Nestle’s anticipated mega deal brings back the US$ 2.4 bn deal by Coke, rejected in 2009 by the Ministry of Commerce for fears the new company would dominate the market. While Nestle’s deal is huge, it has not Coke’s problems, tells Shaun Rein in Fortune.Read More →
China’s debts could be as high as 150% of its GDP, higher than that of the US and Greece, says political analyst Victor Shih in Aljazeera. But is should reform its inefficient economy to deal with that debt. Read More →
The US have again blocked a US$ 8.7 bn Taiwanese order for F-16’s, writes Wendell Minnick in Defense News. The move to please China, might cost the US up to annual 16,000 jobs, according to Lockheed Martin.Read More →
Two of the speakers at the China Speakers Bureau, Howard French and Kaiser Kuo, are named by the magazine Foreign Policy (FP) as two of the top-100 users of Twitter in the field of foreign relations.Read More →
North Korea is likely to launch a third nuclear test, based on highly enriched uranium (HEU), writes Wendell Minnick in the Defense News, based on a book by Jonathan Pollack. China nor the US can stop the country’s nuclear program.Read More →
China bear Victor Shih explains Medill Reports from Chicago why China’s growing debts are getting out of hand, despite efforts by the financial authorities to act on the growing concerns. It’s a wash, he claims.Read More →
Victor Shih of the Northwestern University has been doing much of the legwork to find out how much China’s debt actually is, much higher than China’s financial authorities want to admit, he writes on this blog of the Financial Times. Much of the country’s financial bubble remains underground.Read More →
Foreign journalists visiting the headquarters of Baidu in Beijing, China’s largest search engine, might be up for a surprise, as they are met by rock musician Kaiser Kuo, also spokesperson of Google’s competitor. Here is a part of the report by Jordan Pouille in Metro.Read More →
The Chinese government should be revaluate its currency on one time to stop the price rises in the country, Shaun Rein explains in CNCB. In the past he argued against a too fast increase of the value of the renminbi, since that would hurt the export and the manufacturers. Now, to prevent social unrest, stiff action would be needed to stem inflation.Read More →
Strong rumors – denied by the government – suggest Taiwan is planning to defer payments for US weapon systems to the US, writes the Asia Sentinel. Defense expert Wendell Minnick suggests that would give the Obama administration a good argument to back out of already closed weapon deals.Read More →
The US could lose 1 to 2 trillion US dollar in revenue if they successfully scare away Chinese investors, writes Shaun Rein in CNBC, quoting a recent Asia Society report. “Fear mongering about China by American politicians and businessmen like Donald Trump has made Chinese think twice about investing in the U.S.”Read More →
Chinese have spent last year 13 billion US dollar on luxury goods, but only 40 percent in China itself, says Shaun Rein in CNBC. Because of the high tariffs luxury goods, including cars, are 20-30 percent more expensive on the mainland. “They are shooting themselves in the foot.”Read More →