Worldwide Commentaries: Eutelsat’s Bowing to the Pressure from Beijing will Harm Global Investors' Interests

Part 1

According to a report on the website of Reporters Without Borders on March the 15th, 2005, bowing to Beijing’s pressure, Eutelsat will stop broadcasting the programmes of the New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV.) It was reported that since its subsidiary NSS started to broadcast the NTDTV’s programmes to Asia, China included, on July the 1st, 2003, the Paris-headquartered Eutelsat Satellite Company has been repeatedly threatened by the Chinese Communist regime demanding to cancel all the programmes provided by the NTDTV.

The report also indicated that as the Chinese regime spent a huge amount of money to broadcast the programmes produced by the Central Chinese Television (CCTV) in many channels via thirty satellites around the world, China has become a leading client for these satellite companies. Thereby, the Chinese regime is able to take advantage of business interest to threaten Eutelsat to completely stop broadcasting NTDTV’s programmes. When a French prosecutor was first investigating the case, a lawyer defending for Eutelsat also said that the reason for Eutelsat’s refusal to renew the contract with the NTDTV was because of business interests.

Now that business interest is a major concern for both parties, I would like to offer my analysis on Eutelsat’s deal with China from the angle of investment return to see if it is really worthwhile.

I. The success of foreign investment in China lies in getting real-time information about China’s investment environment.

All the investors, regardless of whether they majored in business administration or not, should know very clearly that before one has decided to invest in a foreign country, he must first size up the investment environment and collect all the information relating to that country’s economic and investment risks. After investing in that country, the investor should be fully informed of all kinds of information relating to that country so that he is able to grasp business opportunities once the investment environment is improved, or minimise his business loss if the investment environment is deteriorating, or even immediately withdraw his capital from that country altogether when the investment environment becomes critical in order to avoid going bankrupt.

When talking about foreign investment risk indexes, there have been at least 300 different kinds of professional economic indexes around the world, such as the World Bank’s “World Business Environment Survey “(WBES), the Transparency International’s “the Corruption Perceptions Index” (CPI), the Institutional Investor’s “Sovereign Rate,” the PRS Group’s “International Countries Risk Guide,” the Price Waterhouse Cooper’s "Visibility Index" and many other professional economic indexes. Regardless of whichever you may refer to, it can only help you size up that country’s investment environment and the risks from the angle of politics, economy, society, people’s livelihood and morality, etc.

All the information relating to a country's political system, economic policy, social security and crime rate, legal policy, judicial fairness, bureaucratic corruption degree, banking policy, currency circulation, per capital income, compulsory education system, infectious diseases, etc. is a concern of foreign investors. Many investment risk indexes are based on the moral standard of the government and its people, such as bureaucratic corruption degree, crime rate, social security, judicial fairness, etc. because these factors can ensure whether your investment is properly protected, whether your business proceeds can be collected and whether the foreign exchange rate is stable. Other risk indexes include your employee’s security, the level of your company’s premium and other important issues such as share holding, merger, acquisition, ownership transfer, etc.

Even if you may get all this critical information eventually, without up-to-the-date information about the society, as jargon in marketing puts it, your investment is very likely to become a worthless “lemon” overnight.

And then here comes the problem; “Will the Chinese regime publicise all this information as the countries with high-degree transparency?

It seems that there has been an argument like this going on: “The CCP did do something bad in the past, but we need to look at the future, and let bygones be bygones.” Now what happened fifty years ago may be put aside temporarily, let us examine the credibility of the so-called ‘new generation leadership of the CCP’ by looking at something happening in the last two years.

In 2002, when the deadly SARS epidemic broke out in Southeast Asia, China was the only country that covered up the facts about the epidemic, but it turned out that China was the country hardest hit by SARS. While condemned by the global mass media, it still tried to cover up the facts and declined the visit of WHO personnel and made up false statistics. Among all the SARS-affected countries, China was the only country that claimed to have a “less-than-5-percent monthly infection rate.” That being the case, the scenario would be that the Chinese authorities first set a fixed infection rate of less-than-5-percent, and then asked SARS viruses to carry out its order according to the fixed statistics. What’s funnier is that the SARS viruses would be even more obedient than the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. What an incredible phenomenon.

