Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Monday, 17 October 2011

China’s manufacturing exodus

Relentless rises in production costs and wages are forcing mainland manufacturers - and product buyers - to the cheaper markets of Southeast Asia

Beijing railway chief axed in wake of crash

Transfer of director to another position points to more reshuffles facing troubled transport system hit by a graft probe, suicide and recent accidents

Badly injured child left for dead in traffic

Passers-by look the other way after two-year-old is struck three times by two vehicles in an alley

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Beijing curbs force agents to axe 700 outlets

Strong government measures combined with market slump take their toll on jobs in real estate sector

Lessons in underground banking’s toxic liquidity

Suicides of debt-ridden tycoons and scores of business failures illustrate the high costs of seeking easy funding from the black market

Thursday, 13 October 2011

The great work of the 1911 revolution should end with a truly modern China

Hu Shuli says the republican spirit that invigorated a generation of Chinese people to overthrow dynastic rule should now inspire a push for democratic reform

The art of reading China’s statistics

The distrust some hold towards basic Chinese data may be misplaced

Foshan in fast U-turn over home restrictions

12 hours after announcing the relaxation of limits on home-buying, Guangdong city changes its mind

Bird’s nest boom has Malaysian producers drooling

Thousands of swiftlets erupt from their roosts, swirling into a brightening dawn in a riotous ritual that announces the start of each day in this coastal town in northern Malaysia.

200 bosses flee their creditors in Zhejiang

Extent of credit squeeze in the cradle of private enterprise laid bare in official report, and business lobby says problem of unpaid wages can only worsen

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Ladies’ Night: Host bar scene in Singapore thrives

It’s now a thriving scene, with at least 10 clubs where men play host to women

News reports at the time painted vivid picture of plots and uprisings

The Post covered Hong Kong’s role as a hub for revolution and found Sun Yat-sen slick but not a strong leader

China’s Local Debt Pileup Raising Risk of Hard Landing

When China announced a nearly $600 billion package to ward off the 2008 global financial crisis, city planners across the country happily embarked on a frenzy of infrastructure projects, some of them of arguable need.

The sting in the honeypot

Business owners flocked to illegal underground banks in the good times, but now the high interest rates and slowing economy are strangling them and threatening to cause the mainland’s private sector to collapse

Li Ning Raises Concerns for Chinese Brands

In the latest rankings of the richest people in China, Li Ning — founder of one of the country’s most famous retail brands — has tumbled from 64 last year to 291.

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Australian Winemakers Tempt Chinese Palates to Secure Future

Australian winemakers are setting up replica cellar doors in China and running wine clubs and tastings as they intensify efforts to win Chinese buyers in a bid to offset shrinking demand in their traditional British and U.S. markets.

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Tuesday, 11 October 2011

China Checks Wealth Management Boom With New Rules

China has signed off a set of rules for its small but booming wealth management sector to temper rapid growth and prevent banks from exploiting loopholes to beat regulation.

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China's Local Debt Pileup Raising Risk of Hard Landing

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Monday, 10 October 2011

‘Big-mouth’ Sun got credit for others’ toil

Once-close friends and allies either fell out with Sun Yat-sen or ended their lives in poverty after his death

Sun over Hawaii

When China's founding father Sun Yat-sen first saw Hawaii, he was a young teenager going to join his brother. Later, the islands' Chinese community would be the first overseas Chinese group to support his budding revolution. On the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, Hu Yongqi and Peng Yining report from Honolulu.

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China grapples with revolutionary past, 100 years on

When the army of the Qing Dynasty turned its guns on the state on October 10 1911, it signalled the end of 2,000 years of imperial rule in China and the promise of a democratic republican government.

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Why China doesn't have its own Steve Jobs

As China joins the rest of the world to discuss the legacy Steve Jobs leaves behind, many Chinese wonder why China doesn’t have Schumpeterian-style entrepreneurs, its own Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg?

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Friday, 7 October 2011

Rioting in model village attests to graft woes

Last month’s clash between villagers and police in Wukan over alleged secret land sales and corruption underscores public’s growing dissent

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Time for China to reform economy

Once again, gloomy forecasts for the Chinese economy are making the rounds amid ongoing financial turbulence in much of the world.

