Welcome to a new MB feature, courtesy of the linkage prowess of the blogger Sinocism. We will be reproducing these exceptional Chinese links daily before lunch time:
- Ex-Motorola Engineer Stole Trade Secrets for Chinese Company, U.S. Says – Bloomberg – An ex-Motorola Inc. software engineer should be found guilty of stealing trade secrets from the company to benefit a business in China and that nation’s military, a U.S. prosecutor told a federal judge.
Hanjuan Jin, the former employee, faces as many as 15 years in prison if she is convicted on three counts of stealing secrets to benefit a foreign government. She also faces three trade-secret theft charges with a maximum sentence of 10 years. - xinhua-One fourth Shanghai permanent residents aged 60 or older: census –
- Xinhua-Hu’s APEC attendance helps build cooperation, promote Asia-Pacific common prosperity –
- 苹果与环保NGO会谈交锋激烈 15家供应商被调查 – 产经 – 21世纪网 – Apple to work better with Chinese environmental NGOs to clean up its act in China?
- 高朋“售假”风波： 审核流程裂痕 – 产经 – 21世纪网 – too many fraudulent deals at Gaopeng. Groupon should kill its embarrassing China JV $grpn
- KUHNER: Obama’s betrayal to China – Washington Times – review of the triplett book
- Amazon.com: Bowing to Beijing: How Barack Obama is Hastening America’s Decline and Ushering A Century of Chinese Domination (9781596982895): Brett M. Decker, William C. Triplett II: Books – Triplett. enough said
- US shifts policy focus to Asia-Pacific – FT.com – Barack Obama will not set foot in China during his swing through the Asia-Pacific region starting on Wednesday, yet the country’s rapid economic ascent and military advances will provide the backdrop for almost everything he does on the trip. Mr Obama will use a visit to Australia and a summit in Indonesia to expand on the security aspects of what his administration calls the “strategic pivot”, a shift in foreign policy focus from the gruelling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the 21st century challenges of a booming Asia.
- China as Banker Plays Role in Obama Campaign: William Pesek – Bloomberg– Obama as President who lost China? China has never been America’s to lose//We could be seeing the start of a more confrontational tack toward China. Obama shouldn’t just see his mercantilist counterparts as an easy target as voters question why unemployment is stuck at 9 percent; China is the right place to aim his frustrations. Although this strategy comes with just as many risks as opportunities, it’s worth pursuing. Events at last week’s Asia-Pacific summit put something troubling on display. As the world heads toward another global crisis, one that could dwarf 2008’s, its second-biggest economy is doubling down on unenlightened self-interest. China is signaling that it’s more determined than ever to play by its own rules to the detriment of everyone else. If Obama doesn’t stand firm, he could be remembered as the president who, in a sense, lost China.
- Why more women in Beijing are delaying marriage – CSMonitor.com – There are more than 500,000 unmarried 20-something women in Beijing. They’re part of a growing urban trend in which college educated, financially independent women are deliberately delaying marriage for personal reasons.
- Information Dissemination: Report: China Tracking US Navy Ships from Australia –
- CitronResearch.com » Citron Stands Corrected … QIHU is not MOBI … Is it more like China MediaExpress (CCME) ?
- Politicizing accounting | China Accounting Blog | Paul Gillis– Zhou Qinye, vice general manager of the Shanghai Stock Exchange made some very interesting comments at a conference today. Here is what he said according to the Reuter’s report:”The current situation is the result of some institutions seeking to politicize the matter, and it’s difficult to predict where things are heading,” Zhou told a conference.
- China’s Low Occupancy Rates Threaten International Hotels’ Boom – Businessweek – The expansion in China of hotel chains including Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels Corp. may be undermined by low demand as four in 10 rooms sit empty.
- Lagarde to China: Help Europe, help thyself – Caixin Online – MarketWatch– BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned in a Nov. 9 speech in Beijing that the global economy risks “a lost decade of low growth and high unemployment” unless countries work together to resolve debt crises.And China’s monetary-policy makers, she said, have a key role to play.
- 电信联通遭反垄断调查_财经热点调查_中国网络电视经济台 – CCTV on the attack, its special section on the telecom/unicom anti-monopoly investigation
- The Relevant Organs (relevantorgans) on Twitter – a must follow if you are interested in China
- 一天壹蘋果»遇到外國大熱狗~辣妹馬上跟回家 | 蘋果動新聞 – 又是存著怎麼樣的心態在看待台灣妹呢!?是真感情還是玩玩而已!?而在這些台妹的心理，為何又比較喜歡外國人呢!?是他們真的比台灣郎紳士，還是純粹身材較”勇健”呢?【更多精彩請上FB網站搜尋”一天壹蘋果”】
- 红十字会副会长再谈郭美美事件：3天毁掉100年_新闻_腾讯网 –
- Caijing Cover Story-Expansion of Shadow Banking Highlights Need to Marketize Interest Rates – China should step up its efforts to marketize its interest rates, in order to prevent “off-balance sheet” risks from running out of control, and to ensure the effectiveness of government macroeconomic controls.