In North America, I have personally watched a piece of TV news provided by the CCTV, which would make all medical professionals in the free world burst into laughter. In the footage, a pretty Chinese girl with charming smile claimed that after contracting SARS, she was cured by a Chinese hospital easily, and she also said that contracting SARS was not a big deal in that it was something like coming down with a cold.

The objective of all these lies and cover-ups is to avoid affecting foreign investment in China. Currently, Korean TV series "Dae Jang Gum" has been fairy popular around the world. Though the audience might not be familiar with the knowledge about epidemic prevention, after watching this Korean TV series, they would know that covering up the facts about the epidemic could lead to people’s ignorance of the deadly disease and thereby worsen the situation. Disregarding people’s lives, the Chinese government covered up the facts about SARS nationwide. When WHO personnel visited China, the Chinese authorities even deployed a large number of police to forcibly take off pedestrians’ masks to affect the result of the survey conducted by WHO personnel.

As the Chinese regime regards the green grass above people’s lives, do you think it would have any creditability? Now that the Chinese regime would even cover up information critical to the lives of such a large population nationwide with false data, simply because it wants to attract foreign investment, what do you think would not be falsified by the regime? Would you believe in the information it provided to foreign investors? Do you think the incentive initiatives provided by such a government may last long? For more information, please refer to the following reports:

[2] Ministry of Commerce of PRC will End “Super National Treatment” to Foreign Investments.
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/6/24/n577961.htm (in Chinese)
[3] Guo Shuqing Indicates that China will Review Its Unlimited Export Support Policy:
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/3/20/n857472.htm

Some businessmen believe that they will be safe and sound as long as they build good rapport with officials and gangsters. However, today’s China is no longer the “Shanghai Beach” in the past. After the complete breakdown of Chinese traditional social ethics, officials or gangsters do not think highly of loyalty to their friends as they used to be, neither do they have the concept of sustainable management. As a business investor, you should know, “remembrance of things past” many only confuse your rational judgement and become a fatal threat to your investment. Faced with a society where people are ready to kill the hen that lays the golden eggs, living in a situation as if they would die today in China nowadays, may we remind you to judge with your keen business acumen----Are people living here aware of the tremendous crisis that Chinese society is now confronted with? And do they deal with people in a way that is seemly to gamble with their lives?

Part 2

II. Do you know about the following big news?

There’s no denying that without sufficient reliable information about investment in China, many foreign firms still invest in China, in view of the wave of China-bound investment fever. As a matter of fact, a lot of developing and developed countries have made investments in China more or less. As stated above, a country’s economic development lies in many factors. Take one simplest thing for example. The Asia stock plummeted when SARS first broke out in Asia. Therefore, getting up-to-date news about Chinese society, to global investors, is critical to their business decisions in the future.

Take one more thing for example. According to the CCP’s internal sources, China takes up one-fourth of its national annual revenue into persecuting Falun Gong cultivators, in order to maintain the hatred toward Falun Gong and to cover up the facts of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. There are currently 1.3 billion people in China. According to an official investigation before 1999, there were about 70 to 100 million Falun Gong practitioners. (This figure is not fabricated by Falun Gong practitioners. As a matter of fact, there’s no roster in Falun Gong. So there’s no way to calculate the exact number of Falun Gong practitioners.) According to New Tang Dynasty TV, a lot of Falun Gong practitioners, either in prison or under house arrest, are under surveillance by a couple of people twenty four hours a day alternately.

Numerous Falun Gong practitioners have been killed by the Chinese Communists regime, and some Falun Gong practitioners have been forced to give up their belief in order to survive. Therefore, according to our conservative estimation, there are at least half of them still practising Falun Gong, and then the number of practitioners would be fifty million. If we make a roughly estimation, the Chinese Communist regime has to hire fifteen million people to monitor and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. In addition, China has spent tremendous amounts of money to develop state-of the -art technology to suppress Falun Gong. Take the “Golden Shield Project” for example. China has spent several billion U.S. dollars setting up a system to monitor the Internet in China in order to prevent the exposure of the facts about the persecution. In this context, the news from the CCP’s internal sources that China takes up one-fourth of its national annual revenue into persecuting Falun Gong cultivators is quite believable.

Personally I believe: Even though we are not economists, we can imagine that foreign firms are not to throw their money into a bottomless pit once they get such a message. It’s easy to understand that such an economy is going to collapse at any time soon.

