China Speakers Bureau: December 2008

CCP cadres: capabilities over connections - Victor Shih

China's communist party (CCP) is revamping its way to select its cadres, asking for capabilities rather than connections, writes assistant professor Victor Shih in his weblog.

According to a new initiative of Hu Jintao, cadre promotion is now tied to an official's ability to handle sudden shocks, like earthquakes. The problem in the past is that performance was tied to things that good connections can get you, like growth or investment. Thus, those performance indicators really did not test how capable an official was, just how connected he was.

Problematic performance during the earthquake in Sichuan and incidents in Tibet and Xinjiang by a part of the communist cadres has triggered off the new policies, writes Shih.

Commercial
Victor Shih is a speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having him at one of your conferences? Do let us know.

FDI is not declining, but changing - Amy Sommers

Amy Sommers
by Fons1 via FlickrForeign Direct Investment (FDI) has been supporting China's economic reform, but since 2007 its character has been changing, not declining, writes Shanghai-based lawyer Amy Sommers in the Financial Times.

Despite this phenomenal growth – or perhaps in part because of it – some observers have wondered whether FDI into China is slowing and shifting to greener pastures, with India, Vietnam and Brazil frequently mentioned as alternative destinations, each of which offers its own compelling reasons for investment. But China’s story is not so much about becoming unattractive for FDI as it is about its leaders’ concern that the country could be loved to excess.

Unlike the common assumption only a small part of China's FDI came from Europe and the US, over 70 percent came from other Asian countries and regions, including Taiwan. In December 2007 the government introduced new guidelines, the foreign investment uncatalogue, steering those stream of capital into high-end manufacturing, R&D, regions and industries that are high on the central government's political agenda. Amy Sommers:

The story about China’s FDI is not so much about declining FDI as it is about the challenge of attracting the desired type of FDI. And in that regard, the glass looks half empty. It remains to be seen whether or not 2009 will bring an improvement.

Commercial
Amy Sommers is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having her as a speaker at your meeting, do get in touch.

Roy Graff joins the China Speakers Bureau

Roy Graff

Roy Graff, one of the leading voices on China's tourism and hospitality industry has joined the China Speakers Bureau.
Roy holds a bachelor's degree in Chinese and Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Roy has made his career in travel and tourism business development with an emphasis on China. He has a deep understanding of China's culture and business practices developed from academia, public and private sector work since 1994. He is an experienced travel marketing and distribution senior executive involved in e-commerce, online travel and hospitality. Since 2005, he combines consultation on China's tourism sector with several travel and hospitality ventures in China and the flagship forum on China's Travel Industry, "China the Future of Travel" held annually at the World Travel Market in London.
Roy keeps a blog on developments in China's travel and tourism sector which is the most comprehensive resource on the subject, since January 2006. In August 2008 he updated the China Outbound Travel Handbook and made it available free of charge through the ChinaContact Tourism Network. Roy is also a Director of China Business Services and European Director of the China Venture Capital and Private Equity Forum London held annually since 2007. He is a founding member of the China Advisers Network (C.A.N), an association of leading China specialists and advisers from various disciplines in the UK.

Starbucks hit hard by tightfisted foreigners - Shaun Rein

Image via WikipediaStarbucks is one of the enterprises in China that is being hit hard by the global downturn, harder than others, writes Shaun Rein in Seeking Alpha, because they rely to a large degree on foreign customers. Rein, director of the China Market Research Group (CMR) has been one of the pundits refusing to accept the common feeling that China's is following a global trend downwards. But for the popular coffee house he has to make an exception, as for other high-end restaurants in Shanghai.
Business has been hard very hard, because two of the three key markets of Starbucks are foreigners, expats living in China's big cities, or visiting executives who used Starbucks as the replacement office.

As one waiter of a top foreign-focused restaurant in Xintiandi told me, "The Chinese are spending the same if not more than before. The foreigners are just not coming anymore or, if they do, are cutting back spending." This has been a sentiment echoed in interviews we have conducted with dining establishments throughout China, from small restaurants to expensive hotel restaurants in a Starwood (HOT) or Marriott (MAR).

