Beijing slum residents hold out hope for change

Slum residents hold out hope for change

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 03:00

Esther Teo

The Straits Times

BEIJING – In the heart of Beijing’s modern central business district, a tiny shanty town bustles, seemingly frozen in time, sticking out like a sore thumb amid – or some say refreshing respite from – the uniformly glass-clad skyscrapers towering over it. Mr Sun Jiake, 60, is one of the residents in this shanty town. Read more of this post

China Must Purge Mao’s Ghost

December 25, 2013

China Must Purge Mao’s Ghost

By GAO WENQIAN

NEW YORK — Thursday marks the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, founding father of the People’s Republic of China, but the leadership’s celebrations of his legacy are an alarming reminder that China has a long way to go before it can join the league of modern nations. Read more of this post

China to celebrate Mao’s birthday, but events scaled back

China to celebrate Mao’s birthday, but events scaled back

4:06pm EST

By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) – China celebrates the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, on Thursday, but will be scaling back festivities as President Xi Jinping embarks on broad economic reforms which have unsettled leftists. Read more of this post

Daily crush living in tiny rental spaces in Beijing; No quick fix for Beijing’s housing woes

Daily crush living in tiny rental spaces

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 03:00

Esther Teo

The Straits Times

BEIJING – It was quite a crush, and certainly dismal, living in a 7 sq m basement room not much bigger than a bomb shelter in a regular Singapore HDB flat. Read more of this post

For Mao’s birthday, a changing China cashes in and celebrates — carefully

Originally published Wednesday, December 25, 2013 at 7:45 PM

For Mao’s birthday, a changing China cashes in and celebrates — carefully

China’s understated celebrations marking Thursday’s anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong are a far cry from the cult of personality that once surrounded Mao and a sign of how much China has changed 37 years after his death.

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

The Associated Press

Mao Zedong, center, established the People’s Republic of China and is widely considered to have been responsible for the modernization of the nation, although critics point out that his administration caused the death of millions. He is shown during a 1966 rally in Tiananmen Square. Read more of this post

Heavy Pollution Enshrouds Northern China Including Capital

Heavy Pollution Enshrouds Northern China Including Capital

Heavy pollution enveloped northern and central China today, prompting warnings for people to stay indoors as smog levels in some areas exceeded World Health Organization-recommended levels by 30 times. Read more of this post

Mao fans bow before gold image of Communist China’s founder; “Mao Zedong is an example of what can happen when power gets out of control. I see him as the last emperor of China.”

Mao fans bow before gold image of Communist China’s founder

Wednesday, December 25, 2013 – 21:46

AFP

SHAOSHAN, China – Thousands of admirers of Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong flocked to his home town Wednesday to bow before his graven image – including one statue of solid gold – before his 120th birth anniversary. Read more of this post

Pentagon Less Dependent on China Rare Earths, Report Says

Pentagon Less Dependent on China Rare Earths, Report Says

China’s virtual monopoly on rare earth elements used in high-technology applications has been loosened, decreasing the risk that supplies to U.S. defense contractors could be disrupted, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the nation’s industrial base. Read more of this post

Mao’s achievements outweigh mistakes: State media poll

Mao’s achievements outweigh mistakes: State media poll

Wednesday, December 25, 2013 – 12:46

AFP

BEIJING – More than 85 percent of respondents in a Chinese state media survey said that Mao Zedong’s achievements outweigh his mistakes, as the country prepares to mark 120 years since the “Great Helmsman’s” birth. Read more of this post

Slang words in China reveal underlying class tensions

Slang words in China reveal underlying class tensions

Staff Reporter

2013-12-25

The old term for rural landowning tyrants in Chinese, “tuhao” — “tu” meaning bumpkin or uncultured, and “hao” meaning rich and powerful — has now been adopted to refer to China’s nouveau riche, and has been one of the buzzwords in the Chinese media this year. Read more of this post

Slowly, China Catches a Cashless Payment Wave

12.25.2013 18:11

Slowly, China Catches a Cashless Payment Wave

Telecoms and financial institutions have overcome their biggest obstacles to set the stage for nationwide use of ‘mobile wallets’

By staff reporter Qin Min

(Beijing) — Fewer Chinese consumers will be digging for change at checkout counters in 2014 now that the country’s largest telecoms and financial institutions have cleared a path for instant payments via mobile phones. Read more of this post

Chinese smugglers dug a “professional” concrete tunnel into Hong Kong equipped with lights, vents, steel reinforcements and even rails to transport goods

China smugglers dig tunnel into Hong Kong

POSTED: 25 Dec 2013 17:05
Chinese smugglers dug a “professional” concrete tunnel into Hong Kong equipped with lights, vents, steel reinforcements and even rails to transport goods, domestic media reported on Wednesday.