Brakes on property boom impact borrowing costs


Local authority debts also a concern as trends point towards deepening of mainland economic slowdown

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Wenzhou takes action to avert loans 'time bomb'

Chinese city sets limit on non-bank lenders' rates; takes steps to halt flight of troubled businessmen

Monday, 3 October 2011

Friday, 30 September 2011

Zhejiang employees demand pay after bankrupt boss flees

Among the protestors bringing traffic to a standstill in Wenzhou were previous employees as well as creditors who had loaned money to Zhejiang Center Group.

Subprime crisis sweeps Wenzhou as bankrupt bosses flee

The east China city of Wenzhou is battling its own subprime crisis after seven local business owners fled recently, leaving thousands of employees in a state of shock and enormous unpaid loans in hundreds of millions of yuan.

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Hidden hazards in China’s role as potential saviour

Flush with trillions of dollars in cash, possible Beijing bailout of a battered Europe carries great risks

Tankers outstrip crude orders

Shipbrokers face surplus when new vessels launch and those relying on mainland demand will need to rethink strategy

Pilot property tax likely to go nationwide

A pilot programme to levy property taxes, the first of its kind in China, is helping cool price rises in Chongqing and will eventually be extended to the rest of the country, the mayor of the country’s biggest municipality told reporters.

Brakes on property boom impact borrowing costs

Local authority debts also a concern as trends point towards deepening of mainland economic slowdown

Hong Kong agents end flat-buying tours from mainland

Brokers halt ‘golden week’ visits as buying interest dives amid lending curbs and economic gloom

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Blunt talk from China ex-premier stirs reform pot

Crumbling flood dykes in China decried as "tofu dregs" built by "parasites". Erring bankers lashed as "half-wits" and crime "accomplices". Special hotels for Communist Party elite dismissed as wasteful piles of "golden splendour".

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Sunday, 18 September 2011

Semen Proven to Increase Life Expectancy

Women who make regular contact with semen live longer and age less than women who do not, scientists have discovered.

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Saturday, 17 September 2011

Once a Redoubt Against China, Taiwan’s Outpost Evolves

KINMEN, Taiwan — Burrowing just a few feet beneath the surface of this island in the Taiwan Strait turns up remnants of what was once the most militarized zone on earth.

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Malaysia to abolish unpopular security law

Malaysia will abolish an unpopular, colonial-era security law allowing detention without trial and relax other measures curbing the media and the right to free assembly, Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Thursday.

Historians on mainland give credit to KMT

New book telling story of Republic of China highlights Chiang Kai-shek's role in Second World War - a reversal of previous accounts

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Developers likely to cut prices 15pc

Agents predict reductions to entice reluctant buyers during what should be a busy season

Wary home buyers keep rents buoyant

Demand boosts rental market as flat seekers put off buying in the hope the central government’s cooling measures will cut prices further

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Why Wealthy Chinese Are Fleeing China

Many wealthy Chinese are ditching their Chinese passports according to a recent survey by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Co. The report found that 27 percent of Chinese with more than 100 million yuan ($16 million) in investable assets have already migrated and 47 percent are thinking about leaving China.

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The good old days of Good Samaritans are gone for good

Death of an elderly man as people looked on without helping him has sparked intense debate

The man in the party machine

Zhu Rongji’s latest book offers a unique glimpse of life at the top for the former economic tsar

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Forget the bluster, DPP is treading softer line on ties

Taiwan’s opposition is preaching stability and harmony, but critics see policy contradictions

Saturday, 27 August 2011

Condominium developers upping the stake

It is no longer enough for condominiums to boast a pool, gym, clubhouse and tennis court. Developers are adding fancy facilities such as a spa, sports bar, rock-climbing wall, luxury dining room and even a bird-watching tower to make their projects stand out.

