China Hands

Beijing knows a "Spy Farce" when it sees one

2008-02-16T08:24:00.010-05:00

From The Wall Street Journal 2/15/08 ("Beijing Rebukes the U.S., Calls Spy Charges a 'Farce'"):China's foreign ministry blasted the U.S. over allegations of Chinese espionage in two separate cases, saying the charges are a "farce" born of "Cold War thinking." U.S. officials said... China has engaged in aggressive spy tactics, collecting trade secrets and information related to American space

Chinese pride: Handle with care

2008-02-09T07:48:00.000-05:00

According to a New York Times article, "The sponsor of two commercials during Super Bowl XLII for Salesgenie.com which drew complaints from viewers because of the characters’ ethnic accents, says he is sorry and promises to stop running one of them."In the commercial, two cartoon Pandas are speaking English with what are supposed to be Chinese accents. The Times article quotes various marketing

It's About Time (to make the donuts in China)

2008-02-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

Dunkin Donuts has finally gotten its ass in gear and plans to open its first store in Shanghai this spring, according to a recent AP article.Any China Hand knows Dunkin Donuts (with some Chinese characteristics) can't lose in China. Chinese have been eating their version of the donut - 油条 you tiao - for thousands of years. You tiao literally means "oil stick". It's a stick of dough deep-fried in

Beijing 2008: Black Phlegm Olympics

2007-12-30T07:55:00.000-05:00

Excerpts from the New York Times Multimedia Series: Choking on Growth Part X"We're worried," [Jon Kolb, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee] said. Of Beijing air pollution, he added: "There's no doubt about it. It's off the charts."In 2004, the concentration of airborne particulates in Beijing equaled that of New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta combined, according to the

Hank corners senator Charles Schumer at the Oyster Festival

2007-10-15T21:01:00.000-04:00

[Left: storm clouds gather overhead at the 24th annual Oyster Festival in Oyster Bay, NY as I question senator Charles Schumer about his stupid legislation]New York senator Charles Schumer was at the Oyster Festival in Oyster Bay with an entourage of college student volunteers waving big ostentatious signs blaring "Meet Senator Chuck Schumer". I waded through the oyster-drunk throngs toward the

MeetChinaBiz Round Table with David Blau

2007-09-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

Usually the only reason I ever venture to New Jersey is to run races, but this round table discussion was not to be missed. The event was titled How to do Business with China Series: How to Overcome Obstacles & Minimize Risks; organized by MeetChinaBiz.There were two speakers: Xiaolin Zhou, "a general partner in a top Chinese law firm" (sorry - didn't get the name of the firm) and David Blau

China is feeling the heat

2006-07-29T19:22:00.000-04:00

There’s been a flurry of news recently about China’s indefatigably rapid growth: • In the second quarter, the economy expanded at its fastest rate in more than a decade; it grew 11.3% from the same period in 2005 (WSJ 7/25/06) • Exports… are surging, bolstering China’s foreign-exchange reserves,

Questioning business "normalcy" in China

2006-07-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I visited a friend and alum to discuss his company’s China operation. My friend, R, is in the business of importing textiles in rolls from China and marketing them to producers in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. R has been struggling with diversifying his supplier base, reducing costs, overcoming reliance on middlemen, and hiring and retaining trustworthy and

China Institute and HSBC’s "China: Reducing the savings glut"

2006-06-20T22:55:00.000-04:00

The China Institute and HSBC held a conference at the HSBC building in Manhattan to address China’s economy and its imbalances. Leave it to the China Institute to organize high-quality discussions. It is fashionable to claim that Chinese people save a lot and spend little for “cultural reasons”. That this is false should be abundantly clear to anyone who has visited China and observed

A case study: Flipping and stir-frying apartments in China

2006-06-12T18:38:00.000-04:00

Pictured: shots of our Shanghai apartment before and after renovations.In 2001 my wife and I bought a 154 square meter (about 1,662 square feet) apartment in the Hong Qiao-Gubei area of western Shanghai for 5,617 yuan per square meter. At the time the exchange rate was 8.25 yuan to the dollar, making the USD cost of the apartment $105,116. We spent an additional $23,428 on renovations and $3,587

IP protection still weak in China, innovation is scarce

2006-06-03T16:33:00.000-04:00

Part of the reason why China’s growth seems so astonishing is because it began from such an astonishingly low point. In 1978 when the reforms began, China’s GDP was $45 billion based on today’s prices, which is just under the 2005 GDP of Iraq and falls somewhere between the GDPs of Guatemala ($27 bn) and Bangladesh ($64 bn). China’s GDP is 50 times bigger today. So yes, China’s economy has grown

China Investment Forum: caveat emptor!

