Another China WTO Loss. Another Nail In The Coffin Of World Trade. (Feb 6)
By: Steve Dickinson Preserving its track record of major defeats before the WTO, China recently lost its appeal of the WTO panel decision in the minerals export case. The appeal decision was issued on January 30 and can be found here. Briefly stated, the original panel report held that Chinese export duties and export quotas for certain industrial minerals violate WTO requirements. China was ordered to reduce its duties and dismantle its export quota system. China appealed and lost on all important issues. This decision has important implications. As most observers have noted, the real issue is export quotas and the real target is China’s export quota system for rare earths. Under the terms of this decision, China’s rare earths quota system is in clear violation of the WTO. The U.S. and others expect China to now act on its own and terminate the rare earths quota system. If this is not done voluntarily, the U.S. and the European Union have threatened to bring a follow-up action in t...


Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim On Arbitrating Your China Disputes, Part III. Is Enforcement Overemphasized? (Feb 5)
This is part III (the last) of Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim's three part series of guest posts on China arbitration. I asked Dr. von Wunschheim to write this series because arbitration is so important to so many China transactions and she literally wrote the book on China arbitration: Enforcement of Commercial Arbitral Awards in China.  More from Dr. Von Wunschheim: PART 3:         Relevant Criteria for Selection between Arbitration in or outside China – Are enforcement issues really so important?   In my previous posts, I set out the context of the battle between arbitration in or outside China and the arguments that the supporters of each option commonly rely upon. I further explained the reasons why I am not convinced by most these arguments, the main reason being that I believe the pros and cons invoked by the supporters of either option to be largely directed by their fear and ignorance of the other option, and are not made in due regard of the specific needs and possibili...


Bangkok Day 1: Canal Boats & Golden Mount (Feb 5)
Everyone who knows I live in China is always surprised to learn that I’d never visited Southeast Asia – up until now I had always been more preoccupied with exploring the mainland and Korea / Japan. I decided to put this straight and during the Chinese New Year holidays and managed to get some cheap tickets to Bangkok in Thailand. Arriving late on a Saturday night I headed straight to my accommodation in the Phaya Thai (พญาไท) district and had a quick bite for dinner. The next morning I took the BTS Skytrain (Bangkoks elevated rapid transit system) to Ratchathewi station (ราชเทวี - when pronounced sounds a lot like ratatouille!) in search of the Khlong Saen Saeb canal. The surrounding neighbourhood here seemed to be a bit run-down but there were… Related posts you might like: Wuzhen – Ancient Canal Town Venice Curse of the Golden Flower


Salaries in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou (Feb 2)
A recruitment firm called J.M. Gemini has published the results of a salary survey based on compensation at the firm’s client companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.   Below is a selection of salaries in the survey; all numbers refer to monthly salaries in yuan: Junior secretary: 2,500 – 3,500 Executive secretary / PA: 13,000 [...]


Han Han the novelist versus Fang Zhouzi the fraud-buster (Feb 1)
It’s been an exciting two weeks on China’s microblog scene. Megablogger, rally racer, and novelist Han Han has been defending himself against science writer Fang Zhouzi’s charges that he didn’t write some of his most famous work. Han Han (韩寒) closed out 2011 with a trio of overtly political blog posts in which he laid [...]


Resin giant misses forecasts with sharp decline (Jan 31)
Shenma Industry Co. Ltd., a publicly listed subsidiary of China's largest nylon 6/6 resin producer Shenma Group Co. Ltd., released disappointing preliminary earnings the day after the Chinese New Year holiday.The Pingdingshan-based company reported a 45 percent decline in its 2011 net profit (25 million yuan or US$4 million) compared to 2010, on operating revenue of 15.3 billion yuan (US$3 billion).The results are significantly different from the 60 percent growth in 2011 net profit that Shenma had forecast back in October.Shenma cited a major decline in the fourth quarter caused by "changes in the domestic and international economic environment."Shenma must have seen a decline larger than 100 percent in the fourth quarter, in order to drag the full year results down to negative 45 percent from positive 60 percent during the first three quarters. Analysts questioned the possibility of that scenario, noting that even though nylon 6/6 prices dropped in the fourth quarter, feedstock pr...


Panic buying of water in Liuzhou – a report from the ground (Jan 28)
BBC News — 26 January 2012: River pollution sparks panic water buying in China city Ken Fletcher is a British resident of Liuzhou in Guangxi Province where the panic buying is taking place. He sent this report to Danwei on January 27. Yizhou is a small city in Hechi Prefecture in the north west of [...]


Tycoons back re-elected Taiwan president (Jan 25)
President Ma Ying-jeou's victory to win a second four-year term in office was achieved with strong support from the business community that's heavily invested in the Chinese mainland, including high-profile executives from Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) and Formosa Plastics Group. Terry Gou, chairman of Hon Hai, the world's biggest contract electronics manufacturer, toured Taiwan before the election to endorse Ma. It was the first time Gou campaigned for a candidate, according to the Financial Times.Gou gave his Taiwanese employees in China 'election holidays' and chartered flights for them to return to Taiwan to cast their ballot.Wang Wen-Yun, chief executive of the Formosa Plastics Group, also spoke in public to support Ma's cross-strait policies that focus on peace, stability and economic development.Taiwan's export-led economy is heavily dependent on trade with the mainland. What's more important is Taiwanese businesses' direct investment in mainland China. During 2011, Taiwan's au...


Ai Weiwei iPhone Wallpapers (Dec 3)
I'm currently using the following two images as the lock screen wallpaper and home screen wallpaper, respectively, on my iPhone, and thought some of you might like to do the same. Click for the proper iPhone 4/4S resolution versions of each image. The color version:

The black and white version, darkened to sit behind your icons without unnecessary distraction:

The image is adapted from a project by Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung called The Travelogue of Dr. Brain Damages.