A Chinese investment group is trying to sign a deal for a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo from New York Times.

A Russian billionaire is being challenged by an American politician over previous company investments. Is this cause to also go after a Chinese investment group that is finalizing a deal to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Mikhail Prokhorov, left, is being challenged by a U.S. official over whether one of his companies was funding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, right. Photo from the New York Post.

A New Jersey congressman is demanding an official inquiry into Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is about purchase the New Jersey Nets, for his apparent business dealings in Zimbabwe. The move threatens to crumble the $200 million USD deal and whether the team will ultimately be moving to Brookyln.

According to the New York Post, the congressman is challenging Prokhorov on whether one of his companies violated a federal rule that forbade any United States or U.S.-based subsidiary company from doing business with current Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

I bring up the challenge to Prokhorov because an investment group from Asia is still finalizing a deal to purchase a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in 2009 that the deal is being led by Jianhua “Kenny” Huang, a Chinese businessman who has brokered deals with the New York Yankees and other U.S. sports teams in the past.

In December 2009, China Sports Review wrote an op-ed on the proposed deal to purchase a stake in the Cavaliers franchise, and asked why Albert Hung, another apparent front man connected with Huang to purchase the Cavs, and an individual with strong ties to the Communist Party, had not been subjected to any backlash by the American public in the wake of an influential CCP member investing in a U.S. sports franchise.

It would seem prudent in the wake of a U.S. government official calling out Prokhorov and his dealings in Zimbabwe that both the NBA and the Cleveland Cavaliers organization are absolutely certain there are no ghosts in the closet with the Asian investment group. Then again, maybe Prokhorov was a little too cavalier in the lead-up to finalizing the Nets deal. After all, what billionaire flashes an automatic rifle on CBS’ 60 Minutes interview and admits the reason he’s become so wealthy is by nefarious dealings in Russia?

Recent public spats over Chinese Renminbi currency appreciation have been cause enough for American politicians to cry foul when it comes to China. Huang, who has a history with American sports franchises might not be under the microscope, but there has yet to be a public disclosure of the other Asian partners involved in the deal. One can imagine NBA Commissioner David Stern is hoping his foreign investors’ pasts do not catch up with them when it comes to business in the National Basketball Association.

TREES that cost millions of yuan to plant to stop soil erosion and water run-off in a north China village have been uprooted for a golf course.

The sea buckthorn trees sheltered gales and stabilized the soil in Jiuchenggong Village in Erdos City of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency reported today.

The 36-hole golf course, indoor coaching center and other support facilities are expected to use 5 million tons of water each year, mostly underground water, for its planned 467 hectares.

Villagers fear it will drain groundwater and lead to further soil loss.

China’s water authority launched an ecological improvement project in 1998 to plant 200 hectares of sea buckthorn to improve the soil and water supplies.

Villagers told Xinhua that the tree planting had worked, as water was now reappearing in formerly dried-up streams.

Development was banned by the local government in the village because of its ecological fragility.

But Erdos Yitong Yitong Coal Co Ltd launched the golf project in the ecological protection zone in 2005, calling it a “new agricultural project” because China bans golf course construction, the report said.

Yitong Coal has developed half of the golf project and expects to lay lawns next month ready for opening in August, according to a manager surnamed Qiao.

The zone’s water authority doesn’t have the power to stop the golf project, according to Chen Yonggui, office dean of Dongsheng District Water Protection Bureau.

Go here for more details about the story in Chinese.

In this candid record provided by one Youku Paike, Zhou’s mother was surrounded by media reporters, pushing for explanations on why her daughter only thought about parents but not THE country. (Youku Paike’s camera was fixed on Zhou’s parents, and only recorded surrounding reporters’ voices.)

The severely hurt mother was defending her daughter with all her power – by simply telling the truth. She said, “(When Zhou started training, all we as parents wanted was for her) to have a skill to find a job in the future, to support herself.” “I never dare to think of this day (when she became an Olympic gold medal winner)!

Pressed by one particular brainwashed female reporter, Zhou’s mother retorted back: “This really hurts us. How can they think this way?” She repeated her astonishment: “I really can’t understand why you think this way.” Simple, direct and powerful from a mother defending her beloved daughter.

