Weekly US-China News Archives - Page 7 of 7

Not to Be Left Out, China Embraces the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ – The Wall Street Journal

Over the past couple of days, China’s technology tycoons have lined up to get soaking wet by participating in the so-called “ice bucket challenge,” in which people pour buckets of ice water over their heads as part of a fundraising drive to help fight ALS, a neurodegenerative disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease…Read Full Story

China Home Prices Fall in Most Cities on Weak Demand – Bloomberg

China’s new-home prices fell in July in almost all cities that the government tracks as tight mortgage lending deterred buyers even as local governments eased property curbs…Read Full Story

Property Developer China Vanke Posts First-Half Profit Increase – The Wall Street Journal

SHANGHAI— China Vanke Co. 000002.SZ -0.21% , the world’s largest residential property developer by revenue, said Sunday that it managed an increase in its net profit for the first half of 2014, despite China’s housing downturn, by focusing on home sales in larger Chinese cities where profit margins are higher…Read Full Story

Obama’s Green Dilemma: Punish China, Imperil U.S. Solar – Bloomberg

From the State of the Union address in January to a recent California fundraising swing, President Barack Obama has missed few opportunities to tout the nation’s use of renewable energy to fight climate change…Read Full Story

Foreign Direct Investment Into China Falls to Lowest Level in 2 Years – The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China denied on Monday that a spate of recent antitrust probes into foreign companies could be responsible for falling levels of investment in the country, after data showed that foreign direct investment in China fell 17% in July compared with a year earlier…Read Full Story

China calls for greater use of homegrown medical devices-Reuters

Aug 18 (Reuters) – China may use incentives to encourage domestic hospitals to use Chinese-made medical devices as it looks to stimulate the local market and reduce soaring healthcare costs, a potential threat to the global firms who currently dominate the sector…Read Full Story

Thousands in Hong Kong Rally in Support of China – The New York Times

HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of people marched under a blistering sun in Hong Kong on Sunday to express their opposition to a pro-democracy movement that has threatened to bring Asia’s biggest financial center to a standstill if the government does not open up the nomination process for electing the city’s top leader…Read Full Story

China Pushes Cleanup of Banks – The Wall Street Journal

Top Four Lenders Are Raising Capital and ‘Bad Banks’ Are Being Created to Absorb Soured Loans..Read Full Story

Protecting fair skin with China’s ‘face-kini’ – BBC

Perhaps drawing inspiration from Spiderman, beachgoers in China’s eastern city of Qingdao have come up with a novel way of protecting their skin from the sun…Read Full Story

U.S. losing its interest in buying China companies – MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — U.S. companies, and really companies all around the world, are losing interest in buying up their Chinese counterparts, according to a Dealogic report out Friday…The Wall Sreet Jurnal

Doubt Is Cast on Vetting of Deals by Alibaba – The New York Times

The Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has been on a buying spree since the start of last year, spending billions of dollars to acquire stakes in businesses like department stores and mapping services in China and an array of technology start-ups in the United States…Read Full Story

UPS And FedEx Can Now Ship Packages In China Without Joint-Venture Partners –Business Insider

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – After years of waiting, United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) and FedEx Corp have received licenses in China to extend domestic express package services to Beijing and other cities without needing joint-venture partners…Read Full Story

Worst drought in half a century hits China’s bread-basket – The Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s worst drought in half a century is sweeping across crucial agricultural regions, devastating harvests in its wake and threatening food security…Read Full Story

After China smartphone success, Lenovo plans leap forward overseas – Reuters

(Reuters) – China’s Lenovo Group said first-quarter profit jumped 23 percent, beating estimates, as a surge in smartphone sales showed how quickly the world’s biggest personal computer maker is transforming itself into a major player in mobile technology…Read Full Story

America’s view of China is fogged by liberal ideas -Financial Times

Do the events that led to the outbreak of the first world war carry lessons for the Sino-American relationship? A century ago it was the ascent of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II that unsettled the world; today a rising China is roiling east Asia. Then, as now, domestic politics on both sides played a role; one that is too easily neglected…Read Full Story

China Is Rejecting GMO Corn and That Isn’t Good for American Farmers – Truthout

The industrial agribusiness has embraced GMOs in the United States, but it’s having a serious effect on farmers. Most recently, China began rejecting a variety of genetically modified US corn, and the rejection is reportedly costing American farmers upwards of $3 billion, according to the National Feed and Grain Association… Read Full Story

‘Return to rationality’ signals big shift in China’s housing market – Financial Times

As China’s real estate slump began to hit sales at the Champs Elysées development in the picturesque lakeside city of Hangzhou, the company building it responded with a price cut.

Angry homeowners gathered to protest, holding banners with slogans such as “Return my blood and sweat money!” as police formed a barricade around the office entrance. The residents relented eventually, perhaps with the creeping realisation that the days of making easy money in the Chinese real estate market are over…Read Full Story

China’s Wanda Takes on Disney, DreamWorks Animation With Plan For 200 Theme Parks – The Hollywood Reporter

Wanda Group, China’s biggest real estate company and the world’s largest cinema chain, is planning to build 200 children’s theme parks by 2020, local media reported, making it the country’s biggest kids entertainment company. The parks are set to provide domestic competition for U.S. giantsDreamworks and The Walt Disney Company, both of which have big plans for China… Read Full Story

Ganji gets $200 million funding as China’s online classifieds battle heats up – Tech In Asia

The recent IPO of China’s top online classifieds site has sparked new competition in this very unsexy sector. Today Ganji revealed it has pulled in a sixth round of funding worth US$200 million in order to keep pace with 58.com, its NYSE-listed rival. Craigslist is a very minor player in China mostly just used by expats…Read Full Story

Why Investors Are Furiously Protesting Outside China’s Biggest Bank – The Wall Street Journal

“Swindler ICBC, pay back our blood and sweat money!”

That’s what Chinese protesters earlier this week had to say outside Industrial and Commerce Bank of China offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

The protesters weren’t displaced farmers or migrant workers: Instead, they were a group of furious investors demanding that the country’s biggest bank bail out a trust company that had failed to pay its bills…Read Full Story

Anxiety Is Local in China’s Property Woes – The Wall Street Journal

A whiff of desperation lingers over China’s property markets. Investors betting on a quick real-estate recovery would be wise to consider the consequences. Shares of China’s biggest listed developers rallied in July in response to moves by local governments to make it easier for buyers to purchase property. An S&P Index of China property companies is 15% higher than in late June. It is thought that loosening of curbs should attract skittish buyers back to the market. These included minimum down-payment requirements and other limits, especially on buyers of multiple properties…Read Full Story

Li Ka-Shing, Wang Jianlin and China’s Falling Home Prices – Forbes

According to a story on Friday in the Wall StreetJournal, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who is ranked by Forbes as Asia’s richest man, is reported to be selling a property in Shanghai for RMB 1.54 billion ($250 million). If realized, the disposal of Shanghai International Capital Plaza by Li’s ARA AssetManagement would be the fifth property asset sold off by a company controlled by the Chinese tycoon in the last year…Read Full Story

China Probes Threaten to Squeeze Foreign Profits – Bloomberg

China’s antitrust crackdown signals a new era of regulatory scrutiny in the country and threatens to end the days when products from Audi sedans to Starbucks lattes generate fatter profits in Beijing than in London or New York… Read Full Story

How China’s Trying to Boost Its Economy: ‘Qualitative Easing’

To describe the nature of China’s current monetary policy and to differentiate from that of the U.S. Fed, one economist has coined a new term: “qualitative easing.” Professor Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup, came up with the phrase to distinguish the Chinese central bank’s recent moves from the much better-known quantitative easing program by its U.S. counterpart… Read Full Story

China Struggles to Expand Quake-proof Construction – Voice of America

HONG KONG—The powerful earthquake that hit Southwest China earlier this month killed more than 600 people and flattened an estimated 22,500 homes. The tragedy has highlighted the difficulties China faces in extending safety standards for homes in remote areas of its countryside… Read Full Story

China’s Political Spectrum under Xi Jinping –The Diplomat

When, in November 2012, Xi Jinping took up his position as secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), his political ideas and positioning inside the Party remained largely a mystery. The CCP is a huge bureaucratic machine mainly devoted to its own survival, within which various interests and priorities unceasingly compete at every level. The personal convictions of supreme leaders are at best diffuse and changing, and none of them can lastingly avoid going through the system of decision by consensus. For this reason it is somewhat futile to try to identify perennial political factions… Read Full Story

