Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Government restrictions push sale high-ticket items - Shaun Rein

PRC Blue Licence Plate. DF08 2004 image. The l...Image via Wikipedia
China's efforts to cool the economy make it harder for the country's millionaires and billionaires to spend their capital, writes Shaun Rein in CNBC. So, what do they do when they can only buy one house? They buy a really huge one.

Shaun Rein:
At the high end, China’s nearly 1 million US dollar millionaires and 100 billionaires like Mr. Chen are buying one property instead of multiple properties. Restrictions have caused home prices in the medium to mid-upper ranges to stabilize or even drop while standalone villas and homes above $15 million, a category that did not even exist five years ago, are skyrocketing. One developer in Beijing is even touting $50,000 a square meter rates at a new development.

A similar trend is happening in the auto sector. The China Automotive Technology & Research Center says overall auto sales might drop 10 percent this year after an 8.1 percent gain the first quarter because stimulus measures implemented in 2008 to encourage sales are being scrapped and authorities are limiting the number of license plates issued to ease traffic and pollution. Only 21 percent of license plate applications in Beijing in January were successful.
Those who secure license plates are going up-market, as they are in housing. Ferrari’s Chinese sales jumped 50 percent to 300 cars last year and will have similar growth rates in 2011.  Porsche anticipates 35 percent growth there this year. Helmut Broeker, Porsche’s head of China, predicts China will overtake America as its largest market by 2014. Mercedes [DAI  48.06   -0.02  (-0.04%)   ]saw a 47 percent year-on-year increase in April to 16,536 units sold in the month.
More in CNBC.

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



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Location: Beijing, China

Baidu is not ruled by the communist party - Kaiser Kuo

TEDxBeijing
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.
“On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the propaganda bureau of the State Council, you are welcome at Baidu’s headquarters,” ironically proclaims Kaiser Kuo, a former member of Chinese heavy metal band Tang Dynasty and now Baidu’s director for international communications.

“I know a lot of foreign journalists like you who assume wrongly that we are ruled by the Party. How come?” asks the suited 40-something — who still sports a silky, rocker-style mane of hair. “Remember that we are listed on the NASDAQ exchange and the great majority of our shareholders are from western countries.”
More in Metro.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him to explore the current state of the US-China relations, do get in touch.
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Location: Beijing, China

One-off revaluation needed to fight inflation - Shaun Rein

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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.

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

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Monday, May 30, 2011

How to get your ROI on social media - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean
Companies have started to invest heavily in social media, including mobile application. But the results are often disappointing, tells William Bao Bean in this presentation on ROI on social media. Understanding your customers, and their differences, is more important than getting tools in place.

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






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Location: Shanghai, China

Chinese firms listen better than its competitors - Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer
Competitors from China are becoming better, IMD-professor Bill Fischer concludes in Forbes. Cheap labor and competitive pricing are replaced by a far greater asset: listening better to their clients. Fischer zooms in on UnionPay, China's only electronic retail network.

Huawei, Lenovo and Haier are some of the familiar Chinese names in global competition, but more are getting ready, Bill Fischer discovered at the UnionPay headquarters, talking to Mr. Chai Hongfeng, Director and Executive Vice President.
He is an urbane, sophisticated, cosmopolitan executive, who could have stepped off of the cover of Forbes, and he summarized the company’s managerial needs with four words...:

“Study, Standards, Cooperation, and Innovation”: this is not about price. Nor is this the image of the traditional State-Owned Enterprise dinosaur.What this is, instead, is a recipe for learning more and faster than their competitors. This is all about building a smarter organization.

