China Herald: 09/01/2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Buffett's backing helps car maker to jump on rich list - Rupert Hoogewerf

WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 14: Berkshire Hathaway ...

Warren Buffett by Getty Images via Daylife

Wang Chuanfu, heading China's BYD car manufacturer, junped 102 places on Rupert Hoogewerf's annual rich list Hurun, after his venture got the backing of super-investor Warren Buffett, reports Bloomberg. Buffett increased his earlier investment with 500 percent.
Wang is now worth 5.1 billion US dollar, eclipsing the winner of last year, paper mogul Zhang Yin.
Bloomberg:

Wang’s worth leapt from $880 million last year after a unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in BYD. The company’s F3 has also become China’s bestselling car this year, as BYD pushes beyond its traditional focus on making rechargeable batteries for mobile phones.

Buffett’s company announced a year ago it would buy 225 million new shares in BYD for HK$8 apiece. The shares, which have surged 387 percent this year, fell 7.5 percent to HK$61.85 in Hong Kong trading today.

The full list of China's 1,000 richest people will only be published next month.

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

Rupert Hoogewerf by Getty Images via Daylife

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Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you want to share his insights at your conference, do get in touch.

A bit of an asset bubble - William Overholt

Shanghai Stock exchange via Wikipedia

In its effort to deal with an economic downturn, the massive capital injections into the Chinese economy have created an asset bubble, explaining past month's downturn at the Shanghai stock exchange, says iStockanalyst.com. They quote William Overholt, senior research fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

"The government did a great job of stabilizing the economy. In the process, it created a bit of an asset bubble," said William Overholt, senior research fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government...

"Investors don't want to be in the speculative Chinese stocks or speculative Chinese real estate. Because if they are, they'll get burned," said former investment banker Overholt.

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William Overholt is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

William Overholt by Fantake via Flickr

Friday, September 25, 2009

Ode to the Communist Party - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia by Fantake via Flickr

Celebrity author Zhang Lijia recalls for the weblog China Beat, at trip to the new Beijing museum, dedicated to a famous song, "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China". (See below).

The museum complex felt like a mini-‘Red Base’. By the foot of the mountain, three national flags flapped in the chill wind. In the main hall, staves of the song’s music, in gold, glared on a red wall, behind a golden hammer and sickle. As someone who grew up in China and knows the lyrics by heart, I couldn’t help but start to sing aloud, to the amusement of the museum staff. In the revolutionary spirit and against the market economy trend, entrance is free.

Zhang Lijia grew up in Nanjing, where she worked in a state-owned long-distance rocket factory. She documented her youth in her book "Socialism Is Great!": A Worker's Memoir of the New China. Her view on the Communist' party future is more nuanced than that of those who expect its imminent demise.

The Chinese Communist Party has about 74 million members, nearly a quarter of whom are under 35. Defying all predictions, it has proven very resilient. While loosening control in certain aspects and granting people more personal freedom, the Party has stepped up its effort to ensure the loyalty of the population, young people in particular. Funds have been allocated to build or upgrade museums that are designed to inspire the citizen’ patriotic feelings or nurture their nationalist attachment. For example, a museum to commemorate the ‘Rape of Nanjing’ was first built in 1985 and upgraded in 1995 to become state-of-the-art. Revolutionary song competitions are still held regularly at schools, universities and government organizations. Popular songs such as ‘The East is Red’ and ‘Socialism is Great’ are featured on Karaoke lists.

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Currently she is following the prestigious International Writers program at the University of Iowa. For next year we are planning an additional US tour. When you are interested in getting more details or would like to invite her at your conference, do let us know.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

October 1, crucial for many careers - Shaun Rein

BEIJING - AUGUST 08: Basketball player Yao Mi...