The mother said she would never ever “gamble” her daughter for her own good. As disclosed, Zhou tries hard to help her parents, but the mother had no intention to use a single penny that her daughter earned – with tears and blood in my opinion. “Don’t you have a child yourselves? …It’s out of her love… I don’t want to use one single penny…” the mother cried bitterly.

Could someone pass along a Marxism booklet to the journalist and tell her to have some respect?

I’ve been talking with friends about Yu’s words since, I don’t know, he said them. In the midst of the sacred and low-carbon two sessions that made public transport in Beijing even crowder, you really can’t avoid the news, can you?

A little recap:

Zhou won gold in the 1,500-meter race and the 3,000-meter relay in her Olympic debut. After her 1,500 win Feb. 20, a breathless Zhou told China Central Television: “It’s my dream. After winning the gold I might change a lot, become more confident and help my parents have a better life.”

She thanked her coach and teammates, but never mentioned the state-run sports system in which she had trained as an athlete for much of her life.

It’s right to respect and thank your parents but you also have to have the country in your heart. The country must come first. Don’t just talk about your parents,” said Yu Zaiqing, deputy director of China’s General Administration of Sport, in widely reported comments earlier this week.

Hate to buck the trend, but if put in context, I actually think Yu Zaiqing’s country-first-parents-later talk is understandable.

Born in 1951, Yu was educated and has been working in the Communist China that favors collectivism to an extreme. And these days, sports happen to be one of a few sectors left where collectivist education and ideology still permeates in the People’s Republic.

I was born in the early 80s. Since the elementary school, the picture of an athlete shedding tears while the Five-stars-red Flag raising slowly with China’s national anthem playing has been imprinted in my brain. It’s a cult-like situation for Chinese athletes, patriotic or nationalistic as you may describe. I would expect them to thank the country anyway, and I think most of my fellow compatriots can relate to this feeling.

I mean, it could be like “I’d like to thank my parents, my leaders in the sports bureau and the country’s great sports system. But that sounds a bit unnatural to be honest. It’s not in the tradition. The traditional sequence would be “the country, the leaders and your parents.”

OK, I know what you’re thinking. Fuck the sequence and all that. So in most cases these days in my observation, athletes would rather thank their supporters, which I presume is done in part to avoid the crap. I didn’t really pay attention, and wonder what Wang Bingyu said after they crowned World Women’s Curling Championship last year, considering they didn’t really have any supporters back then.

Unlike Yu Zaiqing, Zhou Yang was born in 1991, and pretty much avoided the collective China and hasn’t trained in the taxpayer-funded sports system for very long. True, we still have “red songs” and “red SMS messages” until today, but most young Chinese couldn’t care less about them or even enjoy making fun of them.

I think Yu, being a sports official and a party boss, to some extent believes in what he said, and the idea of thanking the country first is not entirely posturing to him. There’s something that people like Yu wants to save and protect.

Take Luo Chaoyi, director of Gymnastics Administrative Center under China’s National Sports Bureau. In a recent interview with China Youth Daily, Luo said the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 years younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s own practice.

According to the International Gymnastics Federation’s findings, Dong registered a birth date of January 20, 1983 at Sydney but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as January 23, 1986.

To put it simple, Luo told a blatant lie. But he did so trying not to jeopardize the National Gymnastic Association and, probably only to the likes of him, the country’s image.

What Yu and Luo said can tell you how unusual and unsophisticated these Chinese sports officials are, to say the least. And in the case of Yu, how stupid the Political Consultative Conference can be.

The golden rule for them: say nothing. But we can expect more of these in the future.

Links and Sources:

• Danwei: Lesson learned, Zhou Yang thanks the country first
• Youku Buzz: Don’t Politicalize the Unnecessary Controversy
• AP: Skater’s gaffe highlights politics of China sports
• South China Morning Post: Skater’s gold tarnished by petty posturing (subscription req’ed)
• WSJ China Real Time: Thanks to Mom or the Motherland?

Dong competing in the Sydney Games

Five golds, two silvers and four bronzes – the performance of Chinese athletes at the Vancouver Games has been nothing but outstanding during the celebration of Chinese New Year. But back home, sports officials in Beijing are fumbling, as a bronze medal the Chinese gymnastic team won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics could be stripped soon.

