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Monopoly on Coke
Coke’s juicy M&A plans have already been raked over in the press (and on this blog). But next it is likely to be raked over by Chinese anti-monopoly officials (amongst others). As AP reports:
“Coca-Cola’s $2.5 billion offer…for China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. already has stirred nationalist opposition. Comments posted on Chinese Web sites criticized the [...]
What of China’s relaxed environment for foreign reporters? :: Imagethief
Tim Johnson, Beijing bureau chief for the McLatchy newspaper group (and a standout among the local blogging journalists), has posted about the imminent expiration of the relaxed rules for foreign correspondents that were implemented for the Olympic period. This has been a matter of concern for the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), which has publicly called for the new rules to be made permanent (spottily observed though they were). Tim notes that the signs are not good. Tim reports that the question came up at a recent instalment of the regular Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefings for uppity foreign hacks:
[At the briefing] spokeswoman Jiang Yu offered no hint whatsoever that the relaxed rules would continue in their present form.She was asked, ???Any chance these measures may be extended????Her answer, according to a transcript on the Foreign Ministry website, was: ???I understand your interest in this issue. The Regulation expires on Oct. 17. I would like to stress that China will carry on the opening-up spirit, welcome foreign journalists as always, and protect their legitimate rights and interests in China according to law, including their right to report. We also hope you will abide by Chinese laws and regulations and cover China in an objective and fair manner.???
Exactly the kind of unpromising non-answer that the local bureaucracy excells at. The cynical PR man in me can’t help but be impressed by the utterly noncommittal nature of her reply. The avid reader of China news in me less thrilled.
Personally Imagethief feels that the Olympic honeymoon is now over. The downside is that I expect the reporting rules to be allowed to lapse and the air to once again silt up with grunge. The upside is that all the things that were tightened for the Olympics –visas, various petty registration requirements, limits on where you can and can’t hike/film/run/walk/drip ice cream– will relax and it will once again be possible to negotiate around all these issues. The bureaucracy giveth, the bureaucracy taketh away.
The waste no time around these parts, by the way. The banners are coming down, and yesterday on Gongti Beilu crews were already taking down the “Beijing 2008″ roadsigns. Back to business as usual, whatever that means for you.
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US assets in Chinese hands
The debate over the large and increasing holdings of US assets by China. Bloomberg investigates.
China Adds to Holdings of U.S. Assets, Buys More Agency Debt [Bloomberg]
June 17 (Bloomberg) — China is adding to its holdings of U.S. assets, data from the U.S. government showed yesterday, easing concern the Asian nation will sell dollar investments.
Total [...]
BERGSTEN on China’s trade challenge
Foreign Affair have an interesting comprehensive (6 page) China bashing story.
The summary is given as:
Summary: Beijing is shirking its responsibilities to the global economy. To encourage better behavior, Washington should offer to share global economic leadership.
I concentrate here on trade but the whole article is worth reading.
A Partnership of Equals: How Washington Should Respond [...]
More on China’s Coal Crunch. Olympic Supply +1. Rest of China ?
The last 20 months have been tough for energy planners in China, and it is a problem that has shown some of the weaknesses of hyperdevelopment
an inability to build infrastructure as fast as it is needed.
Well, as covered on a few other posts, this is a problem that is not going away any time soon [...]
Chinese liquidity
The FT’s Lex column looks at Chinese liquidity.
Chinese liquidity[FT - subscription required]
China surprised the market at the weekend, lifting the ratio of reserves that banks must hold by 100 basis points. This is the fifth rise of the year, as well as the biggest, and brings the ratio up to 17.5 per cent.
What does Beijing [...]
Wrong number: On the reliability of Chinese Data
Following on the heals of the last post and thanks to Chinalawblog for the pointer.
As an economist who works with large amounts of Chinese data this issue has arisen many many times without a satisfactory solution. The Economist discusses this issue at length. I tend to use province level data - this raises [...]
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