Opinion China - PAFC’s 2nd Five-Year Plan 2018-2023

And they set the drummer up in a specific location as he had a huge traditional drum that he belted the bejeezus out of. :D
 
I thought/assumed he was. Wasn't it all started in that Essendon 2016 match that was broadcast to China?
This is the dude.

 
The Trials and Tribulations of Marketing a Little Old Blue Collar Footy Club in China

This piece in ‘The Weekend Australian’ by Glenda Korporaal is very relevant to this thread, motivated as it was by the current standoff between Canberra and Beijing - a standoff that is indeed affecting the Port Adelaide Football Club and 1) our quest to improve the Shanghai event at Jiangwan Stadium in 2019, 2) to have it coincide with Australia Week (which was cancelled this year) from which spin-off and connections greatly benefitted the Club in 2017, and 3) the finalisation of an agreement with a certain enormous China state corporation who have pledged funding for the completion stages of the Alberton Oval Precinct Redevelopment.

(NB: I’ve posted this to show that Kochie has done and is still doing his stuff for the Club re China; however he is just one of a team of faithful toilers at both ends. Our deal with Cathay Pacific includes a ‘chunk’ (thanks Fages) of complimentary seats on board CX airliners flying between Adelaide and Hong Kong and then from here via Cathay Dragon into China and back. These complimentary seats are not going to waste. PAFC execs are flying to and fro and in and out constantly.
I have reproduced the article (several days old) edited in places but virtually in full, with my comments inserted in places in brackets or italics, plus my own sub-headings to break up and de-monotonise the text.
It is thus more than just a reproduction. I trust this is within the rules of BigFooty.)

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/bu...p/news-story/2f610ccc10eacf882c595463550b67af

David Koch, Port and China: Sunrise of a special friendship


David Koch: ‘The Chinese place great weight on respect and trust’ Picture: Hollie Adams
  • June 23, 2018
Carting coal to China

‘Adelaide-born television presenter David Koch grew up with his father talking about doing business in China.
“Dad was one of the first Westerners trading Chinese coal,” he tells The Weekend Australian. “He was a coal trader, who worked for an Australian company (R.W. Miller) and then a US company (Kaiser Corp.) trading coal around the world. It was back in the late 70s and early 80s when everyone in China was wearing Mao suits.“He was always talking about his trips to China and his dealings with the Chinese.”
‘The longtime co-host of Sunrise ... Koch is now developing his own business networks with China through his presidency of the Port Adelaide AFL club.’
(Here is an admission that our presidente is using PAFC for his own private business purposes. I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, provided he and other Club directors are honest to their members and to themselves about it.)
‘Koch, whose father played for Port Adelaide, was approached to take on the role of president in 2012 at the near bankrupt club, despite his being based in Sydney.’

A calmer of troubled waters

‘Speaking before flying to Adelaide yesterday for Port’s game against Melbourne last night, Koch outlined how his turnaround strategy for the club had deliberately involved courting Chinese investment and business links.
‘“Watching my grandchildren play Auskick ... in Hong Kong, (2015) where my daughter was living, triggered an interest in expanding into China,” he says.
‘“We started doing business lunches in Hong Kong (2014) and started learning about China.
‘“Then (2015) we started programs targeting Chinese people with business interests in Australia.”
‘This included inviting Chinese business people to watch Port games in the corporate box at Adelaide Oval, assisted by Mandarin commentary, and introducing them to local dignitaries at the games.
This generated a link with Chinese businessman Gui Guojie, the billionaire founder of property group Shanghai CRED, which is a co-investor with Gina Rinehart in the Kidman beef cattle empire.
‘Gui became a major sponsor of Port Adelaide (February 2016) and encouraged the team to play a game in his home town of Shanghai. (MoU signed in Shanghai in April in 2016.) When Port played its second consecutive premiership game in Shanghai against the Gold Coast Suns in May (2018) 6000 Australian fans travelled to China to watch the match.’

