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Economist reinstated after racist inflation report

An economist at Swiss investment bank UBS will return to work after being suspended for making racist comments about swine fever in China.

It prompted a backlash with one Chinese firm suspending all business with UBS.

Donovan, UBS’ chief economist, said in a June report entitled “Very Normal Inflation” on Thursday that, “Does it matter? It matters if you are a Chinese pig. It matters if you like eating pork in China”.

The report sparked outrage among Chinese netizens and some economists on China’s Weibo and Twitter.

The Securities Association of China (SAC) has listed Donovan an unwelcome individual, and recommended member institutions not to invite him to any event, it said in a post published on its WeChat account on Friday. The association, supervised by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, represents 440 member institutions as of October 2018, according to its website. It also urged UBS to take measures to strengthen its internal compliance to avoid similar mistakes.

Donovan apologized in a Bloomberg TV program on Thursday by saying that “I made a mistake and I unwittingly used hugely culturally insensitive language.”

The Chinese Securities Association of Hong Kong also criticized his behavior as unprofessional, rude and immoral, according to a statement it sent to the Global Times on Thursday. “It hurts Chinese people’s feelings and reveals compliance loopholes, and the apology was insincere,” it said, referring to Donovan’s first apology made during a morning podcast on Thursday in London, which many Chinese netizens seemed not to buy.

Industry insiders said that UBS is taking the matter “very seriously, actively and properly,” setting an example for all foreign firms that want to do business in China.

“[The] institution does not accept Paul’s insults on Chinese people. It also cleared its stance on China: attaching great importance to the market, which is totally different from Paul,” Dong Shaopeng, a veteran analyst who advises the CSRC, speculated.

For the next step, he suggested that Paul should come out to explain the matter and make a “real and sincere apology” to quash Chinese people’s anger.

However, some Chinese netizens still called for a boycott of UBS to teach the foreign firm a lesson.

And another netizen noted that “for an analyst with such an important position in a big company to make such a mistake, an apology can’t fix it. It’s a deeply-rooted biased view.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49898296
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1154326.shtml
What, precisely, was racist about this report?
What animal does pork come from in China? :s-smilie:
Reply 3
Avatar for Rakas21
Rakas21
21
I'm not sure why this report was deemed racist however China's lack of respect for free speech is well known and the response should not be a shock.
How is it racist?
Original post by Rakas21
I'm not sure why this report was deemed racist however China's lack of respect for free speech is well known and the response should not be a shock.

Exactly, not one response to the OP gets why this is supposed to be racist, but whatever, I guess that's in the eye of the Chinese beholder and they have their "reasons". Though I also fail to see what China's view of free speech has to do with this one anyway. No one in the west ever officially defends racist talk on free speech grounds do they?

But suppose it had been a report on a big case of bird flu drastically slashing chicken stocks in the US. Supposing they'd said "It matters if you like eating chicken in the US" - would that have been called implicitly racist, hmm?

Meanwhile just for interest I looked up the definition of "netizen":

"a user of the Internet, often one who is actively engaged in uncensored online discussions of political and social issues"

(1) Who doesn't use the internet these days? Yes I know lots of people in the world still don't, but given that responses to this online comment were also bound to have been heard online or not heard by us at all, there's no point in the tautology involved.

(2) Show me any truly "uncensored" forum anywhere in the world? TSR certainly isn't, threads get locked all over the place and even "disappeared" without notice or trace within minutes of being started (not that it's ever happened to me)
Original post by AngeryPenguin
An economist at Swiss investment bank UBS will return to work after being suspended for making racist comments about swine fever in China.

It prompted a backlash with one Chinese firm suspending all business with UBS.

Donovan, UBS’ chief economist, said in a June report entitled “Very Normal Inflation” on Thursday that, “Does it matter? It matters if you are a Chinese pig. It matters if you like eating pork in China”.

The report sparked outrage among Chinese netizens and some economists on China’s Weibo and Twitter.

The Securities Association of China (SAC) has listed Donovan an unwelcome individual, and recommended member institutions not to invite him to any event, it said in a post published on its WeChat account on Friday. The association, supervised by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, represents 440 member institutions as of October 2018, according to its website. It also urged UBS to take measures to strengthen its internal compliance to avoid similar mistakes.

Donovan apologized in a Bloomberg TV program on Thursday by saying that “I made a mistake and I unwittingly used hugely culturally insensitive language.”

The Chinese Securities Association of Hong Kong also criticized his behavior as unprofessional, rude and immoral, according to a statement it sent to the Global Times on Thursday. “It hurts Chinese people’s feelings and reveals compliance loopholes, and the apology was insincere,” it said, referring to Donovan’s first apology made during a morning podcast on Thursday in London, which many Chinese netizens seemed not to buy.

Industry insiders said that UBS is taking the matter “very seriously, actively and properly,” setting an example for all foreign firms that want to do business in China.

“[The] institution does not accept Paul’s insults on Chinese people. It also cleared its stance on China: attaching great importance to the market, which is totally different from Paul,” Dong Shaopeng, a veteran analyst who advises the CSRC, speculated.

For the next step, he suggested that Paul should come out to explain the matter and make a “real and sincere apology” to quash Chinese people’s anger.

However, some Chinese netizens still called for a boycott of UBS to teach the foreign firm a lesson.

And another netizen noted that “for an analyst with such an important position in a big company to make such a mistake, an apology can’t fix it. It’s a deeply-rooted biased view.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49898296
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1154326.shtml

Please stop these ridiculous posts. Getting a dictionary would be an idea too ..

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