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Back Issue

WiC 1 (Feb 6, 2009)

Rail & Infrastructure, Talking Point Why 2009 will be the year of the train in China

Not since Stephenson’s Rocket crawled between Liverpool and Manchester at 12 miles per hour has a country got so excited about railways. Of course, ...

An unhealthy system

Healthcare Why China needs a massive reform of its healthcare system

Healthcare is a thorny political issue in most countries and it is no different in China. It is also a policy area in which Mao’s legacy was a ...

Environment Dark comes before the dawn for China’s solar industry

When the sun goes down, I take my rest” is one of the Middle Kingdom’s more self-righteous proverbs. For Zhao Chunjiang there is always the option ...

Energy & Resources Shanxi takes on its coal barons

In a leafy villa suburb of Beijing there is mansion owned by a Shanxi coal baron that stands out from those surrounding it. If ever you could call a ...

The audacity of nope

China and the World Obama and the China trade deficit

Four is an unlucky number in China, so folklore might suggest that the 44th US president could be a doubly unfortunate one. With the early crackle of ...

Enter the Leviathan

Banking & Finance The government wants to list Agricultural Bank of China

At a time when some countries look to be nationalising their banking sectors, it is a welcome encouragement for the world’s remaining free marketeers ...

History Lessons The failed military strategist

Zhao She was a well respected general in Zhao, one of the seven states in the Warring States Period. His son, Zhao Kuo, started learning Sun Tzu’sThe ...

Entertainment Meet China’s richest novelist

The latest addition to China’s thirty centuries of literary tradition sports a tousled fringe and a taste for the type of clothing accessory once ...

The counterfeit culture

Society Why 2008 was the year of the Shanzhai, or fake

It should come as little – or, in fact, no – surprise that China should originate an entire movement celebrating fakery. China has long enjoyed a ...

Welcome to China’s city of bathing

Society Bath house town looks to clean up

As far as rebranding efforts go, Maanshan’s announcement that it would like to be known forthwith as China’s “City of Bathing” has been both a ...

Entertainment More than just a record-breaking movie, Red Cliff rebrands China for…

To this day the term Trojan Horse resonates with most Europeans and Americans. Generations of schoolchildren in the West have grown up hearing of the ...

Cowed or bullish?

Society What does the Year of the Ox hold for China, Obama…

China’s Lunar New Year is traditionally celebrated with jiaozi – boiled dumplings – and enough fireworks to make the Fourth of July look like a ...

Bridge of sighs

China Consumer Where better to greet the Lunar New Year than in the…

Gondolas cruise down the Grand Canal – under blue skies – and in the distance, opera singers belt out Verdi. Just another summer’s day in Venice? ...

Problems graduating

Economy The government wants to ensure 6 million graduates find work

You don’t have to have a degree in nuclear physics to operate a washing machine, but these days it could well help. The Guangzhou Daily has reported ...

The 737 million consumers

Economy The nation’s economic hopes may lie in the pockets of China’s…

It’s not every country’s good fortune to suddenly discover it has an untapped market of 737 million consumers. Indeed, with the decline in Chinese ...

Let a hundred funds bloom

Banking & Finance Can domestic private equity funds flourish?

China’s investment in Blackstone’s IPO may not have been the most profitable experience, but that has not sated the government’s appetite for ...

Auto Industry Is the Chinese government Audi’s single biggest customer?

If Beijing does announce a “Buy Chinese” policy to promote the sale of locally manufactured cars, a first step will be to tell its own officials. ...

Auto Industry China’s car industry begins to feel the pain

Another week, another car industry bail out. As industry supplicants line up to meet their governments, China’s own car manufacturers now want a ...

Planet China Shanghai has garnered an international reputation as one of the world’s…

Shanghai has garnered an international reputation as one of the world’s most stylish cities. However, the city worries its image is being damaged by ...

Yo ho ho, and a bottle of beer

Cartoons Yo ho ho, and a bottle of beer

“I’m not a hero,” says Peng Wei-yuan, the modest captain of Zhenhua 4, a Chinese merchant vessel attacked by Somali pirates. However, crowds ...

And Finally, Space Programme A Chinese inventor gets to the bottom of outer space’s most…

Technology should be there to serve mankind’s most basic needs, even in outer space. Enter Jin Xukai, an inventor who is likely to join the ranks of ...