No big business stories (since nothing changed during the Plenum) but the one-child policy is officially being reformed and several foreign sites have been blocked (the Chinese version of Reuters and the Wall Street Journal).  Only official criticism allowed…

• Volvo Discovers the Benefits of Being Chinese from The Wall Street Journal (huge revenue from gov’t purchases)
• Lenovo Vaults to Third in Smartphone Race from The Wall Street Journal
• Museum Aims to Capture Sights and Sounds of Old Beijing from The Wall Street Journal
• Cisco attributes part of lowered earnings to China’s anger toward NSA from ArsTechnica (believable, probably will be a long-term trend too)
• Nearly one in two Chinese mothers chose to give birth by caesarean from South China Morning Post (i have several colleagues who have done it this way for reasons not cited)
• ‘I am like a ghost now’, says censored outspoken scholar Zhang Lifan from South China Morning Post (believable, now think of what happens post-singularity like in Accelerando with huge revert/revision wars)
• Rare ‘Asian unicorn’ caught on camera from CNN (not a unicorn)
• China’s F1 hopeful Sun Zheng cuts his teeth at Macau Grand Prix from CNN
• China Eases One-Child Policy from The Wall Street Journal (perhaps too late, why didnt they abolish entire policy?)
• How a Former PBS Reporter Became “The Most Famous Woman in China” from Yahoo! Finance
• Gambia severs diplomatic ties with Taiwan from BBC (checkbook diplomacy?)
• Benedict Cumberbatch Is a Gay Erotic God in China from Foreign Policy
• Wall Street Journal and Reuters’ Chinese sites blocked in China from Tech In Asia (oddly enough TIA is also timing out for me, along with the chinese version of WSJ and Reuters, not a good sign)

The story about LEGO below is very interesting, I briefly mention them in my book but their growth has even surprised my optimism in that segment.  The censorship posts about Weibo are very sobering too.

• Can Creativity Be Taught? Taiwan Course Is Trying from The Wall Street Journal (doubtful if it is taught in a traditional setting)
• Crossing Lines: Sina Punishes More Than 100,000 Weibo Accounts from The Wall Street Journal (will continue causing chilling effects and self-censorship, removing a lot of the value and utility microblogs had)
• How to Get Censored on China’s Twitter from ProPublica (many ways)
• Sina Weibo: we’re still seeing growth, now up to 60.2 million daily active users from Tech In Asia
• GM to move international office to Singapore from USA Today (how will this impact their market access in the long-run?)
• Plenum Insight: Conclave ‘Didn’t Change Status of SOEs’ from Caixin (no suprise. SOEs are on of the biggest special interest groups… 100k of them. no way to truly reform long-term without reforming them)
• State Companies Emerge as Winners Following Top China Meeting from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s State Companies Ain’t Going Nowhere from The Wall Street Journal
• The Year of the Lego from The New Yorker
• Jeremy Lin is better off without Linsanity and New York from USA Today (my college students in zhongshan were agog and so excited when he was playing)
• Locked in the Cabient from Politico (that was an economic A-team?)
• A Few Bad Men from that’s (more like a prince of d-bags, wonder how many other similar cases go unreported or are quashed)
• Sino-US stand-off threatens trade talks from Financial Times
• China NSA The NSA Leaks Have Been Crushing US Tech Sales In China from Business Insider
• Balancing Financial Reform and Risk in the New Zone from Caixin
• Shanghai Party Boss: We Complement Hong Kong from Caixin (long way to go to out-compete HK, strict capital controls for one thing)
• Han Zheng: How Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone Works from Caixin (years in the making, years more for it to germinate and mature)

3rd Plenum has ended but no specific reforms have been publicized yet.  Par for the course.  And Single’s Day (11-11) broke more e-commerce records.

• HK has no reason to cave in to Alibaba from China Daily
• Alibaba rivals redouble efforts on Single’s Day from Financial Times (51buy had some good deals)
• Pegatron Finds iPhone Is No Money-Spinner from The Wall Street Journal
• Western Media In China: Adjusting To The ‘Anaconda’ from NPR (one of the most thankless and most riskiest jobs by far is to operate as a journalist, either domestic or foreign)
• China Stocks, Bonds Fall After Beijing Disappoints from The Wall Street Journal (meetings like this are always vague, always nebulous about what changes will or will not take place)
• Foreign journalism under pressure from The Economist
• Half of all computer malware is written in Chinese, but the most dangerous is written in Russian from Quartz
• Long silent, China’s entrepreneurs push for change from Associated Press (i’ve heard several mention desires for reforms but i doubt it’ll happen anytime soon)
• A Peek inside Alibaba’s Nerve Center from Caixin
• Online Sales Records Toppled on PRC’s Biggest Shopping Day from Alizila ($5.7 billion turn-over in one day)
• Watch: China’s Urbanization Push Heads Underground from The Wall Street Journal (will be funded by taxpayers and will most likely be entirely unprofitable for anyone except SOEs and those with guanxi.  no subway line in china is currently profitable)
• Sobering Up: China Cracks Down on Binge Drinking from The Wall Street Journal
• The girl with no identity: Being a second child in China from CNN (the stories i could tell you from frustrated women born into families that only adore males…)
• What we can learn from teaching English abroad from The Telegraph

Probably the most important story for most foreigners out here is the coming stagnation of the EFL industry, see the WSJ article below for more details.

Thanks to Sinocism for several links:

• Will Online Privacy Be Better When Microsoft Takes Over Skype’s China Business? from China Tech News (many doubts)
• Man attacks 2 foreign students with hammer from China Daily (i worked in bengbu for 2 years… didnt see many hammer attacks)
• Mainland-Taiwan submarine cable to start operations from China Daily
• Kurt Eichenwald’s Espionage Fantasy: Edward Snowden Has Become a Chinese Spy from The Dissenter (i wonder how many BTC that the NSA gave Eichenwald to make these claims?)
• Sina Weibo To Launch Weibo Finance Platform from China Internet Watch
• A Chinese Soccer Club Has Won Something! from The Wall Street Journal (hope its a new day in mainland soccer, have my doubts though)
• Big Money Behind Chinese Soccer Strategy from The Wall Street Journal (what are the subsidies and who do they go to?)
• China’s top-secret nuclear base to be revived as £30m Communist Party theme park from The Telegraph
• A Chinese City Seeks to Turn Migrants Into Urbanites from The Wall Street Journal (will probably be a colossal money pit)
• Alibaba Builds a ‘Black Friday’ for China from The Wall Street Journal (biggest e-commerce day of the year, lots of good deals)
• Frustrated Chinese bloggers greet Twitters successful IPO satire from South China Morning Post (how can something that does not exist have an IPO)
• China Wants to Rock, but Regulations Hinder from The Wall Street Journal (don’t hold your breath on censorship reforms, ever)
• Taobao.com Gains License To Sell Investment Funds And Financial Services Online from China Tech News (what kind of variety will savers be able to diversify into now?)
• Internet Finance: A Brave New World from Caijing
• Chinese Broaden Real-Estate Horizons Beyond the Likes of New York, London from The Wall Street Journal (much cheaper to buy abroad than it is to buy locally)
• Eight Questions: Leo Goodstadt, ‘Poverty in the Midst of Affluence’ from The Wall Street Journal (sounds a bit “collectivistic” — why is it okay to spend other peoples money?  why incentivize poverty by giving away other peoples money?)
• English May Be Losing Its Luster in China from The Wall Street Journal (really important article)
• A Glimpse Into China’s Bank-Loan Shuffle from The Wall Street Journal
• China eyes adopting international law to spark life into trade zones from Reuteres (a dash of the Charter Cities concept from Paul Romer?)
• China Buys Its Way Into Silicon Valley from The Wall Street Journal (smart move)
• Battling Pollution, Beijing to Cut New Car Quota By 90,000 from The Wall Street Journal (many problems, mostly related to Tragedy of the Commons and lack of property rights)
• Wanda buys Picasso painting for $28 million from China Daily
• China and Hollywood by the Numbers from China File (good numbers, seem accurate)
• Who needs Uber? This Chinese startup lets you connect with a designated driver from Tech In Asia (until it is shut down by special interest groups such as unions)
• ‘Most dangerous woman in China’ under fire after criticising corrupt journalists from South China Morning Post (the NSA is probably the only group who knows what really happened to Chen)
• China Development Bank to launch ABS backed by railway loans – sources from Reuters (will only work because of the implicit guarantee from the government)
• Brown Brothers Harriman, ICBC Asia Sign China Funds Deal from The Wall Street Journal (ICBC still largest bank globally)
• Relocated farmers face uphill battle from China Daily (doubt land confiscation will ever be truly rectified)

The WSJ article below about EFL education is very sobering to anyone wanting to get involved in that area as the segment may decrease in size in the long-run due to institutional changes at the city and provincial level.

