Danish firm under fire because of union busting

Yantai, the Ole Wolff factory

The Chinese factory of Danish electronics company Ole Wolff Electronics has been accused of union busting, ignoring court orders, not giving their workers compulsory written contracts and a whole set of other legal requirements in China, reports the Danish website Forsiden.
The Yantai-based subsidiary has already a trade union since 2006, when workers tried to get their legal rights. The workshop union was later recognized by China's only allowed trade union ACFTU.
Local organizers have been dismissed and their work permits have been withheld by the company, who - despite court orders - has failed to settle the dispute. The Danish owner, Ole Wolff, denies any wrongdoings when asked:

'I don't know the whole truth about what's going on over there, so I can't say so much about the matter. The factory has a management that is in charge and handles that kind of thing. However, I am one hundred per cent convinced that the employees have excellent pay and working conditions, and that’s all I have to say on the matter,' says Ole Wolff.

More at Forsiden.

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Getting your legal business in order becomes more important in China as the country tries to move toward the "rule of law". At the China Speakers Bureau we are happy to have some authorative lawyers like Mark Schaub and Amy Sommers as speakers who can add value to your event. Do get in touch with one of our global offices for a tailor-made suggestion for speakers at your meeting.

Another US social network loses in China - MySpace

Paul Denlinger

Our speaker Paul Denlinger adds to one of his favorite stories as MySpace loses out in China, following a trend by a larger number of IT-companies from the US, he writes on his weblog.
The China CEO of MySpace Luo Chuan leaves for a domestic video hosting company, showing that getting an effective local management team is hard to keep together.

When you come right down to it, there is little a global brand can bring to the table in China. Most add a burden of a faraway headquarters without empowering the local management team to be more competitive. This is not a problem which is unique to China, it is also happening in the social networking market in Japan.

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Paul Denlinger is part of our China management gurus at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need Paul's help, do get in touch with us.

Was the iPhone girl a fake?

the Foxconn girl

I have mostly ignored the hype of the so-called iPhone girl, a girl from the Foxconn factories in Shenzhen that became famous, because some of her pictures were left on an iPhone that emerged abroad. The Chinese internet has many of those hypes and I have only one life, that is also very busy without the iPhone girl.
But from a translation of an article in Yweekend (done by ESWN) an interesting twist shows up. According to "sources" (as we call them in the SCMP jargon) claim Foxconn has been setting up the whole hype from A to Z. The Chinese reporter give a nice overview of the affair, and then turns to Li Er, who has a reputation of setting up internet hypes himself.

"This is clearly a case of Internet promotion. You can tell just from the process. I know who handled this 'case.' It is a team of people. But I cannot tell you who they are, because I am acquainted with them."
Li Er analyized: "This 'most beautiful Chinese worker' is like that 'most beautiful cleaning girl' that we did before. The concept is completely identical. You bring up a clean and pure image of a pleasant-looking beautifu lfemale worker. The only difference is that this affair was triggered by having a foreigner post photos to an overseas website. But this is precisely where it is brilliant."
"The planners of this affair thoroughly understand the Chinese mind -- a lot of Chinese people think that anything that happens overseas must be real. On this point, they were very successful." Li Er said that almost all of the popular "most beautiful girls" on the Internet were promoted by Internet promoters from behind the scene.
These so-called "most beautiful girls" are part of the "girl series." From Tianxian MM to the girl who swapped a safety pin for a villa," they were all variations of the same "girl series." The rapidity by which iPhoneGirl became red-hot popular on the Internet showed that the planning and execution of this campaign was perfect and effective.

Take care, this is only based on one source, but it sounds pretty convincing to me! When it is true, it is certainly one of the better done scams on the Chinese internet.
More at ESWN.

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The internet is one of the major forces in China and at the China Speakers Bureau we are happy to have a range of speakers who are very familiar with both the internet in China and China's other media. If you are interested in having a speaker about this subject, do get in touch.

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A Hong Kong journalist under stress

via Wikipedia A reader has sent me this link of the always alert reporters of the French newswire AFP, who use every opportunity to alert their bosses to their stressful working conditions. Mostly sexually inspired reports focus on politicians and starlets, but the news of Chiu Yu-kit, a former journalist at Asia Television (ATV), caught masturbating naked on a Hong Kong bus, was obvious too much to resist.
As in most cases, the fact that Chiu was caught suggests this overstressed journalist was actually looking for attention he did not get in another way. I have been spending many hours with equally stressed journalists in busses, but have not seen this happening.
Now, next dilemma, what picture to put next to this piece of investigative journalism? I see pictures of colleagues like Andrew Lih and Jay Rosen showing up at my Zemanta search engine, but I cannot do that. Let's do something really boring.

