The past 9 months may have been the most active
ever for China’s foreign policy. Besides China’s recent support of
an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo on the government of Muammar
Qaddafi, and the country’s behind the scenes support for independence
to South Sudan, China has recently taken steps to increase trade and
investment along its most unstable borders, setting up a [...]
A
Bloomberg News article from Michael Forsythe on China’s National People’s
Congress is making
waves today. Coming on the heels of the failed “Jasmine Revolution” in
China, the article seeks to show that the NPC is representative of the widening
income gap in China.
The richest 70 of the 2,987 members
have a combined wealth of 493.1 billion yuan ($75.1 billion), and [...]
I’ve been only half following the hubbub over
unionism in America, but it suddenly caught my attention today as a few of the
defenders of unionism began attacking my prized belief in the value of
outsourcing. Ezra
Klein started the ruckus by arguing that unions provide a
countervailing power to companies interested in outsourcing. Which Will
Wilkinson pointed out is not really a good thing (starting with [...]
Since 2007, India and the European Union have been negotiating a free
trade agreement (FTA) — covering trade in goods and services, intellectual
property rights and government procurement – that is fraught with problems. The
agreement is expected to be finalised by mid-2011.
As the G20 meets and debates issues of inflation and global imbalances, China’s central bank is again on the move. From Reuters:
“China on Friday raised required reserves to a record 19.5 percent,
adding to an increasingly aggressive effort by Beijing to stamp out
stubbornly high inflation.
“Over the past four months, China has also raised interest rates
three [...]
The emerging market powerhouse known as “Chindia” is
becoming a focal point of global attention as China and India show themselves
to be growth dynamos of the coming Asian Century. But examining these
countries’ intrinsic differences, as we do in “‘Chindia’: Putting the
Emerging Market Giants Into Perspective,” is more illustrative than listing
their similarities—and the two countries are likely [...]
A large part of my newsletter
earlier this week discussed emergent scandals in the railway industry
and their implications for the overinvestment debate, and this was even
before the Alibaba scandals broke, but I think a lot more interest this week surrounded the inflation numbers. Last week the National Bureau of Statistics released inflation data for the month [...]
Under
the proposed India-EU free trade agreement, the European Commission (EC) has
sought an expansive mandate to negotiate on investment issues on behalf of
the European Union. On January 20, 2011, the EC officially made recommendations
to the European Council seeking modifications in the negotiating directives for
the trade agreement with India.
[...]
Because of the lunar New Year
festivities when I wrote my newsletter little had happened in China
besides the 25 bp interest rate hike on Tuesday, not counting of course
the never-ending stream of fireworks and the several really great jaio
zi dinners I have managed to snag from my students and their families. I
have nonetheless been getting [...]
Adam Minter, over on his blog, challenges
journalists/columnists/bloggers, to not write about Chinese public opinion when
discussing whether the country is at risk of an Egypt style uprising, but
rather to discuss what institutions China has in place for “venting.” He makes a good
point that discussions of what “most Chinese people want” are often
completely subjective and heavily biased, [...]