As gymnastics officials may have helped Chinese athletes falsify birth documentations just like the football and basketball teams have been doing in the country, it looks they forgot to remind the players that they should keep lying.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) posted their ruling last Saturday on its Web site. Excerpt below:

In the case of Dong Fangxiao, the Executive Committee constituted that there was a violation to the FIG Statutes and Regulations. Consequently, the results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games have been cancelled. The FIG Executive Committee decision was forwarded to the IOC Executive Board with the recommendation to withdraw the Bronze medal obtained by the Chinese Team including the results of Dong Fangxiao in Sydney. In addition, the FIG Executive Committee pronounced the cancellation of all results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 34th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 1999 in Tianjin (CHN), of all results obtained at the FIG World Cup Series 1999 – 2000 and at the Artistic Gymnastics 2000 World Cup Final in Glasgow (GBR) The costs of the disciplinary procedure are awarded to the Chinese Gymnastics Association.

The Committee decided that in the case of Yang Yun the concrete and objective evidence available is insufficient to prove that the birth date indicated on the official documents was falsified. Ms. Yang Yun is awarded with a warning for the declaration she made during the interview with CCTV5. The only mention of age in this case was on a television interview. The costs of the disciplinary procedure are awarded to the Chinese Gymnastics Association.

Should the punishment be made by the International Olympic Committee, it can kind of prove that the Chinese gymnastic team lied to the world, also putting the results at the Beijing Games highly questionable. And now the Chinese Gymnastics Association claims the evidence held by the FIG is unconvincing.

“We believe that to date, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that there were problems with Dong Fangxiao’s age in 1999 and 2000, therefore we feel great regret toward the FIG’s punishment decision,” a staffer of the association said last Saturday and later put their statement on its Web site.

The whole thing left us with a comical situation that while there’s evidence suggests the players were under age when they competed in the Olympics, without reliable help from sports science, it seems these young ladies can never get caught by lying.

And the problem in China is, if the players do get caught here, like the CBA players we’ve mentioned earlier (also see here and here), they face little punishment according to China’s sports law.

Call me a pessimist, but unless the new licensing system implemented by the FIG is super cool, it looks very unlikely that the age fraud shall be gone from here soon. Let’s hope not to continue the talk after the London Games.

Update 1: In an interview with China Youth Daily, Luo Chaoyi, director of Gymnastics Administrative Center under the General Administration of Sport, the top governing body of Chinese sport, said the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 yrs younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s own practice. (According to the FIG’s findings, Dong registered a birth date of January 20, 1983 at Sydney but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as January 23, 1986.)

Links and Sources:

• The FIG: Sanctions pronounced!
• msnbc: IOC: No proof China cheated in gymnastics
• AP: China expresses regret over gymnastics punishment
• Time: Can Science Tell a Gymnast’s Age?
• China Youth Daily via NetEase: Dong Fangxiao’s age fraud a personal practice (in Chinese)

Photo: NetEase

The China Football Association handed out another round of rulings this week, demoting Guangzhou Pharmaceutical and Chengdu Sheffield United from the China Super League after evidence showed the teams had bribed opponents during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Additionally, Qingdao Hailifeng was disqualified after police said the team’s chairman, Du Yunqi gambled during the end of a game, attempting to manipulate the score so Du could win more money. Both Du and the Hailifeng team captain were arrested. Global Times ran an article earlier this week outlining the new rulings.

The investigations into corruption within the China Football Association have been going on for several months, and include hundreds of players, officials, owners and referees, amounting to one of the largest investigations in recent Chinese sports history. What has not been addressed throughout the fiasco is the football beat reporters’ role in the scandals brought to light.

In a January 2010 China Sports Review article, it was reported Nan Yong, vice president of the China Football Association and Yang Yimin, a senior official in both the China Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation, along with Zhang Jianqiang, China Football Asociation’s head of referees, were detained by the police for interrogation. Newspapers that reported on Nan Yong and Yang Yimin initially were able to pull up instances of corruption, gambling and match-fixing over the span of a decade. The Guangzhou, Chengdu and Qingdao teams just exposed for bribery and match-fixing relate to games played as far back as four years ago.