Yao Ming Wants to Wean China off Ivory and Shark Fins – Time

BEIJING – Former NBA all-star center Yao Ming is now dishing out assists to much wilder targets. After retiring from the Houston Rockets in 2011, Yao returned to China and set out to end his homeland’s traditional appetite for endangered and threatened animal products… Read Full Story

Upstart Bank in China Rides High on Technology I.P.O. Crest – The New York Times

HONG KONG — When Alan Guo was chief strategist at Google China, he would have leisurely conversations with Fan Bao, a Beijing banker, exchanging ideas about the future of the Internet in China and swapping gossip about industry personalities. Mr. Bao, who had been a strategist at a Chinese technology company before setting up his own boutique investment bank in 2004, would occasionally prod Mr. Guo about his plans…Read Full Story

U.S., China tussle over sea claims – The Washington Post

NAYPYIDAW, Burma — The Obama administration insists it isn’t having a contest with China for influence and leadership in Southeast Asia, but both sides were clearly keeping score at a weekend meeting of regional foreign ministers here… Read Full Story

Chinese banks getting serious as risks from bad debts swell – Shanghai Daily

CHINESE banks are scrambling to get on top of bad debts they have downplayed for years, cutting off riskier borrowers, further tightening lending terms and, in one case, deploying teams of investigators to assess the risk of loan defaults.

China’s banks keep reporting bad loan levels well below what most analysts consider realistic, but their recent actions suggest the slowing economy may be squeezing borrowers and lenders harder than thought only a few months ago… Read Full Story

California Related:

Former Executives From E&J Gallo and Constellation Launch New International Wine Company – Market Wired

SANTA BARBARA, CA–(Marketwired – Aug 13, 2014) – Today two wine industry veterans on different continents announced they are joining forces with noted import/export experts to form the Aspira Corporation. As part of a long-term plan to introduce a broad portfolio of wines into Asia, Aspira will launch Sunterra™ as its first brand to be sold in China. John Kochis, CEO, has long seen the opportunity in Asia but needed the right team and the right brand… Read Full Story

Door to China reopens for California citrus – The Produce News

After more than 14 months of being denied official access to the Chinese market, the California citrus industry was notified verbally the week of July 28 and in writing Monday, Aug. 4 that China was once again open for exports of California citrus.

“We are very happy the market is open,” Jim Cranney, president of the California Citrus Quality Council, told The Produce News Aug. 7. “We estimate [China] to be approximately a $70 million market” and growing, with “somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 million cartons of California citrus going into China annually before the market closed…Read Full Story

California Drought Transforms Global Food Market – Bloomberg

For more than 70 years, Fred Starrh’s family was among the most prominent cotton growers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Then shifting global markets and rising water prices told him that wouldn’t work anymore…The result will affect everything from the price of milk in China to the source of cherries eaten by Americans. It has already inflamed competition for water between farmers and homeowners…Read Full Story

University of California steps up out-of-state recruiting –The Sacramento Bee

Last spring, representatives from the University of California, Davis, made 20 trips to China to encourage admitted students to accept their offer to study in the United States. The director of admissions at UC Santa Cruz met one young man in New Delhi, India, who had traveled hundreds of miles to make the case that he belonged at the coastal university thousands of miles from his home…Read Full Story

California named top overseas property destination for Chinese buyers – Property Report

Chinese investors who buy residential real estate abroad have picked the Golden State as their favourite investment destination in the United States, according to Washington, DC-based National Association of Realtors. In its recently released 2014 Profile of International Home Buying Activity report, Realtors determined that affluent buyers from China are now the biggest group of foreign investors in the US in terms of total sales dollar volume, claiming a 24 percent market share, mostly spending their money in high-priced markets like California, Washington and New York… Read Full Story

Billions will be lost unless Congress reauthorizes Export-Import Bank – The Boston Globe

FIRMGREEN, A SMALL renewable-energy company in California, lost a $57 million contract this year because of ideological posturing in Washington. One firm’s woes — the company had to furlough workers when it lost the job in the Philippines — might not affect the economy much. But the needless stalemate in Congress over the future of the Export-Import Bank of the United States threatens many other companies and workers too. At a time when the economy is still recovering, the conservative hardliners rallying to shut down the agency are risking a serious, self-inflicted economic wound. The bank is a hard institution to understand, much less to love, but Congress and Speaker John Boehner should stop fooling around and reauthorize an important economic tool…Read Full Story

Chinese startups get taste of Silicon Valley with TechCrunch-CNN

Beijing (CNN) — San Francisco-based TechCrunch brought a taste of Silicon Valley to Beijing this week, with more than 50 startups showcasing their innovations to tech fans and investors at a two-day event in the Chinese capital.

The conference attracted some of the most forward-thinking and dynamic Chinese technology wannabees, including ANTVR, a wearable gaming device company…Read Full Story

China Business Insight:

Sending the Right Message in China – The New York Times

Read Full Story

Foreign retail web sites load slowly in China – Internet Retailer

China leads the world in online retail sales, and shoppers there will buy $446 billion worth of goods from web sites this year, says Beijing-based market watcher iResearch. But slow-loading web sites may be keeping international retailers and brands from selling to those Chinese online shoppers…Read Full Story

What Do China’s New Free Trade Zones Mean For North American Businesses? – Forbes

After 30 years of rapid economic growth, China is looking to refuel its momentum by restructuring its economy to suit the changing times. Late in 2013, China unveiled the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the first of several experimental free trade areas within mainland China. The zone is a testing ground for a number of economic policy changes, including relaxed restrictions on many industries, from banking and shipping to video games and motorcycles. What do the features of the SFTZ mean for foreign investors?…Read Full Story

China’s Food And Drugs Saga: Xi Jinping’s True New Plan – Forbes

In October 2013,the then CEO of a food multinational in China shared with this journalist a confidential information from high sources : China was going to bring down its licensed milk producers number to 15, half of the figure officially released. “This number”, he meant, “represents about the group of large foreign players on the local formula milk market”. Therefore, only a tiny number or local companies, among the largest like Yili orMengniu would be allowed to stay and compete with those major world producers…Read Full Story

Three Things Mondelēz International Has Learned About Success In China – Forbes

Introducing a new brand to the marketplace is a challenge. Introducing an existing brand to a new marketplace is a challenge. Introducing an existing brand to a marketplace whose culture is poles apart from that of its home turf is an even greater challenge, still. How do you take what you’ve learned from a successful brand launch in one country and adapt this information to meet the needs, tastes, and buying habits of another country? And, what if this country is China, an arena for business that is growing not incrementally, but exponentially? Suffice it to say, challenging…Read Full Story

Entrepreneurs: China’s Next Growth Engine? – The Diplomat

Should China want to remain an international economic superpower, it will need to substitute its current growth model – one largely based on abundant, cheap labor – with a different comparative advantage that can lay the foundation for a new, more sustainable growth strategy… Read Full Story

Chinese Consumers: Increasingly Optimistic but Also Realistic – The Boston Consulting Group

Last year, China experienced a decline in GDP growth, along with a steep drop in consumer sentiment exacerbated by an anticorruption campaign that dampened the intention to spend in lower-tier cities in particular. This year, although business activity was slow in the first quarter, the economy has shown signs of stabilizing, with improved consumption growth. After dropping to a five-year low in January and February, total retail-sales growth increased in May to 12.5 percent, its fastest pace since December of 2013…Read Full Story

Could Stronger Unions Make China More Democratic? – The Nation

Han Dongfang, a longtime Chinese labor activist, has some ideas about democracy in China. But unlike most of the liberal Western critics and prominent exiled dissidents, Han is not focused on freeing Tibet, street rallies for human rights, or freedom of the press—though he understands that all those issues are vital to the debate on China’s political future. He thinks democracy begins not by casting a ballot for far-away political leaders, but electing your shop steward. And the interesting part is that the foundation for this emerging in workplaces across the nation that is defining, for better or worse, our global economy… Read Full Story

[Report] Chinese shoppers: Evolving behaviors in a challenging environment – Bain&Company

The growth of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market continued to slow in China in 2013. Fierce competition among brands and thriftier shoppers mean that marketers can no longer grow a brand just by riding a category wave. Gaining market share is imperative, and market penetration is the primary way to achieve it

Have you got guanxi? The top five barriers for SMEs exporting to China – Smart Company

Compliance costs, a lack of resources and difficulty in creating personal networks are among the biggest challenges faced by SMEs when exporting to China, according to research from the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce.