As expected, in the long term (say the second half of 2009) Shaun Rein remains optimistic about China's economy.

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him for your conference, board meeting or panel? Do get in touch.

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via Flickr

Chinese consumers full of confidence - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via FlickrContrary to what Western media report, China's consumers are still going strong, writes Shaun Rein, director of the China Market Research Group (CMR) in Shanghai in Seeking Alpha. Consumers in the US might be in panic after so many lost saving of a life-time, Chinese consumers maintain a strong confidence in both their government and the country's financial institutions.

While increasing unemployment for workers in the export sector is something that we all need to look at from a moral and humanitarian standpoint, from purely a business one they do not count much for GDP consumption growth. Their salaries unfortunately are too low. The media is intent on making this a bigger story than it really is, I believe, to sell papers with great headlines. There was one the other day in a top tier daily something like, "China Business Confidence at All-Time Low".

Western media are wrongly projecting the fears at their home markets on China and its consumer middle class, Rein argues. The upcoming Chinese new year will be a moment to watch though:

Our research findings suggest that critical for the consumer sector is whether younger Chinese get the bonuses and salary increases during the Chinese New Year period that they expect. If they do not, expect retail sales to drop big-time in February.

But overall, consumer growth is going up very fast in China and Shaun Rein expects in 2009 a continued growth between 16-18 percent.

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference, board meeting or panel? Do get in touch.

New CSB newsletter is out

Zhang Lijia
by Fons1 via FlickrToday we published the December newsletter of the China Speakers Bureau. For the readers of this weblog there might not be very much new, but we clustered for example all the links on our speakers' expectations on what China is going to do economically in 2009.
Further, the most-sought speakers for December, other news items and our second installment on how to pick the best speakers for your event. If you have not yet subscribed, you can read our newsletter here.

Anti-Chinese feelings on the rise in the US - Richard Kuslan

Richard Kuslan

A rising tide against China and imports from China, notes Richard Kuslan in the US, here in his weblog, triggered off by recalls of cars from China.

The animus towards China -- specifically imported products -- has never, in my lifetime, been as acute nor as widespread than it is today.
This article and the popular comments below it show the depth of contrary feeling. Chinese products are blamed for being injurious to human health, cheaply made, made with slave labor, anti-American, etc., requiring strict import regulation or even the outright ban of Chinese imports.

Indeed, the comments on the article in the weblog of the New York Times are rather revealing.

Commercial
How delicate are the relations between China and the US? A question that become more important now the US will enter a new era with the new president Barack Obama. Do you need leading voices on the Sino-US relations? Ask one of our speakers at the China Speakers Bureau.

China's banks under threat of rescue plan - Victor Shih

Victor Shih

In a decade China's banks have changed from government counters for handing out money into professional financial institutions. But the recent four trillion Renminbi rescue plan might push those banks ten years back in history, writes assistant professor Victor Shih in the Wall Street Journal.

A year ago, many of us were ready to be impressed with China's banking system. To be sure, banks were still mainly state-owned, and the Chinese Communist Party continued to be omnipresent. However, the average bank managers were extremely risk conscious, and regulators from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) swooped down on bank branches conducting surprise inspections every so often. Bankers were extremely hesitant to make uncollateralized loans to any firm except for the largest corporations.

Now the banks got a central role in the plans by the central government to use four trillion Rmb in funding to revive the economy. Most of the funding does not come from the coffers of the central govertm but has to be provided by local governments or - indeed - commercial banks. And banks have to follow the lead of the central government, writes Shih. They might be under threat when the economy deteriorates.

