Adverse impact of higher school fees for non-citizens

Employment pass holders with children may be discouraged from applying for PR

CAD probes ex-Dayen deputy exec chairman

Dayen Environmental’s former deputy executive chairman John Lee is being investigated by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) under the Securities and Futures Act - and is now out on bail of $30,000.

In War Against the Internet, China Is Just a Skirmish

In the beginning, there was one Internet, born from American research and embraced by academics around the world. It was in English and homogeneous, operating according to Western standards of openness.

As the Internet grew, it became fragmented and linguistically diversified. It developed borders, across which it now works in different ways.

Ant tribe: Fresh grads swarming into cities and living in poverty

Together the highly educated groups come to be called the “ant tribe,” a term coined by Chinese sociologists to describe the struggling young migrants, who, armed with their diplomas, scramble to big cities in hope of a better life only to find low-paying jobs and poor living conditions.

Beijing ‘forced’ to develop missile interception system

China developed a missile interception system out of a sense of “forced action” because it perceived threats from other nations, a senior military official has revealed in a commentary written for a state-run magazine.

China’s Africa footprint: a makeover for Algeria

While still struggling with the aftermath of a decade-long Islamic insurgency, oil-rich yet impoverished Algeria is getting a makeover: a new airport, its first mall, its largest prison, 60,000 new homes, two luxury hotels and the longest continuous highway in Africa.

Confusion rules over curbs on ‘obscene’ texts

Plans to freeze mobile phone accounts responsible for sending “obscene” text messages are in confusion, with a Beijing provider yesterday announcing it would introduce the measure, while its Shanghai counterpart apparently issued a denial.

Party chief held after employing thugs in fatal land grab

The party chief of a Jiangsu village has been detained after hiring more than 200 armed thugs to forcibly evict farmers from their land to make way for a petrochemical factory, state media reported yesterday.

Rogers Says Shanghai, Hong Kong Property in Bubble, May Fall

Shanghai and Hong Kong property prices may fall after being driven higher by speculative demand, while the rest of the Chinese economy is “hardly in a bubble,” investor Jim Rogers said.

The Asian locomotive

As we emerge from the Great Recession, a new economic order is forming - one no longer dominated by wealthy nations

Time SGX moves to T+1, scraps contra

Ten years ago, on Dec 1, 1999, when the Singapore Exchange (SGX) was formed from a merger of the Stock Exchange of Singapore and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange or Simex, then-deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at SGX’s inauguration that stockbroking commissions would become fully negotiable from Jan 1, 2001, that the settlement cycle for stocks would be shortened from T+5 to T+3 from March 15, 2000, and that the ultimate goal would be to move to T+1, where T is the transaction date. All this, it was said, was to ensure that the local market kept pace with fast-moving markets elsewhere.

UBS eyes bigger slice of China capital

UBS AG will soon apply for more quotas to invest in China’s capital markets on top of the US$800 million it is already permitted, as it is bullish about the stock market’s prospects, an executive said yesterday.

China’s tightening may end with yuan hike

And it could come without warning this year if Beijing’s preferred gradualist approach doesn’t cool the red-hot economy

Mainland defaulters sting small investors

China may boast dazzling economic growth but that has failed to translate into profits for some bond holders and thousands of small investors in Singapore who have seen their investments in a group of mainland companies listed in the city state turn to dust.

Island haven for ill-gotten gains

Some Americans look to the Cook Islands to protect their wealth

Chateau Lafite 1982 goes for HK$363,000

A six-litre bottle of Chateau Lafite 1982 has fetched HK$363,000 (S$65,600), nearly twice its presale high estimate, at a sold-out wine auction as the quest for rarity and inflation concerns drove prices higher.

Only a third of migrant workers given contracts

Only about a third of mainland migrant workers have signed contracts with their employers - two years after the introduction of a controversial labour contract law sought to make them compulsory, a survey has found.

Police detain soccer’s big two in crackdown

Two deputy chairmen of the Chinese Football Association have been detained by police in the most dramatic step yet in the mainland’s crackdown on soccer-related corruption.

