The cost conundrum for East and West [China Daily]

Hypothetical fork in the road: Is the East/West synergy been exhausted for now?

As the West plausibly looks for cheaper production in terms of lower-end manufacturing, will China simply turn its attention within its walls?

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The cost conundrum for East and West
By David Lariviere
Source – China Daily, published December 16, 2011

US retailers may turn to other sources as Chinese companies start to lose manufacturing edge

Purchasing demand for Chinese goods has slowed a tad in the United States as higher manufacturing and shipping costs are prompting US retailers to turn to cheaper destinations in a bid to crank up profit margins.

Though most of the new orders are believed to be flowing into emerging economies, many retail industry experts still say that China still has the best brand equity in the US.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, China Daily, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Economics, European Union, Finance, Influence, International Relations, Migrant Workers, Modernisation, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade

China Needs Butlers [Wall Street Journal]

The Chinese have been a source of cheap labour and domestic help worldwide since the eighteenth century. As the twenty-first moves into its second decade, it is intriguing to see how the tables have turned with British butlers a ‘must’ to ‘accessorise’ newly purchased mansions for the newly wealthy in China, India and the Middle East. Keeping with the times or is this a subtle cultural dig back at former colonial masters?

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China Needs Butlers
By Robert Frank
Source – Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2011

The butler economy may be slow to rebound in the U.S., but it’s booming in China.

According to Bloomberg, Britain’s Guild of Professional English Butlers has trained 20% more butlers in 2011 than 2010, and demand is outstripping supply. The Bespoke Bureau in London, which also trains butlers, said butler training is up 52%. Bespoke recently placed a butler with a salary of $158,390 for a rich family in the United Arab Emirates, the article said.

“There is a shortage of them,” Bespoke’s owner told Bloomberg.

One big reason: China.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Bloomberg, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Influence, Social, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.K., U.S., Wall Street Journal

$2.15 trillion on tax-free product: Chinese grab luxury goods [China Daily]

Merry X’mas friends!

Trust the festivities are treating all of you well, and a happy and prosperous new year to come!

Despite the massive changes in the global political landscape this year, Chinese shoppers seem unabated. They’ve increased spending by 56% – raising the sum to $2.15 trillion on tax-free products. In terms of tax-free sales go, they take up 21%, 6% ahead of Russian shoppers at 15%. Elsewhere in the list by Global Blue are the Japanese, US, and Indonesian shoppers, at 4% each.

Chinese tourists shop at Bicester Village, a popular shopping area in London. Chinese tourists have taken a place among the top shoppers for luxury products in the world. Image – Provided to China Daily

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Chinese grab luxury goods
By Cecily Liu, Zhang Haizhou and Yu Ran (China Daily)
Source – China Daily, published December 24, 2011

Source – The Global Blue Dossier 2011

LONDON / SHANGHAI – Chinese shoppers are spending more on luxury products abroad this Christmas, despite the current world economic downturn.

And they are buying more tax-free goods than shoppers from any other country, China Daily learned from Global Blue, the largest tax-refund and shopping services provider in the world.

In the financial year ending in November, Chinese shoppers spent $2.15 trillion on tax-free products, a 56 percent increase from the same period a year before, according to Global Blue.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Daily, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Finance, Influence, International Relations, Lifestyle, Mapping Feelings, People, Population, Soft Power, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

Tension simmers in blockaded China village after land protest [Reuters]

The social price of land grabs: Villagers in the Southern China city of Wukan protest against local government attempts to ‘secretly’ sell off their farmland to developers.

Issues arising such as China’s land reforms do suggest they need examination at the micro level; in particular, getting honest people to perform reform on local levels . I have witnessed personally my ancestral village literally half-built due to funds embezzeled by local officials.

A picture paints a thousand words: the photo below is a rare glimpse into the Chinese mind seldom perpetuated in western popular culture. Once injustice occurs, they will are not afraid to gather. With a little momentum and critical mass, we’ve seen them revolt and topple dynasties, not unlike Western liberal societies.

