Links » Cream » Chinese Firms Look West Amid Economic Slowdown

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• Chinese Firms Look West Amid Economic Slowdown
• Photo: Telescopes on the beach in Rizhao, by Christopher Cherry
• Hexie Farm (蟹农场)：The Note of Harmony
• Pussy Riot, Rock and Roll and China
• Tensions with Japan on the Rise
• To Know What’s Wrong With China, Look At Construction
• On Economy, Verbal Intervention May Be Key
• Netizen Voices: Guess Who?
• Ministry of Truth: Absconding Liaoning Official
• The Daily Twit – 8/27/12: New Laws on the Way, Web Addiction, and Comparative Education
• F*$# Pride: Why Does China Need 100 Global Brands by 2015?

Chinese Firms Look West Amid Economic Slowdown Posted: 28 Aug 2012 12:45 AM PDT From investments in energy, property, entertainment and other sectors, David Pierson and Don Lee of The Los Angeles Times report that Chinese firms have been snapping up U.S. assets at a record pace: With U.S. real estate prices depressed and many firms in the West starved for cash, the Chinese see a prime opportunity to rummage through the bargain bins of rich countries to gain technological know-how and international reach. They're also hedging against rising costs and uncertainties inside China. The world's second-largest economy is struggling with its slowest growth rate since the financial crisis in 2008. "The Chinese growth model is changing fundamentally," said Thilo Hanemann, research director for the New York-based Rhodium Group, which tracks Chinese direct investment. "Chinese companies need to escape the profit squeeze in low-end manufacturing and move up and down the value chain. Expanding investment in developed economies is an essential part of that," Hanemann said. Examples abound – Real estate magnate Wang Jianlin's Wanda Group agreed to acquire cinema chain AMC Entertainment in late May, and last week Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC made an investment in a U.S. natural gas export plant. The trend is worrying some American officials, Pierson and Lee add, even if the China issue has taken a backseat during the U.S. presidential campaign. China's investment push west has also raised official eyebrows north of the border, where state-owned CNOOC has faced obstacles in its proposed $15.1 billion acquisition of Canada's Nexen. CNOOC's offer for Nexen would be the richest foreign takeover ever for a Chinese company, according to Reuters, which reported last week that shareholders will vote next month on whether to approve the transaction: The move is the most ambitious foray by resource-hungry China into North American energy since a 2005 attempt to buy U.S.-based Unocal for $18.5 billion was thwarted by a political backlash in the United States. Chinese companies have been among the most aggressive in targeting assets around the globe to help feed demand in the world's second-biggest economy. According to details included in a proxy circular filed with regulators, CNOOC's July 23 offer of $27.50 per Nexen share came after the Canadian firm rejected two earlier bids. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: AMC Entertainment, Canada, Nexen, overseas investment, Sino-U.S. Relations, Wanda Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photo: Telescopes on the beach in Rizhao, by Christopher Cherry Posted: 28 Aug 2012 12:32 AM PDT Telescopes on the beach in Rizhao © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hexie Farm (蟹农场)：The Note of Harmony Posted: 28 Aug 2012 12:17 AM PDT For the latest instalment in his CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm depicts a naked king performing the "Song of Harmony," yet at end of the big note is the scythe of the grim reaper. The image of the king alludes to "naked officials," or corrupt officials whose family and wealth reside overseas (while also bringing to mind The Emperor's New Clothes). "Harmony," or "harmonious," is a key propaganda term employed by the current administration of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to describe their governing philosophy. However, for many in China, the term has come to mean "censored" or "suppressed." Read more about Hexie Farm's CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series. [CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.] © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: harmony, hexie farm, naked officials Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Pussy Riot, Rock and Roll and China Posted: 27 Aug 2012 11:59 PM PDT For The International Herald Tribune's Rendezvous blog, Mark McDonald explores the world of Chinese rock music in light of the Pussy Riot verdict in Russia: The case has some echoes in China, which tolerates little political dissent from its artists, writers and musicians. The artist Ai Weiwei, for example, a hefty thorn in Beijing's side, has frequent and unpleasant brushes with the law. Liu Xiaobo, the essayist, literary critic and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, remains in prison, as do other poets, writers and critics. Government censors are notorious for the erasing of objectionable political comments online and the blocking of offending blogs and Web sites. Chinese musicians seem to have been dealt with less harshly, perhaps because they have rarely dared to openly taunt the Communist Party and the political system. China's rock, punk, rap and hip hop artists don't much go there, at least not brazenly and commercially; when they do offer a political message, they often drape their lyrics in word-play and oblique symbolisms. A previous generation thrilled to the pointed and poignant music of Cui Jian, whom many consider the godfather of Chinese rock, but Young China still seems to be waiting for its Woody Guthrie, its Pete Seeger, its Bruce Springsteen. Still waiting for an Odetta, a Dylan, a Baez. See