Ryan Pyle Blog: The Unwritten Rule

Hello.

For years there has been an unwritten rule or agreement between the Communist Party in China, and the subjects that they watch over. That rule has been that, the government will maintain breakneck GDP growth, to keep employment high and wages rising, and the average people will stay out of politics and political debate. In a sense, as Yang Yao says below, that the ruling body in Beijing as been tied to a performance based legitimacy, instead of a classical democratic based legitimacy.

Well, that's all fun; but the real question is how is power transfered? In a democracy we for new representatives and that takes place every 2-4 years. Power is handed over peacefully and in a way that is in line with a constitution which sets out these rules. Decisions may be close, or down to the wire, but power is always relinquished and the process moves as smoothly as it possibly could.

But what happens when Beijing's "Performance Based Legitimacy" comes to an end? What happens when China has GDP growth rates of only 2% a year, and unemployment rates of over 20% a year? What happens then? As the performance decreases the government will begin to lack a power base. What happens when the government loses the ability to generate growth? It's a scary scenario, but one that needs to be talked about today, instead of tomorrow.

When the gap between rich and poor, or city dwellers and rural peasants, becomes too great; will there be social instability? Might that lead to some kind of political upheaval? To be honest I have more questions than answers. But the thought of the Communist Party potentially losing control is frightening. While the government can be big, nasty and ineffective, at least they are fairly stable and predictable. What replaces them could be potentially much nastier.

Please give Yang Yao's piece a look below. Raises a lot of interesting questions.

Copyright © 2002-2010 by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
_________________________________
The End of the Beijing Consensus

Can China's Model of Authoritarian Growth Survive?

Yang Yao
YANG YAO is Deputy Dean of the National School of Development and the Director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University.
Since China began undertaking economic reforms in 1978, its economy has grown at a rate of nearly ten percent a year, and its per-capita GDP is now twelve times greater than it was three decades ago. Many analysts attribute the country's economic success to its unconventional approach to economic policy -- a combination of mixed ownership, basic property rights, and heavy government intervention. Time magazine's former foreign editor, Joshua Cooper Ramo, has even given it a name: the Beijing consensus.

But, in fact, over the last 30 years, the Chinese economy has moved unmistakably toward the market doctrines of neoclassical economics, with an emphasis on prudent fiscal policy, economic openness, privatization, market liberalization, and the protection of private property. Beijing has been extremely cautious in maintaining a balanced budget and keeping inflation down. Purely redistributive programs have been kept to a minimum, and central government transfers have been primarily limited to infrastructure spending. The overall tax burden (measured by the ratio of tax revenue to GDP) is in the range of 20 to 25 percent. The country is the world's second-largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and domestically, more than 80 percent of its state-owned enterprises have been released to private hands or transformed into publicly listed companies. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lacks legitimacy in the classic democratic sense, it has been forced to seek performance-based legitimacy instead, by continuously improving the living standards of Chinese citizens. So far, this strategy has succeeded, but there are signs that it will not last because of the growing income inequality and the internal and external imbalances it has created.

The CCP's free-market policies have, predictably, led to major income disparities in China. The overall Gini coefficient -- a measure of economic inequality in which zero equals perfect equality and one absolute inequality -- reached 0.47 in 2008, the same level as in the United States. More disturbing, Chinese city dwellers are now earning three and a half times as much as their fellow citizens in the countryside, the highest urban-rural income gap in the world.

How, then, has the Chinese government been able to adopt the principles of neoclassical economics while still claiming Marxism as its ideological anchor? The answer is that China has for three decades been ruled by a disinterested government -- a detached, unbiased regime that takes a neutral stance when conflicts of interest arise among different social and political groups. This does not mean that Beijing has been devoid of self-interest. On the contrary, the state is often predatory toward citizens, but its predation is "identity-blind" in the sense that Beijing does not generally care about the social and political status of its chosen prey -- unlike many governments elsewhere that act to protect and enrich specific social or political groups. As a consequence, the Chinese government has been more likely than other authoritarian regimes to adopt growth-enhancing policies.

For the last 30 years, the CCP has intentionally adopted policies favoring specific groups or regions to promote reform and economic growth. It has helped that the disinterested CCP government was not permanently beholden to certain groups or regions. China's integration into the world economy is a case in point. At the end of the 1970s, the United States was eager to bring China into its camp as a buffer against Soviet hegemony, and China quickly grasped the opportunity. Yet that early adoption of an "open-door" policy gave rise to domestic resistance: special economic zones, such as Shenzhen, enjoyed an abundance of preferential treatments that other parts of the country envied. Moreover, the CCP's export-led growth model required that Beijing embrace an unbalanced development strategy that encouraged rapid growth on the country's east coast while neglecting the interior; today, nearly 90 percent of China's exports still come from the nine coastal provinces.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 was also a calculated move. Before accession, it was widely believed that China would have to endure painful structural adjustment policies in many sectors in order to join the WTO. Even so, the central government actually accelerated negotiations with the organization's members. Despite the burdens it placed on the agriculture and retailing sectors, accession boosted China's exports, proving wrong those who worried about its effects. Between 2002 and 2007, Chinese exports grew by an annual rate of 29 percent, double the average rate during the 1990s.

