An Empire Built By Aping Apple
In a country where products like iPhones are made but rarely invented, Lei Jun — entrepreneur, billionaire and professed Jobs acolyte — is positioning himself and his company ‘Xiaomi’ as figurative heirs of Mr. Jobs.
China’s Economic Empire
Beijing’s essentially unlimited financial resources allow the country to be a force in both the developed and developing world, one that threatens to obliterate the competitive edge of Western firms and kill jobs in Europe and...
Changing China Food Safety Key to Shuanghui on Smithfield
“If we go and purchase businesses from America and Europe, develop China’s meat industry, we will raise the level and standard of our food safety,” said Wang Long, Shuanghui’s chairman.
The Role of Trust Companies in China’s Recent Credit Growth
If any institutions fit the classic definition of shadow banking in China, it’s trust companies. Trust companies take money from institutional investors and individuals and make loans and investments to a wide variety of projects....
Belay for Hollywood
In summer 2012, when foreign productions were moved out of China’s multiplexes, a widely observed phenomenon unofficially called “domestic movie protection month” was implemented. It seems this measure is going to be repeated this year....
Caixin Media
06.03.13
Trading Companies and the Business of Illusion
Last year, the owner of an export-processing company whom we will call Lin Minyao learned of an easy way to make money in Shenzhen, the port city next to Hong Kong.
Like his fellow traders, Lin said he could set up two shell companies, one...
Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet
Council on Foreign Relations
The Task Force recognizes that there are both considerable opportunities and perilous challenges in cyberspace. This report identifies guiding principles and makes policy recommendations to mobilize a coalition of old friends and rising cyber...
Is the U.S. About to Become One Big Factory Farm For China?
If Shuanghui International’s purchase of Smithfield is to grease the wheels of trade carrying U.S. hogs to China and its enormous domestic pork market, then we’re looking at the further expansion of factory-scale swine farming here in the U...
Europe and China Trade Talks End Bitterly
China called on the European Union to refrain from imposing tariffs on solar panels, and the European trade commissioner complained that China was pressuring individual countries to prevent Europe from reaching a consensus....
Caixin Media
05.25.13
Honeymoon’s Over for Sweethearts of SOE Reform
Corporate wedding bells were ringing in 2011 when a trust controlled by insurer Ping An Insurance Group forged a partnership with a Shanghai-based cosmetics maker called Jahwa Group and its listed subsidiary, Jahwa United.
The tie-up was...
Conversation
05.23.13
China and the Other Asian Giant: Where are Relations with India Headed?
Mike Kulma:
Earlier this week at an Asia Society forum on U.S.-China economic relations, Dr. Henry Kissinger remarked that when the U.S. first started down the path of normalizing relations with China in the early 1970s, the...
McDonald’s To Hire 75,000 Staff On Store, McCafe Expansion
The new hiring represents an increase of as much as 83 percent of the Illinois-based company’s workforce in the Asian nation. McDonald’s has more than 90,000 employees in China currently.
Chinese Automakers Quietly Build a Detroit Presence
Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers....
Conversation
05.21.13
U.S.-China Economic Relations—What Will the Next Decade Bring?
On Monday, within hours of the announcement that Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet U.S. President Barack Obama on a visit to...
Caixin Media
05.20.13
Errors of Aggression Catch up with Underwriter
Ping An Securities Co. has been slapped with a fine by the securities regulator and will lose its stock underwriting license for three months because of its sloppy work in underwriting the initial public offering of a company that turned out to...
China Export Gains Spur Renewed Skepticism of Figures
The 14.7% increase, reported by the General Administration of Customs in Beijing today, was led by a 57.2% jump in shipments to Hong Kong that highlighted suspicions of false transactions used to mask capital flows into China....
China’s Baidu to Pay $370 Million for Internet Video Business
Acquiring the video business from P.P.S. will increase Baidu’s position in China’s fractious market for online entertainment and help iQiyi compete better against Youku Tudou.
China Not Embracing Electric Cars
China faces the same obstacles as the U.S. in the push for electric vehicles: They’re still expensive, many consumers don’t understand them and many drivers don’t have anywhere to charge the batteries.
Why Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. Is On Weibo But Not Twitter
Notable is the recent aggressive outreach to Chinese audiences by Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. Not only did he visit China for the first time in his life to talk up the film, but Downey also set up a personal account on Sina Weibo....
Conversation
05.14.13
Why Can’t China Make Its Food Safe?—Or Can It?
