174 « Week In China

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WiC 174 (Nov 30, 2012)

Generational change

Talking Point, Telecoms China Mobile will invest Rmb1 trillion on 4G. The fight’s on…

Much media attention has been lavished on a fifth generation in recent weeks – in this case the fifth cohort of Party supremos to rule China since ...

Aviation HNA Group buys into airline for access to French flight rights

20:20 vision, a minimum height of 6’2” and an ability to communicate in English is no longer enough. Pilot wannabes for China’s fourth largest ...

Energy & Resources State Grid wants to spend hundreds of billions of dollars. Will it…

Earlier this week the Financial Times columnist Edward Luce mentioned that his Indian mother-in-law was unhappy. Having recently arrived on a visit to ...

Welcome or not?

Property Chinese ponder mixed messages from Madrid

Asked what they know about Xibanya, most Chinese will give you a blank stare. At best, they might mention the flamenco or matadors. But deeper ...

Economy Does Li Keqiang’s speech signal reformist path?

According to the BBC, He Hongqing is China’s fastest ‘face-changer’. It’s a compliment rather than a criticism. An expert in Sichuan Opera, ...

Rail & Infrastructure Sany decides to swap Changsha for Beijing

Politicians the world over know that going ‘off-message’ can damage the chances of achieving high office. But Liang Wengen, one of the China’s ...

More of the same

Economy China expert says new leaders favour status quo

Don’t expect too much to change. So says Roderick MacFarquhar, a Harvard professor known for his histories of modern China, including the exhaustive ...

A crucial period

Banking & Finance Financial system to experience ‘Big Bang’: HSBC

Get ready for a revolution in the Chinese financial system, says Qu Hongbin, HSBC’s chief economist for Greater China. Qu’s anticipating that the ...

Auto Industry Japan’s Subaru looks to find local partner to expand China sales

If awards were handed out for perseverance, Chery Automobile would be a Hall-of-Famer. Denied a licence to make cars when it first came into existence ...

Feng’s epic undertaking

Entertainment Top director’s new blockbuster has been almost 20 years in the…

Feng Xiaogang is widely known in China for achieving a series of ‘firsts’ in the film business. His film Dream Factory (1997) was ...

Unexpected winner

Entertainment Beijing Blues wins coveted gong at Taiwan film awards

It came as little surprise that Johnnie To’s heavily-tipped thriller Life Without Principle should triumph at the 49th Golden Horse Awards ...

Re-education system on trial

Society Maoist detention centres are in the spotlight

When detainees are released from Chinese labour camps they often face a stark choice – keep a low profile or risk being sent straight back. Former ...

Poet's Corner Qu Yuan

For William Wordsworth, a leading English Romantic poet, poetry was “emotion recollected in tranquility”. But about 2,000 years before ...

Swimming in profit

Planet China Pigs can’t fly. But on a farm in Hunan province they…

Pigs can’t fly. But on a farm in Hunan province they have been showing that they can dive, at least. Hoggery boss Huang Demin has devised a new ...

Bus on information highway

Cartoons Bus on information highway

Passengers on Shanghai’s number 49 bus will soon notice a pleasant change in the service. That’s because its operator Shanghai Bashi Group has ...

Choose your poison

And Finally Chinese liquor proves dangerous to health

When broadcaster Dan Rather first tasted baijiu in 1972 he likened it to “liquid razor blades”. Richard Nixon’s aide Alexander Haig seemed to ...