Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXX

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Tim Swanson

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)

Regulatory risks, challenges and opportunities of cryptocurrencies in China and elsewhere

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Tim Swanson

On Monday I had lunch with a couple of tech investors based in Shanghai. We chatted about a number of topics but spent the bulk of the time discussing Bitcoin and specifically Bitcoin-related opportunities in China. As an aside, a few months ago I wrote a post about the small BTC community in China.

As enthusiastic as I might be regarding the positive merits cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin offer, I do think that regulatory oversight specifically in the form of Known Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money Laundering laws (AML) will present serious hurdles for the entire ecosystem. (Here is a podcast I did with David Veksler back in April regarding some of these challenges.)

In fact, all Bitcoin money exchanges based in the US have closed down and Mt. Gox, the largest exchange has recently suspended US dollar withdrawals for the next couple of weeks. This is not to say that the cryptocurrency experiment is doomed to fail but it does mean that going forward all entrepreneurs and investors should be cognizant of the fact that the state — globally — has its eye on it.

Below are some links to relevant news stories about various exchanges and money transmitters being shut down/suspended:

Dwolla Account Seizure Reveals Mt Gox on Brink of US Indictment from Contrarian Compliance
Bitcoin Foundation Receives Cease And Desist Order From California from Forbes
Bitfloor: Largest U.S. Bitcoin Exchange Shuts Down from Mashable
OKPay suspends payment processing to all Bitcoin exchanges from The Register
Transferwise suspends operations from TransferWise
BitCoin Mining, Other Virtual Activity Taxable Under US Law from Slashdot
Fixing Bitcoin’s shaky exchange infrastructure from CoinDesk

In terms of the volume of various exchanges, Bitcoin Charts has an up-to-date spread of the major exchanges for BTC. And based on CryptocoinCharts it appears that BTC-E has the lionshare of volume for Litecoin right now (~90%).

If you have a VPN or are based outside of China you can listen to a recent interview with Charles Lee, the creator of Litecoin (here was the first public announcement of Litecoin back in October 2011 made by Charles). And if you are interested in visualizing the profitability and popularity of mining other alternative cryptocoins, visit CoinWarz.

Reader who were wondering who the lead developer of Bitcoin was now, his name is Gavin Andresen. A few weeks ago the WSJ published an in-depth profile of him as did HuffingtonPost here as well. Warren Togami is currently part of the core development team of Litecoin, he also works at Red Hat developing Fedora (he put together a LTC fundraiser the past couple months).

Lastly if you’re interested in knowing exactly what FinCEN announced back in March, here is the full guidance notice and the American Banker recently interviewed Jennifer Calvery, the director at FinCEN for her thoughts on cryptocurrencies.

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXIX

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Tim Swanson

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)

Introducing China Law for Expats

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Tim Swanson

A good friend of mine, Eric Meng, recently launched a new site targeting a specific niche: China Law for Expats.

I worked with Eric last year at the American Chamber of Commerce. He graduated from the University of Virginia law school and is a New York licensed attorney.

And according to him, his goal is to help provide answers to many of the commons hurdles, struggles and questions that confound the expat community in China. For example, one of his recent posts discusses work visas, describing the process and eligibility requirements for those without work experience.

Consequently, I know from first hand experience (see Chapter 10) how useful it can be to have cogent, legal advice out here. Thus if you plan to work or even travel out on the mainland for an extended period of time, be sure to visit his site or contact him for more information.

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXVIII

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Tim Swanson

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)

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXVII

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Tim Swanson

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)

Are MOOCs a solution for the skillset mismatch?

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Tim Swanson

While few people have a desire to be unemployed (or unemployable) the current higher education system in China has a number of issues in that many of the programs students have enrolled and graduate from do not prepare many of them for the labor market. For example, roughly 6.99 million students will graduate from a Chinese college this summer (exams are typically held at the end of June, early July) yet in large cities like Guangdong, Beijing or Shanghai, only ~30% or so of new graduates have signed contracts for employment.

This is not a new issue or discovery, in fact, I wrote about it last year (as did the WSJ). In Chapter 9 I discuss several of the opportunities that comes from this skillset mismatch, namely the need for retraining — some of which may take place online. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) could be one solution.

Below is a very interesting, very concise write-up of the current problem as shown at a recently held Shanghai job fair, where neither candidate nor employer is incentivized by the other. From MarketPlace education:

Hundreds of HR managers carefully eye prospective employees who, resumes in hand, crowd the floor at a Shanghai job fair.

Here’s the problem: neither group is interested in each other.

