Monthly Archives: March 2009
Google Expands Music Search Service That Labels Hope Will Kill Piracy
Google has run a music search engine in China since last August. It is the only country where it has such a service (or at least for now). It does so in direct competition with Baidu, which has 60% of … Continue reading
Filed under Media
China Takes Its Place At Latin America’s Top Table
Much attention is being paid to China getting a bigger formal role in the International Monetary Fund. But there is one international financial institution it has already quietly joined: the Inter-American Development Bank. China became the 48th member of the … Continue reading
Filed under China-Latin America, Politics & Society
China Isn’t The Biggest Buyer Of U.S. Debt
Beijing is not the biggest buyer of U.S. government debt, though you would scarcely believe it from reading the public prints. U.S. money market funds bought three times as much of U.S. Treasuries and Agencies last year as China, $942 … Continue reading
Filed under China-U.S., Economy, Markets
Australia Nixes One Chinese Mining Investment, Two Left
Of the three outstanding Chinese investments in Australian mining companies facing government review, one has just bitten the dust. China Minmetals Group’s A$2.6 billion offer for OZ Minerals has been blocked on national security grounds. One of OZ’s main mines … Continue reading
Filed under China-Australia, Economy, Markets
China, A New Global Currency And The IMF As The World’s Central Banker
Our man in New York tells us that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was caught off guard by a question at a Council On Foreign Relations discussion there on China’s recent trial balloons about the need for a global reserve … Continue reading
Filed under China-U.S., Economy
Nike Cuts China Suppliers
Here’s a straw in the wind, and a bad one at that. Nike is dropping three of its China suppliers because of the global slowdown in demand for its sports shoes and apparel, and saying that more may follow as … Continue reading
Filed under Economy
China Mulls A New Long-Term Alternative To The Dollar
Another straw in the wind that China’s central bankers are toying with the idea of an alternative to the dollar as the global reserve currency: Hu Xiaolian, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and a central bank … Continue reading
Filed under China-U.S., Economy
Soldier Killed In Chongqing Reflects Rising Armed Crime
Civilian attacks on the military are uncommon, so the report that a soldier standing guard outside a garrison in Chongqing had been shot and killed and his machine gun stolen is notable. The official word is that there was one … Continue reading
Filed under Politics & Society