I was recently asked whether the illicit behavior taking place in the China Football League was a failure of Chinese newspapers to act as a watchdog for the sport. I responded by asking that given the enormity of the investigations, their scope and the more than 10-year time frame we’re looking at, the question should really be which news organizations were NOT involved in some way with the corruption? This investigation is so sweeping and comprehensive it would not be surprising to find out most journalists were privy to information that would have gotten league officials and team owners in trouble. And if that were the case, it would mean journalists had an incentive going for them to not report the problems within the league.

I am not naming names. I am not implicating anyone or organization with this article. In fact, I have no actual proof that journalists are guilty of anything. For all I know, they very well could have had no knowledge of the corruption, gambling and match fixing. But in this instance, where the top officials have been detained, where teams are being handed severe penalties, where the whole league is being looked at from top to bottom, I have to imagine reporters, photographers and editors around China knew at least some of the information way before the scandal broke. And by “way before” I mean years before.

So why was the corruption not exposed earlier? Did reporters really have no knowledge? Or were they told not to report the truth? Were they bribed as well? Were they handed shut up money just like the reporters that kept quiet after the Hebei mining disaster? Was it to their advantage not to say anything in order to keep reporting on football? And were the newsroom editors just as oblivious?

Should the China Football Association decide to impose more penalties and fines during the investigation — and we’re far from the end — it will not be complete unless the league sits down with media organizations and talks with those that covered the sport.

— Zachary Franklin

When Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger visited Beijing last summer, there was one question in his mind. At a press conference, he asked the moderator, Huang Jianxiang, a well-known local football commentator, why China, with so many people, lacked a first-rate football team.

The question was laughed off by the commentator, who replied that it was because “We never had a coach like you.”

But coaching isn’t the core problem in Chinese football. The recent crackdown on match-fixing and underground gambling tells one that the beautiful game has rotten to the core in China.

In the past three months, more than 100 players, club owners and officials have been entangled in the investigation and last week both Nan Yong, vice president of the Chinese Football Association (FA) and Yang Yimin, a senior official in both the FA and the Asian Football Confederation, along with Zhang Jianqiang, FA’s head of referees, were detained by the police for interrogation.

Without waiting for formal charges, the three, who had each served in the FA for over 18 years, were soon ousted by the General Administration of Sport (GAS), the top governing body of sports in the country.

The news came as little surprise to many Chinese sports journalists. Instead of assuming their role as watchdogs by exposing wrongdoing in the sporting industry, they are now reveling in their knowledge of match-fixing scandals.

They’re making appearances in talk shows or shilling new books, enlightening the public about the severity of the scandals and how there’re still “big fishes” out there to be caught. But rarely did these stories that they supposedly knew all along make the headlines of their papers or TV programs.

At the end of 2007, CCTV-5, China’s main sports channel, did a program evaluating the work done by Xie Yalong, then FA president. After the program gave Xie low marks, the FA began snubbing interview requests from journalists representing the channel. The message from officials couldn’t have been clearer, and the media, eager to keep their access, understood it well.

Besides media indifference, the absence of law enforcement and tacit condoning of corruption by GAS are all causes of the ignominious practices in football. Evidence suggests that bribery and match-fixing prevail in the Chinese sporting world.

The current investigation in football was made possible only after top government officials decided that they wanted to “raise the level of Chinese football.” What is happening in football industry could well mirror other aspects of Chinese sport.

Last year, after Ma Yanping, an acclaimed diving coach, exposed that the finals of diving competition of last year’s 11th National Games had been rigged by Zhou Jihong, head of China’s national diving team and deputy director of the National Aquatics Sport Administration Center, officials from GAS soon came into Zhou’s defense. The police were nowhere to be seen.

Asked about the scandal by a reporter, Zhou, who helped China get 7 out of 8 gold medals with her strikingly young-looking diving team at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, retorted, “Which media organization do you work for?”

When addressing the same topic, Xiao Tian, deputy director of GAS said at a press conference that “you can’t say it had been fucking fixed, it’s fucking fake, just because you lost.”

