Snow Storm

The worst snow storms in half a century have shown up the fragility of the country’s infrastructure, particularly for transport and power generation.
In 14 provinces in east, southern and central China, roads and railways have been overwhelmed, unable to move the estimated 179 million people expected to be traveling for New Year or to carry [...]

Shrinking The Surplus

Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress and thus an economist who carries more political clout than most, forecasts that China’s surplus will shrink this year as the yuan is allowed to appreciate against the U.S. dollar and continue its (very) long march towards convertibility.
That prediction brought more than one raised eyebrow from an [...]

Bear Country

With this latest sell-off, the Shanghai stock market index has now fallen 20% this year. That is the classic definition of a bear market. Only question is, has all the froth been blown off or is there still more to go? This bystander suspects the second.

CIC Welcome

While the electioneering U.S. takes China’s and other sovereign wealth fund’s capital but frets about foreigners buying America, the U.K. is courting it. British prime minister Gordon Brown, now visiting Beijing, told his counterpart Wen Jiabao that he would like the China Investment Corp. to set up an office in London as a base from [...]

All That Glitters

China is now the world’s biggest gold miner. South Africa had boasted that title since 1905. But no longer. China mined 4 tonnes more in 2007 (276 tonnes vs 272 tonnes), says London precious metals consultancy GFMS, enough to vault it into top spot.
It is already the world’s leading producer of aluminum, zinc and lead; [...]

Slam Dunk

More Chinese capital is backing a household American name. But this isn’t troubled Citigroup or Merrill Lynch. Its the prospering National Basketball Association. And the money is going to set up NBA China, which is hoping to launch a basketball league after this summer’s Beijing Olympics.
Chinese investors include Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, Bank of [...]

Employers Paradise

There are 200 million migrant workers in China’s cities, with a potential backup pool of 100 million more waiting in the countryside. They see themselves treated as second class citizens at best, according to a survey by Shanghai’s Fudan University, working long hours that make them accident-prone from tiredness and too weary to study for [...]

Hewers Of Death

Three thousand seven hundred and eighty six were killed in coal mining accidents in China in 2007, Xinhua reports.
Even after two years of 20% falls in fatalities and the closing of 11,115 small operations, China’s coal mines are still the most dangerous in the world. This statistic was published in the China Daily in 2004, [...]

Trade Worries

Today’s monthly trade figures out of Washington will do little to calm the protectionist spirits in the U.S. America’s trade deficit in November hit its highest level in 14 months, the AP reports, a larger than expected 9.3% increase to $63.1 billion.
Beijing’s friends in Washington will point to a sharp increase in America’s [...]

Control Failure

It has been two decades since China started to scrap price controls on food and consumer goods, a process given a sharp shove forward in 2001 by China joining the World Trade Organization.
Now the State Council has reimposed some as part of its effort to dampen inflation. The new controls are vague: enterprises producing general [...]