« November 16, 2008 - November 22, 2008 | Main | November 30, 2008 - December 6, 2008 »

November 29, 2008

Huang Guangyu suspected of share manipulation

New information in the case of Huang Guangyu, GOME chairman and China's richest man, who was recently detained by police, reports the Wall Street Journal:

Officials of the CSRC, which regulates China's stock markets but requires the assistance of the country's Public Security Bureau to prosecute malfeasance, told a news conference Friday that their investigation dates to early 2008, CCTV said. The officials said the probe touches on unusual movement in the Shanghai-listed shares of appliance services company Sanlian Commercial Co. and in Shenzhen-traded developer Beijing Centergate Technologies Co.

The two small companies have in the past been cited in China's financial press as possible takeover targets for GOME, reports that quoted company officials indicating Mr. Huang hoped to obtain an exchange listing in mainland China by buying a traded company. Regulators on Friday suggested a private company substantially controlled by Mr. Huang called Beiing Pengrun Investment Co. was involved in irregular asset restructurings of the listed companies, media reports said.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:22 PM |

Tallying blog censorship

Rebecca MacKinnon gives some results of research that looked into how China's blog service providers censor sensitive information: 108 articles on various "sensitive" subjects were posted to 15 BSPs, which deleted anywhere from 1 to 60 of them.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:06 PM |

China dabbles in Swiss banking

Bank of China goes to Switzerland, Forbes reports:

Bank of China said Friday that it had received the green light from the Swiss Federal Banking Commission to open a private bank and institutional asset-management arm in Geneva. It said it would start operations "immediately" in a "prestigious building" of the Quartier des Banques at 3 rue du General-Dufour.

Bank of China Suisse will offer "top quality private-banking services to Chinese as well as international, ultra-high-net-worth and very-high-net-worth clients." The definition of ultra-high-net worth varies from bank to bank, but it could typically represent an individual or family that owned assets worth at least $50 million.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:27 AM |

Chinese bloggers win big at Best of Blogs Awards

China Journal recaps the DW Best of Blogs Awards and reposts some excerpts from Zeng Jinyan's response to her special jury award.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:07 AM |

November 28, 2008

Lawyers rally victims against milk producer Sanlu

The Economic Observer reports on the progress of litigation against Sanlu, the milk producer most closely associated with the melamine additive scandal:

The lawyers decided to choose a class-action approach after several suits against milk producers were thrown out before trial.

As of November 20, the OCI had been retained to represent 126 plaintiffs in class-action litigation against producers of the tainted milk. Within that group, 54 were suing Sanlu.

According to Xu, the letter they handed over to Sanlu was a demand for fair negotiation and settlement out of court to avert court action. They told the EO that they warned Sanlu that the suit would be filed at the High People's Court of Hebei Province in one week if they did not receive an acceptable response.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:17 PM |

Carl Crow's 400 Million Customers

carl_crow_small.jpg
An introduction by Paul French to Carl Crow's 400 Million Customers, and an excerpt from the classic China business book, first published in 1937.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:08 PM |

Au revoir Urbane (for now)

Economics claims another magazine.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:24 PM |

China starts airline aid

China is giving subsidies to its airline industry, the Wall Street Journal reports, but the current amounts may not be enough:

Guangdong-based China Southern said in a statement Thursday its parent, China Southern Air Holding Co., is considering injecting the capital into the listed unit. China Southern also is considering a private share placement, but no decision has been made, the statement said.

The capital injection will help with China Southern's short-term cash flow needs, but it is a "drop in the ocean" compared with its high debt levels and committed capital expenditure, said UBS analyst Damien Horth. "This is a temporary solution while the government considers possibly wide-ranging industry restructuring," he said.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:01 PM |

Ant-breeding swindler executed

Xinhua reports that Wang Zhendong, the general manager of a company involved in an ant-breeding pyramid scheme, has been executed:

Wang misused 798 million yuan raised from investors, buying himself luxury goods and lending money to others, while continued to swindle investors who visited the company and told them the business was doing very well, the court said.

One investor committed suicide after realizing he had been duped and Wang's actions also caused huge economic losses for investors and many subsequently suffered depression, the court said.

In other capital punishment news, the family of convicted spy Wo Weihan has been granted a second visit, delaying his execution, the Washington Post reports.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:27 AM |

November 27, 2008

An ethical dilemma for literary magazines

Reportage as a literary form is far too susceptible to ethical lapses in this day and age and should be abandoned, writes a commentator.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:32 PM |

Age scandals in Chinese basketball and football

China Sports Review looks at age scandals in sports other than gymnastics in China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:29 PM |

Sarko to meet Dalai Lama: China postpones EU summit

From Xinhua:

China has to postpone the 11th summit with the European Union scheduled in early December because of French leader's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here Wednesday night.

The decision is made because the summit does not enjoy a good atmosphere, nor can it achieve expected goals, Qin said, adding the cause and responsibility do not lie on the Chinese side.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:46 AM |

Jenny Lang Ping steps down as volleyball coach

Xinhua reports on USA Volleyball's announcement that Jenny Lang Ping will not return to her position as coach of the US national team. The former Chinese national star led the US women's volleyball team to the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:44 AM |

Global downturn puts the brakes on China's industry

The New York Times reports on idle factories and a potential drop to 5.5% growth this quarter.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:38 AM |

November 26, 2008

Learn to speak Uyghur

The New Dominion, a blog about Xinjiang, has a Uyghur language learning section.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:18 PM |

1930s and '40s Peking photography

Peking_Lady_Hedda_Morrison-small.jpg
Images by Hedda Morrison and Dmitri Kessel shot in Beijing in the 1930s and '40s, including color photos.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:06 PM |

A Pyrrhic victory for China Inc.