China's astronomic growth has left it in a precarious situation, however. Other developing countries have suffered from the so-called middle-income trap -- a situation that often arises when a country's per-capita GDP reaches the range of $3,000 to $8,000, the economy stops growing, income inequality increases, and social conflicts erupt. China has entered this range, and the warning signs of a trap loom large.

In the last several years, government involvement in the economy has increased -- most notably with the current four-trillion-yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan. Government investment helped China reach a GDP growth rate of nearly nine percent in 2009, which many applaud; but in the long run, it could suffocate the Chinese economy by reducing efficiency and crowding out more vibrant private investment.

The economy currently depends heavily on external demand, creating friction among major trading partners. Savings account for 52 percent of GDP, and consumption has dropped to a historic low. Whereas governments in most advanced democracies spend less than eight percent of government revenue on capital investment, this figure is close to 50 percent in China. And residential income as a share of national income is declining, making the average citizen feel poorer while the economy expands. As the Chinese people demand more than economic gains as their income increases, it will become increasingly difficult for the CCP to contain or discourage social discontent by administering the medicine of economic growth alone.

Despite its absolute power and recent track record of delivering economic growth, the CCP has still periodically faced resistance from citizens. The Tiananmen incident of April 5, 1976, the first spontaneous democratic movement in PRC history, the June 4 movement of 1989, and numerous subsequent protests proved that the Chinese people are quite willing to stage organized resistance when their needs are not met by the state. International monitoring of China's domestic affairs has also played an important role; now that it has emerged as a major global power, China is suddenly concerned about its legitimacy on the international stage.

The Chinese government generally tries to manage such popular discontent by providing various "pain relievers," including programs that quickly address early signs of unrest in the population, such as reemployment centers for unemployed workers, migration programs aimed at lowering regional disparities, and the recent "new countryside movement" to improve infrastructure, health care, and education in rural areas.

Those measures, however, may be too weak to discourage the emergence of powerful interest groups seeking to influence the government. Although private businesses have long recognized the importance of cultivating the government for larger profits, they are not alone. The government itself, its cronies, and state-controlled enterprises are quickly forming strong and exclusive interest groups. In a sense, local governments in China behave like corporations: unlike in advanced democracies, where one of the key mandates of the government is to redistribute income to improve the average citizen's welfare, local governments in China simply pursue economic gain.

More important, Beijing's ongoing efforts to promote GDP growth will inevitably result in infringements on people's economic and political rights. For example, arbitrary land acquisitions are still prevalent in some cities, the government closely monitors the Internet, labor unions are suppressed, and workers have to endure long hours and unsafe conditions. Chinese citizens will not remain silent in the face of these infringements, and their discontent will inevitably lead to periodic resistance. Before long, some form of explicit political transition that allows ordinary citizens to take part in the political process will be necessary.

The reforms carried out over the last 30 years have mostly been responses to imminent crises. Popular resistance and economic imbalances are now moving China toward another major crisis. Strong and privileged interest groups and commercialized local governments are blocking equal distribution of the benefits of economic growth throughout society, thereby rendering futile the CCP's strategy of trading economic growth for people's consent to its absolute rule.

An open and inclusive political process has generally checked the power of interest groups in advanced democracies such as the United States. Indeed, this is precisely the mandate of a disinterested government -- to balance the demands of different social groups. A more open Chinese government could still remain disinterested if the right democratic institutions were put in place to keep the most powerful groups at bay. But ultimately, there is no alternative to greater democratization if the CCP wishes to encourage economic growth and maintain social stability.

Copyright © 2002-2010 by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
All rights reserved.
_________________________________

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Magazine Revenue 2009

Hello.

It pains me to have to bring this kind of stuff up all the time, but I thought it was important to publish this list. The list in question is the 2009 revenue from the Magazine Publishers of America. And for people like me, who depend on publishers to spend money on images, it makes bleak reading.

A few highlights on the list:

1) The overall average for the difference in revenue between 2008 and 2009 is -18.1%. That means that on average each magazine lost 17% revenue from 2008 to 2009. No small number. Hence the massive layoffs and huge reduction in picture purchasing, especially in assignments to create original imagery.

2) US News and World Report, once a major picture buyer and huge publisher of photojournalism, was down 88% compared to 2008.

3) Portfolio Magazine, one of my clients, went bust.

4) People Magazine was up 3.8%. Maybe I should start up a celebrity photography business in China.

5) National Geographic was down 14%; and NG's other titles like Adventure (which went bust) and Traveler were down at least 30% from 2008.

6) Organic Gardening was up 16% year on year with 2008. Plant photograph anyone?

And the rest makes pretty tough reading. You'll have to follow the link below to see the actual numbers, I couldn't find a format to properly download the statistics and have them cropped in to my blog. Please see below.

LINK: Magazine Publishers of America

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: The 126th Best Job

Hello.

