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Oilman moves in to spur US Expo saga
By David Maguire |
May 10, 2009, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Texas oilman who was born in Shanghai and has boldly offered to completely finance the US$61 million US pavilion at World Expo 2010 has a clear and simple motivation for doing so.
"I just want to make a contribution to both the United States and China. At my age, I am only 88 years young, I can't take it with me. In my life, I've always been very generous in making contributions to both countries," James Chiang (pictured below) said in his Shanghai office this week.
The US pavilion saga is sounding sorrier as the weeks go on and the time runs down before Expo starts on May 1 next year. The official US organizer, the non-profit Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion, has the development rights but has limped through two missed deadlines as it valiantly struggles to raise funds from US organizations in the absence of any government support.
Chiang and his co-investors have offered to pay for the project on the condition that they run the business. But the right to do so has to be officially ceded to him with the support of the Expo authority.
"I am prepared to contribute US$100 million, that's more than enough," Chiang said. "It's a limited site so actually US$50 million should be enough but with cost overruns, maybe another US$10-20 million. My plan, most urgently, is to get the American national pavilion together and we have no time to waste. I am thinking constructively and not criticizing anyone.
"I suggested yesterday to the Expo authority the best way is to invite both parties to sit face to face with Expo and sign an agreement. That's the most realistic solution. Just talking is getting nowhere and is wasting time. We're waiting for their response," he said.
"We've done everything possible to raise the issue by Chinese channels, in Washington and by writing letters to congressmen.
"I've made it very clear that I have no personal motivation except to make a contribution with money, with effort, with my experience. It's just so clear and simple - let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
Chiang, the son of a Shanghai postmaster, moved to Taiwan in 1946, having attended the city's prestigious St John's University, "the best in China back in my days," and was accepted for further study in the US in 1952. He attended East Texas Baptist College in Marshall where he became friends with Lyndon B. Johnson, future American president, and his wife Lady Bird Johnson.
He lived in Marshall for more than 30 years and raised a family of six children, working in the oil industry as a prot??g?? of legendary oil tycoon H. L. Hunt.
"He was then the richest man in the world and picked me out to join him to drill oil wells," Chiang said. "Hunt called me one day and said, 'Jimmy, you bring a cheque to me for US$10,000. I have a well that's really promising, cannot miss.' It scared me to death because everybody in east Texas talked the same way.
"Somebody had an oil well in the backyard but the chances of a hit were not very good, maybe one out of 20. I couldn't sleep all night - I wasn't worried about whether he would cheat or lie to me, but maybe he would make a mistake like everybody else. And if he made a mistake it didn't matter, maybe he could write it off to tax.
"But a poor boy like me, I only had US$50,000 in the bank which was all my savings and I had a family of six children. Anyway, I trusted him, gave him the cheque and a few hours later right after lunch he called me saying 'you son of a gun, you're lucky, we hit it' and everybody was so happy."
Chiang was made an American citizen through a special act of Congress in 1961 sponsored by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson and now lives in Los Angeles. He's still in the oil business - "Once you get in you can't get out, oil's still coming out, how can you stop it?" - with wells mainly in Texas but also in other locations through his Grynberg Petroleum Company.
The interview at his large ShanghaiMart Office tower suite is peppered with proud anecdotes amassed over decades involving the likes of Johnson, Bill Clinton, congressional leaders and Chinese leaders. His office walls are packed with photos of him with the famous and powerful.
Chiang is not unaccustomed to the travails of funding Expo pavilions, having been the sole owner of the US$30 million Texas Pavilion at the two-year New York World Fair in 1964-65 and he empathizes with the official group's dilemmas.
He has spoken on separate occasions with its co-chairpersons Ellen Eliasoph and Nick Winslow. "Ellen said she'd let me be the commander-in-chief and she'd work for me. I said fine, please put it in writing, twice, but so far no writing, just verbal. And Nick Winslow said something similar but so far no letter," he said.
"I am doing everything to compromise, to make any kind of deal as long as somebody's started the building because it takes at least six months to complete, day and night, three shifts a day, and that's to the end of this year.
"They've hired a public relations company to put out nice words. That's spending money, not raising money. It's not really practical. I wish they would concentrate on raising money because so far there's been no concrete result.
"If they can't make the deadline then maybe we should build a private Sino-US pavilion, not a government one, and I have overseas Chinese worldwide that are supportive. Just don't let the land reserved for a national pavilion be wasted, it looks bad."
Chiang said that as long as the fund-raising process drags on he fears it will become physically impossible for anyone to take over and build a pavilion.
