42 Archives | Week In China

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WiC 42 (Dec 11, 2009)

Cloud with a silver lining

Economy, Talking Point Will overcapacity help ward off the spectre of inflation?

It is not how many of us would choose to spend a weekend shortly before Christmas: closeted in a conference room full of planners, technocrats and ...

Don’t sink, float

Shipping Leading ship equipment maker IPOs in Shanghai

Like the Titanic, the Andrea Gail is famous for sinking. The sturdy fishing boat disappears into the deep during a “perfect storm”, as told by ...

In search of trust

Internet & Tech Top Chinese internet firm trades profits for ethics

In China, if people want to look something up on the internet they don’t “Google it”. They “Baidu it”. The nine year-old company is wildly ...

Yan the builder

Chinese Character He built a construction empire, now he wants to build a…

More than three decades after China began its economic reform, the country now faces a situation in which 99% of its small-and-medium-sized ...

Serve the (rich) people

China Consumer Chanel opens Shanghai flagship store, betting on China’s luxury market

It’s not often you hear Mao Zedong compared to Coco Chanel. But in Shanghai last week, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld did just that. The German told ...

“Bring me Dashan”

China and the World Canada looks to mend fractious China ties

The award for the best-known Canadian would likely see a close run-off between Celine Dion, Norman Bethune and Mark Rowswell. The singer’s place ...

High school musical

Entertainment Disney switches location of popular film franchise

In China, six-pack abs are out and brains are in. Or at least that’s what Disney thinks. The American entertainment giant is adapting its hit ...

Red Star Zheng Yuanjie

Zheng Yuanjie, sometimes referred to as China’s Hans Christian Andersen, was born in Shanxi in 1955. He started writing children’s books while ...

China rescues the world

Entertainment Hollywood blockbuster pleases patriotic audiences

The ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse would occur in the year 2012. But they had failed to foresee that Chinese factory workers would save ...

Weighty choices

Sport Why China sent its lightweights to the World Championships

Over the course of the year there has been much talk about the need for China to “pull its weight” – from doing more to prevent climate change ...

China Consumer But did it have arsenic?

Another week and another food safety scandal in China. This one was about arsenic, but it had all the twists and turns of soap opera. The debacle ...

Who’s Hu Battery-powered investor

Born in 1962 in Anhui province, Lu’s career got off to an unentrepreneurial start. He joined the local branch of the People’s Bank of China, and ...

Banking & Finance Fund managers nabbed

Every time former fund manager Tu Qiang entered his office at Invesco Great Wall in Shenzhen, he was subject to a series of security measures. He would ...

Capital punishment

Banking & Finance After a lending binge, banks signal need for new equity

A Bank of China (BOC) announcement in late November that it was “actively studying” ways to top up its capital base seems to have spooked ...

Aviation A controversial departure

Does corporate China have more villains than Gotham City? The detention of Li Zeyuan last week for “economic crimes” was the latest in an ...

Plane, but not simple

Aviation Chinese aerospace firm tempts foreign partners

Launching new aircraft is an expensive business. Boeing will have spent close to $20 billion by the time that its long-delayed 787 “Dreamliner” ...

Taking the strain

Agriculture Beijing approves genetically modified rice

"If food security cannot be ensured, no one can help us,” warns China’s outgoing Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai. His concern: climate ...

Planet China For Britons of a certain vintage the Antiques Roadshow was a…

For Britons of a certain vintage the Antiques Roadshow was a Sunday evening ritual. The television show was compulsive viewing, not least to watch ...

Cartoons The long view

It may not be what they want to hear in Copenhagen, but some Chinese academics think global warming could be positive. “In the long term, warming may ...

The money monks

And Finally Why the shenanigans at the Shaolin Temple?

Alibaba’s Jack Ma described him as “interesting”, “pragmatic” and “a top private businessman”. But the Venerable Abbot Shi Yongxin of the ...