This news came out a long while ago, but it's taken me a few weeks to reflect on it. When the list of the Best and Worst Jobs for 2010 appeared I was traveling at the time and just book marked the list and forgot about it. When I had a chance to re-read I was motivated to write down a few notes. And below are some interesting observations.

In January the Wall Street Journal published a list of Best and Worst Jobs 2010, which was compiled by a website named Careercast.com. I'm not sure on the methodology of the study, or survey, but I found it hilarious that "Photographer" was ranked at the #126th best job to have in the USA, and "Photojournalist" was the #189th best job to have.

The list ranked 200 jobs in the order of best to worst and they were based on criteria like: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. All very important factors.

Now I consider myself to be a photographer, not just a photojournalist. Many of the images I take of no journalism merit at all. So, apparently I've dedicated my life to the #126th best job in the US, or the #74 worst job. According to the study if I am starting out in my career I can expect an income of USD 17,000 per year; if I am in the middle of my career I can expect an income of USD 29,000 per year; and if I'm experienced I can expect around USD 62,000 per year.

All of this seems fine and dandy. I'm glad photographer showed up on the list at all. I know I would never steer any of my friends, relatives or children in to the career unless they had a real stomach for the up and downs of the journalism, photography and art industries. My career progression has never been easy and at times it's been downright exhausting. My brother lives in Canada and works in the finance industry and we often joke about switching jobs, he keen on travel and adventure; and I'm interested in a mildly stable income.

But all that joking aside. I'm really not interested in changing professions and I'm not surprised at the job of "Photographer" being listed at #126. Maybe back in the 1970s and 1980s when there were less photographers, more magazines, more advertising revenue and longer, juicier higher paying assignments the job of "Photographer" could have cracked the top 50. But these days, since the digital revolution, competition has intensified and as Canon likes to say in their advertisements, anyone can be a professional photographer with their new EOS digital cameras.

What interests me most about the list is what jobs appear as "better" or "more appealing" than my job. The job of "Photographer" is #126. But lets take a quick look at what jobs appear higher, or nearby, in ranking:

#2 - Software Engineer (Understandable - Stock Options!)
#9 - Accountant (Really?)
#29 - Parole Officer (Dealing with criminals?)
#46 - Librarian (Do libraries still exist?)
#58 - Receptionist (Seriously?)
#62 - Musical Instrument Repair Person (For the adventurist inside you!)
#65 - Publication Editor (Some of my editors may find that funny)
#81 - Teachers Aid (Really, a TA is better than being a photographer?)
#83 - Janitor (Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!)
#108 - Security Guard (Nothing is better than working nights)
#109 - Piano Tuner (Always the life of the party)
#125 - Waitress (Working on tips?)
#126 - Photographer (Poor Little Me)
#131 - A Maid (Cleaning Homes?)

Well, the waitress and the maid being that close to Photographer leaves me feeling a bit uncomfortable. But alas that is the basis of the list compiled. Wacky, wild stuff.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: A Venture into Multimedia

Hello.

I've made my first venture in to multimedia. A huge leap I know, but I have decided to try and organize my photography in such a way to reach a wider audience. The slide show above is from my Chinese Turkestan series and it includes some captured audio and a wonderful bit of music as well. I have a blog prepared for a little later that will go more in depth in to the multimedia process. I hope you can also enjoy that once it runs.

You can also follow this YouTube LINK.

ps. If you enjoy reading this blog, please do become an official follower.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: PDN Photo of the Day

Hello.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to share some work with everyone. PDN Magazine has published a selection of my Chinese Turkestan project on their Photo of the Day blog. While the images are displayed the multimedia piece that I have prepared as been linked to. Please be sure to check out the links below:

Photo LINK: PDN Photo of the Day

Multimedia LINK: YouTube Audio Slide Show

ps. If you enjoy reading this blog, please do become an official follower.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Taking Back the Golf Courses

Hello.

I wanted to direct you all to a new bit of work I've completed with writer Dan Washburn. The piece is about the government taking back land from illlegal golf courses. Interesting times in the development of China. Please take a look at Dan's article, wild stuff.

LINK: http://www.slate.com/id/2246914/pagenum/2

________________________________________
The Forbidden Game
China's on-again, off-again war against golf.

By Dan Washburn

Posted Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at 10:04 AM ET

JIANSHAN VILLAGE, Zhejiang, China—Last November, when the Chinese government held a press conference to announce its most recent crackdown on illegal land use, it highlighted five investigations. Three involved heavy industry: a coking plant, a plastics factory, and a rare-earth metals mine. The other two were about golf courses, and they were the ones that made the headlines. "Golf defies rules to gain ground," screamed China Daily.

While the announcement raised a few eyebrows in China's golf industry, it was easy to brush it off as another toothless threat from Beijing. Almost all of the nation's 600 or so completed golf courses are illegal in some way. In order to operate as a golf business in China, you need to have an official license. Since 2004, however, there's been a moratorium on course construction in the country, making the acquisition of such a license impossible. Nevertheless, about 400 new golf facilities have opened their gates in the past six years.

