Managing The Dragon

As Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang take the reins of power from Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, they face many challenges, some so staggering that one wonders how they can ever be addressed. The major themes and trends that will influence the course of China’s economic development over the next ten years will be defined [...]

June is nearly upon us, and wedding bells will soon start to ring all over the United States. I had no idea how big the wedding business is until Sara, my oldest daughter, went to work for Modern Bride magazine after graduating from Yale. Her tales of the lengths to which brides and their mothers would [...]

In recent weeks, two events, one military and one economic, have been interpreted as an indication of new aggressiveness on the part of China. On Sunday, March 8, five Chinese vessels shadowed and then surrounded the USNS Impeccable, a surveillance ship,  approximately 75 miles south of Hainan Island. The Pentagon described the Chinese action as [...]

Last Wednesday, I attended a discussion of China’s economy in 2009, sponsored by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) in Beijing and featuring Jing Ulrich, managing director and chairman of China equities for J.P. Morgan, and Yijiang Wang, professor of economics and human resource management at CKGSB. In a lively discussion, the panelists [...]

Several months ago, Joni Evans, a good friend of mine, began a new Web site www.wowowow.com (“The Women on the Web”) that is oriented to women, 40 years of age and over. Joni, a veritable powerhouse in the publishing industry whose career includes serving as president and publisher of Simon & Schuster and publisher at [...]

In the world of IP, China is America’s recalcitrant stepchild. Software piracy runs rampant to the point where if one wants to purchase a legal copy of Microsoft anything, one will simply run into the software stonewall of unavailability – at every major computer outlet in whichever city you please. These same places are happy [...]

The following post was contributed by one of MTD’s readers Katherine Don, who recently returned from a trip in Southern China: I recently had the opportunity to visit two factories in the southern China town of Kaiping that produced denim jeans for a major discount retailer in the United States. Considering that the only reports [...]

The New York Times recently commenced a series called “Choking on Growth,” which highlights the unintended but astronomical environmental consequences of China’s economic development. For foreigners living in Beijing and other parts of China it is a grim reminder of how dirty the air that we breathe every day is and for the rest of [...]

The last six months have been less than friendly to Chinese exporters and increasingly, it appears that US consumers are forming blanket opinions about the safety and quality of Chinese made products. As the complaints from the US side and the rhetoric between China and the US continue to build, one must question if this [...]

Athletes, Olympic Committee Members and city officials are all concerned about the air quality in Beijing when the city hosts the 2008 Olympics next August. As reported in the August 10, 2007 issue of the China Daily (see article “Vehicles ordered off road for Olympics drill” which is contained in its entirety below), the city [...]