Detentions give sport’s followers new hope

Mainland sportswriters and journalists were exhilarated yesterday, claiming they had finally discovered the root cause of the country’s substandard soccer performance.

China roars into the Year of the Tiger

In recent weeks, many analysts have commented that the China market is too hot. They warned of a market bubble or a property bubble. They suggested the Chinese government should do something quickly to cool the speculation and the property market.

Rich Beijingers take on Hong Kong developer

When wealthy Beijingers bought flats in one of the city’s most exclusive apartment complexes, they claim they weren’t told a four-lane highway would be built beneath their windows.

Cooling this hot market will test Beijing to the full

Even widows and orphans are now worried about the property bubble brewing on the mainland. Look up some key numbers and you can understand why. Nationwide property sales soared more than 75 per cent last year from 2008 to hit a whopping 4.4 trillion yuan (HK$5 trillion). In Shanghai, the second hottest property market on the mainland, home loans rose an unbelievable 1,600 per cent year on year to 99.58 billion yuan. Bubble or not, that is simply too much, too fast for many people - especially the central government.

Taipei puts ‘Black Bats’ on the radar

Secret squadron that spied on the mainland is finally honoured by Taiwan’s government

Alarm at Beijing plan to punish developers who leave land idle

Property developers have reacted with alarm to reports that Beijing plans to enforce a nationwide crackdown on developers found guilty of leaving sites idle for speculative land banking purposes.

Baidu founder rules China’s Web with pragmatism

In the autumn of 1998, computer science engineer Li Yanhong developed Rankdex, an experimental search engine that ranked websites according to their relevance to each other.

China uses its own Compass

When Pan Qing and his friends travelled to the prairies of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, they navigated the unfamiliar and boundless grasslands with no problems - thanks to their Global Positioning System (GPS).

Google’s days in China appear to be numbered

The challenge thrown down by Google last week seemed unequivocal: Either China accepts uncensored information on Google.cn or the Internet giant will shut down its operations in the country. ‘We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn,’ said David Drummond, senior vice-president and Google’s chief legal officer. ‘We will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.’

No halt to dual listings in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has no plans to stop foreign companies from listing there by way of introduction despite concerns over the large movements in the share prices of some recent listings, officials from the Hong Kong stock exchange and the government said yesterday.

Junkets have significant role: RWS

Genting Group chairman Lim Kok Thay has acknowledged the significant role junket promoters play in casinos and said that they are ‘an important part of gaming’.

Most Common Passwords

Peace of Mind

Internet users biggest losers in Google standoff

As the saga of Google vs Beijing continues to unfold, the central government appears to be the sole loser at first glance. By almost all accounts, this is one of its biggest public relations disasters in recent years.

Misplaced sympathy for loan-shark borrowers?

It is easy enough to jump on the bandwagon and call for heavier penalties against loan sharks. No one wants to be on the side of the Ah Longs and their paint-splashing, fire-starting scare tactics.

Investors Increasingly Interest in China’s Private Education Sector

Private equity and venture capital have been showing increasing interest in China’s private education market over the last couple of years and seeing huge potential. Recently, the Huiou (Chongqing) Education Equity Investment Fund (Huiou), the first of its kind in China, was launched in Chongqing on December 27, 2009, to seek out education-related firms engaged in the cultural and media sectors as its main investment targets.

Spacs - just a big bet on a management name?

The Singapore Exchange’s latest proposals to let special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) list here is its second attempt to allow punters to bet on investments backed by a name - and little else.

Aussies slam KKK cartoon in Indian daily

Australia’s government and police angrily criticised yesterday a cartoon in an Indian newspaper that depicted police as racist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members following the fatal stabbing of an Indian national.

Beijing gives go-ahead for index futures

The central government yesterday approved stock index futures, giving mainland investors a tool to protect against losses and profit from any declines in a market that rose 80 per cent last year.

Latest batch of IPOs on ChiNext fails to match earlier interest

The latest batch of companies to debut on the mainland’s start-up board trailed first-day gains of earlier listings on the two-month-old market - as the nation’s central bank began to roll back monetary stimulus.

