China's Modern Economy 中国现代经济 meets TuTh 11:45-1:15 Huntley 230
Fall 2013 Class
Throughout most of China, gambling is illegal. In Macau, the former Portuguese city, gambling alone last year raised [Macau Pataca? US$? RMB?] 38 billion in casino revenue. Macau’s casino industry before 2002 was a monopoly run by the Ho family. After 2002 the government issued six permits decreasing the market share the Ho family held… Continue reading Gambling
Ford is doing its best to take advantage if the surging wealth in the Chinese economy right now. For this first time in their history, they are currently producing more cars in Asia than in Europe. Morgan Stanley said in a report this month that it values Ford’s Chinese operation at $15 billion, which is… Continue reading Ford Increasing Automobile Production in China
Chinese family planning laws aim to control population growth with rules that limit couples to 1 child. Certain exceptions are made but such occurrences are rare. Punishment of the laws are enforced via fine. As it turns out, the population control fines have become a notable source of revenue for the provincial governments. Wu Youshui,… Continue reading Revenue from Population Control in China
China is vast and to govern it all under a single unified set of policies is difficult given the diversity of geography, traditions, and lifestyles. There is a false vision of a unified, and uniform, china that stretches from the coast to the Himalayas, but in reality there is a brad spectrum of lifestyles within… Continue reading “The mountains are high and the Emeperor is far away. “
While China has an enormous appetite for energy—oil consumption grew 94% over the last decade—it is also taking steps to use less and use smarter. China is restructuring its economy to be less manufacturing intensive with the ambition of a 16% reduction in in energy intensity by 2015 from the 2010 level. The Chinese government… Continue reading Big Polluter yet Big Green Ambitions
Sara Hsu, in a post for the blog “Naked Capitalism,” asserts that borrowing is being used to prop up Chinese GDP statistics. Total debt of Chinese corporations, local, provincial, and state governments has reached 85 trillion yuan. Hsu, an Economics Professor in the SUNY system, argues local governments have wanted to appear to be stimulating growth… Continue reading China Bolstering GDP Through Debt?
China’s high-speed rail system has been open for just over five years, and is finally making an impact on the way the nation conducts business. Prior to the introduction of the high-speed rail system, Chinese businessmen would have trips delayed and complicated by hours waiting on late flights, and driving through difficult to navigate countryside.… Continue reading Chinese Bullet Trains Changing Business
While government figures showed factory-output gains for the last quarter, implying growth for the Chinese economy, the China Beige Book would argue otherwise. The Chinese Beige Book is an independent source of Chinese economy analysis produced on a quarterly basis. This quarter’s publication describes slowing expansion nationwide and fewer companies borrowing money than usual. The… Continue reading A Sluggish Quarter for China
Michael Pettis’ article provides a bearish short to medium-term view on China’s inevitable shift toward a more consumption-based economy. Highlighting the “distorted national balance sheet, marked by burgeoning debt and decreasing ability to finance that debt,” the Chinese economy is still fragile and developing, which has significant implications for the global economy—especially economies that have… Continue reading Consumption-Repressed to Consumption-Driven: Effects at Home and Abroad
The magazine The Economist uses its own reference index for purchasing power parity. The Big Mac Index is used for comparing prices of goods in different economies. They use the price of a Big Mac in the United States to compare the purchasing power of consumers in the United States to the purchasing power of… Continue reading Purchasing Power Parity
Peter Hessler’s Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip. I am responsible for reporting on the first half of Book 1: The Wall, in which Hessler delivers an unique engaging perspective on China culture along his road trip. [tighten prose – “unique” merely says he didn’t plagiarize, and “road trip” is redundant.] Each of his encounters… Continue reading Peter Hessler’s Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip
This past year in China, more than 7 million people graduated college and entered into “the hardest job hunting season ever” according to the Chinese state media. The high demand for jobs is in part due to the 1990 movement to expand access to higher education.
The number of foreigners currently residing in China either as permanent residents or as green card holders has been on the rise in the past few years. In 2011, the Chinese government issued 564 immigrants permanent visas and 656 permanent visas in 2012.
The Moon Festival, or the Mid-Autumn festival, the second grandest festival in China falls on the 19th of September this year. Mooncakes, a traditional gift at this time of year, are reportedly falling in sales this year. According to the article, sales are expected to fall by at least 20% this year. The fall in… Continue reading “Mooncake Sales to Wane”
China’s government decided to control air pollution by limiting coal use and taking high-pollution vehicles off of the roads. This seems to be a pretty ambitious act, seeing as China has quite a big population. It makes sense that the government would want to act on this problem. Some of China’s biggest cities are covered… Continue reading China’s ambitious plan