Read this article on the community site
Read this article on the community site
There may well be nine million bicycles in Beijing, but last year more than 18 million new cars took to China’s roads as well. The Chinese are quickly becoming the car industry’s most beloved consumers.
The Asian giant is now the world’s biggest car market since it overtook the US in 2009. Last year’s new car sales were up 32 per cent and while sales have dipped this year, the market is expected to record growth figures of between 10 and 15 per cent every year for the next decade.
What really makes motor industry hearts palpitate is that ownership levels in proportion to population are a 10th of those in Europe or the US. Hardly surprising then that the Shanghai motor show is quickly becoming one of the most important fixtures on the motoring calendar. Since the opening up of the car market to foreign firms over the last three decades, the established global brands have arrived here in force, competing alongside dozens of local producers.
As with most things in China, governmental influence plays a big role. To enter the market foreign firms must first create a joint venture with a designated local firm.
Read the full article on irishtimes.com »
Read this article on the community site
A couple of weeks ago I got a call at home from a close Chinese friend. After going through the pleasantries, she began to talk to me about her aunt.1 Her aunt had discovered that her son,2 who is in the middle of preparing for “gao kao,” has a girlfriend. She was afraid that this would effect his study resulting in his not getting into a top school. Not knowing what to do she wanted the advice of a guy. My first question was … why didn’t her aunt just ask her husband? My friend responded that she did not want to tell her husband for fear that he would do something rash3. My next question was, “what does she want to know from me?” Well, according to my friend, her aunt wanted to know that if it were me4 and my mom confronted me about having a girlfriend what would I do: would I accept it, would I hate her for it, would I pretend I didn’t have a girlfriend, would I run away.
I explained that in the US it is quite common for high-schoolers to date and that dating does not necessarily result in poor class and test preparation. I also said that if the aunt was really worried she should probably explain to her son that she know’s he has a girlfriend but that if it is going to effect his grades and test-scores something will need to be done. My friend and I then got into a deep conversation on modern parenting in China. My questions were, why was her aunt so afraid to talk to her son about this. The response was that her and many parents in China not only want to be their kids parent but also their friends and anything that smacks of an Amy Chua-esque foot in the a** over school and grade is not really considered because that might lead the kid to dislike or hate the parent. At the same time, these parents still have super-high scholastic expectations for their kids and want them focus wholly on the goal of getting into a good university. Which made me think that it would be a pretty difficult job to be a parent and having such expectations without doing something, someday that your kid would dislike … I mean their children are the kids and they are the adult … it’s not the other way around. Apparently, the one-child policy and constant comparison between families about their kids has changed the dynamic resulting in many kids in China being uber-coddled.
From my personal experience I see the result every day. The two twenty-something masters-degree interns that work in our office: (1) are almost bare of any initiative;5 (2) have very little life survival skills6 and (3) are so fragile that even the slightest criticism7 results in teary eyes and pouting. I mean no Amy Chua babies are these. But they are extremely bright and scholastically talented kids.
Last night I called my friend to see how it went. The results were her aunt did not approach her son on the subject. Rather she got my friend to do it for her. Even then my friend said that she did not ask him directly but rather asked him if he knew other kids who had girlfriends, would he tell her if HE had a girlfriend, and that having a girlfriend now might adversely effect his grades blah, blah blah. I asked my friend what how her cousin answered her queries and she said he denied knowing people who had girlfriends, HE didn’t have a girlfriend and his grades were fine. As I hung up the phone … I couldn’t help but wonder what would Ms. Chua have done.
Read this article on the community site
A truck loaded with up to 500 live dogs, some reportedly still wearing collars bearing their names, was forced to stop on a highway in east Beijing last Friday. The reason? A gung-ho animal lover and blogger who spotted the overloaded vehicle and suspected foul play, and so swerved in front of the truck in a daring doggy rescue.
Read this article on the community site
The mere fact that this is part 21 of the series ought to tell you that we have been beating the drum for a long time on the opportunities for foreign service businesses in China. It seems we just got a bit more and quite august company on this.