Getty Images via Daylife

Shaun Rein uses the two stabbing incidents in Beijing to explain how government in China works. The National Day on October 1, when The People's Republic of China celebrates its 60th birthday, is a crucial moment for many careers of officials, he writes in Forbes.
While it is impossible to rule the country on a micro-scale, losing face through this kind of incidents leads to an overreaction by those smaller officials who are eager to save their jobs, even when it means banning all knives from the stores. Rein:

Finally, the knife ban in Beijing shows us the importance of face in China. The central government will do whatever it takes to ensure that the festivities on Oct. 1 come off magnificently. Whether it takes banning knives or trying to manage rainfall, shutting down businesses at the last minute or closing airports, the government will do almost anything to save face by having a camera-ready event.

The subtle balance between central and local governments, and its eternal power struggles, are seldom good understand, argues Rein:

Policies set by the central government are implemented at the local level, and there can be different motives there. For instance, as I wrote in "China is Pulling Ahead on the Environment," it is clear that the central government is moving quickly to reduce pollution and improve working conditions. Yet local officials may not be so willing to close a soot-belching factory or a sweatshop that provides most of the jobs and tax revenues in their small city.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conferenc

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

e or meeting, do get in touch.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Media buyers start to find digital market - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean by Fantake via Flickr

Advertisement agencies and media buyers are slowly finding their way from traditional media into the digital future, says William Bao Bean, partner at Softbanks's China and India Holdings, the Hollywood Reporter, The market share of online media in China went up last year from 7 to 11 percent of the total expenditure.
The Hollywood Reporter:

... [T]he rise is attributed to a change in attitude by advertising agencies and media buyers, which are redeploying their key staff from traditional to digital media. Consumer attitudes are also changing as younger demographics prefer digital to traditional media. Also, in a country where most payments are still made using cash, enabling technologies on mobile phones also helps the growth in online ad spend.

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William Bao Bean is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference or want to pick his brains otherwise, do get in touch.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Is QQ International going to make it?

Image via CrunchBase

No week passed by or another online venture asks for my attention, mostly as a volunteer to beef up their content. Last week I bumped into Malaho.com, a search engine based on human force, when I discovered that they were sending a huge number of visitors to this weblog, at least, they ranked number two after Google.
Only yesterday I signaled the international section of Tencent's QQ service, where I signed up. Meanwhile, everybody can download their upgraded English version.
Does it work, was I question I got often. Do you get your own Green Plan software for free, asked one of my more snarky friends, referring at the failed plot to force all PC makers in China to host censorship software on their own hard drive.
To be honest, I still do not have a clue, as I had little time to investigate. I am now the proud moderator of a group at QQ International, but have not yet a plan what it focus could be. Perhaps China services, since that could ally neatly with my China Speakers Bureau. Or otherwise, perhaps a group on expat jobs in China, who might be good for your resume, as some suggests, but is mostly not a shortcut to wealth.
I had some first discussions with the organizers and fellow moderators, who see opportunities in China now MSN and Twitter are blocked and most internet users are too lazy to set up a VPN.
Flaw in the business model I see till now is that for groups over one hundred users (and how easy to you get them on a service with 300 million accounts?) a fee seems to be contemplated. Fees are barriers and online projects do not work very well behind financial firewalls.
Anyway, will give it a spin, later in the week and report back.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Joining QQ International

Image via Wikipedia

The famous Chinese IT company Tencent, operator of the popular QQ IM service, will start soon an international leg of its popular application. I have been asked to join QQ and help to moderate its business section. While details are still up in the air, I have started to make an account (@fonstuinstra) and will get additional information late in the week. Let me know if you are interested in joining.
You can reach me at QQ International ID 1265806143.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Xi Jinping's surprise delay to the helm - Victor Shih

Le vice-président chinois Xi Jinping à Hohhot

Xi Jinping by Amphis d'@illeurs via Flickr

Upcoming leader Xi Jinping was to many's surprise not elected as Vice-president into the Central Military Commission (CMC), a step needed to replace current president Hu Jintao in 2013. Political analyst Victor Shih explains in Bloomberg Hu wants to hang on a little big longer after 2013, just like his predecessors did.
Bloomberg:

Xi may still be named to the post in coming days or weeks or at a party meeting next year. Should he fail to be appointed, it may be a signal that Hu wants to hold on to his role as the commission’s chairman beyond 2013, delaying Xi’s full assumption of power, said Victor Shih, a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois who studies elite Chinese politics.