Thanks to James M and Sinocism for a few of the links.

• Google Boosts Hong Kong Entrepreneurs from The Wall Street Journal
• It’s Hollywood vs. Canada in Battle for China’s Animation Market from The Wall Street Journal (lakes of cash…)
• ZQgame, Shanda Launch JV In Shanghai Free Trade Zone from China Tech News
• Why Are Overseas Chinese Students Not Returning to China? from China Smack (if they can find a job and/or start a family, they typically stay for many reason)
• 10 things Japan gets horribly wrong from Rocket News 24 (meh, same problems in nearly any country outside the West, not unique to Japan)
• English May Be Losing Its Luster in China from The Wall Street Journal (lots of potential either way in the long run, especially for speech coaches)
• U.S. Banker to China: Hold Off on Those Reforms from The Wall Street Journal (what about capital controls, non-floating currency, introduction of bond market, etc.?)
• K-pop group Girls’ Generation beats Miley, Lady Gaga at first YouTube awards from CNN
• Skateboarding kids in Mongolia are building a skate park in Ulaanbaatar. Here’s how you can help. from Boing Boing
• Taiwanese Singer Draws Chinese Ire With Flag from The Wall Street Journal
• Watch: Paul Smith Returns to China from The Wall Street Journal (never heard or seen before anywhere i’ve been to in asia)
• China’s Top for Expats (When You Don’t Count the Pollution) from The Wall Street Journal (there are expats and then there are expats, most foreigners do not come to china on an “expat” package, thus this study is quite selective in sample size/scope)
• Chinese Collectors Snap Up Western Art at Christie’s Auction from The Wall Street Journal
• Chongqing Restaurants Serve Cultural Revolution Nostalgia from The Atlantic (when i lived in bengbu there were several restaurants that were decked out in Mao-era memorabilia, this despite the fact that Anhui was one of the hardest hit by the great famine)
• Chinese professor builds Li-Fi system with retail parts from Network World (line of sight problems that hit IR, how would they be avoided in real-world applications?)
• Kicking the Luxury Habit from The Wall Street Journal (lots of wealthy special interest groups that have benefited from guanxi with SOE and government institutions, hard to see how they will voluntarily give this up)
• Chinese used ice-path sleds to move Forbidden City’s stones from ArsTechnica
• Samsung Overpowers Smartphone Rivals in China from The Wall Street Journal (i’ll believe it when i see fewer samsung devices when i’m travelling on the shanghai subway, yesterday it looked as if everyone had either a samsung or apple device, just a dash of others from lenovo or huawei)
• The Extreme Tilt of Chinese Internet Politics from The Wall Street Journal (unfortunately has only gotten worse in the 5 years i’ve lived here, yet some companies have still thrived)
• China Kick-Starts the Economy With a Big-Spending Duck from The Wall Street Journal (unbelievable that the “artist” is threatening to sue or suing “copycats”… how do you say prior art in Dutch?)
• How China Profits From Our Junk from The Atlantic (one man’s trash is another man’s treasure)
• What drives Chinese investment in Australia? China Changing Lecture in Beijing from Lowy Institute (just need to not be a geographical part of China to be a popular destination for investment right now)
• All in the family from Foreign Policy (account of teacher having to help evict her own parents from a home seized by local government. there is a new landed aristocracy and they are those connected to SOEs and Party)
• The Sound of China’s Future from China File (hope they find their voice and their niche, got to be hard in either country)
• Nothing to smile about: Asia’s deadly addiction to betel quids from CNN (smelled really disgusting when i lived in kaohsiung, taiwan… didn’t see it much in zhongshan, guangdong)

I’m surprised that there have not been any overseas initiatives to work with local match-makers to help the 30-40 million single men in China of “marriage age” (and who will not be able to find a local bride due to a lack of available numbers)?  While that may have been a crazy idea just 10 years ago, in the age of Weixin and OK Cupid, it may just be a matter of time for laonei and laowai to become better acquainted.

Thanks to Peter J and Sinocism for a couple links.

• Glut of women at Shanghai’s marriage market from CNN (karma for 30 years of preferential gender culturalism?  there are roughly 1 million single women in Shanghai who could probably find a partner if they were in another country)
• Eric Schmidt praises Myanmar’s mobile efforts, but says North Korea hasn’t called back  from Engadget
• China to step up own security after new NSA allegations from Reuters (wonder what the score is for bilateral hacking… probably more skewed to NSA still due to its longer existence)
• Strained Finances, Strained Relationships from Caixin
• Legitimizing the ‘Civilized Internet’: China’s Seduction of U.S. Media from The Atlantic
• ‘China’s Spielberg’ Feng Xiaogang Says Censors Are Holding Back Industry (Q&A) from The Hollywood Reporter (very true)
• How ‘The Walking Dead’ Prepares China for the Zombie Apocalypse from Tea Leaf Nation (it is quite popular though in my own opinion the show is no bueno; a soap opera with zombie aesthetics)
• Exclusive: China securitization plan expanded to include foreign banks – sources from Reuters (i will believe it when i see it)
• New Broadband And 3G Users Push China Telecom To New Highs from China Tech News (wonder if it will ever be reformed and privatized)
• Suning, Hony Capital Jointly Invest In China’s PPTV from China Tech News (wonder if their legal department has seen what the various bilateral trade agreements will do with the IP, certainly will benefit special interest groups and rent-seeking)
• Zoomlion, Press Crackdowns and China’s Economy from The Wall Street Journal (being able to investigate and do due diligence is very hard in this climate, who knows what really happened in that case.)
• Road Extension Links China’s Last County with No Highway Access from CRI English
• China U. from The Nation (about Confucius Institute.  lots of money/resources/guanxi involved)
• China Construction Bank Goes Shopping in Brazil from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s billionaires ignore one child rule from South China Morning Post
• Bye Bye Vibrating Bras: China Limits Infomercials from The Wall Street Journal
• Chinese censorship’s dangerous subtlety from The Guardian (really makes it hard to break news or report it at all which plays into the hands of the large SOE media companies.)

I am in the process of packing and moving so not many comments right now, a few interesting stories.  By the way, if you do plan to live in China for any length of time, 58.com is pretty useful for buying/selling directly from others (like Craig’s List).

