China's Modern Economy 中国现代经济 meets TuTh 11:45-1:15 Huntley 230
In a New York Times article by Keith Bradsher, the author tells readers that he sees evidence of a quickly evolving way of thinking in the country’s population. He quotes Chinese historian Yuan Weishi, who believes that “the mind-set is changing, all the way from the central government to local officials”. The author believes that… Continue reading Appearance of Consensus Breaking Down?
In the past year the Economist reports that the number of working age Chinese has decreased by a staggering 3.45 million people. This statistic will likely help to evoke a push towards reforming the “one child rule” that China has in place. While the “one child rule” sounds very black and white, there are a… Continue reading China’s Population: Peak Toil
In a new round of testing, both the United States and China have confirmed successful launches of new anti-ballistic testing systems and long-range anti-missile interceptors. The test is China’s second successful launch of similar magnitude; the other being was in January of 2010. The Defense ministry in China claims the tests are “defensive in nature and… Continue reading Missile Defense Tests
With all of the posts about pollution in China this news story offers a glimmer of hope. China’s National Academy of Sciences has been given an initial budget of 350 million dollars and has already hired 140 PhD scientists in hopes of developing clean nuclear energy. Since the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, nuclear power has fallen in the wayside… Continue reading China is investing heavily in clean nuclear power from thorium
China’s coal industry achieved production growth of 4% in the year 2012 (3.66 billion metric tons). This growth is a good sign for a recovering industry, but growth was still 4.7% less than the previous year, according to the China National Coal Association. Industrial indicators point to stock prices of coal as a main reason… Continue reading China’s Coal Industry Faces Challenges
As the latest macro-numbers for the 4th quarter came out last week, China (both the people and the government) is rejoicing that the numbers show a turnaround in growth occurring in the final months of 2012 (their worst year in 13 years with 7.8% annual growth). In a recent article from China.org, one of the… Continue reading Chinese Economy on the Rebound
In China, 70% of lakes and rivers have been polluted by power plants and chemical, paper, and textile factories. As a result of these industrial and agricultural expansions, Chinese consumers are concerned about water quality. They’re turning to bottled water as a safer alternative and that’s boosting Nestlé’s bottled-water sales in China. Sales of bottled… Continue reading China’s Unsafe Water is Nestlé’s Opportunity
Japan has crossed a little-noted threshold by providing its first military aid abroad since the end of World War II, approving a $2 million package for its military engineers to train troops in Cambodia and East Timor in disaster relief and skills like road building. Japanese warships have not only conducted joint exercises with a… Continue reading Big Scary China
Reuters reports (23 Jan) that Chinese investment banks are poised to trim a large number of employees and to shave back employee bonuses. These cut backs are the result of a decline in IB profits produced by a reduction in IPOs in China. China has gone without an IPO since September 21. The fact that… Continue reading A drought in Chinese IPOs
Environmental concerns will be one of the topics addressed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switerland as part of a holistic discussion about China’s economy.
A recent Reuters article discusses rumors floating around that China may finally end the One-Child Policy that has been implemented for over 30 years. The rumors apparently started when President Hu Jintao was quoted as saying “maintain a low birth rate,” alluding to a possible easing of child restrictions. Economists have been arguing for years… Continue reading China to End One-Child Policy?
Millions of Chinese citizens are becoming addicted to state-run lottery systems, which have grown in popularity immensely over the past 30 years. The state-run lottery was created in the 1980’s by Mao’s administration in contradiction to the country’s ban on gambling in order to create a welfare system.
William Granruth highlighted the issue with a post on the exchange rate from the WSJ. As followup read the following substantive analysis “The appreciating renminbi” from the VoxEU blog. What is the “real” value of the RMB (= how measure)? Is it (too) weak (= [excessive] trade surplus)? Not surprisingly, the WSJ looks only at… Continue reading Appreciating RMB
This past week in Beijing, China air pollution levels reached levels of “hazardous and beyond index.” This is not only a problem in Beijing. Across the country there are several cities with dangerously high air pollution levels. Experts credit this to the colder winter that has led to more coal being burned. Even before the… Continue reading China’s Air Pollution reaches record levels
One of the major themes in Hessler’s Country Driving is widespread migration from rural villages to large cities. On multiple occasions he comments that the degree of withdrawal from villages is so extreme that he may be witnessing the last generation to inhabit such areas. All of the near-abandoned villages had the same story: younger generations were leaving… Continue reading Economic Inequality Among Rural and Urban Chinese