BEIJING: Chinese smugglers dug a “professional” concrete tunnel into Hong Kong equipped with lights, vents, steel reinforcements and even rails to transport goods, domestic media reported on Wednesday. Read more of this post

People are drinking less but doing so more harmfully. Policymakers want higher prices—causing a headache for the booze industry

People are drinking less but doing so more harmfully. Policymakers want higher prices—causing a headache for the booze industry

Dec 21st 2013 | From the print edition

BY DAY tourists flock to Plaza de España in central Madrid to snap photos beside the sculpture of Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote”. By night a newer facet of Spanish culture is on display: loitering groups of young people downing plastic bottles of whisky and vodka mixed with Fanta Lemon. The ground is littered with empties. Nearby, three young men help a friend vomiting on the pavement. Read more of this post

Sun Hung Kai Properties chairman and MD Thomas Kwok has dismissed as “hilarious” a claim that chief executive CY Leung has infuriated big business in his desire to build homes for the masses

Angry with CY? That’s hilarious, says tycoon
Kelly Ip
Tuesday, December 24, 2013

A tycoon has dismissed as “hilarious” a claim that the chief executive has infuriated big business in his desire to build homes for the masses. Basic Law Committee member Maria Tam Wai-chu made the claim during a radio interview in which she spoke of Leung Chun-ying’s dedication and his ability to overcome past problems. Read more of this post

India Is On The Brink Of A Huge Step Forward

India Is On The Brink Of A Huge Step Forward

EDITORIAL BOARD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR DEC. 25, 2013, 3:19 PM 5,851 11

Two exceptional seeds were planted this year in India, the world’s largest democracy. Each one is worth watching in 2014 for its potential global impact. The first is the coming to power of the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) party in the state that includes the capital, New Delhi. Led by anti-corruption crusader Arvind Kejriwal, the party was hatched only a year ago on the premise that India’s poor would actually vote for clean government rather than trade their ballots for handouts. Read more of this post

Sanjiv Goenka Revives Indian Supermarket Retail IPO Map as Breakeven Seen; Spencer’s, a unit of utility CESC, made a loss of about 2 billion rupees in the year ended March

Goenka Revives Retail IPO Map as Breakeven Seen: Corporate India

Spencer’s Retail Ltd., a privately-held Indian supermarket operator, plans an initial public offering soon as the chain inches close to making its first profit, group Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said. The retailer, which was founded in 1863 by two Britons and now runs about 120 stores across the country, has doubled its revenue earned per square foot of retail space in three years to 1,350 rupees ($22) a month, Goenka said in an interview at his office in Kolkata. That is about 100 rupees short of achieving breakeven, he said. Read more of this post

Indonesia to Ease Foreign Investment Caps From Airports to Power

Indonesia to Ease Foreign Investment Caps From Airports to Power

Indonesia will ease foreign ownership restrictions in airport and power projects to lure capital as the nation grapples with a current-account deficit that’s sending the rupiah to its worst yearly drop since 2000. Foreigners may own as much as 49 percent of airports and 100 percent of power plants built under public-private partnerships, the investment coordinating board said in a statement in Jakarta. The government will simplify processes to boost investment after completing talks today on its revised negative-investment list, which limits overseas ownership in some industries, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa told reporters. Read more of this post

As Japan’s Economic Pie Grows, Christmas Cakes May Shrink

December 25, 2013, 6:52 PM

As Japan’s Economic Pie Grows, Christmas Cakes May Shrink

ALEXANDER MARTIN

The size of Japan’s economic pie may be expanding, but a beloved staple of the year-end holiday season — the Christmas cake — may get smaller for many people as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic program, or “Abenomics,” pushes up prices and weakens the yen. The “Super Christmas Tower” cake offered in 2012 by Patisserie Satsuki at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo. Read more of this post

Daiwa Real Estate to Set Up Japan’s First Health-Care REIT

Daiwa Real Estate to Set Up Japan’s First Health-Care REIT

Daiwa Real Estate Asset Management Co., a unit of Japan’s second-largest brokerage, will set up a health-care real estate investment trust that will own nursing homes and hospitals in the world’s fastest-aging society. Daiwa Real Estate plans to start operating the trust with about 10 billion yen ($96 million) as early as March and list the shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by mid-2014, the company said in a statement through the bourse today. The unit also manages Daiwa Office Investment Corp. (8976) and Daiwa Residential Private Investment Corp. with a total of 400 billion yen assets under management, it said. Read more of this post

Panasonic Debt Goes to First From Worst on Revamp: Japan Credit

Panasonic Debt Goes to First From Worst on Revamp: Japan Credit

Panasonic Corp. (6752) bonds went from last year’s worst performers to the best of 2013, as President Kazuhiro Tsuga avoided a junk debt rating by shrinking television and handset businesses. The notes topped the return rankings in the year to Dec. 23, gaining 6.5 percent, after placing last in 2012 with a 4.1 percent loss, Bank of America Merrill Lynch data show. That compares with a 4.1 percent increase for Kansai Electric Power Co., the second-best performer since Dec. 31, and a 1.7 percent average gain for Japanese corporate bonds. Bonds of technology companies worldwide declined 1.3 percent in the period. Read more of this post

Start-Up Spirit Emerges in Japan

December 25, 2013

Start-Up Spirit Emerges in Japan

By MARTIN FACKLER

TOKYO — The 20-somethings in jeans sipping espresso and tapping on laptops at this Tokyo business incubator would look more at home in Silicon Valley than in Japan, where for years the surest signs of success were the gray suits of its corporate salarymen. But for those hoping the nation’s latest economic plan will drag Japan from its long malaise, the young men and women here at Samurai Startup Island represent a crucial component: a revival of entrepreneurship. Read more of this post