“If Xi indeed did not gain ascension into the CMC, it is indeed surprising,” Shih said. “My take is that Hu wants to delay Xi’s ascension into the CMC so that he himself can serve another full term as chairman of the CMC before fully retiring at the 19th Party Congress” in 2017

“For now, Xi accepts his exclusion from the CMC,” Shih said.

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Victor Shih by Fantake via Flickr

Victor Shih is one of few people with real insight of what is happening behind the curtains at Zhongnanhai. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch with the China Speakers Bureau.

Friday, September 18, 2009

China's luxury market to replace Japan - Shaun Rein

Image by Fantake via Flickr

A very optimistic Shaun Rein expects that China's luxury market will replace in size the Japanese one already by the end of this year, he tells Bloomberg. Especially the Chinese women have been moving up in the picking order for the more expensive goods.
Regardless of their disposable income, many Chinese still buy big ticket items. Rein: "The Chinese want it big".
He singles out a few foreign luxury brands that have been doing well: Ports, Louis Vitton and Gucci.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you want to share his insights at your meeting or conference, do let us know.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fighting internet users stir up Sino-US relations - Kaiser Kuo

Not so polite by Tony Crider via Flickr

The relations between the Obama administration and China's central government have been excellent, despite an averted trade war. But on the internet US and Chinese citizens are stirring up the Sino-US relations, warned Kaiser Kuo earlier this week at a CLSA China conference in Shanghai, here quoted in Business Week

He said the internet is leading to increasing polarization of views between China and the U.S. in what he describes as “Red necks vs Red Guards.” Ironically, he notes that Sino-U.S. relations since Obama took office have been better than in any time in recent memory. But while things look smooth offline, online “things have deteriorated really, really badly.”

This matters because the Chinese leadership is becoming increasingly sensitive to views disseminated in chat rooms and blogs within China, and popular opinion is, for the first time in the Middle Kingdom becoming something Beijing is wary of. “It is not just in western democracies where populism is percolating up to national policies,” he said. “Unchecked this will strain the political relationship [between the U.S. and China] and constrain policy choices.” The internet is making us “more tribal, more fractured, more polarized…..people are touching noses but not seeing eye-to-eye in Cyberspace.”

Business Week summerises Kuo's policy advice:

He proposed several ways that western readers might help close this chasm of opinions.
First, they should drop their condescending attitudes that assume because the Chinese are caught beyond the Great Firewall that they are to be pitied. Second, try to learn what the Chinese think when they aren’t on the defensive. Third, learn some Chinese history, especially from the last 150 years. And finally, take advantage of bridge bloggers who monitor the Chinese internet and provide a summary for non-Chinese speaking readers.

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Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference or meeting? Do get in touch.

Most-sought speakers for September 2009

Jasper Becker by Fantake via Flickr

Relatively large changes in our top-10 of most-sought speakers at the China Speakers Bureau for September, compared to August. At least four newcomers, although the top-2, Shaun Rein and Kaiser Kuo remain unchallenged.
Highest newcomer is the respected China-author Jasper Becker who appears on the third position. While by now every old-China hand has written their book on the Middle Kingdom, Becker has an impressive list of publication on China that cannot be matched by any other author.
The good news for our European customers is that Jasper Becker has temporarily moved his residence from Beijing to the UK, so flying him into Europe is a less complicated operation. What is good news for our customers in Europe is not-so-good news for those in Asia, of course.
With the upcoming 60th birthday of the communist party and the take off of the political season after the summer, it is not strange that two of our high-profile speakers on China's politics, William Overholt and Victor Shih, both respected academics from the US, moved up in our raking.
Recently, we got a few - what we call - panic assignments. While we are able to move fast in most requests for speakers, a lead-time of at least three months is advised to make sure the process goes smoothly.

Our raking for September (August in brackets)

Shaun Rein (1)
Kaiser Kuo (2)
Jasper Becker (-)
Ken Carroll by Fantake via Flickr
Rupert Hoogewerf (10)
Tom Doctoroff (7)
Marc van der Chijs (4)
William Overholt (-)
Ken Carroll (-)
Victor Shih (-)
Annette Nijs (9)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Capitalism is not dead, but moved to Asia - Shaun Rein

A PetroChina station in Xinjiang, China. Their...

