CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

13/12/2013

Apple’s Deals With Top Carriers in Japan, China May Spur iPhone Sales – Businessweek

As Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (005930:KS) rumble for leadership in the global smartphone market, the Korean electronics giant has enjoyed a big advantage. In China and Japan, Asia’s two biggest economies, Samsung had deals with the No. 1 mobile operators to sell its handsets—and Apple didn’t. Despite years of trying, the maker of the iPhone couldn’t win over China Mobile (941:HK) or Japan’s NTT Docomo (9437:JP). The two carriers have 821 million customers combined.

An Apple Store in Beijing

Apple’s Asia handicap may soon be a thing of the past. In Japan, Docomo began offering the iPhone in September. Meanwhile, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s shuttle diplomacy may be about to bear fruit in China. Although iPhones don’t work on China Mobile’s homegrown 3G standard, they do on the LTE technology the operator plans to use for its 4G service, which it will likely roll out by early 2014.

The timing of Apple’s breakthroughs in Japan and China is no coincidence. Because of their longtime dominance in their home markets, neither China Mobile nor Docomo felt the need to make concessions to offer the iPhone. Yet smaller rivals, such as China Unicom and SoftBank (9984:JP), that have inked deals with Apple are capitalizing on the iPhone’s popularity to woo customers.

via Apple’s Deals With Top Carriers in Japan, China May Spur iPhone Sales – Businessweek.

Posted in Affluence, China alert, Economics, fashion | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Apple, Asia, China, China and Japan, China Mobile, IPhone, Japan, LTE, Samsung

13/12/2013

How Do You Say ‘Gym Rat’ in Chinese? – Businessweek

Yang Lei’s tight black T-shirt shows off his admirably bulging biceps. The chiseled 29-year-old is the head personal trainer at the Beijing Hujialou branch of Impulse Fitness, one of China’s top three fitness chains. A floor of weight machines and a lap pool—the latter surrounded by white marble columns—occupy the basement level of an upscale new residential complex. In recent years, as Chinese fitness chains have sought ways to transform working out from a niche interest to a mainstream pursuit in the world’s most populous country, it’s become increasingly common for gym franchises to strike deals with residential developers. “More people are starting to put health on their list of top priorities,” says Yang.

Personal trainer assisting and correcting a client during a fitball stretching exercise Category:Fitness Category:Fitness_training Category:Personal_training (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Yang was born in 1984, commercial gyms were all but unheard of in China. The first domestic and international fitness chains began to make slow inroads in the 1990s. By the time Yang graduated from high school in the early 2000s, it seemed a logical choice to enroll at Tianjin Physical Education University to study for a new profession in China: becoming a full-time personal trainer. In wealthy cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it’s now a fairly lucrative gig. Trainers typically charge between $35 and $200 an hour—fees that they split with club management. Of course, hustling also is part of the job. As Yang puts it, “A coach is not only a coach, but a salesperson.”

Finding clients has become much easier in China’s leading metropolises as more young professionals hit the gym. Lawrence Fang, a 31-year-old journalist in Beijing, goes to the gym three times a week, alternating yoga and weightlifting, and says his aims are “health and trying to look good.” He Ping, a 35-year-old engineer, works out with a personal trainer in Beijing for 250 renminbi ($40) an hour because “a good instructor will help me form good habits.” And a petite 32-year-old reporter, who declined to give her name, says she started hitting the gym regularly a few years ago after her foreign boyfriend teased her for “only getting exercise in bed.” All three said the most important factor in choosing a gym was convenience—ideally a location next to their home or office.

via How Do You Say ‘Gym Rat’ in Chinese? – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Health, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Fitness, Gym, health, Personal trainer, Physical fitness, Shanghai

13/12/2013

Guess What? The U.S. and China Don’t Trust Each Other Much – Businessweek

And the Chinese trust Americans even less. That’s the conclusion of the U.S.-China Security Perceptions Survey (PDF) released on Dec. 11 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Beijing-based research organization China Strategic Culture Promotion Association (CSCPA). “There is a low level of strategic trust between the United States and China, which could make bilateral relations more turbulent,” warns the survey.

