Rich 2G learning to inherit wealth
By Du Guodong (China Daily)
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In the well-known work the Analects of Confucius, China's great thinker Confucius commented: "With education there is no distinction between classes or races of men," emphasizing that education should be equal for everyone, regardless of age, background and social status.

In marked contrast to the old adage, an explosion of high-end training classes tailored for the rich second generation (Rich 2G) appeared recently.

Classes include horse riding, swordsmanship, golf and wine tasting as well as various techniques for steering a company.

Some of the training programs even include pilgrimages to revolutionary sites and visits to the US Military Academy at West Point.

Organizers said they wanted to promote the trainees' noble characters and comprehensive qualities so they could successfully take over their parents' companies and survive in the increasingly fierce market.

Unlike their parents, who went from rags to riches during China's early stages of "opening up", Rich 2G members are often criticized for inheriting huge assets from their parents and are being labeled as a generation with less responsibility and an inclination to indulge in pleasure-seeking.

The courses aimed at getting them ready for the responsibilities ahead are distinguished by their high tuition fees that typically run to tens of thousands of yuan.

Early this year, a training class at Wuxi in Southern China's Jiangsu province, offered 12 weeks of tuition for 668,000 yuan.

Li Fahai, president of Goodidea Management Education Group, told the Beijing News that such training classes started two years ago and have become increasingly popular. But Li said the market is far from mature and the courses are not standardized and lack a systematic curriculum.

Li said there are at least 20 training institutions across the country with the majority in big cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

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He estimated that the market is worth 10 billion yuan and said it will take at least five to 10 years for the market to be fully-fledged.

"Unfortunately, most of the training bodies at present are holding programs merely because they are lucrative. They boast a faculty of famous teachers or top entrepreneurs but the actual situation are usually not the case," he said.

In Beijing, there are at least three well known such training classes, including programs at Peking University, Tsinghua University and Beijing Huashang Institute of Management (BHIM), a training body mainly for private enterprises.

Zhang Peng, a trainee at BHIM, will gr Adidas Superstar        Moncler Jackets    aduate next month after studying since 2008 and spending 48,000 yuan on five days of classes every two months.

"Other than what I learned in class, I cherish most the interpersonal relationships I got from the course," he said.

Another student, Hu Penghui, who has not yet graduated from college, said there are only two girls in the class and most students are in their 20s.

"People are full of misunderstandings now about the Rich 2G," Hu said. "Most of my classmates are not good-for-nothing, they have their own dreams and want to start their own enterprises."

Both were sent to the class by thMoncler Mens Jackets       Vibram Five Fingers Speed eir parents.

Yuan Qingpeng, director of BHIM said that during the next five to 10 years, a total of 3 million enterprises will come under new leadership and as many as 90 percent of bosses of private companies hope to pass their enterprises on to their children.

With the Chinese obsessed with the idea of passing their wealth and property on to their children, and with so many millionaires and entrepreneurs now reaching retirement age, the training courses to prepare the next generation for leadership roles are more popular than ever.

Statistics from the Hurun Report on China's wealthiest people last year show that China has a total of 825,000 individuals worth more than 10 million yuan and 51,000 with more than 100 million yuan.

Beijing has the largest number of wealthy pe       Adidas Shoes        Vibram Five Fingers Bikila

ople in China, with 143,000 multimillionaires and 8,800 billionaires in the capital.

According to Professor Qu Jun, a director of the second generation enterprise training program at Peking University, 95 percent of trainees at the institution were enrolled at the behest of their parents.      cheap adidas shoes            vibram five fingers

He added that in the United States, only 30 percent of family businesses are taken over by the second generation and just 12 percent make it to the third generation.

"In China, the situation is far different and the Rich 2G need to be equipped with the knowledge to run a company and the help they need to achieve their own goals and play a positive role in society," Qu told METRO.

There are mainly three types of training classes in China. Programs by universities are the most common. There are also programs run by non-governmental institutions and government bodies.

"With its burgeoning market, China, at pr    Moncler Mens Jackets          fivefingers 

esent

is in chaos when it comes to such training," said Yuan.

"Because it is easy to make a fortune in the training market, that has spurred many institutions that do not have credentials to vie for a finger in the pie," he said.

