In Guangdong, Tea Oil Greases Official Palms
In the financial documents for a Guangdong province grower and processor of tea seed oil is a list of key shareholders who also happen to be the relatives of local government officials.
Off the record, Guangdong Xindadi Biotechnology Co....
Revamping the Landscape of Forex Flow
Capital flows out of China may be accelerating, a phenomenon commonly associated with waning confidence in a nation’s economy. But the foreign exchange regulator says the change is a step in the right direction.
In the first six months of...
Economist Lin Yifu on State-Sustained Growth
Standing up to a wave of pessimism about China’s prospects for continuing high-level economic growth is no easy task.
But economist Lin Yifu, who recently retired as a senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank, is holding...
Subsidized Cartoons, Comics Tickling Too Few
Breaking into the animated film industry usually requires a basic plan for blending colorful images and clever storytelling in ways that entertain the public—and make money.
Since 2006, however, animated film start-ups in China have done...
Shenyang Businesses Closed By Inspection Panic
Most shop owners in a city of roughly 8 million people have pulled down their shutters to avoid what they fear will be stringent enforcement of a city ordinance tied to the hosting of the 2013 National Games.
Small business owners in...
Landlords of the Rings Push Urban Rents Higher
A twenty-six-year-old woman who moved to Beijing from a distant town for work could be a poster child for urban China’s latest housing market phenomenon: skyrocketing rents.
The woman, surnamed Fang, said goodbye to Liaoning province three...
Shedding Light on the Solar Crisis
After Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., a Wuxi-headquartered photovoltaic cell producer, went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005, China’s solar industry grew at an astonishing speed. More than 200 photovoltaic product manufacturers are...
LDK Solar Owes Twenty Suppliers 600 Million Yuan
Debt-ridden Jiangxi LDK Solar has defaulted on at least 600 million yuan in unpaid bills for raw materials and equipment, twenty suppliers say.
“Starting from late last year, LDK Solar was delinquent on 15 million yuan to our company,” Liu...
More than Medals for China’s Olympic Stars
China’s best athletes have not only broken records but they’ve hauled in increasingly sizeable cash bonuses from central and local governments for their champion, medal-winning performances at Olympic events.
Between 1984, when China re-...
Vineyards Pop Corks on Chinese Wine Investors
Wine-tasting party conversations among investors in China are increasingly sounding like sour grapes.
Some well-heeled wine investors have been anxiously debating whether a price bubble for investment-grade wine is getting ready to burst....
Financial Reform Has Only Begun
The Chinese economy’s rapid growth over the past thirty years has fundamentally changed global economic structures. But our achievements have come at a price: We have run up against hard limits in many areas, including factor investment costs and...
Railroaded into a Fast-Train Technology Trap
The professional dreams of a team of locomotive designers and rail systems engineers sped along steel tracks through the countryside of northeastern China.
The year was 2003, and high-speed track testing was under way between the cities of...
Powering Down Coal-Fired Economic Expansion
Slowing nationwide power demand and coal consumption, twin barometers for economic growth, suggest the Chinese economy may be sailing into the doldrums while at the same time changing its course.
Electricity use in May rose a relatively...
Deal Puts Saab in Green Technology Driver’s Seat
The dark clouds over bankrupt Swedish car maker Saab have finally cleared.
Saab Automobile AB’s liquidator signed an agreement in mid-June with National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) to sell the company’s main assets to the Sino-...
Barclay’s Diamond Offers an Optimistic Vision
A calm, confident Robert Diamond discussed financial restructuring in Europe and economic options for the Chinese government during a June 14 interview—thirteen days before the British bank where he serves as CEO, Barclays Group, was fined for...
Road Show Media Bandits Squeeze IPO Hopefuls
Buying media silence is a common first step toward an initial public offering in China that siphons billions of yuan every year from companies seeking investors in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The phenomenon has been documented by the China...
Heading Deep for the First Time
On May 9, China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s (CNOOC) first deepwater drilling platform began operating in the South China Sea. The world-class vessel is stationed in the Liwan 6-1-1 field, about 320 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong, in waters...
Rail Builders Shift Interest to Overseas Mines
After a three-year wait, China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. (CRCC) recently won permission to launch a major copper mining project in Ecuador.
The production agreement signed April 25 by Ecuador’s government and Corriente Resources, a...
Hard Lesson for China Concept-Stock Investors
Imagine discovering on your first day as a new CEO that your employer is merely a shell that may be destined for a shameful delisting on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
That’s what happened recently to ChinaCast Education Corp. CEO Feng Yiyi, who...
Policeman Burned for Dealing With the Devil
On March 17, the Chenzhou Public Security Bureau announced Huang Bailian had been removed as head of the police department’s drug squad.
Huang offered a simple explanation for his sacking: “This is retaliation.”
Three years earlier...
Identity Crisis Rattles Volvo’s Chinese Owner
New models bearing the Chinese-owned Volvo badge shared a luxury spotlight at the Beijing International Auto Show in April with perennial stars Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus.
But behind the diamond-studded presentation was confusion over...
Near Three Gorges Dam, the Exodus Continues
Walls inside Zhang Haomin’s home in Zhenxi Township, in Chongqing, started cracking in 2008, around the time the reservoir behind the new Three Gorges Dam neared capacity.
“Early on, the cracks were small,” said Zhang, whose home is about...
Message in a Bottle for Spirits Maker Moutai
A glass of Feitian Moutai packs a wallop, which is one reason why the 106-proof baijiu is a hit among influential government officials.
They also like Feitian Moutai because a single bottle, thanks to special arrangements between state...
Era Ends for China’s Legendary Stock Picker
Investors who closely followed the stock picks of one of China’s most successful brokers are wandering in the wilderness—and wondering what will happen next to their unemployed luminary Wang Yawei.
In April, and without warning, Wang...
Along the Xiang, It’s Toxic from the Tap
Water flowing from the Xiang River into the faucets of Hunan Province homes has been dangerous for decades. The central government first classified the river’s water as toxic in the 1980s. But the river was being called the most polluted in China...
Chinese Firms Try Scoring with Spanish Soccer
When NBA journeyman Damon Jones signed a shoe deal with sporting goods maker Li Ning in 2006, he became the first in a long line of American basketball players to win a sponsorship from a Chinese company.
Today, China’s Peak Sport Products...
China’s Tax Burden: A Mysterious Lead Sinker
(Beijing)—In much of the world, admiration and envy are common reactions to China’s consistently high GDP growth rates.
But closer to home, the Chinese public’s admiration of their own economic miracle is shadowed by tax increases that...
Dalian Businessman Who Built an Empire Vanishes
(Dalian)—The sudden disappearance of a self-made billionaire in the coastal city of Dalian has unnerved not only bank executives concerned about loans they made to his companies, but also government officials who have lent generous support to the...
An Insider's Account of the Wukan Protest
For months, thousands of villagers in Wukan, Guangdong Province, staged large protests over illegal land seizures, rigged elections and official corruption. The unrest started in September, and as the months wore on they attracted nationwide,...
