Attention Shifts to China for Private Equity Industry

“Now, many entrepreneurs are starting to turn away foreign currency funds,” Mr. Wang at China Equity said. “They say they can take an RMB investment and not go through a lengthy process to list offshore. And they see the Shanghai or ChiNext exchange as viable listing places.”

Speculators, and mothers-in-law, drive property prices ever higher

Rampant stimulus-induced speculation, soaring prices, Mickey Mouse and evil mothers-in-law: Shanghai’s property market has become a brutal and unforgiving world for first-time buyers.

No place for hypocrisy on national security

As the world’s only superpower, the United States is accustomed to setting standards of conduct across a range of issues. These include human rights, free trade, currency manipulation and illicit drug control. Whether the US is in a position to moralise depends, to a large extent, on the countries being praised or criticised. One area where Washington has been most vocal has been its persistent criticism of Chinese espionage against US interests. In the world of intelligence, everyone spies on everyone else. Is the complaint from the US not a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black? Perhaps there is an acceptable espionage threshold beyond which spies from one nation should not go against another. But no one has specified what that might be.

Peru arrests ‘human fat killers’

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

Playing with fire

Forget China, the US Federal Reserve is the world’s biggest currency manipulator

US ‘fears’ anti-ship ballistic missile

The People’s Liberation Army is close to fielding the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, according to US Navy intelligence.

Why Japan is rethinking its alliance with America

US President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan brought forth renewed utterances of support of their bilateral security treaty, but the new Democratic Party of Japan government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appears determined to make it a more equal alliance.

A cautionary tale for S-chip investors

One big question that emerges from the whole sorry Sino-Environment saga is why trading of its shares continued for six months after it became likely that the company would be brought down by the problems that beset it.

Taiwan issue, spying hold back ties with US military

Military co-operation between China and the US has been sporadic and limited because of deep mistrust between the two sides, a retired PLA general has said, attributing much of the tension to Washington’s arms sales to Taipei and its surveillance activities in the South China Sea.

Singapore brothers drive US chain’s success in China

Trio grew Days Inn franchise from one hotel in 2003 to 27 now - with more on the way

Short-selling: what exactly should be disclosed?

Some 13 months ago, just after Lehman Brothers went bust and stocks all over the world were crashing, many fingers of blame were pointed in the direction of short-sellers - particularly those of a naked persuasion.

2nd senior ICA officer jailed this week

A senior immigration officer was jailed for 1-1/2 years yesterday for accepting bribes to extend the social visit passes (SVPs) of foreign nationals.

Handling the China trend

The rebound from the recent market dip in the US has been much more rapid than expected. The tests of support near 9,600 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were successful and have provided a springboard for a rapid rally above the significant technical resistance level at 10,200. This appears to have broken the behavioural nexus between the Dow and the Shanghai Index.

Shareholders need to act in Sino-Env Tech debacle

They should seek EGM to replace executive directors if firm is to be saved

Wind Power Dilemma: Money Blows Away

Rapid, government-subsidized expansion of China’s wind power industry has led to excess capacity and investment waste.

Abuses rampant in secret black jails

State agents regularly abduct citizens and detain them for days or months in secret, illegal “black jails”, subjecting them to physical and psychological abuses, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

80 percent of Caijing staff quit to follow editor

Nearly 150 of the approximately 180 editorial staff members at Caijing have resigned following the departure of Hu Shuli, the founder and editor of the mainland’s most influential business magazine.

Shanghai project builds on the past

Latest redevelopment will turn old architecture into galleries, residential and retail space

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Supermarket? It only looks like one: owner

URA investigates Mustafa Warehouse for unauthorised change of use

Soccer officials held in graft crackdown

Several high-profile soccer officials have been snared in a crackdown on underground gambling, amid growing frustrations at the highest level of the government at the ugly state of the “beautiful game” on the mainland.

Shanghai Disney park gets go-ahead

After almost 10 years negotiations and weeks of speculation and mounting anticipation, Shanghai has finally been given the green light to build a Disney theme park - but the public is still in the dark over the exact scope of the deal.

Sino-Env CEO faces suits, frozen assets

Liquidation order may implicate Radiance Group

Stick to trading the large-cap ‘haves’

In local market parlance, the key manipulator behind a stock is referred to as the chng kay, a Hokkien term which loosely translates to a croupier in a casino, who is the person who holds all the cards and deals them. This then means that anyone who trades these pennies runs the risk of the chng kay pulling the plug at any time, or risk unforeseen circumstances like an overseas market crash overcoming the manipulators’ ability to deliver the goods.

Ministry enters row over death of doctor

The Ministry of Health has stepped in and ordered the Beijing health bureau to look into the case of a Peking University professor of medicine who died in 2006 after being treated by three unlicensed medical postgraduates at the Peking University First Hospital.