‘Port has a full-time staff of seven people, including three Mandarin speakers (now six with two Mandarin speakers) in its Adelaide offices working on its ties with China and the Chinese community in Australia.
‘With the broader business sector in Australia concerned about the potential fallout from the strains in the political relationship with China under the Turnbull government, Koch has been stepping up in his campaign to have sport, through the AFL, recognised as a potential calmer of troubled waters.’

Kochie the lobbyist

‘A panellist at the Australia China Business Council meeting in Canberra this week, Koch argued his case directly to Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, also urging them to reinstate the annual Australia Week in China — an annual visit to China of political and business leaders — which did not go ahead this year.
‘Koch says: “Business-to-business ties between Australia and China are still strong but everyone understands there are political tensions.
‘“Not having Australia Week in China this year was seen by the Chinese as a bit of a snub.
‘“There is a lot more rebuilding to be done than maybe some people in Canberra realise.
‘“There was a clear message from the business people in the audience this week that while some people might see it - tensions in the relationship - as a passing phase, the Chinese are viewing it a lot more seriously. It has got to be a focus for us.
‘“China is our biggest customer. If we don’t have China, we go into a depression.”
‘Koch says several of the attendees at this week’s meeting thanked him for raising issues with the federal ministers attending the conference in a way they felt they were unable to do publicly themselves.’

‘In March last year, Port Adelaide pulled off a massive coup when it arranged for visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to attend a game against the Swans in Sydney during his visit to Australia.
‘Li wore a black, white and teal Port scarf and visited the team dressing room ... Turnbull a red and white Swans scarf.
‘It was a great endorsement by both political leaders of the (inaugural) Port Adelaide-Gold Coast Suns game, which was held soon after in Shanghai.
‘But while the momentum of support for a second AFL game in Shanghai and events around it increased this year, Koch also saw first hand the impact of political tensions with China.’

‘At a lunch with some Chinese companies in Shanghai in February, the Chinese investors said they would not attend if the Australian ambassador was attending. The ambassador decided not to attend and the lunch went ahead.’
(I think this lunch was in March in Beijing not Shanghai. The ‘Chinese investors’ who withdrew at the last minute due to political sensitivities were the ‘enormous China state corporation’ I mentioned in the preamble. They met with PAFC execs the next morning in their head office.)

Soft power

‘Koch believes this year’s Port-Suns game in Shanghai has already provided the basis for a cooling of tensions. The Chinese government formally invited three politicians, federal Trade Minister Steve Ciobo, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall and the Victorian Trade and Investment Minister Philip Dalidakis, to attend at a time when some other senior federal ministers did not seem to be able to get visas.
‘“No ministers had been invited to China for the previous nine months, but the Chinese extended an invitation to those three ministers to come to the game,” Koch says. “In diplomatic circles, it was seen as a massive olive branch from the Chinese, given the recent tensions.”’

‘The game, at Shanghai’s Jiangwan stadium, was preceded by a conference on doing business with China and a trade show of Australian goods in the city.
‘The $4 million cost of taking the two teams to Shanghai was underwritten by corporate sponsors, most of them Chinese companies.
‘“We had about 1500 business people attend the conference and the trade show leading up to the game,” Koch says. “We are not silly enough to think that the AFL is going to be a massive sport in China, but from a business and a political point of view, it is really powerful.
‘“Brand Australia is a very powerful brand in China,” he says. “It stands for a healthy lifestyle, great food, great education and great health services.
‘“It’s plain that both communities are seeing sport and the AFL game in Shanghai as being a way of soft diplomacy and mending relationships, which is great.”’

Rhetoric versus trust

‘Koch says he feels some of the problems in the relationship have stemmed from some domestic political rhetoric used in Australia which has caused problems in China. He feels Australians need to recognise the importance of choosing their language carefully when it comes to operating in China.
‘“There are cultural differences between Australia and China which everyone has to be aware of,” he says. “The Chinese place great weight on the importance of respect and trust. What can seem like an offhanded comment directed at a local market can be interpreted quite differently and a lot more seriously in China.”’

‘Koch says he still remembers the advice of his father. “He always used to tell me, dealing with China is all about respect and trust. If it is there, the Chinese will be there forever.
‘“When dad changed companies, (to Kaiser in San Francisco) all his Chinese customers would follow him because they put such enormous emphasis on personal relationships.
‘“If you build up that level of trust and understand the bonds, the relationship can be incredibly strong. If you break it, it can take a long while to rebuild.”’

