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> Jia has one of those improbable-sounding but strangely common rags-to-riches stories of modern China. Born to modest means in Shanxi province in 1973, the thi
by eCa 11y ago
> Jia has one of those improbable-sounding but strangely common rags-to-riches stories of modern China. Born to modest means in Shanxi province in 1973, the third child of a teacher and a housewife, he landed a job in the local tax bureau in the mid-1990s, according to profiles of him published in the Chinese media.
> He quickly left to start a string of his own businesses, in sectors from coal to mobile phones.
Not necessarily improbable. But incomplete.
1. Low paying clerk job
2. ?
3. Billionaire
- nocsaer1 11y agoSome Chinese are probably wondering the same about Elon Musk.
- bane 11y agoWell, Musk had a company he sold...twice. Jia probably didn't sell the tax bureau to anybody.
- nocsaer1 11y agoReading is tech: He quickly left to start a string of his own businesses, in sectors from coal to mobile phones.
- goodJobWalrus 11y agoYeah, but that doesn't explain that much. What kind of coal / mobile phone business? Where did he get financing? If the business is buying a truckful of coal / handful of phones and going around the village selling retail, he could have gotten finances by himself. But many people do that, and never manage to become billionaires. Or he had access to some serious capital, usually not available to ordinary people. Either way, there is more to explain, how exactly do you go from the tax office to billionaire status.
- boyaka 11y agoI think the fact that he started businesses in those fields is somewhat self explanatory. What's so special about paypal, other than it was there for the rise of Internet 2.0 / ebay or whatever? Getting into coal and mobile phones before the past decade when both of these have exploded in growth is the same kind of thing.
- Jtsummers 11y agoCoal, at least, sounds like something that requires a great deal of upfront capital to establish. A business like Paypal, less so. The hard part for that is tying into payment systems, but that doesn't require a lot of upfront money, more a network effect. So the question remains, where did this initial capital come from?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- rxin 11y agoWhile you might find it hard to believe given all the negative sentiments echoed by Western media, in China there are lots of stories like this. I also know a lot of people that have done it this way. Not necessarily multi billionaire, but definitely rags to riches.
- o0-0o 11y agoLogical fallacy alert!
- hangonhn 11y ago"Jia probably didn't sell the tax bureau to anybody." Well not in the normal sense of "sell"...
- sharetea 11y agoOpinion: probably has strong Chinese government ties
- rdtsc 11y ago2. Corruption Really, that is the default pattern for explaining how clerks with government jobs end up with such riches. Have seen it happen many times in corrupt countries. Judge or prosecutor on a $10k yearly salary builds a mansion house costing $2m+. Even in my own extended family have an uncle who was in the Soviet military, relatively high rank. A few years after fall of the empire ends up with large duffel bags full of $100 bills. Rumor has it, he was implicated in selling SAMs to Syria and other ME countries. There was a trial but you see if you have duffel bags full of $100 bills you don't convicted.
- analyst74 11y agoWhile corruption is rampant in China, a low level clerk at a local tax office can't really leverage his position to do much. Also, getting into business in China a couple decades ago (upto mid 90s) were quite easy, and coal business is one of the more lucrative ones, thanks to the lack of regulations and local competition.
- rdtsc 11y ago> While corruption is rampant in China, a low level clerk at a local tax office can't really leverage his position to do much. It depends, sometimes a low level clerk is a gatekeeper to higher level corruption, like a doorman if you wish. If there is not pre-existent relationship you need someone like that to make the initial contact. There is also nepotism, he could be low level, but because his uncle is high up the chain, he is a good conduit for those wanting to pay a bribe to contact, etc, etc. More examples from a corrupt country. Long time ago, neighbor had a friend at a forensics and paternity testing clinic. He was a low level grunt but was corrupt as heck and was raking in tens of thousands per year both from criminal paying him to "not find evidence" and deadbeat dads and rapists for not finding "paternity" evidence. Talk about scum of the earth... So sometimes rank is not proportional to profit from corruption.
- dragonbonheur 11y agoWHERE IS YOUR PROOF??? It's more likely that ease of access to the Communist Party's information is more directly responsible in his progress than corruption. Why are you equating your family's experience in the USSR to what the Chinese experience anyway? These are totally different countries, experiences and philosophies. The Atlantic has published several articles on Chinese society and government. Maybe you should try and read them.
- o0-0o 11y agoBingo! Communist front.