BREAKING: Ma Long & Fan Zhendong boycott CHINA OPEN!

[rainneverever]

No one mentioned ML, XX , FZD's new Weibo posts explaining why they will not go?

 

[NextLevel]

These are temporary . Take it easy .

His point is still valid.

 

[MasterMyself]

No one mentioned ML, XX , FZD's new Weibo posts explaining why they will not go?

Again, same message across all 3 players, too tired from previous consecutive competition. This time, they are not identical like last time, different words but same meaning.

Don't know what this indicates. Perhaps, they have seek a common ground with the leaders, this is not the appropriate time to compete considering all these outstanding issues, and they may not perform well, so its wise to skip it. Could it be a punishment? don't know, but logically, banning your top 3 players from representing your country is just as much punishment to yourself.

 

[MasterMyself]

I think the biggest loser of this might be FZD. ML and XX already achieved what they could. FZD had a great future ahead of him. Now nobody knows what will happen to him.

Under the "new/proposed" regime, he may have benefit less or become less certain on his return of effort so he decided to join force with ML/XX to fight against it.

 

[yourock]

No one is your dear here, please don't give me goosebumps

The best way to avoid goosebumps is not reading somebody's posts after you pretend to be intellectually superior and being sarcastic all the time. The metaphors like "broken phone" and "hero" & "internet police" are judging and arrogant. This forum is not CNN or BBC, I can gossip whatever I want. No one thinks you're funny or superior when all I can see is the sarcasm in your personality.

 

[yourock]

I noticed one of the 3 players mention " I want to recover to my best condition and prepare for the forthcoming National Sports Games. So, at least he would still play at China National Games.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

The best way to avoid goosebumps is not reading somebody's posts after you pretend to be intellectually superior and being sarcastic all the time. The metaphors like "broken phone" and "hero" & "internet police" are judging and arrogant. This forum is not CNN or BBC, I can gossip whatever I want. No one thinks you're funny or superior when all I can see is the sarcasm in your personality.

haha, so you the main guy now, good for you

 

[rainneverever]

Of course all three will play in National Games, where they represent their provincial teams not CNT. ML, FZD and XX were the gold, silver, bronze medalists in the previous National Games 4 years ago. FZD and ZY were MD gold. This year ML and XX pair across the provinces for MD.

BTW, if you know anything about China and the party, you should not be surprised by the foundation of party school of GAS now. July 1 is a big deal. I would say it has nothing to do with the boycott.

 

[Baal]

Of course all three will play in National Games, where they represent their provincial teams not CNT. ML, FZD and XX were the gold, silver, bronze medalists in the previous National Games 4 years ago. FZD and ZY were MD gold. This year ML and XX pair across the provinces for MD.

BTW, if you know anything about China and the party, you should not be surprised by the foundation of party school of GAS now. July 1 is a big deal. I would say it has nothing to do with the boycott.

I didn't at all mean to suggest it had anything to do with the boycott (that idea never crossed my mind). That timing pretty much has to be coincidental. I did mean to suggest things that shine a light on the guy making decisions right now -- his background, tendencies, the kind of rhetoric he uses, the kinds of environments he creates in agencies he heads. As for the players' Weibo comments, can someone link to them, and also, are they allowing comments this time (seems unlikely)?

 

[Baal]

Again, same message across all 3 players, too tired from previous consecutive competition. This time, they are not identical like last time, different words but same meaning.

Don't know what this indicates. Perhaps, they have seek a common ground with the leaders, this is not the appropriate time to compete considering all these outstanding issues, and they may not perform well, so its wise to skip it. Could it be a punishment? don't know, but logically, banning your top 3 players from representing your country is just as much punishment to yourself.

It might be "punishing yourself" if you were the CTTA and interested in sports. If you are someone/something else much more concerned with internal Chinese affairs and maintaining Party discipline and a certain throwback ideology, and if you don't care about sports except as a way to project an image of your Party ideology or to maintain the health of the populace, you might not see it that way. You will not care about the Australian Open. The CNT skips Pro Tour events all the time. This one is platinum to be sure, but again that may not register at all with people making decisions at the moment.

 

[rainneverever]

Actually it is strange that GAS did not have party school before. This suggests that at high level nobody cares about GAS.