The month my wife and I moved to Beijing in 2004, I saw a bag of oatmeal at our local grocery store prominently labeled: “NOT POLLUTED!” How funny that this would be a selling point, we thought.
But 7 years later as we prepared to return...
Caixin Media
05.13.13
Competitors Try Curbing China Mobile’s 4G Urge
The wireless Internet technology race is intensifying a longstanding rivalry between China’s largest mobile phone operator, China Mobile, and its smaller competitors China Telecom and China Unicom.
Since 2011, China Mobile customers in...
Alibaba Buys Stake In Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter
Alibaba and Sina also agreed to cooperate in improving ways to marry social networking with e-commerce, as microblogging services like Sina’s continue to grow in popularity.
DreamWorks Experience To Debut In Macau, China
As part of a new partnership between DreamWorks Animation and Sands China, the studio will debut its DreamWorks Experience at the Resort in Macao beginning July 1. 2013.
As Wal-Mart Swallows China’s Economy, Workers Fight Back
As Wal-Mart expands in China, activists and academics have found that along with “Wal-Mart culture,” the company has also imported abuses familiar to those who follow Wal-Mart in the United States.
Learning From China, But What?
Yu Hua on how the new Schwarzmen scholarship ought to look to Apple’s and Google’s experience in China as instructive examples of how to (and how not to) do business in China.
Airbus Reaches Deal To Sell Jets To China
Airbus said it clinched an order from China for 60 Airbus jets, including 18 planes that had fallen hostage to China’s order freeze in retaliation to the E.U.’s 2012 decision to include the airline sector in a carbon-dioxide-emissions...
Agricultural Merger Shows China Is Worried About Feeding Itself
China conditionally approved the $5.6 billion purchase of US grain supplier Gavilon by the Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. Without imports, China would need to devote about a quarter of its total arable land to soybeans in order to...
The China Clusterf--k: Is Hollywood Fed Up?
Even if studios expect only the chance to play a movie in Chinese theaters and believe all hurdles have been cleared, sudden obstacles can arise. Such was Sony's experience with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, pulled literally moments...
Alibaba Joins China In Antipiracy Fight
Alibaba announced its partnership with five agencies at a news conference Tuesday. On the same day, Xinhua reported that China’s top legislature is considering amending the country’s consumer-rights law to protect online shoppers....
Caixin Media
04.27.13
Cracking Down on Bond Market’s Knotty Traders
It was a typical workday morning at Wanjia Asset Management Co. in Shanghai’s downtown financial district, but the firm’s star bond trader Zou Yu was not at his desk.
Zou, 31, had mysteriously failed to report for his job as head of Wanjia...
Hollywood’s Box Office Heroes Proving Mortal In China
If the preferences of Chinese moviegoers continue to shift to domestic releases — ticket sales for American movies in China fell 65 percent, to about $200 million in Q1 2013 — China will maintain control of its own film market just as...
Katzenberg Unveils China Film Project
The Hollywood power broker has lately turned his marketing skills on China, which is expected to surpass the U.S. box office by the end of the decade, driven by a boom in cinemas across the country. Tibet will be the topic of one of the...
Bo’s Campaign ‘Worse Than Cultural Revolution’
Chongqing, the largest Chinese municipality, was the epicenter of a Maoist revival campaign under Bo, who spearheaded an effort to crack down on gangs and corruption and promoted the public singing of nostalgic revolutionary songs...
The Upside Of China’s Slowdown
Plenty of people were expecting an end to the China-led luxury boom last year, but as Burberry’s latest sales report suggests, China’s consumers are more resilient than many of us think.
Pinewood Shepperton, China’s Seven Stars Ink Joint Venture Deal
The venture comes amid a slew of recent collaborations between Hollywood studios and Chinese partners as foreign entertainment companies look to break into China, and as China seeks to increase its capacity for soft power.
...
Hollywood Descends On China For Beijing International Film Festival
At this year’s festival Keanu Reeves debuts his upcoming movie, LucasArts’ Kathleen Kennedy delivers a keynote speech on modern storytelling, and many other Hollywood bigwigs come to town for business, screenings, signings, and more.
In China, The World’s Biggest Movie Lot Gets Even Bigger
Some of China’s most iconic buildings have been erected on Hengdian’s sprawling lot, giving the place the ersatz-historical feel of Colonial Williamsburg.
Why Leave Job In Beijing? To Breathe
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China says air pollution is a key challenge facing companies here, and is an underlying reason why many expatriate workers choose to leave.