• You may never eat street food in China again after watching this video from The Washington Post (very common unfortunately)
• Pollution Halves Visitors to Beijing from The Wall Street Journal (my friends there typically dont wander too far from their homes if it the index is even moderate… order-in lots of food)
• Chinese Cars: More Reliable Than You Think from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s Answer to Craigslist: 58.com from The Wall Street Journal (sold many appliances and older gadgets on it, it’s pretty useful)
• U.S., China to bid for overseas nuclear projects: U.S. energy secretary from Reuters
• David Faber Says Alibaba IPO to “Blow the Socks Off” Twitter from Alizila (probably true but not an apples to apples comparison)
• Alibaba IPO in New York? Not So Fast from The Wall Street Journal (apparently they were just jawboning their way to a better deal)
• US and Britain using Hong Kong to infiltrate China, PLA-backed film says from South China Morning Post (based on conversations with people in the know, this is true, though not a surprise to anyone in the know)
• Closer Look: Why Patients in China Kill Their Doctors from Caixin
• Chinese cities victim of US spying scheme from China Daily (everyone is unfortunately.  now the question is do Alcatel-Lucent or Huawei do the same thing too?)
• Shanghai Can Tolerate Slower Growth, Party Boss Says from Caixin (Shanghai actually does have pretty good air quality compared to nearly all tier 1 and tier 2 cities)
• To Save or Not to Save: Why Are Chinese Holding on to Hard-earned Cash? from Tea Leaf Nation (real disservice to not explain that capital controls prevent savers from investing abroad or that CPI rises faster than wage increases creating an incentive to save “just in case.”  they should have also shown the real estate costs and automobile costs for tier 1 & 2 cities.)
• Yuan Currency Use Remains Low Despite China’s Growth from The Wall Street Journal
• Aging Population Could Trim 3% Off China GDP Growth from The Wall Street Journal (a very conservative estimate, probably higher especially if it gets stuck in the “middle income trap.”)
• Mobile Video Gives China Unicom More 3G Users from China Tech News
• Study shows PM1 air pollution is most harmful from China Daily (yet another reason i would not want to live north of the huaihe)
• Guangzhou Evergrande Ties FC Seoul, 2-2, in League Final from The Wall Street Journal
• Soviets conducted nuclear blasts at oilfield to be tapped with China from Reuters
• Why ‘2 Broke Girls’ is All the Rage in China from Foreign Policy (know lots of people who watch it, hard to believe they understand all of the innuendos)
• How China’s Perfect World plans to be a player in mobile games — and the West from Venture Beat
• 13 hottest set-top boxes and smart TVs in China from Tech In Asia
• Robert De Niro invests in Shanghai property complex from BBC
• This Seemingly Bullish Chart Is Becoming A Big Headache For Chinese Policymakers from Business Insider (many distortions caused by a sundry of policies)
• Chinese FDI in the United States: Q3 2013 Update from Rhodium Group ($12.2 billion invested in the first 9 months)
• Foreign Supermarkets Hand over Register Keys to Domestic Rivals from Caixin (relatively low margin industry, wonder if repatriating profits were another reason?)
• China relaxes company registration requirements from Xinhua

A wide variety of news over the past week, I think the biggest business opportunity listed below is with elderly care and “old age” homes.  But that would probably be at the top of the market segment because most cannot afford it (even if they can culturally accept it).

Thanks to Kevin S and Sinocism for many of the links:

• Another Massive Photoshop Fail in China from Foreign Policy
• Girls, Girls, Girls: Alibaba’s Play for Mobile ‘Losers’ from The Wall Street Journal
• The coveted government jobs no one in China wants from South China Morning Post
• China Won’t Lose Its ‘Voice’ Despite New TV Restrictions from The Wall Street Journal (the policy makers can ban all they want, but the demand is still there and those looking for alternative will find it, likely online)
• With tough market at home, China’s heavy gear makers gain traction overseas from Reuters
• The Chinese Are In Love With Bitcoin And It’s Driving The Digital Currency’s Prices Into The Stratosphere from Business Insider (what about hong bao?)
• Beijing to Tackle Lack of Affordable Homes as Prices Soar from The Wall Street Journal (won’t work due to supply, demand and the interaction of subsidies)
• Media giant comes of age from China Daily
• China’s Baidu hiring in Thailand ahead of search engine expansion from Tech In Asia (how about fix your search engine so it can perform useful searches in English?)
• Chinese censorship goes global from The Economist
• Foreign Hedge Funds Warm to China from The Wall Street Journal
• Western Retailers See Online as Ticket to China from The Wall Street Journal
• Norway snub shows sharp edge of Chinese diplomacy from Associated Press (collectivism writ large)
• Human zoos and disappearing languages: The plight of China’s minorities from CNN
• Spike in divorces linked to tax loopholey from China Daily (i know of a few couples that have done this, is quite common in big cities)
• Chinese Show Global Real-Estate Appetite from The Wall Street Journal
• Caixin Explains: The Capital’s New Housing Rules from Caixin (paywalled)
• International students in China hit record high from Xinhua  (A total of 328,330 international students from 200 countries and regions studied in China in 2012, up 12.2 percent than 2011, according to the Ministry of Education on Thursday.)
• Tencent Has Invested $2 bn in Overseas Markets from Tech Node
• Duty exemptions for Shanghai FTZ imported equipment from Xinhua
• China’s influence over the media growing globally, says US think tank from South China Morning Post
• Is China Saying Goodbye to ‘Hello’? from Foreign Policy
• Li Na seeks more history in Istanbul semifinals from CNN
• Chinese doctor stabbed to death in latest hospital attack from Reuters (one of the worst professions in China for sure. a different stabbing occurred in Forbidden Palace recently too.)
• Experts: Yangtze ecology collapses from China.org.cn
• China Property Firms See New Market in Old Age Homes from The Wall Street Journal (huge opportunity for decades to come)
• Demand drives soybean imports from China Daily
• China’s Official Local Debt Could Exceed CNY14Trl, Some Hidden Debt Excluded from Caijing (that’s roughly $2.3 trillion)
• Report: only 13% of Chinese consumers will buy smartphones priced over $330 from Tech In Asia (very few can currently afford top shelf Samsung or Apple models)
• In China There’s Not One City Without Terrifying Stretches Of Empty Houses from Forbes (my apartment complex has 2 entire (new) buildings that have laid vacant for this past year)
• Shanda Jumps Into China’s Online Payments Sector from China Tech News (they do everything now it seems)

Several interesting stories, including a nugget about upcoming college entrance requirements and the removal of English as a requirement (see the Xinhua story below).  According to that story is this stat:

The Ministry of Education says that there are 50,000 companies specializing in English training, with the value of the market estimated at 30 billion yuan (almost 5 billion U.S. dollars).

Thanks to James M and Sinocism for some of the links:

• Is the Shanghai Tower the world’s first eco-friendly skyscraper? from China Dialogue
• Macau’s best casinos: Where to gamble, where to let loose from CNN
• Has China’s Debt Crisis Moment Arrived? from The Wall Street Journal (no, they’re going to bail them out even though it will cause even more long-term problems)
• English worth less in Beijing’s admission tests from Xinhua (could be a big game changer for the EFL industry here)
• Author: In China, ‘everyone is guilty of corruption’ from CNN (mostly true, especially outside of large cities)
• ‘When India and China Shake Hands’ from The Wall Street Journal (signed 9 agreements)
• In China, victory for wildlife conservation as citizens persuaded to give up shark fin soup from The Washington Post
• How the Chinese Learned to Embrace Independent Travel from The Atlantic
• China creates 50 bln tonnes of rain annually from Global Times
• Hollywood must think bigger about China, says producer Janet Yang from Reuters
• Xi urges overseas-educated talent to pursue Chinese dream from Xinhua (In 1978, China expanded the number of students sent to study abroad. By the end of 2012, 2.64 million had been sent abroad, among whom 1.09 million returned.)
• FTZ ‘Negative List’ Positively Disappoints Analysts from Caixin
• China: A place to call home from Financial Times (will have the same economic problems that all subsidized housing problems do across the globe, should just sell them on the open market)
• China Pushes Genetically Modified Food from The Wall Street Journal (so much fearmongering over GMO based on emotions rather than facts)
• China’s Internet Retail Sales Reached CNY1.3 Trillion from China Tech News (first 9 months of the year equals the total of all 2012)
• Report: Chinese Censorship Expanding Abroad from The Wall Street Journal

Some opportunities around for real estate developers in the new free trade zone being developed in Shanghai.  And if you manufacture air filters, the northern areas (especially Dongbei) would probably have a lot of potential customers (see these photos).  Thanks to Angela X and Sinocism for some of the links.

