Xi Jinping wears 930,000 won padding topic…the company’s stock rose 10% overnight

President Xi Jinping is wearing an Arc’teryx coat, a Canadian clothing company owned by Chinese Anta Sports, and is visiting the preparation site for the Winter Olympics. [신화통신 캡쳐]

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited the construction site of the Beijing Winter Olympics Stadium. The local analysis is that it is to show off the message that China is alive even in Corona 19. However, interest was focused elsewhere. It was the winter coat that President Xi wore. The Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the stock price of the Chinese company that made the product soared 10%.

President Xi visited the Beijing and Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Stadiums on the 18th and 19th. He toured Beijing National Alpine Ski Resort, the Capital Ice Arena, and the Bobsleigh Center to check the preparations for the Olympics scheduled to be held in February next year and encourage athletes.

Taken on January 19, the National Bobsled Center in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China [신화통신 캡쳐]

The news was widely reported through Chinese government media such as CCTV and Xinhua News Agency. President Xi said, “Many projects have reached the world’s advanced level, such as the construction of the Olympic Stadium for the Winter Games a year ago,” and expressed confidence that “the Party’s leadership and national system are sufficiently reflected as institutional advantages for large events. The confusion of the U.S. in the face of the regime change and the intention to contrast China with the uncertainty of the Tokyo Olympics due to Corona 19 emerged.

Currently, the clothes that President Xi wears are sold for 5,500 yuan (93 million won) in Taobao, China’s largest internet shopping mall. [타오바오 캡쳐]

But unexpectedly, the coat that President Xi wore at the time of the inspection attracted attention. It is a product of Arc’teryx, a Canadian outdoor brand in cobalt blue color, and it is a simple style with no buttons and no special decoration. Currently, the clothes that President Xi wears are sold for 5,500 yuan (93 million won) in Taobao, China’s largest internet shopping mall. SCMP said, “Since he took office, President Xi has preferred Western-style clothes over buttoned Mao Zedong-style clothes worn by successive leaders since he took office,” he said. “He is mainly wearing business style clothes with simple designs.”

Although it is made in Canada, the company is already owned by a Chinese company. Anta (Chinese name 安踏) Sports is not well known in Korea, but it is the third largest Chinese sportswear company in terms of sales in 2019. Anta is also the official sponsor of the Chinese Olympic team from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil to the Beijing Winter Olympics next year. In 2019, it acquired foreign brands such as Finnish brands Amer Sports and Arc’teryx for $5.2 billion.

President Xi Jinping visits the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing District, Beijing on the 18th. [신화통신 캡쳐]

The’advertising effect’ was great. On the day it was reported that Xi was wearing clothes of the Anta brand, the stock price of the Anta group rose as much as 10%.

Beyond the fact that President Xi wore clothes, the local relationship with Anta is also being talked about. Anta is headquartered in Fujian Province, where President Xi grew up. Some observers say that it has nothing to do with becoming the official sponsor of the Olympics after Xi took office.

Beijing = correspondent Park Seong-hun [email protected]