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[Updated] Xinjiang riot leaves scores dead
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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC), the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, is buying 20 percent of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd. Standard Bank is based in Johannesburg and has branches in 18 African nations. The USD $5.5 billion price tag marks the most expensive overseas investment by a Chinese firm to date. Earlier in the week, CITIC Securities, also a state owned company, swapped USD $1 billion worth of equities with Bear Stearns. Both tie-ups are just the latest examples of corporate China’s aggressive international merger and acquisition binge, started back in 2004 when Lenovo bought IBM’s PC business.
But, the ICBC move has an added layer of political complexity: the bank is majority owned by the Chinese government. As a 25 percent shareholder of Standard Bank, the largest bank in Africa, ICBC, therefore by extension China, now has a direct mechanism with which to shape Africa’s finance. And just so happens, Beijing has taken a real interest in Africa as of late, what coincidence! Senior Chinese leadership, including both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have, on separate occasions, led good will tours to the continent. Last November, Beijing organized a two day China Africa summit, attended by leaders of more than 40 African nations.
Most Western observers believe China's foreign policies towards Africa are driven directly by China's voracious appetite for natural resources. A strong Sino-African bond would ensure China's mineral and oil needs are met for the next decade and beyond. Some have gone so far as calling China a “neo-colonialist”, a charge China, of course, vehemently denies. What is undeniable however is China's growing influence on Africa, eerily reminiscent of empire building campaigns undertaken by prior superpowers. Whether China will actually go down that road remains to be seen.
Jay Sheng is Shanghaiist's Business Editor. Email tips, news and gossip about business in Shanghai and China to biz at shanghaiist.com.
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Now that ICBC commit to 20% stake in Standard Bank this sheds new light on the situation with regards to marginalising of SA Chinese citizens at Standard Bank for separate treatment for EE and BBBEE initiatives.
SA Chinese citizens, who also in the past have been historically and previously disadvantaged, are now unfairly treated on grounds of race at Standard Bank.
People do not realise that FACE is of utmost importance in Chinese culture.
Face goes hand in hand with guanxi. Guanxi is the way that business gets done in China.
Face is defined as "having a high status in the eyes of one's peers, and is a mark of personal dignity."
Chinese are "acutely sensitive" to "face" and that losing face is bad.
You can cause someone to lose face by insulting them or criticizing them in front of others.
You cause harm when you attack their personal dignity and treat unequally and this is in contravention of the SA Constitution.
Standard Bank may have realised this but maybe too late.
From the outset when this saga began, all that was asked was for equality and the same decorum to be afforded to all races including minority Chinese at Standard Bank.
The request at that time was to have the same FACE as everyone else, to be included until clarification and not to be marginalised.
This is reinforced by the decisions at all the other major financial institutions to include Chinese pending clarification at the courts with regards to EE and BBEE. This saves face.
Will the ideology of FACE be comprehended?
Who will have face only time will tell?