Some 16 years ago, Peter F. Drucker, the management gurus’ guru, predicted that the next big managerial innovation would come out of China, and we’re still waiting. Perhaps, somewhat unexpectedly, it might just be the ability to listen better in an effort to construct faster-learning organizations? In the spirit of that sentiment, my good friend William Keller, the former CEO of Roche China, and a long-time Shanghai resident, has observed that in the competition for learning about how to do business in this brave new world of globalization, Western firms travel the world telling others “how to do it”, while Chinese firms travel the world “listening to the lessons of others.” Keller asks: “Who do you think will learn faster”? Granted “listening” is not necessarily the same as “learning”, nor is either a guarantee for building an effectively “smarter” competitor. But, listening and learning do strike me as excellent starting points for competing in the ideas business.
More about his findings in Forbes.

Bill Fischer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.
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Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

Getting respect in China- Janet Carmosky

Janet_-_006
Janet Carmosky
Getting respect in China is tough for any business executive, writes Janet Carmosky in Forbes. Defining criteria: Chinese have to define you as smart, but most foreign expats have no clue how to gain that.

Carmosky spells out a list of issues that could kill the respect Chinese have for you:
Here’s how to squander any chance of respect: walk in with the wrong mindset. Here are the basics – what the Chinese will see as The Opposite of Smart:
• Overconfidence: we’re big and famous, so move over, we’re going into China In A Big Way
• Righteous Indignation: Prepared for the battle of teaching the Chinese the right way. Or else.
• Denial: Business is all about the numbers, and nothing else. Culture is irrelevant. Besides, China is Westernizing.
• Rigidity: We have a business model and that’s what HQ wants. What’s there to talk about?
More in Forbes, where Janet Carmosky explains why business consultants just do not tell you that.

Janet Carmosky is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.


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Friday, May 27, 2011

Disrupted in New York - Marc van der Chijs

Mark van der Chijs
Marc van der Chijs in New York

Shanghai-based erial internet entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs reports on his weblog about the slightly disappointing Techcrunch Disrupt conference in New York.

I found the emphasis on AOL (TechCrunch new mother company) a bit annoying, Arrianna Huffington’s panel was typical old media (“If I would tweet I would tweet this” etc.).

Compared to TC Disrupt in San Francisco this version was not as good. The event has gotten too big and the location was not optimal (too cold and too noisy). Also I felt that the audience was not as interesting as the one on the West coast, I hardly knew anybody and also I didn’t meet a lot of interesting new people. In SF that was very different, so likely I won’t go to the New York conference again next year.
For a report on his other efforts to links between entrepreneurial activities in the US, China and Europe please switch to his weblog.

March van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Location: New York, NY, USA

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Fuzhou bomber gets a martyr status - Victor Shih

victor shih
The blasts, two deaths and six wound is the toll of a bomb attack by the disgruntled farmer in Fuzhou last night, who had been petitioning the government in vain. Political analyst Victor Shih notes in his weblog how the bomber - against all odds - turned into a martyr at the internet.

Victor Shih:
What's really striking is that the perpetrator seems to be a farmer who had petitioned through both the courts and the petition system for over ten  years. In fact, he had his own weibo account, which recounts his ordeals. In the end, he apparently took matters into his own hand. On the Chinese weibo-sphere, users almost universally lauded his actions as justified! (His weibo account is: http://weibo.com/1773401361) I venture to guess that the leaders in Beijing may be more disturbed by his martyr status than by the bombing itself. For us political scientists, the may be a watershed event in the rightful resistance model developed by Kevin O'Brien and Li Lianjiang.
More at his weblog.

Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Location: Fuzhou, Fujian, China

About not writing a book about China - Janet Carmosky

Janet Carmosky
It took Janet Carmosky thirty years not to write a book about what she knows about China, she tells in Forbes, and hopes Former US Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson will take at least that much time before he finishes his announced book on China.

Janet Carmosky:
Anyway, I’ve never run Goldman Sachs or the US Treasury. I just ran semi-legal foreign invested businesses in China, spent my Sundays peeling garlic and playing ma jiang with Communist Party officials, and took conference calls with the people in the USA at 4 AM China time for two decades so that I could explain why China isn’t more like America...

