ChinaFile Recommends
03.26.13China Bars Suntech’s Shi From Leaving Country
Bloomberg
The company, based in Wuxi, outside Shanghai, had more than $2 billion in credit lines and defaulted on $541 million in bonds due on March 15, prompting eight Chinese banks to ask a local court to push Suntech’s main unit into insolvency.
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03.26.13Chinese Create Tax-Free Zone For Art
Wall Street Journal
A Chinese state-owned company is aiming to stoke the country's cultural sector with a tried-and-tested industrial model that has worked in the past for China's manufacturing industries.
Conversation
03.26.13
Can China Transform Africa?
Jeremy Goldkorn:The question is all wrong. China is already transforming Africa, the question is how China is transforming Africa, not whether it can. From the “China shops”—small stores selling cheap clothing, bags, and kitchenware—that have become...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.22.13Lies, Damned Lies, And Chinese Statistics
Foreign Policy
Although the information provided by the National Bureau of Statistics is not completely transparent, it has taken steps to free national data from the influence of local exaggeration.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.19.13China Seen Cutting Subsidy For Largest Solar Projects
Bloomberg
Vice Chariman of the China Renewable Energy Society says a new policy may abolish one-time subsidies, while at the same time, a separate subsidy based on power production would be extended to low-voltage plants that don’t typically supply utilities...
Caixin Media
03.17.13Ladders, Losers, and Direct-Marketing Schemes
A skin cream customer pays an extra fee and, voilà, instantly becomes a company representative with the right to sell cream and other products, as well as recruit more dealers.Eventually, she persuades other women to buy the cream and join the...
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03.15.13What China’s New President Means For The Entertainment Industry
Hollywood Reporter
Although China's annual foreign movie quota was recently increased, there’s much uncertainty surrounding how Xi’s rise to power will impact the entertainment industry.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.14.13Backed By Profit-Hungry Investors, New Approach To Farming Takes Root
Investors in the country betting big on the organic concept have poured money into food producers and distributors, especially as food scandals make citizens more and more wary of familiar produce.
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03.14.13China Plenty Creative, Just Not in Right Ways
WSJ: China Real Time Report
The best innovation in the post-industrial world comes from “the sharing of knowledge and information across a variety of fields,” something economist Arthur Kroeber says China’s restriction on free information actively stanches.
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03.14.13China Hacker’s Angst Opens A Window Onto Cyber-Espionage
Los Angeles Times
A P.L.A. hacker’s blog is discovered, providing a rare peek into the secretive hacking establishment of the Chinese military, in what is believed to be by far the world’s largest institutionalized hacking operation.
Caixin Media
03.10.13Finding IPO Alley
China’s IPO action has been locked in ice since October by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officials intent on boosting investor confidence and improving scrutiny of stock market hopefuls.Yet the heat is on for aspiring executives at...
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03.08.13China’s Richest Man Says Capital Markets ‘Suck’
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Zong Qinhou's sentiment speaks volumes, highlighting the monumental obstacles investors face in China as they look for places to park their money in hopes of a return.
Conversation
03.08.13
Will China’s Property Market Crash, and So What If It Does?
Dorinda Elliott:At this week’s National People’s Congress, outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao proclaimed that the government kept housing prices from rising too fast. Really? I wonder what my 28-year-old Shanghainese friend Robert thinks about that. He and...
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03.07.13Zhang Xin: China’s Real Estate Mogul
CBS News
Cultural Revolution child Zhang Xin talks with Leslie Stahl about her transformation from sweatshop worker to self-made billionaire.
Caixin Media
03.04.13China’s Frills and Posh Market Springs a Leak
Imagine a luxury goods shopper so confident and flush with cash that one day he walks into a Shanghai handbag shop, flashes 300,000 yuan, and waltzes out with almost every bag in stock.That’s what happened last year at a Prada store where Benny Lu...
Conversation
03.01.13
Is America’s Door Really Open to China’s Investment?
Daniel Rosen:There have not been many new topics in U.S.-China economic relations over the past decade: the trade balance, offshoring of jobs, Chinese holding of U.S. government debt, whether China’s currency is undervalued and intellectual property...
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02.26.13Apple Supplier Faces Sanctions in China
Financial Times
A manufacturer that produces Apple iPad casings faces sanctions from the Shanghai government after discharging waste that turned a local river milky white, killing fish and leaving water unfit for crop cultivation.
Caixin Media
02.24.13
Dirty Business for China’s Internet Scrubbers
Flames of a public relations disaster were licking at the heels of a private equity firm when China’s most notorious Internet-scrubbing company rode to the rescue.Saving the Shenzhen-based firm’s image was not cheap, and it took more than two months...
Conversation
02.22.13
Will Investment in China Grow or Shrink?
Donald Clarke:I don’t have the answer as to whether investment in China will grow or shrink, but I do have a few suggestions for how to think about the question. First, we have to clarify why we want to know the answer to this question: what do we...