Regulatory caution halt China's global aspirations

A German-German deal
got in place
Getty Images via Daylife Officially global expansion might be high on China's agenda, but financially disastrous purchases in the past have made the central authorities rather careful. China's Development Bank (CDB), a financial institution controlled by that central government, failed to buy the German Dresdner Bank for USD 10bn and lost it to its German competitor the Commerzbank, writes the Financial Times.
The same CDB invested last year in the British Barclay Bank, an investment that lost half of its value in no time. Also its Blackstone investment in the summer of 2007 and the heavy losses triggered off much public and internal scrutiny. Chinese banks, cutting their losses in Freddie and Fanny, are just another recent example or a problem China is having, sitting on more than one trillion US-dollars in trade surplus.
Investing your capital in a market that is global going south, might not be rather profitable in the short run. Focusing on the long term, if clever, might be hard when both the public and the central government are breathing in your neck.

Update: An insightful piece in the New York Times about the same subject. Do note especially the turf war between the central bank and the ministry of finance.

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At the China Speakers Bureau we have a range of speakers who can help you in both gauge China's financial industry and get a sense of what China's government is trying to do. Do give us a call when you need our help in tracking down these experts.

Howard French to join the China Speakers Bureau

Howard French

The former Shanghai correspondent of the New York Times Howard French has joined the China Speakers Bureau as a participant. Currently French is associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Howard French has not only been a keep observer of China's fast development, he also called Japan, Africa and the Americas his home, allowing him to put China position into a truly global perspective.
More at his profile.

Mixed messages about Coca-Cola's record acquisition

Arthur Kroeber

Coca-Cola is coughing up USD 2.4 billion to acquire China's leading juice maker, the Huiyuan Juice group, spending much more than the current value of the Chinese company, writes AFP.
Analysts, including consulent Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomic in Beijing, have mixed feelings about the purchage, to put it midly.
According to AFP:
If approved by local authorities, the deal would be the largest takeover by a foreign firm of a Chinese company, said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of the Beijing-based economics research firm Dragonomics.

"Coke's in an interesting place in China: They've been here forever -- they've been here for 30 years -- (but) there's not a whole lot of profit growth for them in their existing soft drink market," he said.
"You have huge volumes, but your margins are always microscopic, so you need to look at how you can diversify into new products lines."

The purchase seems to be part of an international policy by Coca-Cola to move into non-carbonated drinks rather than based on the Chinese economic realities. While it would certainly be good for the volume of the sales and the company's market share, margins would be rather low, making it an investment for the long haul at best.
Moving into markets like retail and low-end consumer goods has seldom been a lucky move by foreign companies in China.

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Arthur Kroeber is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau, together with a larger group of authoritative experts on China's economy. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.

Sex or soccer: what should be the debate?

Rowan Simons

National debates on many issues are no exception in China, but now the China soccer team has touched a very raw nerve, as ChinaSmack summarizes. At this stage, disappointed fans seem to pick anything to go after their former Olympic heroes:

Last month, rumors appeared that several members of the national football team were seen checking into hotel rooms with prostitutes or female fans. Xie Yalong, the head of the Chinese football association promised to investigate into the matter and promised the players would be punished if true. Several days ago, pictures appeared on many Chinese BBS forums like Tianya, Mop, and NetEase confirming the rumors, showing three members of the national football team with several girls returning to their hotel.

Now sex has come into play, you might forget about the real debate about soccer, a debate where for example Rowan Simons has played a role with his book Bamboo Goalposts. Rowan Simons has been instrumental in organizing grassroots soccer in Beijing. But with the eye on the Beijing Olympics, the relevant government organizations decided for an elitist approach of soccer, killing its amateur recruiting ground that has been the basis of any solid soccer nation. That discussion seems more important than the 30-minute sex deals of the players.

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Rowan Simons is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested to hear him speak about, for example, soccer in China, do get in touch with us.