Meanwhile, if the economy worsens in the first quarter the government may be tempted to abandon prudent regulation altogether. Beijing could order the CBRC to disregard risk targets or even abolish the CBRC. This would plunge China back into the old days when the only risks that bankers faced were political ones.
Without a global financial crisis, the global financial community might have criticized such a giant step back toward the planned economy. The criticism might have at least triggered some debate in China. However, with the rest of the world suffering a severe credit crunch that has seen free-market governments bailing out their own financial institutions, there are few people left who can credibly criticize China's actions.

Commercial
Victor Shih is an leading voice on China's financial reform and a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having him as a speaker? Do let us know.

The online crisis indicator - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Online gaming guru Marc van Chijs, CEO of the Spill Group Asia, analyzed growth of his online games. While picking up signs that an economic crisis is really bothering the Shanghainese, he found in the gaming figures some indication. In his weblog:

This week we were analyzing the traffic figures on our Chinese online game sites game.com.cn and xiaoyouxi.com, when we noted a strange effect. During weekdays there was hardly any growth on our portals, but on weekends the growth was similar to what we were used to. We looked a bit deeper into this and may have found a reason for this: staff in companies play less online games during working hours (normally we see a spike in traffic around 11:30 AM and from 4 PM onwards).

Why? Likely people are getting more afraid of the effects of the crisis and focus more on their work in order not to run the risk of being laid off. The effect started somewhere around November but seems to be getting more pronounced. I did not do any statistical analysis (and also do not plan to do this), but it seems like an indicator that some Chinese are changing their online behavior because of the crisis.

Commercial
Marc van der Chijs, also co-founder of the successful video hosting company Tudou, is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.

No fast recovery real estate expected - Sam Crispin

Sam Crispin

Despite stiff support by the government for the real estate sector, restoration of the confidence among the buyer might take a while, real estate guru Sam Crispin tells the Financial Times. The central government in Beijing announced yesterday measure to ease getting credit for property developers and reduced the lock-up period for house owners from five to two years. Within the lock-up period owners would have to pay heavy taxes to discourage speculation.
But that does not mean a speedy recovery of the heavy hit real estate industry, says Sam Cripin of the Shanghai-based Crispins Property Investment Management, who points out that three years of stifling measures are only now coming to an end.

Ultimately it will all come down to sentiment: when buyers can see that there is a chance of prices going up again instead of down . . . and we are probably at least three months away from the return of that kind of confidence, maybe longer," he said.
Other real estate market analysts said they thought measures might be more effective than previous moves but would begin to boost the market only in the second half of 2009. "One thing about the property market is there is a limit to what government can do to either slow it down or speed it up," said Mr Crispin.

Update: Meanwhile back in Shenyang, the local government is making the best out of the real estate crisis. (h/t Danwei)

Commercial
Sam Crispin is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.

China's internet is different - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo
by Fons1 via FlickrChina's internet is profoundly different from the internet in the US, Korea or Japan, Kaiser Kuo explains to Thomas Crampton.
More than 80 percent of the internet users in China uses IM, preferably through Tencent's QQ, much more than anywhere in the world. They still prefer BBS's because it's anonymous and the country is more video intensive than any other. Gaming is big and big-scale internet cafe's provide 40 percent of the internet users an alternative for home-surfing.

Commercial
Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you want him to share his insights, do get in touch.

Crisis in China? Not anytime soon - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff
by Fons1 via FlickrChina is not going to implode under massive unrest, anarchy and protest anytime soon, says Tom Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China, J. Walter Thompson in the Huffington Post.

At least short-term, China will not melt down or erupt in protest. Six, twelve or eighteen months of 5% growth is not the stuff of anarchy. Today's demonstrations, increasing in frequency, are decentralized, a function of discrete local grievances, unfair land appropriation and unpaid wages. Taxi strikes notwithstanding, urban centers remain calm.

While the situation looks more challenging in the long term, China's government is positioned very well to deal with the current downturn and has done up to now the right things, writes Doctoroff.