A tourist wearing a face mask visits Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Nov. 23

Working with the Pew Research Center and the Research Center for Contemporary China at Peking University, as well as the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Carnegie-CSCPA survey canvassed the general public and elites in government, business, academia, the military, and the media last year. In the U.S., it surveyed 1,004 adults among the general public and 305 elites. In China, it canvassed 2,597 adults in urban areas and 358 elites.

The tendency among the general public to label the other country an outright enemy was encouragingly low; only 15 percent of Americans and 12 percent of Chinese believe that. Notable, however, was the comparative lack of trust shown by Chinese elites, with 27 percent viewing the U.S. as a foe, compared with just 2 percent of American elites saying that about China.

via Guess What? The U.S. and China Don’t Trust Each Other Much – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China, China Strategic Culture Promotion Association, Chinese elites, CSCPA, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Peking University, Pew Research Center, Security Perceptions Survey, the United States and China, United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

13/12/2013

Could a Shanghai Exodus Be in the Air? – China Real Time Report – WSJ

China’s effort to turn Shanghai into a global financial center came under a cloud this month—or, rather, under a choking blanket of smog that has affluent residents talking about bolting.

English: Shanghai Smog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As Wei Gu writes in this week’s The People’s Money column:

China’s pollution problem is spreading and growing worse, a fact on stark display last week in Shanghai, the country’s financial center. A stretch of filthy-air days in that coastal city so thoroughly shocked residents—who had largely escaped the smog that has long plagued the likes of Beijing and Harbin—that it inspired fresh talk about getting away from China.

Over the past century, migration has almost always been driven by a desire to get ahead. But today more affluent Chinese are talking about accepting a climb-down on the career ladder and a less-exciting lifestyle in exchange for cleaner air, safer food and a different education system.

via Could a Shanghai Exodus Be in the Air? – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in Affluence, carbon emission, China alert, Ecology, Economics, emigration, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Chinese language, financial center, global financial center, Harbin, Renminbi, Shanghai, Shanghai Smog, Smog

13/12/2013

China Says Pilot Should Be Able to Land in Low Visibility, Battling High Traffic and Pollution – China Real Time Report – WSJ

If you want to fly in China, you need to be able to land in the smog.

China’s civil aviation regulator has set new rules mandating senior airline pilots operating on major routes into Beijing’s airport be certified to land aircraft under very low visibility, a move to help ease the nation’s worsening air traffic bottlenecks amid often heavy pollution.

China’s major airlines say they have been giving pilots additional training to comply with the new rules, which take effect Jan. 1, according to the carriers and state media.

The decision comes amid worsening pollution across China cities that at times is affecting commercial airline traffic. Last week, thick smog enveloped Shanghai and parts of eastern China, cutting visibility in the city of Nanjing to less than 50 meters and resulting in many flight delays and cancellations.

Thick smog impacting visibility has also caused cancellations and delays at Beijing Capital International Airport, the nation’s busiest and worst in terms of on-time performance, with only 45% of flights departing on time in November, according to travel industry monitor FlightStats.

Depending on weather conditions and runway infrastructure, modern jetliners have sophisticated instruments to help them land in little or no visibility, such as foggy conditions. Pilots, though, need additional certification to perform such approaches, which usually don’t compromise safety. Airlines have varying rules on minimum visibility levels acceptable for landing, though low-visibility landings are frequently done by major airlines in the West.

The special certification for pilots to make low-visibility landings, a common international requirement, applies to situations where visibility drops to 350 meters or less.

via China Says Pilot Should Be Able to Land in Low Visibility, Battling High Traffic and Pollution – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Ecology, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution, Weather forecast | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Airline, airline pilots, Beijing, Beijing Capital International Airport, China, Civil Aviation Administration of China, Eastern China, FlightStats, major airlines, minimum visibility, Nanjing, Shanghai

13/12/2013

China Takes Aim at Officials’ Housing Perks – China Real Time Report – WSJ

The Chinese Communist Party’s latest reform effort begins at home.

On Wednesday, the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection announced a new set of regulations, outlining a reform of the residence system through which high-ranking officials were taking further advantage of special perks they already enjoyed as a benefit of their positions.

