politics - The online Who Is Who

China Vitae is an extremely useful online reference site with 2,500 biographies of China's political leaders, I discovered thanks to the blogosphere at Living in China. I have added to my permanent links and to my favorites.

blogger - RSS feed down

Apologies for those who watch this weblog using my RSS-feed, but the provider feedster.com is having severe trouble. Should be up and running again very soon, nothing is wrong with your systems.

Cooling down, heating up – the WTO column

 

(today at Chinabiz)

 

The question whether China’s economy is cooling down or heating up depends largely on who you are talking to. Most appropriate comparison is probably the problem whether you describe a glass as half full or half empty. In both cases it is still the same glass.

 

New policies to cool down the car industry, China’s holy cow of economic growth, are having effect, writes the Financial Times today. What does that mean? The market has in May only grown 15 to 20 percent compared to May 2003, while that used to be 45 percent.

"The slowdown is widespread, across all regions, models and brands," said an industry consultant in the FT.

Colleague Richard McGregor admits that even that poor performance is still rather impressive. That thought is shared in a more negative way by the many visitors I met last week here in Shanghai: they all got stuck into those famous traffic jams that mostly kept the people in Beijing from reaching their destinations on time.

 

This week I attended the Asian Technology Roundtable Exhibition (ATRE) in Shanghai and – although there were some differences compared to the first internet hype – the atmosphere of roaming VC’s, enthusiastic IT companies and otherwise hyped up expectations about China’s booming market. (A report will be published later in a new Chinabiz series called “The Conference Report”)

 

China was able to slowdown in the second half of the 1990s a similar growth pattern as then Prime Minister Zhu Rongji hit the economic brakes forcefully. With hindsight we might add that the Asian financial crisis probably helped a bit to cool down China’s economy.

The current Prime Minister Wen Jiabao seems like a more thoughtful politician, less inclined than Zhu to rock the boat. That might not be very helpful when the economy has to be brought to a more moderate speed. And I guess nobody would be looking forward to yet another full-scale economic crisis?

 

Fons Tuinstra

 

Atre - Cultural differences push mobile solution

The future of the mobile internet and the cultural differences between the US and China also came up during the second day at ATRE. "In the US everybody has a computer both at work and at home," said Frank Zheng, director of Mobile Communication Research. "Between home and their work they drive their car and cannot use their mobile phone. In China most people still have no computer at their work and they use more often the subway, like in Japan, so they have time to use SMS a lot.
Entertainment will be the main focus, said Raymond Yang, CEO of Linktone. "Fifty percent of the mobile communication is done by people under 29 year's old, that is China's SMS generation, although they might use more than SMS only. Entertainment is going to be the major drive."
Cheap entertainment will especially catch on outside the larger cities, the panelists think. "Just drive four hours from any city and you will see the real China that is going to use those services."

ATRE - China focuses on mobile internet

Is China going to beat India in the IT outsourcing trade? Yes, said Wang Wenjing, chairman of UFsoft, the largest ERP vendor in China. UFsoft has 4,000 employees in China and serves about 300,000 clients, Wang claimed. With its currently 2.8 million college graduates and 290 million mobile phones – compared to 80 million internet connections – going mobile it the most obvious direction to take. Wang: “Chinese users are not that much used to the PC and a keyboard as the users in the US are, we have a very different historical background.”
China’s software developers will focus more than India on those mobile solutions, Wang said. Games are already the largest mobile business in China, and that will only expand. Wang: “India was ten years earlier than China, but we will catch up in the competition with India.”
Wang spoke at ATRE, the Asian Technology Roundtable Exhibition on Wednesday and Thursday in Shanghai.

media - rocket scientists recall the cultural revolution

Dealing with the more painful moments of China's past is not one of its media's strong points, to put it mildly. So, I was pleasantly surprised when bumbed into a very well done documentary on CCTV-9 on the history of its adventures in space.
Older scientists sat down and told how they tried to pull the program through that 'messy' period, we know as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). They told how colleagues were beaten by the crazy crowds and they were all scared into political action.
There were great scenes from 1970 when China launched successfully their first satellite into space that broadcasted the revolutionary song "The East Is Red", convincing even the most staunch Red Gards the space program was a good thing.
Nothing shocking and new for the outside world, but good to see Chinese academics talk rather relaxed about this sensitive part of China's past.