Stories of credit card fraud
(China Daily)
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Million-yuan fraud

A man surnamed Shi was broug    Moncler Mens Jackets          fivefingers 

ht to Changping procuratorate in July for credit card fraud involving more than one million yuan.

Shi opened a company in 2007 after quitting his job at a bank. He then bought other people's identity information through a friend and applied for around 100 credit cards.

With so many credit cards in hand, Shi and his gir     cheap adidas shoes            vibram five fingers

lfriend used the money drawn from one card to pay for withdrawals on other cards.

He also applied for a Point of Sales ma  Adidas Shoes        Vibram Five Fingers Bikilachine on behalf of his company and helped other people draw money from their credit cards illegally. By the time he was caught, he had got his hands on more than one million yuan.

Interviewees tricked

A man surnamed Tian was arrested by Xicheng polMoncler Mens Jackets       Vibram Five Fingers Speed     ice in late June after he was found to have overdrawn around 800,000 yuan in other people's names.

In early May, a bank in Beijing reported to the Xicheng police that 92 people who registered with their bank's credit cards had overdrawn a lot of money and all of their contact numbers were fake.

During the investigation, police found that the people all had one thing in common: They had applied for job positions at a healthcare product company since 2009. They all provided their identity cards during the interview but none of them succeed in getting the job.

Tian, the company's legal representative was then arrested. He admitted that his company's business was struggling in early 2009. So he pretended to want to hire someone so he get their personal information and apply for credit cards in their names, pocketing cash to help his company stay afloat.

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Two women were detained by Xicheng police in November 2009 for shopping with other people's credit cards and generating 40,000 yuan from reselling the goods.

The pair, surnamed Zhang and Li, were both in their early 20s and they found that a lot of letters containing credit cards were left at their company reception.

They stole the letters and calleMoncler Coats              Adidas Porsche Design         d the credit card applicants, pretending to be bank employees in need of their personal information. They then used the information to activate the cards.

By the time they were caught, they had stolen 20 cards and activated seven. The mainly bought gold jewelry because it could be easily resold.

More 'credit card slaves' trapped by crushing debt
By Ma Chao (China Daily)
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"The debt collectors are calling me every day. Not too long ago, they even called me at work," said Wang Ying (not her real name).

She said the call to her office was particularly bad, when the debt collectors were told she was not there, they threatened to visit her at work next time in person.

Wang's husband is the reason for the harassment. He is a credit card slave who holds eight bank cards.

She said he got his first credit card in 2005 and has been recklessly applying for more ever since.

In 2008, he used the cards to get his hands on a lot of cash and lost the money gambling. Unable to pay back the debts, he asked Wang to pay them for him.

Wang said she has tried every means, including borrowing money from relatives and friends, and running up her own credit cards, all no avail.

She says it is as much as she can do to pay off the monthly minimum. Now, her cards too are deep in the red. With snowballing interest, the debt of Wang and her husband has grown to more than 100,000 yuan.

She said the debt collectors started calling her mobile phone a few months ago, asking her to pay off her debt.

Then she started getting the calls at work.

Now, she lives in fear.

Wang's story is typical for many "credit card slaves".

Since 1985 when the Bank of China issued the first credit card in the country, the availability of credit has rapidly expanded, especially during the last decade.

The ownership of credit cards has become particularly popular among China's young consumers. As of the end of last year, China's banks had issued 170 million credit cards. It is not uncommon for people to have cards from more than one bank.

With the growing number of credit card holders, however, there have been a growing number of cases of defaults on payment.

According to a blue book on the credit card industry in 2009, issued by the China Banking Association, non-performing credit card debts considerably increased from the level in 2008. The rate of non-performing debts range from two to four percent.

The growing trend showed no sign of slowing down in the first quarter of this year. Credit card holders in arrears have noticeably increased, too.

To reclaim the debts from card holders, some banks have outsourced the tasks of collecting money to companies that specialize in the work. The debt collectors, who get paid a percentage of the debt once it is collected, use various means, including intimidation and deception, to press the debtors.

Pedestrians pass by a self-made poster with big mobile phone number on a Beijing street. Many underground individuals or organizations are providing services of helping people draw cash from their credit cards. [Photo by Wu Changqing / for China Daily]
 

A man, whose Net ID is China Ren, owes around 110,000 yuan to six banks. Last January, he cashed out his cards and used the money to open a computer store and run a few websites. His business, however, has not made a profit and he has not been able to pay the money back.

