really big for Hong Kong golf," she said.

"I know there are a lot of junior golfers that want to go to college and turn pro and I think me being the first will help," she added. "I definitely want to inspire the youth in Hong Kong and this was a major step."

Chan represented Hong Kong in the 2016 Rio Olympics and finished only one shot behind Hataoka at 11-under par. The top 20 players earned their cards on the LPGA Tour.

The Hongkonger seems to handle pressure well and takes everything in stride.

We're just excited that Hong Kong now has a name to watch in golf, other than Korean and Japanese female golfers. Best of luck to Tiffany! Go get 'em!

E-Prix Racing Whiz Kid

This 13-year-old was on top of the leder board for the simulator race

The Formula-E race was on this weekend in Hong Kong, but it hasn't garnered much attention since its arrogant debut last year. At the time massive barriers were put up in every possible free vantage point so that onlookers didn't even have a chance to get a peek at all.

Oh yes and tickets prices weren't cheap either. This year, apparently thousands of tickets were given away but not many people showed up, though organizers claim 27,000 out of the maximum 30,000 capacity did attend.

Nevertheless, there was more interest in the E-Village where a 13-year-old Hong Kong kid was beating real drivers in a race simulator.

Wong has hopes of becoming a professional driver

Kobe Wong was leaving his competitors, DS Virgin Racing driver Alex Lynn, Andretti driver Kamui Kobayashi of Japan, and Daniel Abt of Audi, trailing in his proverbial electric dust in the five-lap race.

"That was really fun," Wong said after taking over Lynn to win the race. Lynn had been leading for much of the race when the teenager made a sly move to overtake him just before the finish line.

This is the second year Wong has made it into the top of the Hong Kong E-prix fans simulator. He finished 10th in last year's official E-Race and now he was crowned the champion driver.

"It's phenomenal," said an official. "He was doing it consistently quit. There's no way he could have practiced fully for this because it's not available for the public [outside events], so he's just got talent -- natural talent. He just jumped in and won the fastest lap. He's a prodigy."

Wong got to hang out with his idols for photos and he has dreams of following Lynn, Koboyashi and Abt by becoming a professional driver one day.

If the 13-year-old is just as good on the track as he is on the simulator, a local kid may be on the professional racing circuit very soon.

RYB Education Resilient Despite Scandal

A guard closes the gate at RYB Education in Beijing (brown building)

We understand everyone needs to make money, but should a company that owns 209 kindergartens and more than 900 franchised play-and-learn centres be listed on the New York Stock Exchange?

It turns out RYB Education is one of the largest providers of early childhood in China and it was hit by a scandal last month when there were allegations and complaints of child abuse.

Parents alleged that some children had been found to have needle marks on their bodies, they were drugged and sexually abused.

Allegations of bodily harm and sex abuse plagued RYB

After an initial investigation, Beijing police said one teacher at the kindergarten had pricked children with a sewing needle as a disciplinary measure, while claims of children being drugged and sexually molested were fabricated by parents.

Nevertheless, RYB's shares plunged 38 percent to US$16.45 last Friday, down from its initial public offering of US$18.50 in September. It had hit a high of US$31.14 on October 2, three days after its first day of trading.

Analysts believe RYB stocks are resilient and will emerge unscathed from the scandal -- its shares closed at US$20.33 on Wednesday, rebounding 24 percent from last Friday's sharp fall.

"Even though RYB may have to bear a heavy moral burden after the child abuse accusations, its future performance in the market is unlikely to be affected because its fundamentals are still good," said Shen Meng, a director with investment bank Chanson & Co. "When new social events emerge to divert people's attention from the scandal, RYB will do even better."

RYB shares on the NYSE seem resilient despite the scandal

Should schools, particularly early education ones, be run like corporations? Sounds contradictory but perhaps the company's sheer size makes it able to invest in lots of resources, though it makes effective management of all of them very difficult.

Perhaps the good thing in all of this is that because RYB is a public company, it has no choice but to allow greater scrutiny. If it is smart, RYB will set up the necessary mechanisms in place to prevent further abuse and manage its branches and franchises more closely to ensure quality. After all, early childhood education is not something that should be messed around with.

Property Tycoon Questions Migrant Worker Crackdown

Property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang questions why China uses hukou system

Property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang has been known for speaking his mind, and last year he got into trouble when he criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping's call for the media to show loyalty to the Communist Party.

He was back voicing his opinion on Wednesday, comparing China to North Korea over its rigid household registration system called hukou.

A migrant worker takes last look at where he lived in Beijing

At an annual conference of financial magazine Caijing in Beijing, Ren, 66, said the registration system was "adopted only by a limited number of countries, including China and North Korea", and that Beijing's ongoing eviction of migrant workers was a deluded way to solve the city's problems.

The government is currently getting rid of thousands of migrant workers in mostly the outskirts of the capital, either knocking on doors late at night and giving people 15 minutes to clear out all their stuff before demolishing their homes, or cutting off water and electricity as a sign to move on, just as the cold winter sets in.

The evictions are part of a campaign to address safety threats in the aftermath of a residential fire that killed 19 people last month.

Thousands of migrant workers evicted from Beijing

While the government may think this is an effective way to quickly get rid of people it doesn't want in the city, these migrant workers are crucial cheap labour doing menial jobs that need to be done. Most recently hundreds were evicted from an area near Beijing Capital International Airport where they work.

"The Beijing government once boasted that there was no family with housing problems in the city -- but it was only talking about locals," said Ren, the former chairman of Huayuan Property, a company owned by the Beijing government.

"The biggest problem with China's [housing] market adjustment and control policies is that they are illegitimate," he said.

Ren said there was no law giving the authorities the right to interfere in property prices, but in reality all local governments could cap these prices at a level they deemed appropriate.

A fire in Daxing prompted evictions of migrant workers

However, he added, land sales -- a key source of revenue for local governments -- were left alone, even though they were the main reason property prices had skyrocketed.

"If China doesn't solve the land problem and change the household registration system, all of its so-called long-term [market] mechanisms will be built on sand," he warned.

For years Ren has openly criticized the government's policies to control the property market and other political and social issues. He had 37 million followers on Weibo before his account was deleted in February last year when he questioned why the media should be loyal to the party when news outlets were funded by taxpayer money and so they should serve the public, not the party.

"When did the people's government turn into the party's government? [Are the media] funded by party membership dues?" he wrote at the time.

Following his comments, Ren came under attack by state media, and a news site linked to the Beijing municipal party committee declared he was spreading "anti-Communist Party" thought, and he represented capitalists who sought to topple the party's rule. He was then placed under a year's probation by the party in May and has kept a low profile -- until now.

Will he get in trouble for his criticism of the country's hukou system? Looks like so far so good...