Chinese quest to regain treasures

A delegation of Chinese cultural experts has swept through American institutions over the past two weeks, in an unfruitful search for historical treasures plundered by Western troops in the mid-19th century from Beijing.

Central government to scrap housing demolition regulation

The central government is moving closer to scrapping the housing-demolition regulation amid public outcry over a number of violent and even deadly confrontations between homeowners and developers.

How Hong Kong tries to be relevant to China

When Hong Kong was returned to China on July 1, 1997 after a century and a half as a British colony, there was much anxiety as to whether the city would continue to prosper and to enjoy British-style rights and freedoms under China’s formula of ‘one country, two systems’ for 50 years. Now, 121/2 years later - or a quarter of the 50 years allotted to Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of China - much has changed.

Money mule jailed for 2 weeks, fined $30,000

This year, at least 12 people have been taken to court in separate cases for trying to sneak a total of more than $6 million in and out of Singapore.

Cleaners ‘beat bankers in worth’

Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests.

Small firms told: Focus on investor relations

Smaller firms aiming to grow their businesses will need cash-rich backers, so adopting sound investor relations (IR) practices can mean the difference between success and failure.

Independent directors may get harder to hire

Sitting on boards of listed firms’ overseas units worries directors

Time for shift in China’s growth strategy

It needs a more balanced growth model that fosters more of a pro-consumption thrust to growth and development

SGX tweaks to listing rules lack solid bite

For the umpteenth time in its nine-year existence, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is tweaking its Listing Rules. Announced yesterday, the proposed changes - which are open to public debate and feedback - fall well within the scope of the existing disclosure-based governance framework that has been progressively installed over the years since deregulation a decade ago. Which is fine - if you subscribe to the view that all it takes to ensure the marketplace is properly governed are periodic fine-tunings and that caveat emptor or ‘buyer beware’ should still reign supreme.

SGX hardening rules to bring errant outfits in line

More onus may be placed on independent directors, range of corporate governance issues addressed

Malaysia plans 20-litre cap on fuel sales to foreign cars

Motorists travelling to Malaysia will soon be allowed to pump a maximum of only 20 litres of fuel within a 50km radius from the country’s borders, including in Sabah and Sarawak, the Malaysian government announced yesterday.

China Squeezes Property Speculators With Tougher Tax Penalty

China issued policies to curb property speculation after home prices rose at the fastest pace in more than a year and Premier Wen Jiabao pledged support for affordable housing.

China market key to US firms’ profitability

US companies are finding China crucial for their profitability as they increasingly focus on selling to the fast-growing Chinese market rather than manufacturing there for export, a report said yesterday.

Be patient, SIAS tells Sino-Env shareholders

The Securities Investors Association of Singapore (SIAS) has urged shareholders of troubled firm Sino-Environment Technology Group to let the various authorities here and in China complete their investigations into the company.

Independent directors start legal proceedings

In the latest twist in the Sino-Environment saga, the company’s independent directors, Mr. Goh Chee Wee and Mr. Wong Chiang Yin, have started legal proceedings in a bid to oust the executive directors from the company’s board.

Court order sought to oust Sino-Env exec directors

Independent directors (IDs) of troubled Sino-Environment Technology Group have applied for a court order to call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove the executive directors and also to strip them of their powers to execute several types of financial transactions.

Judges must not pre-judge merits of case

Judges must not pressure parties in a case to settle their dispute quickly, nor should they make up their minds about the case before hearing all the arguments.

Comments in civil suit ‘not uncommon’

Lawyers say it is not uncommon for some judges to comment on the issues during the course of a civil suit, or even tell off one or both parties.

China’s ultra rich lift the spirits of London bankers

The fear that established clients will flee rising taxes in Britain might be giving London’s private bankers sleepless nights, but a Chinese remedy is at hand, in the shape of a growing colony of super-rich clients from Asia.