Big Korean Corporate Failures Cloud Outlook After Record Issuance Drop; “Investors don’t trust even the A-rated companies after what happened at Tongyang”

Failures Cloud Outlook After Record Issuance Drop: Korea Markets

Offerings of won-denominated company bonds in South Korea plunged the most on record as corporate failures from Tongyang Group to STX Corp. dimmed investor appetite for lower-rated debt. Total sales slid 42 percent in 2013, the biggest drop in Bloomberg-compiled data going back to 1999. Companies rated A or below led the slump, issuing 7.01 trillion won ($6.6 billion) compared with 12.87 trillion won in 2012. Read more of this post

Hanjin Group, Korea’s ninth-largest chaebol, is speeding up its group restructuring by giving more power to the owner’s children

Hanjin Group owner’s son CEO of Hanjin KAL Holdings

Dec 26,2013

BY JOO KYUNG-DON [kjoo@joongang.co.kr]

Hanjin Group, the nation’s ninth-largest chaebol, is speeding up its group restructuring by giving more power to the owner’s children.
The group, which owns the country’s top flag carrier, Korean Air Lines, conducted an executive level reshuffle on Christmas Eve, and Executive Vice President Cho Won-tae, the only son of Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, became CEO of Hanjin KAL Holdings, the holding company of the group established Aug. 1.
The CEO position of Hanjin KAL Holdings became vacant when CEO Suk Tae-soo moved to Hanjin Shipping.  Read more of this post

Hyundai Motor makes history with sales of a million in China

Hyundai Motor makes history with sales of a million in China

Dec 26,2013

Hyundai Motor said yesterday annual sales from Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture with Beijing Automotive Group, have surpassed 1 million units, becoming the fastest auto brand to achieve that milestone in the Chinese market. Hyundai, Korea’s largest automaker, also said it is the first time it has ever sold more than a million cars in a single market in a year. Hyundai previously set a sales target for 2013 for 970,000 vehicles in China. Hyundai, which started doing business in China in 2003, said its localized models have led the sales increase, while expansion of its second and third plants in China also helped to boost sales. Hyundai said it would expand its dealership network in China to 1,000 by 2015 and focus on balancing sales growth and enhancing brand value over the next 10 years. Posco E&C gets $175 million Uzbekistan highway contract. Posco Engineering & Construction said yesterday it won a $175 million order from Uzbekistan to build a highway. The affiliate of steelmaker Posco said it secured part of the CAREC A380 project under Uzbekistan’s financial ministry in a competition with 13 multinational builders. Posco E&C said that it will be responsible for 85 kilometers (52.8 miles) of highway from Kishlak to the Gazil region in the next two years. The company in 2010 bagged a 91-kilometer highway contract that is also part of the CAREC A380 project.

Korean gov’t writes off debts of 850,000 individuals; These programs are quite controversial because they can mislead the public ― people may think they don’t have to repay their debts because the government will take them over after all

2013-12-25 18:04

Gov’t writes off debts of 850,000

By Na Jeong-ju
As many as 850,000 individuals have benefitted from multiple debt-relief programs initiated by the Park Geun-hye administration this year, according to data unveiled Wednesday. Read more of this post

Samsung targets faster decision-making in 2014

Samsung targets faster decision-making in 2014

Wednesday, Dec 25, 2013

Kim Young-won

The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL – Top executives of Samsung Group affiliates discussed how to become a first mover by deploying a swift decision-making process and seeking constant innovation during a strategy brainstorming session for next year, sources said Tuesday. Read more of this post

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction may file for court protection soon because creditors are refusing to provide a financial lifeline to the troubled builder

2013-12-25 18:03

Ssangyong may go under court control

Na Jeong-ju
Ssangyong Engineering & Construction may file for court protection soon because creditors are refusing to provide a financial lifeline to the troubled builder, sources said Wednesday. But it is feared that such court protection could push hundreds of Ssangyong’s subcontractors to the brink of bankruptcy, and deal another setback to the construction sector, which is already in a deep recession. Read more of this post

The eldest son of the late Samsung founder has proposed an out-of-court settlement in an inheritance suit he lodged against his brother and Samsung Group owner Lee Kun-hee

2013-12-25 16:34

Samsung brothers seek reconciliation

Kim Rahn
The eldest son of the late Samsung founder has proposed an out-of-court settlement in an inheritance suit he lodged against his brother and Samsung Group owner Lee Kun-hee. Whether the latter will accept the offer is not yet known. According to CJ Group, former Cheil Fertilizer Chairman Lee Maeng-hee’s lawyer proposed the settlement to Lee Kun-hee’s lawyer during a hearing at the Seoul High Court, Tuesday. Lee Maeng-hee, the first son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, is father of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun who is now behind bars for tax evasion and embezzlement. He filed the suit to claim a substantial part of his younger brother’s inheritance. The offer came a day after it was announced that he has relapsed into cancer. Read more of this post