Wenzhou, engine room of Chinese low-cost manufacturing, running out of fuel
Wenzhou’s low end manufacturers are struggling with tightening credit and rising costs. Are problems in the eastern city a litmus test for the rest of China?
China to Europe: Sort yourselves out
The European Union’s top officials should have been sitting on a Chinese high-speed train on Tuesday morning, zipping between Beijing and the port city of Tianjin for an annual dialogue with their Chinese counterparts.
Instead the conference was postponed at the last minute and Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso were stuck in Brussels trying to hammer out a deal to save the eurozone. Continue reading »
China: Confucius confusion
The 2010 winner
The award of the second annual “Confucius Peace Prize” – a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize that was inaugurated last year – has been cancelled in a cloud of acrimony this year, no doubt leaving nominees such as Vladimir Putin and Bill Gates bitterly disappointed. Continue reading »
Chinese factories in Africa: not so fast
Coming up with big ideas for countries to work together to make the world a better place is what the president of the World Bank is supposed to do and Robert Zoellick is certainly fulfilling this part of his job description.
One of his big ideas is to facilitate the relocation of low-paid manufacturing jobs from China, the undisputed factory of the world, to Africa, where China has been accused by some of a neo-colonial grab for natural resources. Continue reading »
China’s next inflation challenge: sugar
Despite three decades of market reforms, the Chinese government still clings to some elements of its centrally planned past.
Beijing is particularly fond of its strategic commodity reserves, which hold everything from frozen pork to copper and allow the state to dictate prices for raw materials deemed sensitive or strategically important. One item on the long list is white sugar. Continue reading »
GE Healthcare moves shop to Beijing?
In a sign of the growing importance of fast-growing emerging markets, GE Healthcare has decided to move the global headquarters of its 100 year old X-ray business from Waukesha, Wisconsin, to Beijing, China.
OK, so the move only involves shifting four actual employees and will not result in any layoffs in the Wisconsin office but the four relocated employees are probably the most important ones in the unit – the general manager, CMO, CFO and vice-president for HR. Continue reading »
Rmb: Falun Gong’s new voice
Banned since 1999 and considered an evil cult by China’s ruling Communist Party, the Falun Gong spiritual movement has learnt to be creative in getting its message out to the Chinese people.
In past years the group – which combines elements of Buddhism, mystic Taoism and qigong breathing exercises – has hijacked television stations and distributed flyers in secret on the street. But lately it has turned to the thing that underpins China’s booming economy: the Rmb banknote. Continue reading »
China’s bullet train: dark & sweaty
China’s controversial new bullet train connection between the mega-cities of Beijing and Shanghai hit its first major speed bump on Sunday, just 10 days after the service opened to the public.
At least 19 high-speed trains heading south from Beijing were delayed on Sunday evening, some by more than two hours, after a power failure on one stretch of track caused by bad weather, rail authorities said. Continue reading »
CCP birthday gala: where’s Jiang Zemin?
As China’s top Communists gathered Friday morning on the stage beneath a giant hammer and sickle in the Great Hall of the People there was one very conspicuous absentee.
Former Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin (pictured) has been present at almost all major ceremonial events since he handed the country’s reins to his successor, Hu Jintao, in 2003. Continue reading »
China’s Communist Party: 80m strong
The Chinese Communist Party has been described as the world’s largest chamber of commerce and as it prepares to celebrate its 90th birthday next Friday that description seems more fitting than ever.
According to Wang Qinfeng, vice minister of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the number of Party members increased 2.9 per cent last year to 80,269,000, the largest number ever and more than the entire populations of the UK, Portugal and New Zealand combined. Continue reading »
In praise of risk management and dinners missed: propaganda, banking style
China is being swept by a wave of government-directed Communist-era nostalgia as citizens in some cities are exhorted to “sing red songs” and study quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
In this heady atmosphere, some clever bankers in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun have apparently found a new way to get ahead in the cut-throat world of Chinese finance. Continue reading »
China’s priciest apartment – a scam?
The Beijing government has halted sales of the most expensive luxury apartment complex in the Chinese capital and launched an investigation into the developer for possible “profiteering”, state media have reported.
Last week, this blog reported on the luxury 1,000 sq m penthouse apartments in the west of the city that were selling for more than Rmb300m ($46.2m) but now the government has decided the company may have misled potential buyers and is also investigating its tax records. Continue reading »
Li Na, the next Yao Ming?
As Li Na collapsed in the clay of Roland Garros in rapturous joy on Saturday, the sight of the first Asian to ever win a Grand Slam tennis singles title must have been almost as exciting for executives in the global tennis industry.
The French Open final was watched by an estimated 95m viewers on state sports television and Ms Li’s victory was front-page news on Sunday in virtually every Chinese newspaper, including Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily. Continue reading »
China’s most expensive flat, unveiled
Just as the Chinese government is trying to rein in soaring house prices a real estate developer in Beijing has unveiled what Chinese media report is by far the most expensive apartment ever built in the country.
The luxury penthouse apartment of more than 1,000 sq m is on sale for Rmb300,000 per sq m, or a total price tag of more than Rmb300m ($46.2m), according to an unnamed representative of the developer, quoted in Chinese media. Continue reading »
Boom vs Doom: is Nouriel Roubini right on China?
It probably comes as no surprise that Nouriel Roubini – also known as Dr Doom – is bearish on China and its current growth model. Based on “two trips” to China recently the good doctor has come up with a devastating prognosis.
So is the man famous for predicting the downfall of the US housing market and subsequent global credit crisis about to notch up a second nostradamus award? Continue reading »
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