• Mistress-Driven Anticorruption: Study Says 15% of Accusers Are Lovers from The Wall Street Journal
• Q&A: Nate Silver on China and the New FiveThirtyEight from The Wall Street Journal (central planners and their statistics committees…)
• Xinhua, NDRC to set up price research institute from Xinhua (only in planned economy do you need to have statistics bureaus)
• Xinhua Insight: China’s Silicon Valley becoming Internet finance breeding ground from Xinhua
• CCTV: Chinese pay higher price for Starbucks coffee from Shanghai Daily (could be part of an image or brand marketing strategy by starbucks, i would wager this discovery does not phase most regular consumers)
• Shale gas sector gears up in China from China Daily
• What China can learn from Hong Kong in its fight against corruption from CNN (doubt it would work)
• Chinese couple sells babies for iPhones and shoes, authorities say from CNN (trending on weibo)
• Patti Austin cancels gig after Beijing asthma attack from BBC (horribad weather/air right now, see these recent pictures from Harbin and Shenyang.)
• Propaganda artists from North Korea paint a rose-tinted China from The Guardian
• Authors Accept Censors’ Rules to Sell in China from The New York Times
• Is it Too Soon for Xiaomi to Go Global? from Silicon Hutong (yes)
• Chinese authorities pull plug on ‘vulgar’ foreign-made TV from CNN (will simply push more people online, to view other cultural media on streaming video sites)
• China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain from The Wall Street Journal
• Students Compete to Meet Powerful Alumni from China Buzz
• U.S. Businessman Accused of Being Mob Boss in China from TIME (hard to figure out one way or othe other)
• Pilot free trade zone in Shanghai to build open economy from East Asia Forum (i’ll believe it when i see it.  i have a friend who works in real estate and they are planning projects in the new ftz.)
• Q&A: Huawei Executive Talks About Cyber Security from The Wall Street Journal (expects 10+ years to get into US institutions)
• Viral Chinese Cartoon Explains How to Become President from The Wall Street Journal (very naive view, filled with propaganda)
• Can Wuhan Become the Detroit of China? from The Wall Street Journal (i visited Wuhan once about 3 years ago, that’s what it looked like too — dusty and smoggy)
• Chinese Companies Fare Poorly on Transparency, Study Says from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s Building Cities So Fast, People Don’t Have Time to Move In from Gizmodo (this is the problem with inorganic urbanization by fiat, just because you build a city does not mean the people you want to move there have the productive means or ability to live and work there)
• China set to announce reforms of creaking pension system: sources from Reuters (probably worse underfunded than those in North America)
• British man sentenced for bigamy in Guangzhou from China.org.cn (unfortunately not a big surprise considering the cornucopia of laowai around)
• Xiaomi sells 100,000 MiPhone 3 units in 83 seconds from CNet (impossible to get unless you knew someone at the company, almost none of the “fans” were able to get phones during that first couple of minutes and are rallying on weibo about it. no inventory overhang at least.)
• India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria on slavery’s list of shame, says report from CNN (forced labor, black jails, etc.)

A few stories from the past couple of days.  The free-trade zone mania seems like a positive trend, here is hoping that the entire country is eventually turned into one free-trade zone instead of the hodge podge of a million fiefdoms.  Thanks to Kevin S and Sinocism for some of the links.

• Alibaba Isn’t the Amazon of China from The Wall Street Journal (i think they’re is a lot of room for potential growth since everyone i know uses an alibaba-based site to buy stuff off here)
• Free-for-All Over China’s Free-Trade Zones from The Wall Street Journal (the easiest solution of course would be to make the entire country a free-trade zone…)
• Guangdong Eyes a Huge Free Trade Zone of Its Own from Caixin
• Tsinghua professor: Non locals should take tests to get Beijing residency from Offbeat China
• Hong Kong TV’s Dreams Dashed from The Wall Street Journal (cui bono, how much hongbao did it take the duopoly to get enough guanxi to prevent the new competition?)
• Ex-Maxwell Technologies Official Allegedly Bribed Chinese from Bloomberg
• First interprovince subway route opens from China Daily
• Visa rules for Chinese coming to the UK to be relaxed from BBC (took way to long to change these rules, lost lots of business the past few years because of it.)
• Chinese official sacked after receiving piggyback during visit to flood victims from South China Morning Post (was wearing designer shoes that he didnt want to scuff up, is the end of many jokes right now)
• China targets 8-trln-yuan health service sector from Xinhua (if healthcare socialism worked, it wouldnt need constant stimulus and reforms)
• Bondholders Seek to Force Suntech Into Bankruptcy in U.S. from The Wall Street Journal (it’s a shame that the anti-competitive tariffs were erected)

If you want to run a standardized test taking center in Hong Kong or South Korea, you could probably make a bundle the next few years.  Or if you know how to setup trust funds, you can probably help the “new” rich figure out how to emulate Western families and their wealth management strategies.  Thanks to Sinocism for some of the links.

• Hong Kong’s New Big Draw: The SAT from The Wall Street Journal (more than 50,000 mainlanders will take the test in HK this year, all in English)
• China Opens Medical Service to Private Sector in Ground-Breaking Reform from Caijing
• Meet China’s Beverly Hillbillies from Foreign Policy (tuhao)
• China’s Big B2C Shopping Marketplace Unveils Site for Curious Western Retailers from Alizila (very smart idea to get western brands into China)
• Chinese tech firms Huawei and Rekoo to invest in UK from The Guardian
• London to become hub for China’s yuan from Associated Press
• The Rise of Chinese Trust Funds from The Economic Observer (really smart idea for both parties)
• CITIC launches China’s first land-backed trust product from Reuters
• China to ban new projects, strengthen market in new overcapacity plan from Reuters (doubt it will work, local SOEs are very powerful and creative special interests)
• China swaps pandas for uranium in trade deals from CNN|Money
• China Intervened Aggressively in Currency Markets in Latest Quarter from The Wall Street Journal (yuan hit an all-time high this week at 6.10 RMB/USD)
• Recovering a Submarine’s Secret Salvage from The Wall Street Journal
• Q&A: Taking China to Court Over the South China Sea from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s floating fishing cities from Daily Mail
• Youku Tudou Sues Over Xiaomi’s Miui Box VOD Infringement from China Tech News
• 15,000 foreclosed properties in Wenzhou pummeling guarantee companies from Want China Times (not sure if such a collapse will happen here in Shanghai since everyone wants their kids to grow up here)

As I have told my younger Chinese friends who are looking to start their own sport companies, I recommend trying to get into sports that are very popular outside of China that are currently not popular here (e.g., Cricket, Rugby, Ice Hockey).  See the Cricket story below.  Thanks to James M and Sinocism for links.

• Vote: Should China Scrap Its Holiday Schedule? from The Wall Street Journal (easiest solution would be to allow companies and institutions to celebrate whatever and whenever they wanted.  the current system never made sense to me, wasn’t really a “holiday” or “vacation” if you have to make up those days after you get back)
• Hopping mad: Crickets fight it out at China’s championships from Reuters
• China’s Cram School from Hell from Foreign Policy (depending on the province you take the test in, the higher the score you need to get into the C9.  for example, a decade ago if you took the gaokao in Shaanxi, you would need to get a 632 to get into Fudan and a 638 to get into Tsinghua.)
• Chinese Tourists Take Big Spending to Maldives from The Wall Street Journal (here is the companion video)
• Can’t Buy Them Love: China’s Heiresses Struggle With Singleness from The Wall Street Journal
• Henan bans foreign names from Global Times
• Chinese want to sell British milk at £3 per litre from The Telegraph (that’s more than 3x the price locals typically pay)
• Alibaba to transform China’s ‘e-conomy’ with $500 billion marketplace from Reuters (monster, i do not have any position in the company but recommend that everyone should get shares during its IPO)
• India-China visa row erupts ahead of PM Singh’s visit to Beijing from Reuters
• Notes on a Scandal: Corruption at China’s Top Classical Music Academies from that’s magazine
• Youku Tudou Signs VOD Agreement With FremantleMedia from China Tech News
• Jiangsu court jails sellers of ‘cooking oil’ made from gutter waste from South China Morning Post
• The Secret Factor in China’s Housing Bubble? Mistresses from The Atlantic (purportedly 200,000 mistresses with apartments in beijing)
• China’s Black Box For Blockbusters Riles Hollywood Studios from Forbes
• For Some NYU Students, A Sweet Deal To Study … In Shanghai from NPR
• China’s South-North water diversion middle route from The Guardian
• You are falling short of your ‘crazy quota’, Zhengzhou officials warned from South China Morning Post

This is a combination of news from the last two days as well as the first days of the summer.  For those in the alternative education industry and training sector, there may be opportunities to tap into a growing customer base dissatisfied with the traditional education system (see links below).  Also recommend reading that petro article from FT at the very bottom.  Thanks to Matt L and James M for some of the links.

