I started reporting on the Chinese scrap industry six years ago, and I think that I wrote my first story claiming that China’s long-awaited laws on the recycling of e-scrap (computers, monitors, etc) were imminent, shortly after SARS, in July 2003. Since then – off the top of my head – I’m fairly certain that…
All posts in Business and Trade
Pride doesn’t equal confidence.
[File Under: What You Missed During the Olympics] Whatever else it may have buoyed, these Olympics have done nothing for China’s ailing stocks markets. On Monday, while most of China was busy being shocked by Liu Xiang’s dramatic pull-back, the nation’s investors were selling, as the Shanghai Composite drop another 5.89% to a nineteen month…
The Olympic Scrap (Peddler) Crackdown
Over the last week I’ve received at least one email or phone call per day in regard to the crackdown/ban on Beijing’s scrap peddlers during the Olympics period. As I’ve said to those who ask, I’ll say to those who read: I don’t plan to arrive in Beijing for another ten days, and until then,…
So much for moving up the manufacturing ladder.
A quick break from the wall-to-wall Shanghai Scrap Olympic coverage to point out that – on the same day that the NYT publishes David Barboza’s feature on the Chinese government’s efforts to phase out low-cost manufacturing down south in favor of high tech … that same Chinese government restores the export tax rebate on textiles…
Shanghai Can’t Sell Out.
Last week, the Phase Four Olympic ticket sales in Beijing produced long lines, short tempers, scuffles, and at least one detained camera crew (some additional photos can be found here). Beijing’s Olympic authorities were muted in their condemnation of the incident, preferring instead to point out that – with the sale of the last 250,000…
Fuwa Designer Has His Cake … and, well, you know the rest.
Well, well. Today, Han Meilin, the famously grumpy designer of the 2008 Olympic mascots, the Fuwa, provides an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he claims that the universally reviled mascots weren’t his fault: After China’s Olympics organizers gave him the assignment, folk artist Han Meilin initially sketched out five children representing the…
A Statistic Above Reproach?
Last Thursday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the nation’s growth rate fell to 10.1% for the second quarter – marking its fourth consecutive month of decline. This state-owned media reported the number with somber distance, noting that it reflected deteriorating economic conditions abroad, while also – in a couple of cases – noting…
A Step in the Same Old Direction
One of the more interesting – if not predictable – consequences of the current economic downturn has been a lifting-of-the-curtain on just how unprepared Beijing’s bureaucrats are to deal with it. Price controls and proposals to establish a “stabilization fund” for the perpetually declining stock market are only the most public manifestations of this phenomenon.…
Preservation, Shanghai Style
Xinhua and Shanghai Daily are reporting that the largest block of traditional, shikumen-style housing left in Shanghai is about to be converted into a luxury hotel complex named Jianyeli. As reported by Xinhua: The project, called Jianyeli, will reuse bricks and original materials in its reconstruction. The buildings, which were built during 1931 to 1938…
Bubble half empty.
Tied up today and tomorrow with a couple of real writing matters, but I wanted to get to this before it passes me by … A few weeks ago I ran into a friend of mine who runs a very successful Shanghai residential real estate brokerage that she started five years ago. Like everyone else…