The most generous estimates put the number of golfers in China at a few million—statistically zero percent of the population. While the game is growing in popularity, in many developers' eyes golf courses exist primarily as a means to sell the million-dollar homes that get built around them. On a recent trip to China, a representative of an American course design firm compared the goings-on here to the Oklahoma land run combined with the California gold rush. China, the nation that banned golf development, had somehow emerged as the only country in the world still in the midst of a golf boom.

That was before the government started digging up fairways. The bulldozers arrived at dawn in early December. There were more than a dozen lined up outside the gate of the Anji King Valley Country Club, 140 miles southwest of Shanghai. The convoy drove past the fountain, the bronze knight, and the Tudor-style clubhouse, and arrived at the multimillion-dollar 18-hole course that had been open for little more than a year and was scheduled to play host to a Ladies European Tour event this October. For 10 days, the excavators ripped up turf and snapped irrigation pipes in the soil below.

King Valley's punishment is the harshest thus far, but some in the industry believe government inspectors (the "Beijing golf police," as they have become known on the ground) could make their way throughout the country, one province at a time. Since the beginning of the year, the golf police have been frisking finished and unfinished golf courses throughout central China's Sichuan province, a hotbed of construction activity. Several projects there have been put on hold pending further review.

It makes sense that the "rich man's game" would get special scrutiny. While the Communists lifted their ban on the sport in 1984, golf still suffers an image problem in China, where a weekend round costs $160 on average. Critics have contended that such a high-consumption pastime runs counter to several of President Hu Jintao's primary concerns—among them, rural land rights and the widening gap between rich and poor. Farm land is a precious commodity in a country that must feed 21 percent of the world's population with less than 8 percent of its arable land. China has lost more than 30,000 square miles of agricultural land since 1996, and its current total of about 470,000 square miles is getting dangerously close to the 463,323-square-mile baseline the government believes necessary to sustain its massive population. As such, while golf-related construction accounted for a tiny fraction of the reported 42,000 cases of illegal land usage in China last year, it's good PR for the Communist government to say it's tackling such an elitist activity.

Ironically, it was the Chinese government's reluctance to embrace golf—or at least come up with a set of regulations intended to standardize its inevitable growth—that allowed things to get out of control. China doesn't even know how many golf courses exist within its borders. At the press conference in November, officials at the Ministry of Land and Resources said they were using satellite imagery to get a handle on the number. Back in 2004, when the moratorium was announced, state media reported that only 10 of China's then 176 known courses had received proper approvals from Beijing. One golf developer who wished to remain anonymous—this happens often when reporting on the legally nebulous word of golf construction in China—said the market remains "in chaos," with local governments continuing to approve golf projects despite not having the right to do so.

This was the case in Anji County, where King Valley Country Club is located. Anji had always been one of the poorer parts of Zhejiang province, with bamboo forests its lone claim to fame (some were featured in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The area's top government official was fond of telling people he had two dreams for Anji: a university and a golf course. Ask anyone in Jianshan village, where that second dream came to fruition, and they'll tell you that King Valley was a pet project of the local government, designed to attract well-heeled patrons from nearby cities like Hangzhou and Shanghai to the impoverished countryside.

There is some evidence that this effort was successful. While Jianshan remains tied to the past—locals still refer to their "production teams," a holdover term from the pre-reform days of China's communal farming system—a walk through the village reveals many signs of growth: small factories manufacturing decorative bamboo wall-coverings, kitschy hotels and restaurants geared at tourists, and construction sites for new housing complexes. All of this followed the 2005 arrival of King Valley.

The official reason for King Valley's bulldozing is simple: The course's builders didn't have the proper approvals to develop the entirety of their 400-acre plot. (Nearly 35 acres of the tract were farmland.) Dig a little deeper, and things don't look that straightforward. A dirt path along a fence offers views of the golf course's back nine, where most fairways now look like freshly plowed fields awaiting planting season. But a closer inspection reveals peculiarities. All of the greens and tee boxes remain untouched, the cuts around them following neat lines. The greens, and what remains of the fairways, are watered and mowed daily. The cart paths are still there. So are the buildings and the landscaping. Smaller shrubs are wrapped in white plastic to protect them from the winter cold. (Click here for a companion photo essay on King Valley's bulldozing.)

"Don't worry—the course is not going to become farmland," one of several workers who remain at King Valley said reassuringly during a visit in January. He said they were repairing the irrigation system and, since the greens were not destroyed, the course could be rebuilt very quickly. How could this be possible? "The local government has certain guanxi with our company," he said.

That guanxi, or favorable relationship, would seem to be strained these days. When Beijing's focus turned to King Valley, local officials ran for the hills. Many denied knowledge that a golf course existed inside the "Anji China Ecotourism and Fitness Center," as King Valley is officially known. (To get around the 2004 moratorium on course construction, "golf" never appears in planning documents for golf facilities in China.) Their case was flimsy: King Valley played host to a stop on China's domestic pro golf tour last summer; it's the official training center of the provincial golf team; and the large sign the local government installed beside the highway included the stylized silhouette of a man swinging a golf club. "Government officials go there all the time," said a village shopkeeper. "Only a ghost would believe their claims."