• Marlboro in the Middle Kingdom: Chinese Kids Know Their Smokes from The Wall Street Journal
• European Taxi Hire Service Expands To China from China Tech News
• China’s Software Industry Revenue Up 24.5% In H1 2013 from China Tech News
• TravelSky, Sugon Team For Big Data Aimed At China’s Travel Sector from China Tech News (travelsky is an SOE that has a monopoly over domestic bookings)
• A Freshman Year, Far From Home from The Chronicle of Higher Education
• China’s Higher Education Bubble from ChinaFile
• Some Chinese Students Stay Home to Get Ahead from The Wall Street Journal
• Education is Useless says penny-pinching Chinese father from The World of Chinese
• Is a college degree worthless in today’s China? from Offbeat China
• Millions at risk as China’s prosperity brings diabetes epidemic from The Independent (12% of population has diabetes)
• China ‘Catastrophe’ Hits 114 Million as Diabetes Spreads from Bloomberg
• Chinese No. 1 Li Na out of China Open from Xinhua (last couple months have been tough for her)
• Baijiu-Maker Kweichow Moutai Sobers Up from The Wall Street Journal (a complete u-turn in 1 year due in part to legal prerogatives from up top)
• Chinese Think Tank Puts Shadow Banking at 40% of GDP from The Wall Street Journal (see my friend describe alternative wealth management products)
• How Upstart Xiaomi Rattled China’s Smartphone Race from The Wall Street Journal
• China Food-Safety Woes Soar from The Wall Street Journal
• Huawei, CCTV Reach Big Data Cooperation For Chinese Media Storage from China Tech News
• In China, Avoiding The ‘Great Firewall’ Internet Censors from NPR
• Kingsoft Gained Net Profit Of CNY381 Million In H1 2013 from China Tech News (xiaomi founder worked at Kingsoft for over a decade before moving on, kingsoft is probably best known domestic software company)
• Why Chinese Have Shiny Nails After Visiting the Showroom from Bloomberg
• Why China’s Farms Are Failing from The Atlantic
• Rackspace Attempts To Take Back The China Internet Market from China Tech News
• Hey, big spenders from China Daily (chinese tourists abroad)
• PISA’s China Problem from The Brookings Institution (great post, PISA scores in 2009 that were reported only included Shanghai.  an apples to apples should have been OECD cities, not entire countries)
• Asian Messaging Apps Challenge Silicon Valley from The Wall Street Journal
• Twitter and its plans for China from The Next Web
• Wooing China’s Princelings by Minxin Pei
• American Execs Say China is Getting Expensive, and Profitable from The Wall Street Journal (here is the full report)
• China raises hurdles for foreign banks from Financial Times
• Sip of Death Plagues Cancerous River Villages from Caixin (i used to live and work in Bengbu, which is bisected by the Huaihu.  the college students i taught there would joke about throwing someone into the river because it was very dirty)
• The new gas guzzler from Financial Times (very interesting piece with some very detailed information and stats about the petroleum industry)
• Video: Inside China’s Social Media Platforms from The Wall Street Journal

Because the business news cycle was very slow in China this past summer, many of these links are a couple months old but their stories are very relevant today.  A few stories involve other Asian countries.  Special thanks to James M and Sinocism.

• KFC parent Yum warns of delay in China sales recovery from Reuters
• Young Chinese snubbing factory jobs, says billionaire boss from The Telegraph
• A new partnership to bring Coursera to the hundreds of millions of Chinese learners across the world from Coursera
• Tencent Jumps Deeper Into Chinese Internet Book Publishing from ChinaTechNews
• What Percent Are You in China? from The Wall Street Journal
• US failures could teach China’s automakers how to succeed from China Economic Review (i would wager that political and policy pressure allows local car manufactures to succeed, especially at the top, luxury level)
• China Cracks Down on Televised Singing Competitions from The Wall Street Journal (from this summer onward, still in effect)
• China urbanization cost could top $106 billion a year: think-tank from Reuters (i spoke with one financial expert here at the beginning of the year, he noted that if urbanization and reforming the hukou could be done, it would have been done already — costs are probably substantially higher than these estimates)
• Hollywood Studios Haven’t Been Paid by China in Months (Exclusive) from The Hollywood Reporter (have not heard if this has been cleared up, doubt it will be the last time that China Film Group tries to pass taxes onto others)
• Chandhok confident Indian GP will survive from CNN (not sure i’d want to attend with that air quality…)
• Bribery increases medicine prices by 20%: expert from China Daily (hongbao and maintaing guanxi)
• Bribery serves as life-support for Chinese hospitals from Reuters
• China to Audit Local Debts as It Cautions a Detroit-Like Crisis from Caijing (audits should also be audited)
• 60-70% of honey in Jinan is fake from Danwei (really have to be picky in terms of what you buy, even at grocery stores like CityShop)
• Soccer stars on treadmill to boost globalization drive from CNN (pretty cheap to play a simple game — just need some open space and a ball)
• Closer Look: Guangdong Officials Wisely Came Clean on Soil Pollution from Caixin (wont be the first or last time this happens in guangdong, let alone other provinces)
• One of the world’s most popular SF novels finally coming in English from io9 (talking about Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin)
• China’s Disappearing Official Problem from The Wall Street Journal (this was from the beginning of the summer, many more have disappeared in Chengdu during the recent world conference)
• SMEs’ Chronic Credit Crunch from The Economic Observer (this was from the past July, condition apparently has not improved much in the past quarter for SMEs, they dont have enough guanxi with SOE banks)
• Inner Mongolia Property Mogul Bites the Dust from Caixin (wasnt the first and wont be the last mogul due in part to the guanxi system)
• Hollywood’s Hope for Cash in China Blinds It to Censorship from The Wall Street Journal
• Chinese Directors Express Doubt Over Censorship Reforms from The Hollywood Reporter
• China is getting fatter: survey from China Daily
• China’s Higher Education Bubble from Caixin
• Chinese newborn, allegedly sold by doctor, is returned to parents from CNN (sadly quite common in rural areas still due to the OCP and the desire to have boys)
• Xiaomi Buddies Up With Tencent, Launches New Budget Smartphone For Just $129 from Tech In Asia (this is 3 months old but the Xiaomi-series of phones have been an instant success — great value for the price, the new Xiaomi 3 has fantastic specs for a paltry sum)
• Beijing reels in ‘unsafe’ air every other day from South China Morning Post (would not want to live there until <insert extremely long date>)
• North Korea: A sneak peek through the keyhole from CNN
• Could cricket have a big future in China? from BBC
• Guangzhou Nears Debt Red Line, Its Figures Show from Caixin (this is 3 months old too, heard it has not gotten any better, having to bail out local villages and SOEs)
• China starts 5-year ban on new gov’t buildings from Xinhua (i’ll believe it when i dont see it)
• In Paris, Chinese Shopping-Tour Buses Go Out of Fashion from The Wall Street Journal (could just be Paris but could be a challenge for everyone if SME growth doesnt pick up)
• Flurry: China Has 261 Million Active Smartphones And Tablets, 65% On Android from Tech In Asia (i bet the new numbers increase by ~10% over the past quarter)
• 4 decades after war ended, Agent Orange still ravaging Vietnamese from McClatchy
• Why is it so damn hard to understand China’s mobile market? Introducing the China App Index. from TechRice (if anecdotal evidence from my subway commute is any indication, top 5 are: some form of chat app, book app, casual game, movie and music apps)
• NFL Drives Deep Into Chinese Territory With Planned Online Store from Alizilla (been a couple months, wonder what the results have been)
• Foreign NGO registration rules eased from China Daily (still will be challenging environment to operate as a foreign NGO)
• Closer Look: SOEs Can Brag They Are Big – but Not Strong from Caixin
• China bars Glaxo exec from leaving country from CNN|Money (he still hasnt been able to leave)
• China’s Last Gunslingers from National Geographic
• Confinement Spa for New Mothers in China from PRI (very traditional)
• Jin Xing: China’s sex-change pioneer from CNN
• India to overtake U.S. on number of developers by 2017 from ComputerWorld (quantity over quality, or both?)

Mostly China-related news from the past couple of weeks.  Special thanks to James M, Michael T and of course Sinocism.com.