ATRE - China most enterpreneurial



Compared to other Asian countries and regions like Korea, Japan and Hong Kong Chinese business people are the most entrepreneurial, said Martin Gagen, executive director of the VC firm 3i Group, during the ongoing ATRE conference in the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai.
CHina is a market that cannot be ignored, Gagen said, "too much is happening here." Not because of the 1.3 billion people, but the 300 million that are living in the cities. Those numbers are bound to go up very fast in the upcoming ten years, increasing also the potential of the Chinese market.
Gagen: "Too many people think you cannot do business here or that the poor legal system is prevention you from doing so."<

technology - Mobile and services offer China chances

China is an upcoming force in outsourcing software develping, said Wang Wenjing, president of UFsoft during the ATRE conference today in Shanghai, taking on India.
China has now 2.8 million college graduates and 290 million mobile phones. Wang expect that China will use a different mobile, and focuses more on the mobile applications. "We do not have a history in using the PC and a keyboard, like the US has," Wang said. On top of that services will be large in China, as labor is still relative cheap.
UFsort is China's largest ERP vendor with 4,000 employees and 300,000 customers, says Wang. "India was ten years earlier than China, but we have great potential."
Most profitable vendors are now in the online games, Wang added.
Indian enterpreneurs disagreed. "Language skills most important," said one of them and would give China a generous second place after India as the most succesful market for outsourcing software development.
(Yes, indeed: I'm online)

internet - The censor went home

Five o'clock at Tuesday afternoon and the internet is racing again like normal. Probably the filters are not needed after working hours. Blocks that were just now in place (including Yahoo chat and ICQ) are gone again.

internet - A traffic slowdown

Internet here in Shanghai is very, very slow today. It took today an eternity before I was able to download my daily dosis of 300+ spam messages. I guess that the internet filters are up in force again(just guess why that is...), causing a general slowdown of the internet. This might just be another way to slow down the economy.

protest - The Tiananmen Mothers

Yesterday I watched with a group of colleagues the testimonies of the relatives of a group of victims of the repression of the Tiananmen rebellion in Beijing on June 4, 1989, now almost 15 years ago. Rather impressive to see these women, angry and hear them tell what happened in those days. By letting those mental wounds fester, Beijing has created themselves a group of very strong-willed women, who for sure are able to generate much sympathy in their city and elsewhere.
But also mixed feelings. It all did not add so much new to what we all knew already. It is sad that it took 14 years to get these testimonies: they do create an image of helplessness. How convincing those women might be as individuals, China is busy with other things. I wonder whether in Shanghai - where most of the current generation even hardly knows about June 1989 - could be bothered.

move - Where is your wife?

Yesterday went to bring my boxed to my new apartment and my new neigbors took the opportunity to inquisite me about the questions that are considered to be most important. Where is your wife? How much do you pay for your apartment.
I was helped by a couple of friends who had long-term experience in the warehouse of a state-owned factory. They are the best help you can get when you have to move stuff and unpack it in a place where there is very little room. They already scolded me and said I paid too much for my new place, on a ten minute walk from Xujiahui subway station. Too expensive, is the most often used phrase in Shanghai. "You have been cheated".
Fortunately, my neighbors were on my side. They think I pay a fair price, since the building is already ten years old (and it looks pre-liberation), but I'm having one of the better apartments.