BHP Billiton has withdrawn its bid for Rio Tinto, which should please Chinalco, writes Andrew Peaple in the Wall Street Journal:

Many saw Chinalco's stake buy as an attempt to spoil the BHP-Rio Tinto tie-up -- a defensive maneuver backed, and maybe even engineered, by Beijing.

A joint BHP-Rio Tinto entity would have had enormous pricing power over key raw materials such as iron ore -- no good thing for China's steel companies. And using Chinalco to intervene was certainly more palatable than a similar move by one of China's sovereign wealth funds or a consortium of steel companies would have been.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:01 AM |

China's "toughest party secretary" returns

Zhang Zhiguo, party secretary of Xifeng, made headlines early this year when local police travelled to Beijing on his orders to arrest an investigative journalist. He was sacked, but now he's back. The China Media Project rounds up some responses to the announcement of Zhang's new job.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:45 AM |

Why would so many people support a police killer?

Yang Jia was executed this morning for killing six police officers. Black and White Cat provides a concise summary of events and explains why so many people believe that justice was not done.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:40 AM |

Horse racing comes to Wuhan

USA Today reports on the Orient Lucky City racetrack, which opens in Wuhan this week:

Some Chinese, such as economist Qin Zunwen, hope the four-day event could lead to a broader liberalization of gambling laws nationwide.

"The amounts bet this week will be small, and it will be a kind of entertainment, but the methods will be more extensive than other places have tried," says Qin, who has been leading the fight to legalize a form of track betting.

At this week's races, people can wager on "horse lotteries" by buying a set-price ticket to guess on a winning horse or series of races, rather than betting any amount. The price limit -- and calling it a lottery -- is a way to keep novice gamblers from losing too much money.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:30 AM |

November 25, 2008

Memories of old Shanghai

At Paper Republic, Elizabeth Watson describes interviewing elderly Shanghainese for her book Memories of Old Shanghai:

I interviewed 29 elderly residents of Shanghai, many of whom live in either Jin Yang Old People's Home or Fahua Homes for the Aged - proceeds from the book will go directly to these two homes. The interview process was full of unexpected surprises. It's slightly unnerving to find out that your elderly ayi, as a child, saw a man beaten to death by soldiers simply for dancing a traditional folk dance. Or to interview an old man, who looks the same as every other old man on the street, and find out that he once painted Mme Chiang Kai-shek's portrait.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:25 PM |

Guns N' Roses and the Chinese media

The Global Times strikes again, James T. Areddy writes at the WSJ's China Journal:

The newspaper also refers to a Nov. 22 report on reaction to the record published in The Wall Street Journal, highlighting how some Chinese fans of GN'R said they were distressed by the album title. The Beijing report noted other Western coverage of GN'R as well, and quoted Internet postings that said foreign reporters writing about China like to "hype" talk of independence movements and democracy to show off, "so that when they go back home they can be heroes."

See also: Shanghaiist.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:23 AM |

2008 award rundown

The China Beat rounds up this year's China and Sinology-related awards.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:59 AM |

Blueprints for a Beijing that never was

JDM081125plan.jpg
Thomas H. Hahn presents an album of city plans for post-revolutionary Beijing from 1954. None of the buildings in these plans was ever constructed.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:41 AM |

Reflections on CNBloggercon

Feng37 recaps the conference.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:26 AM |

Tabloid backlash against Loulan Beauty article

The New Dominion blog identifies misdirected sarcasm in the Global Times' response to a tired New York Times article about a mummy in Xinjiang that could possibly be non-Han.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:07 AM |

November 24, 2008

Scrap art: Daily Prosperity

Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap introduces scrap-based art by Chen Hangfeng:

One of the things that I like about Hangfeng's work (and Hangfeng) is his willingness to go out and "report" his creations. Last year, for example, he traveled to Zhejiang Province's small-scale, export-oriented Christmas ornament workshops to obtain footage for his "Christ Mass Production," an installation that - again - playfully challenged viewers to think about the consumer waste stream (in this case, a Christmas waste stream). Meanwhile, the filmed footage he obtained there remains - to my knowledge - the only such footage of those workshops in existence. It's good journalism and it's good art.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:34 PM |

Longnan mass incident in pictures

ESWN has compiled a set of photos of the recent Longnan mass incident, in which petitioning peasants in Gansu province clashed violently with cops and security thugs. See also China Media Project and this ESWN post for more.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:12 AM |

Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia in list of subsidized products for peasants

From The China Daily:

Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia and other leading foreign brands were on the list of Chinese subsidized household appliances for farmers.

The Chinese government promised to grant a 13 percent subsidy for household appliances for farmers' on purchase of these household appliances to improve 900 million rural residents' living standards and boost domestic consumption, and a pilot program began in December 2007.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:04 AM |

Market manipulation probe for home appliance tycoon Huang Guangyu

The China Daily reports on an investigation into market manipulation by a man who has several times been named China's richest:

Home-appliance tycoon Huang Guangyu is under investigation for market manipulation, Caijing magazine's website reported Sunday. The report quoted unnamed sources close to Huang as saying that he was taken away by investigators late Wednesday. Huang's company Gome (国美) was not immediately available for comment, but the report quoted sources as saying that the Hong Kong-listed company was likely to issue a statement soon.

The report said Huang was allegedly involved with stock price manipulation in a company controlled by his elder brother Huang Junqin.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:53 AM |

November 23, 2008

Virtual tour of Beijing's subway

The Beijing city government's website has published a nicely-done virtual tour of the Beijing subway (in English).

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:16 PM |