201 Archives | Week In China

Sorry, you have not enabled Javascript for your internet browser, so some of our website's pages may not render as fully as intended.
Please Click here for easy instructions on how to enable Javascript on your browser or consult your IT support staff for help.

Back Issue

WiC 201 (Jul 12, 2013)

Holed below the water line

Shipping, Talking Point Cosco’s boss steps down but is he to blame for its…

In the 1950s China was a country without ocean-going ships, much as it had been 500 years earlier when the Ming Dynasty ordered the destruction of ...

Not so full of beans

China Consumer Setback for Starbucks as it closes symbolic store

In 2007, Starbucks closed its most controversial store, located in Beijing’s Forbidden City. Opening in 2000, the store had riled critics for years, ...

Feeling insecure

Internet & Tech Will Tencent’s service be banned by India?

Despite a flaring up in a decades-old border dispute in April, relations between China and India have improved in recent months. In May, Premier Li ...

Economy Tetra Pak and other foreign firms investigated

Next month will mark five years since China introduced its first set of antitrust laws. As the anniversary approaches it seems that the bodies ...

Property A mall-building spree could end badly

At Chengdu’s New Century Global Centre, you’ll need a comfortable pair of shoes and a map to get around. At 1.7 million square metres, the shopping ...

This trend sucks

Society Why rich Chinese are paying to be breast-fed

Good health may be priceless, but some of China’s super-rich are willing to take the mantra to an extreme. Lately, a rather confused minority has ...

The British invasion

Entertainment Thanks to a dubbed Downton, UK dramas prove hugely popular in…

Maggie Smith speaking Mandarin? Well, not exactly. But Chinese viewers have now got the chance to watch Smith’s Dowager Countess of Grantham ...

Historically accurate

Society A new museum in Shenyang offers a welcome surprise

Bold political statements are rarely associated with museums devoted to the history of manufacturing. But alongside its antique machinery and assorted ...

Back to the drawing board

Sport Spanish coach gets axed as boss of national soccer team

Anyone who doesn’t reform must step down. That was Deng Xiaoping’s rallying cry during his famous ‘Southern Tour’ in 1992 – a symbolic ...

Banging Dagong on debt

Banking & Finance Rating agency revokes credit score on local government bond

In 2010, Dagong Global Credit Rating caused a stir when it lowered its rating for US debt from AA to A+. The downgrade occurred at a time when the ...

No ordinary butcher

Who’s Hu Wan Long

In China in days gone by, butchery was a trade of lowly status. Marrying a butcher was seen as an undesirable option. But being the most prolific ...

Back to the futures

Banking & Finance Bond futures are coming back

After an 18-year suspension, bond futures are back on the menu for Chinese investors. But for those with long memories this could be a mixed blessing ...

Underground lending

Planet China When the Great Fire of London broke out in September 1666,…

When the Great Fire of London broke out in September 1666, Samuel Pepys buried his papers, his wine and his Parmesan cheese in a hole in his garden. ...

Red-faced on green achievement

Cartoons Red-faced on green achievement

Blunt admissions are the last thing that you expect from government ministers, and that’s especially the case in China. So there was widespread ...

How Lo can you go?

And Finally China oil giant pays for Lopez’s ill-fated concert in Turkmenistan

Aside from having an agent who didn’t bother to Google Turkmenistan before booking her for a gig there, Jennifer Lopez then had to suffer the further ...