business - Shenzhen retailers hit back at UnionPay

The largest retailers in Shenzhen have started to boycot the services of China UnionPay in protest against its one percent service charge. China UnionPay was an effort to consolidated the heavily divided card payments in China, creating a nationwide card payment system. International credit card companies looked at the initiative as a way to modernize China's card system, but now the retailers are hitting back.
According to the Standard, the conflict is currently expanding from Shenzhen to other parts of the country. Retailers are - unlike in other countries - a for to reckon with.
The 46 Shenzhen retailers that started the conflict represent the majority of the turnover in this city. Their spokesman says they only want the current level of charges, one percent of each transaction, to go down to the level of Guangzhou, where the charge is 0.5 percent.

marketing - How to frag a musquito?


I should have googled 'frag' of course, before I made fun about the latest effort to re-brand wenbuding. Fragging is actually pretty cool in online gaming, I found out now. In Italy it has everything to do with leather. How much cooler can it get?
There is even a Church of Frag. Calling you Frag might get the religious authorities in China pretty nervous. I do hope they did not pay there marketing consultant on this name too much before they entered the Frag zone.

IT - Atre 2004 ahead


Oops! I wanted to update you a bit on the latest regarding the Asian Technology Roundtable Exhibition that is going to hit Shanghai (or at least my agenda) in the coming week. But unfortunately, their website is down. A bit of a nuisance, especially when you are about technology. They have a problem in the US, perhaps the boys and girl are already up in the air on their way to China and cannot look into their problem. I will link anyway and perhaps it will work out.
The venue is in the Four Seasons Hotel and after last week's experiences at the World Bank Conference, I'm not going to announce I will be live blogging. They do mention a swimming pool, they might even have restrooms, but do they have free wireless access? No, they have "four workstations for their guest". They should give back at least one star! Fortunately, there is a Starbucks around the corner for emergencies.

marketing - Does wenbuding need marketing?

Wenbuding, said the shop assistent convinced, when I was years ago fighting the musquito terror that comes along with the finest days of the Shanghai Spring. I had never heard of the green bottle, but all the Shanghainese knew it. Since then, wenbuding belongs to my standard equipment. One bottle helps for monts, for only 7 renminbi per bottle, less than one US dollar.
The newest bottle I purchased showed worrying signs. The price had not gone up, but marketing people are tampering around with my favorite anti-musquite tool. They had added a smaller bottle with a sophisticated way of spraying the green liquid. Very soon we will be buying less wenbuding for the same money.
On top of that my wenbuding had an English brand name: Frag & Frag. Who wants now Frag & Frag? I want my wenbuding. I'm sure if I ask any of the shop assistants for Frag & Frag they will send me to the tie deparment. They always send me there when they do not get my question. Marketeers are about to destroy an famous brand name; fortunately it still works. I do hope the marketeers are not going to tamper with the wenbuding itself.

Xujiahui tour - Xujiahui square

Today I signed my lease for my apartment in Xujiahui and had an hour to kill. I used it too stroll around at the central square and enjoyed the crazy hectic. No shopping mall or a set of commercial shows were going on and tens of thousands of people walked around, although the killing humidity make the nice day a bit less nice. Eating, shopping and enjoyment were the symbols here of the new China.
Unfortunately, I left my digital camera in the US, otherwise I could have taken you on a tour by using pictures. As an alternative I will describe some of the scenes and features in one of the better districts in Shanghai in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

telecom - "Customer first"


The best way to prevent frustration here in China is to manage you expectations. So when I went this afternoon to the office of China Telecom in Xujiahui to transfer a phone line and adsl connection from far-away Pudong, I was prepared for the worst. China Telecom has 'Customer first' as its slogan, but we still do not take slogans too literally. Traditionally Chinese companies, just like the country, are divided into bureaucratic fiefs that would not cooperate under any condition.
It took me (and Scott who helped me out to fill in the still unavoidable paperwork) twenty minutes and 230 Renminbi that will be put on my next bill. Transfer will take only seven days. Again: pleasantly surprises that the possible is suddenly possible.