The very influential United States-China Business Council just came out with its China guide for the 112th Congress (United States), entitled, “China and the U.S. Economy: Advancing a Winning Trade Agenda,” and what I found most interesting about it was its upbeat section on China’s burgeoning service sector:
Though overshadowed by issues surrounding trade in manufactured goods, the dramatic expansion of trade and investment in services between China and the United States has benefitted both economies substantially and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Though trade in manufactured goods is often viewed, rightly or wrongly, as benefitting one or the other country in terms of jobs and balance of payments impact, trade and investment in the services sector is overwhelmingly positive for both countries.
The USBC sees substantial and profitable future growth for United States service companies in China:
The expanding market for service-based jobs is important to China’s ability to absorb the large numbers of young workers and college graduates entering the job market each year. For the United States, which is the world’s largest service economy, trade and investment in services with China translates directly to high-wage US jobs and increased profits from investments in China that lead to further investment and job creation in the United States. The more open the Chinese market for US service providers becomes, the more US services can be sold in China.
In 2010, the United States exported more than $20.1 billion in services to China and imported just $9.7 billion, resulting in a surplus of $10.4 billion.
And there is room for substantial growth.
The report details the types of service providers best positioned for growth in China:
Who are these service providers? They include major US banks and financial institutions, law firms, insurance companies, engineering firms and providers of tourism, business advisory, computer express delivery, and medical and healthcare services, among others. Collectively, service industries account for 80 percent of private sector jobs in the United States. Increasingly, these companies are being allowed to set up operations in China for sales in China. It is a major area of opportunity for US companies that includes additional jobs at their home base.
The report talks of how even when a U.S. company goes to China for manufacturing, its doing so usually creates all sorts of service revenue for the United States:
For instance, when a US engineering firm builds a power plant or manufacturing facility in China, much of the high-value conceptual design and engineering- which is considered a services export- is done in its American offices, and the detailed design might be developed in its offices in China. In addition, the firm will send project managers and support personnel from the United States to manage the project’s construction, without which the engineering might not be exported. The United States has a rapidly expanding services trade surplus with China; the more the Chinese market opens to US service providers, the more US services can be sold in China.
I completely agree because that is exactly what we have seen in terms of our clients. Two to three years ago, the majority of our law firm’s clients were manufacturers. Today, the majority are service providers (I am counting software as a service). I expect this trend to only continue.
What are you seeing out there?
Read this article on the community site
In late 2010, Swiss bank UBS released (and even more embarrassingly retracted) a 44-page dress code for its employees. The move is only the latest indicator of the decline of common sense in mens’ fashion.
Fortunately, Nick Foulkes of jet-set rag “Finch’s Quarterly Review” has simplified things with his treatise on “The Look”: navy blazer, jeans and an open-necked shirt. He describes this as “rich and relaxed, while also managing to be understated.”
Read this article on the community site
Read this article on the community site
Located on the 6th floor in a non-descript office building in the crowded district of central is Yellow Door Kitchen. The Yellow Door Kitchen specializes …
Read this article on the community site
I enjoyed reading this article from the NY Times the other day. It’s nothing new. We’ve discussed this phenomenon a few times here about how many Chinese girls (yes, yes, I know, not ALL) will refuse to marry someone who does not own his own property, but I think it’s worth revisiting and I liked how the piece focuses on one specific young man and his personal experiences in the dating game.
A good friend of mine from the US just 2 days ago was telling me about how his Shanghainese girlfriend was constantly pressuring him to buy a property for them to live in rather than continue to rent. He explained to her that they could continue to rent their very prestigious 3 bedroom apartment for 13,000 RMB per month, or the could move to something much smaller and pay twice that amount per month on the mortgage. I think she’s slowly coming around.
I’ve already been through this thought process. Rents are incredibly low in relation to purchase prices. Much more so say, than London. Which means it’s great to be a tenant here and less great to be a property owner, based purely on rental yields.
But speak to any Chinese person and of course they will tell you that there’s also the increasing value of your property to factor in to the equation. I completely understand this, but opinions here are polarised. Many say China’s property market will continue to boom for the foreseeable future. Others, many others, repeatedly suggest that this cannot be sustained and it will all come crashing down one day.
I honestly don’t know who to believe, which is why I continue to be unmarketable in the marriage market!
