V. Shih: “The reasonable bulls and bears among us agree on most of the facts, but at the end of the day, we disagree on the Chinese government’s ability to make tough changes.”
(via Shanghaiist): You know, quite a lot of mainland tourists now, more than 2.6 million, have come to Taiwan. They have done a lot of consumption in Taiwan, and spurred a tourism boom. At the same time, moreover, they have also got a sense of Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. A lot of them didn’t go out during the evening. Instead, they lock themselves up in their hotel rooms, watching the political talk shows to see our people criticizing their president. [laughter] Well, that’s democracy. That’s, you know, freedom of expression. But after a while, they began to ask why they couldn’t do the same when they go home? So, this is a very powerful question, and gradually they will make some changes, not only in our cross-strait relations, but also in their own internal system.
Ma Ying-jeou on the secret nightlives of mainland tourists in Taiwan
China International Capital Corp says banks should expect defaults on loans as small and medium enterprises enter an end-of-year credit crunch
China International Capital Corp warned in a recent report that banks are likely to see an increasing number of loans go bad during the first half of 2012, due in part to the scarcity of credit available to small and medium enterprises.
Based on a survey conducted by CICC in the cities of Hangzhou and Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, home to many SMEs, the report said that even though banks have loosened credit controls on SMEs, many SMEs may still suffer a credit crunch in the first quarter of next year.
Local government and financial authorities have encouraged banks to provide credit to SMEs, including subsidizing loans and requiring SMEs to constitute at least half of a commercial bank’s clients, according to CICC. Such financial supports have helped SMEs avoid a liquidity crisis so far. But SMEs could face challenges getting loans in the first quarter of 2012, as many payments to suppliers and workers are due before the Chinese New Year, which comes in January next year.
A recent survey conducted by China’s leading e-commerce service provider Alibaba Group and Peking University found that so far this year, the average profit margin of Chinese SMEs in the Pearl River Delta has declined by up to 40 percent compared to the same period last year due to the increased costs of raw materials and labor. Exporters have seen order numbers continue to drop, and only 13 percent of SMEs currently have access to bank loans.
Meanwhile, banks have lately seen more and more loans go bad, as SMEs face operational difficulties, local government debt matures, and property developers perform sluggishly.
First I didn’t pay enough attention,but as much as I have to say, I can certainly recognize the need to express the feeling of the people who have suffered from this Walstreet power, that kind of distrust and misconduct from the Walstreet in many respect. But as a movement it’s still in a very primitive form, and you can see the kind of hopeless struggle because it seems to have no structure to get the message across, or even let people know what ind of message it is. Or it has become lacking of content or successfully expres its own purposes during the development. It’s lack of means to really create change.
Now even the party mouthpiece Global Times, confirms it. The property prices in Beijing are spiraling down:
A local property company has been promoting its houses in Beijingxiangsu community, located near the East Fifth Ring Road, for 11,600 yuan ($1,825) per square meter and some units are selling for as low as 480,000 yuan, according to the Beijing Morning Post.
Figures from the Beijing Real Estate Trade and Management website show the average price of an apartment in this community has dropped from 22,500 yuan per square meter to 11,600 yuan, said the report.
Another builder, Vanke, has also reduced the price of several projects by 10 to 20 percent, indicating the housing market in Beijing is in a rapid decline, according to the report.
And at the end of the year, real estate developers have to settle their bills! So either, they are going to be bailed out by government or Chinese real estate companies will have to shut down in the coming months. Both of them will have dire consequences for already ailing Chinese economy.
Lessons for happy marriage with Chinese characteristics
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 4.5 million couples divorced in 2010, an 11-percent increase from 2009. The situation has prompted some people to suggest it is now harder than ever for couples to stick together.
At the Moral Education Center in Chaoyang district, which opened in July, staff promise to better equip singles and wives for marriage by nurturing their internal qualities. Among its services, the center offers a 30-hour course for 20,000 yuan on how to snare a millionaire, which features modules on makeup, conversational skills, personality development and traditional tea-pouring techniques.
“No one in the industry is doing too well,” said an investor with stakes in Sinovel suppliers. “In the first half of the year, several big domestic turbine factories were in a semi-shutdown state. Sinovel’s situation is the worst (…) It increased capacity too quickly. If customers knock down orders, there will be high inventory pressure and problems with cash flow”.
Much like many other things in China, the wind power industry is also facing tougher times ahead. The negative consequences of unsustainable, explosive expansions, symptomatic to many Chinese ventures and Chinese economy in general, are finally coming up to the surface. Expansion happens too quickly and most of it is expanded on shaky grounds. Let one thing go wrong and the house of cards will most definitely fall down.
“Renminbi circulation and anti-fraud report hot line and email address”
Reporting fraud in China isn’t easy!
Yan Xuetong: How China Can Defeat America
A rather unusual piece from China’s John Mearsheimer, Yan Xuetong. In the recent NY Times op-ed, the Chinese scholar and well-known media pundit, known for his hawkish nationalistic views and his advocacy for more “aggressive” China, accentuates the need of “winning people’s hearts” through “humane authority”. Here is his road map to how China can defeat America:
China must shift its priorities away from economic development to establishing a harmonious society free of today’s huge gaps between rich and poor. It needs to replace money worship with traditional morality and weed out political corruption in favor of social justice and fairness.
In other countries, China must display humane authority in order to compete with the United States.
Shape a friendly international environment for its rise, Beijing needs to develop more high-quality diplomatic and military relationships than Washington. (…) In order to achieve that goal, China has to provide higher-quality moral leadership than the United States.
China must also recognize that it is a rising power and assume the responsibilities that come with that status. For example, when it comes to providing protection for weaker powers…
As it seems, Yan Xuetong is arguing for a much more involved China. Even though, he is a prime advocator for “Chinese way” of doing things, I think he acknowledges China’s need for more soft power and wants the country to follow in soft power superstar, US’, footsteps to get it.