Image via Wikipedia

One year after the collapse of the US bank Lehman Brothers, capitalism has not died, but the ball game has moved to Asia, with India and especially China as the new players, argues Shaun Rein in a new commentary in Forbes. One year later, the power brokers are different, not the game, leading the world in economic growth.

Not a day seems to go by without another Chinese company acquiring a stake in an iron ore mine in Australia or completing a deal for oil in Iran or Sudan. China Development Bank just gave China National Petroleum Corporation (the parent of Petrochina) a $30 billion loan to make overseas acquisitions. Look for this trend to continue and look for an erosion of the U.S. dollar, not only because of worries that America is taking on too much debt but also for geopolitical reasons.

China is using money and soft power to forge stronger relations with the Middle East, Latin America and Africa and to provide a balance of power against American hegemony. It is also flexing its muscles to supplant Japan, with all its political turmoil, as the dominant power in Asia.

Rein's research firm has interviewed over the past year thousands of Chinese executives, he continues:

Far from being cowed by the financial crisis, they have said they see the downturn as an opportunity. Some 70% have told us they'll take advantage of the recession to speed the global growth they already had underway. Many have told us they have faced far worse times in their business lives, and they want to make sure they don't miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime investing opportunity. American companies will have to develop strategies to compete with these emerging market brands. They are fast improving in both product quality and branding.

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

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

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Internet censorship at your local library

Brasschaat by Fantake via Flickr

When the issue of censorship comes up, often the second word that comes to people’s mind is China. So, when I had to go to our local library in Brasschaat, a little town north of Antwerp, Belgium, I was not expecting the worst internet censorship I had ever seen.
I had associated libraries as knowledge centres, not as places where they would do their best to block access to information for their visitors.
I was forced to used the library’s internet for a week, when my own internet connection was down and the library seemed to offer for a short while a good alternative. Boy, was I wrong. I did not check with other libraries to find out whether they would have similar blocking systems, but those features seldom seem to come on itself.

The screens, about a dozen in different places, were marked with signs saying that playing games was not allowed. That seemed fair enough and the friendly reminder hardly indicated that technology was blocking even more.
I could understand that downloading new software was not allowed, you might never know what you get on your machines otherwise. It was a bit of a nuisance they offered only an outdated version of Internet Explorer, but they went a bit too far by pointing at Microsoft’s search engine Bing, in stead of the leading search engine Google.
What was more than a nuisance was that opening more than one window was not allowed, at least the IE software blocked that option. Why would you block the number of windows in times that bandwidth is no longer a problem.
Fortunately, I could work around that block by opening Google’s search engine and opening from there windows to other services. Google Docs was no problem and initially even my Google reader opened. From there, I could change the url’s and open additional websites like Twitter, newspapers and even my own weblogs. That is, until a certain moment.
Then, technology must have decided I had had enough information, closed all the windows and went back to the opening window of the library. From then on, even getting to Google reader was almost impossible. I tried to order books at Amazon, but that was also not possible.

Those were only rather limited online actions. I had not even started to update my different databases, twitter accounts and weblogs. And I had not even tried to download porn to test the censorship system. Obvious, my local library did not want me to get too much information. It was a bit like forcing visitors of a library to look only at the cover of books, but stopping them from reading them.
Whoever must have thought about such a system must be somebody who really hates the internet. It was impossible to ignore the internet, but it was dealt with as a system that would stop people from reading books. That now is a very short-sighted look at the Internet.

I’m not sure whether this is common practise, but it would make sense to completely leave out the internet, in stead of offering such a crippled access.
Fortunately, a few miles down the road a local McDonalds restaurant was offering free wifi, without any restrictions. You would have to bring your own computer, but at least you could order books from Amazon and play games. For the library in Brasschaat – and who knows elsewhere in the world – it a missed opportunity. For the visitors of the library, young and old, the internet has become an indispensable tool to access information, next to books and papers. Helping them to find their way in this fast developing new world should be a necessary task for a knowledge centre that wants to keep a function in a world.

