Keywords: "moonbrella" "Super Umbrellas" li huimin li jie Lunar Village Moon village

原本地址：http://business.globaltimes.cn/comment/2010-05/533431.html

• Source: Global Times [07:56 May 20 2010]

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An overview of the moon. Photo by NASA, December 2009. Photo: IC

By Lin Meilian

For 480 yuan ($70) one can't even buy 1 square meter of housing in Beijing. But you can get one hectare of the moon, a diamond-mining license for a white dwarf star named Lucy in the Centaurus constellation 50 light-years from Earth, plus a more down-to-earth super size "Moonbrella" that can shield you from a hard rain or the sun. If you just want a Moonbrella, however, it's a bargain at 168 yuan ($25).

The brainchild behind this promotion is 46-year-old Li Huimin, also known as Li Jie, a Beijing businessman who has never set foot on the moon yet in 2005 declared himself owner of the moon and all the he-3 gas in the lunar soil.

"First come, first served, those are truly unowned things anyway," Li told the Global Times. "It is like if you find a fish in a sea, it belongs to you. It's as simple as that. "

He said he has sold 10,000 "Super Umbrellas", or "Moonbrellas" since last year, and about 500 people around the world are the holders of his solar system diamond mining licenses.

Heavyweight miners, he said, include Hollywood's rising star Dakota Fanning, Yao Ming, and Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow Sing-Chi.

Li explained the combination product promotion is to draw desired objects closer to the earthbound buyers.

"It works like a camera," he said. "The diamond star is so far, far, far away that you can't see it with the naked eye. Then I zoom in to show you the moon that you can see but you can't touch, then again I zoom in to show you the umbrella that you can both see and feel."

Who owns the moon?

Li did not come up with the idea of selling moon land. American entrepreneur Dennis Hope did, far ahead of Li's declaration.

Hope reportedly exploited a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, which forbids any government from claiming the moon but did not mention individuals or corporations.

In 1980, Hope sent notice of his declaration of his ownership of the moon and seven planets and their moons to the United Nations, US government and Russian government. None of them replied.

Now, Hope, self-anointed "Head Cheese" of the Lunar Embassy, located in Gardnerv-ille, Nevada said he has been doing multi-million-dollar property business for 30 years and claims to sell 1,500 lunar properties a day.

For $15 you can have your name on the moon; if you pay five more dollars to $19.99, you can get 1 acre, plus a "Lunar Tax." But if you pony up $1,000 - congratulations! You get membership in "the most exclusive club in the world," the Century Club, according to Hope's Lunar Embassy website.

But Li seems to have his own view about the moon acres.

"Hope doesn't own the moon, I do," he said.

Li declared the ownership in 2005, 25 years later than Hope. However, Li said Hope failed to produce documents to back up his ownership.

"He told me the documents that supposedly were in the records of a San Francisco land management office were lost in a flood in 1987, but I have documents to prove my ownership," he said.

Intergalactic real estate dealer and "moonbrella" salesman, Li Huimin.

Fighting back

He had plans to defeat Hope.

Plan A: he said he exploited a loophole of Hope's declaration, in which he used the term "the lighted Lunar Surface."

"So I declared I own the dark lunar surface, which Hope failed to notice when he looked at the moon in 1980," he said.

In December 2005, a month after he claimed the ownership of the dark side of the moon, he changed his mind and claimed he owned it all.

Later he went to a notary office in Beijing to notarize his declaration. The staff was confused and told him they needed to consult with a higher department. So Li turned to Plan B and unsuccessfully sued the notary office for not serving customers.

"I didn't expect to win," he said. "All I want is the court record to prove that I did claim ownership."

Hanging on his office wall, along with his ownership declarations, Li also has a copy of the DHL express delivery receipt signed by the UN to prove that the organization did receive his moon ownership declaration.

In response to Li's "ownership," Hope told the Global Times via e-mail that if Li is selling land in China to citizens "he is a criminal."

"His claim has no validity of any nature since my claim predates his to 1980," he said. "He is a criminal if he is selling land he does not own."

What's wrong with this business?

Li's journey to the moon has been long and winding. And at one time he and Hope were business partners, both peddling lunar soil.

After learning of Hope's moon sales success in 1997 via the Internet, Li was inspired and in 2005 paid Hope $125,000 to set up a Chinese Lunar Embassy project. The money bought Li 7,110 lunar acres, distribution rights and enabled him to hire a staff and rent "embassy space" in an office building.

As "Lunar Ambassador to China," Li set up Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Co in September 2005. But shortly thereafter it began to fall to earth.

Selling off moon land in the US made Hope a cool million, but it made hot trouble for Li. One month after his company opened, the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce suspended its license for violating rules regarding market speculation.

The court ordered Li to refund his customers over 14,000 yuan ($2,000) for 50 moon acres that had been sold and to pay a 50,000-yuan ($7,325) fine.

Hope said he had flown to Beijing to back Li up before the shutdown.

"I met him in China and did 37 interviews for him to start this business," Hope said.

However, Hope's visit helped nothing. Li's business was gone, along with his partnership with Hope. Li claimed he had lost $125,000 on the failed deal that also forced him to sell his car and house to pay his bills.

In 2009, he relaunched his business. Only he kept his feet on the ground and began selling the "Moonbrellas" as his main product to avoid possible trouble.

Li still insists he owns the moon, but added, "The diamond star is my own idea."

In 2004, US astronomers announced the discovery of the largest known diamond-shaped object in the galaxy. The dwarf star was named Lucy after the Beatles' song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Li smelled money in the galaxy after reading the news. "What is more romantic than buying a diamond from a star to your girlfriend?" he thought.

He declared the ownership of Lucy in 2006, saying he would "make a law for mining to make all humankind wealthy."

Satisfied customers

None of Li's customers seem to have plans to set foot on Lucy and they're not in a hurry.

Liu Peng, the first buyer who brought a diamond-mining license on Valentine's Day for his girlfriend, said he thinks the idea is interesting.

"It's not necessary to take it too seriously," he said. "Selling off moon land is just like running an art show."

Another satisfied Moonbrella owner and galactic diamond miner, Cai Zhengbing from Guangdong Province, said he thought price is reasonable.

"I don't believe what he claims, but it doesn't take much money and it's fun," he said.

But there is yet another individual who lays claim to the moon.

"When I was playing with my 4-year-old son, I said, 'tell daddy who owns the moon,' Li said. "He replied 'I do!'"