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Business
The rich lives of coal bossesPosted by Joel Martinsen, October 11, 2007 12:20 PM
![]() Just the thing for an energy magnate. The Top Essence luxury goods show was held in Beijing over three days at the end of September. Borrison, the organizer of this and similar luxury expos in Shanghai and Guangzhou, invited guests from Beijing and surrounding areas. According to a report in the Mirror, many of the guests were not what you'd expect:
Perhaps it's not so surprising in light of a report a few years ago that coal mine privatization in Shanxi was giving owners astronomical returns on small, government-assisted initial investments. The expo itself was criticized for encouraging conspicuous consumption and for violating Hu Jintao's 8th Shame: wallowing in luxury. ![]() Xia Yaozhou's planned community. Far off in Tangtang, Yunnan, another rich mining boss has been in the news recently. Rather than spending his millions on luxury imports, Xia Yaozhou is trying to enrich the people of his village by providing them with jobs and homes. Xia got his start working a carpenter while trying to get his mining business off the ground; he is now worth around 100 million yuan. He's invested 30 million so far in development projects for the village, including a pig farm in which all villagers are shareholders. His goodwill is not universally accepted, however. According to reporters from Yunnan's Metropolitan Times, many people suspect that he has ulterior motives for building houses for the villagers and providing them with 10,000 yuan each in annual income. His business associates think there must be a profit motive somewhere; Xia protests that he just wants to bring wealth to his village:
Indulgence in luxury is criticized as overly ostentatious, but generosity is distrusted. What's a coal boss to do? Links and Sources
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Comments on The rich lives of coal bosses
I applaud the man who wants to help his fellow villagers. I would only hope than more of the magnates would take a lesson from him. Business is no about helping only oneself. That is what is missing in this new China economy -- the spirit of working together for the common good.
凤凰 had a report on the richest guys from 山西 a few months back. The article was long and indirect, but the general point was the guys were rich billionaires (at least in yuan), and that they had very little formal schooling. They had tacky taste in evrything. They all got rich on coal, somehow.
In my opinion, people who make their wealth in real business should be free to spend it however they want. But when people profiteer off of coal, energy, and other natural resources...etc..disgusting.
In the book 中共十七大布局 they mention that 80% of Tangshan's steel mills (of which they have over 80), didn't even seek to get SEPA's (China's EPA's) approval! The key reason is that no one takes environmental laws seriously, and local business and local businesspeople have become one social force that even the feds can't do anything about.
These are the same people, I'd bet, who are all buying these cars.