‘Koch says his active lobbying for a resumption of Australia Week in China was not based on its being linked to the annual Port Adelaide game in Shanghai, which is scheduled for a third round next year.
‘While he would love it to be part of the lead-up to an AFL game in Shanghai, he says the message he was conveying this week was the importance of reviving the event.’

‘Port Adelaide has set up a joint venture company with the AFL to handle what they both hope is a growing relationship with China, which includes offering some of its expertise in high-performance coaching to Chinese sports organisations.’ (Not sure this is correct. PAFC’s official JV has been under formation for some time with Shanghai CRED not the AFL. ‘Joint venture’ may have been used generically by Kochie with regard to the AFL. Will check the latest on this and advise.)

‘Not everyone agrees with Koch’s arguments, or his promotion of AFL links with China.’

No we Kennet

‘Some old hands in the Australia China business see Koch as a well-meaning but inexperienced newcomer to a complex relationship. Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, president of Hawthorn Football club, has been a critic of the AFL China strategy, calling it a waste of money and saying his club would not play there.’
(Reference to Kennett in relation to a China question is something of an insult. Boo to you Glenda. You have just shot yourself in the foot and undermined your credentials. Hope it bloody hurts.)

‘But the energetic Koch, who juggles his four mornings a week commitment to Sunrise, his Port Adelaide presidency and his private business interests, is just getting started on the China relationship.
‘Port will play again in Shanghai next year and there are suggestions that it could be against a Melbourne team, taking the Chinese connection up another notch. An AFL women’s game is also on the cards for next year.
‘Koch says the China games are attracting attention from other sporting groups around the world as they have been the only games held which are part of the official domestic competition, a big step up from more traditional demonstration games.’

‘Koch says Port is working on putting a five-year China strategy to the AFL later this year.
‘His long-term vision for the annual AFL game in China to be like the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, which provides an opportunity for business people to come to the city to combine conferences and a weekend of sport.’

‘“From a little idea, hatched on the sidelines of an Auskick game in Hong Kong, it has taken us to all sorts of possibilities that we had never dreamed of,” (Koch) says.’
(Not entirely true, bearing in mind Kochie’s grandchildren didn’t start Auskick HK until at least the second year of the China Strategy, but close enough. The first stage of the idea was actually hatched over a beer or three at sundown one weekday at a table in the back corner of the verandah of the Hong Kong Football Club in May 2013, looking out on the lawn bowling green and the slopes of Mount Cameron and Mount Nicholson beyond, when the GM of that club put down his bottle of Phillipine San Miguel and said to me holding my Heineken: “Sounds like a good plan. Why not put it in writing.”
Whatever, it’s a great story
.)
 
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I should learn to read all sections of the Weekend Oz when I buy it. Read the front section, sports section and front page of the other 2 bits of the paper and the review lift out and the magazine.
 
It doesn't matter. What matters is the BigFooty terms of service and what Chief has decided are the rules of this forum.

If Chief is happy for Lockhart Road to essentially reproduce an entire article with his editorial commentary throughout then it can stand, but as it is, after closer inspection, it appears to be in breach of the rules.

Lockhart Road I would suggest getting the green light from an admin before reposting, otherwise I'll have the post removed until an admin gives approval - the content won't be deleted this time.
The aim is to guide users on how to avoid being liable for copyright, and the rules are in response to a period where there was widespread copying and pasting of content.

If a member is happy they are not breaching copyright then it should be fine.

I have no issues with mods being cautious - we can revert the post edits.
 
“He always used to tell me, dealing with China is all about respect and trust. If it is there, the Chinese will be there forever.
O/T: I would have thought this is how you deal with anyone.
 
It just goes to prove, yet again, a rule I have followed all my life: If you don’t speak up for yourself, don’t expect anyone else to do it for you; if you sit still and allow yourself to be shat upon from great heights, you deserve to go through this world recognised as a tiny pile of shyte.