A demonstration in the centre of Wukan village, in south China's Guangdong province Photo: Malcolm Moore, Telegraph

For more, see

China must end land grabs amid protests over death in custody (Amnesty International, December 15 2011)

Chinese villagers protest over custody death (Financial Times, December 14, 2011)

Wukan siege: Chinese officials ‘hold village to ransom’ – Chinese officials have ratcheted up pressure on the rebel village of Wukan, as it entered its fourth day of a police siege, by allegedly ransoming four men who were seized from the village last week. (The Telegraph, December 15, 2011)

Empty police station in Wukan, with pic of Xue Jinbo, dead villager, posted on the gate
(also by Malcolm Moore, 14 December 2011)

** Latest update: seeds of democracy + rare signs of government relenting to citizen mobilization?
China village ends protests after government compromise [Telegraph, December 21, 2011)

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Tension simmers in blockaded China village after land protest
James Pomfret
Source – Reuters, published December 14, 2011

(Reuters) – Thousands of residents of a south China village rallied on Wednesday in defiance of police who sealed off the area to contain a long-running feud over land grabs and anger over the death of a village leader in police custody.

The death of Xue Jinbo, 42, fanned tension in the small pocket of export-dependent Guangdong province and came after riot police fired water cannons and tear gas on Sunday to disperse thousands of stone-throwing villagers on the coast of the booming province.

Residents of Wukan village say hundreds of hectares of land have been acquired unfairly by corrupt officials in collusion with developers.

Filed under: 52 Unacceptable Practices, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Corruption, Crime, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Economics, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Mapping Feelings, People, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Reuters, Social, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

China expresses deep condolences on Kim’s death [Xinhua]

China expresses its official condolences as North Korean state media proclaimed Kim Jong-il’s youngest son the “Great Successor” Kim Jong-Un who happens to be a couple of years off being 30 years of age. Will we see signs of turbulent transition?

But what do China’s netizens think? Here’s a small sample from China smack.

Seeing the reactions of the North Korean people, and then seeing the comments of so many [Chinese] netizens, I suddenly feel at a loss. Do we need hero worship/cult of personality? Do we need religion/conviction? …North Korea may be lacking material wealth, but it has a strong spiritual strength! Whereas us, we’re the complete opposite! While we chased after material wealth, we lost what is actually most valuable, a spiritual conviction!

I can’t respect those media that criticize Kim Jong-il. They only dare to criticize Kim Jong-il is because they know Kim won’t deploy the military to their countries and slaughter them like Imperialist America, because he won’t use financial hegemony to cut off their financial resources, nor would he buy off other media to go criticize these media. So criticizing Kim Jong-il is the safest thing to do, because they won’t be beaten or criticized, they won’t be fired or go bankrupt. And they can be financially rewarded by Imperialist America.

For more, check out Kim Jong Il Makes World Scary Place Even in Death: William Pesek (Bloomberg December 20, 2011)
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China expresses deep condolences on Kim’s death
Source – Xinhua, published December 19, 2011

BEIJING – China on Monday offered its “deep condolences” on the death of Kim Jong-il, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“We are shocked to learn that DPRK top leader comrade Kim Jong-il passed away and we hereby express our deep condolences on his demise and send sincere regards to the DPRK people,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu when responding to a question from the press.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Foreign aid, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, xinhua

Online purchase system boosts transparency [China Daily]

Contributing to transparency and social equity: A great leap forward to better days ahead stamping out unacceptable practices?

Reportedly, 3.8 billion yuan ($598 million) has been saved by the Shenzhen metropolis in a bid for local government to become more transparent and efficient.

Singapore’s equivalent geBiz has been doing the same useful job for years and there have been abuses from time to time.

China’s online purchase system seems more stringent, gleaned from the quote below –

“An evaluation normally includes four experts randomly generated from our expert database and the project leader; they carry it out inside one of our evaluation rooms, all monitored… Smaller evaluations take half a day, bigger ones several days.” – Zhao Qifeng, bidding evaluation administrator

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Online purchase system boosts transparency
By Huang Yuli
Source – China Daily, published December 19, 2011

SHENGZHEN, Guangdong – Eight years after this South China metropolis set up an online procurement system, official statistics suggest the city government has become more transparent and efficient.

Since the policy was introduced, the city has saved more than 3.8 billion yuan ($598 million), according to the Shenzhen procurement center’s work report to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

As one of seven pilot cities in the country’s procurement innovation project, led by the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, the city has made all purchases using its online system, said Ye Jianming, director of the procurement center.

