After finding and correctly guessing a bankcard password, a Guangxi man was sentenced to 5 years in prison for fraud

image courtesy of arabian gazette

After correctly guessing a found debit card’s PIN number and indulging in a spending spree, a Guangxi man was sentenced to 5 years in prison Xinhua News reported on June 17.

Su Mou apparently found the lost bankcard at a Nanning roadside. The Guangxi man went to a Dongxi City Agricultural Bank of China ATM and, after several failed attempts at guessing the card password, Su finally got it right. He transferred 450,000 yuan to […]Read more…

China auto sales steadily rising

Vehicle sales in China may increase by 10 percent this year. General Motors, the second-largest automaker in China, is planning to launch 19 new vehicles, as the company looks to use profit from North America to offset costs overseas.

China had a strong 2013 with growth in automobile sales. Despite an economic decline, people continued to buy more cars. The consumption of steel also went up. Since steel is one of the most critical contributions for automobile manufacturing, demand for […]Read more…

How much are multinational companies dependent on China?

From Netease:

Report on Wednesday said, the ambitious Starbucks is continuously expanding in China, but customers staying in Starbucks not leaving is a major obstacle of expanding in China – “Customers love these shops too much, they sit there for hour after hour, and sometimes without buying any coffee at all.”  In fact, although these multinational companies have amazing rate of expanding in China, looking at the sales numbers comparing with total global sales, China is still relatively a small market, […]Read more…

Proposal of issuing large denomination RMB

From CNR.CN:

Are you ready for thousand yuan bills? Member of CPPCC National Committee, vice chairman of the Shangdong Federation of Industry and Commerce Zong Licheng suggested in a proposal, issuing 500 yuan or 1000 yuan denomination bills, in order to meet the economic and social development needs and to reduce the cost of currency in circulation. This message immediately triggered heated debate once appeared on the Internet.

Read more…

Why China doesn’t have its own Steve Jobs

(The commentary by Qiulin 邱林, translated from caixin.cn)

As millions of Chinese netizens mourned over Steve Jobs’ death, they also raised a question – why couldn’t China produce its own “Steve Jobs”? Former vice-president of Google global and president of Google China Kai-fu Lee explained on his weibo that it was because Chinese education puts too much emphasis on reciting and memorizing stuff instead of fostering critical thinking. He pointed out that it wasn’t that Chinese people are not smart […]Read more…

The ten years of a Chinese middle class

From Netease:

Autumn of 2000, 26-year-old Michael carried his luggage and hopped onto a train going to Shanghai.

He had just graduated with his masters in communication engineering from a well-known university in Nanjing.

“In 10 years, my annual salary will be over millions (RMB)” Michael set a goal for himself.

In 2000, IT communications boomed in the land of China. As Huawei, ZTE, Bell and other enterprises rapidly expanded in the country, they have recruited many engineers from major colleges and universities […]Read more…

British Media coined “Peking Pound” for Extravagant Chinese Purchases and High stakes Gambling Abroad

(IFENG)

The big bucks Chinese spend overseas every year reaches staggering numbers. Last year reportedly 56% of Chinese purchases of luxury goods occur abroad, totaling 13,000 million USD. British Media coined a new word—“Peking Pound” for Chinese huge purchasing power. The casinos overseas, also add Chinese in their VIP lists.

British “Peking Pound” splurged £1bn in sales of luxury goods

According to the British Daily Mail reported on 28th December, 2010, wealthy Chinese tourists are expected to spend a billion pounds on luxury […]Read more…

Inflation behind 100 yuan

From Netease:

November 11, 2010, data from Bureau of Statistics showed in October consumer price index rose 4.4%, reached a new high in the last 25 months.

Rewind time back to November, 2009, in one year, how much did the price of commodities rise?

The same 100 yuan, how many less things does it buy you after one year?

According to data from Beijing Market Association on November 13, 2009 and on November 13, 2010, let’s take a look how much the same 100 […]Read more…

Is China’s Growth Sustainable?

A while back we promoted the Diplomat Essay Competition.  The following is the winning essay written by Calvin Wong who won a trip to Japan covering the APEC summit.

Reposted from the Diplomat:

Is China’s Growth Sustainable?

By Calvin Wong

Fifteen years ago, APEC leaders meeting in Japan called for joint action ‘to ensure the region’s economic prosperity is sustainable.’ But is it realistic to believe that APEC’s largest member, China, can grow rapidly and sustainably?

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Growing trend of China’s Internet video landscape

China’s Internet Video landscape is growing in a fast pace as the major video sharing sites like Youku and Tudou becoming popular in Chinese people’s daily digital lives. These sites are not only served as user based video sharing networks, unlike Youtube, large number of the Chinese people actually watch their favorite TV show and movies on these sites. Issues of copyrights aside, the Hulu-like business model actually opened up a lucrative market for the Chinese companies. At the […]Read more…

The annoying “vuvuzela” horns at the 2010 South Africa World Cup are all made in China

(photo by Xihua reporter 杨磊)

(From 002china.com) Currently the hottest news topic around the world is probably the World Cup. Other than the excellent performances by the teams of various countries, the most talked about subject is perhaps the loud horn noise that fills up the entire stadium from the beginning to the end of each match. These long plastic horns called vuvuzela are causing heated discussions internationally because of the high decibel noises they make.

Although the Chinese team did […]Read more…

China’s new rich set trend buying luxury homes in California with cash

From World Journal, Los Angeles:

Mr. Chen had been renting and living in a 2 bedroom house in South Pasadena, California for many years, recently he was forced to move because his landlord sold the house for 525,000 dollars (short sale). Friends from mainland China asked him why, he always responded angrily, “All you mainlanders are too rich, buying houses with cash, causing me to move!”

As China’s economy rises, a group of China’s new rich with abundant cash funds appeared […]Read more…

Most constructions in China only have life span of 25-30 years?

From SouFun:

Mortgage slaves work hard for half of their lives and save up for the down payment, then work hard for the rest of their lives to pay off the loan. Finally when they can relax and live as home owners, they never have thought that when the mortgage salves are not yet old, the homes are already old, not only old, but also rotted, most of them become the subject for demolition. This is the reality of what currently […]Read more…

A Japanese opinion on China being world factory

This is actually an old post, the earliest one I could find is from tieba.baidu on March 29, 2006, however, it came back to life these days and was reposted by sohu business review, chinareviewnews.com etc. and was recently referred by the popular commentary talk show Behind the Headlines with Wen Tao (铿锵三人行) on Phoenix TV.

Here is translation of the  content:

I am a typical so-called “economic animal” Japanese businessman, I have been China for over 6 years working […]Read more…