Nicole Li is looking to hire college graduates for her property management company. “We need technicians to fix software problems, but college grads don’t have these skills,” says Li, frowning. “We need people for exhibitions who can do presentations in English, but they can’t do that, either.”

Li needs to hire people for 60 high-skilled jobs. She says among the thousands of candidates here today, she’ll be lucky if she finds one.

Tong Huiqin comes to this job fair every Friday. He graduated from the Shanghai Finance University six years ago. Since then, he’s jumped from one job to the next. “It isn’t hard to find a job,” says Tong. “It’s hard to find the right job.”

He’s worked as a supervisor for a bunch of companies, but hasn’t found the right fit. “You could have five hundred graduates and five hundred job openings here, and none of them would match up,” he says.

Tong blames Chinese universities. He says they need to do a better job at preparing people for the country’s rapidly changing labor market. Xiong Bingqi is the deputy dean of the 21^st Century Education Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Beijing. “The scale of China’s higher education system has developed so fast that we’re failing to produce college graduates with the right skills for the jobs that are out there,” says Xiong.

For those with means, that’s meant sending your college-age children instead to universities in the U.S., Australia, or Europe. But most young Chinese can’t afford that, so they’re stuck in a Chinese university. And after they graduate — according to a recent state survey — their unemployment rate is four times higher than for those who didn’t get past elementary school.

Inside the job fair, young graduates linger in front of a booth for Bao Steel, China’s largest steel manufacturer. A big sign says that people from parts of Sichuan, Henan, Anhui, and Hunan are not allowed to apply. A guy applying for a job says people from those provinces can’t be trusted. It’s sort of like a booth at a New York job fair banning applicants from, say, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. But this is typical in China, where even state-owned enterprises don’t bother to hide their discrimination.

At a neighboring booth, Jason Zhang is hiring people to work at a chain of nightclubs. He doesn’t care where his job candidates are from. He’s more concerned whether they’re willing to work. “I think today’s graduates are less appealing than people who were born in the ’70s and ’80s,” says Zhang. “They tend to be overly confident and they don’t want to work very hard.”

I turn around and ask 22-year-old Wang Qianmin, who’s about to graduate from Shanghai Normal University with a teaching degree, what she’s looking for at the job fair. “I don’t know,” she says with a pout. “Most of the jobs here aren’t really interesting. I’m looking for a company that’ll give me a high salary, money for meals and that’ll pay my rent — a place where the working hours aren’t too long.”

Wang says she wants to be a teacher. Or maybe a wedding planner.

She can’t decide.

Jason Zhang, the recruiter who has years of experience hiring people, rolls his eyes at this type of candidate. “Chinese college graduates these days think they’re really special,” he says with a smile. “The problem is — they’re the only ones who think that.”

Zhang says Wang and many others in China’s class of 2013 will go all summer thinking they’ve got lots of options, and will probably end up unemployed.

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXVI

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Tim Swanson

Another cornucopia of links, mostly China-related. I wonder if encryption usage will become more prevalent by companies and individuals? Maybe not though because it can be complex and cumbersome to use… although as David Veksler has mentioned, it is good “best practices” to prevent proprietary information from leaking at your company by utilizing encryption. Perhaps services like Silent Circle will become more popular as time goes by?