In a post-match interview at the 11th National Games, He Wenna, China’s first trampoline Olympic champion, said that she knew who would win the finals long ago. There was no follow-up investigation and He was later criticized at a GAS meeting for her words.

The same happened at the judo, basketball and football matches of the National Games.

More recently, in the run-up to 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, members of the Guangzhou People’s Congress Standing Committee complained about a lack of information from the organizing committee on the sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.

It’s reported that the Games cost 200 billion yuan ($29.28 billion) but no official figures have been released so far. Some worry that the lack of information on such a scale of government spending has already led to waste and embezzlement of taxpayers’ money.

It’s interesting to see how this heavy-handed investigation in football will play out, as the results might even shock those who started it.

Sport has long been regarded as a source of national pride in China. But when pride conflicts with laws and ethics and you hesitate, even for a moment, the battle against corruption is already lost.

Related reading:

• CS Moniter: Is China finally tackling its soccer corruption scourge?
• South China Morning Post: Another day, another raft of soccer scandals (subscription req’ed)
• Gongti Legends: Is it all worth it?
• Global Times: Fair play is sadly missing from Chinese sporting world

The scope of the multi-billion-dollar project is staggering. It occupies 80sq km of forest and shrubland – an area the size of Hong Kong island – in north-east Hainan, the island province long touted as China’s answer to Hawaii. Once completed, it will feature 22 golf courses, at a stroke doubling the number on Hainan today. It’s been in the works since 2006 and for more than two years, thousands of workers have been clearing trees, moving soil, building greens, fairways, clubhouses and luxury hotels.

Shanghai-based writer Dan Washburn writes for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine about golf’s secret boom in Hainan island, go here to read the fascinating story (h/t  Shanghaiist). Dan, the man behind Par for China blog, is currently researching a book about the development of golf in China.

Today’s South China Morning Post looks at China’s decision to boost tourism in Hainan, with sports facilities of course:

To attract more tourists, tropical tourism facilities such as water sports and scuba diving will be built. A cruise harbour has been proposed to allow cruises from around the world to dock. Foreign cruise companies would be allowed to set up offices on the island. And as ambitious as it can get, the government said it also planned to promote “red” tourism – promoting communist history – and ethnic tourism.International events such as yachting, golfing and cycling are also mentioned in the document.

The government said it would explore sports lotteries, including those that apply to international games – immediately sparking speculation in the mainland media that Hainan could be China’s testing ground for a gaming industry.

The Hainan island is not the first in China to open ‘lottery’ business, and sure will not be the last.

Previously:

• Horse Lottery, Gambling and Chinese Football

Links and Sources:

• FT Weekend Magazine: Golf’s secret boom in Hainan, China
• SCMP: Hainan set on a course to tourism paradise (subscription req’ed)

I dug through the news reports from Ohio to China, trudging through the same list of accolades and accomplishments of Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, who is finalizing a deal to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Then I waited for the negative backlash.

There was none.

The NBA in China blog did a writeup of Hung, stating “Hung is a member of numerous powerful groups and committees including: the Standing Committee of National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Vice President of China Sports Foundation, Vice Chairman of Major Sports Events Committee, the President of All Stars Sports Association Ltd. of Hong Kong, and Vice President and Director of the South China Athletic Association.”

I was waiting for the harsh comments concerning a Chinese Communist Party member getting his hands on an American basketball team. He’s a member of the CPPCC, which is now a sort of advisory group to the National People’s Congress, and has been chaired by the likes of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian.

The NBA in China blog went even further: “Perhaps his most valuable political affiliation is with the Hong Kong Selection Committee, which is the group that elects the chief executive of the massive Asian commerce and cultural hub.” Judging by previous news reports, the Hong Kong Selection Committee — chosen by the Chinese government — was somewhat unpopular when it was charged with selecting the first leader of Hong Kong’s provisional government as well as its other legislatures, after the citizens in Hong Kong had already selected a group in a free election. No one batted an eye.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, reported much of the same information as the NBA China blog report. I was waiting for Hung to face the same gauntlet radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh got hit by when he was stonewalled from purchasing the St. Louis Rams. Nothing.