“What’s that tiny pile of shyte over there, Ford?”
“It’s a sad story mate. It’s Lockhart Road. He’s inside there somewhere.”
“Didn’t he used to post awhile back, about China? What happened to him?”
“Well, one day he broke a rule when posting - ”
“No! But he was always such a perfectionist.”
“Yeah. He was. Pain in the rectum, he was. He created the perfect shyte storm one day ... and there he is.”
“How long will he stay there ... under that pile of shyte?”
“That’s up to the Chief.”
“Chief? Chief got involved?”
(sigh) “Oh yes. Chief got involved. And that’s the issue.”
“Issue? Chief sentenced Lockhart Road to spend the rest of his natural life under a pile of shyte?”
(Ford nodding sadly) “Yep. Chief’s like that I’m afraid. He’s a perfectionist, too.”
“Huh?”
“Yep. Chief says that is the most perfect pile of shyte he has ever dropped on any poster ever in the history of Big Footy. He says that pile is going to stay there ... a monument to his perfectionism as a back passage bombardier. Nobody dares to touch it.”
“But what about Lockhart Road? How does he feel about all this?”
“Oh he’s just fine. Edge a little closer, you’ll hear him in there, complaining his arse off. Go on, put your ear down close to the pile. Tell me what you hear.”
(Bending down) “Er, there’s a constant mumbling. A muttering, more like.”
“Can you make it out?”
“Er, I think so ... ‘two hours’ that’s what he’s saying ... ‘two effing hours’ ... ‘and I still can’t get this piece of crap iPad to behave itself ... where’s my bloody typewriter? Somebody find my typewriter!!’
“You’re right, Ford. He’s happy in there.”
“Let’s leave him be.”
Muttering from inside the pile, fading in the distance: ‘Effing techno bloody nology ... ... ...’
It was only a post.
 
It was only a post.
To me Chief it was much more than only a post.
I’ve been working on Port Adelaide in China for just over five years, as a volunteer. This started on BigFooty with the honouring of an army mate who played for Port Adelaide and was killed in Vietnam.
BigFooty provided the unintentional vehicle for this all to get started, then one thing led to another and now look what we’ve got.
It started with a post in March 2013 ... that too was not only a post.
You in fact started it by setting up Big Footy. You should be wholly proud of what you created, and of yourself.
‘Only a post’ ? You might as well say ‘Footy is only a game.’
 
Deja vu all over again ... fifty years later ... god I hope not

Last night I watched the first half of episode eight, season one, of ‘The Vietnam War’ on Netflix. It’s the latest in the Burns series of historic documentary series and, like the others, this one is as authentic as I’ve watched.

I listened again to the recorded words and twisted logic of Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, saw again the evidence of what that twisted logic produced whilst those individuals were in power, and was back there, fifty years ago, in South Vietnam (November 1968 to end July 1969).

This morning I see published this Fairfax interview with Steve Bannon - who I can visualise sittng comfortably in the Oval Office with Nixon, LBJ and McNamara - a (very) few sentences of which I reproduce below:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/a...-china-says-steve-bannon-20180709-p4zqfi.html

‘Australia, you didn't know it, but you've been at the very forefront of Donald Trump's project.
"I think Australia is in a fight for the ages" that will decide whether the nations of the West can keep their sovereignty against Chinese intrusion, says Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon ... ...
"Australia is at the forefront of the geopolitical contest of our time," he tells me in his first interview with an Australian media outlet. He goes so far as to say that "what's playing out in Australia is more important than what's happening in the US and other places".


If we continue on this path we're down, China will control all of the countries of South East Asia and they will control Australia," argues Bannon ... ...
He says that China's advances in Australia persuaded him that the US had to act to defend itself against Beijing's economic advances. ... ...

... ... “Because of Australia's example, it will not happen here in the US," says Bannon. "It will not be allowed to happen. People are woke (sic).”

"You ... are the San Andreas fault between China and the West. These are the two great systems that have built up over 2000 years. You are the representative of Athens and the democratic Western tradition, and China is a Confucian totalitarian system.”

