China's Government Tightens Its Grip On Golf, Shuts Down Courses
China has had a complicated history with golf. At one time, the country seemed golf crazy, but it became synonymous with corrupt officials. Once again it is in the crosshairs of China's government.
Thirty years after Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong labeled golf a sport for the bourgeois and banned it from his worker's paradise, his successor gave the sport another try.
It was January 1979, and President Jimmy Carter welcomed Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on a historic trip to the United States. Deng came seeking U.S. help to open China's economy, which had been ravaged by decades of Mao's violent political campaigns. But if American executives were to invest in China, they would need to travel there. And if they were to travel there, they would need a golf course.
At a