Despite the workers' assertions at the course, sources familiar with the situation say the company behind the project—Hangzhou-based real estate firm Handnice Group—is in no hurry to pay for the necessary repairs. Many in Jianshan believe the course destruction was a calculated move by local officials, a grand display intended to shield them from punishment from Beijing. Without assurances that the project is fully legal, the existence of a course like King Valley will always be dependent upon the word of local bureaucrats.

The Handnice Group is no innocent bystander here. The risks associated with opening a golf course in China, though seemingly minimal in recent years, are no secret. And while official land designations in rural areas often change on the whims of those in power, it was obvious villagers were farming on a portion of the land that is now a golf course. In fact, the company paid close to $1.2 million in fines for illegal land use between 2006 and 2008. But after each fine, sources say, the local government urged them to carry on with construction. The fines were viewed as a cost of doing business.

As is often the case with major development projects in China, hundreds of villagers were relocated to make room for King Valley. This is typically presented to farmers as a choice, but more than one Jianshan resident admitted their departure from the land was "kind of enforced." Reports suggest this process got messy. The most heated disputes arose over compensation—they usually do—and the noise surrounding a few key blowups may have gotten the project on the central government's short list for investigation.

Because the state owns all land in China, the developer pays the local government, which then distributes payouts to the villagers. Much of the money gets caught in the government filter—recent data suggests more than half of local government revenues come from land sales. One elderly man in Jianshan said the $15,000 settlement he received was not enough to cover the cost of his new home, and that the $200 he receives in "rent" each year from the golf course (where a round can cost $120) is "definitely not enough." He shrugged his shoulders and added, "But what can you do?"

It's unclear what's next for King Valley. When asked for a status update, a worker at the Anji land bureau said only "that's already been dealt with" before hanging up the phone. Another source said "a conclusion has been reached" but it has yet to be made public. Meanwhile, golf course construction in China continues to chug along. One industry veteran, who says his firm has survived "crackdowns" in the past, didn't sound too worried. The number of leads and new projects he discovers during his monthly trips to China remains "astronomical."

"I've been telling people if they shut down 50 percent, even 70 percent, of the projects there are still too many of them," he said. "A hell of a lot of golf courses are still going to be built."

Alice Liu contributed to this report.

Dan Washburn is a Shanghai-based writer. For more on the development of golf in China, visit his Par for China Web site.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2246914/

________________________________________

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Looking Back on Toronto

Hello.

I get to visit Toronto roughly once a year. And each time I visit it's an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only do I get to spend a week with friends and family, because I grew up in Toronto, I get to network and discuss my work.

This week I had a busy schedule. I participated in an artist lecture, whereby I got to speak about my work in Chinese Turkestan, to a standing room only crowd at the Arta Gallery in the Distillery District, located in Toronto's trendy lakefront area. A special thanks should go out to the Arta Gallery folks as well as my printers at Elevator Digital for helping to organize the event. After that I went knee deep in to the world of academia, with lectures at the Ryerson University School of Journalism and the University of Toronto's China Program.

The Ryerson visit was my second in as many years and I throughly enjoyed the experience. It was an opportunity for me to talk about what it is like living abroad and trying to document another society and culture. I'm always keen to share my experiences in China with an attentive audience and these journalism students were a fantastic audience and sparked some great discussion. As young students interested in journalism I think it's important that they try to understand what kind of options are available abroad.

The University of Toronto talk was equally as rewarding, talking about Change in China and what the future might hold for this awkwardly emerging super power. It's my third visit to the University of Toronto and my first since becoming an Affiliate Member of the Asian Institute, an academic body at the University of Toronto that deals with all things Asia. The reception was warm and I hope there will be much further collaboration with the University moving forward.

So a gallery talk, and a few lectures plus a Leaf's game and a Raptors' game. I had a full week and did a lot of important networking. I am a firm believer in networking and meeting people face to face. While China is my adopted home and I may never leave the Middle Kingdom, I thoroughly enjoy making trips to Europe and North America to meet with gallery owner and editors, and having a chance to promote my work.

Now I am off to New York, trying to build a network from scratch is never easy. Upwards and onwards.

ps. If you enjoy reading this blog, please do become an official follower.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Fat Children

Hello.

I like to blog about topics that offer a peak in to the psychological makeup of the Chinese, and this story below by Nick Mulvenney offers a unique glimpse in to the thinking behind one of China's top sports officials.

In the article below the President of Beijing's Sports University says that China's youth are essentially fat and out of shape and incapable of defending China from a future war against the Japanese. That is a unique statement for a sports administrator to make.

Now it's true that the president of the Sports University is trying to be shocking, of course he wants more funding for his school and he is more a politician than an educator. But I love the fact that instead of talking about obesity and health, or diabetes, or any of the other health concerns that can occur with child obesity he chooses to try to strike fear in to people's hearts by saying basically that Japan will attack China at some stage in the future and China must be fit enough to defend itself.

