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