I speak read and write Chinese, and have been obsessed with US-China engagement and understanding since I was 16. Chinese people who meet me by phone never suspect that I’m white, and I cook with a wok. The Chinese man I married back in 1985 speaks reads and writes English, majored in American literature, and even back them he was so thoroughly at ease with the Americans who he came into contact with that the Party Secretary of his Work Unit suspected him of being involved in espionage. Mr. Zhang and I were best friends, husband and wife, and the parents of two kids for 18 years. At which point we threw in the towel. As Western as he can be, and as Chinese as I can be, the fact remains – cultural differences between the US and China might as well be six feet of solid concrete. Even if everyone on the two countries were totally bilingual, and we could agree on a menu for a big banquet to be held at some halfway point, the barrier would still be there.
More on Forbes.

Janet Carmosky is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Power outages start to hurt production - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
The current shortfall in electricity in China is already starting to hurt production, writes Bill Dodson in his weblog. As the summer nears, problems will increase. An its basically a government policy cause the problem.

Bill Dodson:
Much of the shortfall has to do with the government-controlled price at which steam coal is sold to power stations; the price is lower than market prices, so coal producers are simply choosing not to sell their coal to the electricity generators. The government, for its part, is loathe to lift the ceiling on coal prices, as inflationary pressures are already aggravating a populace edgy for the good life – which, of course, requires increasing amounts of electricity.

However, judging by my electricity bills this past summer, I’m also loathe to see my electricity bills increase any further.
More on his weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Location: Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

Europe needs China-style 3G service

A China Unicom telecommunications tower in Yun...Image via Wikipedia
Earlier this week I was pleasantly surprised as my Belgium telecom company Telenet reacted on Twitter when I had some minor complaints about their service. So, I signed up for their twitter account and was invited for a rather large-scale press conference on the launch of their new 3G plan, expected coming Friday at midnight.

Here you can see what their basic promotion will do to fight the competition: you have to pay 199 euro for an iPhone 4 and a 'plan' (teleco's jargon for screwing their customers, while they are profoundly confused by different offers) for 45 euro. I was shocked, but that is perhaps because I'm used to the introduction of these systems in China.

What is the main difference between China (where close to 500 million citizens are online and even more on mobile)? In China telecom communication is considered to be an utility. Of course, the telco's can make a profit - and they do so if I can believe the figures - but their first task is to get everybody connected.

Where does that lead to? China Unicom, the smaller player in the 3G market, just launched their plan to fight the incumbent mobile provider China Mobile, here in a report by Bloomberg. What is their plan? A 7 euro per month subscription. Now you might know why so many Chinese are online.

The EU is doing a lot of work to make the telecom markets more transparent, but when I look at European comparison site like this one, I'm sorry, but that is not going to help me.

In Chinese hotels an internet connection is complimentary, just like they do not charge for using the bathroom. That would still be an unthinkable service in most European hotels.

Europe needs to change its ideas of telecom connection, now they are becoming crucial for the economy. They should considered to be utilities and pricing should be accordingly. Real transparency would be a nice start.
(Earlier published at Fons Tuinstra's home)
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DSK animated, in Taiwan

International Monetary Fund's Managing Directo...DSK, left, via Wikipedia
Fascinating media stuff from Taiwan (h/t @volkskrant) where lack of camera's does not stop the fantasy of the local media, as we can see here from the case of former IMF president Dominique Strauss-Kahn. No access to his cell, no problem. Are there no pictures of the supposed rape? We use 3D technology to make it more realistic.


Just to avoid any misunderstanding: the Taiwanese media are a very different creature from the compatriots on the mainland. Taiwanese media are often privately-owned and very competitive. On mainland China, they are all state-owned and while they do compete, they do so with a very narrow bandwidth defined by the censorship. This kind of animation is not yet possible in China, yet, although I assume that many can watch it on the internet.
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China Speakers Bureau launches new website

The China Speakers Bureau has this week opened its newly designed website for business. The transfer is still in business and since
Homepage

websites are never ready, you will see new improvements in the weeks to come.

