What does expatriate businessman Chris Devonshire-Ellis have to do with the RMB/USD Exchange Rate? The Wall Street Journal (h/t China Law Blog excellent summary of the entire matter) reports that a “media report” in China Briefing–a magazine and website published by Mr. Devonshire-Ellis’ company–stated that Vice Chairman Zhang Xiaoqiang of China’s National Development and Reform Commission expected that the USD could strengthen to between RMB:USD 6.95:1 and RMB:USD 7.00:1.
Wall Street Journal links Chris Devonshire-Ellis to dollar rally
Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal article dated 2/18:
The National Development and Reform Commission rejected a media report Tuesday that quoted its vice chairman, Zhang Xiaoqiang, as saying the U.S. dollar could strengthen to between CNY6.95 and CNY7.00.
The report on the Web site of China Briefing sparked buying of the dollar against the yuan Tuesday afternoon.
“Our official has never accepted interviews with any media and has never made such comments,” the NDRC said in a statement posted on its Web site.
In a China Briefing story Wednesday, China Banking Regulatory Commission Chairman Liu Mingkang was quoted as saying the yuan may weaken to around CNY6.9-CNY7.0 against the U.S. dollar.
The CBRC denied its chairman had been interviewed by China Briefing.
Later Wednesday, China Briefing issued a clarification on its Web site, backing away from attributing specific dollar-yuan levels to any government officials.
The author of the reports, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, told Dow Jones Newswires that specific levels came up during discussions with government officials, but he declined to say who made the comments.
“The market is expected to return to calm again after such a farce,” said a Shanghai-based dealer at a Chinese bank.
Chinese government denies interview ever took place and is “pure fabrication.”
These “media reports” have now been roundly denied by the NRDC and the CBRC. The CBRC site unequivocally states that the interview “is a pure fabrication“:
Now we know not to take everything the Chinese government says at face-value, and that the historical record is molded to serve the needs of the government, on behalf of its people.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis removes “media reports” and apologizes for “breach of etiquette”
Devonshire-Ellis reacts swiftly to the government denial and removes the articles from the China Briefing Website. He then apologizes for “this breach of etiquette.”
Other Reports on this incident
China Law Blog has an exceptional summary of the events, including several related links to other China blogs. FOARP (Fear of a Red Planet) blog has some excerpts from the Chris Devonshire-Ellis interview that has now been pulled down. This blog makes other claims about Chris Devonshire-Ellis professional credentials.
No one will stop the RMB from becoming a new Asian reserve currency
We most recently made the claim that because the Chinese have the audacious goal of giving birth to a new Asian reserve currency, 6.85 is the new 8.27. We first posted on this topic 4/2/2008 and was one of the first to see the intent to establish the RMB as a new reserve currency, likely built on the ashes of the US Dollar in the long term.
While it is entirely possible that the interview took place and is now being recanted by the Chinese government, our perspective is that the statements in the supposed China Briefing interview cannot be correct. It is extremely unlikely that allowing the RMB to devalue up to RMB:USD 7:1 fits in with the short-term goal of currency stability, and the long-term goal of supplanting the USD as the world’s reserve currency.
Sorry: Comments will be deleted or redacted if they contain negative or positive statements about Chris Devonshire-Ellis
I apologize in advance, but I am aware of the legal harassment of famous Chinese blogger Wangjianshuo who I consider a friend and a blogging mentor (who was the very first one to drop a comment on this blog!). Wang Jianshuo wrote a post called Who Is Chris Devonshire-Ellis dated 1/22 that outlines this harassment. I will follow Wang Jianshuo’s policy with regard to comments about Mr. Devonshire-Ellis:
If you want to say something bad about Mr. Chris Devonshire Ellis, please go somewhere else, and the best, start your own blog, instead of posting off-topic comment on this blog.
If you want to say something good about Mr. Chris Devonshire Ellis, please also go somewhere. He has a pretty nice blog at http://www.2point6billion.com/, and your comment will be welcomed.
Mr Devonshire-Ellis or his agents also harassed TheHumanaught who was forced to remove his post about Devonshire-Ellis at LostLaowai:
NOTICE: Unfortunately, due to threats of legal action by Chris Devonshire-Ellis, this post and its comments have been taken down.
Though I am confident that the contents of the article are not in any way libelous, as Ellis claims, his threats did not limit themselves to seeking a court decision on whether or not they were libelous. Instead they indicated that Chris would personally attempt to get this site blocked in China and have myself and the other authors of this blog harassed by the local PSB (under the allegation that we are in some way acting as “investigative journalists” by blogging about being expats in China).