2006-06-02T22:24:00.000-04:00

Institutional Investor’s 3rd Annual China Investment Forum was held today and yesterday at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. The lunches were good, and I have other good things to say about the event (to skip right to the criticism scroll down to the end of this post). Sensible remarks about China from a handful of panelists more than made up for the banal comments from some of the other

Will Paulson Push China on the Yuan?

2006-05-31T11:40:00.000-04:00

According to today’s Wall Street Journal Henry Paulson, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, “says he has made about 70 trips to China since 1990. The nominee [to replace Treasury Secretary John Snow], the president said, ‘understands the importance of opening new markets for American exports’ and will make sure trading partners ‘maintain flexible, market-based exchange rates for their

Yuan Link to Dollar is All About Stability

2006-05-19T13:03:00.000-04:00

Some U.S. politicians call China’s keeping the yuan closely linked to the dollar a “mercantilist policy”. See a definition of the word mercantilism to get a sense of how silly this is. China keeps the yuan closely tied to the dollar for economic and social stability. The op-ed page of the May 15 Wall Street Journal put it this way: "The currency peg has been a rare anchor of stability for

No Shortage of "Cheap" Labor in China

2006-04-30T14:55:00.000-04:00

How do you define “cheap” labor? Those earning two or three dollars a day? If so then there is no shortage of cheap labor in China. There are hundreds of millions of people earning this amount or less. So what’s all this talk about a labor shortage in China? As usual, Western mainstream media has failed to properly frame the issue. The issue is you get what you pay for; the cheaper the

Hu Jintao Emphasizes Peaceful Development, China’s Myriad Problems: Part II

2006-04-21T09:56:00.000-04:00

Part II: One China, Two Economies The economic growth and development China has experienced since the Reforms and Opening Up have resulted in two economies in China: prosperous coastal cities and poor inland provinces. Americans have been flocking to China in recent years, but most U.S. visitors to China only see the prosperous coastal cities and never experience the other China. They come

Hu Jintao Emphasizes Peaceful Development, China’s Myriad Problems: Part I

2006-04-20T23:38:00.000-04:00

Part I: Peace with Chinese Characteristics Clearly Hu is aware that the U.S. government is becoming increasingly paranoid about China’s regional and global ambitions. This was evident in Hu’s repeated emphasis of China’s desire for “peace” and “peaceful development”. Whether anyone in the Pentagon or State Department believes it is another story. China’s military buildup is intended

Discovery's "China Rises" Gets Thumbs Up

2006-04-15T19:04:00.000-04:00

The Discovery channel ran a terrific special last week called “China Rises”. If you missed it you can buy it on DVD at Discovery’s online store for $35. Click here to take a look. Discovery did a great job of reporting the true situation in Beijing and Shanghai, but the rest of China was largely ignored. It’s been reported that China’s rich coastal cities (i.e. Beijing in the north,

The New York Times: Aerobics for the imagination

2006-04-12T02:51:00.000-04:00

First Judith Miller, now this. An article ran in the April 3, 2006 edition of The New York Times titled “Labor Shortage in China May Lead to Trade Shift”. Labor shortage? How can there be a labor shortage in a country where 700 million people earn less than $2 a day? It’s already 10 days since April Fools Day, so this can’t be a joke. If the Times is going to use sensational

The Yin and Yang of Gregory Chow’s discussion at Columbia

2006-04-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

Columbia University hosted Gregory Chow, a distinguished professor of economics from Princeton University who has written 12 books and over 180 articles, and has advised the governments of both China and the U.S. As expected, most of what Chow said was lucid and intelligent. But a few points he made left me scratching my head in disbelief. Chow advocated a one-off big revaluation of the

April Fools! Schumer and Graham let American consumers off the hook (maybe)

2006-04-01T23:03:00.000-05:00

Senators Schumer and Graham, those jokers! They nearly had us fooled. We almost thought they were serious about slapping a 27.5% tariff on everything imported from China. Of course we suspected they were joking all along. After all, how on earth does making American consumers pay 27.5% more for everything with a “Made in China” label help anyone? Unfortunately the senators’ proposal,

Will China's Real Estate Bubble Burst?

2006-03-16T00:17:00.000-05:00

Today was a busy day with two China events in New York City. This morning the China Institute hosted a panel discussion titled “Will China’s Real Estate Bubble Burst?” They had coffee and pastries so I decided to go. Not all the panel speakers agreed that China is even experiencing a bubble in its real estate market. One of the speakers pointed out real estate only accounts for 6%

Technology Investment in China

2006-03-13T18:06:00.000-05:00

Heller Ehrman LLP held “Technology Investment in China”, an event organized jointly with the China Institute. We’re not in the business of technology investment, but we like to keep abreast of what experts in different industries are saying about China. And this panel of lawyers had a few insights that can be applied to manufacturing outsourcing just as readily as to technology investment.