Lawyer jailed for creating fake evidence

A Beijing-based lawyer has been jailed for 2-1/2 years by a Chongqing court for fabricating evidence in his defence of an alleged triad boss, a verdict that raises renewed concerns about the mainland’s judicial integrity.

State policies fail to address realities of property market

In the past few weeks you have probably read more than enough about the mainland property market - a government minister complaining of expensive apartments beyond his reach; Premier Wen Jiabao promising to cool down the market; Shenzhen and Guangdong confiscating undeveloped land; securities regulators barring developers from fund raising ...

Cost of dying worries the living in Shanghai

While homebuyers complain about Shanghai’s overheated property market, burial sites in the city’s suburban areas are at a premium, costing 50 per cent more than housing on a per-square-metre basis.

Fund chief’s US$9m gift to Yale prompts torrent of net abuse

A Chinese entrepreneur who made a record donation of almost US$9 million to Yale University has caused a stir among mainland internet users after he attributed his success to postgraduate studies at the Ivy League school.

More Singaporeans have weekend homes in Iskandar, Johor

Four in 10 residents in south Johor special zone are Singaporean

Question mark over demise of telecom official

In the festive last week of 2009, two news stories initially sent chills down the spines of mainland telecom officials. On Boxing Day, the Communist Party’s top anti-graft watchdog announced it was investigating Zhang Chunjiang, vice-chairman and party secretary of China Mobile, for “serious disciplinary breach”, a euphemism for corruption. On December 31, the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that UTStarcom, a maker of telecommunications and networking gear, had agreed to pay US$3 million in fines to settle charges including one alleging its China subsidiary bribed officials of mainland telecom companies to the tune of nearly US$7 million.

Solar energy - smoke and mirrors?

There is some scepticism about the potential of concentrating solar power projects in China

The new guard

China’s next generation of leaders will be hungry for change, not all of it reassuring

Time for an overhaul of listings rule?

The recent move by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to broaden its admission criteria for the mainboard is perhaps long overdue, but will it be enough to transform the bourse into a capital market of choice?

24 million men face lonely future

More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, state media reported yesterday, citing a study that blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor.

Beijing warned over inflation

Beijing needs to tighten its monetary policy to avoid a property bubble and runaway inflation, or face an economy growing at a superheated 16 per cent this year, a top government research institute warns.

China to stem exodus of corrupt officials

Beijing is tightening the screws on a growing exodus of corrupt officials making away with stolen funds, its latest move in a renewed clampdown on rampant corruption.

Daryl Guppy: China trending behaviour includes increased volatility

The Shanghai market continues to encounter resistance between 3,300 and 3,400. For the bulls, this is evidence of a developing trend breakout. For the bears, it is evidence of an unsustainable bubble leading to a market crash.

China’s overseas-listed stocks now starting to head home

Chinese ‘orphan’ stocks - companies once lured to float overseas but now left neglected - are starting to head home, creating investment opportunities, said the head of money manager Martin Currie’s China business.

Critics query ID policy for buying train tickets

The new policy on train ticket purchases has sparked a debate over the Ministry of Railways’ motivation for implementing it as the Lunar New Year travel period approaches.

Piracy via paid file-hosting services

According to global website-tracking service Alexa, there are five file-hosting sites within its top 100 website list as of yesterday. The two most popular with downloaders here, Megaupload and RapidShare, are Singapore’s 33rd and 39th most popular sites, respectively.

Attacks part of campaign to steal codes, track activists

Cyber attacks that prompted Google to defy Chinese censors appear to have been part of an ongoing campaign to steal source codes and track human rights activists, experts say.

Fears that life without Google ‘will leave the mainland blind’

Mainland internet users are contemplating a Google-less future in the wake of the US search giant’s announcement it would no longer accede to government censorship demands.

Former bank owner ordered to repay loan

Prominent one-time bank owner Agus Anwar has failed in his attempt to get out of repaying a $10.5 million loan he received in 2008 from an investment firm while in financial difficulty.