"Chinese have an old saying - somebody occupies the toilet, outside there are people waiting, but they just won't get off the pot. That's this situation, very hard and very difficult."
"I just want to make a contribution to both the United States and China. At my age, I am only 88 years young, I can't take it with me. In my life, I've always been very generous in making contributions to both countries," James Chiang (pictured below) said in his Shanghai office this week.
The US pavilion saga is sounding sorrier as the weeks go on and the time runs down before Expo starts on May 1 next year. The official US organizer, the non-profit Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion, has the development rights but has limped through two missed deadlines as it valiantly struggles to raise funds from US organizations in the absence of any government support.
Chiang and his co-investors have offered to pay for the project on the condition that they run the business. But the right to do so has to be officially ceded to him with the support of the Expo authority.
"I am prepared to contribute US$100 million, that's more than enough," Chiang said. "It's a limited site so actually US$50 million should be enough but with cost overruns, maybe another US$10-20 million. My plan, most urgently, is to get the American national pavilion together and we have no time to waste. I am thinking constructively and not criticizing anyone.
"I suggested yesterday to the Expo authority the best way is to invite both parties to sit face to face with Expo and sign an agreement. That's the most realistic solution. Just talking is getting nowhere and is wasting time. We're waiting for their response," he said.
"We've done everything possible to raise the issue by Chinese channels, in Washington and by writing letters to congressmen.
"I've made it very clear that I have no personal motivation except to make a contribution with money, with effort, with my experience. It's just so clear and simple - let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
Chiang, the son of a Shanghai postmaster, moved to Taiwan in 1946, having attended the city's prestigious St John's University, "the best in China back in my days," and was accepted for further study in the US in 1952. He attended East Texas Baptist College in Marshall where he became friends with Lyndon B. Johnson, future American president, and his wife Lady Bird Johnson.
He lived in Marshall for more than 30 years and raised a family of six children, working in the oil industry as a prot??g?? of legendary oil tycoon H. L. Hunt.
"He was then the richest man in the world and picked me out to join him to drill oil wells," Chiang said. "Hunt called me one day and said, 'Jimmy, you bring a cheque to me for US$10,000. I have a well that's really promising, cannot miss.' It scared me to death because everybody in east Texas talked the same way.
"Somebody had an oil well in the backyard but the chances of a hit were not very good, maybe one out of 20. I couldn't sleep all night - I wasn't worried about whether he would cheat or lie to me, but maybe he would make a mistake like everybody else. And if he made a mistake it didn't matter, maybe he could write it off to tax.
"But a poor boy like me, I only had US$50,000 in the bank which was all my savings and I had a family of six children. Anyway, I trusted him, gave him the cheque and a few hours later right after lunch he called me saying 'you son of a gun, you're lucky, we hit it' and everybody was so happy."
Chiang was made an American citizen through a special act of Congress in 1961 sponsored by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson and now lives in Los Angeles. He's still in the oil business - "Once you get in you can't get out, oil's still coming out, how can you stop it?" - with wells mainly in Texas but also in other locations through his Grynberg Petroleum Company.
The interview at his large ShanghaiMart Office tower suite is peppered with proud anecdotes amassed over decades involving the likes of Johnson, Bill Clinton, congressional leaders and Chinese leaders. His office walls are packed with photos of him with the famous and powerful.
Chiang is not unaccustomed to the travails of funding Expo pavilions, having been the sole owner of the US$30 million Texas Pavilion at the two-year New York World Fair in 1964-65 and he empathizes with the official group's dilemmas.
He has spoken on separate occasions with its co-chairpersons Ellen Eliasoph and Nick Winslow. "Ellen said she'd let me be the commander-in-chief and she'd work for me. I said fine, please put it in writing, twice, but so far no writing, just verbal. And Nick Winslow said something similar but so far no letter," he said.
"I am doing everything to compromise, to make any kind of deal as long as somebody's started the building because it takes at least six months to complete, day and night, three shifts a day, and that's to the end of this year.
"They've hired a public relations company to put out nice words. That's spending money, not raising money. It's not really practical. I wish they would concentrate on raising money because so far there's been no concrete result.
"If they can't make the deadline then maybe we should build a private Sino-US pavilion, not a government one, and I have overseas Chinese worldwide that are supportive. Just don't let the land reserved for a national pavilion be wasted, it looks bad."
Chiang said that as long as the fund-raising process drags on he fears it will become physically impossible for anyone to take over and build a pavilion.
"Chinese have an old saying - somebody occupies the toilet, outside there are people waiting, but they just won't get off the pot. That's this situation, very hard and very difficult."
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