105 « Week In China

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WiC 105 (May 6, 2011)

Chinese Character Senior government official joins foreign commodity trading firm

When Li Rongrong retired as head of Sasac last year, it looked as though we might have seen the last of one of China’s most powerful ...

Internet & Tech IPO glitches don’t stop Renren pulling off hugely successful fundraising

In their dealings with venture capital firms, the owners of some of the internet’s most popular social networking sites have often adopted a cavalier ...

China Consumer, Talking Point Is Yum Brands the most successful foreign firm in China?

Bill Murray famously derided the Asian practice of eating hotpot: “What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?” David Novak would beg ...

China and the World Fierce debate among Chinese over Osama’s death

Few would have predicted that Abbottabad would be become one of the world’s most newsworthy places in 2011. But the announcement that Osama bin ...

Banking & Finance China Resources moves into banking to tap 100 million client base

"What’s breaking into a bank compared with founding one?” mused German poet and playwright Berthold Brecht. Executives at China Resources ...

Economy How the Party manages its business executives

A red telephone sits conspicuously on the desks of the 50 or so bosses that run China’s biggest state-owned firms – one of the revelations in ...

Who’s Hu Ren Zhengfei

Born in 1944, Ren Zhengfei graduated from Chongqing Construction Engineering College before joining the army as a construction engineer. After a ...

Environment To meet waste targets Shanghai looks to charge residents for their…

You get what you pay for is a phrase known the world over. And Shanghai’s city government hopes the logic will extend to trash. It now wants ...

History Lessons How greatest dynasty began

Before becoming emperor, Song Taizu, the founder of the Song Dynasty, was a general-in-chief in the service of the preceding dynasty. Similar to ...

Entertainment Hong Kong film makers ditch grit to chase mainland China audience

After thirty years of filmmaking, Johnnie To is looking for a change. And a rather unlikely one: the 56 year-old Hong Kong-based director says he is ...

Agriculture How speculators cause havoc for Chinese farmers

WiC has written regularly about rising food prices in recent months. But this week, the Chinese media has been talking about the opposite, at least for ...

Other Industries Will scandal impact Sany Heavy Industry’s forthcoming Hong Kong IPO?

There’s no good time to be accused of bribery, but last month’s revelations came at a particularly bad time for Sany Heavy Industry. The ...

China Ink Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard completed her first official trip to…

Beijing not her first stop? Gillard made Japan the first leg of her Asian tour, unlike her predecessor Kevin Rudd, who skipped ...

Planet China As lovers’ tiffs go, this one was serious. After arguing with…

As lovers’ tiffs go, this one was serious. After arguing with his girlfriend, a man in Shanghai took her literally at her word. The Shanghai Daily ...

Cartoons Musical statues

It’s hard to imagine that a statue of man born around 2,500 years ago could provoke controversy. But evidently Confucius can. The philosophical sage ...

And Finally How did Chinese react to the Royal Wedding in London?

For the past couple of decades China has shown an uncanny ability to take things from the West and make them more cheaply. But while this may work for ...