Bao Fan: Billionaire tech banker in China reported missing
"Bao Fan, the chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings, had not been able to be reached in recent days, the firm said in a market update on Thursday.
Mr Bao is a leading deal broker in China whose clients include top tech companies Didi and Meituan.
His firm's announcement has renewed concerns of a potential Beijing crackdown on finance and tech figures."
--- 'No, no, NO! That's impossible. We've been promised that there would be no more crackdowns. Everything will be fine now. Money can be earned! There must be a totally innocent explanation for his disappearance, like murder or kidnapping.'
China's Xi Plans 'Peace Speech' on Ukraine Invasion Anniversary, Italy Says
"Antonio Tajani told RAI Radio 1 that he used a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Rome on Thursday to urge Beijing to use all its powers to persuade Russia to end the war while ensuring Ukraine's independence.
"He told me that Xi will deliver a peace speech on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine,""
--- & the Italian FM totally trusts the CCP to be a neutral voice for peace. Who wouldn't?
"Asked about Tajani's comments, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was unable to give information.
"China's position on the Ukraine situation has been consistent and clear,""
--- So consistent & clear, in fact, that Wang 'doesn't know' what's going on.
Biden says he will speak to Xi in wake of balloon shoot-down
"“I expect to be speaking with President Xi and… we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Biden said"
--- Huh? Which bottom? Does he really believe that talking to emperor Xi would do anything to clear things up? Phhh...
s.a.: Distrust deepens over US-China balloon row
China’s property crash is prompting banks to offer mortgages to 70-year-olds
"Some banks in the cities of Nanning, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Beijing have extended the upper age limit on mortgages to between 80 and 95, according to a number of state media reports. That means people aged 70 can now take out loans with maturities of between 10 and 25 years.
[...] The mortgage borrower’s age plus mortgage length should not usually exceed 70 years, according to previous rules published by the banking regulator."
--- Sounds like they are desperate to get the real estate market going again. But it's not quite as dramatic as it appears at first:
"The new mortgage terms are like a “relay loan.” If the elderly borrower isn’t able to repay, his or her children must carry on with the mortgage
[...] The mortgage needs to be guaranteed by the borrower’s children, and their combined monthly income must be at least twice the monthly mortgage payment."
--- That also means, though, that the effect will be very limited. In the end, it's always the same people paying the mortgage, anyway.
China dials up propaganda over Turkish rescue effort; Taiwan also sends team
"China's consul general in Belfast, Zhang Meifang, tweeted a photo of the Chinese-built Canakkale suspension bridge on Feb. 13, boasting that it had "withstood the earthquake."
The tweet was deleted after people pointed out that the bridge is more than 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter of the quake, and that it was built by a multinational team including Korean, Turkish and Danish companies.
China's Sichuan Road and Bridge Co. only installed the steel box girders in December 2020."
--- Well, really. Don't be so nitpicky! Some Chinese were involved in building the bridge, & somewhere in the country it was built in was an earthquake. Hence: a great success of Chinese technology! Simple logic.
Thin blue square: video shows apparent Chinese police drill against protester
"How many police officers does it take to neutralise a single unarmed protester? According to a video purported to be from China, it takes at least 10 highly disciplined members of law enforcement, as well as some bespoke blue banners."
--- If you compare that drill to Chinese cops in real action, though, it's like night & day.
Germany signals a pivot from China’s Huawei
"Germany is getting ready to wean its telecoms networks off their dependence on China.
[...] The pivot away from Huawei fits a changing approach to China by the coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz."
--- Phhh... Will probably be just as much of a pivot as Scholz's great Zeitenwende. There are a number of politicians in Germany who actually want to curb Chinese influence & spy operations. But there is a major stumbling block: it's called Scholz.
UNESCO Accused of Complicity in China's Treatment of Uyghur Heritage
Taiwan finds crash site of suspected Chinese weather balloon
--- China Uncensored features the weekend news variety again:
--- BBC News: "Billionaire banker Bao Fan reported missing in China"
--- Sky News (AUS): "Inside China’s espionage war: How the communist superpower is spying on the West"
Chinas Führung feiert "Sieg" über die Pandemie
"China habe ein Wunder in der Geschichte der Menschheit vollbracht, indem eine bevölkerungsreiche Nation erfolgreich eine Pandemie überstanden habe. Die Covid-19-Todesrate des Landes bleibe die niedrigste der Welt."
--- Ein Wunder ist höchstens, daß es im Westen Leute gibt, die das mit der niedrigsten Todesrate glauben.
"Internationale Beobachter gehen von einer bis anderthalb Millionen Covid-Toten in China aus."
--- & das sind noch konservative Schätzungen, basierend auf dem Gesundheitssystem in Shanghai.
"Nach offiziellen Angaben sind in China weniger als 100.000 Menschen an den Folgen von Covid gestorben. Diese Zahl bezieht sich allerdings nur auf Krankenhäuser und lässt offen, wie viele Menschen zuhause gestorben sind"
--- Diese Zahl ist reine Fiktion & bezieht sich ausschließlich auf das, was die KPCh als akzeptabel ansieht.
Chinesischer Milliardär verschwunden
"Der chinesische Milliardär und Chef der Investmentbank China Renaissance, Bao Fan, wird vermisst. "Das Unternehmen war nicht in der Lage, Herrn Bao zu kontaktieren", hieß es heute in einer Mitteilung der Firma an die Hongkonger Börse. Weitere Angaben zum mutmaßlichen Aufenthaltsort des 52-Jährigen machte die Bank nicht."
--- Soviel zum Thema 'alles wieder normal'. Kaiser Xi macht genauso weiter wie bisher, nur die Informationspolitik hat sich etwas geändert.
"Als der Alibaba-Gründers Jack Ma ab Herbst 2020 monatelang nicht mehr in der Öffentlichkeit auftrat, führte das ebenfalls zu zahlreichen Spekulationen. Vermutet wurde damals ein Zusammenhang mit kritischen Äußerungen des Unternehmers über die chinesischen Behörden."
--- Das wurde nicht nur damals vermutet, sondern wird immer noch vermutet. Sofern man da noch von Vermutung reden kann, denn es ist ziemlich sicher, daß seine Aussagen der Grund für das KPCh-Vorgehen gegen Alibaba sind.
