(Ecns.cn) – Chinese businessman Huang Nubo, the country's 161st richest person, says he is still optimistic about concluding a purchase of 300-square-kilometers of land in Iceland, but he is critical of the Western nation's mistrust and fear of China,as he revealed in an exclusive interview with China News Service on Wednesday.
After finding out his application for a land deal in Iceland was rejected on Saturday, Huang was shocked at first, because he considered it absurd. The denial exposed another face of Iceland - the face of its government; one that it put on when dealing with a private Chinese enterprise, and one that is quite different from the positive image this north Atlantic island nation is generally credited with.
Huang said he had special feelings about Iceland, and the majority of local residents are in fact supporting him according to a recent nationwide survey conducted on this issue.
However, the rejection has reflected the invisible trade barriers against China that still exist in many countries, and Huang warned private Chinese enterprises of the difficulties they might be confronted with when braving it abroad.
Motives to buy
Huang Nubo has concluded that the rejection came partly because he was a former Chinese government official and no foreign buyer like him had ever bought so much land in Iceland, but he also revealed there was actually a whole story behind the thing.
Huang's Icelandic connections go back to his student years. In the 1970s, Huang Nubo was a student majoring in Chinese language and literature at Peking University. His roommate Sveinbjornsson happened to be from Iceland. As Iceland is famous for its woolen sweaters, whenever Sveinbjornsson's mother made a sweater for her son, she would always make one for Huang too. Huang, who was orphaned at 13, felt the family's warmth and was moved by this mother's love.
Soon, they became very close friends, and Sveinbjornsson was Huang's source of understanding about Iceland and of the value of literary exchanges.
Years later, Huang found a job at the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee. Once during a work task, he met Sveinbjornsson's wife by chance, who is the former leader of the Social Democrats and former minister of foreign affairs Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir.
In 2003, Huang started his own company, the Zhongkun Group that owns various properties in China. In 2008, such connections earned him opportunities to invest in Iceland, when the country was going through a deep economic crisis an contending with terrible banking problems.
Huang revealed that he was actually invited by the Icelandic government to make an investment. In 2010, Huang donated 1 million yuan ($154,600) to sponsor an annual Sino-Icelandic poetry festival, not a paltry sum in Iceland.
Then Huang sent a team to conduct some research, and on his second visit, he made the decision to bid for a 300-square-kilometer plot in northeastern Iceland for the purpose of turning it into a high-end resort featuring a golf course and hot-air balloon rides.
A favorable turn may be around the corner
A successful bid would have made Huang owner of 0.3% of the total land area of Iceland. However, on Saturday, Icelandic Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson ruled that the deal did not meet legal requirements for land sales to companies outside Europe, and subsequently rejected it. Icelandic lawmakers, aware of China's land acquisition around the world, are concerned that the project could act as a cover for its geopolitical interests.
Huang said Icelandic society now has two different voices, and the majority is giving him support. In a nationwide survey asking local residents whether they welcomed Huang to Iceland, 65.5 percent of respondents chose positively.
The public frustration and disappointment over their government's decision has already reached a certain level, noted Huang. Some local senators have even criticized the Ministry of Interior Affairs openly, and many affected citizens are ready to accuse the ministry of poor judgment.
Zhongkun Group will persist to the end, and it will never give up until soundly defeated and without recourse, added Huang. In the past, many of Huang's other projects have failed to get a footing in the country, and he believes that success comes from the rich soil of repeated failure.
Huang compared doing business to mountain climbing, because what is important for both ventures is to overcome doubts and shortcomings with a strong will rather than counting on external support.
Difficulties to be conquered by Chinese abroad
Huang pointed out that the rejection has reflected the unjust and parochial investment environment facing private Chinese enterprises in the world, which may come from foreign countries' own lack of confidence in, and misunderstanding of, China.
Many foreign countries still believe all Chinese enterprises are government owned or backed, and they have no idea how to handle the issues raised. Usually, they are worried about state safety. This may be a problem that China as a whole needs to address before progress can be made.
Huang mentioned some countries are especially sensitive to Chinese bids for land abroad and counter them with unreasonable exclusivity measures. The Brazilian parliament, for example, is currently debating a bill that would ban Chinese investors from buying land, while allowing US or European firms to own it.
There are still double standards, complained Huang, who questions why "they who close the door on us nevertheless expect our markets to be open to them without restrictions."