While we don’t fear legal harassment (CN Reviews is a web publication hosted in the US, and this post is written in the US), we don’t wish to waste our time with it. Therefore, please take your negative and positive comments about Chris Devonshire-Ellis elsewhere.
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RMB:USD Exchange Rate: 6.85 is the new 8.27 and the birth of a new reserve currency 
I agree that the possibility that such interviews have ever taken place is very remote. First of all such groundbreaking news that would shake the markets, is handled by the State Council. If they decide to announce a fluctuation they do it through an official press conference and publish it in the Chinese State media.
The magazine is not an official publication of any sort. It stated that the meetings were private meetings between Mr. Ellis and the ministers, then wrote a correction that this was not the case, then apologies and finally every interview they have published in the Ministerial Meetings, also of previous years was pulled. The apology that is still on the site that states that they were not aware of this being an unofficial meeting is nonsense.
This sort of interviews have been published since 2007 and were specifically designed to market the founder of the company as a well connected man in Chinese government circles whilst such relatioships do not exist.
The fact that they have pulled every single interview means they have either decided it was better to clear the evidence for the public or because they have been requested to do so by the government.
It happened many times in media land but faking an interview with Mr. Ma who lives in a Hutong in Beijing about the price of cabbage is a bit of a different ballgame compared to taking top officials, posing for a japanese picture and then publishing an interview with statements they have not made. I can understand that the officials who were paraded on the website and in the printed magazine feel most uncomfortable for being paraded as a marketing prop for Mr. Ellis.
ps. The statements of the NDRC and CBRC leave no doubt whatsoever about this. These are the very strong statements for Chinese government institutions.
Hey here’s that interview in mention: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5121b8a70100c2je.html
As far as “legal harassment” is concerned, it appears that the folks at the China Daily will none of it – just check out the forums.
The FOARP site appears to be under a proxy server using anonymous names. As for libel, I would have thought someone should have the right to insist bloggers should take material down if it is untrue. Thats not threatening. I notice [deleted] is all over other blogs criticising Ellis as well. I’d ask: Why? Theres far more to the critism about Ellis than would be normally justifiable. Whatever, hes done the honorable thing and resigned, but I have to say there seems a huge amount of “Trial by blog” regarding this particlaur individual and I don’t think this is a healthy trend. If you want to look at it – have a look at who is making the comments about him. Its consistant and I detect a deliberate campaign against him. Now thats not blogging – thats just nasty. So many accusations – and not a shred of evidence by anyone prepared to come forward under their true identity.
There are so many other topics more worthy of our attention than Ellis. I would refer you to the posts at Wang Jian Shuo’s blog that describe his approach toward WJS. That doesn’t make you any friends, that’s all I would say. OK, lets move right along and let Ellis rest in peace.
maybe it is karma?
[link removed - Elliott: I'm not interested getting more involved in this topic]
Langham Hotel:
I read your post and am glad you feel a sense of karmic retribution. I removed the link because some of the material (especially that terrible photo, yikes!) takes the conversation to a place I don’t want to go. You have every right to publish your opinions and as you can tell by my post I am very sympathetic to the bloggers that have been harassed and threatened by Ellis and his agents in the past. I’ve linked to many of those bloggers in the post as you know. Thanks for understanding.
China Briefing has been around for years and doesn’t have a reputation for getting things wrong. It stinks of a government coverup and a rather nasty attempt to discredit him to me. These are his actual China credentials:
http://www.china-briefing.com
http://www.china-briefing.com/news
http://www.2point6billion.com
http://www.dezshira.com
Not entirely shabby. If he’s gone then that is Chinas loss. Just shows you really have to build in political risk to your business in China.
Hi Fred,
You are a real supportive guy. Do you actually think that anyone out there still believes this stuff? “Not entirely shabby” [Elliott: further comments attacking Fred's intelligence deleted]
This is the background tot he story and why I see a comment by “Fred” defending Mr. CDE and describing the conspiracy and loss for China:
The Cult of the Narcissist
The narcissist is the guru at the center of a cult. Like other gurus, he demands complete obedience from his flock: his spouse, his offspring, other family members, friends, and colleagues. He feels entitled to adulation and special treatment by his followers. He punishes the wayward and the straying lambs. He enforces discipline, adherence to his teachings, and common goals. The less accomplished he is in reality – the more stringent his mastery and the more pervasive the brainwashing.
The – often involuntary – members of the narcissist’s mini-cult inhabit a twilight zone of his own construction. He imposes on them a shared psychosis, replete with persecutory delusions, “enemies”, mythical narratives, and apocalyptic scenarios if he is flouted.
