China Rejects Golf

[HitAndGiggle]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4146864/China-orders-100-golf-courses-shut-govt.html

Strange story of the day...

[colin007]

yeah, i just saw that on ESPN, the golf course development business is apparently rife with corruption. too bad,

[mcanadiens]

3 minutes ago, colin007 said:

yeah, i just saw that on ESPN, the golf course development business is apparently rife with corruption. too bad,

Well the Chinese national government likes to say that. Everyone needs a scapegoat. 

For all the business that gets done in China these days, it is important to remember who is still in charge and how fickle they can be. 

[Kalnoky]

It seems like a step back to me, but I'm not terribly surprised.

We had an ISO auditor visit my company a few years ago, and he did a lot of work with industry in China. It was his opinion that the "economic miracle" was mostly a facade for the benefit of the West, at least insofar as the average Chinese Citizen was concerned. He provided ample (anecdotal) evidence, some of it hilarious, some of it quite sad. Anyway, he had a good sense of humor about all of this, and I've no reason to disbelieve him. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Kalnoky

[nevets88]

Imho, reject is a strong word. Looking up equivalent news pieces in Chinese media, it's very similar to the situation here. Too many courses built. Some illegally. Courses use too much water, land. Etc... Not unlike the situation here. It's not an outright rejection of the game, seems like reasonable moves. No time to translate, my Chinese is cr@p anyway, you can plug this into Google Translate.

Quote

陈至洁：高尔夫球场需要大量的土地，还有相当多的资源。涉及到大量资金，它需要跟国家的银行借款，融资要得到比较低的利息，才能够还钱，所以它也需要跟银行、金融界人士，打通关系，等到开始营运的时候，高尔夫球场之所以能够赚钱，无非就是卖高尔夫球证，球证无论在中国还是台湾都相当昂贵，等于是进入上流社会、富豪，和有权人士的会员证，有钱都不一定买得到，所以它用这个方式去买通官员和买通家属，不一定会直接牵涉金钱方面的交易。

http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/golf-01232017090836.html

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, colin007 said:

yeah, i just saw that on ESPN, the golf course development business is apparently rife with corruption. too bad,

As with any large business, yes. The golf business is particularly corrupt in China. Stealing fresh water and underpaying staff, sponsored prostitution and many other things are probably high on the list of reasons they are shutting down many courses. The government probably got many complaints from the underpaid workers and local communities not being able to have drinking water and others. . .

Unlike our previous government, the Chinese government seems to actually listen to the little guy (in this case probably millions or more ). They can't afford to displease the general populace who mostly own smart phones and can spread rumors within seconds to the entire populace.

 

59 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Well the Chinese national government likes to say that. Everyone needs a scapegoat. 

For all the business that gets done in China these days, it is important to remember who is still in charge and how fickle they can be. 

The Chinese government generally listens to complaints from the people. The Chinese people are actually in more control of their country than many westerners believe.

This is coming from a Taiwanese with many family, friends and colleagues in China. I completely disagree with "communism", but have the "feeling" that their government is doing the right thing in this case.

Although, I am very saddened by the shut down of these courses. 

 

46 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

It seems like a step back to me, but I'm not terribly surprised.

We had an ISO auditor visit my company a few years ago, and he did a lot of work with industry in China. It was his opinion the "economic miracle" was mostly a facade for the West, and he provided ample (anecdotal) evidence. He had a good sense of humor about all of this. Anyway, I've no reason to disbelieve him. 

The step backward is due mainly to actual corruption. If all the local people were satisfied with the developments, then there would be no issue. I've played a few courses in China, and feel kind of the same way their government "feels". It's kind of a corrupt industry.

I wish there was a better solution that could keep the courses open.