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02.22.13Chinese Hackers Are Getting Dangerously Good At English
Foreign Policy
Chinese hackers are getting dangerously good at tricking users into clicking on what are known as “phishing emails” -- messages with links or attachments that seem innocuous, but actually dump spyware on recipients'...
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02.22.13Hollywood And China: Revenue And Responsibility
New Yorker
Until recently, Hollywood looked upon China with a mix of dread and desperation, but Hollywood’s view on Beijing has—in Washington parlance—evolved, because China is now where the money is.
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02.21.13Malware Attack On Apple Said To Come From Eastern Europe
Bloomberg
At least 40 companies including Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. were targeted in malware attacks linked to an Eastern European gang of hackers that is trying steal company secrets.
Sinica Podcast
02.21.13
Death, Fraud, and Corporate Skullduggery
from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, we talk shop about Caterpillar’s discovery of massive accounting fraud and subsequent $580 million write-down from a Chinese company the American equipment manufacturer acquired. We also look at the mysterious death of an...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.20.13China Denies It Is World’s Biggest Trader Despite Data Showing It Passed U.S. Last Year
Washington Post
Official Chinese and American trade data indicate China passed the United States last year in total imports and exports by a margin of $3.866 trillion to $3.822 trillion.
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02.19.13China Vanke Enters U.S. Property Market With Tishman Deal
Bloomberg
China Vanke Co., the biggest developer listed on Chinese exchanges, has entered a residential-property venture in San Francisco, its first foray into the U.S. real estate market.
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02.18.13S.E.C. Inquiry Into China Film Trade Unnerves Hollywood
New York Times
Hunkered down. Lawyered up. Looking over your shoulder for the prosecutors. That is a not a comfortable way to do business. But it may become business as usual for those who have been struggling to make China both a customer for Hollywood...
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02.18.13Morgan Stanley's Latest Alibaba Estimates Suggest It's Worth $66 Billion-$168 Billion
Forbes
The most relevant comparison is to Tencent which is still the biggest Chinese Internet company still experiencing rapid growth – albeit at a slightly slower pace than Alibaba. (Tencent did $1.88 billion in the last year and is currently...
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02.18.13China Plays By Its Own Rules While Going Global
Associated Press
When Venezuela seized billions of dollars in assets from Exxon Mobil and other foreign companies, Chinese state banks and investors didn't blink. Over the past five years they have loaned Venezuela more than $35 billion.
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02.15.13China Plans to Build the Biggest Branch Campus in the World, but Will It Succeed?
Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chinese government announced recently that it will allow Xiamen University to establish a branch campus in Malaysia.
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02.13.13U.S. Cybersecurity Plan Aimed at Keeping China out of America’s Networks
Associated Press
President Barack Obama signed an executive order aimed at helping protect the computer networks of crucial American industries from cyberattacks and prodded Congress to enact legislation that would go even further.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.12.13Beijing Slams U.S. Sanctions on Chinese Companies
South China Morning Post
Beijing has denounced U.S. sanctions imposed on four Chinese companies and one individual last week for allegedly breaching a U.S. law designed to hamper the development of weapons of mass destruction by Iran, North Korea or Syria.
Conversation
02.08.13
Rich, Poor and Chinese—Does Anyone Trust Beijing to Bust the Corrupt?
Andrew Nathan:The new Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping seems to be making some bold opening moves with its attacks on corruption and the announcement on February 5 of plans to reduce the polarization of incomes. Does this mean Xi is...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.08.13Vipers and Beasts in the Year of the Little Dragon
China Story
A certain wariness surrounds the Snake, one of the twelve zoological signs of the traditional Chinese calendar, and not only because the reptile inspires fear and repulsion.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.08.13Hewlett Directs Its Suppliers in China to Limit Student Labor
New York Times
Hewlett-Packard, one of the world’s largest makers of computers and other electronics, is imposing new limits on the employment of students and temporary agency workers at factories across China.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.07.13Celine Dion to Peform at China Central Television’s New Year Gala Show
Hollywood Reporter
The Canadian singer will become the first Western artist to appear on the Chinese state broadcaster’s annual festive program, which is the most-watched TV event in the world.
Media
02.07.13
Chinese Beverage Maker Turns Legal Setback Into Viral Ad Campaign
This is no tempest in an herbal tea pot. The JDB Group, maker of China’s most popular herbal tea—one that raked in approximately 20 billion RMB (USD $3.2 billion) in revenues in 2012—lost another legal battle in its epic trademark war with the state...
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02.06.13Rupert Murdoch Tweets Chinese “Still Hacking” WSJ
BBC
Rupert Murdoch has said that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper remains under attack from Chinese hackers.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.04.13Foxconn Plans Chinese Union Vote
Financial Times
Foxconn, the contract manufacturer whose biggest customer is Apple, is preparing genuinely representative labour union elections in its factories in China for the first time, a powerful sign of changes in the workshop of the world demanded by an...