VECCI Export Services says knowledge of the local market and an understanding of the local culture and language are also barriers for Australian SMEs doing business in China, which VECCI says is home to 300 million middle-class citizens… Read Full Story

E-Commerce in China: What to Expect – Power Retail

The Chinese e-commerce market is exploding. But there are some key differences between the East and the West for those entrepreneurs to consider while sizing up the opportunity, writes Mathew McDougall…Read Full Story

[Technology] LG Electronics seeks fresh smartphone start in China with G3 launch – Reuters

(Reuters) – LG Electronics Inc will on Monday begin selling its latest flagship smartphone in China, a market where it has struggled to make a dent and that has become increasingly tough for makers of high-end handsets other than Apple Inc.

Eager to capitalize on strong early reception for its G3, the company on Friday said it will sell the device through online shopping site JD.com, China’s second-biggest e-commerce company by market share, at 3,999 yuan ($650). … Read Full Story

[Business] In China, Japanese cars are losing their cachet – Market Watch

SHANGHAI–In April, 30-year-old financial manager Deng Dan replaced her three-year Nissan Qashqai crossover and upgraded to an Audi sedan.

“Audi is very popular among young people. I just wanted to go with the fashion,” said Ms. Deng, who lives on the outskirts of the southern Chinese city of Changsha. “In my mind buyers of Japanese cars are those who are less affluent.”

Ms. Deng’s thoughts highlight the challenge confronting Japanese auto makers in the world’s largest auto market: weakening popularity among younger and more affluent consumers. … Read Full Story

[Business] M&M’s Rides the Chocolate Wave in China – The Wall Street Journal

SHANGHAI—Mars Inc. will unveil a flagship store in Shanghai on Friday in a move to expand its brand in China, where candy makers are heating up competition in one of the world’s fastest-growing chocolate markets.

For closely held Mars, best known for its M&M’s chocolates and Mars and Snickers candy bars, the 1,600 square-meter, $10 million M&M’s department store, located in Shanghai’s version of Times Square, is a first foray into China’s retail scene. … Read Full Story

[Business] What to Expect When You’re Targeted by China’s Antitrust Cops – Bloomberg Businessweek

These are busy times for Chinese officials in charge of fighting monopolies. Last week, antimonopoly investigators swooped in on Microsoft (MSFT) offices in four cities, seizing documents and computers. The government’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce followed up with a warning to Microsoft on Monday. “The SAIC formally told Microsoft not to interfere in the investigation process,” theChina Daily reported the administration announcing on its website. … Read Full Story

[Business] China Exports Accelerate, Imports Fall in July – The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China’s exports surged in July on the back of strong demand from the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia, while imports fell, surprising markets on both counts and resulting in a record monthly trade surplus.

The news was largely welcome in Beijing, as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to regain growth- and foreign-trade momentum after this year’s weak start, although negative import growth underscores continued weak domestic demand. … Read Full Story

[Business] McDonald’s July Sales Slip on China, U.S. Pressures – The Wall Street Journal

McDonald’s Corp. MCD -0.01% on Friday reported its worst monthly global same-store sales in more than 10 years as it deals with a meat-supplier scandal in China and continued weakness in the U.S.

Global sales fell 2.5% in July, far worse than expected. The steepest drop came in its Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, where sales at existing locations slumped 7.3% last month. Analysts were expecting a 0.5% drop in that region. … Read Full Story

[Business] Tesla in China: Slow Sales Acceleration and a Brand-Name Dispute – Bloomberg Businessweek

Elon Musk, Tesla Motors’ (TSLA) chief executive, has big hopes for China, a country that should be a natural for his electronic cars. The world’s largest auto market has notoriously awful smog problems, and the Chinese government has made the pollution fight one of its top priorities. Last month, for instance, China’s State Council agreed to exempt electric cars (as well as plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles) from the 10 percent tax normally assessed on new autos. And the government on July 13 said electric cars would make up at least 30 percent of its vehicle purchases by 2016. … Read Full Story

[Social Media] China Tightens Restrictions on Messaging Apps – The Wall Street Journal

China for the first time placed restrictions on instant-messaging services—an increasingly popular platform in the country for discussion and debate.

Beijing said the restrictions were instituted to “help build a clean cyberspace” and safeguard national security. … Read Full Story

[Business] BMW Profit Growth May Be Exhausted, While China Probe Clouds Future – Forbes

BMW’s latest financial results excited most investors, again, but there are some who wonder if, just maybe, the leading German luxury car maker’s growing profitability might be peaking out.

And news that the Chinese government is investigating foreign automakers’ alleged monopolistic pricing won’t help BMW or for that matter its competitors like Daimler’s Mercedes, VW’s Audi and Jaguar Land Rover. Massive sales in China have been almost a license to print money for luxury car makers, with BMW accounting for one fifth of its revenues there. China provides around 30 per cent of BMW’s operating profit. … Read Full Story

[Business] China’s Coming Shale Gas Auction Offer Little Hope to Private Investors – Forbes

China’s auction of shale blocks is a somewhat strange business. The first shale sale in June 2011 was largely a staged play among the six state-run bidders. The second round held in 2012 was open to private investors, but shortlisted candidates included the bizarre choices of a home-appliance company and a hardware firm that mainly sells hand tools. Now the repeatedly delayed third round is expected to take place, but things are unlikely to get any better for private investors hoping to benefit from the country’s future shale gas boom. … Read Full Story

[Environment] China’s War On Air Pollution Shows More Promise Than Reports Indicate – Forbes Asia

Multinational corporations like Coca-Cola andPanasonic are increasingly offering expat executives “hardship packages,” which include allowances for frequent trips to their home countries and additional ‘bonuses’, to entice them to stay in China’s polluted cities. While the private sector is offering a short-term solution to China’s air pollution problem, it is not the only plan for making China’s smog-choked cities more livable. … Read Full Story

[Business] China stocks are back from the dead – CNN Money

Chinese markets are showing signs of life after a dismal first half of the year, driven higher by a steady flow of positive economic news.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite has jumped about 7% since the end of June, erasing a 3.2% decline in the first six months of the year. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have both fallen around 2% since the end of June. … Read Full Story

[Business] China Said to Exclude Apple From Procurement List – Bloomberg News

China’s government excluded Apple Inc. iPads and MacBook laptops from the list of products that can be bought with public money because of security concerns, according to government officials familiar with the matter. … Read Full Story

[Business] Wal-Mart’s Strategy to Jump Start Growth in China – The Wall Street Journal

David Cheesewright, who started his career as a gym teacher, faces a big challenge as the newest chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.87% ‘s international division: Get the retailer’s overseas operations back in shape.

Following years of double-digit sales growth, sales at its 6,100 international stores rose 1.3% in the year ended Jan. 31 as the company struggled to turn around what was once its fastest-growing division. … Read Full Story

[Breaking News] Death toll in China rises to 589 – AOL

LUDIAN, China (AP) – The death toll in southern China’s earthquake rose to 589 on Wednesday as search and rescue teams pushed into isolated mountain communities to clear debris from collapsed homes.

The Yunnan provincial government said more than 2,400 people were injured in Sunday’s 6.1 magnitude quake in the mountainous Yunnan farming region of Ludian county – the country’s deadliest temblor in four years. … Read Full Story

[Business] Yachtbuilders Are Eyeing A Boom In China – Business Insider

With a fortune made in Chinese finance, Li Wang already has six cars including a Bentley and a Porsche, and his eye on his next multi-millionaires’ toy: a boat.

“I only know a little about yachts at the moment,” acknowledged the chubby 27-year-old, strolling in golden sunglasses among the sailboats, catamarans and motor cruisers lining the jetties at a boat show in Dalian. … Read Full Story

[Business] Car Makers Face Hits in China – The Wall Street Journal

SHANGHAI—Foreign auto makers came under new pressure in China on Tuesday, with Daimler AG DAI.XE -1.01% saying it is assisting Chinese authorities in an investigation into the car maker’s Mercedes-Benz brand and Chrysler unveiling wide-ranging price cuts on some of its cars and spare parts. Chrysler said its move is a “proactive response” to an antitrust probe. … Read Full Story

[Technology] Forget Samsung, Xiaomi is China’s new smartphone king – CNN Money

The upstart Chinese smartphone maker has knocked Samsung off its throne in China, shipping more units than its South Korea-based rival for the first time in the second quarter.

The performance is the latest indication that Xiaomi has evolved from niche player in China to a major force in its home market. … Read Full Story

[Business] BMW sales top one million. Thanks China! – CNN Money

China’s love of luxury cars continues unabated, helping drive BMW group sales to a record one million vehicles in the first half of 2014.