- Hollywood-China Film Venture Getting Cash Infusion – NYTimes.com– A Hollywood-China movie production venture that plans to make big budget films for worldwide audiences has been cleared to get an infusion of $220.5 million from an unlikely source — a construction company.Shareholders of Hong Kong’s Paul Y. Engineering Ltd. on Tuesday approved the investment in the joint venture that is also aimed at China’s increasingly lucrative film market. The construction firm, which says it wants to diversify and thinks the movie industry has strong growth potential, is taking a 50 percent stake in the production company, Legendary East Ltd., in exchange for the investment.
- IMF Calls for China Banking Revamp – WSJ.com– While the IMF applauded what it called Beijing’s “remarkable progress in its transition toward a more commercially-oriented and financially sound system,” it said in a review publicly released on Tuesday that Beijing’s financial system still depended too much on the state for direction. The state all but guarantees profits to big state-owned banks by barring them from competing for deposits and setting lending rates well above deposit rates.The result, the IMF said, is a system that tilts heavily to state-owned firms, encourages over-investment and creates asset bubbles, especially in real estate. Citing work by other economists, the IMF said that since 2001 China invested 40% more for every $1 of GDP created than Japan and South Korea did when they were at a similar stage of development. “The cost of these distortions is rising over time, posing macro-financial risks,” the IMF warned.
- Wenzhou’s ‘Annus Horribilis’ Shakes China – WSJ.com – WENZHOU, China—The mystique of Wenzhou—the birthplace of China’s private sector, where entrepreneurs have splurged on Bentleys and helicopters—is cracking.
- A New Era of Gunboat Diplomacy – NYTimes.com– IT may seem strange in an era of cyberwarfare and drone attacks, but the newest front in the rivalry between the United States and China is a tropical sea, where the drive to tap rich offshore oil and gas reserves has set off a conflict akin to the gunboat diplomacy of the 19th century.The Obama administration first waded into the treacherous waters of the South China Sea last year when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared, at a tense meeting of Asian countries in Hanoi, that the United States would join Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries in resisting Beijing’s efforts to dominate the sea. China, predictably, was enraged by what it viewed as American meddling.
- China’s Explosion in Weibo and E-Commerce Usage, Across the Social Divides [INFOGRAPHIC] | Tech in Asia –
- Billionaire Soros Plans China, Hong Kong Property Fund, 21st Century Says – Bloomberg – Billionaire investor George Soros is planning a property fund to invest in real estate projects in China and Hong Kong, 21st Century Business Herald reported. Soros Fund Management LLC’s Hong Kong subsidiary SFM HK Management Ltd. started planning the real estate fund early this year, and Soros is meeting developers and agents in Hong Kong, the newspaper said today, without saying where it got the information. The fund’s clients include tycoons in China and Hong Kong, it said.
- The Associated Press: China holds mine boss who smeared coal on face – Chinese police detained a mine boss who smeared coal on his face to pretend he had been in the shaft where 34 miners died and nine are still trapped, state media said Monday. Mine bosses who don’t go underground with their workers face severe punishments under a rule imposed last year to improve safety. Chinese mines are still the world’s most dangerous, though death rates have been lowered significantly.
- IMF on China: bank stress test result | beyondbrics | News and views on emerging markets from the Financial Times – FT.com– How strong are China’s banks? Strong enough to resist a one-off shock, such as a plunge in property prices or a jump in exchange rates, says the International Monetary Fund in an in-depth study. But not necessarily strong enough to cope with several shocks coming at the same time, say the Fund’s experts. Which is worrying. But not necessarily critically so, since it’s a conclusion that could be applied to many countries.
- Press Release: IMF Calls for Further Reforms in China’s Financial System – The main areas of reform should include: Steps to broaden financial markets and services, and developing diversified modalities of financial intermediation that would foster healthy competition among banks; A reorientation of the role of government away from using the banking system to carry out broad government policy goals and to allow lending decisions to be based on commercial goals; Expansion of the use of market-based monetary policy instruments, using interest rates as the main instrument to govern credit expansion, rather than administrative measures; An upgrading of the financial infrastructure and legal frameworks, including strengthening the payments and settlement systems, as well as consumer protection and expansion of financial literacy. The Chinese authorities have begun to move on many of its recommendations, and the IMF stands ready to provide technical cooperation in areas relating to strengthening the financial stability framework in China.
- Very unusual site in China – Google Earth Community – first discussed on 2006 on google earth bbs. not news
- Review & Outlook: China and the Rules of Trade – WSJ.com– Chinese negotiators have made clear they think they gave away too much market opening to join the WTO, and they would like to claw some back in future deals. Foreign companies on the ground in China report that officials are finding ways to discriminate against them.Perhaps Mr. Obama discussed these problems with Mr. Hu in private. But in public he asked for the one thing that Beijing is least likely to give: a big revaluation of the yuan. The Chinese response, that this will make little difference to the U.S. trade deficit, is right. The U.S. President would do better to focus his effort on pressing China to live up to its commitments and give American businesses a level playing field.