The narcissist’s control is based on ambiguity, unpredictability, fuzziness, and ambient abuse. His ever-shifting whims exclusively define right versus wrong, desirable and unwanted, what is to be pursued and what to be avoided. He alone determines the rights and obligations of his disciples and alters them at will.
The narcissist is a micro-manager. He exerts control over the minutest details and behaviors. He punishes severely and abuses withholders of information and those who fail to conform to his wishes and goals.
The narcissist does not respect the boundaries and privacy of his reluctant adherents. He ignores their wishes and treats them as objects or instruments of gratification. He seeks to control both situations and people compulsively.
He strongly disapproves of others’ personal autonomy and independence. Even innocuous activities, such as meeting a friend or visiting one’s family require his permission. Gradually, he isolates his nearest and dearest until they are fully dependent on him emotionally, sexually, financially, and socially.
He acts in a patronizing and condescending manner and criticizes often. He alternates between emphasizing the minutest faults (devalues) and exaggerating the talents, traits, and skills (idealizes) of the members of his cult. He is wildly unrealistic in his expectations – which legitimizes his subsequent abusive conduct.
The narcissist claims to be infallible, superior, talented, skillful, omnipotent, and omniscient. He often lies and confabulates to support these unfounded claims. Within his cult, he expects awe, admiration, adulation, and constant attention commensurate with his outlandish stories and assertions. He reinterprets reality to fit his fantasies.
His thinking is dogmatic, rigid, and doctrinaire. He does not countenance free thought, pluralism, or free speech and doesn’t brook criticism and disagreement. He demands – and often gets – complete trust and the relegation to his capable hands of all decision-making.
He forces the participants in his cult to be hostile to critics, the authorities, institutions, his personal enemies, or the media – if they try to uncover his actions and reveal the truth. He closely monitors and censors information from the outside, exposing his captive audience only to selective data and analyses.
The narcissist’s cult is “missionary” and “imperialistic”. He is always on the lookout for new recruits – his spouse’s friends, his daughter’s girlfriends, his neighbors, new colleagues at work. He immediately attempts to “convert” them to his “creed” – to convince them how wonderful and admirable he is. In other words, he tries to render them sources of narcissistic supply.
Often, his behavior on these “recruiting missions” is different to his conduct within the “cult”. In the first phases of wooing new admirers and proselytizing to potential “conscripts” – the narcissist is attentive, compassionate, empathic, flexible, self-effacing, and helpful. At home, among the “veterans” he is tyrannical, demanding, willful, opinionated, aggressive, and exploitative.
As the leader of his congregation, the narcissist feels entitled to special amenities and benefits not accorded the “rank and file”. He expects to be waited on hand and foot, to make free use of everyone’s money and dispose of their assets liberally, and to be cynically exempt from the rules that he himself established (if such violation is pleasurable or gainful).
In extreme cases, the narcissist feels above the law – any kind of law. This grandiose and haughty conviction leads to criminal acts, incestuous or polygamous relationships, and recurrent friction with the authorities.
Hence the narcissist’s panicky and sometimes violent reactions to “dropouts” from his cult. There’s a lot going on that the narcissist wants kept under wraps. Moreover, the narcissist stabilizes his fluctuating sense of self-worth by deriving narcissistic supply from his victims. Abandonment threatens the narcissist’s precariously balanced personality.
Add to that the narcissist’s paranoid and schizoid tendencies, his lack of introspective self-awareness, and his stunted sense of humor (lack of self-deprecation) and the risks to the grudging members of his cult are clear.
The narcissist sees enemies and conspiracies everywhere. He often casts himself as the heroic victim (martyr) of dark and stupendous forces. In every deviation from his tenets he espies malevolent and ominous subversion. He, therefore, is bent on disempowering his devotees. By any and all means.
The narcissist is dangerous
This is exactly why I don’t read most blogs, expat or otherwise, from China. Pathetic, personal issue. (My feeling on the issue, not this blog or author)
Not pathetic. Always good to read but commenter is entitled to his opinion just like everyone else.
@ Caveat Emptor
Just reading through the comments the name you have chosen is very interesting. “Buyer Beware” is both a legal term but is also used by psychiatrists to warn people for “buying” into a narcissist web of lies and warn them not to become a victim. Great signature
He just commited suicide in India apparently according to credible blog reports Im reading. Shame (Elliott: removed emoticon)
Where exactly are these credible blog reports? This is the second comment I have found on this blog, alleging a Chris Devonshire-Ellis suicide. I have been unable to find anything that corroborates these “reports” anywhere else.
I don’t know this guy Chris Devonshire-Ellis. He may be a decent sort or he may be the devil incarnate but posting a rumor like this without offering anything to substantiate authenticity stinks.
Chris, you are a joke and a scam. Well, most people from UK are scams.