The website now operates fully under Wordpress and - apart from a highly improved layout - managing the website has become so much easier. We have already introduce a whole set of tools to make better use of the advantages of social media. We will have regularly changing video's of our speakers, a box showing their latest activities on Twitter and improved tools to pass on their news, comment or give other feedback.

By using clouds for both topics and speakers, the site automatically indicates the more popular subjects on the site and the speakers who attract most attention. A special book section shows the latest books published by our speakers.

Setting up campaigns will be easier and expect announcements on a special section looking at the US-China relations in anticipation of the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. We expect that China will be on the political agenda in the US for the year to come and some of our speakers are already preparing activities, like launching books, as the political steam is building up momentum. A first look you can have at our #elections2010 category.

Missing anything? Do let us know.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

China's government still controls economy - Victor Shih

Victor Shih
US businesses working in China are reluctant to criticizes Chinese government departments, like they would do in the US, and for good reason tells professor Victor Shih in The International Business Times.  The chance of getting into trouble is always present.
"The Chinese government controls all the levers of the economy, from import and export licenses on up," said Victor Shih, an assistant professor of politics at Northwestern University. "There are so many ways for the Chinese government to retaliate it is no surprise businesses are so reluctant to criticize it."

For their part, the Chinese tend to view technology transfer as being fair trade for access to its growing manufacturing base and its potential as a consumer market of 1.3 billion people.

"The Chinese response is typically that multinationals have come to China because it has a huge market," Northwestern's Shih said. "The Chinese say that in doing so 'you have implicitly signed up for technology transfer as the price of entry to that market.'"
More in the International Business Time on the question whether corporate America kowtows to China.

Professor Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Urbanization needs building spree - Andrew Leung

Andrewleung Andrew Leung
China keeps on building like crazy, and there is good reason for that, Andrew Leung explains in his weblog. To deal with the rapid and unprecedented urbanization, cities need to expand at an feverish speed.
According to a recent McKinsey research report, China will be adding 350 million more urbanites by 2025, more than the existing population of the United States. The total urban population will reach 1 billion by 2030. There will be 221 cities with a population over one million, compared with 35 such cites in Europe today. In the process, 5 million square meters of roads will have been paved, 170 mass transit systems built, 40 billion square meters of floor space created in 5 million buildings, of which 50,000 will be skyscrapers, equivalent to 10 New York Cities (Preparing for China’s Urban Billion, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2009)....

As for the housing bubble, private mortgage lending in China is extremely conservative. You would be extremely lucky if you could manage to get a mortgage loan approaching 70%. Moreover, China’s banks are much better capitalized in comparison with their Western counterparts and most are supported by the state’s massive currency reserve.

China is decisively switching course with the latest 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15), channeling the country towards higher-quality, if slower, growth, with more domestic consumption and a more balanced, equitable, innovative and sustainable economy.
More in Andrew Leung's weblog.

Andrew Leung is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Why China keeps on building -Shaun Rein



Shaun Rein
Shaun Rein takes on China-bull James Chanos in CNBC and explains why China keeps on investing in infrastructure and why he is underestimating the current growth of wages.

A fragment of his arguments:
It is common for families of 3-5 people to live in 350 square foot homes; the average house in America is 2,330 square feet according to the National Association of Home Builders. Many workers live 8 people to a room. Workers are moving to urban areas in search of better pay. This year, for the first time, more than 50 percent of the country lives in urban areas, up from 30 percent just a decade ago. As the country continues to urbanize and incomes rise, people need more comfortable living conditions.

Chanos also makes the mistake of underestimating rising incomes. Per capita GDP more than tripled to $3,400 at the end of 2010 from $949 in 2000. The trend is continuing as foreign direct investment (FDI) is rising 25 percent a year, causing a fight for both white collar talent and manufacturing jobs.