also an interview in the Los Angeles Review of Books with Jonathan Campbell, the author of Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Cui Jian, dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, music industry, Pussy Riot, rock music Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Tensions with Japan on the Rise Posted: 27 Aug 2012 11:56 PM PDT Tensions between Japan and China over the disputed Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands are continuing to rise after the Japanese Ambassador's car was attacked and the Japanese flag ripped off of it in Beijing. From the Los Angeles Times blog: On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed regret over an attack a day earlier on the official car carrying Japan's ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa. Neither Niwa nor another Japanese diplomat in the vehicle was injured, but protesters forced the car to a stop on a busy Beijing road and ripped the Japanese flag from the vehicle. Also on Sunday, protests were staged in about 25 other Chinese cities, with marchers burning flags depicting the rising sun, chanting anti-Japanese slogans and vandalizing Japanese cars, restaurants and other businesses, the Kyodo news agency reported. "The Japanese Embassy said in a press release it has filed a strong protest with the Chinese Foreign Ministry and a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official expressed 'deep regret' over the incident," Kyodo reported from Beijing. The official New China News Agency reported that the Beijing government had made assurances to Tokyo that Japanese citizens and interests in China would be protected. The agency also noted that Japan's national government had blocked a controversial plan by the governor of Tokyo to visit and survey the islands that the municipality has proposed buying from their private owners to cement Japan's claim. The disputed outcroppings are called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu by the Chinese. The governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, has enflamed tensions with his call to visit the islands, the Wall Street Journal reports: "We must build a telecommunications base, a port, a meteorological station" on the disputed islands, said Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo and a well-known nationalist, whose controversial proposal to have the city buy the islands has ballooned into one of the summer's hottest diplomatic brawls. "Without such things, we won't have effective control of them," Tokyo's popular four-term governor said in a recent interview. Meanwhile, Twitter user @StephaneLagarde posted this photo of a Japanese-made car in Beijing, with a sign in the back reading: "The car is Japanese; the [driver's] heart is Chinese. Diaoyu belongs to China; Aoi Sola belongs to the world." Aoi Sola is a hugely popular porn star with almost 13 million followers on Sina Weibo. " Read more about Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, and about recent anti-Japan protests, via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: anti-japan demonstration, diaoyu islands, Japan relations, japan tension Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

To Know What’s Wrong With China, Look At Construction Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:30 PM PDT Popular blogger Li Chengpeng wrote recently about the recent collapse of a bridge in Harbin, after which officials claimed that they were unable to find the construction company responsible. He uses that example, among many others, to discuss the concept of truth in Chinese society. Tea Leaf Nation translated his post: I've also noticed a bunch of people clamoring for the truth. Actually, you don't need to seek the truth, because we all know the truth. Last year, at a book fair in Hong Kong, I said that the greatest truth in this place is that we know they are lying, and they know that we know they are lying, and we also know that they actually know that we know that they are lying…so we don't care about the truth anymore, we just care about the way they put on their show of "truth," and only the complete compilation of all of these performances is enough to count as the whole truth. It was thunder for the train, or Guo Meimei's bag, the smile of the Yan'an security official when those 36 people died in the traffic accident, or when the weight of a truck caused the collapse of the bridge, it's the safe and healthy milk that Meng Niu sends out every day, and the several people who died in the Henan bridge collapse that journalists weren't allowed to report on. So you see, the "experts" have come out again. They're so busy explaining disasters that it's the only thing they do. Stupid technology wonks have also come out of the woodwork, saying that the science of mechanics proves that the only reason the bridge collapsed is that the driver stayed to one side. They should have just said, "Who told the driver to park on the right side, don't they know that's an incorrect political stance?" The audience would have laughed and cheered. The truth I like the most is: Some people don't have penises, but they always pretend to pee standing up. This is why we should relax. In truth, I don't expect leaders in Harbin to come out and apologize personally, or for a few corrupt officials to get nabbed. They nab corrupt officials every day, and bridges collapse every year, nothing new under the sun. With the passage of time, you will realize that the greatest gift this age has given us isn't the truth, but all the time and hard work you've put into imagining how they will put on a show of "truth." In this amazing process, they are responsible for lying, and the ordinary people transform these lies into allegories. Read more by and about Li Chengpeng, via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: accountability, corruption, Li Chengpeng, truth Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