Don't you think that sports administrators and educators should stick to talking about gold medals, university athletics and the physical health of children and adults? At what point should a sports administrator make geo-political statements about potential military conflict against a major trading partner? This kind of talk dates back to the 1960s and 1970s; sadly the mentality of a lot of Chinese officials hasn't changed much since then, even though the country's youth are much more progressive.

This article, and the statements made by the President of the Beijing Sports University, offers a unique glimpse in to how many Chinese, especially the older generations, still feel about Japan; and how they feel about the importance of China have a powerful military.

Imagine for a moment if the Athletic Director at the University of North Carolina, famous for a great sports program, made comments about US obesity and the country not being able to defend itself from an attack by the UK, a formal colonial master, or China, a rising super power - he would most likely be removed from his post or pressured to resign. That kind of war mongering and backwards way of thinking doesn't help. Our world is pretty fragile and we all need to choose our words carefully. Someday, perhaps soon, Chinese officials will learn that as well.

Copywrite: Reuters
Original Story LINK
___________________________________________
Reuters

Title: Children exercise during a weight-losing summer camp in Shenyang, Liaoning province

By Nick Mulvenney – Thu Mar 4, 10:52 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China must urgently address the physical fitness of the nation's youth or run the risk of raising a generation incapable of fighting the Japanese in a future war, the head of the country's top sports university said Thursday.

The government must immediately invest some of its new wealth in ensuring that children take regular exercise, Beijing Sports University president Yang Hua told the sports group of the largely ceremonial advisory body to China's annual parliament.

"It is time for the Chinese nation to improve the physical fitness of our next generation," said Yang. "If we miss the next three to five years a whole generation will be next to useless.

"If there was another war against Japan, would the younger Chinese be able to fight the Japanese one-on-one?

"The government has enough money for banquets and for luxurious office buildings, do they not have money for children's physical education?" he added.

Japan invaded and occupied much of China between 1931 and 1945. Rancour over Japanese wartime atrocities has subsided as a diplomatic flashpoint, but it continues to shape Chinese public attitudes toward Japan and its people.

The fitness of China's young dominated the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference's sports group, a normally sedate gathering turned into a media circus this year by the presence of hurdler Liu Xiang.

The former Olympic and world champion 110 meter hurdler, unconventionally dressed in jeans with his shirt tails hanging out, was making his first appearance as one of the 22 members of the committee.

"A healthy body is the foundation of everything," he said. "I hope I can be an example to attract more attention to athletics, and encourage our children to be stronger and stronger."

The emphasis on academic education in China -- Chinese teenagers preparing for the university entrance exams often study for more than 12 hours a day -- has been blamed for the lack of exercise undertaken by young.

A year after China's elite athletes succeeded in topping the medals table with a cascade of gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, August 8 was declared "National Fitness Day."

"A survey has shown that Chinese teenagers are behind their Japanese peers in almost every indicator it measured," Jiang Xiaoyu, a senior member of the organizing committee for the Beijing Games, told the meeting.

"The physical fitness of the young is a matter of strengthening our country and our Chinese race."

(Additional reporting by Liu Zhen and Ben Blanchard, editing by Patrick Johnston)
___________________________________________


--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Grand Corruption

Hello.

It appears that China may be full of corruption. I know, I was shocked as well. But what is even more surprising is that on the front page of the China Daily, the main government mouthpiece, the editor put the mug shots of 4 dodgy bastards who used to be in charge of State Owned Enterprises (SOE) that have been caught for corruption. Let's push through the list and see what we come up with.

First, the headline is "Rampant Corruption". I love that.

The first man on the list is the once invincible Zhang Chunjiang; aged 50. He was the Vice-Chairman of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone company, and apparently he falsified accounts that involved some RMB 20 billion ( USD 3 billion) when he was the head of another giant SOE named China Netcom. The best part about this was that after is blatant corruption at China Netcom he was rewarded with the role of Communist Party Official of China Mobile, meaning he had almost no role. I hold shares of China Mobile on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and I find the company structure, the management and the politics involved in the company to be grossly lacking morals. Come on shareholders. Rise up!

The second man on the list is Chen Tonghai; aged 61. This dodgy dude was sentenced to death for taking over RMB 200 million (USD 30 million) in bribes. He was the former Chairman of Sinopec, one of China's largest oil companies, and one of the countries most powerful SOE's. I also own some shares of Sinopec on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Is it not unbelievable that publicly listed companies have Chairman and directors acting so blatantly against shareholder value?

The third mug shot on the front page of the China Daily belongs to Kang Rixin; aged 56. He is a dead ringer for Chairman Mao; but actually he is the former General Manager for the China National Nuclear Corporation; meaning that he is in charge of building all of China's Nuclear power plants. Classy. He somehow misappropriated RMB 1.8 billion (USD 2.5 billion). It's amazing that China can still champion it's legal system and system of SOE's when it appears everyone is just in the business to help themselves.