3 years jail for sex with horse

A South Carolina man caught on video having sex with a horse was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison after pleading guilty for the second time in two years to abusing the creature.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China

Soong Mei-ling, better known to history as Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, was exaggerating only slightly. Chinese by birth, American by education and cultural inclination, she was a seductive blend of both societies; for a time, no woman in the world was more powerful.

Mainland turns to hi-tech snooping

Take a stroll along the streets of Shenzhen and look up - you will see them everywhere, on building walls, light posts, under bridges, at street corners. Digital surveillance cameras - an estimated 800,000 of them - are peering into every nook and cranny of the border city, analysing the flow of people, alerting police to suspicious gatherings and ensuring no crime is likely to go unseen.

Chinese Trial Reveals Vast Web of Corruption

Wen Qiang had a fondness for Louis Vuitton belts, fossilized dinosaur eggs and B-list pop stars. For a public employee in charge of the local judiciary, he also had a lot of money: nearly $3 million that investigators found buried beneath a fish pond.

China’s researchers poised to dominate

Chinese researchers have more than doubled their output of scientific papers and are now second only to the United States in terms of volume, according to a report from information company Thomson Reuters.

China’s military making strides in space: US general

China’s military has made dramatic progress in space over the past decade and the goals of its program remain unclear, a top American general said.

Waking up to the world of casinos

In 2010, Singaporeans will wake up to a world that will include casinos, an industry that is sometimes known to have a sleazy underbelly.

Risks and Rewards on China’s New Stock Board

The opening of a Nasdaq-style stock board in China is already being seen as a watershed moment for the country’s capital markets, providing new but volatile opportunities for mainland Chinese investors and an alternative source of financing for start-up companies.

Pheim lawyers warn of investors’ quandary

They claim that a guilty verdict could have implications for average investor

Officials blamed for chaos at Beijing airport

Snowfall causes flight delays, but poor service adds to disruption

Firms wake up to spending power of the elderly

“The gold is among the silver,” say some businessmen involved with an increasingly ageing society in the world’s most populous nation.

Chongqing, SGX mull over listing pact

Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Chongqing government are mulling over ways to promote listing of Chongqing companies on SGX and boost transparency of listing candidates.

China’s Henry Ford the driving force behind Geely

Li Shufu, the founder of China’s Zhejiang Geely Holdings, has much in common with Henry Ford, from a childhood on the farm to a scrappy determination to build a car-making behemoth from nothing.

China to put weapons in space

The head of China’s air force has said the country has plans to build weapons in space, describing it as a “historical inevitability”.

Car insurance: Two strikes and you’re out?

Car insurers have insisted that it is within their rights to reject policy applications from motorists if they have one too many accident claims within a year.

Dual-listing firms alienate local investors

They feel short-changed when same shares are priced lower in Taipei

Corruption in education a key concern

The mainland leadership’s decision to remove unpopular education minister Dr Zhou Ji over the weekend may seem abrupt, but it was not unexpected. It’s actually a welcome development. As the central government maps out educational reforms for the medium and long term, Zhou’s removal may signal a new start.

China’s enforcement officers turned thugs

A highly publicised case of injustice has led to calls for the reform, or even abolition, of a law enforcement agency found in every Chinese city, and which is notorious for its thuggish behaviour.

Investors shun mainland developers’ share sales

Excellence postpones IPO; Mingfa retail issue 50pc subscribed

515m yuan fraud in river clean-up campaign

Eleven of the 13 provinces in a river clean-up programme across the mainland either misused or faked spending totalling 515 million yuan (HK$584 million) over seven years, a state audit has found.

Top official endorses Chongqing crackdown

The clampdown on organised crime in Chongqing has earned praise from the country’s top law-enforcement official, according to state media.

New mystery in Chen shooting

Taiwanese investigators looking into the 2004 shooting of the island’s former president Chen Shui-bian said yesterday they had found no blood or bullet hole in his trousers, adding mystery to an incident that may have won him a second term.

No blood found in Chen’s 2004 shooting

No bullet holes or blood were found on Taiwan ex-president Chen Shui-bian in a 2004 election eve shooting, raising new suspicion about the incident that preceded a razor-thin victory, investigators said on Thursday.

10 Years Later, a Much Less Expensive Dow 10,000

But the return to 10,000 also serves as a bitter reminder that stocks have gone virtually nowhere, on balance, for more than a decade. It was in March 1999 that the Dow first climbed above 10,000, before soaring as high as 14,164 two years ago and plummeting as low as 6,547 this past March.

China’s Role as Lender Alters Dynamics for United States

When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.

No bars, no mistresses, Chinese officials warned

Chinese officials are being told to dump their mistresses, avoid hostess bars, and shun extravagances as part of the Communist party’s efforts to clamp down on the corruption that is threatening its rule and sullying its reputation.