The Chinese, consistent with Confucian imperatives, expect a benign government to pragmatically protect the peoples' interests and, at the same time, project empathy for the plight of the disadvantaged. China's Standing Committee knows, in 2009, a harmonious society will be maintained with equal doses of economic stimulus and humanity, preferably heartfelt.
The Party, for the time being, is managing affairs reasonably well. (An added cushion: the majority of Chinese blame the financial crisis on Western policy makers, not Communist mandarins.) Tax rates have been lowered, commercial loan regulations have been loosened and infrastructure projects, designed to reduce the burden of the poor, have been initiated. Labor and land transfer laws are being reformed to protect, respectively, part-time employees and peasants. Growth will lurch, but not nose-dive.

More at the Huffington Post.
More debate on China's expected soft landing here, triggered off by Shaun Rein.

Commercial
Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him at your conference, panel of board meeting, do let us know.

Adding 'history' as a topic

Jasper Becker

At the China Speakers Bureau we are reluctant to add too many new categories to our website: too many subdivision make searching often more complicated than easy. And having too many topics with only one speaker is also not a good idea.
But on popular demand we have now added the category 'history'. A few of our speakers were already active in this field and with the arrival of eminent writer Jasper Becker who have almost have a dozen. So, from today, we have also our leading voices on China's recent and less recent history organized.

China preparing for a soft landing in 2009 - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via FlickrChina's consumer spending is going strong and the country is heading for a soft landing from its economic troubles in six months from now, says Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group in Shanghai in an interview with China Radio International.
Despite all gloomy predictions, consumer spending in China keeps on going strong. Compared to the US its influence on the overall economy is still limited, but when new government policies kick in in six months time, Rein expects a soft landing of the Chinese economy, while the US and Europe are heading for a prolonged recession.
Tune in for CRI for the wide-ranging interview.

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having him on your board meeting, conference or panel, do get in touch.

Social change documented - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Two very different and rather entertaining interviews with Zhang Lijia, documenting the writer who is documenting a changing China. On the new trend of books on the new China. Interviewers are Xu Xi and Lawrence Gray.

Commercial
Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you want to retain her for a conference or panel, do let us know.

Old Love Lane up for the hammer? - Paul French

Paul French
by Fons1 via FlickrPaul French reports at his weblog about the Shanghai sledgehammers threatening the Old Love Lane, now Wujiang Lu, up for "redevelopment".

People voting with their wallets for tasty local food rather than western fast food. But the builders are encroaching - already some of the old houses have been destroyed and a couple of non-descript blocks of nonsense put in their place. It seems the rest of the street may follow as the relentless McDonaldisation 'progresses'.

More at his weblog.

Commercial
Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau, commenting on contemporary issues. If you are interested in having him as a speaker, do let us know.

Most sought speakers - December 2008

Zhang Lijia
by Fons1 via FlickrZhang Lijia became in December the fastest mover among our corp of speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. She is, at the second place, actually the first to really come close to Shaun Rein, who retains the first place.
Jasper Becker - who only joined our service this month - appears already on the 10th position of our monthly top-10. Other newcomers in this top-10 are Rupert Hoogewerf, who is celebrating his tenth year of Rich lists and William Overholt.
Not surprisingly, with only a few exceptions, interest in speakers with a strong economic background is paramount as people are trying to make sense out of what the current economic downturn means for China, and what China could mean for the world. We note very different opinions among our speakers - not surprising so early in the financial crisis.
If you are interested in following the adventures of our speakers also in a more conventional newsletter, do subscribe here. Our next newletter is due very soon.

Then, the official China Speakers Bureau top-10 (with November in brackets)

Howard French
by Fons1 via Flickr

Next week: CSB-newsletter is due

William Overholt
by Fons1 via FlickrNext week the December 2008 China Speakers Bureau Newsletter is due, only the second in our short life. Some of the subjects:

most-sought speakers for December
China Predictions for 2009
CSB-speakers in the news
"Engage China" speaking tour by Lonnie Hodge in the US
Our "A Changing China" book project
Tips for selecting a great speaker

If you have not yet subscribed to our newsletter, please do so here.