Last September, Ren's father died and he spent heavily on the funeral. Since then, he has been unable to even pay the minimum payment on his debt and has been forced to default. Now, he receives countless calls from banks urging him to find the money he owes.

Some debt collectors, he said, have used insulting language to intimidate him.

"I felt very depressed every time after I received such a phone call," he said.

Earlier this month, a bank got hold of his girlfriend's phone number and she too has received calls every day.

Intimidated by the phone calls, the pressure has put a strain on their relationship and they frequently quarrel.

"I think I'm a failed man," he said. "I make my girlfriend live in fear. I decided to leave her after thinking over the issue painfully."

A netizen, who goes by the name of QQ Wep, is alMoncler Coats              Adidas Porsche Design         so a credit card slave. She said she once received an SMS from a debt collector stating: "You must call us to negotiate on the matter of debt payment in 24 hours. Otherwise, your fame will be stained because we are going to make an advertisement about your debt in the local newspaper. We'll sue you in court. You will be put into prison and will not be able to find a proper job after your prison term. Your relatives who are sheltering you will take a heavy toll, too. Don't embroil your family in it!"

The bombardment of phone calls is a common method used by debt collectors and, like in the SMS to Wei Ping, the debt collectors often try to involve debtors' family and friends.

Some debt collectors may even seek casual acquaintances of debtors in an attempt to embarrass the debtor into paying.

"I have received a phone call from a debt col    Adidas Superstar        Moncler Jackets  lector and her attitude was very aggressive," said Wu, a white-collar worker who was only targeted because his boss' wife had defaulted on a debt.

Wu said the call made him feel very uncomfortable. "Why were they so truculent with me? I didn't owe money to them."

If making endless phone calls does not work, some debt collectors may try to lure the debtor into paying up through other means.

Many pretend to be lawyers, couriers aMoncler Mens Jackets       Vibram Five Fingers Speed   nd even police officers in order to get information from debtors.

"I have seen with my own eyes debt collectors pretending to be couriers and asking my friend to open the door for them", said Liu, the friend of a woman who owes around 20,000 yuan to a bank. Since a debt collecting company got her number, she has been harassed by phone calls countless times.

On July 1, Zhong Zhaofeng, a white-collar employee who owed 6,000 yuan to a bank, went on a date with a cyber-friend. However, when he arrived at the rendezvous, three men surrounded him and compelled him to go to an office where he was detained until police arrived. The cyber-friend was in fact an employee of a debt collecting company.

Ma Zhizhong (not his real name) once worked for a debt collecting company and was in charge of visiting debtors' residences, including their parents' homes, to ask for payment.

On several occasions, he said, he visited elderly impoverished parents whose children owed thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan to banks. They were all shocked when they heard the bad news.

"The despair and horror on their faces still haunt me," he said.

But Ma said the debt collectors are m    Adidas Shoes        Vibram Five Fingers Bikila

otivated to work hard on chasing down their targets because they can earn handsome profits.

During his first month at the company, most of his colleagues earned more than 10,000 yuan and his boss could make 120,000 yuan a month in bonuses.

Ji, a manager with a credit card center attached to a commercial bank, told METRO that banks usually directly contact debtors initially. They commission debt collecting companies only after debtors have defaulted for more than a year.

Debtors who owe very large amounts to banks for a long time are usually sued through the legal process, Ji said.

METRO called some debt collecting companies based in Beijing that did business under the description of "investigation company", "commercial consulting company" or "law firm". The companies typically asked for 30 percent of the bad debt in commission.

"We'll use proper means and you do not need to worry about l   cheap adidas shoes            vibram five fingers

egal matters," said an employee of Heibao Investigation.

Man Ligang, a legal expert, told METRO that it is legal to commission an agent to reclaim a debt but if debt collecting agencies infringe on debtors' personal freedom or use intimidation, they may be breaking the law.

Wang meanwhile is still living i     Moncler Mens Jackets          fivefingers 

n fear of the telephone.

"I have divorced my husband," she said. "But the banks still call me to pay back the debt."

With a salary that is less than the interest on the debt, she doesn't expect the feeling of fear and helplessness to finish any time soon.