It was reported Tsingtao beer signed a multi-year partnership with the Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena. Ohio is the fourth largest producer of beer in the United States, and the third largest consumer, according to statistics. Pabst Brewing Company, one of the oldest beer companies in the United States, is now produced in Ohio. Annheuser-Busch, which makes Budweiser, and Miller Brewing both have production plants in the state. No resident in Ohio has bothered to question a Chinese beer company setting up shop inside the Cavs’ arena.

My speculation that negative commentary would be the result of both a 15 percent purchase by a Chinese businessman and a Chinese beer company coming to town was from some of the more negative headlines concerning the People’s Republic in 2009. Australia steel giant Rio Tinto backed off a deal for Aluminum Corp. of China to purchase a 18 percent stake in June, according to the Wall Street Journal, and mixed in with the deal’s rejection was concern that the Chinese government was getting too close to a national industry in Australia — a similar sentiment made by United States politicians four years ago when the Chinese made an attempt to purchase a U.S. oil company. The rioting in Xinjiang that took place in July brought a second major protest in China over a span of two years to the front lines of major newspapers and television stations, the result has been 22 people sentenced to death since the rioting stopped.  The Guardian reported that China showed some ire in September after threatening to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair — where China was the guest of honor at this year’s event — unless two authors, which the Chinese government deemed dissidents, were removed from the list of participants. Most recently, the Guardian blasted China for what it called “hijacking” the Copenhagen climate meetings, stating the PRC wrecked any attempt at making a real deal at the summit.

That’s a long paragraph that has little to do with sports. But from all this, I was expecting the worst when I read that Hung would be purchasing a stake in the Cavs. There was nothing. There wasn’t much praise either. Only a few ripples within the news. But I have yet to read any negative commentary with regard to Hung and his business dealings.

The silence around Hung’s recent move and the deal to be finalized come the start of 2010 should be taken as a good sign for the NBA, which has seen its stock in the Chinese market steadily rise over the years, particularly since the league brought pre-season games over to the Mainland. Then again, Hung, and partner Kenny Huang — who was the original man selected to invest in the Cavs — might just be the future to bringing more of America’s sports to China.

— Zachary Franklin

“It’s unacceptable to just spend money on the Asian Games without telling the Guangzhou People’s Congress Standing Committee (GPCSC) how much the expenditure!”

Today, during GPCSC group discussion about Guangzhou municipal government’s Report on the Organizing Work of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, many committee members complained about a lack of information on sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.

“This is not even a rough number!” said a committee member. Some members proposed that these information be available to the committee no matter how much the expenditure and where the sources of the funds.

“No one is clear about how much the Asian Games will cost,” said Deng Chengming, a committee member, during the discussion. “Some said it will cost RMB 200 billion. But there’s not an official number yet.”

Deng expressed that because the two Games are financed by companies and their funds not included in the government’s budget, the Guangzhou Finance Bureau has no idea about how much they could cost. But the Guangzhou municipal government needs to make this clear to the People’s Congress so as to be supervised by the Congress and society.

“We cannot supervise the Organizing Committee. But the municipal government needs to tell us what’s going on.” Deng also suggest Guangzhou alert the central government about its expenditure on the Games. “Doesn’t the central government have RMB 2 trillion left to spend? Can we fork over some for the Games? Hosting the Asian Games is not only something on the agenda of Guangzhou, but also of the whole nation.”

Earlier on SCMP:

Government departments at all levels across the mainland are expected to go on a spending spree in coming weeks in a final push to use up as much as 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.27 trillion), or about a quarter of the annual fiscal spending budget that remains unused in state coffers.

Analysts warned the frenzied spending would inevitably lead to widespread misappropriation or waste of taxpayers’ money, or in some instances, embezzlement of public funds.

Previously:

• If You Build it, They Won’t Come
• One Year to the Asian Games, Guangzhou Still Not Getting There
• Lacking Sponsors, Guangzhou Asks Beijing for Help on the Asian Games

Links and Sources:

• Guangzhou Daily via NetEase: Guangzhou People’s Congress asks for transparency over expenditure on the Asian Games. (Chinese)
• South China Morning Post: 2 trillion yuan spree looms on mainland (subscription req’ed)

There is no question that large, global sporting events can help change the image of a city. Governments use the spectacles as a means to redevelop or invest further in a city’s infrastructure. South Africa proposed a nine billion rand — or about 1.7 billion USD — budget on city infrastructure projects for next year’s World Cup. According to the Beijing Organizing Committee, the 2008 Olympic Games saw about 60 billion USD invested in city-wide infrastructure projects, which included new stadium venues for the sporting events.