Shanghai animal right activists save 800 cats from Guangdong kitchen

Animal rights action in Nanjing
Getty Images via Daylife Is it illegal to save 800 cats from their Guangdong butchers? Probably yes, but nevertheless Shanghai animal rights activists freed the animals and got favorable coverage in the state-owned Shanghai Daily. Favorable coverage of an NGO's doing illegal things, that is a rather dramatic watershed. (h/t Shanghaiist)

Six volunteers from the Shanghai Animal Protection Association confronted cat dealers in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, and spent a day and a night trying to rescue about 1,500 cats.
The animals were being loaded onto a container truck that was due to travel to Guangdong Province.
Liu Xiaoyun, one of the volunteers, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that the cats were caged in about 70 bamboo boxes, about 20 to a box.
The volunteers managed to unlock about 40 cages, releasing about 800 of the animals.

Both the action and the coverage in the Shanghai Daily are signs of this fast-changing society. I guess there is more to come.

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China is a fast changing society, where it is hard to keep track of all the drastic developments. Our speakers at the China Speakers Bureau help you to stay on top of the China-debate, in all its diversity. Our celebrity speaker Tom Doctoroff will be in the New York region from November 25 to 28 and is available for a few speeches. Do get in touch with us if you want to book him or some of our other celebrity speakers.

China's banks wonder where to put their money

Bank of China in Singapore
Wikipedia The story that Chinese banks are pulling out of US investments like Fannie and Freddie is not limited to the Bank of China, writes the WSJ, but is happening along the line.

Amid jitters about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, China's four biggest listed banks have pared back their holdings in debt related to the two U.S. mortgage giants. At the end of June, the four banks held a combined $23.28 billion of debt issued or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. That's a small fraction of the trillions of dollars outstanding, but the reductions attracted interest as a possible gauge of broader sentiment toward such securities.

The next dilemma: where to put the money next? The four banks have about USD 460 billion in funds available, with the Bank of China as the largest player. Syndicated loans for Chinese companies moving overseas is one good option, analysts say in the WSJ.

Bank of China set up three centers earlier this year to manage its syndicated-loan business around the world. It has been involved in a handful of small but noteworthy syndicated-loan deals, including a $592 million deal in Indonesia in which it led a group of 17 other banks to finance a power project. Its BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd. unit participated in a planned $3 billion refinancing facility for telecom operator PCCW Ltd.

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At the China Speakers Bureau we have a wide range of speakers who focus on China and finance. If you are interested in them, or any of our other speakers, do get in touch with us.

Visa-restrictions continue to hamper China tourism - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Beijing authorities have plans to keep on using the Olympics to attract tourists for later this year, writes the WSJ, but CMR's Shaun Rein only expects a rebound next year when visa-restrictions are expected to have been cleared.
Tourism and business travel before and during the Beijing Olympics have slumped against all expectations, because of tough visa-restrictions introduced for security reasons. Beijing Olympic organizers will try to capitalize on their otherwise successful event in the rest of 2008, they told the Wall Street Journal, but Shaun Rein is one of the skeptics in the article, expecting only a return of tourist and business visitors next year after the visa-restrictions have been removed.
More at the Wall Street Journal.
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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau and has been one of a group of speakers who has been addressing Olympic issues in the past few months. At the China Speakers Bureau we are proud to represent some of the leading debaters in this Olympic China discussion. Do get in touch with us for more information.

"Billions wasted in China's telecom"

via Wikipedia A rather interesting piece on the official news agency Xinhua, quoting auditor-general Liu Jiayi reporting on Wednesday to the fourth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress.

He said the telecom sector had experienced huge growth in both network scale and capacity since the industry's reform and restructuring that started in 2002; repeated investment had dragged down performance.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO), more than 1.12 trillion yuan (about 164 billion U.S. dollars) was spent on the construction of basic facilities between 2002 and 2006. However, only one-third of the telecom cables were used.

His fierce criticism comes at an interesting moment, as the country is preparing for yet another reform of the telecom industry and three domestic competitors are fighting to become market leader.
All three, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom/Netcom will continue to spend even more in the years to come:

But some experts warned repeated investment was not less likely to happen as statistics showed the restructured China Mobile and China Telecom would each spend between 50 billion yuan to 60 billion yuan in infrastructure building in the next three years.
In answer to such a problem, some experts suggested the country should separate the network and infrastructure building and as sign it to an independent organization, while telecom services would be open for competition.

It is a sound suggestion, but might be coming too late as the new spending spree has already begun.

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At the China Speakers Bureau we have a wide range of speakers on the telecom in China. You can also use our inquiry forms at our contact page to get more suggestions.