• Inside Shenzhen’s New Stock Exchange from The Wall Street Journal
• The good, the bad and the exiled? China’s Class of ’77 from CNN
• In China, parents bribe to get students into top schools, despite campaign against corruption from The Washington Post
• A novel about a dystopian future China wins the Chinese Nebula Awards from io9
• China to rejoin IT trade talks to cut tariffs on electronic goods from Financial Times
• Russia re-opens railway link with North Korea from Reuters
• Aussie builds world’s largest skateboard park from The Sydney Morning Heralds (being built in Guangzhou)
• Wealthy Chinese seek U.S. surrogates for second child, green card from Reuters
• Ukraine to become China’s largest overseas farmer in 3m hectare deal from South China Morning Post
• The Inventory: Fan Bingbing from Financial Times (check out Line 2 in Shanghai metro sometime…)
• Armed With Zhang Ziyi, American Director Takes On Chinese Rom-Com from The Wall Street Journal
• How long can the Communist party survive in China? from Financial Times (probably for a very long time, with the assets at its disposal)
• Half of China’s Antibiotics Now Go to Livestock from Mother Jones
• On the tourist trail of China’s Jews from Financial Times
• Robots cook for Beijing Jiaotong University from ECNS
• From Gang of Four to Bo Xilai: Reporting from China’s ‘show trials’ from CNN
• Can Renren Keep It Up? from The Motley Fool
• Robots vs. Anesthesiologists from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s ‘Ghost Cities’ May Not Be So Spooky from The Wall Street Journal
• Robots May Revolutionize China’s Electronics Manufacturing from The Wall Street Journal
• Chengdu Continues Global Push Despite Scandal from The Wall Street Journal
• Latest robot can pick strawberry fields forever from The Japan Times
• China Watches ‘Breaking Bad’ from TeaLeafNation
• Alibaba Acquires Cloud Storage Software Firm In China from ChinaTechNews
• China Lifts Gaming Consoles Ban In Shanghai Pilot Free-Trade Zone from ChinaTechNews
• Strange Horizons, has a special issue for its September edition with India-based scifi authors
• More South Koreans Choose China for Education from The Wall Street Journal
• Facebook and Twitter too late for China’s Internet from Reuters (it’s not that they’re late, they’ve been blocked for 4 years)
• Will the NSA Revelations Kickstart the Domestic Cybersecurity Industry in China? from Council on Foreign Relations (short term no, long term yes)
• Microsoft forms Chinese console venture from Polygon

While there is a plethora of bearish news there may be opportunities for real-estate agents in the US (and elsewhere) to sell homes to Chinese looking to invest or live abroad (two links below about that).  Figuring out the e-book market may have some opportunities still but that seem like a tough nut to crack (despite the big investments).  Also, if you have experience in M&A perhaps you can figure out how to get some of the low performing steel SOEs to merge…

Thanks to James and Sinocism for several links:

• More Chinese cities likely to curb auto sales: industry group from Reuters
• Fatal Misperception: How Unsafe Is Chinese Food? from Council on Foreign Relations (even if the food is not treated with pesticides, the water supply likely does contain similar substances — it’s nearly a no-win situation here)
• Chinese E-Books Platform Gets $110 Million in Funding From Goldman Sachs and Temasek from Tech in Asia  (mention them in Chapter 2)
• And the Newest Country to Court Rich Chinese Immigrants Is… from The Wall Street Journal (unsurprisingly it is greece)
• Advice for Small Fish in China’s Real Estate Market: Swim Fast from The Wall Street Journal
• Undetected river pollution sparks criticism from China Daily
• Liberal Peking University professor threatened with expulsion from South China Morning Post
• An inferno of unprofitability from The Economist (steel industry, mentioned in several chapters too)
• Foreign Capital Flows out of China on Expectations of End of QE from Caijing (will this lead to a drop in real estate prices?)
• Crucial Backing for ‘Bank’ of Alibaba from The Wall Street Journal
• In New Forecasts, Even China Bulls Slow to a Trot from The Wall Street Journal
• Air pollution cuts life expectancy by 5.5 years in China from CNN|Money (here is the actual study from PNAS)
• Chinese buyers flood U.S. housing market from CNN|Money (good deals for them, smart shoppers)
• China inflation picks up, limits room for policy easing from Reuters (looking at my grocery receipts it never seemed to stop…)
• Now on Taobao: Outsourced Care for Grandma from The Wall Street Journal (markets in everything)
• Car horns used 40 times more often in China than in Europe from South China Morning Post (very believable, my apmt is near a street and horns blare throughout the entire day)
• Why Nearly Half of Asiana Passengers Were Chinese from The Wall Street Journal (SOEs and heavy regulated flight routes)
• China’s Genetically Modified Food Fight from The Wall Street Journal (anti-sciencism run amok, if you don’t want to eat GMO, don’t eat it — but the burden of proof falls on those making the claim)

If you’re an experienced bond manager perhaps you may find new opportunities in Shandong and Jiangsu (see the last link).  And if you want to get involved in the TCM export business, look at the CER article as well.

Thanks to James and Sinocism for some of the links:

• Beijing’s War on Shadow Banking from The Wall Street Journal (from Mark DeWeaver, discussing credit and liquidity)
• The Threat Of A Declining China from International Business Times (also from Mark, from a couple weeks ago regarding geopolitics)
• China’s largest algal bloom turns the Yellow Sea green from The Guardian
• China’s Local Debt Mystery from The Wall Street Journal
• Canada Loses Luster as Destination for Corrupt Chinese Cash from The Wall Street Journal (ill gotten gains amounting to $2.83 trillion between 2005-2011, how many are party affiliated?)
• Chinese medicine plays by Western rules to gain acceptance from China Economic Review (i used to be extremely skeptical towards the efficacy of TCM but have come around on some of it)
• China, Switzerland sign free trade agreement from Reuters (watch makers rejoice!)
• The Politics of a Slowing China from Project Syndicate (when you’re the only game in town, hard to compete with)
• Could poor planning turn China’s city centers into slums? from China Economic Review (yes, as has happened with many gov’t housing projects in north america)
• China Milk-Powder Investigation Risks Turning Sour from The Wall Street Journal (shaun provided a number of quotes for my book as well)
• Alibaba’s Asset Securitization Product Approved from Caixin (finally some real competition for the SOEs)
• China Allows Two More Local Governments to Issue Bonds from Caijing (will they shut them down like they did in previous bond-issuance attempts?)

A bit of bearish news in the media this week, lots of challenges for sure.  Thanks to Michael and Sinocism for several links:

• Faking It in China from The New York Review of Books (a month old but still interesting regarding copy-cat towns)
• Performance of China’s Hong Kong Shares Has Been a Long-Term Letdown from The Wall Street Journal (unfortunately the Shanghai exchange is no better, both due in part to SOE capital absorption)
• More Chinese Students Choosing Workforce over College, Opting out of the Gaokao from Tea Leaf Nation (great, sobering write-up that mirrors my own observations after working in higher ed on the mainland)
• Plight of the sea turtles from The Economist (met hai gui over the past several years.  it’s a mixed situation, certainly depends on what univ you went to, what skills you learned and what kind of guanxi you and your family have)
• China’s Looming Entertainment Problem: Not Enough Lawyers from The Hollywood Reporter (maybe in some areas like contract, corporate or personal law… no need for IP lawyers though, would be a detriment to their overall growth just like massive IP litigation has been a drag on western economies. see Against Intellectual Property from Stephan Kinsella)
• The Territorial City from The China Story (again, if urbanization was the key, surely migrants would have already voluntarily moved to the cities.  coerced, artificial migration of unskilled laborers seems like wishful thinking.  see my post a couple weeks ago on this issue.)
• Urbanisation not the cure-all China’s leaders are hoping for from South China Morning Post
• Cash Crunch Drives China Auto Sector Into Ditch from The Wall Street Journal
• New Flashpoint For Chinese Food Consumers: Genetically Modified Soy from Tea Leaf Nation
• Gaokao whiz evinces changing views from People’s Daily (surprised he was allowed to have a girlfriend or even try to have a girlfriend)
• Camacho to receive large compensation from Xinhua (hire and fire every couple of years, you can probably retire wealthy if you’re willing to temporarily coach players who buy their way onto the team)
• Central Bank Raises the Red Flag over P2P Lending Risks from Caixin (hard to arbitrarily separate the wheat from the chaff)
• China pushes to make renminbi freely tradable from Financial Times (i’ll believe it when i see it)
• Audit rotation in China from China Accounting Blog (or a third possibility, banks on the mainland do not operate as banks since they have to roll over debt via political dictum, no amount of high quality auditing will change that)
• Investors Pull Back From China Assets from The Wall Street Journal (i am paid in RMB and would love it to appreciate while i’m hear, but in the nearly 5 of years since i first landed it has appreciated only about 10%)
• Land prices surge in Chinese cities from Xinhua (all of the efforts have been band-aids)
• In China, a replica of Manhattan loses its luster from Marketplace (modern illustration of the cargo cult, just because you build the artificial shells does not mean the skilled human capital and/or institutions will necessarily follow)
• Debt of Business, Financial Sectors ‘at 270 Pct of GDP’ from Caixin
• The Revolving Door of Chinese Politics from The Economic Observer (one of the reasons i avoided discussing opportunities in segments dominated by SOEs)
• Living the American dream in Jackson Hole, China from CNN (good luck with that)
• Big Move? China’s Highest Court Flirts With Transparency from The Wall Street Journal (how to remove the files once guanxi kicks in?)
• Chinese Malls Waive Rents as Vacancies of 30% Loom: Real Estate from Bloomberg (because, in part, household’s have to forgo shopping and consumption to prop up SOEs)