Global sales of the group’s three brands — BMW, Rolls-Royce and Mini — rose by 7% over the same period last year. China sales were up 23%. … Read Full Story

[Environment] China to ban all coal use in Beijing by 2020 – ABC News

China’s smog-plagued capital has announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities.

Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website Monday, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating. … Read Full Story

[Breaking News] China rescues 32 from rubble after quake kills hundreds – USA Today

BEIJING — Firefighters rescued more than 30 people Monday trapped in rubble from a strong earthquake that hit southern China, even as the death toll rose to nearly 400 people.

The magnitude-6.1 quake that struck the mountainous region in Yunnan province on Sunday has killed at least 398 people and injured more than 1,800, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. … Read Full Story

[Business] Chinese Regulators Search Daimler Offices – New York Times

The German automobile giant Daimler has become the latest multinational company to bear the brunt a Chinese regulatory investigation, confirming on Tuesday that officials from an agency that enforces antimonopoly and pricing rules had searched its offices in Shanghai. … Read Full Story

[Environment] China needs ‘sustainable’ urbanization – ChinaDaily USA

As its urbanization continues, China needs to use more renewable energies to reduce possible impact on the environment, said C.S. Kiang, founding dean of Peking University’s College of Environmental Sciences, on Sunday at a conference in New York. “In 15 or 25 years, Chinese urbanization is going to be the largest human activity ever undertaken. What’s the possible ecological impact? I specifically stress that urbanization is not only a China issue. It’s a global issue,” Kiang said at a US-China economic and trade conference as part of the Vision and Innovation Forum at New York University. … Read Full Story

[Business] Local Governments Out of Pocket? – Beijing Review

According to a report issued by the National Audit Office, local government debt in China had totaled 17.9 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion) by the end of June 2013. Of this, local governments are responsible for repaying 10.89 trillion yuan ($1.76 trillion), which accounts for 61 percent. They also assume the liability of guarantee for 2.67 trillion yuan ($430 billion) and some liability of salvage for 4.34 trillion yuan ($700 billion), respectively. … Read Full Story

[Sports] Baseball serves as bridge for US ties – ChinaDaily USA

Baseball may be America’s national pastime, and while the jury is still out on whether the sport will ever find a similar following in China, several Chinese community leaders are happy to use it as a bridge for better understanding between the world’s two largest economies. … Read Full Story

[Technology] China’s mobile game market to grow a scorching 93% to $2.9B in 2014 – VentureBeat

SHANGHAI — It doesn’t get much hotter than this, unless you’re talking about the temperatures this city reaches during the summer. The Chinese mobile-game market has exploded, with revenue expected to grow 93 percent to $2.9 billion in 2014, and that expansion should continue at a compound annual growth rate of 37.6 percent from 2013 to 2018. … Read Full Story

[Business] China’s Stocks Rise to Eight-Month High as Chalco Rallies-Bloomberg

China’s stocks rose to an eight-month high, led by financial and commodity shares, on speculation the government is accelerating state-owned enterprise reform and relaxing rules to help brokerages free up capital for expansion. … Read Full Story

[Business] How will China handle its real estate bubble? – Al Jazeera America

China’s economy has been on a rocky path since the global financial crisis of 2008. Many observers have decried the existence of massive excesses in property investment, warning the country’s economy is too reliant on a property bubble that is waiting to burst. Yet China marches ahead. In April, The Financial Times estimatedthat, for the first time since the 1870s, this year China will be the world’s largest economy, supplanting the United States. … Read Full Story

[Business] China Crackdown Turns Treasury Wines Into a Takeover Target – BloombergBusinessweek

Billionaire Henry Kravis may turn out to be an unlikely beneficiary of Xi Jinping’s campaign to fight corruption in China. The Chinese president has been leading a fight to curtail conspicuous consumption and extravagant gift-giving among Communist Party and Chinese government officials, and that has dampened demand for, among other high-end luxury goods, premium wines. …Read Full Story

[Breaking News] US ready to help China in quake relief – ChinaDaily USA

WASHINGTON – The White House on Sunday offered condolences over loss of lives in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, where a strong earthquake befell earlier in the day, saying the United States was ready to help. “The United States offers sincere condolences to all those who lost loved ones in the Aug 3 earthquake in southwestern China,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. … Read Full Story

[Technology] China to Microsoft: Don’t Interfere in Antitrust Probe – PCMAG

Chinese officials this week issued a stern warning to Microsoft: don’t interfere with our antitrust investigation. China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) recently questioned Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel, Mary Snapp. But in a later statement, SAIC warned Microsoft that it “should strictly abide by Chinese laws and may not interfere [or] in any way hinder investigation of the case, to ensure an objective and impartial investigation.” … Read Full Story

[Policies] China relaxes capital controls for some foreign firms – Yahoo Finance

BEIJING (Reuters) – Some foreign firms in China can now use their registered capital to buy stakes in other Chinese companies as part of an experiment to further loosen capital controls, the foreign exchange regulator said on Monday.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said the pilot test would also reduce red tape for companies that want to convert their registered capital into yuan to attract more foreign investment. … Read Full Story

[Business] China’s surging investment in US heralds new multinational era – South China Morning Post

Chinese investments in the United States now exceed American investments in China in an historic shift that may see the emergence of joint Sino-US multinationals, but one that is also fraught with geopolitical risks, said analysts. “Chinese FDI [foreign direct investment] into the US will be one of the great economic stories of the next decade,” said Mike Margolis, a partner at US law firm Blank Rome. …Read Full Story

[Business] McDonald’s Hopes to Bring Burger Back to China Soon – Wall Street Journal

BEIJING— McDonald’s Corp. MCD -0.62% hopes within a week to put burgers and McNuggets back on the menu in many of its China stores, two weeks after it cut ties with a Shanghai supplier that allegedly sold the chain expired meat. The Oak Brook, Ill., company has been working with existing suppliers to increase capacity, a China-based spokeswoman for McDonald’s said Monday. McDonald’s had to conduct due diligence on new potential suppliers so they would fit the company’s “farm-to-fork process,” she said. “It takes a longer time for good reasons.”… Read full story

[Breaking News] Strong quake in China topples thousands of homes, kills at least 367 – Los Angles Times

A strong earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and injuring more than 1,881. About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located around 277 miles northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. at a depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 14 miles southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat… Read Full Story

[Breaking News] Death Toll Rises to 75 in Chinese Factory Blast –ABC News

The death toll in for an explosion at a Chinese auto parts factory has risen to 75 people, as investigators fault poor safety measures and news reports reveal that workers had long complained of dangerous levels of dust at the facility. Metal dust produced from polishing steel hubcaps ignited Saturday morning at the factory in the eastern Chinese city of Kunshan, causing an explosion that destroyed almost the entire roof of the plant, city officials said. More than 200 workers were at the factory at the time of the blast, China’s most serious industrial disaster since a fire at a poultry plant killed 119 people in June last year… Read Full Story

[Technology] Beijing to bar Symantec, Kaspersky anti-virus in procurement: report – Reuters

(Reuters) – China has excluded U.S.-based Symantec Corp(SYMC.O) and Russia’s Kaspersky Lab from a list of approved anti-virus software vendors, according to a Chinese media report suggesting Beijing is expanding efforts to limit use of foreign technology. The state-controlled People’s Daily reported the news early Sunday on its English Twitter feed, saying that the government’s procurement agency “has excluded Symantec & Kaspersky” from a list of security software suppliers… Read Full Story

[Politics] Police-Chief Zhou’s Trial Tests Xi’s Rule of Law Pledge – Bloomberg

China’s biggest trial in three decades may also be the prime test of whether President Xi Jinping’s campaign to bolster the rule of law in the world’s second-largest economy remains a work in progress.Zhou Yongkang, the former internal security chief whose investigation for corruption was made public last week, faces a potential trial akin to that of his allyBo Xilai in 2013. Preparatory work during an 18-month campaign against Zhou’s faction featured officials across the nation being taken for questioning and held incommunicado without trial, often for months… Read Full Story

[Technology] Xbox One coming to FTZ – Shanghai Daily

MICROSOFT and BesTV New Media Co said last week that a new-generation games console, the Xbox One, will go on sale in the Shanghai free trade zone on September 23. The model, priced at 3,699 yuan (US$599), will be the first console to be sold on China’s mainland in over a decade… Read Full Story

[Technology] What Microsoft Has Done Right (And Wrong) In China With Xbox One – Forbes

