Other Briefings
China imposes export tarriffs, lowers import duties to combat trade imbalance
The Ministry of Finance announced Monday that the country will impose extra export tariffs, while cutting import duties as of June 1 to narrow its widening trade surplus. The ministry said a total 142 low-end and resource products will be hit with additional export tariffs. According to Xinhua, China will impose five to 10 percent export […]
Zhejiang’s instant cities
In a piece that is being talked about all over the blogosphere, Peter Hessler (of River Town and Oracle Bones fame) reports for National Geographic on the entrepreneurial spirit in Zhejiang province. This enjoyable bit of reporting begins with the planning of a factory near Wenzhou: There was no architect, no draftsman; nobody had brought […]
FDI in second tier cities: investors flock to Chongqing
Several international companies have recently set up shop in Chongqing as more and more foreign investors look to China’s western second tier cities. With the rising costs of land, labor, energy and other inputs to manufacturing making the coastal regions less attractive to companies looking for places to park their factories, the inland second and third […]
Dezan Shira associate firm opens office in Kabul
Globalization, it appears, is springing up everywhere. With Dezan Shira & Associates, the main contributors to China Briefing, attending their spring global conference in Edinburgh three weeks ago it was a great chance for me to get to meet some of our European partner firms, plus a few stragglers from the US and Asia, to […]
Chinese stocks rise again as investors push back into the market
Just seven days ago we wrote about the surging Chinese stock market. Since then, there has been endless talk of bubbles and corrections for the mainland markets in the media. That talk got much louder on Tuesday as stocks fell dramatically. Since then however, the coming bust has failed to materialize and after brisk trading yesterday lead the […]
Property rights tested in Suzhou
The struggle between property owners and developers is an old tale, but one that has become ever more contentious, and exciting to watch, here in China with the recent passage of the controversial property law. While that law is set to come into effect Oct. 1, 2007, there has been no end to interesting stories […]
Jilin province improves rail infrastructure
Construction work on the first intercity express rail link in Northeast China’s Jilin province kicked off Sunday, May 13. The 8.6 billion yuan (US$ 112 million) project will link the provincial capital of Changchun with Jilin City, the province’s second largest cities. Work is scheduled to be finished at the end of 2010. China Daily […]
China could face low-cost labor shortage by 2010
The supply of low-cost labor, widely considered to be fueling China’s sizzling economy, could start drying up as early as 2010, reports Xinhua. An Academy of Social Sciences report, issued Thursday May 10, states that one of the biggest reasons for the potential shortage is that the rural labor force may not be as large as previously thought. “China is […]