The last, but surely not the last, is Wang Yi; aged 52. He was the Vice President of the China Development Bank and he was expelled from the party for taking some RMB 10 million (USD 1.5 million) in bribes. Seems to be the least worst.

A few notes. One, everyone knows this happens and executives of SOE's are essentially the same as political figures. It's obscene that the government can claim any moral high ground when basically all of these companies executives are politically placed. Sure, the odd fat cat is knocked off his perch; but for every corrupt executive that gets nailed there must be hundreds that get missed. What boggles my mind is the newspapers and the media never seem to know where all the money went and nobody seems to be working "around the clock" to account for all his assets. Is that offside? Shouldn't be. Everything from his Ferrari to his diamond studded dog collar should be auctioned off. Corporate China is a mess and nobody wants an independent legal system where lawyers can go after these high rollers. A sad state of affairs.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Market Defies Fear of Real Estate Bubble in China

Hello,

I just wanted to blog about some new work that I've produced with the New York Times. David Barboza, one of my frequent collaborators wrote a great story about China's property bubble. To say the property market is hot is a vast understatement.

See below for the entire story.

Copywrite: New York Times
Original Link: CLICK HERE
____________________________________________
Market Defies Fear of Real Estate Bubble in China
By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI — The spacious duplex comes with crocodile-skin bedposts, hand-carved bronze doors inlaid with Swarovski crystals — and a $45 million price tag.

It is still on the market, but Charles Tong, the developer of Tomson Riviera, a luxury riverfront complex in the heart of the financial district here, says he is having no trouble finding takers for similarly priced units.

“We’re selling three to four apartments every month,” said Mr. Tong, seated in a white Versace easy chair. “Now, people here want something more luxurious; they’d like a new lifestyle.”

Everyone agrees China is in the middle of a spectacular real estate boom. The question is whether it is in the middle of a rapidly growing real estate bubble.

When other recent booms collapsed — in the United States, for instance — they depressed entire economies. In China’s case, a bursting bubble could affect much of the world. China is the fastest-growing large economy and, so far, a main engine pulling the world out of recession.

Beijing is clearly concerned. Authorities have recently moved to rein in the easy credit that has helped finance China’s hyperdevelopment, including making it more difficult for home buyers to take out a second mortgage.

Last year, a record $560 billion of residential property was sold in China, an increase of 80 percent from the year before, according to government statistics that are widely considered reliable. And with prices soaring, developers are scrambling to build more mansions, villas and high-rise apartments with names like Rich Gate, Park Avenue and Palais de Fortune.

Signs of exuberance are everywhere. An investor in Shanghai recently bought 54 apartments in a single day; a villa sold for $30 million last year; and in December a consortium of developers paid more than $3.5 billion for a huge tract of land in Guangzhou, one of the highest prices paid for any property, anywhere. In the city of Tianjin, in north China, developers have created a $3 billion “floating city,” a series of islands built on a natural reservoir, featuring villas, shopping malls, a water amusement park and what they say will be the world’s largest indoor ski resort.

“This is wild,” said Andy Xie, a former Morgan Stanley economist who is now an independent analyst. “By all the traditional measures, like rental yield, this is a bubble.”

Speculators are snapping up properties on the expectation that prices will continue to rise, as prices have nearly every year for more than a decade. And powerful developers are working with local governments to transform old cities into urban dreamscapes.

But Shanghai, China’s wealthiest and most dazzling city, is the epicenter of the boom. Prices here have risen more than 150 percent since 2003, pushing the price of a typical 1,100-square-foot apartment up to $200,000, according to real estate experts. (Shanghai residents typically earn less than $5,000 a year.)

A buying frenzy has gripped the city, leading to billion-dollar land auctions and long waiting lists.

“The speed you buy a house here is faster than you buy vegetables,” said Andy Xiang, an advertising executive who recently put down a large cash down payment to get the right to pay $1.3 million for apartment in the city’s exclusive Xintiandi area.

Few residences, though, are as upscale as Tomson Riviera, which consists of four golden-hued towers overlooking the Huangpu River, with a central garden mapped out in the shape of a dragon. The apartment complex’s entrance has original artworks by Salvador Dalí and well-known Chinese artists. The apartments, a few of which have been decorated by Armani and Fendi, as well as Versace, lease for $7,000 to $17,000 a month — to high-level executives from companies like General Motors.

Those who buy an apartment here tend to be extremely wealthy, like Liu Yiqian, an eccentric Shanghai entrepreneur whom Forbes magazine says is worth about $540 million.

Mr. Liu, 47, got his start driving a taxicab in Shanghai but eventually made a fortune investing in the stock market. In an interview this week, he admitted to owning “hundreds” of apartments in Shanghai (he said he could not remember exactly how many), including a 6,000-square-foot apartment in Tomson Riviera, which he bought in 2008 for about $11.5 million.

“I invest in properties,” Mr. Liu said, noting that he also collects art, antiques and jade. “I think in Shanghai in five to seven years the real estate prices will be even higher.”