Oakland Waterfront Project Jump-Started By Chinese Investor
In a surprising and possibly landmark deal for Bay Area development, a Chinese firm is reviving a $1.5 billion waterfront real estate project. The deal continues a wave of institutional money flooding Oakland’s real estate market....
‘Old School’ Hip-Hop Radio Station Likely To Change To Chinese-Language Programming
The owners of the Los Angeles classic hip-hop radio station 93.5 FM KDAY have agreed to sell their stations to Hong Kong-based R.B.C. Communications. If the deal closes, it will likely to change to a Chinese-language format. ...
China And California Sign Deal To Boost Investment
A new joint task force composed of officials from the California government and China's Commerce Ministry identified sectors for potential expanded investment and trade including infrastructure, environmental...
Conversation
04.18.13
How Fast Is China’s Slowdown Coming, and What Should Beijing Do About It?
Slower Chinese GDP growth is not a bad thing if it’s happening for the right reasons. But it’s not happening for the right reasons.
Instead of reining in credit to try to curb over-investment, Chinese authorities have allowed a renewed...
China’s Dalian Wanda In Talks To Buy European Theater Chain
Dalian Wanda has shown interest in purchasing UK-based chains, Odeon & UCI Cinemas Holdings and Vue Entertainment, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Conversation
04.16.13
Why is China Still Messing with the Foreign Press?
To those raised in the Marxist tradition, nothing in the media happens by accident. In China, the flagship newspapers are still the “throat and tongue” of the ruling party, and their work is directed by the Party’s Propaganda Department....
Caixin Media
04.15.13
China Export Policy Chokes on Vitamin Verdict
Internet cafés covered by the city of Wuhan’s Internet Café Association agreed to set minimum prices for online access nearly a decade ago. And more than one hundred coking coal company-members of the Coke Association of Shanxi Province each...
Caixin Media
04.15.13
Tencent Lets WeChat’s Rapid Growth Do the Talking
Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s free messaging service, WeChat, has seen its popularity grow among both individual users and businesses, even amid a dispute with the Big Three telecom operators [China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom].
...
WeChat War Escalates, Becomes Showdown Between Government And Internet Users
Most Internet users believe that China’s three state-owned telecom operators are pushing for the introdction of a fee scheme to popular messaging app WeChat because their core SMS and voice business are threatened by the app....
China Vanke Expanding To U.S. After Customer Emigration
Chinese developers are starting to take advantage of demand for real estate around the world from Chinese nationals as the government imposes property curbs at home.
China’s Branding Failure
According to a recent survey by international marketing firm HD Trade Services, 94 percent of Americans cannot name even one Chinese brand. Chinese companies show few signs of working to reverse this trend.
The Five Biggest Challenges To Doing Business In China
“As business people, our goal is to reduce complexity,” Kent Kedl said. “We want to reduce risk by understanding the complexity and then packaging it up so we can identify it. China resists that at every turn.”
Apple’s Apology In China Part of ‘Rite Of Passage’ For Foreign Companies
The same newspapers that attacked Apple and even China's Foreign Ministry are now heaping praise on the American company, calling Apple’s revised policies evidence that the company had “conscientiously” responded to consumers....
Beijing Opposes U.S. Rule On Technology Imports
The new provision following recent cyberattacks requires NASA, as well as the U.S. Justice and Commerce Departments, to seek approval from national law enforcement officials before buying information technology systems from China....
Sinica Podcast
04.05.13
The Transgressions of Apple Computer
from Sinica PodcastWhile foreign media coverage these last two weeks has focused on environmental disasters, over-fishing, and emerging forms of the avian flu, the Chinese state media has turned its gaze towards the transgressions of Apple Computer, which found...
China Takes Aim At Apple. Why?
The sustained vitriolic tone of the state-run campaign against Apple is prompting observers here to wonder what could possibly be behind it, with some speculating it is retribution for America’s treatment of Chinese flagship telecoms...
Conversation
04.02.13
Why Did Apple Apologize to Chinese Consumers and What Does It Mean?
Jeremy Goldkorn:
On March 22, before the foreign media or Apple themselves seemed to have grasped the seriousness of the CCTV attacks on the Californian behemoth, I wrote a post on Danwei.com that...
Caixin Media
04.01.13
Staking a New Claim on Internet Insurance
When three household brand names in China announced they would cooperate to form a company offering insurance services on the Internet, excitement naturally was the order of the day.
Last year, Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings, and Ping An...