Half a year after China lifted its console ban, allowing gaming consoles to be legally sold within the country for the first time in over a decade, China’s console gamers are yet to get their hands on anything. But the launch of China’s first official console is drawing ever closer. At the recent ChinaJoy game conference,Microsoft announced the device’s official price (RMB 3699, or about $600) and its official release date (September 23). The Xbox One is coming, and it’s coming soon… Read Full Story

The War of Words in China – The New York Times

BEIJING — I DIDN’T ask for a Wikipedia page, but a few months ago, alerted by a friend, I found that someone had created one, ostensibly devoted to my journalistic achievements. I was flattered. Until I opened the page.“Since 2008, Jacobs has written over 400 articles, the vast majority of which portray China in a negative light,” read the entry, which went on to claim that many of those articles contained “journalistic distortions.”… Read Full Story

China Warns Microsoft Against Obstructing Probe – The New York Times

Chinese regulators on Monday publicly warned Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.21% against obstructing an antitrust investigation into the firm, in the latest sign that Beijing has turned frosty on the U.S. software maker.China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce said in a statement that Microsoft should avoid “interfering in or obstructing” the probe. The regulator also said it had questioned Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Mary Snapp as part of the investigation… Read Full Story

Doing Business In China: Terry & The Pirates – Forbes

This is the first in a series of articles about doing business in China. While my formal job is as a management professor at a business school in China, my educational background and experience has been in political science, the US Air Force, and individual, group and organizational psychology as a Leadership Professor at a European management institute for 25 years… Read Full Story

[Business] China’s Salt Monopoly: Cracking Down on Illegal Contraband –Forbes

China’s 2,132-year old salt monopoly and why it makes sense to finally end it.

Early last year Taobao, Alibaba’s online marketplace, went through a cleansing process to remove contraband being sold by merchants on the site. What was this illicit item? Was it cocaine or heroin sale of which is prohibited under China’s Drug Administration Law? No. Was it firearms which private citizens in China are not allowed to own or sell? No. Was it stolen merchandise being resold by unscrupulous thieves? No. In fact, the Taobao merchants were attempting to sell… common table salt… Read Full Story

[Business] For China Investors, Bad News Erases The Good – Forbes

The tug of war between bears and bulls in China equities rages on, with the bears getting an extra pull of much needed muscle following poor service sector PMI data this weekend. For the past month, investors have been pouring into China equities, according to flow data from EPFR Global. Manufacturing PMI beat market consensus, but service sector PMI declined. And many in the market view the service sector as the new China. When the new China looks weak, it means the old China has to step up on stimulus programs and fixed-asset investments in order to get investors bullish again. Technicals aside, China is still a topsy-turvey economy, where the bad news often outweighs the good… Read Full Story

[Technology] Xiaomi Overtakes Samsung in China Smartphone Market – The Wall Street Journal

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker with the diminutive name, became the leading smartphone vendor in China in the second quarter, with its shipments exceedingSamsung 005930.SE +1.93%’s for the first time, according to figures from market research firm Canalys. Xiaomi led China’s second-quarter smartphone shipment rankings with 14% market share, following by Samsung, Lenovo and Yulong each with 12%. It’s quite a jump from the first quarter, when Xiaomi’s 10.7% market share trailed Samsung’s 18.3% and Lenovo’s 11%. And an even bigger leap from a year ago, when Xiaomi only held 5%… Read Full Story

[Business] U.S., China compete to woo Africa – PewResearch Center

The U.S. and China have been jockeying for economic influence in Africa in recent years as the region experiences robust GDP growth and presents more opportunities for investment…Read Full Story

[Environment] China’s surprise on climate change: Our view – USA Today

With the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change growing stronger all the time, advocates of inaction have turned to another argument: It’s pointless for the U.S. to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, they say, because increases from other nations — particularly China — will overwhelm any U.S. reductions… Read Full Story

[Business] Legal fight chills China metal trade after port fraud probe – Reuters

As global banks and trading houses fire off lawsuits over their estimated $900 million exposure to a suspected metal financing fraud in China, the tangled legal battle to recoup losses is set to drag on for years and hinder a swift recovery in metal trade. HSBC is the latest bank to launch legal action since Chinese authorities started a probe into whether the firm at the center of the allegations, Decheng Mining, used fake warehouse receipts to obtain multiple loans… Read Full Story

[Business] IMF Says China Should Aim Lower As Housing Prices Triple-Dip – Forbes

China’s government should lower its GDP target to 6.5% next year instead of 7.5%, The InternationalMonetary Fund said this Friday as the country’s real estate market continues to decline.Non-performing loans, shadow banking at the municipal level and housing woes were cited as the risks to China growth again next year, Alfred Schipke, senior resident representative at the IMF , said at a news conference in Beijing… Read Full Story

[Business] Global Logistic Properties Invests in China State Firm- The Wall Street Journal

SHANGHAI—Singapore’s Global Logistic Properties is investing 2 billion yuan (US$324 million) for a stake in China’s largest state-owned warehouse logistics provider, the latest deal intended to capitalize on growing domestic consumption in the country. The Singapore-listed GLP will take a 15.3% stake in Shanghai-listed CMST Development Co., becoming its second-largest shareholder, GLP said in a statement Monday… Read Full Story

[Entertainment] China to Open $323 Million Musical Production Center-The Hollywood Reporter

Musicals, a still relatively unknown form of entertainment in China, are about to get a big push with a planned $323 million (2 billion RMB) musical production center in the country, according to a report by the China News Service. The center, to be located in Langfang, just 30 miles outside of Beijing, will be a 1 million square feet compound, including theaters, classrooms and related facilities and is set to be completed in 2017. The center will be tasked with not only creating commercially viable musicals in China, but also promoting the art form in the country… Read Full Story

[Society] Why China’s Second-Baby Boom Might Not Happen-BloombergBusinessweek

Last November, China announced the loosening of its restrictive one-child population policy: Couples would soon be permitted to have two children so long as one parent was an only child. Government planners predicted that roughly half of China’s 11 million eligible couples would chose to have a second child within five years, and investors predicted a boom in sales of diapers, baby formula, and educational toys in China…Read Full Story

[Environment] U.S. Hits China Solar Firms – The Wall Street Journal

NEW DELHI—The U.S. is shaking up the solar-equipment industry by imposing heavy antidumping tariffs on Chinese panel makers, a move that is benefiting not just producers at home but also those operating in Asia and encouraging them to expand. The Commerce Department has issued preliminary tariffs on solar products of between 20% and 40% from China and Taiwan, saying they were sold too cheaply to U.S. buyers. But with prices now rising from Chinese importers as they have to deposit money in U.S. escrow accounts until the preliminary findings are confirmed, buyers are turning elsewhere… Read Full Story

[Business] China Moves to Ease Home-Registration Rules in Urbanization Push – New York Times

HONG KONG — The Chinese government issued proposals on Wednesday to break down barriers that a nationwide household registration system has long imposed between rural and urban residents and among regions, reinforcing inequality, breeding discontent and hampering economic growth.Yet even as officials promoted easier urbanization and the goal of permanently settling an additional 100 million rural people in towns and cities by 2020, they said changes to the system — which links many government entitlements to a person’s official residence, even if that person has long since moved away — must be gradual and must protect big cities like Beijing…Read Full Story

[Business] Banks Fear Missing Collateral in China – The New York Times

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China. Citigroup and several other big Western banks are concerned that their loans may lack the appropriate collateral of big stockpiles of copper and aluminum at the port. The banks have inspectors on the ground who are trying to assess whether enough of the metals are there… Read Full Story

[Business] Why Do Foreign Brands ‘Break Bad’ in China? – Caixin

One of the major suppliers of famous multinational brands like McDonald’s and KFC was recently found using old meat to produce fast food. The news dragged foreign fast food chains into another wave of public outcry, with “get out, foreign fast food” appearing on the Internet. If I remember correctly, this is the third straight year that KFC’s parent, Yum Brands Inc., was exposed in scandals involving supply chain quality. In 2012, Yum was reported to have used hormones to raise fast-growing chickens in just 45 days, implicating its KFC chains. Last year, Yum’s Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill restaurants were found using chicken, fox and rat meat in place of lamb, damaging its business. These three crises all resulted from problems with upstream supply companies…Read Full Story

