[Alternative title: “Applebees in China: What the @#$%???”] Five years ago, the first Shanghai/China opening of a major American chain restaurant like Applebees would have been a significant event, drawing homesick American expatriates and curious, affluent Chinese. Under those ancient circumstances, atmosphere mattered more than actual quality, and Western-style restaurants frequently got away with serving…
All posts in Business and Trade
China’s Ms. Manners at the National Interest
Earlier today the National Interest posted my web-only op-ed regarding recent anti-Chinese riots in Southeast Asia — and film director Feng Xiaogang’s role in explaining them (sort of). It’s a different kind of essay for me, and I’m quite curious to receive some feedback from regular readers of this blog. In either case, the National…
Save Five Yuan on Imported CDs!
[That’s US$.36, by today’s exchange, if you’re paying with greenbacks.] Yesterday China announced that it was reducing the tariff on imported CDs, DVDs, and other “published electronic media” from 17%, to 13% – backdated to September 15. If, as numerous media outlets reported last year, the average wholesale retail price for a US-manufactured “new release”…
Yi Jianlian – Walking, Talking Trade Dispute, Pt. 8
[Today will be – inadvertently – the first “Your Friday All-China NBA Update at Shanghai Scrap”] I haven’t had anything to say about Yi in over a month. A month during which Yi managed to sign with the Bucks on the basis of an informal agreement guaranteeing him minutes. Good for him, bad for the…
Why is Binzhou Weiqiao Suddenly So Interesting?
Back on August 22, I wrote a lengthy post on the August 19 explosion at the Binzhou Weiqiao Aluminum Company plant in Shandong Province, which was eventually responsible for 14 deaths. At the time, I tried to call attention to three points: 1. The far worse Xintai mine disaster – which had occurred a few…
US (Horse) Footwear Industry Outsourcing to China
Before toys and toothpaste became the favored buzzwords for all that is (arguably) wrong with outsourcing to China, “Nike sweatshop” held the crown, serving – as a proxy – for the mass exodus of global footwear manufacturers to Chinese factories. It’s an old story, and it isn’t changing, either: in 2006, 8 of every 10…
Hammer of the [Recycling] Gods
On Friday I was standing on a bridge south of Wuxi when a woman wielding this thing walked by: I ran back to the car, grabbed my camera, and followed her down to the banks of the Grand Canal. I wasn’t sure that she wanted to be photographed, so I (very quietly) tried to take…
Lanzhou’s Hydrogen Balloon Bombs
It took a few days for the news to make its way east, but now the world knows that approximately 100 people were injured when 1600 hydrogen-filled balloons exploded over a sports meet at the Lanzhou Electric Power School on September 17. And that’s not even the most interesting part of the story: The use…
The ‘Hat’ of Neo-Colonialism?
[blog news: I’m traveling today and tomorrow, and unlikely to post again before Sunday or Monday.] Earlier this week, Li Ruogu, head of China’s Import-Export Bank, suggested that China’s landless farmers relocate to Africa and become landlords. The comments, included in a speech that Li delivered in Chongqing, refer to farmers displaced by Chongqing’s long-term…
Buy Vista and Watch the Dollar Tank.
In February, on the verge of an important reporting trip, my laptop c: drive failed. Fortunately, I’d backed it up earlier in the day; unfortunately, Windows Vista had just been released and I’m a total sucker for new gadgetry. Faced with the choice of re-installing boring old XP or performing a new (!) install of…