In fact, a lot of foreign investors have been trapped in an abyss of loss in China due to a lack of sufficient accurate and timely information. They have no choice but to continue to stay because they have yet to recover the cost of their investment. Those capable of withdrawing from China are proceeding with it silently for fear that the Chinese authorities may notice it and stop them from going away. My third elder sister is talented in mind reading. She once said, “The rich are afraid of being known to be rich while the poor are afraid of being known to be poor.”

By the same token, a plenty of companies in China are not profitable; however, they will never reveal the fact. Instead, they withdraw their capital from China quietly. Once it is known to many others, the Chinese Communist regime may take immediate action to “kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” If that is the case, they may not be able to withdraw from China. After all, without doing business in China, foreign firms may need to run business in other countries. If the information about their failure in China spread to the outside, other companies in the field may regard it as a financial crisis. With that, the foreign firms may really fall into a dismal abyss. Nevertheless, in ordinary media reports, you can only see the tip of the iceberg:

[4] Foreign Capital Withdraws from China’s Electric Power Market One after Another
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/12/22/n756096.htm
[5] Hu-Wen Concern about the Negative Growth of Foreign Investment in China
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/1/9/n445403.htm
[6] China’s Media: About Half of Foreign Firms Withdraw from China
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/1/4/n768714.htm
[7] About 90% of New IC Companies in China may Disappear
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/10/16/n692285.htm

Part 3

At present, only the NTDTV and the Epoch Times have the courage to report the facts that are critical to the investors worldwide: The Chinese Communist regime has allocated one quarter of its treasury income to the carry-out and the subsequent cover-up of the persecution against Falun Gong.

One quarter of the treasury income! This is the most crucial information. Compared with other individual scandals, this single piece of information directly pinpoints the most outstanding vulnerability of the investment environments in China. Without such critical information, investors are very likely to continue dumping money without obtaining any return.

Furthermore, China’s economy is closely tied with politics. Since the new Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Hu Jintao, just took the position not long ago, investors worldwide are paying closest attention to the changes of China’s political circle and the monetary flow of its treasury.
In the aspect of CCP’s monetary flow, NTD TV continued to track and report the corruptions of high-level officials in the CCP, and how these corrupted officials would support their livings after they slip away from their posts. A series of reports link up numerous individual cases to provide an overview about the real situations. A solid status analysis and assessment is then made possible for the investors to grasp the actual trend of China’s finance so that they can make right decisions.

More importantly, the NTD TV also provides news coverage about the political situations of the CCP, such as the widespread reading of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” and the surging wave of “Resignations from the Party” in China. These self-initiated civil movements have been reported by the NTD TV since December 2004. By April 4, 2005 when the article is written, there have been 660,000 people proclaiming their withdrawal from the Communist Party. What deserves to be mentioned is that almost all of the people that proclaimed withdrawal from the Party are residents in China. Many of them are regarded by the CCP as voluntary withdrawal from the Party as they haven’t their party premiums for years. In addition to the proclamation of withdrawing from the Party, a lot of people also declared resignations from all of the organisations related to the CCP, such as the Communist Youth League and Early Youth Pioneer Group.

In other words, there are several hundred thousand people that turn down the CCP and refuse to have any connections with it. The daily head-count of people withdrawing from the CCP increases rapidly to more than ten thousand every day. Following the trend, it is very likely that the Chinese Communist regime may collapse within a year. Such news is very crucial to investors worldwide. Quite unusual is the fact that there is no news media that tracks and reports this constantly other than the NTD TV and the Epoch Times. What makes people even suspicious is why China picked the present time to threaten Eutelsat to terminate its contract with the NTD TV. What does the CCP try to cover up? What kind of major political or economical crises the Chinese Communist regime is facing so that it resorts to all measures it can take to strangle NTD TV’s satellite broadcast? What impacts the fervours of reading “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” and widespread “Resignation from the Party” will cause to the investors worldwide? The author believes upholding NTD TV’s freedom of information is equivalent to upholding your business interest.
Since 1999, CCP’s continuous waste of the national resources in persecuting religious groups, its degeneration and corruption, and the destruction on natural environments have worsened China’s internal crises prominently. There has been a widespread trend of an anti-Communist Party in China. The influence of such a trend on investors is getting more and more significant.