A Chinese national flag flutters at a construction site for a new residence complex in Beijing. Reuters

The People’s Daily paraded out the same admonitions–along with some others about the public conduct of cadres generally–on its front page the following day, lending even more authority to the initiative.

Historically, Chinese officials have been granted access to government residences and offices while serving, and some have enjoyed the same benefits even after they have retired. As the policy-making bureaucracy has grown over the years, many officials have been housed outside of government compounds, and their workspaces put in special, secured areas. In some instances, local governments have bought up prime real estate to build residential complexes for officials to work and live in the same location. Others who worked in the bureaucracy were granted permission to reside in apartments underwritten by government funds.

But there have been problems.

For example, it is widely known in party circles that some officials were renting their government-financed residences to private tenants and then pocketing the proceeds. These “remote officials” were not only supplementing their salaries by such practices, but also often residing in housing provided by local businessmen, who then sought political favors in exchange for that high-end lodging.

The new rules call for an end to such practices, especially where senior cadres are concerned.

via China Takes Aim at Officials’ Housing Perks – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Central Committee for Discipline Inspection, China, chinese communist party, Chinese national flag, Chinese officials, communist party of china, Flag of China, high-ranking officials

13/12/2013

Slow change comes to India a year after Delhi gang rape | Expert Zone

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters)

One year ago, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was raped and murdered. Her story showed the world that women across India are viewed as dispensable, undeserving of full human rights.

One year later, what has changed?

It is heartening that the case of Nirbhaya, as she is known, led to the setting up of the Justice Verma commission that recommended strengthening outdated laws to protect women and their rights. Although change has been slow, more cases of sexual violence are being reported rather than silenced, scuttled or quietly settled. However, crime statistics and prosecution rates show that most of these crimes go unnoticed, unreported and absorbed into the culture of “that’s the way things are.”

Looking through the National Crime Records Bureau’s report for 2012, it is evident that the number of complaints registered with the police, the first information reports on rape, has risen by nearly 3 percent. The number of cases that were charge-sheeted — documented as a crime — was 95 percent. But fewer than 15 percent of rape cases came to trial in 2012.

Violence against women remains the most widespread and tolerated human rights abuse. Catcalling, taunting and grabbing women in public arise from, and perpetuate, notions of masculinity that define “real” men through power and dominance. “Minor” assaults and inequities are part of the continuum that includes rape, domestic abuse and attacks on women and girls.

This culture is enabled by men who tacitly condone it by not challenging it. That’s why to end violence against women, and change the culture, men must stand alongside us.

The Nirbhaya case started an unprecedented wave of activism. Men and women took to the streets. The massive number of men participating proved their growing role as leaders and partners in ending violence against women.

via Slow change comes to India a year after Delhi gang rape | Expert Zone.

Posted in Gender issues, India alert, Reform, Social & cultural | 1 Comment »

Tags: 2012 Delhi gang rape case, crime, Delhi, Domestic violence, Human rights, India, National Crime Records Bureau, Rape, rape cases, Violence against women

11/12/2013

Anti-Cong wave sweeping the country, Mamata Banerjee says – The Times of India

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed an anti-Congress wave is sweeping the country but declined to comment on whether her party would be part of a Narendra Modi government if it comes to power after Lok Sabha poll.

English: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee attends a news conference in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata September 7, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Asked whether there was a Modi wave, she said \”there is an anti-Congress wave.\”

\”There is an anti-Congress wave in the country. Price rise has affected the common man. Prices of potato, onion and even salt have increased along with rise in prices of fertiliser and petroleum products,\” she told reporters here.

Asked repeatedly whether she will support Narendra Modi in the post-poll scenario, she said \”no comment\”.

However, TMC sources said the party could be open to aligning with regional parties after Lok Sabha polls but wants a common minimum programme to be worked out for that, party sources said here.

Sources close to Banerjee said \”there should be a common minimum programme for such formation. All parties would sit together and decide on it.\”

via Anti-Cong wave sweeping the country, Mamata Banerjee says – The Times of India.