Factory salaries at companies like Toyota [TM  79.54   -0.42  (-0.53%)   ], Foxconn are rising 20 percent year on year.  The number of US dollar millionaires has risen to nearly 1 million, when just dozens had that wealth two decades ago. In other words, rising incomes and urbanization are creating demand for empty units.
More in CNBC.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Growth, not efficiency fuels economy - Arthur Kroeber

温家宝Image via Wikipedia
Even premier Wen Jiabao calls China's economy unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated and ultimately unsustainable, writes Reuters. But despite those misgivings, economic growth will steam ahead, adds economic analyst Arthur Kroeber.
"The tailwinds of growth are so strong. You've still got a lot of growth that can come in a fairly straightforward manner through completing infrastructure and heavy industry and urbanization," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director at GaveKal Dragonomics, a consultancy in Beijing.

"As long as you have a model where simply accumulating capital is your main source of growth and the efficiency with which that capital is used is not important, then all of these processes can continue unimpeded and they don't really obstruct growth," he said.

Once efficiency becomes imperative, however, China will struggle to convince vested interests, notably big state-owned companies that have benefited disproportionately from subsidies and stunted competition, of the need for reform.

"I would say that's a very, very serious risk because you don't have the kinds of institutions like a free press or regulatory agencies or NGOs that act as a check on these kinds of concentrations of financial power," Kroeber said.

"But that's more on a decade horizon than on a five-year horizon."
More in Reuters.
arthurk
Arthur Kroeber
Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.


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Monday, May 23, 2011

Why Weibo is cuter than Twitter - Tricia Wang


All too often Sina's microblog service Weibo is described as a kloon of Twitter. Sociologist Tricia Wang in Wuhan has been using Weibo for a few months and starts to report on her weblog about the differences of the two. About fun, love and entertainment.

About a regular Weibo message:
"Do you like finding interesting people? Weibo is a fun place! Hurry up and discover classmates, celebrities, and cute girls and guys on Weibo!"

One thing that I've noticed is how much Weibo will explicitly push the idea of finding "cute" people to follow who aren't celebrities. Other than pointing users to celebrity's accounts, you don't see Twitter sending out messages to discover "cute" or "pretty" people on twitter. This message to all Weibo users emphasizes that it is a place to find interesting people, celebrities, classmages, and cute people. You don't see an emphasis on Weibo being a place to find out good information about local and national politics and news, even though that is why many people use it.
Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Location: Wuhan, Hubei, China

The Idea Hunt - China vs Europe

Philips radio receiver model 930A, made in 1931Image via Wikipedia
Innovation tops many agenda's, from individuals, organizations and countries. But what innovation actually is and how to deal with it, outside high-brow and often mythical debates, remains illusive.

Bill Fischer and Andy Boyton have in their recently released "The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen" produced an excellent guide on how to hunt for ideas and get them in place. They describe the core of innovation and - apart from giving very down-to-earth advice - they turn around arguments I have witnessed in many of the innovation debates.

My apologies when I focus on the China angle here, it is my angle and not of the book, but I learned a few important lessons from the book that should reflect on the debate on how innovative China actually is.