On Economy, Verbal Intervention May Be Key Posted: 27 Aug 2012 07:09 PM PDT After another disappointing round of manufacturing data last week, Reuters reports that Communist Party officials must now hurry if they want to inject optimism into the economy ahead of the upcoming leadership transition: Factory activity is already at a nine-month low, according to the latest manufacturing sector survey from HSBC, signaling that the official August numbers for industrial production and trade published in a fortnight will foreshadow third quarter economic growth falling below the government's 7.5 percent goal. That is a deeply unappealing prospect for the Party's top brass as GDP data is likely to be unveiled at roughly the same time as the new leadership in a once-a-decade power transition. The only real option to deliver a growth spurt in the narrow time window open to policymakers is a boost to infrastructure spending. Indeed, verbal intervention may be the only answer. "They are sending out the message that they want to stimulate the economy, but in reality that is not going to happen," influential independent China economist, Andy Xie, told Reuters. "About the only tool left to them now is propaganda." China's leaders face a conundrum, according to BBC News, as they prepare to hand over the reigns to the next generation at at time when the economy faces its worst run in years: Recent efforts by China's leaders to engineer a turnaround don't seem to have worked. They have already cut interest rates twice, released more money into the economy by cutting bank reserve ratios, and announced a raft infrastructure projects. The way to change things now would be to pump more money into building projects – and fast. But investment spending already accounts for a huge 50% of China's economy. The massive stimulus used to get China through the financial crisis led to inflation, worries about bad debts and soaring property prices and the government has been working to rein those in. So if they do more now to achieve a short-term boost before the autumn Party Congress, then the result down the line could be a new, nasty bout of inflation, unpaid loans, and surging house prices, things the leadership says it's determined to avoid. For more on the global implications of China's slowdown, The Economist has rolled out a stockmarket index called "Sinodependency" which is weighted by S&P 500 companies that have exposure to China. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: CCP 5th generation, GDP growth, hard landing, leadership transition, manufacturing, propaganda Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Netizen Voices: Guess Who? Posted: 27 Aug 2012 05:51 PM PDT MrWonder (琢磨先生), a well-followed Weibo user who claims to live in Saudi Arabia, recently posted a quip about "a certain group" that was quickly turned into a meme by fans: MrWonder: There's a group that held a secret meeting to choose some mystical people to serve as their leaders. I'm talking about Al Qaeda. @DianhuiDeepwater: There's a group of mysterious people who managed the world's greatest riches and resources and who lead a life of luxury envied by all. I'm talking about the Rothschilds. @Inscription9817: There's a group that spends taxpayers' money on itself and wins Olympic gold, yet has nothing to do with us! I'm talking about North Korea. 琢磨先生：一群人偷偷摸摸地开会，选了一群神秘人来做领导，我是说基地组织。 @点汇深水:有一群神秘的人，掌管着全球顶尖的财富和资源，过着外人羡慕的奢华生活，我说的是罗斯柴尔德家族。 @铭子9817:有些人花着纳税人的钱，得了奥运会金牌，却不关我们的事！我说的是朝鲜。 Via SneezeBloid. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Al Qaeda, Chinternet meme, Netizen Voices, North Korea, Olympics, saudi arabia, sina weibo, SneezeBloid, weibo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Ministry of Truth: Absconding Liaoning Official Posted: 27 Aug 2012 08:11 AM PDT The following example of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, has been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation. Urgent Notice from the Liaoning Provincial Department of Propaganda: Do not conduct interviews, report or comment on the case of Fengcheng City Party Secretary Wang Guoqiang leaving the country without authorization. (August 26, 2012) 辽宁省委宣传部紧急通知：对辽宁凤城市委书记王国强擅自离境一事，不采访，不报道，不评论。 According to Radio France Internationale [zh], Wang Guoqiang is rumored to have fled the country with a large sum of money to evade a corruption investigation. He is thought to have siphoned funds from heating bills. Since Kaite Group bought the local thermoelectric plant, the city has gone without heat for two winters, while still charging residents for "maintenance." © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: censorship, corruption, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Fengcheng, Kaite Group, Liaoning, Ministry of Truth, official corruption, propagandra, Wang Guoqiang Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The Daily Twit – 8/27/12: New Laws on the Way, Web Addiction, and Comparative Education Posted: 27 Aug 2012 04:25 AM PDT Kind of a lazy Monday here in China news land. We do have a new legislative session to look forward to later this year, so some movement on that front. Other than that, a whole lot of ad hoc bits and pieces: Xinhua: Law amendment to prevent malicious prosecution — I look forward to seeing this pass and actually used, but I won't hold my breath. Enforcement will require local courts to second-guess local prosecutors. We'll see. Xinhua: Draft mental health law addresses privacy, rights of mentally ill people — This is sorely needed, and I think this new law, although not perfect, may actually make a difference. China IPR: A Quick Read of the AML IPR Enforcement Guidelines (Fifth Draft) — Not for everyone, but if you follow IP licensing, this one's for you. China Daily: Web