This time, the posts of "the three" can be commented and shared. Chen Qi and Wang Hao showed up immediately and people are guessing the players are fine since CQ and WH know more insider news. General people still think they were forced to explain especially ML who was not on the entry list of Australia Open at the first place.

BTW, Ruoh has brought up the rumor that ML's father was involved in a business with LGL's wife or Wang Nan's husband. Ironically, someone in that business stood out today and clarified that there was a totally different person with the same name as ML's father. I know people like to see "secrets" and hear "different voices" and I like gossips and black humors, but I am really sick of stupid rumors.

I didn't at all mean to suggest it had anything to do with the boycott (that idea never crossed my mind). That timing pretty much has to be coincidental. I did mean to suggest things that shine a light on the guy making decisions right now -- his background, tendencies, the kind of rhetoric he uses, the kinds of environments he creates in agencies he heads. As for the players' Weibo comments, can someone link to them, and also, are they allowing comments this time (seems unlikely)?

 

[Baal]

Here is some stuff that interested me.

The GSA has several departments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_General_Administration_of_Sports . One of them is the Party Committee, which they have always had. That is the department that is almost certainly deciding what to do about this whole affair (and they won't be making decisions on the basis of what they think is good for the table tennis as a whole, or really any external considerations).

The Party School, though, is new.

Historically, heads of the GSA have been very high Party officials. This unit is just under the State Council. On an organizational chart, it is sort of the equivalent of an Assistant Cabinet level position in the US (which would be about the same level in the US as, say, Director of National Institutes of Health, or head of the FBI, or head of the Veterans Administration). It is a big agency. It has no equivalent in the US but imagine in the US if you had a cabinet officer in charge of the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and every other sport including the USATT -- not to mention fitness programs for ordinary people, and then put that guy in charge of the US Olympic Committee too! That is Gou Zhongwen's job description. He has zero previous background in sports.

The previous GSA head served for 12 years, a long time for something like that in China, which consistent with what Rain says, is another reason to think that nobody really cared that much --- as long as enough gold medals were won. And so nobody looked too closely at what all was going on.

A couple of years ago, though, just after Xi Jinping came to power, there was wholesale housecleaning at the GSA because investigations found "graft and corruption", which was almost certainly real and pervasive -- match fixing in football and all sorts of other irregularities, some of which are actually pretty funny -- hurdlers who couldn't run, swimmers who couldn't swim, all certified as professional athletes. And a ton of other things that you would expect from an agency with a large budget and massive responsibilities that nobody was paying much attention to. People were clearly taking money right and left.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1631045/corruption-said-be-rampant-chinas-sports-sector

 

[Baal]

Since we are all speculating here, I will add one based on no solid knowledge except my experience with administrative structures in my professional life (and a bit of knowledge of human nature I got from that), and a bit of knowledge about how people get promoted in the CCP. What I am writing below is basically a novel "based on real life", but bear with me, see if it rings true.

This guy Gou Zhongwen is head of the GSA, and has no real knowledge of sports per se, although he was involved in planning for Beijing Olympics. He is a true-believing communist ideologue. He was put into the position partly to clean house after a previous corruption scandal -- and anti-corruption is one of the main themes of Xi Jinping (who has weaponized it). Still, Gou is a bookish guy who knows nothing about sports, and he has to feel a bit defensive about that. That would be fairly normal, especially if this guy has any insecurities at all.

Meanwhile, one of the guys who is in GSA is Cai Zhenhua. He is Deputy Director of GSA for 10 years, and you inherited him from the previous administration. He is a real athlete (former world champion, in table tennis). And imagine that he is frequently in your face, opposing you, subtly making fun of you, and in general pissing you off. I am imagining this part, but this is often how people who know things react to new bosses who don't know things. Some athletes have a special machismo they often use in later life, and Cai Zhenhua is not shy. Easy to see how Gou might hate him.

And suddenly this scandal of table tennis -- Cai Zhenhua's sport. If you are Gou, this is your chance to crush him once and for all. Bear in mind that politics everywhere is a blood sport, especially in China, and there are winners and losers, and up until now Gou has been a winner and he is 60 years old and has been at this his whole life. He may not know a loop from a block but he knows how to get things done within the Party.

Maybe the other damage -- to LGL, CNT, the CTTA, the players, the Australian Open -- everything -- is collateral to that.