As they try to modulate the market, local and central governments here are walking a thin line. Land sales were a major source of government revenue, raising about $234 billion last year, an amount equal to over a third of the cost of China’s half-trillion-dollar stimulus program.

Whether the country is in the middle of a bubble has become the subject of a debate. Some economists, like Nicholas R. Lardy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, say the housing boom is being fueled by a huge urbanization push that is creating premium-priced houses.

Other analysts say prices are being propped up by greedy developers and government policies that are making housing increasingly unaffordable for the masses migrating to big cities.

Despite the fear of a bubble here, Mr. Tong, 38, said his prices were just right, particularly because of so much hidden wealth in China. The publicly listed company is controlled by his family.

“I have a friend,” he said. “She makes maternity clothes. Her company has 20 percent of the world’s market share, and they’re not even a listed company.”

Still, Tomson’s prices are soaring. The most recent apartment sold for about $2,300 a square foot. The average luxury apartment in Manhattan sold for just under $1,900 a square foot in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman real estate.

Indeed, for the price of a Tomson apartment in Shanghai, a buyer could easily purchase a 6,000- square-foot home in Los Angeles built by Frank Lloyd Wright and now for sale ($10.5 million), or a 52-acre site with a 22-room residence in New Canaan, Conn. ($24 million).

But a sales agent at Tomson Riviera says this the future financial capital of the world, not the dying one.

“Look at this bronze door,” said Wang Yaodong. “That costs $50,000! Look at these Gaggenau appliances. They were made in Germany.” The glasses were imported from Belgium, the Jacuzzi from Italy. And don’t worry about losing your key, he said, “This lock can read the palm of your hand.”
____________________________________________


--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Ethics? What Ethics?

Hello.

After 13 years, the Communist Party has decided to brush up their ethics code book. And why not, the country has changed significantly since 1997 and government officials need to be brought on board to the new expectations people have for them.

As the original article indicates, see below, Party members are to avoid: Money making deals, property speculation and lavish expenditure. They should not accept gifts or use their influence to help family members. So basically they are being asked to stop doing all the fun things that being a party member allow you to do in China. No more lavish weddings with rows upon rows of pimped out cars that 99% of regular Chinese folks could never afford. No more over the top funerals. No more, no more, no more. While stuff like this may seem obvious to you and I, many in the lower and middle ranks of government here will be taken aback by these new regulations. Yes, there is a different style of thinking in this country when it comes to governing; which seems ancient in so many ways.

If you think Wall Street has an image problem? Corrupting the financial system and hurting Main Street, driving up unemployment and walking away with record bonuses; well that doesn't even compare to the frustration directed by ordinary Chinese people at their government officials. With no vote, no media freedom, no freedom of speech and no freedom of association; there is absolutely no check on government power at any level. No front page New York Times story to shame officials in to resigning, no Wall Street Journal expose about officials stealing millions from State Owned Enterprises. If there is a story about corruption it has been explicitly ordained by the powers that be in Beijing; no one is caught by surprise.

While the Party uses it's own disciplinary committee to remove members and jail the occasional bad apple, it's generally seen as a joke. And the idea of an independent commission, or regulatory body, just doesn't fly in this part of the world. So publicly introducing a new ethics code book is a nice step by the Party, but sadly it won't change a thing, but it is not entirely the fault of individual officials; one might say that it's "the systems" fault and it needs a massive overhaul.

What I mean is that the biggest reason for the immense amount of corruption in China is that government officials are paid next to nothing for their service to the public. So they rely on cars, drivers, kickbacks, bribes and whatever else to make up the difference. And for years, since imperial China, this has been accepted practice. The problem is now that the economy is red hot and these kickbacks are often amounting to millions of US dollars; which just looks bad. Government officials wearing USD 30,000 luxury watches and children at private school in Switzerland are becoming the norm. The regular people, in this developing nation, are pretty feed-up.

The original story is below:

Copywrite: BBC News
Original Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8533410.stm
_________________________________
By Quentin Sommerville
BBC News, Beijing

In China, the Communist Party has issued a new 52-point ethics code, in an attempt to control growing corruption among officials.

The code bans members from property speculation, money-making deals, and lavish expenditure.

The last set of rules was issued 13 years ago.

Corruption has become an increasingly hot topic among the public - graft often tops the list of issues of most concern for ordinary Chinese citizens.

Party officials should work hard to serve the people and avoid accepting gifts or using their influence to benefit

family members, according to the new ethics code.

The guide bans lavish weddings and funerals, and overseas tours.

Officials should also stay out of profit-making deals, the code says. But few do.

Some of the most senior party officials in China have been on the take - property speculation has been particularly popular.

The richer the country gets the bigger the sums involved.

Spending lavish amounts on government buildings or flash cars is also banned.

In some provinces, party and government headquarters are indistinguishable from plush five star hotels.
The latest luxury sedans are often used to ferry around officials.

China's one-party system has struggled to deal with endemic corruption, much to the annoyance of the general public.
_________________________________

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________