Part 4

When it comes to all the top notch TV stations in the world, especially those in Asia, there are few TV station without programmes relating to economic analysis. “Money-Orientation” has been a global trend, which makes economic analysis programmes very popular. In terms of economic analysis programmes, the audience is very anxious to get something directly from financial investment experts, such as the names of the shares recommended by them, where and when to do their investment, etc.

However, NTDTV not only keeps reporting important events in China that have much to do with foreign investor’s interest, but also providing thorough analyses of global economic trend in its “Weekly Economic Review” programme. It analyses and predicts western and China’s long-term economic trend from the macroscopic point of view, including politics, people’s livelihood, economic policies, society, major events, etc., instead of pleasing audience with claptrap on short term trading. Its economic analysis programme is unique in that NTDTV’s objectives are “looking into the facts” and “serving the public.” Especially today when China’s politics, economy, society, people’s livelihood, etc. are in a turmoil situation, NTDTV’s “Weekly Economic Review” provides global investors with intact, far-reaching and real information about the economic situation in China. Hence, if Eutelsat is really concerned about its business interest, I sincerely suggest that Eutelsat put global customers’ interest into consideration, especially Asian customers. As a result, Eutelsat’s business will be more and more prosperous after renewing the contract with NTDTV.

III. NTDTV is the only media free from political affiliation.

Some may think: Without NTDTV, we can still watch programmes provided by the TV stations outside China, because other democratic countries should have freedom of speech!

Let’s analyse China’s and western Media respectively. Talking about the Chinese-language media, let’s take Taiwan for an example. It is obvious that every medium has different influences from different political parties. Thus the media’s reports may be influenced by different political parties as different party may have different political interest. For instance, the so-called pan-blue coalition is closer to the CCP, and many politicians in the pan-blue coalition have investment in China. On the other hand, the pan-green coalition does not want to openly have conflicts with the Chinese Communist regime at this stage.

As I can recall, a TV forum programme in Taiwan “Double Beauties in the Line of Fire” once invited a famous western commentator to commentate on Taiwan’s media ecology during the New Year vacation. An American comedian who was famous for imitating American president George Bush on Taiwan TV programmes said that even an American like him can tell which media sided with which political party. For example, some media may purposely regard some important news as less important ones, and report them at the end of the programme, or without reporting them whatsoever!

Due to political and economic reasons, even the media in a democratic country like Taiwan, some news regarding the CCP or significant social events taking place in China may not be reported, or reported plainly. This kind of things even happens in Taiwan, let alone the rest of Asian countries that maintain diplomatic ties with China.

As to western media, though they have mandarin-speaking reporters stationing in China; however, due to cultural differences, it is difficult for them to really understand China’s social situation. The Chinese people who want to tell the truth cannot get in touch with foreign reporters with China’s stringent surveillance. In fact, as we all know that there are two kinds of occupations difficult for foreigners to reach the top-notch positions. One is marketing, and the other is mass media. Though some foreign reporters might break through the barriers successfully, but generally it is hard for the mass media to be informed of the local situation without hiring local people to be their reporters.

Part 5

NTDTV is indeed an independent media, not only because of its independent funds, but because of the fact that it is not controlled by any political party.Therefore its news reports are not restricted by others. Simply based on the principle of “seeking facts,” NTDTV brings facts to the audience and regards service to the public as its objective. Since its establishment in 2002, NTDTV has built its image as “seeking facts” and “having the guts to tell the truth,” and has successfully recruited many people with lofty ideals in China to secretly report big events in China. With NTDTV’s reputation, many people who want to expose information about big events in China thus come to NTDTV gradually. Through the safe channels provided by NTDTV, they ask NTDTV to speak with justice. In addition to the facts that NTDTV does not have any political burden and has the guts to tell the truth, because its reporters are from the same ethnic group and speak the same language, NTDTV can really provide global investors with up-to-the-moment information about the significant events that may affect investors’ interest in China.

IV. Eutelsat wants to be a hero, or sign a “Munich Pact” to strangle NTDTV’s freedom of press?

In September 1938, Germany, England, France and Italy signed the notorious “Munich Pact” in Munich, a city in southern Germany. The four countries agreed to cede the Czech Sudetenland and a southern Czech territory adjacent to Austria to Germany. In return, Germany would guarantee not to invade the territory of any other European countries. Right after the Munich Pact, Germany had broken its words. Finally, many countries had suffered deadly attacks through World War II to end Germany’s Nazi Party.
To date, people can not but chide England, France, and Italy for signing the “Munich Pact” with Hitler, when talking to this period of history. If they had not colluded with Germany, then World War II would not have taken place..