Assets of corrupt officials on the run to be seized

Mainland courts may soon have the power to confiscate ill-gotten gains under a new law

China Uses Rare Earths to Lure Manufacturing Plants

China has long used access to its giant customer base and cheap labour as bargaining chips to persuade foreign companies to open factories within the nation’s borders.

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

Buyers, sellers get around curbs

Couples fake divorce or even sacrifice marriage to obtain more property, and developers are happy to throw in extras to keep cash coming in

A brief history of Chinese porn

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Tuesday, 23 August 2011

China rail firm boss, blamed for crash, dies of heart attack

The head of a Chinese railways technology firm blamed for faulty signalling gear that caused a high-speed rail crash last month died of a heart attack while the company was being inspected, Chinese media said Tuesday.

Look for cracks in axles, metal fatigue expert says

Railways ministry complains that German ultrasonic detector used to inspect trains is too sensitive

Monday, 22 August 2011

Law exposes unease at state of modern marriage

Experts say controversy over new interpretation reveals deep sense of social and moral insecurity

The sex trade

Lust will and testament

The earliest recorded wills in Hong Kong show that a group of highly-successful women had one thing in common ... they were all working in the sex trade

To fully legalise the profession or not - it’s a dilemma

It may make sense from a welfare point of view but the economic argument suggests otherwise

Saturday, 20 August 2011

Taiwan’s court strips Chen’s son of position

The son of Taiwan’s jailed former president, Chen Shui-bian, has been stripped of his position as a city councillor in Kaohsiung after being sentenced on Wednesday to three months in prison for perjury.

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Police seize 'high-quality' fake 100 yuan notes

Police in Zhejiang province have seized an undisclosed number of high-quality counterfeit yuan notes said to look more realistic than any fake cash in recent memory.

Merchants enlisted sham bird’s nest ‘experts’

Mainland bird’s nest merchants accused of selling fake or tainted products staged a press conference with Malaysian officials to defend their reputation. But the event itself was a sham and the officials were bogus.

Yunnan plant dumped toxins for 20 years

A Yunnan chemical plant was exposed for disposing more than 280,000 tonnes of uncontained toxic chromium residue near the source of the Pearl River, dating back about two decades and causing health risks to millions of Guangdong residents.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

New Chinese Marriage Law Protects Men’s Assets, Angers Women

New Chinese Marriage Law Protects Men’s Assets, Angers Women

Manchester United’s IPO Looks Offside

You’ve got the replica shirt, now buy the shares. That may be Manchester United’s pitch if the U.K.’s leading soccer team pursues plans to raise up to $1 billion through an initial public offering in Singapore. With two-thirds of its 333 million global fan base based in Asia, looking East to raise capital is an understandable move by United’s American owners, the Glazer family. But investor faith in United shouldn’t be as blind as that of its fans.

New set of measurements for white-collar foreigners

Significant changes to Singapore’s employment pass (EP) framework will kick in from January 2012, further tightening the inflow of white-collar foreign workers and potentially raising businesses’ wage costs by an average of one to 2 per cent.

Red Devils may erase debt with Singapore IPO

Man U said to be raising US$1b in Q4; with Credit Suisse hired as book runner

US credit crisis shocks Chinese consumers

Spurred on by state media which have let rip at the “debt-riddled” United States, the Chinese have listened with wide-eyed amazement to tales of American people living well beyond their means.

The US credit crisis has brought to light a fundamental difference between thrifty consumers in China -- the largest foreign holder of US debt -- and their credit-loving US counterparts.

Sunday, 14 August 2011

US oil firm admits spill was bigger than it said

The American operator of troubled oil platforms in Bohai Bay has admitted that the total amount of oil that leaked around its rigs was more than double its original estimates, amid mounting criticism from marine authorities that the company has yet to offer a permanent solution to the problem.

The best prescription to restoring consumers’ trust on the mainland

John Gong urges mainland companies to learn from a benchmark crisis response

Maiden voyage tests for defects

The Varyag’s sea trial is searching for faults following modifications to vessel, experts say

Last hurrah for China’s microblogs?

