Xi’s Recipe; China’s leaders apparently worry that Western-style investigative journalism inside China could trigger just such a crisis

DEC 23, 2013

Xi’s Recipe

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department (2009-2011), is President and CEO of the New America Foundation and Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World.

WASHINGTON, DC – China’s government is cracking down hard on Western journalists, threatening not to renew visas for reporters from the New York Times and Bloomberg in retaliation for their reporting on the corruption of senior Chinese officials. Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently penned an open letter to the Chinese government telling them that, because the top “cause of death of Chinese regimes in history is greed and corruption,” a free press is more likely to help than hurt. Read more of this post

The Big Churn — How High Partner Turnover Damages China’s Private Equity Industry

The Big Churn — How High Partner Turnover Damages China’s Private Equity Industry

2013-12-24 15:42:12

Peter Fuhrman, Chairman and CEO China First Capital

What’s the biggest risk in China private equity investing? Depends who you’re asking. If you ask LPs, the people who provide all the money that PE firms live off, you will often hear a surprising answer: turnover at PE firms. Nowhere else in the PE and VC world do you find so many firms where partners are feuding, quitting or being thrown off the bus. Read more of this post

SOE Reform in China — Big Changes On the Way

SOE Reform in China — Big Changes On the Way

2013-12-24 15:44:43

Peter Fuhrman, Chairman and CEO China First Capital

China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are a lucky breed, or so conventional wisdom would have it. They have lower cost of capital and less competitive pressures of private sector competitors. China’s big banks (also state-owned) are always happy to lend, and if things do turn sour, China’s government will bail everyone out. Read more of this post

Pickpockets from China targeting flights to, from Southeast Asia: diplomat

Pickpockets from China targeting flights to, from Southeast Asia: diplomat
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
The China Post news staff

Professional mainland Chinese pickpockets have been targeting flights to and from Southeast Asia, a member of Taiwan’s representative office in Indonesia said, urging Taiwanese travelers to remain alert. Read more of this post

PetroChina’s Chief Accountant Targeted as Corruption Probe Widens

PetroChina’s Chief Accountant Targeted as Corruption Probe Widens

12-17 10:38 Caijing

This is the latest in a series of arrests of executives in the state-owned oil giants.

A corruption probe into PetroChina, the country’s largest oil producer, has widened to include its chief accountant Wen Qingshan, who is also a member of the company’s party leadership, reported by the Ta Kung Pao. Read more of this post

People’s Bank cannot solve China’s fund shortage alone

People’s Bank cannot solve China’s fund shortage alone

Staff Reporter

2013-12-24

China’s market has again reported a fund shortage but as the nation still has more than 100 trillion yuan (US$16.5 trillion) of circulating M2, the situation has resulted from the country’s twisted bank funding structure and lack of a reasonable funding plan, reports the Chinese-language Shanghai Securities News. Read more of this post

How Tighter Government Spending Contributed to China Rate Spike

Dec 23, 2013

How Tighter Government Spending Contributed to China Rate Spike

An unusual shift to slower government spending toward the end of the year caught the Chinese central bank off guard and helped send money-market rates last week to their highest levelssince a crisis in June, economists say. Read more of this post

How they fell: The collapse of Chinese cross-border listings

How they fell: The collapse of Chinese cross-border listings

As the China–US IPO pipeline restarts, recent history offers lessons for companies, investors, and regulators.

December 2013 | byDavid Cogman and Gordon Orr

Amid the frenzy around Twitter’s $1.8 billion IPO on November 7, it would have been easy to miss a pair of small Chinese IPOs in New York a week earlier. Qunar, the Chinese travel-booking service, raised $167 million on November 1, with share prices rising 89 percent above the initial offering. The day before, 58.com—a Chinese version of Craigslist—raised $187 million, exceeding the initial offering by 47 percent. Read more of this post

Debt of China Railway Corp reaches RMB3tn ($504bn) and counting

Debt of China Railway Corp reaches RMB3tn and counting

Staff Reporter

2013-12-24

The total debt of national railway operator China Railway Corporation (CR), has topped the staggering 3 trillion yuan (US$504 billion) mark and counting as it continues to execute major railway projects, reports the Chinese-language Economic Information Daily. Read more of this post

Chinese Rate Crunch Exposes Cracks

Chinese Rate Crunch Exposes Cracks

ARON BACK

Dec. 23, 2013 6:35 a.m. ET

The squeeze is on—again. In an echo of last June’s cash crunch, interest rates that Chinese banks charge each other for short-term funds have again shot up to worrying levels. Despite moves by the central bank to calm the interbank market, the benchmark seven-day repo rate averaged 8.94% on Monday and spiked as high as 9.8%. That’s up from an already elevated 8.2% on Friday.