Oversized bank bonuses: classic case of overcharging

Half the world, it seems, is at war with bankers over the issue of the bonuses they insist on awarding themselves, come good times or bad, solvency or bankruptcy. Yet, just about all of the suggested remedies to prevent this grand rip-off seem to be missing the point and do not really go to the heart of the issue. In essence, this is that if banks, unlike most other commercial organisations, can afford to dole out vast sums of cash to their (often undeserving) executives, then they must be overcharging for their services. Either that or they are ripping off their shareholders - or more recently, the taxpayer.

Singaporeans go abroad for cheaper beauty fixes

Singaporeans are the driving force behind Indonesian doctor Arthur Tjandra’s success: at his 18,000 sq ft Medan clinic Elixir de Vie, up to 90 per cent of those who come in for a nip and tuck are Singaporeans.

Fat Takings

With the recent death of a man after liposuction, Tan Dawn Wei and Debby Kwong talk to doctors in this controversial multimillion-dollar industry

China seeks to avoid Japan-style bust

China is expected to raise interest rates and let its currency appreciate in the coming months as policy-makers resort to more aggressive measures to prevent the economy overheating, analysts said.

Singapore losing fight to lure IPOs

Asia’s second-largest bourse struggles as Chinese firms look for higher valuations

The double game China is playing

China presents itself as a schizophrenic power: a developing country on select international issues, but in other matters a rising superpower with new muscular confidence that supposedly is in the same league as the United States.

When a bear starts eyeing you up, be very concerned

When one of the financial world’s most successful bears starts casting his eye over a market looking for ways to sell it short, you might think the bulls would begin to get a bit nervous.

Don’t read too much into China’s export rebound

The global media have been making a great song and dance about China’s latest trade figures, which were released on Sunday.

Dubai foreclosure may open floodgates

Dubai’s housing rout sent prices down 52 per cent in the past year, prompting some homeowners to abandon their cars and mortgage payments and flee the country. Not one received a foreclosure notice. Until now.

Graft-fighters target dodgy property deals

The Communist Party has targeted property-related corruption for the first time as its top anti-graft agency began a three-day annual meeting to map out this year’s key missions.

Keeping business in the family

Succession of management, values and ownership needs to be addressed for smooth transition to the next generation

Privatising coal mines blamed for shortages

The controversial drive to privatise coal mines in Shanxi province is one of the culprits behind this winter’s electricity shortages, a mainland newspaper reported yesterday.

Century Weekly hits China’s media scene

One of China’s most closely watched magazine ventures hit news stalls yesterday, entering a murky media landscape where reform plans remain yoked to state controls on editors and private investors.

Mid-space missile test marks milestone for defence strategy

China’s mid-space missile interception test may seem less fancy than when it knocked out an ageing satellite with a missile three years ago, but its practical implication and technological achievements are far greater.

US asks for more details on missile intercept test

Washington asked Beijing yesterday for more information about Monday’s rocket test, in which a missile destroyed an incoming warhead while it was still in space. The US said it wanted China to clarify its intentions and plans to develop such technologies.

SGX’s IPO revamp: more can be done

Balancing the achievement of commercial objectives (i.e., making a profit) against the need to protect the public’s interest is always a tricky business, and it is one that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has had to perform repeatedly over the years.

Goldman E-Mail Message Lays Bare Trading Conflicts

For years, Wall Street whispered that Goldman Sachs profited handsomely by trading ahead of – or even against – its own clients.

Why the Chinese invest abroad

They get higher margins, ready-built brands and sales networks, supplies of key energy and raw materials

Officials forced to reveal assets

Chongqing municipality announced a pilot plan this week requiring judicial officials in important positions to declare their assets - thus becoming the highest-level government to make such a mandate.

Lessons on lying for Chinese who seek US visas

Private ‘training centres’ that tutor Chinese to lie to US immigration officers to get student visas have emerged, with one chain claiming a 98 per cent success rate, a news report said.

China train maker sputters on debut; warning for IPOs

CNR Corp, one of China’s top two train makers, limped in with a lukewarm market debut after its US$2 billion IPO here, signalling investors’ intolerance for high valuations as a flood of new equity awaits next year.