Mirella Visser joins the China Speakers Bureau

Mirella Visser

The Asian economic crisis in the 1990s, the reunification of Hong Kong with China and the collapse of the Barings bank happened within Mirella Visser's tenure as senior manager at the ING Group in Asia. From Hong Kong she led as a member of the management board ING's business development in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. After ten years with ING she led the KPMG Asia deks from 2000 and managed the integration of international financial services companies.
At the China Speakers Bureau we are very happy to have Mirella Visser as a speaker on board and we are sure whe will make a difference at the many events she will be attending.

Why China's consumption will go strong in 2009 - Paul French

t

Paul FrenchFive reasons why China's retail consumption will do well in 2009, published in Paul French' Access Asia newsletter, and here republished by Danwei. It goes against the trend of doom and gloom that comes along with the economic crisis in the US - and to a lesser degree in Europe. China might be different, at least as we look at domestic consumption. In short:

the social fundamentals are good. Urbanization will drive up consumption
Rising incomes
urban unemployment rate (the real consumers) is limited
the property market is expected to pick up
Retail sales in 2- and 3-tier cities is going strong

More at Danwei.

Commercial
Trying to make sense out of China during a global recession. Try one of the speakers at the China Speakers Bureau , like Paul French .

Spending still on track - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via FlickrSpending by urban consumers is still on track, says Shaun Rein, director of the China Market Research Group, based on his own research in the International Herald Tribune. Seventy out of one hundred urban consumers had no plan to change their spending habits despite all the talk about an economic crisis.

"People over age 50 might stow away half their salaries, but those under 30 have an effective savings rate of zero."A girl might make $500 a month but she will save three months to buy a $1,500 Gucci bag," he said.

It is a major change from the past, when saving was considered to be one of the major virtues of Chinese, different from Americans who are having a tradition of living on credit.

"I call them China's baby boomers because they're similar to postwar Americans who have only known prosperity," Rein said. "They want the best of everything and they want it now."

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in have him at your board meeting, conference of seminar, do get in touch.

The "Change in China" project

Marc van der Chijs

At the China Speakers Bureau we have last week started a book project, called "Change in China". It was based on a discussion we had on what combines all those different and often conflicting messages our speakers send into the world about China.
What brings together many of the requests for our speakers is an ongoing lack of understanding how fast and profoundly China is changing. Sometimes the event organizers know very well what is happening in China, but they also mostly have to deal with audiences that know the impressive view of the skyscrapers in China's cities, but have to clue how people, companies, organizations and the different sections of China's government are also changing.
As the Western media are cutting down on funding for foreign correspondents - although they might still increase in numbers - the understanding of what is happening in China has severely fallen short. The increased speed of change of the Middle Kingdom is additionally getting grip on what is really happening in China harder.
So, we concluded, "change in China" is what us brings together and we have asked some of our speakers to contribute a personal story on how they have experienced change in China. No boring analysis of figures and charts, but a down-to-earth illustration on how the country they know best has changed in their eyes.
We got right away a large number of enthusiastic reactions, including some of the leading voices like Marc van der Chijs, de co-founder of Tudou, IMD's Bill Fischer and internet guru Sam Flemming.
Stay tuned for more. We expect the book to launch shortly after Springfestival in 2009.

A celebrity in China - Rupert Hoogewerf

CHONGQING, CHINA - JUNE 16: Rupert Hoogewerf ...

Rupert Hoogewerf
by Getty Images via DaylifeBecoming a celebrity inside and outside China is an achievement few can put on their record, but Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun can do so. The best-selling author of the China Rich List has become so much of a household name, many Chinese even do not realize Hoogewerf is a foreigner living in Shanghai.
After two visits to the local bookstore in Jiangmen, Guangdong province, the Jiangmen Ribao praises the Luxembourg native extensively (in translation):

Many people have heard about Hu's name, his Chinese name, but Hu is in fact a foreigner, the foreigner is also an "old China hand." Hu has become an "old China hand", after working as an accountant, he stayed in China, has superior language skills, and has a unique understanding of China's national conditions and economic problems. "China is my second motherland," he said.