Posted in Economics, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | 1 Comment »

Tags: All India Trinamool Congress, Congress, Indian general election 2009, Lok Sabha, Mamata Banerjee, Narendra Modi, West Bengal

11/12/2013

India and China Move Ahead in the Asian Space Race – Businessweek

It’s been a rough year for the government of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Economic growth has cratered and the currency has wobbled. The Hindu nationalist party just clobbered Singh’s Congress Party in state-level elections and opposition leader Narendra Modi is the favorite to replace Singh in nationwide elections in the first half of 2014.

Engineers working on the Mars orbiter at the Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore

Amid all the gloom, Singh and the rest of India just received some much-needed good news. The country has an ambitious program to explore space, and today the government-run mission control announced that India’s first mission to Mars had cleared a major obstacle on its way to the Red Planet. The Mars Orbiter, informally dubbed the Mangalyaan, successfully carried out its first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM), the Indian Space Research Organization said on its official website. That keeps the Mangalyaan on track to reach Mars by September next year.

India’s Mars probe (PDF) is the country’s entry in an Asian space race; for those of you keeping score, the Indians win points for aiming farthest. Japan in September launched the Epsilon rocket, designed to be an inexpensive way to put satellites into earth orbit. China is shooting for the moon, having launched its first lunar rover mission on Dec. 2. South Korea in January launched its first space rocket and last month unveiled plans for a lunar mission (albeit one that won’t launch until 2020).

via India and China Move Ahead in the Asian Space Race – Businessweek.

Posted in Aerospace, China alert, Chindia Alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, India alert, Politics, Technology | 1 Comment »

Tags: China, Comparison of Asian national space programs, congress party, Hindu nationalist party, India, India’s, indian prime minister manmohan singh, Indian Space Research Organisation, Indian Space Research Organization, Mangalyaan, manmohan singh, Mars, mission to Mars, Narendra Modi

11/12/2013

China Explores Smoking Ban in Effort to Reduce Tobacco-Related Deaths – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Chinese officials are exploring ways to curb smoking as deaths mount and medical costs rise, an effort that has generated one proposal to take apart the nation’s vast and politically connected government-run tobacco monopoly.

Within the next year, China’s legislators will accelerate efforts to enact a national regulation banning smoking in public places in China, said Yang Jie, deputy director of Tobacco Control Office for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a news briefing on tobacco-related health problems in China. Mr. Yang said China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, is currently planning the regulation and it is expected to be enacted next year.

“We can see what is happening in the rest of the world,” said Mr. Yang, suggesting that China is due to follow the smoking cessation trends of other countries.

The statement follows the release of a book by China’s Central Party School, an elite Chinese Communist Party think tank, in recent months urging officials to shake up China’s tobacco monopoly, which is responsible for tobacco production and sales and has the freedom to donate to schools and sell cigarette cartons without pictures of black lungs for warnings. Its authors call for higher tobacco taxes, halting government financing to tobacco companies and encouraging them to find alternative business models.

China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration wasn’t immediately available for comment. The tobacco industry pulled in 865 billion yuan ($142.5 billion) from taxes and profit in 2012, up 16% from a year earlier, according to the State Tobacco administration.

A farmer smokes in a cabbage field in Huaiyuan county, eastern Anhui province. Associated Press

China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of tobacco, home to more than 300 million smokers and 43% of the world’s cigarette production, according to the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation. Tobacco is also a leading cause of death in China, causing 1.2 million deaths annually and expected to cause 3.5 million deaths annually by 2030, the groups said.

Nearly nine out of 10 Chinese children aged 5 and 6 are able to identify at least one cigarette brand, according to a recent study by Johns Hopkins University on the effects of tobacco marketing on children in low- and middle-income countries. “Rather than thinking ‘I’m going to be Superman,’ young boys are aspiring to smoke,” said Bernhard Schwartländer, the World Health Organization’s representative in China.

via China Explores Smoking Ban in Effort to Reduce Tobacco-Related Deaths – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, Social & cultural | 1 Comment »

Tags: American Cancer Society, Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, China, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Tobacco, World Health Organization, World Lung Foundation

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon