labor - More on the shortage of migrant labor

The Asian Labour news has been digging up some more articles on the sudden shortage of migrant workers, especially in Zhejiang and the Pearl Delta. Western media seem to have been missing out on this development that already started after Spring festival.
When the famous economist Joseph Stiglitz dismissed recently the talk about the overheating of the Chinese economy, he did miss crucial information on the current shortage at the labor market, one of the three indicators of an overheated economy. Then way to get workers back is of course by raising their income, increasing inflation, a second of Stiglitz' criteria.
Some of the reasons mentioned for migrant workers to focus again on agriculture is one of the key new policies of president Hu Jintao, the focus on the well-being of the farmers. I guess he did not wanted to be that successful.

culture - Hangzhou separates female and male nude swimmers

The China Daily signals a fierce debate on an initiative to allow nude swimming in certain areas in Hangzhou. A whole range of professors and common people discuss the issue from all sides. It started when long ago eight female students decided to have a swim, without bothering to purchase bikini's in advance. In a very advanced way of dealing with that kind of dilemma's the relevant authorities decided to rule in a positive way on the matter.
Not much of a swimmer myself, what strikes me as odd - compared to similar places in Europe and the US - is that male and female swimmers got separate places assigned. Fortunately, Chinese are not very good in reading those signs and security guards might be too embarrassed to uphold the divide anyway.

labor - Shortages hit the markets

It still seems a bit of an unlikely story, but from two sources I now note a shortage on the labor market in China. Yesterday at CCTV the Ministry of Personnel said six industries, among them the IT, suffered from a shortage. Today also the Asian Labour News reports a shortage or migrant workers in a summery from Chinese media.
Employers have been telling me that over the past six months they noted a sharp reduction in salary demands from their recruits, compared to overrated demands before that time.
Especially the shortage of migrant workers is strange, as also ALN notes. "Major deterrences included the issues of unpaid wages and increased cost of living in the cities, which unnerved many migrant workers already denied basic social and employment benefits.
Rising grain prices and rural incomes had also made it more appealing for them to stay on the farms," ALN quotes on of its sources. "Salary offers in some cities would have to be adjusted upwards to match areas such as the Yangtze River Delta, where the average monthly pay for migrant workers was about 8.5 per cent higher than the national average, the magazine reported."
That sounds like the beginning of some overheating.

media - Follow-up of the Lu Yuegang letter

Another ground-breaking translation, this time an analysis of veteran journalist Liu Binyan. There is too much bullshitting going on about internal struggles at the polit bureau, none of the writers would know about. Liu is one of very few sources (although long-time out of the US), that should be taken serious.

victims - War against pornography rages on

Chinese media are still under full steam when it comes to the People's War against Pornography. Exhibitors at the ongoing Adult Toy Expo in Shanghai kept it on the safe side, when putting the models on the catwalk to parade their lingerie. While lingerie is traditionally meant to stress certain body parts, the models in Shanghai had wrapped up these parts in plastic, making it a very funny show.
I already noted before that in a major blow to pornography, the internet filters would stop the world 'sex', also in the combination 'sex education' and 'sextant'. Collegues from Beijing told that this happened to them already earlier, and that additionally also the word 'prostitution' was banned in Beijing. I just tried and can still use the word in Shanghai, but it will be only a matter of time before the censors will root out prostition also in Shanghai, at least in the search engines.

sex toys - Waiting for regulation

For a trade covering over ten billion US dollar in 2003 the adult toy expo in Shanghai is a rather modest one. Covering less than one floor at the Intex exhibition hall in Hongqiao district, it catered for many a dozen foreign traders. The notion that China is not only taking on the market of teddy bears but also that of sex toys has not taken on, although five Dutch reporters, one Italian and very few Chinese are trying to do their best. (What is wrong or good with us Dutch, being overrepresented here?)
The industry needs a regulation, said dr. Tong Chuanliang, Shanghai's own sex specialist, present at the expo. "Amazing that such an industry is still ignored by the government." Although there was a free flow of condoms, apart from the opening speeches, no links was all to obvious made to the ongoing struggle to curb AIDS. Most likely the relevant authorities are currently too busy in raging the people's war against pornography.
Despite high expectations the sex toy expo was not much more titillating than say the average car show, although being attacked by a little girl with a vibrator was a bit special.
As always, the China Dream was very present. "In Australia we sell three million vibrators per year, mostly made in China," said Michael Rutner, of 'Next to nothing'. That means on average one vibrator for every sexual active woman." Guess the home market in China is only starting.

law - Guthrie made it on OTV

DVD-trader and socialite Randy Guthrie, now into custody, made it on Tuesday for 15 minutes at a weekly crime program "Oriental Police 110" on Oriental TV in Shanghai, one of my readers writes me. I missed this program unfortunately, but as I know the media a bit: this will be repeated forever for the next years. "He was pretty much tried and judged in public," writes my informer. I do estimate the authorities have a pretty solid case here.

riot - After the clash in Zhengzhou



Picture taken after the clash in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Media – Chinese paper war in SF

 

Danwei points at an article in the SFgate.com on the war between Chinese language print media in San Francisco. A wealth of six papers is fighting for dominance, we learn: not really a one-paper city as we mostly know it.

