The Far Eastern Economic Review argues (soon to be subscriber only) that Yang Bin may have injured his natal government's pride by drawing up the deal behind their back, and that the Chinese gov't "also appears to be concerned about Yang's business reputation and uneasy at the prominent role that he has been given in Sinuiju, where he will have full legal, financial and administrative control."
An earlier article about him from the FEER (subscriber only) described him as a wheeler-dealer who in 1989 portrayed himself as a key pro-democracy activist in the Netherlands to get asylum, subsequently using his time there to build up contacts to launch his investment projects in China. Now he presents himself to his investors as a
cosmopolitan Dutch citizen whose business interests are registered in Bermuda and whose wife and children live in the Netherlands.Sounds like a crook, huh?
In Shenyang, by contrast, Yang is an exemplary insider. A former naval officer, he brandishes photos of himself with top state leaders. He has such close ties with local authorities that prison workers are digging the sewer system in Holland Village, his $360 million property and theme park project that is as mysterious as it is bizarre. Given the jitters that the private project causes among investors in his public company, it's little wonder Yang likes to keep the two separate.
"I don't want investors to know much about Holland Village," he says as he bounces a muddied jeep across the work site on the outskirts of Shenyang, capital of China's northern rustbelt. "They would think it's too risky."
In many ways, the two sides of Yang are the two sides of business in China, one transparent and trusty, the other secretive and risky. It's the "other side" that often comes as a nasty surprise to foreign companies and investors keen to hitch their wagons to the likes of Yang.
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