Related story: What can Europe learn from China?

Update: Ah, and the US is not much better. (h/t @lokmant)

No tit-for-tat trade war expected - Arthur Kroeber

by Fantake via Flickr

After the US announced a levy on Chinese tires, many observers feared a possible trade war between two of the world's largest economies. According to Dragonomics director Arthur Kroeber from Beijing in Finfacts, a repeat of the 1930s trade wars is highly unlikely.
Finfacts:

Beijing has built a reputation for rapid but controlled retaliation during trade disputes. One Washington trade lawyer said: “China always responds, so I don’t think this escalates. It just repeats each time the US does something.”

Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics, a Beijing-based economic consultancy, said: “Chinese tit-for-tat measures are unlikely to wreak significant economic damage . . . We don’t believe that the case marks the start of Depression-type trade wars.”

The products that Beijing is threatening to target – while denying that it is retaliating for the tyre tariffs – are politically important in the US.

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

What can Europe learn from China? – the Internet

CEIBS China Europe International Business School

CEIBS in Shanghai via Wikipedia

Former Dutch cabinet minister and current executive director at China’s leading international business school CEIBS in Shanghai, Annet Nijs, publishes on October 1 a book that deals with a question that will upset many people outside China. What can we learn from China, and that approach is very much needed, as I discovered the hard way in the past few months in Europe. (The book is currently only available in Dutch.)
Her effort to do some window shopping for Europe for China’s political system reflects mostly the level of despair of established European politicians in finding an answer for the increased popularity of mostly right-wing movements. But where Europe can find certainly good leads is on innovation. Europe is great in writing great conventions on the industry, but very poor on execution.
China has now around 350 million people online, unprecedented for any developing country, and sees the internet as a utility. Its service providers, just increased from two to three, are able to make a profit too, but getting people online as a political priority is their first task. Making money only a second.
How does that work out? The last time I applied for a broadband connection, I arrived on a Sunday and could apply right away. Indeed, Europeans, when something is defined as a utility, offices are also open on Sundays. The next Tuesday, it could also have been on a Wednesday morning, an engineer of China Telecom arrived at the announced time and needed twenty minutes to fix my internet connection.
I paid 12 euro per month for a basic broadband service, that was not as fast as it should be according to international standards, but still kept me connected with the world. The friendly engineer event left his personal mobile phone number, so I could call him in case of problems.

End August I had to look for a telecom and internet provider in Belgium. Because that is mostly packaged in a deal with TV, it needed some more study, but I initially decided to deal with Belgacom, the former state-owned telecom company. Our first appointment for the installation was three weeks later. Panic started to emerge, since my internet connection would be gone the next week.
My whole business and a big part of my social activities had moved online, I had – hail Google – retired most of the Microsoft software and did all my writing online. Without a connection I could not keep up with my speakers’deals and miss potential lucrative assignments. For my work on the WageIndicator, I had to deal with online operations in 45 countries. Without an internet connection I could as well retire myself too.
Customer service at Belgacom seemed to deal nicely with this despaired customer and promised to speed up the process. Installation was moved and it looked that I would only be offline for a few days and I started to look for local wifi-connection.
At the agreed day – we had to stay at home, since they could not give a time – an engineer arrived to fix a phone line. That was the only thing we still had and we started to make a set of annoyed calls to the Belgacom customer service. After much switching, talking and yelling, we learned that somebody had killed the request for an internet connection. Next appointment we could only have in two weeks time.
We decided to kill the deal, went to the only real competitor of Belgacom, Telenet, and they promised to have us online in less than a week.

Thanks to Telenet I could today resume my online life. Friends, who had to listen all week long to my desperate phone calls, said I was not alone; they knew of Internet companies in South-East Amsterdam who were unceremoniously kicked of their internet connection and were left in the dark for two months.
In between I could get online in the local library of Brasschaat, but apart from their awkward opening hours their internet connections were blessing with a censorship system that made China’s filtering like children’s work (more about that in my next rant). A few times I could use the really excellent wifi-connection at a not-so-local McDonalds restaurant.