[Politics] How the Hammer Falls as China Nails Corruption – Caixin

(Beijing) — Curiosity is one reason the website of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) attracts up to 2 million page views every day.Another reason is fear. Some website visitors, for example, want to know whether they or anyone they know has been targeted by a government campaign to root out corruption led by the CDIC Inspection Team.Since the campaign began in December 2012, 33 high-level government and state company officials – all in positions at the deputy provincial level or higher – have come under investigation for violating laws or Communist Party rules. Each has been removed from office and detained. Some have been kicked out of the party…Read Full Story

[Business] China will soon be the world’s top business travel market – CNN Money

China is the world’s hottest market for business travelers, and spending in the country could surpass the U.S. as soon as 2015, according to a new report…Read Full Story

[Business] Investors Bet on China’s Large Property Developers –The Wall Street Journal

As China’s real-estate market slows, investors are turning bullish and buying up stocks of large property developers, betting they won’t only ride out the storm but also grow. The MSCI China Real Estate Index, which tracks the stocks of mainland developers, has surged 16.5% from the start of July through Friday, on pace for its best month in nearly three years, as local governments have started to ease restrictions on housing purchases to boost sales. The index remained down more than 3% for the year…Read Full Story

[Technology] Baidu’s search engine reaches 500 million active users on mobile – Tech In Asia

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s top search engine, released its Q2 earnings report overnight. The financials were dull, but the conference call with Baidu execs yielded some interesting user numbers and a few new milestones. With a strong focus on mobile – now that China’s mobile internet users outnumber its PC web users – Baidu CEO Robin Li hailed the fact that the company’s “mobile revenue, which is largely comprised of mobile search revenue, accounts for 30 percent of our total revenue.”…Read Full Story

[Technology] China’s JD to take pre-orders for the country’s first official Xbox One shipments on WeChat – Tech In Asia

This morning, Chinese e-retailer JD announced it has attained exclusive rights to accept China’s first pre-orders for the Xbox One. But gamers who open a desktop web browser and input JD’s URL won’t be able to snag the console – instead, the company will accept orders exclusively through Tencent’s WeChat and Mobile QQ apps, from July 28 through July 30. “Through our partnership with Tencent, Chinese consumers are increasingly able to enjoy the JD.com shopping experience directly on China’s most popular mobile communications platforms,” says Shuang Du, vice president of JD, in a statement. “We will continue to focus on providing the most convenient channels for Chinese consumers to purchase authentic products through their mobile devices.”…Read Full Story

[Society] China’s 1 Percent vs. America’s 1 Percent – Bloomberg Businessweek

A new study by Peking University’s Social Science Research Center pulls back the curtain a bit on China’s überwealthy. The richest 1 percent of Chinese households control more than a third of the country’s wealth, according to the July 26 study…Read Full Story

[Society] China gets richer but more unequal – The Guardian

China is becoming more unequal as it gets richer, with about a third of the country’s wealth now concentrated in the hands of 1% of its citizens, according to new research. A report by the Peking University Institute of Social Science Survey also found that the poorest quarter of Chinese citizens owned only 1% of the country’s wealth. The report, which was covered extensively by China’s state media, concludes that while the country is getting richer as a whole – the average net worth of a Chinese household rose 17% between 2010 and 2012 to $71,000 (£42,000) – inequality is a serious and growing problem…Read Full Story

[Business] Managing the Challenges of Food and Agribusiness Investment in China – China Business Review

Demand for foreign-branded foods, beverages, and other agricultural products and services is soaring in China, largely due to the rising income of Chinese consumers and their growing concerns about food safety. This trend affects not just the kinds of food purchased, but every aspect of China’s food industry, including retail, distribution, warehousing, and farming. It also presents an enormous opportunity for multinational agribusiness and food companies. But agribusiness remains a highly regulated industry in China, and multinational companies seeking to invest in China face a number of barriers. Regulatory challenges include restrictions on foreign investment, lengthy anti-trust reviews, and China’s new national security review process for mergers and acquisitions…Read Full Story

[Business] Tiny Luxembourg Wants a Piece of China’s Offshore Currency Market – The Wall Street Journal

The small nation of Luxembourg already boasts a financial sector that has benefited from the Grand Duchy’s proximity to some of Europe’s largest economies. Now, the country of just half a million people wants to be at the heart of a new trend in global finance: the rising use of China’s currency outside its home market…Read Full Story

[Immigration] NY Wheel reels in Chinese EB-5 investors – China Daily

The New York Wheel, an observation Ferris wheel planned for Staten Island that will be the tallest of its kind in the world, has so far received $150 million from foreign investors, the vast majority from China in exchange for green cards. The 630-foot-wheel project has attracted 300 Chinese investors, at least 90 percent of the foreign investors involved, through the EB-5 visa program, which gives foreign investors a temporary visa to the US, said Richard Marin, president and CEO of New York Wheel LLC…Read Full Story

[Business] Investment from China to boom – China Daily

Economic changes in China have set the world’s second largest economy up for a “structural increase” of foreign direct investment (FDI) in a broad range of industries in the United States over the next decade, according to a director at a New York-based global research and advisory firm. “China is only at the beginning of a structural catch-up process in global outbound investment,” Thilo Hanemann, research director with the Rhodium Group (RHG), said July 26 in an email to China Daily. Hanemann, who leads RHG’s cross-border investment work, said the US will see “strong inflows in the next decade,” but the amount of investment from China will depend on a number of factors including: “the relative attractiveness of the US economy; the ability of Chinese firms to compete in an advanced marketplace like the US; and the progress both countries make in sustaining two-way openness to investment.”…Read Full Story

[Business] Alibaba Has Big Hopes for New Big Data Processing Service – Caixin

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its wealth of data on online vendors and shoppers has for a long time inspired imaginations for how big data technologies can reshape life on the Internet and beyond. The e-commerce giant has been using advanced data-analyzing technologies to help extend small loans since 2010, paving the way for clouding computing services that aim to commercialize its computing power. It launched a service on July 8, lifting the veil on the technologies and offering a glimpse into how other companies can make use of them. The Open Data Processing Service (ODPS) allows users to remotely tap into Alibaba servers equipped with algorithms that, according to the company, can process 100 million high-definition movies’ worth of data in six hours…Read Full Story

[Environment] What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming? – The New York Times

‘In Sichuan, we’re eaters,” said Chen Zemin, the world’s first and only frozen-dumpling billionaire. “We have an expression that goes, ‘Even if you have a very poor life, you still have your teeth to please.’ ” He smiled and patted his not insubstantial belly. “I like to eat.”…Read Full Story

[Business] China Currency Gaining Among American Corporations – Forbes

Here’s a good one for those who think the dollar’s days are numbered. A survey released last week by HSBC Global says more U.S. multinationals are closing trade transactions in…you guessed it…the Chinese yuan. Of course, this sort of news is right up HSBC’s alley. They are one of the premier financial centers in Hong Kong, where much of the off-shore Chinese currency transactions take place. It’s like a dream come true for the old colonial bank: the yuan increasingly being taken seriously as a viable trade currency…Read Full Story

[Environment] Solar Industry Is Rebalanced by U.S. Pressure on China – The New York Times

Even as regulators continue to wrestle with the protracted trade conflict with China over solar panels, the case has already started to reshape the industry, lifting manufacturers based outside China while also raising prices of panels for developers…Read Full Story

Nielsen: China’s consumer confidence remains at record high – CCTV.com

Chinese consumer confidence remains at a record high, according to new data from Information company Nielsen. The report released on Monday shows that for the third quarter in a row, Chinese consumer confidence for Q2 is staying unchanged at 111 points… Read Full Story

Tencent invests $3.2M in a laundry-on-demand service in China – VentureBeat

Not be outdone by the U.S. and its Washio, Chinese Internet giant Tencent has invested $3.2 million in an on-demand laundry service with an app made by laundromat chain Rongchan, reports say… Read Full Story

A Chinese luxury e-retailer raises $100 million for global expansion – iResearch News

Beijing Secoo Trading Co., a Chinese retailer that sells such luxury items as watches and handbags online, has raised $100 million to open shops in major Western cities to cater to the growing number of affluent Chinese traveling abroad.The series D financing round was led by China-based CMC Capital Partners and is one of the largest infusions of capital into a Chinese luxury e-commerce company. Also participating were four existing investors: U.S-based IDG Capital, Japan-based Vangoo Investment Partners, and French companies Ventech Capital and Crehol China. Secoo also announced that it has secured a credit line of “tens of millions of U.S. dollars” from Silicon Valley Bank in California…Read Full Story

Shanghai passes law to bolster Free Trade Zone – ShanghaiDaily

THE Shanghai People’s Congress unanimously passed a new law today that covers regulations on supervision, investment, trade, financial services and taxation in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone…Read Full Story

Where’s Upton Sinclair? The Roots of China’s Expired-Meat Scandal – Wall Street Journal

Meat madness is overtaking China this week, and while consumers have been quick toblame fast-food chains for lax oversight of suppliers, industry insiders say the real beef is with China’s inspectors.Gao Guan, deputy secretary-general of the China Meat Association trade group, said there are no regular inspections of meat-processing plants here. “In China neither the laws nor law enforcement is sound and complete enough,” Mr. Gao said.The number of regulators is actually small, so authorities rely on the public and media for supervision of the industry, Mr. Gao said…Read Full Story

Tainted food scandal now focuses on supply chain – ChinaDaily

Shanghai Husi Food Co was suspected of using expired meat and was shut down by local regulators in China. The long-time McDonald’s meat supplier was also cut by other fast food chains it supplied.Due to the vast size of the fast-food market in China, which poses an obstacle to consistent regulating, foreign companies are going to need to invest a lot more resources in their supply lines, an expert said.”We’ve got a situation now where a lot of multinationals and domestic firms as well are really facing a credibility issue in the China market,” Ben Cavender, a senior analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai, told the Wall Street Journal… Read Full Story

China and US reached agreement on cooperation on infrastructure – ChinaDaily

China and the United States agreed Wednesday to strengthen cooperation on infrastructure while calling for an acceleration of talks on a bilateral investment treaty.”This year’s dialogue led to new consensus on infrastructure investment between China and the US,” Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said at the closing of the Sixth Annual US-China CEO and Former Senior Officials’ Dialogue, held in Beijing this week…Read Full Story

Why Tmall is the smartest route into China’s ecommerce market – Venturebeat

The challenges that face a western company seeking China online market share are increasing in proportion to the size of the opportunity, and that opportunity grows daily. China passed the 300 million mark in online shoppers last year, representing 25 percent year-over-year growth, while total e-commerce transactions rose 30 percent to $1.64 trillion… Read Full Story

Chinese Ecommerce Market Exploding But Logistics Tricky – Multichannel Merchant

While the Chinese ecommerce market is growing wildly as consumers there love western brands, getting goods to them can prove tricky even with an in-country partner, attendees were told during a packed session at Multichannel Merchant’s Growing Global conference last week in Long Beach, CA… Read Full Story

Napa’s Quixote Winery Sold to Chinese Company – Wine-Searcher.com

After 43 years in the wine business in Napa Valley, Carl Doumani was looking for a retirement plan; he found it earlier this month, selling his Quixote Winery to a Chinese company for more than $20 million...Read Full Story

Everything that Apple is doing right in China – Quartz

While Apple reported a mostly ho-hum quarter on July 22, the company’s growth in China was an unexpected bonus. “China honestly was surprising to us,” CEO Tim Cook said. “The unit growth was really off the charts across the board.” Revenue from Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, grew 28% to $5.94 billion, as buyers snapped up iPhones, iPads and computers at much faster rates than in the rest of the world. Chinese iPhone sales were up 48%, Mac sales were up 39%, and iPad sales (which were down 9.2% globally), were up an impressive 51%… Read Full Story

Chinese Now Prefer Mobile When Going Online – The New York Times

For the first time, more Chinese people are gaining access to the Internet with mobile devices than with personal computers.The shift is significant, if expected, in China, which is the world’s biggest market for both Internet and smartphone users…Read Full Story

Alibaba, banks launch online service to make loans to SMEs – Ecns.cn

Alibaba Group Holding joined seven of China’s major banks in launching an upgraded online financial product to offer low-interest loans to small and medium-sized trade companies, a move the largest e-commerce company in China said would help ease funding costs for these companies… Read Full Story

Ethiopia Becomes China’s China in Search for Cheap Labor – Bloomberg

Ethiopian workers strolling through the parking lot of Huajian Shoes’ factory outside Addis Ababa last month chose the wrong day to leave their shirts untucked…Read Full Story

China to contribute to new global trade system- Xinhua News

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) — China will join in and contribute to the construction of a new global trade system, said Premier Li Keqiang here on Tuesday. Li also called on the United States to be more open and to create more favorable conditions for the two countries’ deeper cooperation, while meeting a delegation of U.S. business leaders and former senior officials… Read Full Story

McDonald’s and KFC Caught in China’s Latest Food-Quality Scandal – BloombergBusinessweek

An investigation aired by China’s state media on Sunday turned into one of the worst possible advertisements for Big Macs, Happy Meals, and KFC Chicken Burgers. The broadcast showed workers at Shanghai Husi Food, a supplier to bothMcDonald’s (MCD) and KFC parent company Yum! Brands (YUM), preparing expired beef and chicken and packaging meat that had been picked up off the floor…Read Full Story

Xiaomi Unveils a Fresh Chapter in Its Plan to Conquer the World – Bloomberg

Chinese smartphone upstart Xiaomi (XIAOMZ:CH) is turning the release of high-end, low-priced gadgets into a ritual. At a press conference on Tuesday in Beijing, Xiaomi Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun unveiled the Mi4, a metal-backed iPhone-esque smartphone with a 5-inch display, the latest Qualcomm (QCOM)Snapdragon chip, and a $320 price tag that puts it far closer to the reach of China’s middle class than the iPhone 5S (AAPL), which sells in that country for close to $700… Read Full Story

German group plans to launch hospital in Free Trade Zone In Shanghai – ShanghaiDaily

THE first wholly foreign-owned hospital will open in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in about 18 months, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.Germany-based medical and health care provider Artemed Group signed an agreement to establish Artemed Hospital in Shanghai’s FTZ… Read Full Story

Strategic and Economic Dialogue Kicks Off in Beijing Following US-China Discussions on Innovation, Climate Change, and Security – The US-China Business Council

US and Chinese government officials kicked off the sixth annual meeting of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) Wednesday in Beijing, the highlight of a busy week of bilateral meetings on topics such as innovation and climate change. Despite recent tension in the relationship, both sides continue to message that they plan for robust, constructive discussions on bilateral issues. Formal outcomes remain unclear at this point, but key topics of discussions include China’s economic reform agenda, state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms, currency, investment restrictions, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, licensing barriers, and trade and investment agreements… Read Full Story

18 die in China’s strongest storm in decades, with more rain on way – Shanghai Daily

THE death toll from the strongest storm to hit China in decades reached 18 yesterday, as forecasters issued warnings of more extreme weather.Typhoon Rammasun, the most powerful typhoon to hit south China in 40 years, brought gales and downpours to a number of southern provinces. At least five people are missing, according to local civil affairs authorities…Read Full Story

Brand wars: Battling China’s trademark ‘squatters’ –CNN

They’re known as trademark “squatters” and they’ve long caused headaches for foreign companies entering the Chinese market.Savvy to China’s complex trademark laws, these individuals target valuable foreign brands and register them as trademarks in China.When international companies want to launch their products on the Chinese market, they’re often left with little choice but to cough up huge sums to buy back the trademark, rebrand their product or fight for the right to use the brand through lengthy legal battles… Read Full Story

Female Shoppers Remain The Main Force in The Online Shopping Market With Stable Online Shopping Habits – iResearch

According to 2014 China Online Shoppers Behavior Report issued by iResearch, over 30% of online shoppers did the online shopping for more than 40 times in 2013, and over 60% of online shoppers expended more than 3,000 Yuan in this year. Shoppers are gradually forming the habit of online shopping. In comparison with male shoppers, female shoppers spent more money with more frequent online shopping, and they became the main force in China online shopping market… Read Full Story

RMB developing quickly as major world currency – ChinaDaily

The renminbi is on track to become the third-largest international currency behind the US dollar and the euro within five years as China accelerates its promotion of the yuan, said a Renmin University of China report released on Sunday.Last year, RMB cross-border trade settlement amounted to 4.63 trillion yuan ($746 billion), up 57.5 percent from 2012. It accounted for 2.5 percent of cross-border trade settlement worldwide, the report said… Read Full Story

Alibaba has a second attempt at making a social network – Tech in Asia

Ecommerce titan Alibaba has a new social network. It’s a sort of Instagram that’s based around tagging brand names that appear in your photos. Rather than making it a standalone app, Alibaba’s newest effort, called Fun, is built into its Tmall shopping app and is rolling out to users in an update for iOS and Android. Tmall is an online marketplace for large vendors and major brands…Read Full Story

China’s Rich Look Abroad as Home Prices Fall, Others Stay Put – The New York Times