Commercial
Rupert Hoogewerf is also one of the leading voices on China in the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.

Home Depot and B&Q will have a hard time - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via FlickrBoth Home Depot and B&Q will face hardship on the Chinese market in 2009, predicted Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, at Bloomberg.

“People think prices are going to drop,” Rein said. “They are not going to buy home decoration. It’s a very difficult area to be in now.”

Real estate in China is facing a crisis as measure of the central government to cool down the industry took effect and while those measure have now reversed to prevent an economic meltdown, that change will not have effect overnight.
B&Q is now stronger in China than Home Depot with 60 outlets, notes Bloomberg.

“B&Q will beat Home Depot for now, as it has built a better brand name among consumers,” Rein said. “A lot of people have never heard of Home Depot.”

Commercial
Shaun Rein is one of the leading voices at the China Speakers Bureau keeping a close eye on how the global economic downturn is affecting China. If you need him, do get in touch.

Hitting an international market - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia
by Fons1 via FlickrAfter Jung Chang hit the world with he epic story "Wild Swans", many female authors have been trying to copy her success without making much of an impact. Zhang Lijia, author of "Socialism is Great" is on the way to become the Jung Chang of the 21th century as translation after translation open up her story for new audiences around the world.
Last week it was the Dutch translation and just now the Norwegians have discovered her. This is what the Dagbladet writes about her (in a Google translation, slightly changed):

A large number of the self-biographical accounts from China that are popular in the West, is about hunger and distress during the great leap or ideological terror during the Cultural Revolution. Bestsellers as Jung Chang "Would swans" and Nien Cheng "Life and Death in Shanghai" have contributed to our understanding of China. Zhang Lijia's book is in the same genre, but it begins where the other accounts end.

"Little has been written about life in China in the 1980s. This era is both fascinating and important, but little documented. It was then China laid the foundation to become what we are today."said Zhang Lijia.

Commercial
Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having her, do get in touch.

Jasper Becker joins China Speakers Bureau

Jasper Becker

The eminent author and journalist Jasper Becker from Beijing has today joined the China Speakers Bureau. Becker has been one of the leading voices on China's development and was up to recently the publisher of Asia Weekly.
As the author of "Hungry Ghosts" on China's famines at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s he exposed a sensitive part of the country's history that had been concealed in lies and myths. Since then he has been working with the best media in the world and has become a much wanted speaker on China, Beijing, its culture and politics. For a more complete overview, check his profile.

Expanding our network to other speakers' bureaus

Zhang Lijia
by Fons1 via FlickrThe plan is already a bit older, but thanks to more diligent colleagues in the Nordic countries, it is back on track. The China Speakers Bureau is organized in a slightly different way, compared to most speakers' agency. The typical agency would focus for both potential clients and speakers on a certain region. A Dutch speakers' bureau would not really cater for Belgium, let alone for markets further away.
A few of the larger agencies would - with different levels of success - try to cater for speakers outside their own region, but - to be honest - the need for famous Australians, Dutch or Icelandic speakers would be fairly limited outside their own region.
For China, that would be different, we felt. The interest for decent - and sometimes specialized - information from China would grow, as the traditional media have been dumping their traditional foreign correspondents to cut costs. Now, the need for information about China increases, so we saw here also an emerging market outside China, especially because speakers' bureau outside China could only cater very limited to the need for speakers on China.
Obvious, setting up offices ourselves would be nonsense, so what we plan to do - and that is starting now - is teaming up with existing agencies outside China. The first steps are on its way, and if you are having a speakers' agency, seeing a (niche) market in speakers on China. Do let us know.

Local governments push the stability card - Victor Shih

Victor Shih

Local governments and companies are trying to blackmail the central government in compensating them for paying arrear wages for their unruly citizens, writes financial expert Victor Shih on his weblog, pushing "stability" as their main card.