Read more of this post

Chinese Energy Giants Refocus on Traditional Assets; Shale Gas and Oil Sands Are Losing Their Allure Because of a Lack of Export Infrastructure

Chinese Energy Giants Refocus on Traditional Assets

Shale Gas and Oil Sands Are Losing Their Allure Because of a Lack of Export Infrastructure

YVONNE LEE

China’s energy giants, which have long been the country’s biggest foreign acquirers, are focusing on traditional oil and gas assets once again after favoring unconventional energy assets like shale gas and oil sands in recent years. Read more of this post

Chinese county govt cracks down on Xmas gathering

Chinese county govt cracks down on Xmas gathering

BEIJING — Lawyers and churchgoers said they had been prevented from meeting in a central Chinese county yesterday to commemorate Christmas and draw attention to the detention of a pastor and his aides.

BY –

5 HOURS 18 MIN AGO

BEIJING — Lawyers and churchgoers said they had been prevented from meeting in a central Chinese county yesterday to commemorate Christmas and draw attention to the detention of a pastor and his aides.The proposed meeting at the church in Henan province’s Nanle county came during a month-long crackdown on the church over a land dispute that pits its popular preacher against the county government. Read more of this post

China’s Liquidity Crisis Worsens As Fed Vs PBOC “Taper” Wars Escalate

China’s Liquidity Crisis Worsens As Fed Vs PBOC “Taper” Wars Escalate

Tyler Durden on 12/23/2013 19:08 -0500

While global currency wars have esclataed over the last 4 years (as we noted here), the potential return to fund outflows triggered by the Fed taper, combined with higher demand for funds ahead of Chinese New Year, means there will be continued pressure for China’s money market rates to stay high heading into January. With China’s reform and rate liberalization plans, it seems 2014 may be the year of the Taper Wars. Read more of this post

China’s family-planning agency aims to roll out changes to the country’s one-child policy, allowing some parents to have a second child, in the beginning of next year

China’s One-Child Policy to Change in New Year

Government Concerned About Falling Birthrate

LAURIE BURKITT

Dec. 23, 2013 10:36 p.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s family-planning agency aims to roll out changes to the country’s one-child policy, allowing some parents to have a second child, in the beginning of next year, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. Read more of this post

China’s matchmaker apps vie with tradition for hearts and minds

December 23, 2013 7:02 pm

China’s matchmaker apps vie with tradition for hearts and minds

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

For singles in China under pressure to get married, there are plenty of professional matchmakers, and busybody parents. But for young people seeking to avoid such interference, there is now a bevy of smartphone apps offering a less formal approach. Read more of this post

China will promote a mixed-ownership economy by diversifying the shareholding structure of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)

Beijing to diversify SOE shareholding

Xinhua

2013-12-20

China will promote a mixed-ownership economy by diversifying the shareholding structure of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), an official with the country’s SOEs regulator said on Thursday. Huang Shuhe, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, told a press conference that the country will speed up the transformation of SOEs, especially parent companies, into joint-stock firms. It will also improve the shareholding structure of the companies. Read more of this post

Are You Qualified to Be a Journalist in China? Take the Test; What did Marx and Engels ask of newspaper reporters? How do Chinese and Western views on journalism differ?

DECEMBER 23, 2013, 2:49 AM

Are You Qualified to Be a Journalist in China? Take the Test

By MIA LI and BREE FENG

What is the essence of the Chinese Dream? What did Marx and Engels ask of newspaper reporters? How do Chinese and Western views on journalism differ? Those are some of the questions Chinese journalists can expect to be quizzed on when they renew their press cards in early 2014. Read more of this post

Babes in a Digital Toyland: Even 3-Year-Olds Get Gadgets

December 23, 2013

Babes in a Digital Toyland: Even 3-Year-Olds Get Gadgets

By HILARY STOUT and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

The children come day after day, lining up in the cold and snow on Main Street in Midland, Mich., to wait their turn to enter Santa’s house and whisper their Christmas longings to the jolly man in the red suit.

“Cellphone.”

“IPad.”

“Notebook.”

And when they say such things, Tom Valent, now in his 38th year as Santa Claus, unleashes his best “Ho-ho-ho” and replies: “Well, I’m good at toys. Electronics — that’s a bit of a challenge.” Read more of this post