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