Beijing property market a bit too hot for Nobel prize winner
What is a Nobel Prize worth in the Beijing property market? Not very much if Nobel-winning Chinese author Mo Yan’s experience is anything to go by.
Chinese media reports say Mo (pictured) has bought an apartment on the far outskirts of the Chinese capital that they estimate will have cost him about half his Nobel prize money of $1.2m. Continue reading »
China’s latest scam: fake condoms [updated]
Rat meat disguised as mutton, fake pharmaceuticals, entire replica Apple stores – China has seen almost every scam imaginable. But in the latest scandal unearthed by Chinese police the pirates have started to intrude into people’s love lives.
In a nationwide crackdown the authorities have arrested 37 people on suspicion of manufacturing nearly 5m fake brand-name condoms and selling them to unwitting consumers through supermarkets, pharmacies and sex shops across the country. Continue reading »
Amcham China: data theft is rife
More than a quarter of US companies surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in China say they have had trade secrets stolen or compromised through cyber-attacks on their China operations, adding weight to US accusations that Beijing is behind numerous corporate espionage attacks. Continue reading »
After Chávez, will China still be financing chavismo?
The death of Hugo Chávez this week has deprived Venezuela of a controversial and charismatic leader and left it with a mountain of debt to China.
With an election scheduled to be held within a month, many are inevitably wondering whether Venezuela’s Beijing bankers are going to continue to fund El Comandante’s successors. Continue reading »
Chinese equities: the political index
As the seven men who will lead China for the next five years walked out onto the stage of the Great Hall of the People last Thursday, stock market traders with a sense for politics swung into action.
Less than two hours after Zhang Gaoli, the new seventh-ranked member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, stood in front of the popping of flash bulbs, Hong Kong-listed shares of Xinyi Glass had leapt more than six per cent. Continue reading »
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 »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Older entries
Stefan Wagstyl
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh