52 Archives | Week In China

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Back Issue

WiC 52 (Mar 12, 2010)

Wang’s recharged ambitions

Auto Industry, Talking Point A deal with Germany’s Daimler – but analysts ask what’s under…

When Wang Chuan-Fu first mooted the idea of entering the car industry, he asked his Shenzhen-based engineers to dismantle his car and see how it was ...

Bad with numbers

Economy Accurate statistics are hard to come by

Throughout China’s long history, numbers have been used by the country’s leaders to serve their political ends. This trend may have reached its ...

Dogfight over China’s skies

Aviation Competitors of Hainan Airlines unite to throttle its low price strategy

The leading lady in Feng Xiaogang’s blockbuster film If You Are the One plays an air hostess. For close observers of China’s aviation scene it will ...

China’s new pay phone

Telecoms China Mobile wants to buy a stake in a major bank

China Mobile’s first problem is a nice one: it has too much cash. The world’s largest wireless operator by subscribers is sitting on $37.5 billion ...

Billionaire battles madhouse

Chinese Character Family turns against leather tycoon – declaring him insane

"Harmony within family is the basis of success in any undertaking,” reckons a Chinese idiom. In theory, those words should resonate with someone like ...

Energy & Resources Why Chen Yilong is betting on trees

Hubei businessman Chen Yilong has struck oil in China’s forests – and it’s not underground. He’s planning to invest more than $1.5 billion to ...

Sooner or later… but when?

Rise of the RMB Did China’s central bank governor suggest a stronger renminbi is on…

A change of heart? Not the way the Chinese press reported it. Wen Jiabao’s speech last Friday, in which he said that the renminbi ...

Who’s Hu Building magnate who dominates Beijing skylines

Born in the western province of Gansu in 1963, Pan was initially disadvantaged by his family background – his father was labelled a ‘rightist’. ...

Energy & Resources Buying in Australia (again)

A seamy tale Buying in Australia (again) China Inc’ made another foray overseas last week as PetroChina joined with Royal Dutch Shell to bid more ...

The cheque republic

Banking & Finance An Eastern European firm is at the vanguard of Chinese consumer finance

When 36 year-old Zhang Hongqi went to buy a new mobile phone earlier this month, he didn’t know that he was about to take part in Chinese financial ...

Red Star Yao Ming

China’s undisputed basketball icon, Yao Ming, 29, was born in Shanghai. Not particularly drawn to athletics, Yao spent most of his childhood reading ...

Society Nightclub sparks uproar

Chiang Kai-shek was its first headmaster; and former Premier Zhou Enlai was one of its teachers in the early years. But Whampoa Military Academy – ...

Society China’s gender crisis

Boy-meets-girl is perhaps the most well used storyline in Hollywood. It’s no surprise that two of the biggest grossing movies in cinema history are ...

Political hurdles

Society Athlete fails to win gold in speechwriting stakes

He may be one of the fastest men in the world but when it comes to politics, Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang is a laggard. The athlete, who was ...

Planet China Not many kids make more money than their parents. The ones…

Not many kids make more money than their parents. The ones that do are usually child actors like Macaulay Culkin (star of the Home Alone movies). But ...

Relocation problems

Cartoons Relocation problems

Why do many Chinese think the movie Avatar is really about them? As pointed out in WiC51 (page 8), like the Na’vi, many in China are subject to ...

Dressing for less

And Finally Meet Brother Sharp, China’s new fashion icon

His good looks and bohemian dress sense have won him an army of fans. But Brother Sharp is no catwalk model. He is, in fact, a homeless man in the city ...