Authorities, fearing spread of rumours, may tighten control

Cathay pilot and hostess sacked over sex act on airliner

Incident did not happen while any plane was airborne, says chief executive John Slosar

China cuts public home building target

It will build 8 million units for 2012, 20% less than initial goal, in a move that may disappoint investors

Train drivers in low-paid race with time

Being a train driver used to be a prestigious technical career on the mainland. Working for a large, state department meant a stable, well-paid job with the added perk of travelling around the country when few even had the chance to visit a neighbouring city.

Bullet train system unreliable, insiders say

China’s bullet train system still faces many unpredictable risks and any small error could bring another crisis upon the giant Ministry of Railways, industry insiders warn.

Chemical plant at centre of suspicion

Claims surface that petrochemical facility involved in typhoon scare last week operated for a year without environmental approval from provincial watchdog

Saturday, 13 August 2011

Japanese Rare Earth Consumers Set Up Shop in China

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Home comfort for divorcees’ folks

Mainlanders whose parents buy them property when they marry will keep it if they divorce

Banks told to tighten grip on property market loans

Expected impact from Beijing’s efforts to cool an overheated market prompts regulator to urge lenders to protect themselves from price plunge

Deadly accident exposes government fault lines

Differences in public statements about high-speed trains reveal divisions over the national system

Thursday, 11 August 2011

A truly open government is one that welcomes public involvement

Beijing’s latest circular on transparency will have bite only if channels are in place to give voice to people’s views and seek their support

Beijing puts brakes on railways

High-speed trains will be ordered to slow down and approval for new lines suspended as investigation into fatal Wenzhou disaster continues

Into uncharted waters

Yesterday’s maiden sail of reconditioned Varyag seen as major step towards PLA’s decades-long ambition to have a naval force capable of projecting Chinese strength

Uncertain times for Asian Markets

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China awash with counterfeit vintage wine

“There is more Lafite 82 in China than was produced in France. So you really have to be wary if you find any of that in China,” he told AFP.

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

China launches first aircraft carrier on maiden sea trial

China launched its first aircraft carrier for a maiden run on Wednesday, a step likely to boost patriotic pride at home and jitters abroad about Beijing’s naval ambitions.

Monday, 8 August 2011

Hard landing may be good medicine

Short-term crisis, while painful, could give policymakers a chance to steer mainland economy onto a healthier growth path for the long term

Business blooming in China risk detection

Agricultural firms are trying to get buyers back on their side, while investors turn to investigators to verify the claims companies make about their assets

Beijing housing woes eased by state subsidy schemes

More people getting homes at a fraction of market rate

The latest fake - Shanxi’s famed mature vinegar

Producers omit fermented vinegar, use additives and even industrial acetic acid to make condiment

Red Cross health project ‘a scam to sell insurance’

Carers at community service stations were working undercover for China Life, TV investigation reveals

Military spending cause of US debt: China

The United States must rethink its huge military outlays, big footprint abroad and summon the courage to defuse debt woes, Chinese state-run media said on Monday, reflecting the political pressures on Beijing with its big stash of dollar assets.

Drive to close illegal golf courses flops

Just 10 of 600 clubs on the mainland have full government approval, and many take water illegally, but crackdown efforts have been distinctly under par

Lessons from China’s deadly train accident

The deadly train collision near Wenzhou underlines the incongruous fact that despite China’s soaring economy, vestiges remain of the ultra-left ideology behind the Great Leap Forward campaign more than 50 years ago.

More secret ‘black jails’ exposed in the capital

More secret prisons locking up petitioners in Beijing have been exposed by mainland media, after several similar facilities were revealed to the public in the past couple of years.

Mainland soy milk drinkers up in arms

Consumers angered to discover restaurant chains and fast-food giant are serving powdered drinks

All eyes on the PLA’s new guard

All eyes on A reshuffle of the Central Military Commission will see veteran officers replaced and some ‘princelings’ expected to follow in the footsteps of famous fathers

Sunday, 7 August 2011

Ouch! U.S. booted from Triple-A debt club

The Triple-A debt club just got even more exclusive: Late Friday, the United States was booted out of a prestigious group of countries that boast a spotless credit rating.

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