Is China not the 'cut-and-paste' country where few original ideas are the basis of its innovation? Is China able to be innovative, because of its cultural inhibitions? Is its neglect for intellectual property not actually stealing from others? Fischer and Boyton turn around that concept and argue that innovation is mostly a cut-and-past process, and mostly not producing new and original ideas. The better strategy is try existing ideas are use them in a different setting, they argue.
This is an extremely important attitude for an Idea Hunter. Trying to come up with thoroughly original ideas all the time ... is a losing game. The better plan is to identify potentially valuable ideas that either are already being used or have been used in the past. The task then is to slip those ideas into your setting or circumstances.
They use a wide range of examples to illustrate their point. Take for example Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart:
Walton made a habit of prowling for ideas in other people's stores... It was "just part of the educational process," part of his regular exercise. ... Walton had the right attitude as an Idea Hunter. "You can learn from everybody," he taught. "I probably learned the most by studying what my competitor was doing across the street." He gladly conceded that all the ideas tried at Wal-Mart, such as how and where to display items, were copied from stores. His wife, Helen, says he seemed to spend almost as much time in other people's stores as he did in his own.
Let's put this in black and white. In Europe, for example in my native country The Netherlands, basic research seems to be the holy grail of innovation. Original ideas are presented in TV-shows and are funded by the government. We look in admiration at a company like Philips whose research department has been famous for groundbreaking basic research. And, yes, we know all that basic research seldom left the corporate labs, because there was a huge disconnect with their marketing and what consumers really wanted.

Is from that perspective China not much more innovative? And should the innovation debate not be focused more on what we actually get from it, in stead of conducting intellectual debates on concepts and principles that add little value?

Bill Fischer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
Fischer_William-AImage by Fantake via Flickr
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Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

Sunday, May 22, 2011

China seeks Arctic shipping lanes - Wendell Minnick

An armed suspected pirate looks over the edge ...Suspected pirates via Wikipedia
While the world is fearing the melting polar is, China sees new opportunities for Arctic shipping lanes, writes defense expert Wendell Minnick on his weblog. Other sea lanes could become potentially problematic.
Beijing has had security concerns over the sea lanes of communication. China is dependent on oil and gas shipments from the Middle East. Potential choke points in the Malacca Strait and territorial disputes in the South China Sea have added to the concern. For the first time in China’s modern naval history, it has taken up anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden to ward off Somali pirates.

Though an Arctic passage would do little to solve security concerns over oil and gas shipments from the Middle East, it would provide a shorter route for China’s exports to Europe. It is estimated that the maritime route between Asia and Europe could be reduced from 15,000 miles to less than 8,000 miles, Wang Kuan-Hsiung, a researcher at National Taiwan Normal University, said.
More at Wendell Minnick's weblog.

Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or confer
Wendell_Minnick
Wendell Minnick
ence, do get in touch.
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Kissinger fails to answer key question - Jasper Becker

Henry Kissinger and Chairman Mao, with Zhou En...Image via Wikipedia
Former foreign correspondent Jasper Becker wonders in a review in The Guardian why in 600 pages Henry Kissinger's 'On China' did not answer the most important issue at stake: why did Richard Nixon decide it was in the interest of the US to protect communist China?
Kissinger tells us that this de facto alliance was personally decided by Nixon in August 1969 just as the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack on China. Nixon had decided the Soviets were the more dangerous party and that it was against American interests for China to be "smashed" in a Chinese-Soviet war. "It was a revolutionary moment in US foreign policy," Kissinger explains. "An American president declared we had a strategic interest in the survival of a major communist country."...

The alliance is as crucial to understanding world history as Britain and America's decision to make an ally of Stalin in order to defeat Hitler, rather than the other way round, the result of which was the establishment of a Soviet empire in Europe rather than a German one....

Kissinger implies that only a clever diplomat such as himself can catch the sophistication of the Chinese people and their "subtle sense of the intangible". So in this book Chinese leaders never sound unreasonable, but always sensible and pragmatic, unlike the Americans, who make unreasonable demands and have confused ideas about democracy and human rights.

Kissinger has no curiosity at all: he never looks behind the curtain, let alone listens to spokesmen of the Chinese opposition. Even after Tiananmen, when the dissident physicist Fang Lizhi was holed up for 18 months in the US embassy and the subject of high-level bargaining, Kissinger didn't bother to meet him. It's a pity that Kissinger was never distracted from his mission to achieve "a rebalancing of the global equilibrium". The world might have been quite a different place.
The complete story you can find at The Guardian.

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