‘And, while Bannon thinks of Australia as having fallen heavily under China's influence, he says Australia can recover because it has "the only people who can match the common sense, grit and determination year after year of the US.”

‘... ... “Australia (is) the civilisational front line against a Chinese Communist Party quest for dominance.’”


.... ..... .....

No no no. Not again, I try to tell myself.
We are not up against our great mates America again.
It’s not the Domino Theory all over again, is it?
Tell me it isn’t so.

Our Club’s quest to promote sports dilomacy in China may well be doomed.
 
Deja vu all over again ... fifty years later ... god I hope not

Last night I watched the first half of episode eight, season one, of ‘The Vietnam War’ on Netflix. It’s the latest in the Burns series of historic documentary series and, like the others, this one is as authentic as I’ve watched.

I listened again to the recorded words and twisted logic of Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, saw again the evidence of what that twisted logic produced whilst those individuals were in power, and was back there, fifty years ago, in South Vietnam (November 1968 to end July 1969).

This morning I see published this Fairfax interview with Steve Bannon - who I can visualise sittng comfortably in the Oval Office with Nixon, LBJ and McNamara - a (very) few sentences of which I reproduce below:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/a...-china-says-steve-bannon-20180709-p4zqfi.html

‘Australia, you didn't know it, but you've been at the very forefront of Donald Trump's project.
"I think Australia is in a fight for the ages" that will decide whether the nations of the West can keep their sovereignty against Chinese intrusion, says Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon ... ...
"Australia is at the forefront of the geopolitical contest of our time," he tells me in his first interview with an Australian media outlet. He goes so far as to say that "what's playing out in Australia is more important than what's happening in the US and other places".


If we continue on this path we're down, China will control all of the countries of South East Asia and they will control Australia," argues Bannon ... ...
He says that China's advances in Australia persuaded him that the US had to act to defend itself against Beijing's economic advances. ... ...

... ... “Because of Australia's example, it will not happen here in the US," says Bannon. "It will not be allowed to happen. People are woke (sic).”

"You ... are the San Andreas fault between China and the West. These are the two great systems that have built up over 2000 years. You are the representative of Athens and the democratic Western tradition, and China is a Confucian totalitarian system.”

‘And, while Bannon thinks of Australia as having fallen heavily under China's influence, he says Australia can recover because it has "the only people who can match the common sense, grit and determination year after year of the US.”

‘... ... “Australia (is) the civilisational front line against a Chinese Communist Party quest for dominance.’”


.... ..... .....

No no no. Not again, I try to tell myself.
We are not up against our great mates America again.
It’s not the Domino Theory all over again, is it?
Tell me it isn’t so.

Our Club’s quest to promote sports dilomacy in China may well be doomed.

You can look it like that...or see Australia as the city on the hill that shows the world that there can be a third way of tolerance and acceptance, where the best of both systems coexists in harmony. And Port Adelaide can be the torch bearers lighting the way.

Besides, Bannon is an Alex Jones level crazy. No one listens to him.
 
You can look it like that...or see Australia as the city on the hill that shows the world that there can be a third way of tolerance and acceptance, where the best of both systems coexists in harmony. And Port Adelaide can be the torch bearers lighting the way.

Besides, Bannon is an Alex Jones level crazy. No one listens to him.
Indeed Bannon is crazy, imbued with his own warped sense of artificial power and rabidly anti-communist just like McNamara et al, including Bob Menzies and Harold All The Way With LBJ Holt half a century in the past.
A few months ago I wouldn’t have given Bannon recognition enough to post anything about him.
But now in Australia it’s the security and intelligence agencies that are calling the shots at the behest of America, not DFAT with whom we were working famously on sports diplomacy since 2015 but who have been emasculated by the ‘listen to Bannon’ doomsday types in Canberra.
How long is this fatalistic unAustralianism going to go on for?
It has already put a major, I mean major, project of ours on hold.
 
May 26, 2017
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Except for more than enough of the US electorate less than two years ago.
Trump's voting base is complex. The key info is that Bannon is no longer in the White House. The "Alternative Right" has lost most of its influence on the Trump Administration. They are still playing, but they are not as relevant as one might be lead to believe.
 
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