Is Beijing pleased Snowden fled to Hong Kong? by Bill Bishop (probably not in the long run. even if he talks, i doubt Snowden will tell them anything they don’t already know since they try to do the same thing with their agencies/telecom SOEs domestically — GFW is one of the biggest known dragnets pre-PRISM)
Inside the NSA’s Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group from Foreign Policy
NSA hacks China, leaker Snowden claims from CNN (doubt he’s working directly with PRC, otherwise he would have flown to Beijing or Shanghai, not HK… although it is curious as to why he didn’t go to iceland in the first place. it’s no secret that the US was doing this from hawaii and other locales, heard that from several former military officers in asia mention this over beers in the past.)
The end of the expat dream? Foreigners facing increasingly competitive Chinese job market from Shanghaiist (maybe not end, but slow decline with all of the “sea turtles” returning and creating competitive job market)
Why it’s Still So Hard to Find Safe Baby Formula from The Economic Observer
Reining in China’s Testosterone from The Economic Observer (both Ray Kurzweil and Michael Anissimov are cited)
Audit Office Shines Light On Local Government Debt from The Wall Street Journal
MakerBot’s Replicator 2 joins Amazon’s newly launched 3D printer store from Engadget (i wonder how much both companies will spend on fighting predatory lawsuits/patent trolls)
Baidu Sues Qihoo 360 In China For Search Engine Sitemap Format Plagiarism from China Tech News (if you can’t beat them, sue them)
No-one turns up to welcome China’s football team in Hefei from Danwei (in their defense, Hefei is a really crappy city. been there 6-7 times, dislike it each time primarily because of environment. still the team is horribad and i don’t think hiring beckham as an image ambassador will help it)
6 a minute in China told they have cancer from Sina (that’s a lot of medical costs)
How much investment is optimal? by Michael Pettis
EMC, JD.com Form Big Data Cloud Computing Strategic Cooperation In China from China Tech News
Body Shop tells Cambridge girl she needs to speak Chinese from BBC (in the UK, company apologized)
Politics Checks in for China Hotel Industry from The Wall Street Journal
China’s new superhero! Stan Lee’s Universe from CNN (the college students i taught thought it would be weird to have an asian superhero, i don’t see why?)
Chinese Telecom Equipment Makers Make African Inroads from China Tech News
iOS 7 will play nice with both Tencent and Sina Weibo from Shanghaiist
China’s Gome Gross Margin Declines While Closing 43 Stores In Q1 2013 from China Tech News
Will Manny Ramirez ‘Hit-and-Run’ From Taiwan? from The Wall Street Journal
Obama, Xi Make Deal on Greenhouse Gases from The Wall Street Journal
Beijing tops happiness ranking for 5 yrs from China Daily (wow, seriously?)
Lenovo Officially Opens U.S. PC Manufacturing Operations from China Tech News
Welcome back, TechCrunch, TechNode’s Official Partner from TechNode (without the flamboyance and hyperbole?)

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXV

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Tim Swanson

A smorgasbord of China-related links. Xi and Obama are meeting out in Sunnylands right now (good VF article covering Sunnylands last year). I wonder if Xi’s wife (Peng Liyuan) will dump her iPhone now that Apple is allegedly part of the NSA PRISM program. Thanks to Sinocism for several of the links.

Governments Move in on Taxi Apps from The Economic Observer (protectionism for SOEs)
It’s Official? Alibaba doing more business than Amazon + eBay from Alizila
U.S. Loses Supercomputer Title to China, For Now from The Wall Street Journal (another white elephant ‘face project’ — no useful apps for it, see China’s Not-so-Super Computer)
Facebook and Twitter go live in China – but only for Chengdu business forum from South China Morning Post (laowai would pay big bucks for an ‘expat’ package, China Telecom is leaving money on the table…)
Like the sun, newspaper circulation rises in the east and falls in the west from The Economist (this is actually a technologically myopic strategy by PRC planners, especially when state media outlets open bureaus overseas. the younger demographic obtains all of their information from the internet, very few, if any — buy print media aside from niche magazines. continual funding of these is of course a matter of propaganda but also a financial albatross)
China’s State Sector Strikes Back from The Wall Street Journal (how to truly privatize/reform these SOEs and satiate special interests?)
Corruption on College Campuses from The Economic Observer (none of my students want to work in a factory or on a farm, nor do their parents want them to. will go to great lengths to get “degrees.” See What are Chinese colleges like?)
Survey: Chinese millennials are highly optimistic about the future from Shanghaiist (undoubtedly materially better off than any other generation of Chinese on the mainland, will that growth rate continue for their own offspring?)
Renren.com Teams With Youku-Tudou To Grab More Online Video Users from China Tech News
Infographic: Chongqing girls are cheapest to marry, Shanghai women most expensive from Shanghaiist (I have many stories from first hand experience and/or observation)
Korean Culture: Why do korean girls point two fingers up when they get their picture taken? from Quora (a lot of laowai/expats ask me this too, because it is common across east asia)
In China, Big Data is Becoming Big Business from BusinessWeek (not sure there are many opportunities for foreign firms to work directly as a data provider or host, probably can do contracts for vendors/supply chain)

Iron Man 3: How It Should Have Ended

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Tim Swanson

While Iron Man 3 did quite well in Chinese theaters (earning $100 million this past month in this market segment alone), many viewers found the plot lackluster with its (il)logical progression of events.

Perhaps the best skewering of it was in the latest “How It Should Have Ended”:

Let’s Talk: Interview with creator of Litecoin

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Tim Swanson

Very informative interview with Charles Lee, the creator of Litecoin, the largest and most popular alt-coin spinoff of Bitcoin (it’s market cap is around ~$65 million right now). Be sure to check out CoinWarz to visualize the profitability in mining and speculating on alternative cryptocoins.

If you have some free time, listen to other interviews from Stephanie Murphy, the host of Let’s Talk Bitcoin.