China’s growing power unsettles its neighbours

There’s a sense of disquiet over the implications of China’s seemingly boundless expansion

End of an era for Chartered

Ex-market darling delisted from SGX following takeover by Abu Dhabi’s ATIC

Beijing bid to cool property prices ignored

Mainland property prices have increased more than threefold since housing reform was instituted in 1998. Fuelled by an economic boom, income growth and limited investment channels, buying a home became a sure bet for most mainlanders even though the government repeatedly brought in tough measures whenever the market showed signs of overheating.

A warm welcome to the lost decade

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, the world of international business and finance is feeling better about itself than at any time for the past 2-1/2 years.

More go for mediation in big money disputes

Litigation is making way for mediation, going by the rising number of high-level disputes involving big money that have been brought before the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC).

China equities rally seen fading from Q2

A rally by China’s stocks may fade from the second quarter as inflation triggers ‘significant policy tightening’ by the government and the US economy weakens, Deutsche Bank AG said.

China to limit credit for some home purchases

It aims to curb speculation and prevent prices from rising rapidly

SGX paves the way for listing of cash companies

Proposals also seek to broaden mainboard admission criteria, raise minimum IPO issue price to 50 cents

Boom time for China’s corporate crooks as the economy soars

In the beginning, there was the Forbes list of China’s richest. Then came the more locally flavoured Hurun report with its own tally of mainland billionaires.

Kunming officials butt of jokes over fallen bridge

Kunming officials have once again become the butt of jokes among the public for claiming the collapse of a bridge on the city’s new airport highway could be due to “weather, such as strong wind”.

Mainland probes 25 property firms over land use

Mainland regulators are conducting a probe of 25 property projects and their owners over alleged breaches of land use rules, the official Shanghai Securities News said on Thursday.

The Decade Ahead

Who's?

Sino-Environment plot thickens, unsettling questions raised

Sino-Environment shareholders, who have been treated to a roller-coaster ride with the dramatic unfolding of events last year, are now greeted with the sudden resignations of its executive directors and an unsettling probe conclusion by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in China.

Sino-Environment executive directors step down

Troubled Sino-Environment said that its executive directors (EDs) have resigned, without providing details on whether there will be new management soon.

Remisiers struggling to reinvent themselves

Many going into business for themselves, forced by thinner commission rates, increase in direct trading

Woman was in Audi before accident

The Romanian diplomat linked to a hit-and-run case was spotted in a car with an Asian woman less than an hour before the accident on Dec 15.

Bullish outlook for oil & gas sector

Singapore, with its multitude of oilfield equipment and services firms, should also witness increasing M&A activity

Remisiers’ plight: recognise that deregulation cuts both ways

A little over 10 years ago, before deregulation kicked in and when retail punters enjoyed up to a week of credit from their stockbrokers in exchange for payment of one per cent brokerage, becoming a remisier was seen as something enviable. Many were willing to consider it as a realistic career option because of the rewards it offered. Back in those halcyon days, retail participation was plentiful and came about mainly through picking up the telephone, ringing one’s remisier to discuss trading ideas, and then placing one’s orders. At one time in the market’s heyday during the mid-to-late 1990s, brokers had to install additional telephone lines, such was the demand for remisiers’ services.

State of war over Henan’s claim to have found fabled ruler’s tomb

A war of words has broken out over a provincial government’s claim to have uncovered the tomb of legendary ruler Cao Cao, underscoring the heightened scepticism towards mainland officialdom.

America’s lost economic decade

With the financial crisis almost over, the next generation of economists needs to figure out how things went so wrong

Boutique advisers step on Singapore’s private bank turf

Boutique and independent financial advisers are moving onto the turf of private banks in Asian wealth management centre Singapore, looking to poach emerging millionaire clients in the region.

Kunming projects on hold after airport bridge collapse

Kunming is in the midst of an infrastructure boom that is frenzied even by mainland standards, but construction of a number of projects is on hold following the collapse of a bridge connecting the new airport.