However, since wage arrear is a "stability" issue, local governments are likely blackmailing the central government for money. In a paper that Mingxing Liu, Luke Qi Zhang and I did on fiscal transfers in China, we found that the central government is most prone to increase transfers to county governments out of stability concerns. In the past, local governments blackmailed the center using wage arrears of government officials, which threatened the entire functioning of local governments. Now, with protests and riots barely contained in factory towns, the provincial government certainly has strong reasons to ask the center for more funds. As I write this, I am sure the good people at the Ministry of Finance are fielding a barrage of requests for emergency funds from various local governments (as an MOF official once told me "we are the fire brigade").

More on the strategies of local governments here.

Commercial
Victor Shih is one of the leading voices on China's development at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him on your conference, board meeting or panel, do let us know.

Chinese firms use crisis for a global jump - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
by Fons1 via FlickrChinese companies are preparing to buy assets abroad to make use of the global financial crisis, writes Shaun Rein in Business Week. Qingdao-based Haier was the first to move, but many others are following, his research suggests many are following:

In the last few months my firm, the China Market Research Group, has conducted more than 500 interviews with senior executives from 100 leading Chinese companies in 10 industries, from consumer products to clothing to food and beverage. We found that more than 70% of large industry leaders have already made meaningful steps toward global expansion, as have more than a third of smaller industry leaders. Most companies said they expected to increase their plans for international expansion in light of the global turndown.

But it is not an easy road, Shaun Rein writes, where Chinese companies are making similar mistakes like foreign companies made when they entered the Chinese market.

A case of a company doing a weak job when expanding internationally is sports apparel makerLi Ning. Although it competes head-to-head with Adidas and Nike (NKE) in China, and gained worldwide fame for having Li Ning himself run around the Bird's Nest to light the Olympic flame, the company has not made great inroads into the U.S. because of subpar marketing. In China, Li Ning positions itself as the best Chinese brand rather than a good-value brand or the most innovative brand, but that is not a strategy transferable to the U.S., where Li Ning himself has low name recognition.

Much more in Business Week.

Commercial
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. You too can have him as our no.1 speaker at your conference, board meeting or panel. Do get in touch when you want to get in touch.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

CCP cadres: capabilities over connections - Victor Shih

FDI is not declining, but changing - Amy Sommers

Friday, December 26, 2008

Roy Graff joins the China Speakers Bureau

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Starbucks hit hard by tightfisted foreigners - Shaun Rein

Monday, December 22, 2008

Chinese consumers full of confidence - Shaun Rein

Sunday, December 21, 2008

New CSB newsletter is out

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Anti-Chinese feelings on the rise in the US - Richard Kuslan

Friday, December 19, 2008

China's banks under threat of rescue plan - Victor Shih

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The online crisis indicator - Marc van der Chijs

No fast recovery real estate expected - Sam Crispin

China's internet is different - Kaiser Kuo

Crisis in China? Not anytime soon - Tom Doctoroff

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Adding 'history' as a topic

China preparing for a soft landing in 2009 - Shaun Rein

Monday, December 15, 2008

Social change documented - Zhang Lijia

Old Love Lane up for the hammer? - Paul French

Most sought speakers - December 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Next week: CSB-newsletter is due

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Mirella Visser joins the China Speakers Bureau

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Why China's consumption will go strong in 2009 - Paul French

Monday, December 8, 2008

Spending still on track - Shaun Rein

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The "Change in China" project

A celebrity in China - Rupert Hoogewerf

Friday, December 5, 2008

Home Depot and B&Q will have a hard time - Shaun Rein

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Hitting an international market - Zhang Lijia

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Jasper Becker joins China Speakers Bureau

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Expanding our network to other speakers' bureaus

Local governments push the stability card - Victor Shih

Monday, December 1, 2008

Chinese firms use crisis for a global jump - Shaun Rein

Contributors

Links

Previous Posts

Archives