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXIV

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Tim Swanson

Despite the political issues and bilateral hacking, there is an ever growing amount of trade between the US and China. This is great — win/win. See the Bastiat link at the end for why. Thanks to Sinocism for some of the links.

China’s migrants bring new habit home: online shopping from Reuters
In China, an Empire Built by Aping Apple from The New York Times (a couple of my good friends have a Xiaomi 2, it is great, especially for its price… ~2000 rmb)
Goldman Sachs Joins Alibaba Loan Team as IPO Nears from Caijing (what i’d give to have some of that pre-IPO stock)
SMIC forms joint venture to establish new wafer fab in Beijing from Digitimes (spoke with a couple semiconductor engineers… they predict that SMIC will probably always be behind both TSMC and Intel on the manufacturing curve internationally. they will probably do well competing in the greater china region because of guanxi)
US to replace EU to be China’s largest trade partner in 2013 from China Daily ($450 billion in bilateral trade between US and China, amazing)
China’s Rich Are Traveling Less, Spending More from The Wall Street Journal (kind of a small sample size to draw that from… needs to hit the magic 384 number)
Chinese travelers remain biggest overseas spenders from China Daily (nice chart)
Let Me Not See Old Age in China from The Wall Street Journal (the elderly save because they have few investment vehicles that actually generate revenue and because of the repressive financial structure. watch Michael Pettis discuss this at the april wine country event)
Full Details Uncovered on Chinese Top Supercomputer from HPCWire (and how useful will it actually be? see this WSJ piece for counterbalance)
Beijing To Build 1,200 4G Base Stations By End Of 2013 from China Tech News (i’d be he willing to pay 3x the price to get uncensored net access)
China’s Online Literature Behemoth from The Economic Observer (one of the advantages the chinese marketplace had was it lacked the horrendous IP litigation that only enriches law firms and rent seekers, it has now adopted the counterproductive IP system of the West)
A Factory Burns in China by Evan Osnos
A Big Market – China’s Smartphone OEMs from Digits to Dollars (not sure any laowai can make a break in this segment unless it is somewhere along the supply chain for ARM)
Why wealthy Chinese buy their insurance in Hong Kong from Financial Times (i know a manager at AIA if anyone wants some quotes)
Debt on Local Gov’ Financing Platforms Forces Regulator into Balancing Act from Caixin (the question is, will banks be allowed to act like banks or will they have to flip over the debt again?)
Indicators present muddled picture of China’s factories from CNN|Money
America’s China mistake from Los Angeles Times (wow this is so bad. chang has been wrong for over a decade, why does anyone republish his stuff? no, there won’t be a war between the US and China anytime soon, if ever. for the very reasons Bastiat noted over 150 years ago.)

Another Brick in the Wall: Link Edition XXIII

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Tim Swanson

Upcoming political meetings between Xi and Obama, relatively slow news other than that. Some of the links are from Sinocism.

China in soft power push with foreign students from CNN (lots of scholarships supposedly available for laowai)
Love and marriage: China plays the dating game from CNN (i wonder what longitudinal studies will find with this, culturally very different than arranged marriages)
Smithfield Foods to be bought by Chinese firm Shuanghui International from The Washington Post
Scotch Makers Target China With Premium Bottles from The Wall Street Journal (waiting for ron burgundy, anchorman…)
Will the Real Chiang Kai-Shek Medal Please Stand Up? from The Wall Street Journal
Aging Chinese Face a Bleak Picture from The Wall Street Journal (opportunities for NGOs and non-profits)
What China Can Learn From America’s Hot Dogs from The Wall Street Journal (facility hygiene for one thing)
Short Seller Seeks Valley ‘Pretenders’ from The Wall Street Journal
The Return of the Red Flag from Caijing (gov’t push to buy chinese luxury car brands, will it be anymore successful in the long run for the competitiveness when the brands go overseas?)
China’s Flawed Balance-of-Payments Position from Project Syndicate (great write-up of something that is typically filled with hyperbole)
China’s Shadow Banks: The credit kulaks from The Economist (about wealth management products. see what my friends explanation of how it works. i am still a skeptic, not because of the lack of regulatory oversight, but because of the lack of transparency by the firms and what looks like ponzi-style schemes — hard to investigate when press freedom is severely curtailed).
Tencent Adds Literature Website to Its Offerings from Caixin (just a couple more days of “free” music on the mainland, wonder how long bootleg books will be tolerated)
Eat your heart out: Chinese e-commerce firm delivers packages within hours from Engadget

Great Wall of Numbers

Business Opportunities and Challenges in Emerging Markets

Monthly Archives: June 2013