addiction instructors face scrutiny — I'd rather see this whole infrastructure be scrapped, but tougher regulation is a good first step. And some non-law stories: New York Times: Starving the Future — A few days old, but this Charles Blow column on US vs. China education is worth a read, even though I think it is more instructive in what it gets wrong than anything else. Global Times: Pay bumps can bring professors back — As a law professor, I'm biased on this issue, but yeah, pay is appallingly low for profs here. And some of us don't get any extra benefits either! Bloomberg: Foreigners benefit as Chinese eschew domestic auto brands — In many sectors, cheaper local alternatives dominate even when prestige is a factor. For autos, it's a different story. Sinostand: Assigning Blame for a Hard Landing — The domestic political/PR angle of the economic downturn. This is an excellent read on a thoughtful topic that I haven't seen other folks talk about. Gordon Chang: Chinese Manufacturing Is Crashing — Chang, the author of the late 90s book "The Coming Collapse of China," has been waiting a very long time for bad economic numbers. Somehow I still don't think this is all going to end the way he thinks it will. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

F*$# Pride: Why Does China Need 100 Global Brands by 2015? Posted: 27 Aug 2012 02:02 AM PDT China is determined to have 100 globally influential industrial brands and 1,000 domestically renowned brands by 2015, said Yang Xueshan, vice-minister of industry and information technology, at the Brand Leader Summit on Aug 25. (China Daily) If your reaction to that blurb is "That's hardly news. I see that sort of thing in the State press every day in China," you would be 100% correct. China's love affair with statistics is legendary, which I always assumed was a legacy of  Soviet-style economic planning. You know, "In today's news, the patriots at the Nanjing #5 Dildo Factory came in at 11% above the annual quota," or "China set to surpass Brazilians in number of boob jobs by 2014." Classic. But of course China is not the only one obsessed about keeping score. The recent Olympic games certainly taught us that lesson. The ridiculous "medal count" discussions, particularly ones that pitted the U.S. against China, were amusing. I felt like any minute, Dr. Strangelove would wheel himself out on stage and explain to us how a radical new breeding program sited at the bottom of a mine shaft could produce super-athletes within a generation. "Mein Führer, use of the genetic manipulation techniques we all admired in Jurassic Park could create not only the fastest sprinters in the world, but competitors that would literally be able to eat the competition." Admittedly, though, when sports are involved, most folks go a little crazy with the competitive spirit. It's not just the Olympics, though. The American fixation with which economy is "#1″ and when (or if, according to some pessimists) China will overtake the U.S. in terms of GDP, is just as stupid as the fascination with gold medals. It's like listening to a conversation between preschoolers about how many gold stars each received from the teacher for not dropping an unscheduled load in their pants that day. Keep in mind that these are our politicians and most respected members of the press. Call me crazy, but one would think that the only score that should matter to a government is whether its own people are doing OK. You know, things like unemployment, poverty, inflation, income levels (not misleading per capita figures), infant mortality, social insurance availability — you get the idea. The U.S. hasn't cared about most of those for about 30 years, and while China's leaders talk a good game, the results here are often less than satisfactory. The keeping score mentality reminds me of the old joke about the two guys and the attacking bear. It doesn't matter if you can outrun the bear as long as you can outrun the other guy. As long as the U.S. is #1, and "beating" China, then we won't worry about poverty, climate change and health care. Being #1 is an end to itself. Why does China think that having 100 global brands by 2015 is a reasonable goal? I have no idea. While there may be some sort of connection between overall economic activity and the number of global brands, the whole thing is tenuous, and the number itself is obviously arbitrary. I suspect this has something to do with those global ranking surveys. Every year these lists come out, and the media grabs ahold of them to see what nationalities are represented. Usually we only see Chinese financial institutions on the list, and this is seen as a failure of China's commercial sector, a loss of face that requires remediation. Seems to me that China will have less than 100 global brands by 2015 and yet still have a huge economy. It is what it is. Maybe 50 years from now, China will have 100 of the top global brands, or perhaps India. Who really cares? There are much better ways of assessing how a country is doing with its development strategy, and not having enough famous brands should not be seen as a national embarrassment. Indeed, economic or foreign policy based on saving face is ridiculous. "Shit, none of our slutty celebrities made TMZ's "Hottest Asses of the Year" this year? Wahhhhhh!!! We need a new recruitment drive!" Again, we're back to the room full of toddlers. Or maybe it's a group of 15-year-old boys comparing the size of their equipment. My advice: we shouldn't sweat the irrelevant numbers, and we should let these perceived slights to our national egos be like water off a duck's ass. We'd be better off for it. In the immortal words of Marcellus Wallace: "[Y]ou may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps." © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

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