Those are two conflicting business models. China, where the internet is seen as a utility and treated in the same way as your electricity and water connections are. And in Europe where making a profit is more important and guaranteeing a fast service. (Although Belgacom would even be more profitable is they would send one engineer in stead of three.)
No surprise, I agree with Annette Nijs that Europe can learn much from China. Getting an internet connection done fast should not be that difficult.
Massive delays on larger infrastructure projects are in Europe often blamed on the democratic process that gives some many stakeholders a say. I feel that often it is just a lame excuse for political and bureaucratic laziness.

(Next: Internet censorshop at the Brasschaat library).

{{nl|Annette Nijs - Afbeelding van een (voorma...

Annette Nijs via Wikipedia

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Annette Nijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having her at your conference or meeting? Do let us know.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Real estate tycoon top philantropist - Rupert Hoogewerf

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Huang Rulun, one of the wealthiest business men in China and a real estate tycoon, tops also the list of top-philantropists, report several state media. According to a report by the Hurun rich list Huang Rulun has spent 580 million Renminbi (58 million euro) in less than one year time on different projects.

Huang, 58, is the board chairman of China real estate giant Century Golden Resources Group, which has long been involved in real estate, hotels, shopping malls, mine exploration and finance industries in China.

This year, the entrepreneur topped both the China Philanthropist List issued by the Hurun Report and the Forbes List of the world's leading philanthropists.

The entrepreneur proves to be of a different kind than the first generation of wealthy people, who had often not time to look beyond their money making activities. Rupert Hoogewerf:

Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Report, said Huang's acts in philanthropic causes have become a symbol of China's philanthropy industry, as he has inspired an increasing number of other business leaders to take part in those efforts.

　　"Huang is a leader among the country's private entrepreneurs. Under Huang's leadership, China's private enterprises have taken an active role in social causes and become a key force of charity in the nation," Hoogewerf said.

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Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

The made-in-China label - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

A flood of food scandals has put foreign brands in a better position to gain market share in China, says Shaun Rein in an interview with newswire Bloomberg on the Swiss company Nestle.
Bloomberg:

“The made-in-China label is really damaging and a lot of Chinese consumers don’t like it,” Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said by phone today. “Nestle has the ability to increase market share, partly because everybody’s fleeing the domestic producers.”

Nestle gained 0.09 percent to 43.32 Swiss francs in Zurich trading on Sept. 4, and has advanced 4.1 percent this year.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Room for optimism on China's environment - Shaun Rein

Image via Wikipedia

China's emissions might be high on the global environmental agenda, but Shaun Rein from Shanghai remembers the polluted days ahead of the country's economic boom and seem room for optimismm although the level of pollution is ten times as high as in New York, he writes in Forbes.

To begin with, the Chinese government recognizes that it has a severe problem and is doing something about it. This is a turnaround from just a few years ago, when the government argued that heavy pollution was a necessary part of economic development, Western countries having gone through it in the Industrial Revolution. The nation's rulers were more worried about feeding their citizens than about preserving their environment. But today most Chinese citizens have access to adequate food and shelter and are increasingly concerned about pollution's effect on their health.

Forced by increasing health care costs, the central government has put the environment firmly on the agenda and is spending much of is capital on it, offering great entrepreneurial opportunities. Large industries, like the car makers, use their emergence in China to break with the polluted heritage of the old players.

China's automobile manufacturers may be the most innovative in the world today. Unburdened by a legacy of factories, unions and gas stations, they are rushing to produce electric cars that are years ahead of anything from Ford Motor ( F - news -people ), General Motors ( GMGMQ.PK - news - people ) or even Toyota ( TM - news - people ). BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett, is selling electric cars that not only reduce carbon dioxide emissions but are stylish too. Its sales have soared 183% this year to more than 200,000 cars.

Look for the boom in electric cars in China to continue as the government adds tax breaks and pushes taxi companies and government fleets to go electric. More than 20 million electric bikes have been sold in the last three years too. The technology is improving at both the low end and the high end.

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him for your conference or meeting. Do get in touch.