A few notes of interest: if you have a bit of experience in the telecom industry firms like Huawei and ZTE may be interested in hiring you for new perspectives (and of course to help assuage security concerns).  Chinese students are still flocking to Western universities, especially the US — perhaps you can help recruit them.  And you probably may want to avoid making taxi apps for the big metros in China, yet another story about how independent developers are getting squashed by SOEs.

Thanks to Will and Sinocism for a couple links:

• ‘Ticking Time Bombs’: China’s Health Care System Faces Issues of Access, Quality and Cost from Knowledge@Wharton (lots of challenges and some opportunities, chapter 19 was probably the most in-depth of all on issues like this)
• Is Huawei Becoming Less Chinese? from The Wall Street Journal (now has at least three foreigners in high-level positions)
• China students shrug off US education woes from South China Morning Post (of the nearly 200k Chinese students in the US, 120k are studying in colleges and spent $4 billion for tuition and fees)
• Controversy over Li Na’s response to media lingers in China from Xinhua (understandable considering how many athletes are treated like throwaway commodities, see Ch 8)
• Chinese Brand Looks for Salvation in Dwayne Wade’s ‘Way’ from The Wall Street Journal (at this point it is probably harder to help reverse the fortunes of Li Ning than it would be to reverse the fortunes of any NBA team)
• How Would Accepting Gay Culture Change China? from China File
• Shanghai Cracks Down On Taxi Apps from China Tech News (more and more news to this never ending hurdle for non-SOE app makers)
• Chinese Stamp Collectors Push the Envelope from The Wall Street Journal
• China’s WeChat Racks Up 70 Million Users Abroad from The Wall Street Journal (i wonder what the demographic break down is for those, mostly Chinese students/expats overseas?)
• Too Big to Fail: Deposit Insurance and Chinese State Banks from Peterson Institute for International Economics
• China censors urge media to curb ‘cash crunch’ coverage from Financial Times
• Beijing needs 2.5m more parking lots from China Daily (one of the many reasons it is probably a bad investment to own a car out here)
• Qihoo a Winner in China Mobile Wars, Citigroup Says, Removes High Risk Tag from Barron’s
• ‘World’s largest building’ opens in China from CNN (in Chengdu, another white elephant like New South China Mall?)
• Shanghai’s free trade zone gets approved from People’s Daily (expansion and consolidation, will be gigantic.  will it eventually become a quasi-Charter City?)

It would be interesting to see if Google penalized the last link edition for the Roman numerals that just so happened (coincidentally) to be the euphemism for a very adult-themed video genre.  Big story like usual is the upcoming Alibaba IPO, get some if you can (disclosure: I do not hold shares in Alibaba or any of its subsidiaries).  Check out Chapter 12 for more detailed info about ecommerce.  Thanks to James and Sinocism for a couple links.

• Jennifer Lopez Turkmenistan Gig Shines Light on Chinese Oil Firm from The Wall Street Journal
• Sharp Establishes IGZO Panel JV In China from China Tech News
• Richer than Trump or Oprah: Meet China’s female property magnate from CNN (ill-gotten gains?  not entirely self-made, big help from subsidized loans from SOE banks — see this older WSJ piece on her misdirected frustrations)
• And Property Developers’ New Favorite Chinese City Is… from The Wall Street Journal (the rent for at my apartment complex off Line 2 has increased 20% this past year due to location and demand)
• Why Can’t We Protect China’s Cleanest Freshwater Lake? from East by Southeast (tragedy of the commons.  see Chapter 18)
• China Flirts with Prenuptial Agreements from The Economic Observer
• New exit-entry law goes into effect in China from Xinhua (wow, five years on a single visa)
• China Online Petition Website Crashes on First Day from The Wall Street Journal
• Why China loves to build copycat towns from BBC (mentioned a little in DeWeaver’s book and in footnote 6 in Chapter 17)
• Robot Manufacturing Plant Heads For Eastern China from China Tech News
• Gold Standard? China Doesn’t Set It from The Wall Street Journal (know several Chinese and expats who have lost quite a bit on this bet this year… more to follow or just temporary blip?)
• Former Alibaba Exec Puts Post-IPO Value at $100 Billion from The Wall Street Journal (rather have this stock than FB right now)
• Q&A: Juniper Makes Play for China Market from The Wall Street Journal (will they be scrutinized for possibly having backdoors for Western IC agencies?)

Two areas of potential opportunity mentioned in the links: if you are an expert or veteran of the food and beverage industry, specifically fast food restaurants, you may be able to do a lot of consulting for local eateries that want to branch out and franchise across the country.  The other area are the zounds of unemployed graduates.  While there is a lot of skillset mismatch (and perhaps no skills at all), because of the rampant nepotism you may be able to find qualified candidates who have been looked over.

Thanks to James and Sinocism for a couple of links:

• Should Chinese universities install AC at student dormitories? from Offbeat China (when I worked in bengbu there were no air conditioners or heaters so it was freezing during the winter and stiffling during the summer.  guangdong had no heaters and the air conditioners were a mix bag.  feel bad for both the students and staff.)
• In Search of Mickey Li’s from Foreign Policy (there are a number of chains from Hong Kong and Taiwan operating on the mainland, Z Kung Fu is my favorite though still mediocre quality)
• Foxconn to speed up ‘robot army’ deployment; 20,000 robots already in its factories from IT World (lots of opportunities at one point, now however, the bots are internally made)
• Hon Hai Plots Next Move from The Wall Street Journal (coming to a neighborhood near you?  labor arbitrage in reverse?)
• Tencent’s Indian JV Acquires Local Internet Bus Ticket Website from China Tech News
• Post-90s Grads Confront Nepotism from The Economic Observer (as Bill Bishop mentioned, nepotism exists in every country.  however i would probably empathize with these grads, having worked with them closely for several years… without guanxi they will have very mediocre careers — definitely not a meritocracy)
• Closer Look: The Jostling for 4G Licenses Begins from Caixin (i used a China Unicom 3G usb dongle for a couple years in anhui and guangdong, wasn’t very impressed with both service and bandwidth. but they will probably get it right one of these days, right?)
• Qantas in China prison labour row from Financial Review (oops, someone forgot to look at the upstream/downstream supply chain vendors)
• Fake It Till You Make It from Foreign Affairs (i predict that ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo will eventually make big inroads in this global segment, making decent phones already)
• Ed Snowden Inspired This Chinese Lawyer to Challenge Beijing’s Digital Spying from Foreign Policy (uphill, never ending fight)
• Great Fire Wall architect Fang Binxing quits as president of Beijing university from South China Morning Post (probably the least liked person in the country)

Analysts are still sorting through the interbank lending costs that are putting a squeeze on all debtors, especially “wealth management products” (see this description of WMP from a friend).  Thanks to Marshall and Sinocism for a few of the links:

