Full Contents - July 2004


COVER STORY [Premium content]

  • Dilemmas of interest

  • "Bursting China's Bubble" screamed the headline. It could have been from the front page of the latest <i>Financial Times</i>, <i>Business Week</i> or <i>The Economist</i>, but it wasn't.

MAGAZINE ARTICLE

  • Walking the walk

  • More and more foreigners are taking stakes in China's retail banks, not just talking about it.

  • New southern kingdom

  • Look out Shanghai, here comes the PPRDRCDF.

  • Deals that go wrong

  • Contracts that can look good as gold can suddenly be declared illegal, offering hard lessons about the need to manage risk.

  • All kinds of everything

  • Carmakers battle it out for hearts and minds at Auto China 2004 in Beijing.

  • Transcending the model

  • Japan, Korea and the Tigers provide useful clues about how China's development will go, but the path is not exactly parallel.

  • The price to pay

  • Elizabeth C. Economy, Director of Asia Studies and Senior Fellow for China at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of <i>The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future</i> recently published by Cornell University Press. The book addresses China's mounting environmental issues and <i>China Economic Review</i> asked her about the opportunities and risks they posed for foreign investors. Excerpts:

  • Big Pharma takes on fakes

  • Top global pharmaceutical firms are increasing cooperation with Chinese authorities to take on the serious problem of fake drugs.

  • Hungry for energy options

  • Wary of increasing dependence on Middle East oil, China is looking at the alternatives as power consumption continues to soar.

  • Slowdown signs

  • After months with the economic indicator needle quivering in the red zone, recent data suggests the economy is cooling as required.

  • Mr. China

  • <i>Mr. China</i> is such a good book. It is a must-read. It is real and true and don't leave home, heading for China, without it.

REPORTS [Premium content]

Regional Focus

  • Start-up board starts up

  • The question is, will the Shenzhen market lift off or dodder along like its counterpart across the border?

REVIEW

China Eye

Fat Dragon

  • Bricks and mortar

  • As an old Asia hand, Fat Dragon has seen lots of bubbles in his time.

  • Watching the numbers

  • I was on a flight to Shanghai last week and sitting next to me were two ladies from Taiwan who spent the entire flight poring over a sheet showing the Hong Kong Mark 6 winning numbers for the past 100 draws or so, and working out the next likely sequence.

CULTURE

Book Review

  • The ties that bind

  • Its share of Mainland investment has fallen, but as China becomes an economic colossus, Hong Kong stands to do very well.

FOCUS

Q&A

  • A gateway reopens

  • The historic city of Xi'an is staking a claim as the new commercial gateway to western China.
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