Filed under: 52 Unacceptable Practices, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Corruption, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Economics, Finance, Fraud, Government & Policy, Internet, Mapping Feelings, Media, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Social, Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

China’s Hu Reportedly Tells Navy to Get Ready for Military Combat [Fox News/AFP]

Shanghai: Chinese hard power in action. China sends its leading patrol ship, the 3000 tonne Haijian 50 (incidentally 3 times larger than patrol ships in its class) to the East China Sea in the name of protecting its 32000km of coastline  (China Daily, December 13, 2011). Unsurprisingly, it stirs up SCS flashpoints in the news.

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China’s Hu Reportedly Tells Navy to Get Ready for Military Combat
AFP
Source – Fox News, published December 14, 2011

As tensions grow over local maritime disputes and U.S. influence in the South China Sea, China’s president said Tuesday that its navy should “make extended preparations for military combat,” the AFP reported.

President Hu Jintao told the Central Military Commission its navy should modernize in the interest of national security.

The Chinese navy has grown in recent years from a coastal protection force to one spanning the globe, sending ships as far as the Caribbean on goodwill missions and into the Mediterranean to escort vessels evacuating Chinese citizens from the fighting in Libya.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Government & Policy, Greater China, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, military, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Resources, Strategy, Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

Government set to act as export expansion slides [China Daily]

Update on the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing.

Brace for impact: Chinese economic leaders prepare measures for 2012 on the predication export growth might dip right down to zero.

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Government set to act as export expansion slides
By Ding Qingfen
Source – China Daily, published December 14, 2011

Source - China Daily

BEIJING – With China’s export growth continually decelerating and possibly falling to zero next year, the government is set to take action to prevent further declines, said the Ministry of Commerce on Monday.

These measures include supporting exporters’ drive to tap emerging markets, approving the establishment of 59 export bases, strengthening traditional industries and helping exporters in the central and western regions expand overseas.

Conditions next year “will be more complicated and severe for Chinese exporters, and the task for the Chinese government in maintaining stable export growth will be harder” said Zhong Shan, vice-minister of commerce, during a foreign trade meeting in Beijing.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, European Union, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Politics, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Yuan

UK economy ‘to face bigger downturn’ [BBC]

While European economies are expected to contract next year, Stanchart predicts the world economy as a whole would grow by 2.2% next year.

They point toward an indicative shift in the status quo: “It will be a recovery made in the East and felt in the West. If ever one needed to illustrate the shift in the balance of power, this is it.” – Chief economist at Standard Chartered Gerard Lyons.

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UK economy ‘to face bigger downturn’
Source – BBC, published December 12, 2011

The UK economy is to contract by more than previously thought, according to a leading forecaster.

Economists at Standard Chartered bank said the economy will contract by 1.3% in 2012, having previously predicted growth of 0.6% for next year.

The eurozone economy will perform even worse, the bank forecast, contracting by 1.5%.

Filed under: BBC, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Economics, Finance, Media, Soft Power, Trade

Wen May Cut China Taxes to Spur Growth [Bloomberg]

High-ranking Chinese leaders meet Monday for the Central Economic Work Conference to map out economic plans for 2012. This gathering of China’s movers will involve a hard look at both the international and domestic economic landscape to inform its moves for the new year.

Arguably unable to continue relying on infrastructure investments to spur its economy and seeing a weak manufacturing economy already on the horizon, China starts to look at other ways to spur growth. For instance, some estimates point to 64 million empty homes. (See China’s empty cities by the Unconventional Economist, Dec 15, 2010). A case surely for the leaders to ponder about – sustainable and grounded growth.

Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is also killing China’s biggest customer base.

We have also come to expect China’s double digit growth as a norm but as skeptics had pointed out, could not last forever.

Economic growth was down to 9.1% in the last quarter, the least in two years. Let’s see how the Chinese model reacts.

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Wen May Cut China Taxes to Spur Growth
Victor Ruan, Beijing
Source – Bloomberg, published December 13, 2011 

China may use tax cuts to shore up expansion in the second-largest economy next year as export growth weakens and the threat of bad loans from stimulus spending narrows the government’s options.

The nation’s top officials are mapping out policies for 2012 at the annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing. The event started yesterday, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Banks from China International Capital Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Barclays Capital forecast Premier Wen Jiabao will cut taxes after fiscal revenue surged past the government’s target this year. Lower levies would spur consumption without the bad-debt risks triggered by a record 17.5 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion) of lending in 2009 and 2010 that funded infrastructure projects and real-estate speculation.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Bloomberg, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Economics, European Union, Finance, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Politics, Strategy, Trade