• Name Mix-Up Helped Snowden Leave Hong Kong from The Wall Street Journal  (oops, gotta cross your t’s and dot your i’s)
• Chinese Media Calls For Boycott of Cisco from Slashdot (bill bishop has noted that this may be one of the reasons why there was a big push against allowing Huawei sell routers/networking equipment to specific US institutions the past few years, because they knew what backdoor capabilities Cisco has, thus Huawei may have them as well for the PLA)
• Mundell: Strange Crunch for China from The Wall Street Journal (michael pettis wrote about this issue in his latest newsletter published on the 25th, not on his site yet)
• Concrete Floors! No Working Toilet! Just $200K In Shanghai from NPR (yet there is continual demand in part because of the enormous pressure on husbands to own a home in order to get married)
• China’s housing slaves need lifetime to pay off mortgages from Financial Post (wouldn’t want to be a fang nu, ever)
• China’s Credit Crunch Could Create Opportunities for Private Equity from The Wall Street Journal (quite true, and with PE money comes PE oversight, accountability and transparency which could clean up various segments and purge misallocation)
• China’s JD.com Claims Retail Sales Of CNY100 Billion By 2015 from China Tech News (could be a rosy estimation, hard to say if their is a real “downturn” but certainly possible if there isn’t one)
• Credit Crunch Spells More Trouble for Chinese Businesses from The Wall Street Journal (precisely the point made by Mises nearly a century ago, unproductive activity cannot be sustained at subsidized interest rates — misallocation of capital that can only take place under a centrally managed financial system)
• The “Diaosi” social class: presage of impending social changes in China from Ministry of Tofu (i have my doubts about anyone claiming impending social changes, lots of politically connected special interest groups, don’t think Diaosi has that big of pull)
• China stocks crater as banks warned over credit from CNN|Money  (buy on the dips?  what listed companies are bargain buys at the moment?)
• Rise of Asthma in China Sparks Renewed Debate about Pollution and Place from Tea Leaf Nation (best day in Shanghai is 2x-3x as bad as the worst day in LA… and Shanghai is half as bad as Guangzhou and Beijing)
• Australia Mines China Education Boom from The Wall Street Journal (but it is significantly more expensive for a student to study in AUS than it is for them to study in the US or the UK, lower AUD exchange rate may help educational firms though)

Lots of bearish news right now but there are a couple of opportunities such as selling real-estate to Chinese buyers in foreign countries (specifically the US, see the last link) as well as finding ways to get big Chinese brands overseas.  Can your firm do either?  Thanks to Mike, James H and Sinocism for some of the links.

• Developers raze ancient tombs from China Daily (three weeks ago I went to the Shanghai Natural History Museum.  they had a couple of mummies from the song dynasty and a few dinosaurs.  the facility could definitely use a few more of both and a facelift…)
• All About the Maos: Charting China’s Cash Crunch from The Wall Street Journal (a friend working in the financial center in pudong says he thinks this was planned to squeeze out shysters and to discipline other banks, we’ll see how long until special interest groups fight back)
• Hare vs. Tortoise: How Chinese Brands Are Trying to Go Global from The Wall Street Journal (can you help them bring their brand to your city?)
• Baidu Launches Official Antivirus Software With Kaspersky from China Tech News (aside from AVG and AdAware, who uses other stuff?  others always seems bloated and malware-ish itself)
• Photos: Beckham in Shanghai, Stampede Ensues, Seven Injured from The Wall Street Journal (at a local college, trip cut short)
• Awfully Successful: Is This China’s Worst Blockbuster Ever? from The Wall Street Journal (just like Lost in Thailand was a surprise hit, local tastes are hard to guess beforehand)
• Fun While it Lasted: Manny Dumps Taiwan from The Wall Street Journal (I went to one baseball game when i lived in Kaohsiung, quite fun experience, lots of audience participation)
• Tencent’s WeChat Boasts 50 Million Registered Users from China Tech News (WeChat is the English-based, foreign-promoted version of Weixin)
• Stratasys acquires MakerBot in $403 million deal from C|Net (I mention both of them in Chapter 7 regarding 3D printing and exporting manufactured goods)
• In China, Philanthropy Gains Cachet from The Wall Street Journal (almost no transparency in local NGOs, non-profits, charities, etc.  this is not to say that there are no stink bombs in the US too; to be even handed here are 50 of the worst charities in the US)
• Chinese billionaire buys 007’s yacht maker from CNNMoney (classy… want one or two)
• Spying or No, China is Stuck With American Technology from Tech in Asia
• Kindle: hot in China from Financial Times (had numerous former students ask me how to get one now that it can be bought on the mainland.  Amazon has a big uphill battle against local incumbents who were given a head start by various gov’t entities)
• U.S. Icons Now Made of Chinese Steel from The Wall Street Journal (good example illustrating how unions only care about their membership and not consumers, consumers benefit from the disastrous subsidies that local Chinese government provide their steel makers.  why complain about that?)
• China Southern’s Lofty Ambitions from The Economic Observer (lots of potential but the flight routes are not profitable with their current planes)
• GM to China’s wealthy: what you really want is a Caddy from Financial Times (i have seen a lot of buicks and caddy’s out here than in my neighborhood back in dallas)
• Chinese Investors Now Have Easier Way to Tap U.S. Property Market from The Wall Street Journal (these investors help prevents neighborhoods from falling into disrepair and brings the educated, wealthy elite a way into the US.  win-win for everyone)

Perhaps the biggest story that I have come across this past week is the newly unveiled plan to move 250 million rural residents to cities over the next 12-15 years.  This raises multiple questions: What will they do after the forced migration? Do they have any useful skills for urban environments?

This is not to say that this will end in collapse or some other doomsday scenario but if there were opportunities that rural migrants were capable of achieving in the cities they wouldn’t have to force people to move.  How are things going to be when the cities are full of unemployed migrants?

Either way, this probably does provide an opportunity to training companies that may find demand from relatively unskilled individuals looking to receive training for skilled work, so they can find work (or create companies that do).  This pretty much opens up the spectrum of training possibilities, though obviously affordability may also be a big issue (e.g., rural migrants are relatively poor, typically earning less than $5,000 a year).  See Chapter 9 for more ideas on the education and training segment.

Other news stories, some courtesy of Sinocism:

• Uber Faces Uphill Battle To Control Taxis In China from China Tech News (protectionism of SOEs)
• Record Soybean Glut Is Seen Worsening as China’s Appetite Eases from Bloomberg (in part because of high prices caused by last years drought)
• China Stocks Hit 2013 Low on IPO, Property Woes from CNBC (closed yesterday at 2117.01)
• Faltering Economy in China Dims Job Prospects for Graduates from The New York Times (multiple problems including a skillset mismatch and the institutionalized importance of guanxi which distorts creative destruction and meritocracy)
• Price war between e-commerce firms hotter from China Daily
• If you are the foreign one from Global Times (i have met a couple of younger college-aged laowai who intentionally move to china to try and be on that show now.  they both got internships but never ended up on it.)
• Ambow setback teaches Baring a lesson in China investing from Reuters (wonder if New Oriental will end up resolving the student discrepancy before or after the movie 中国合伙人 leaves the theaters)
• ‘It’s Christmas In June’: China Revels In NSA Leaks Story from NPR (interview with Bill Bishop)
• The dark side of Asia’s gambling Mecca from CNN (wonder when triads and junket boosters will use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to avoid capital controls)
• New tech can help to keep food safe from China Daily (hope so, food costs for healthy food is quite high in Shanghai)
• Do Quotas in China’s College Admissions System Reinforce Existing Inequalities? from China File (have had many students at the colleges I taught at complain about this which presents opportunities for training centers/alternative certifications, especially with the skillset mismatch at all universities)
• Kaifu Lee on what Tech companies should do to make things work in China from Huxiu (based on my recent conversations with businesspeople, i think it could be summed up with “guanxi” — social connections.  Michael Pettis talked about the downsides of this in his June 11th newsletter, not online yet.)
• Six reasons why choosing Hong Kong is a brilliant move by Edward Snowden from Corrente (long extradition gestation period tops the list)