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02.04.13Barbaraians at the Digital Gate (Editorial)
Wall Street Journal
On a visit to our offices last year, a U.S. lawmaker with knowledge of intelligence affairs explained that, when it comes to cyber-espionage, there are only two kinds of American companies these days: Those that have been hacked, and those that don...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.04.13Chinese Artist Crosses a Line
New York Times
In Hong Kong, a business city trying to turn itself into a global “art hub” with a steely determination and large amounts of cash, art events now involve so many government and corporate entities that it almost squeezes the fun out of it.
Caixin Media
02.04.13
Lights, Camera, Pending IPOs for Filmmakers
The cameras could be rolling soon for long-anticipated stock listings by the nation’s largest movie producer and foreign flick importer China Film Group, as well as a smaller but ambitious rival, Shanghai Film Group.The state-owned companies’ names...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.03.13China’s String of Fake Pearls (Blog)
Foreign Policy
For the past few years, a low level theme that occasionally pops into my news feed is the idea of greater Sino-Pakistani cooperation. Now this has a certain amount of realpolitik sense to it. The United States and Pakistan are...
The China Africa Project
02.03.13
Rally Cry for the U.S. to Catch Up to the Chinese in Africa
In this episode of the China in Africa Podcast, hosts Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden focus on Delaware Senator Chris Coons' warning that unless the United States places a greater emphasis on Africa, it will be too late to catch up to the...
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02.01.13Five Predictions for China’s Auto Industry in the Year of the Snake
Wall Street Journal
In 2012, Chinese accounted for more than three out of four Buicks sold globally. And many of the design elements of the current Buick lineup originated in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.31.13Chinese Hackers Targeted Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal said its computer systems had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the newspaper's China coverage.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.31.13Hacking with Chinese Characteristics
New Yorker
The New York Times has come under attack by Chinese hackers just at the very moment that the new Chinese leadership, under Xi Jinping, has pledged to root our corruption before it destroys the Party.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.31.13Didier Drogba Leaves China: Inside a Failed Soccer Experiment
Time
The relationship between the star Ivorian striker and the mediocre Chinese team was actually a six-month fling. Now after half a season in a Chinese league better known for poor play and corruption—the “Allegedly Super League,” as the ...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.30.13China Burns Half of Coal Consuption Worldwide, US Figures Show
Guardian
US government figures shows that China overtook the US as the world's biggest carbon emitter in 2007 and became world's largest energy consumer in 2010
ChinaFile Recommends
01.30.13Translation of “Finnegan’s Wake” Sells in China
Associated Press
The Chinese version is no easier to read than the original, the loyal-minded translator assures, but James Joyce‘s “Finnegans Wake” has still sold out its initial run in China — with the help of some big urban billboards.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.24.13Enduring Mao’s China Led Geomagic’s Ping Fu To See The World In 3D
Forbes
Bend Not Break is Ping Fu's memoir of growing up during the Cultural Revolution and winding up founding a successful, important tech company in America.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.24.13“Cloud Atlas” Cut by 38 Minutes for China Audience
Associated Press
Nearly 40 minutes were cut from the Hollywood film “Cloud Atlas” for Chinese audiences, deleting both gay and straight love scenes to satisfy local censors.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.23.13How Social Networks Skirt Censorship in China
All Things Digital
WeChat, the social network owned by Tencent—China’s largest listed Internet company—provides a way around the traditional text-based censorship rained down upon users by the state.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.22.13An Overture from China Has Yet to Win Hollywood
New York Times
In September, China’s Dalian Wanda Group chairman and president said he would invest $10 billion in the U.S. To judge from the deal-making pace, it may take a while.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.21.13Apple and China: A Match Made in Heaven?
Diplomat
China has long played a major role in Apple’s success after it moved much of its manufacturing from the U.S. to China and other Asian nations in the 1990’s.
Caixin Media
01.20.13How to Implement the “Going Out” Strategy
Now is the right time for China to implement its global outreach strategy.While seizing this opportunity, we should also guard against risk first, with a sense of calmness. This means adhering to business decisions and sound operations, considering...
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01.20.13ODI-lay Hee-ho: China's Overseas Investment
Economist
China’s outward direct investment (ODI) exceeded $77 billion in 2012, an increase of 12.6% on the previous year.
Caixin Media
01.19.13
Shandong’s Slippery Gutter Oil Man
It’s oil with an extra something, but there’s nothing virgin about it. Pumped from sewers outside restaurants and drained from dumpsters, it’s cooking oil born from waste both human and mechanical.Known in China as “gutter oil,” it’s commonly used...
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01.18.13Economists React: China GDP Growth Hits 7.9% in Fourth Quarter
Wall Street Journal
Chinese growth is likely to stabilize around 8% this year after a more than two-year slowdown.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.18.13Economists React: China's GDP Growth Hits 7.9% in Fourth Quarter
Wall Street Journal
Chinese growth is likely to stabilize around 8% this year after a more than two-year slowdown.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.16.13Investment into China Declined in 2012
Reuters
Analysts said cooling growth in China’s foreign direct investment, or F.D.I., did not suggest that investors’ confidence in the country was waning.