I am pretty sure it is not much fun to be an official in the CTTA right about now.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Baal, that is my views too
This is not a CNT player/coach issue, it is beyond that.

The fans who has bashing on small things, if it was all true, surely the big man would use those to bring down his enemy/enemies

Sadly, just like any country in the world, politics and power struggle is real

 

[rainneverever]

Baal, GAS might be the least important dept. Don't assume they get a big budget from the central gov. In fact, 2017 budget is only 3.58 billion CNY. In comparison, Dept of Education got 137.8 billion CNY and Dept of Health/Family Planning got 13.7 billion CNY. I am not saying there won't be money issues with GAS. They earned money from sports lottery, from overhead of prize money and sponsorship and so on. But as I said previously, while CNT is managed by GAS-TT/B center, none of CNT people have a position in GAS-TT/B center (poor CNT and poor LGL! The former badminton head coach Li Yongbo was the director of TT/B center at the same time.)

Is 3.58 billion CNY a lot? Remember we have some arguments about the income of Chinese athletes a while ago? In that report (although I don't trust), Sun Yang earned 0.07 billion CNY in 2016 and ZJK 0.06 billion CNY.

 

[tropical]

Is 3.58 billion CNY a lot? Remember we have some arguments about the income of Chinese athletes a while ago? In that report (although I don't trust), Sun Yang earned 0.07 billion CNY in 2016 and ZJK 0.06 billion CNY.

ZJK made $10mil ... ! woww... such buying power in China is a lot.

 

[Baal]

Baal, GAS might be the least important dept. Don't assume they get a big budget from the central gov. In fact, 2017 budget is only 3.58 billion CNY. In comparison, Dept of Education got 137.8 billion CNY and Dept of Health/Family Planning got 13.7 billion CNY. I am not saying there won't be money issues with GAS. They earned money from sports lottery, from overhead of prize money and sponsorship and so on. But as I said previously, while CNT is managed by GAS-TT/B center, none of CNT people have a position in GAS-TT/B center (poor CNT and poor LGL! The former badminton head coach Li Yongbo was the director of TT/B center at the same time.)

Is 3.58 billion CNY a lot? Remember we have some arguments about the income of Chinese athletes a while ago? In that report (although I don't trust), Sun Yang earned 0.07 billion CNY in 2016 and ZJK 0.06 billion CNY.

The GSA budget may be low, but the activities they control represent huge money. Plenty of money to be made and spread around, and the government wants to control it. The budget allocated does not tell the story, assuming those figures are accurate. Transparency is not something most people associate with CCP rule.

 

[rainneverever]

I agree that power may manipulate money and vice versa. However, it is considered a demotion of Gou Zhongwen from vice mayor of Beijing to the director of GAS.

The GSA budget may be low, but the activities they control represent huge money. Plenty of money to be made and spread around, and the government wants to control it. The budget allocated does not tell the story, assuming those figures are accurate. Transparency is not something most people associate with CCP rule.

 

[rainneverever]

I know it is off topic here and there is a whole thread of the players' income. Bear with me anyways. In a Chinese sports magazine Sports Weekly, 10 Chinese athletes were said to make more than 20 million CNY in 2016, including #1 Sun Yang (69 m), #2 ZJK (60 m), #3 Ning Zetao (swimmer, 35 m), #7 Lin Dan (30 m). I don't trust their estimates because they don't provide categorized income (like prize money and endorsements) and they don't include any soccer players. While quite a few people laughed at my analyses in the other thread.
However, in ESPN's top 100 athletes rankings which consider endorsements, internet searches and social media follows, only three Chinese athlete are on the list: #66 Ning Zetao(endorsements: 1.5 million USD), #71 ML and (endorsements: NA) and #88 Lin Dan (endorsements: NA).
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes
Perhaps this tells something about how differently Chinese media and western media perceive numbers.

ZJK made $10mil ... ! woww... such buying power in China is a lot.

 

[Baal]

I agree that power may manipulate money and vice versa. However, it is considered a demotion of Gou Zhongwen from vice mayor of Beijing to the director of GAS.

No doubt about that. It had to be a loss of face for him. All the more reason for him to be a bit defensive when he took the job, and that could add to problems he has with CZH.