Cup of Cha
This is China

American politicians love to lament the fact that so many US manufacturing jobs go to China, but they less often talk about the service-sector growth that trade encourages. Based on my experience in China, the US will never lose much of this economic activity to Asia’s economic dragon.
Simply put, the service sector in China is, [...]

Continue reading “China’s Bad-Service Economy” »

The last two days have not exactly been the 1929 crash, but it is looking pretty grim. With US markets closed for MLK Jr’s birthday, world markets, particularly in Asian, have been dumping like they are trying to cling to whatever value remains. If the markets stabilize in the next day or two, and investors [...]

Continue reading “Is the Asian Crash a Precursor or Endpoint?” »

Newsweek has a double issue out all about China in 2008. Most fascinating of the bunch is definitely Melinda Liu’s piece about covering China on and off since 1979. She cloaks it as the story of her brother who was born and raised in China (she is from the US), but it is really more [...]

Continue reading “Covering China for 29 Years” »

Not to make light of IP abuse in China, which is rampant and discourages innovation by reducing the rewards associated with creativity, but it is safe to say Microsoft can sleep well knowing no one will be buying fake versions of Vista.
About two months ago I bought a new computer, and even considered switching over [...]

Continue reading “Microsoft Unconcerned About VISTA Piracy” »

China has shown a willingness to trade with some unsavory countries in the interest of oil. They love Venezuela, Iran, and Sudan, to name a few. Cheap, subsidized crude has to a certain degree fueled (honestly no pun intended) the rise into middle class for many people. The car, that great status symbol, would not [...]

Continue reading “How Big a Problem is Oil for China?” »

China is not like Apartheid South Africa. However, there are some uncomfortable similarities.
Last night I went out to dinner with a few friends, one of who was born in South Africa, but whose parents (with him) fled when he was a little boy for political reasons. One thing led to another and suddenly he was [...]

Continue reading “Why China is Like Apartheid South Africa” »

I’m a few days late with this, but there was a very interesting and extremely substantive Democratic presidential debate last week on NPR. They spent more than a half hour discussing China, so I think this is particularly relevant for us. The China part starts about 34 minutes in, so you can skip ahead if [...]

Continue reading “Democrats Talk China in NPR Debtate” »

Were it not for Robert Moses, America probably still would have had suburbs in the modern sense. However, the idea of a rich city outskirt, and the ‘white flight’ that it spurred, certainly came about sooner because of the NY legend. When I went out to Beijing’s upscale Shunyi suburb, it immediately flashed into my [...]

Continue reading “Robert Moses Would Love Beijing’s Shunyi” »

I’ll admit it: When I saw that David Brooks wrote a column about China today, I expected to hear the same silliness that I’ve seen from other journalists. I was prepared to be underwhelmed. Fortunately he did not claim that the world is flat, or that China is a time bomb waiting to explode. [...]

Continue reading “David Brooks Knows China (Circa 1997)” »

The Chinese tax system has driven me to resemble a bag women, grabbing at scraps, just to save a few kuai here and there. You’ve surely seen this epidemic, and maybe are ever part of it. The government allows companies to provide up to 40% of income to employees as living/housing stipends , which [...]

Continue reading “Grabbing at Receipts” »