Last week, the article “Sloppy Services Bode Ill for Guangzhou’s Asian Games,” which appeared on the Global Times and was reported by China Sport’s Review’s David Yang, noted that Guangzhou would spend approximately 29 billion on infrastructure throughout the city, and an additional 900 million USD on stadium construction and renovations, in preparation for the athletic events in 2010.

China continues to show willingness to play host to several international sporting events, as well as increasingly popular national athletic endeavors. As mentioned, there are the 16th Annual Asian Games in Guangzhou. The 2009 East Asian Games are currently taking place in Hong Kong until Dec. 13.

Nanjing, which bid and was eventually eliminated for consideration as the host city for the 2012 Youth Winter Olympic Games, is currently in the bidding process for the 2014 Youth Summer Olympic Games. Even animatronics is getting into the mix, as 2010 will also see Harbin play host to the Robot Games, where androids designed from more than 100 universities worldwide will compete.

Apparent in the infrastructure bubble that takes place in cities around China that are vying for the chance to host a major sporting competition is that chinks are beginning to arise in just how productive and profitable a host city can be in the years after the athletics have moved on. Just recently, China Daily reported the city of Harbin gave up on its plan to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, saying that a push by the People’s Republic to host a winter Olympic Games event was “premature.”

Beijing’s crown jewel of sporting events, the 2008 Olympic Games, cost a reported 400 billion RMB, with 12 venues constructed for the two-week event. A 2006 New York Times article titled “The China Syndrome” noted the original budget for the National Stadium was about 500 billion USD, yet the Bird’s Nest currently sits toiling just north of the city center.

Long-term use of Olympic venues has always been the Achilles heel of hosting the event, but in China’s case, where the country is taking on larger sporting events, when infrastructure includes new stadiums and sporting venues, what is happening to these places after the games have finished?

In January, USA Today reported the Bird’s Nest is still searching for a permanent tenant, has yet to hold a major sporting event, and there are doubts the stadium will ever recoup the 450 million USD the government spent to construct the architectural wonder.

According to an Oct. 2005 Reuters article, the budget for the 2005 China National Games held in Jiangsu province was roughly one-third of the 2008 Olympic Games spending, and the Nanjing Olympic Sports Stadium —constructed in 2002 and an integral part of the 2005 China National Games — according to the stadium’s official Web site is now used almost exclusively for local events.

chinaSMACK, which translates “hot topics” on Chinese Internet forums and Chinese news reports, reported that in addition to the myriad of scandals at the 11th National Games held in Shandong during the month of October, the total cost and construction for the event totaled 200 billion RMB, including the Jinan Olympic Sports Center, a 60,000-seat stadium that was the centerpiece of the National Games.

China Daily reported in 2008 that Harbin needed three more stadiums built — at a price tag of 370 million USD — for the 24 Winter Universiade, which featured 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. And the East Asia Games, according to the secretary of home affairs’ home page, saw renovations on the three stadiums in Hong Kong, costing about 240 million USD.

The question surrounding all these monumental athletic venues is who plays in them going forward? The China Basketball Association, the country’s most visible sport, lost 17 million USD overall during the last season, according to an Economist Intelligence Report released in October. The People’s Republic currently has no homegrown athletic teams in any sport that can fill stadiums to capacity on a weekly basis.

Both the National Basketball Association, Premier League and the National Football League have made attempts to bring games to China, but the results have been marginal: a few preseason NBA and Major League Baseball games, an outright rejection to ship Premier League games outside of Europe, and two cancellations by the NFL.

China’s sports powerhouse ambitions, while praiseworthy on the field, have yielded few positive results for long-term sporting events. Yes, major international competitions take time and planning, but China has the infrastructure in place to do more with its sporting venues,  and tying its infrastructure plans to major sporting events should draw continued usage for years after.

— Zachary Franklin