Rattled by falling home prices, some of the wealthiest Chinese are paring their property investments and turning to private equity or overseas holiday homes, a sign of fading hopes that the once red-hot market can bounce back any time soon…Read Full Story

Alibaba’s I.P.O. Could Be a Bonanza for the Scions of Chinese Leaders – The New York Times

It was billed as the biggest private financing deal in the history of China.In September 2012, the Alibaba Group announced that it had completed a $7.6 billion deal to buy back half of Yahoo’s stake in it. The giant e-commerce company raised part of the money by selling shares to select investors, notably China’s sovereign wealth fund and three prominent Chinese investment firms… Read Full Story

Moody’s positive on China’s SOE reform – Xinhua News

Global rating agency Moody’s said reform of China’s six big state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is credit positive, calling it a prudent, yet concrete, step toward broader reform.The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced on Tuesday that six big SOEs will pilot reforms in ownership, management and supervision, including selectively setting up investment companies and a “board of directors” system… Read Full Story

The power of women in China’s booming ecommerce market – Tech in Asia

In China, there are more male online shoppers than female online shoppers. However, women are the ones really shaping the thriving Chinese ecommerce market that saw a massive US$74 billion spent in the first three months of this year. China’s women spend more and shop online more frequently. More importantly, many female eshoppers view ecommerce as part of their lifestyle. They enjoy the fun of exploring and shopping online… Read Full Story

Chinese Billionaire Guo Guangchang Buys Like Buffett – Bloomberg

Borrowing from the approach used by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A), Fosun buys financial companies such as insurers to secure long-term funding it can use to invest in consumer brands and other businesses. Since 2010 it has invested more than $3.4 billion overseas, buying JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) 60-story tower, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, in New York, and stakes in French resort operator Club Méditerranée (CU:FP) and Raffaele Caruso, an Italian maker of $3,300 suits. “Many people talk about being Buffett in China, but few can pull it off,” says Eugene Qian, Citigroup’s (C) head of global banking for China. “Fosun is the closest in our view.”… Read Full Story

China’s Wine Market Shifts Toward Entry Level – The Wall Street Journal

When the Chinese government announced a crackdown on lavish gift-giving in its effort to root out corruption in 2012, the wine industry braced for a slowdown in corporate entertainment spending. But John Watkins, the chief executive of ASC Fine Wines, never thought the restrictive policies would last…Read Full Story

All you need to know about business in China – McKinsey&Company

A lot of people view China business as mysterious. Relax. Consumers behave pretty much the same everywhere. Competition is pretty much the same everywhere. You just need to ignore the hype and focus on the basic fact that in China today, there are six big trends (exhibit). That’s it. Six trends shape most of the country’s industries and drive much of China’s impact on the Western world. They are like tectonic plates moving underneath the surface. If you can understand them, the chaotic flurry of activity on the surface becomes a lot more understandable—and even predictable… Read Full Sotry

China outlook remains strong – U.S. Dairy Export Council

Chinese Dairy consumption growth is expected to remain strong. The International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) projected Chinese dairy demand would increase from 43 million tons liquid milk equivalent to 61 million tons, a 42 percent increase, by 2024. That’s an increased appetite for about 40 billion lbs. of milk, equivalent to nearly all the milk produced in New Zealand each year… Read Full Story

China to get new dairy hub – ChinaDaily

US-based Abbott Laboratories, one of the biggest infant formula sellers in China, is getting deeper into milk production for the world’s most populous country by building a dairy farm hub with New Zealand company Fonterra…Read Full Story

Shanghai woos MNCs with friendly visa policies – ShanghaiDaily.com

TO make the city friendlier to foreign investors, Shanghai yesterday allowed more multinational companies to benefit from the city’s 2012 policies for foreign investment…Read Full Story

Introducing the iPhone 6, made in China by a robot – The Week

The worst kept secret of Apple and its Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn isn’t their poor labor conditions. It isn’t even the fact that they use robots to help bring together all the pieces that make up an iPhone. It’s that their robots are now performing more and more human-like functions… Read Full Story

China Reveals Charges for British-American Couple in Case Involving Glaxo – The New York Times

BEIJING — China said on Monday that a British-American couple, who have been detained for a year after working as investigators for the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, would be tried on charges of illegally acquiring private personal information… Read Full Story

California’s Drought Is ‘The Greatest Water Loss Ever Seen,’ And The Effects Will Be Severe – Yahoo News

California’s current drought will cost the state $2.2 billion and 17,000 jobs, researchers announced at a press conference July 15 in Washington, D.C. The findings are from a new report from the UC Davis Center for Watershed Science. Read Full Story

China’s Mini-Stimulus Shows Results, More Support Measures Likely – Wall Street Journal

China’s May economic data brought some pleasant surprises, with the government’s “mini-stimulus” measures credited with producing a modest turnaround after the sluggish start to the year. Many analysts said the data show signs the economy is stabilizing, but others said there’s trouble ahead and that more support for the economy – on top of the stepped-up tax breaks and railway spending already announced – will be needed. The biggest risk to growth is the sagging property sector. “The worst is not over, we believe,” Standard Chartered economists wrote in a note to clients. “We maintain our call that actual activity growth is likely to slow further in the third… – Read Full Story

China’s Gray-Haired Set Could Boost Digital Shopping – Wall Street Journal

Online shopping in China isn’t just for the young, according to a new survey. That could be good news for an already quickly growing e-commerce industry that largely caters to the young. While the bulk of online shoppers are still in their 20s and 30s, a survey published Tuesday by data provider Nielsen said the number of online consumers aged 55 or older grew 72% between 2012 and 2013. It cited data from Taobao, one of China’s largest shopping websites, which is owned by Alibaba Group, though it didn’t release the underlying figures. “China could become the world’s most aged… – Read Full Story

Japan’s Muji Joins Alibaba’s Tmall – Wall Street Journal

As Alibaba’s Tmall courts international brands and retailers to set up shop on its site, the latest company to join the virtual shopping mall is Muji, the Japanese retailer of simple but design-conscious housewares and clothing. Muji’s Tmall store, which opened this week, comes as Alibaba is stepping up its efforts to attract global brands that can help elevate the overall image of its online shopping mall. Alibaba has been working hard to cultivate the reputation of Tmall as a trusted marketplace for high-quality, authentic branded goods… – Read Full Story

Chow Tai Fook to Buy U.S. Diamond Retailer Hearts on Fire – Wall Street Journal

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd. is buying U.S. diamond company Hearts on Fire Co. for $150 million, as the mass-market Hong Kong jeweler hopes to expand its catalog of high-end gems for Chinese consumers. It is Chow Tai Fook’s biggest acquisition since it went public in Hong Kong almost three years ago. The world’s biggest jeweler, as ranked by its $15 billion market value, has the bulk of its vast retail network in… – Read Full Story

Smaller Hollywood Studios Make Their Move in China – Wall Street Journal

Independent U.S. movie studios have struck new deals with Chinese companies as they try to follow the gains big Hollywood studios have made in the world’s No. 2 movie market. Relatively Media LLC, which produced the film “The Social Network,” said on Monday it struck a deal with China’s Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp., a broadcaster in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, to jointly finance, produce and distribute mainly Chinese-language film and TV content for both Chinese and international markets. The Beverly Hills, Calif., company also signed two other deals this week to distribute Chinese language films licensed by the state-run China Film Promotion International in the international market… – Read Full Story

Hillhouse’s Zhang Says Now One of Best Times to Invest in China – Bloomberg News

Now is one of the best times to invest in China in 10 years as a slowing economy reduces overcapacity and forces companies to focus on generating free cash flow, said Zhang Lei, founder of Yale University-backed Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd. “China is in a structurally slowing-down phase,” Zhang said at a Financial Times conference in Hong Kong today. “That overcapacity, that lack of free cash flow, is a really bad recipe for equity investors. When growth slows down, you have high-quality companies… – Read Full Story

Shanghai to Start International Gold Trading in 4Q – Bloomberg News

China, the world’s biggest gold user, will start international gold trading in Shanghai’s free-trade zone in the final quarter of this year, according to a city government official. “We will aim to commence trading in the fourth quarter,” Zheng Yang, head of Shanghai’s financial services office, said today in a conference in the city. The nation’s central bank earlier this week approved the trading platform to be included in the zone’s banking system. China, also the world’s largest bullion producer, is seeking to step up its presence in the global gold market at a time when the industry is discussing changes to the century-old fixing benchmark in London used to trade and value the metal. The country overtook… – Read Full Story

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