On the contrary, if England and France had made a quick decision to eliminate Germany immediately at that time, then leaders of these two countries would have become heroes in history, and people would forever revere them with the highest honour.

Similarly, if Eutelsat chooses to terminate the satellite contract with NTDTV and sign a “Munich Pact” at expense of NTDTV’s freedom of press, regardless of being tempted by money from China or threatened by China, the action may make global investors unable to know the up-to-the-moment information that may affect their investment in China. That being the case, global investors are very likely to ask Eutelsat to take responsibility for it by then. What’s even worse, based on the Chinese regime’s credibility and outlook, the deal is very likely to be cancelled or become invalid.

Judging from the facts that currently many high-ranking Chinese officials and managers often embezzle as much as billions of dollars of cash and fled overseas, if Eutelsat terminates the contract with NTDTV, the impact on global investors would be astronomical.

Part 6

[8] "High-ranking officials in a Chinese Securities Company Embezzles Company Money and Are on the Run", http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/2/23/n822763.htm
[9] "Two High-ranking Officials of People's Bank of China (PBOC) Ran Away With One Billion Renminbi", http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/1/24/n791261.htm
[10] "PBOC Officials Suspected of Embezzlement Escape To Canada,"
http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/2/6/n806288.htm
[11] The "President of China Construction Bank Resigns for Suspected Corruption,"
http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20050316/bch110322.asp?page=article_front_gb_bch
[12] "Bank of China's Scandal Clouds Its Prospect in Stock Market,"
http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20050404/bch105135.asp?page=article_front_gb_bch

As a saying puts it, every debt has its debtor. Those who suffer losses may always want to seek revenge. At that time, Eutelsat will likely face legal lawsuit for compensation from angry investors around the world.
On the other hand, if Eutelsat chooses to protect the interests of global investors and bravely safeguard the NTDTV's freedom of press, it might likely become the most respected satellite company and establish an ever-lasting reputation in the world.

We hope that Eutelsat can carefully study the pros and cons and see which is more worthwhile: Sign the new "Munich Agreement" and be repelled by the world? Or protect the interests of the NTDTV and global investors' interests and win the world's respect?

We also hope our viewers will think about the question: if the NTDTV, which has the courage to report first-hand important news about China, is off the air, whether your investment in China will suffer unforeseeable loss?

Sources:
[1] "Reporter Without Borders: Eutelsat To Stop Sending Signals for NTDTV Under Beijing's Pressure," http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12857
[2]"Central News Agency (CNA): PRC's Ministry of Commerce Will Forbid "Ultra Citizen Treatment" for Foreign Investors,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/6/24/n577961.htm
[3]"CNA: Kuo Shu-ching Says China Will Review the Policy of Supporting Export Without Limits,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/3/20/n857472.htm
[4]"CNA: Foreign Capital Flows Out of China's Electricity Market,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/12/22/n756096.htm
[5]"Dajiyuan: Hu, Wen Concerned With Declining Foreign Investment,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/1/9/n445403.htm
[6]"Dajiyuan: China's Media Report That Nearly Half of the Foreign Capital Flows Out of China,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/1/4/n768714.htm
[7]"CNA：90 Percent of IC Start-up Companies in China Might Disappear,"
http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/4/10/16/n692285.htm
[8]"Free Asia Radio：High-level officials in a Securities Company in China Embezzles Company Money and Are on the Run" [8], http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/2/23/n822763.htm
[9]"Broadcast Corporation of China (BCC)：Two High-Level Officials of People's Bank of China (PBOC) Ran Away With One Billion Renminbi
http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/1/24/n791261.htm
[10]" Free Asia Radio：PBOC Officials Suspected of Embezzlement Escape To Canada,
http://www.dajiyuan.com/b5/5/2/6/n806288.htm
[11] “Wall Street Journal: President of China Construction Bank Resigns for Suspected Corruption," http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20050316/bch110322.asp?page=article_front_gb_bch
[12] "Wall Street Journal: Bank of China's Scandal Clouds Its Prospect in Stock Market,
http://chinese.wsj.com/gb/20050404/bch105135.asp?page=article_front_gb_bch