- Rein: For Louis Vuitton Being Too Popular in China Is Not Good – CNBC – Being popular is proving to be a bad thing for luxury retailer Louis Vuitton in China. The brand sells so well there, which is its second-largest market in the world, that it is becoming too common.
- 专家称我国房价3到5年内将保持稳定_中国经济网——国家经济门户– China bears would be wise to take Li Daokui’s points on housing price declines and social stability seriously.清华大学中国与世界经济研究中心李稻葵的观点是:未来两三年,房价上涨不可能,但房价下跌不会超过15%。“不管政府怎么讲,不管开发商怎么讲,不管大老板怎么讲,最后结果一定是未来两到三年房价基本稳定。”在上周友邦保险主办的高端财富论坛上,李稻葵针对目前市场上分歧较为严重的房价走势问题做出自己的预测,“房价上涨不可能,那样是政府扇自己耳光,但房价大跌也不可能,因为如果房价在北京、上海、广州出现10%下降的话,一定会带来比房价上涨30%还大的社会问题,刚买房的年轻人一定会抱怨。”
- Girls trade eggs for quick cash-Global Times – College graduates in Beijing are selling their eggs to infertile women for as much as 30,000 yuan ($4,728) on the black market, according to media reports.
- China Wary of Choking on Dollar Driving Hong Kong Dim Sum Bonds – Bloomberg – The helicopter swooped over Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor trailing a huge red-and-white banner: RMB SOVEREIGN BONDS. There were billboards on buses and banks and at the entrance to the cross-harbor tunnel. The city’s biggest sale of bonds in China’s currency, the renminbi, may not have blown away the man and woman on the street. Yet the burst of advertising in August did signal just how important the event was to the Beijing government and to the bankers and traders who feed off the Chinese economy, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its December issue.
Nicknamed Dim Sum bonds after Hong Kong’s favorite dining pastime, the securities are the hottest financial innovation in town. - AFFINITY CHINA –
- Affinity China – Introduction – YouTube –
- Exploring China, Taste Buds First – NYTimes.com – on Sunday night, Alice Waters, one of the world’s most prominent restaurateurs, found herself there trying some Chinese dishes. The restaurant was a few blocks from the hotel where she was staying. Ms. Waters had just arrived from the United States for a series of cultural exchange forums in Beijing this week. Some of the organizers had chosen Dong Lai Shun for dinner because it was a few minutes walk from the hotel. I joined them in a private room on the second floor.
- China’s Tencent May Fund Online Acquisitions From Note Sale-Bloomberg –
- Bernanke Bludgeons China With Inflation as Currency War Intensifies: Books – Bloomberg – We’re in the throes of Currency War III, and Ben Bernanke has won the first offensive by flooding China with inflation. If this sounds like a geeky online game, recall how Chinese prices surged after the Federal Reserve unleashed its quantitative easing in 2009 and 2010, one of many moves James Rickards parses in his somber book, “Currency Wars.” “It was the perfect currency-war weapon and the Fed knew it,” he says, describing how the Fed’s expanding money supply forced China to print more yuan to maintain its peg to the dollar. “China was now importing inflation from the United States through the exchange-rate peg after previously having exported its deflation to the United States.
- Eating Safely | Beijingkids Magazine | Dr. Richard Saint Cyr | Nov 15, 2011 | beijing-kids.com – Apart from air pollution, the hottest topic on my blog is always food safety in China. Newspapers cover the topic daily with the latest scandal, or a repeat of old scandals, and it’s a legitimate question to wonder what is safe to eat. As a doctor and a five-year veteran expat in Beijing, I’d like to share my tips.
- Tencent Launches a Shanzhai iTunes to Sync Your iPhone, iPad | Tech in Asia –
- In China, Car Brands Evoke an Unexpected Set of Stereotypes – NYTimes.com– for example, Mercedes-Benz, a brand that in much of the world suggests moneyed respectability. In China, many people think Mercedes-Benz is the domain of the retiree.The Buick, long associated in the United States with drivers who have a soft spot for the early-bird special, is by contrast one of the hottest luxury cars in China. But no vehicle in China has developed as ironclad a reputation as the Audi A6, the semiofficial choice of Chinese bureaucrats. From the country’s southern reaches to its northern capital, the A6’s slick frame and invariably tinted windows exude an aura of state privilege, authority and, to many ordinary citizens, a whiff of corruption.
- Symantec sells stake in Huawei venture – FT.com – Symantec has agreed to sell its nearly 50 per cent stake in a Hong Kong joint venture with Huawei Technologies back to the Chinese company at a profit, putting more distance between the largest seller of security software and a company whose networking gear has been blocked from some US projects on security concerns.
- Huntsman Says Phony Romney Panders to Republicans (Transcript) – Bloomberg –
- Spooks, suspicion and slumps, the harsh reality of investing in China | Business | The Guardian – Anthony Bolton turns to private investigators after investors in Fidelity’s China fund suffer losses of 21%