Category Archives: China Business & Economy

Finally, a Worthwhile “Apple: What Have We Learned?” Article

April 5, 2013

You’ve probably read more than one story about Apple’s current troubles in China. This latest kerfuffle involves a broadside against Apple’s warranty and repair policies by local media (e.g., CCTV, People’s Daily) and at least one consumer agency. Why have I avoided it? While it’s big news for Apple, and for all you Cult of [...]

Detroit, the Next Great Chinatown?

March 21, 2013

Chinese investors snapping up cheap Detroit homes is an old story, so I’m surprised that there are still suckers out there who are throwing good money after bad: Low property prices in Detroit, United States, have lured global investors, many of them Chinese, to the city keen to join the buying spree, housing agents said. [...]

Back in Beijing

March 17, 2013

OK, time to catch up with a few admin issues, not to mention the news. As I mentioned previously, I’ve been spending the past couple weeks in Pennsylvania at corporate HQ getting up to speed on the new professional gig (FYI: I finally updated my bio with details). I’ve been enjoying such learning opportunities as: [...]

InBev-AB Acquisition of Jiangxi Brewery. Any AML Implications?

February 1, 2013

You might not have caught the news from early in the week about a possible acquisition of a Chinese brewery by beer colossus InBev-AB. I didn’t see much coverage of the deal, and to be honest, it is a fairly run-of-the-mill M&A transaction that probably means little to folks outside of the beer/beverage market. Moreover, the story [...]

In Defense of China’s Golden Week

January 17, 2013

There is a lot to dislike about China’s ginormous week-long holidays, one of which, Spring Festival/New Year, is coming up in a few weeks. The crowds are larger than you can imagine, requiring some sort of logarithmic scale of imagination to comprehend, the weird system of moving around weekend days is bizarre and uncomfortable, and [...]

Weekend Reading: New York Times Foxconn Follow-up

December 29, 2012

The New York Times has run a follow-up story to their earlier excellent coverage of Foxconn/Apple China labor problems and mitigation efforts. The article ran early in the week, but I was only able to get to it this morning because of VPN (i.e., technical) issues. The basic take away from “Signs of Changes Taking [...]

Fast Food MNCs Getting Clobbered by China Daily Today

December 20, 2012

It’s not exactly breaking news to say that multinationals/foreign companies have it tough in China. Seems like every other day I’m writing something about a new investigation, enforcement campaign, or dispute involving a foreign firm here. Some times the criticism turns out to be fair, and other times the rumors are unfounded. Occasionally there are [...]

M&A Hacking: Cyberwar’s Newest Battleground

December 11, 2012

This article first appeared in Agenda magazine. Check out the latest issue here. Getting that merger or acquisition done right is a difficult proposition. From choosing the right target to crunching the numbers, from due diligence to post-deal restructuring, there are already numerous pitfalls, and some devious cyberthieves out there just found a new way [...]

Canada (Finally) Approves CNOOC-Nexen Deal

December 8, 2012

You remember the CNOOC-Nexen deal, right? China’s State-owned CNOOC was looking for some offshore energy assets, and Canadian oil and gas producer Nexen raised its hand and said “Pick me!” Hilarity then ensued on the political front, both in the U.S. and Canada, and somewhere along the way, I’m sure some of the Chinese people [...]

Bloomberg: China Should Dive in to Those Muddy Waters

December 4, 2012

A quick recommendation here for a William Pesek column in Bloomberg about China short sellers, specifically Carson Block’s Muddy Waters. Pesek argues that instead of demonizing short sellers and throwing up road blocks to thwart their research capabilities, China should embrace these folks since they operate to uncover corruption, fraud and other irregularities that will [...]

Huawei Might Need Some PR Help in the UK

November 22, 2012

From the Telegraph: Huawei’s UK arm paid more than £8,600 to send executives to a networking event at the Conservative Party conference, in the same week US politicians said its technology should be blacklisted from American government systems. The company also paid £10,000 to the Liberal Democrats to sponsor a reception at its conference in Brighton. [...]