Addict who wagered $2b loses case against casino

A compulsive gambler who wagered close to A$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) during a 16-month betting spree lost his lawsuit against Australia’s largest casino, when a judge ruled yesterday that he was not exploited.

Youth league pours millions into recruiting

The Communist Youth League poured 110 million yuan (HK$125 million) into bolstering its grass-roots branches across the mainland in an attempt to attract more young people to join a party that has lost much of its ideological appeal, state media reported yesterday.

Jim Chanos: China’s Real Estate Bubble Is Unprecedented

The bubble in China’s real estate is unprecedented and companies exporting for the country’s construction sector should be watched carefully, James Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates, told CNBC Monday.

The unstoppable Fung brothers

Li & Fung has become one of the world’s largest producers of consumer goods, and the company only keeps growing.

Irate Americans want Bernanke out

With unemployment at 10%, the US is searching for a scapegoat to blame

Expectations of China growth a dangerous complacency

That loud hissing noise you hear is coming from Dubai, where reality is catching up with an economy built on sand - literally and figuratively.

Mafia chiefs hire lawyers from outside Chongqing

Detained mafia bosses in Chongqing have hired prominent lawyers from outside the city in an apparent attempt to minimise political interference and ensure that they get impartial legal advice as the second round of trials started this month.

Playing the China card

Spooked by S-chips? There are other ways to gain exposure to the fast-growing mainland market

PLA on a steep learning curve with record intake of graduates

Joining the People’s Liberation Army has long been the job of choice for strapping country boys, while the vast majority of pampered university graduates turned up their noses at the thought of early morning drills and physical exertion.

Puer’s farmers acquire taste for growing coffee

Tea or coffee? A question asked millions of times each day but in Yunnan’s Puer prefecture, the ancient heartland of tea production in China, the answer has more to do with business than personal taste.

Dual listings: regulatory issues for SGX to clarify

By most accounts, more companies can be expected to go for dual listings on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and possibly Korea. Fertiliser firm China XLX was a recent trend-setter on this front - at least this year - when it dual-listed some of its shares in Hong Kong this month, sending its SGX share price up almost 100 per cent that day and sparking a scramble among speculators to try to figure out the next successful dual-listing play.

Fast traders changing the landscape of US equities

Critics worry the secretive and controversial world of high-frequency trading may undermine the integrity of the US equity market

Great leap to excess

China’s industrial output has come at a huge cost in efficiency, quality and to the environment

How to start a fight in a room full of economists

If you ever want to start a fight in a room full of economists, just ask them if it was China that caused the credit crisis.

How US banks peddled debt

Goldman and others not only bundled synthetic CDOs but also bet against them and reaped rich rewards, while their clients suffered losses

Loose-tongued officials no match for a more aggressive media

Are you going to speak for the party or the masses?” That is what a senior urban planning official in Zhengzhou, Henan province, blurted out on June 17 - something he may regret for the rest of his life and may spell the end of his government career.

China out to lure scientists home

Return of high-profile scientists signals major strides at narrowing gap with technologically advanced nations

Chinese Tycoon Emerges to Grab Chilean Iron Ore Mine

Li Zihao, a low-profile entrepreneur and president of Rixin Development Company, of Shunde, Guangdong, announced over Christmas that all legal formalities for acquiring a 70+% stake in a Chilean iron ore project by his company were completed in October. Li’s company gained control of mineral rights of three mines with reserves of 3-5 billion tons for a reported 13 billion yuan.

Common, SGX, strike a little more fear

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is obviously anxious to attract more and larger listings, yet fails to go far enough to help it regain the standing that it has lost in recent years. What the SGX sorely needs to address is its reputation as an effective market regulator. Seen to have been lacking in how it handled the recent S-chip debacles, the exchange now needs to prove afresh that it is one of the region’s best governed markets - a key selling point for the SGX in the past.

Criticism of China’s yuan policy unjustified

All the arguments the West has advanced for a revaluation of the currency are flawed

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.