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  Africa is currently the world’s largest untapped market.  American businesses should be rapidly expanding into Africa, but they are not succeeding.  Why is this?

According to the article “China Trade Tops Forecasts in Holiday-Distored Month” from Bloomberg.com, China has seen a great economic recovery from a year ago. Exports have risen 25% and Imports have increased 28.8% from last year. All signs point to a growing and improving economy from these figures, however they aren’t telling the complete story.… Continue reading China’s Trade Beats Estimates →

Demographics: the latest cohort in China is the smallest since 1960…from a rejoinder by Brad DeLong to a silly mistake by Thomas Friedman of the NYTimes, who compared China, India and Egypt without bothering to look at data… If you expand the graph [click on it!] you’ll see that the biggest cohort is in their… Continue reading Population Growth in China? →

Notorious for stealing body styles, the Chinese automotive industry is quickly becoming the definitive source for unabashed design plagiarism. That’s why Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) recently hired former Ferrari designer Leonardo Fioravanti, albeit as a consultant. Still, it’s an intriguing move that could signal the possibility of some interesting supercars coming from one of the world’s key… Continue reading Chinese Supercars →

Relations between China and Japan have been strained to say the least the past few months. The dispute started back in September when the Japanese government bought land in the Senkakus (Japanese term) or Diaoyu (Chinese term) islands. Both countries claim sovereignty over the islands, and thus this action outraged the Chinese. There were protestors in… Continue reading Chinese-Japanese Tension Escalates →

Chinese demand for fossil fuels is increasing as their economy gains strength. This year, China’s demand for oil is on track to increase nearly 5%. This increase in demand represents an increase in demand of 514 million metric tons of oil. Of this amount of oil, more than half of the amount will be met… Continue reading China’s Increasing Demand for Oil →

With the western economies beginning to rebound, there is a wave of opinion that outsourcing trends will turn back to “insourcing” back in the west.  In President Obama’s inauguration speech, he referenced the need to bring back jobs to our shores.  There are three main arguments that supporters of the trend are citing.  First, China currently has… Continue reading Outsourcing tide is not likely to turn →

In the past week, the WSJ has had articles (here and here) on the emergence of new airline routes to China.  The first is airline, Qantas, is a global airline that is trying to cater to business travelers all over the world.  The airline industry has slowly reacted to the emergence of a strong Chinese… Continue reading Is China the Answer for Struggling Airlines? →

China’s attempts to create a world class soccer league and have a world cup winning soccer team have ultimately failed.  The Economist had a great article last year that denounced China’s political system as the reason behind their failure to have a quality soccer team.  It wasn’t for  a lack of trying, as the higher ups… Continue reading China’s Failed Attempts at Matching European Soccer →

China’s government is moving toward tighter regulations on the country’s exported and imported dairy products.  The inspiration for the regulations came after traces of the potentially harmful chemical dicyandiamide was found in imported dairy products from New Zealand.  These regulations show the government is conscious of its citizens’ health and intent to raise their standard of… Continue reading China Increases Regulation on Dairy Imports and Exports →

As China’s (rural) population increasingly embraces the migrant lifestyle, the nation’s transportation infrastructure will come under immense strain during the biannual golden weeks, when the migrant population returns home to celebrate the holidays. The government has consistently poured much of its stimulus into infrastructural spending, often at the risk of contributing to the ongoing housing… Continue reading Migration and the changing (economic) landscape →

In a recent New York Times article, the author discusses a current movement by certain prominent intellectuals and publications in China that are calling for the Communist Party to endorse and enforce the principles of the Constitution of CHina that was ratified in 1982. Since its inception, the document has “languished”, and there are outspoken… Continue reading Chinese Constitution →

With the recent talks of smog choking Beijing, not much attention is given to the causational factors behind the pollution. China’s economy is heavily coal dependent, with approximately 2/3 of its energy generated from coal or coal derivatives. Datong, a city several hundred kilometers to the west of Beijing is considered to be the coal… Continue reading China’s Coal Problem →

This article discusses the recent Chinese computer hackings of both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  The Chinese Hackers apparently infiltrated and stole the passwords of employees for the two newspapers in order to monitor their coverage of China. While the Chinese Ministry of National Defense denies any involvement in these or… Continue reading Wall Street Journal Reports Being Hacked by Chinese →

A recent study in the Harvard Business Review found that companies with political connections have more frequent worker deaths. Ray Fisman, an economist at Columbia University, and Yongxiang Wang, a finance professor at the University of Southern California, hypothesized that well-connected executives “might be able to grease the wheels” in terms of safety regulations. The… Continue reading Corruption in firms tied to high worker death rates →