"Chinese-language journalism, while informative, is hardly independent and its role and influence in the community remains limited and partisan," is the harsh verdict of one of the interviewees.

media - 'We the Media' now online

Not available in the Chinese bookstores, but a must for the weblogging community and media specialists is Dan Gillmor's book "We the Media" on how the media are changing because of the internet en weblogging. It is free downloadable here and Dan has also set up a special website for the book.

riot - Petitioners attacked by police

A vivid account of the way authorities in a village in Henan province dealt with citizens that tried to complain about their authorities. This kind of accounts get now more often to the outside world, and in more detail, now more Chinese get on the internet.

Europe loses, US wins – the WTO column

(Soon in Chinabiz)

What have Shell, BAT, VW and HSBC in common apart from their European headquarters? In the past weeks they all dealt with major setbacks in China, where often their American competitors ran away as the winners.
Shell decided – after BP did earlier the same – to withdraw from the US$ 18bn pipeline project with Petrochina. BAT gave way to its competitors by claiming it had permission to build a 100bn cigarettes’ factory, a permission that proved to be less solid when it had to be produced. Volkswagen kept on losing market share in the sedan market, where it had started with 80 percent ten years ago, now down to 30 percent at the beginning of this year and sliding. Its major competitor GM came out of the struggle as the largest winner. And in a survey of Euromoney China CFO voted overwhelmingly in favor of Citigroup as their most preferred international bank, leaving long-time competitor HSBC behind with a large margin.

There was of course not only bad news for Europe-based companies. HSBC bought a 20 percent stake in the Bank of Communication, for the first time a foreign bank bought more than a symbolic stake in a Chinese financial institution. Well, we still have to see whether this is going to be good or bad news of course: first movers in China do not always win.

The strong euro has of course already a downward effect for a few years on Europe’s trade with China, but there seem to be more structural problems too behind the rosy press releases European companies send to the media. They have lost touch with reality, the government and more important: the Chinese customers.
Since I’m not in the position of a CFO, I can only guess why they appreciate the services of Citigroup over those of HSBC. In the case of Volkswagen, after having a market share of 80 percent, they could of course only lose.
But here in Shanghai it is the Buick that is winning. Why? In spite of the hopes of the car manufacturers, Mr. Average in China is not buying a car. Here in this region it is the group of well-to-do people who have been buying a few apartments and have no other way to spend their money apart from buying a car. They have not enough money to invest it abroad, but they are doing well. They do not want to be associated with a brand name that has been so closely associated with the now defunct state-economy. They want really an expensive looking car – not necessarily an expensive one.

Are European companies losing their clout here in China? The recent explosion of new flights between the US and China are just another indication that the US is moving ahead very fast in its economic relationship with China, where Europe is lagging behind in a major way. Budweiser is winning in the bars I go to and even the mixers of Amcham are events that cannot be missed. Europe is losing.

Fons Tuinstra

economy - Shell pulls out of 18bn USD project

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell pulled out of the east-west pipeline project with PetroChina, western media report today. A consortium led by Shell was expected to take a 15 percent stake in the 2,400 mile pipeline, connecting gas resources in Western China with energy-hungry Eastern China.
"PetroChina issued a letter of termination for the joint venture agreement following discussions between all parties to the joint venture framework agreement," Shell spokes man Nick Wood said yesterday.

internet - Proxy down for maintenance

A bit of a relieve when I got a message from my favorite proxy they were down for maintenance. For a few days I feared they were victim of a tightening of the censorship, but when your screen goes blank in China, the chances that there are really technical problems are still fairly huge.

toppers - CFO's prefer ICBC, Citigroup - Euromoney China

In a first survey among China-based Chief Financial Officers, Euromoney China has noted their preference for major service providers in finance, logistics, accounting software, business cars and many other items.
ICBC became the first domestic bank, Citibank was the first international bank in the survey, covering a wide range of financial services. DHL was the first express delivery service.
"It is the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that the CFOs of China's biggest companies have been surveyed," says Rupert Hoogewerf, CEO of Euromoney China. "It sets out a benchmark for the service companies and banks. The key message is the gradual empowerment of China's CFOs."

Censorship – ‘Sex’ blocked on the internet

 

The People’s war against pornography is getting out of hand. This morning I tried to search my own weblog for an entry I made on the exhibition for sex toys I will visit on Friday. I used the google-search engine I installed and gone was the connection. Everything looked like the filters were trying a new banned word. I retried it against with ‘adult’ and then I could find my titillating article on this subject we cannot mention anymore.

Of course I then tried ‘sextant’ and ‘sex education’ and I again got on ban slammed on my searches. When I would be a young adult now, with too much time on my hand, I would start to make a list of newly-banned words and propose alternatives for them. Until they get banned too of course.

internet - ISP's crack down on weblogs

Shanghai blogger Wang Jianshuo signals that the war against pornography might cause a larger backlash against weblogs that have actually nothing to do with pornography. He was told to close down. His site is technically illegal, although he has tried to get a license, but the price is too high.
The problem is that China is rather generous when it come to banning things. Then they discover that they have banned too many things and bit-by-bit everything returns to normal, but not after upsetting many people.
The ISP threathens to close down the site and even take action against the persons involved. That will hurt their own business, since it is very easy to set up weblogs and websites outside China. Getting blocked here is a remote possibility, when you organize your things well. Important enough to follow up on this.