I think your Auditor was only looking at the "official" numbers, which are much lower than the actual numbers. Businesses have a lot more money in cash. Chinese are historically a cash society who avoided paying taxes for 3000 plus years. I'm not going to say more than that 

 

36 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Imho, reject is a strong word. Looking up equivalent news pieces in Chinese media, it's very similar to the situation here. Too many courses built. Some illegally. Courses use too much water, land. Etc... Not unlike the situation here. It's not an outright rejection of the game, seems like reasonable moves. No time to translate, my Chinese is cr@p anyway, you can plug this into Google Translate.

http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/golf-01232017090836.html

I feel bad as well, but the reasons for shutting them down are probably supported by facts. Too bad. . .

[Patch]

Not surprising. Seems like they are trying to get a handle on some problems. 

We had something similar happen in our area. Seems a developer was purchasing golf course land really cheap. It was discounted because it was going to be used for public use. Once built, the green fees were set pretty high, which ruled out most of the public use. Since profits were down causing financial hardship, the developer went to city hall to get a zoning variance to build multi family, and/or single family housing. The developer, who already owned the land,  would then turn the golf course into more lucretive housing  neighborhoods. 

The developer, and the politicians that were involved were eventually caught and the scheme was stopped. 

[Wally Fairway]

I'm sure this is not PC, but apparently the same guys are in charge of golf course development

 

Early fake news story from 2013

[Lihu]

1 minute ago, Wally Fairway said:

I'm sure this is not PC, but apparently the same guys are in charge of golf course development

 

Early fake news story from 2013

I showed this to my wife and she thought it was serious until she realized mid-sentence that it was a joke!

[nevets88]

22 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

I'm sure this is not PC, but apparently the same guys are in charge of golf course development

 

Early fake news story from 2013

That wasn't fake. IIRC, that was the Malaysian crash, the news anchor read it, and the channel apologized. Edit: I was wrong, not the Malaysian crash, a crash landing.

 

[Wally Fairway]

The crash certainly wasn't fake news, the pilots names on the other hand.....let's just say it was something only expected from Ron Burgundy

[nevets88]

Quote

Someone thought this was all a "funny" joke—and KTVU got fooled bigtime In fact, the names of the pilot have not been released, and as the NTSB told Gawker, it is not in their policy to release names of individuals in these situations. KTVU has since apologized for airing the names, but still seems to be blaming the list on their purported source at the NTSB: 

Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft.

It is safe to assume that this intern is no longer with the agency.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/no-these-racist-asian-names-arent-really-pilots-asiana-flight-214/313367/

[Lihu]

28 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

That wasn't fake. IIRC, that was the Malaysian crash, the news anchor read it, and the channel apologized. Edit: I was wrong, not the Malaysian crash, a crash landing.

 

Off topic, but the names of the crew were incorrectly reported. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214#Crew

[Gator Hazard]

5 hours ago, nevets88 said:

That wasn't fake. IIRC, that was the Malaysian crash, the news anchor read it, and the channel apologized. Edit: I was wrong, not the Malaysian crash, a crash landing.

 

The names, not so funny, old hat. That she actually read them on the news and didn't realize she was being duped (if that video is legit news), I am somewhat torn, there is something humorous about that, but it's around a tragic event. 

[Lihu]

11 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

The names, not so funny, old hat. That she actually read them on the news and didn't realize she was being duped (if that video is legit news), I am somewhat torn, there is something humorous about that, but it's around a tragic event. 

That's likely the actual reason the San Francisco/Oakland based television station apologized publicly for this. I'm not laughing now that I've looked it up.

[HitAndGiggle]

Yeah, ok. That plane crash was near here. I laughed at the news report. Not a big deal, IMO. 

I work wth a young colleague from China and he corrected my statement that it's communist. He said "It's very capitalist."

[boogielicious]

No politics. Last warning.

[chilepepper]

We had two courses in San Diego county that were purchased by an individual. Maintenance went way down. Little was done to keep up round numbers. Then the shoe dropped, the real reason. He wanted to develop the property for housing. Shady stuff right here at home