Nowhere, sometimes. Remember Rupert Murdoch’s remarks about the Dalai Lama being a strange old political monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes? The whole flap about Chris Patten’s book? Dropping the BBC off Star TV? So where did it get him?
Last week, Rupert stunned the media world by ditching most of his stake in Hong-Kong based Phoenix TV. In dropping from 38% control of Phoenix to 18%, Rupert indicated that a recent string of failures has forced him to scale back his dream of extending his broadcast empire to China.
Now in RupertWorld, a favour given is a business opportunity earned. Not so in China apparently:
…But then Rupert tried to leverage his good relations into revenue, and he over-reached. First, he attempted a back-door takeover of a satellite television channel in Qinghai province. Had the deal gone through, News Corp. would have provided the channel's content (as of now, such News Corp. content as the Mandarin-language Starry Skies channel is limited in China to five-star hotels and approved luxury apartment buildings). A key business partner was Ding Yucheng, son of the former propaganda minister and a proven opener of back doors. Unfortunately, President Hu Jintao then sent his own people to run the ministry that oversees broadcasting, and last year they forced Rupert to unwind the deal.Then, Rupert's top China executives got caught selling programs illegally. News Corp. salesmen peddled a bundle of four channels, including National Geographic, to cable networks in the hinterland even though everyone knows that's not allowed. Since News Corp. couldn't book the illicit revenue, it set up a shell company to launder the proceeds, which generally arrived in cash. After the government learned of the scheme from a whistle-blower, officials raided News Corp's offices and carted away computers and documents. Shortly after that, Rupert declared in New York that his company had hit a "brick wall in China."
Of course, in Britain the necessary rules would have been changed to prevent Rupert from having to face the embarrassment of breaking the law at all. I remember at the time Murdoch was moving into China in a big way quite a few people thought he was making too much of a meal out of all the sucking up and that it would backfire on him. Too much overt grovelling is offensive, since it suggests that the persons being grovelled to actively require it, or are the kind of fools whose response to egregious flattery will be to let themselves be used. It was a dumb thing to do in a face conscious culture. And, it seems, the Chinese were on to him from the beginning:
When Murdoch finally secured a meeting with Zhu Rongji, then one of the country's Vice-Presidents, in 1998, Zhu switched from talking via the interpreter to ask Murdoch a question in English.He had heard, Zhu said, that Murdoch had taken out US citizenship when he wanted to operate a television network in America. Would he consider taking out Chinese citizenship to further his interests in China? Murdoch was clearly taken aback. Zhu watched his reaction for a moment, then turned to his entourage and repeated his question in Chinese - to general mirth.
(note: Zhu was Premier at the time, which is to say No 2 to the Chinese President). Of course, it says nothing particularly good for the Chinese dictatorship that it’s got the common sense not to let a foreign plutocrat muscle in on its territory. Gangsters can be expected to recognize other gangsters, and take steps to protect their turf. It says nothing at all good about Murdoch that he crawls to dictators and barks orders to democratic leaders. And what does it say about the current state of play in the democracies that a plutocrat has to go to a dictatorship to hear the word "no" for the first time?
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