Full Contents - September 2004

The real Old Shanghai
The myth of old Shanghai is constantly referenced in the Shanghai of today for commercial purposes, but amidst the art deco fonts and the faded fake posters, the "real" old Shanghai got lost somehow.

Chongqing
Just as Hong Kong and Taiwan spearheaded investments in Guangdong and Fujian provinces - the earliest recipients of Deng Xiaopeng's "open door" bounty - the two economies are also leading the way in foraging for opportunity in China's interior, notably Chongqing.
China
There are some bright signs for China's A-share markets, but many more grim ones

South Korea looks to China
The last year has been a significant one for Seoul. South Korean exports to China jumped 50% and overall trade between the two countries reached US$50 billion, about eight times the level of a decade ago.
Status conscious
Over a year ago, China began a campaign to win market-economy status (MES) and has so far come up, if not empty-handed, close to it.
Dubya gets a thumbs down from China
And not for the usual cross-strait reasons; Chinese officials unofficially seem to believe it would better if George W. Bush was not president.
The difference between squeezed and squashed
Just as many foreigners viewed Japan at the height of its powers in the late 80s - as a country which was either going to gobble up the whole world or fall flat on its face - you can see similar scenarios painted about China today.

Virility test
China's revoking of Pfizer's Viagra patent turns into a contest pitting rule of law vs rule of whatever works - and a viability test for the WTO.
Coming to America (by 2010)
Car production growth is still far outpacing sales - and production capacity is set to treble by 2010. Only exports will relieve that kind of pressure.
Flights of fantasy?
With the opening of Guangzhou's huge Baiyun International Airport, some think Hong Kong's days as king of cargo are numbered. Ha!
Crying Game
China's long-debated Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme could launch any moment now. But then maybe not.
Natural gas, on tap or bottled
Natural gas market expert David Victor recently spoke to <i>China Economic Review</i> about the fuel's future in China. Excerpts:
Law of the jungle
Local courts follow local agendas instead of enforcing the laws of the nation. Establishing rule of law will be hard to do.
From compliance to belief
The pull-out theme surfaced in August as it has done before and will again.

Scale up or die
Peter Shay heads the Hong Kong office of MMG, Inc, a New York investment banking firm focused on the apparel industry. He spoke to <i>China Economic Review</i> on postquota industry consolidation after January 1. Excerpts:

China Overpowered
The power surge that is coming from overbuilding generating capacity now will be costly, not least for the environment.

Flash: China has a labor shortage
As unbelievable as it sounds, migrant workers are in short supply. Now the market is responding the way markets do

Sales slow, but it
Despite production and sales dropping for a fifth straight month, automotive investment news continued to roll in over late July and August with further production expansion announcements, approvals for autofinance ventures and reports that Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) had finally settled on its IPO team.
Coal
Energy pricing was much debated over the late summer period as temperatures soared and consumption roared.
Standards, standards, standards
Standards, or at least setting them, were once again a hot topic - in the problematic area of CDMA phones, which can barely hold a conversation between one jurisdiction to the next - and also in digital cameras, where China would like to be a noise, despite Japan's current domination of the field.
A capital for China
The city of Chongqing is leading the way in efforts to shrink the widening investment gap between China's coastal and inland regions.

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