The Shanghai stock market is down big again today. But don't worry too much says the WSJ:

SHANGHAI -- China's most-watched share index has tumbled 16% over the past two weeks, but analysts say this doesn't mean the party is over, largely because Beijing probably doesn't want it to be.

The stock market is expected to benefit from still-flush liquidity, a likely improvement -- albeit at potentially a slower pace -- in economic readings, and possible market-supportive moves from Beijing. With the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's rule on Oct. 1, officials will likely want the stock market to be in good shape.

The China Daily says:

More street-level checkpoints and extensive searches of individuals - especially those who have been residents of Beijing for a short time - are among security initiatives police in the capital will take as they look to "nip threats in the bud" during National Day celebrations.

With a little more than a month to go before the Oct 1 festivities in Beijing that will mark the nation's 60th birthday, police have been told to beef up their anti-terror efforts, likely to a higher level than was seen during the 2008 Olympic Games.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu urged police chiefs nationwide late Monday to ensure they would "guard against and relentlessly crack down on sabotage activities carried out by hostile forces from both home and abroad."

"Security is currently our top priority," Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying.

The Australian reports:
THE arrest of the four Rio Tinto executives in China on allegations of bribery and industrial espionage has heightened fears among foreign companies operating in the country.

Lawyers and risk consultants operating in China have reported a surge in inquiries from clients worried that something similar might happen to their staff. One Beijing lawyer said that the incident had forced a number of Western companies to consider just how close they operated to an invisible line.

The Rio executives were arrested five weeks ago and Chinese state media initially said the men would be charged with stealing state secrets.

The four executives, who were leading Rio's negotiation of multibillion-dollar iron ore contracts with China, were accused of bribing officials at state-owned steel mills to gain market information, which would allegedly put China at a disadvantage in the iron-ore pricing negotiations.

The arrest warrant for the four men was downgraded two days ago to bribery and stealing commercial secrets in a move that was seen as an attempt by the Chinese to defuse a diplomatic row.

Even though the background to the Rio incident is highly specific, Western companies operating in China have been spooked by the accusations.

While many Western consumers are trading down and preferring less expensive items, Chinese women are spending more and becoming more influential in their family’s spending habits. They are becoming a key target for companies trying to boost sales in China, says Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm. Understanding how they think and what they buy will be critical for foreign firms trying to sell to them.

 

In a recent article in Forbes, Rein says women have become a major driving force behind China's economic growth. China's overall retail sales rose 15% in the first half of this year, and that growth was driven in large part by women under the age of 35.

 

His firm recently surveyed female consumers in China, and 80% of them said they expected to spend more in the next six months than in the last six. “Not only are they exerting influence on decision-making in their own homes; they're also making purchase decisions for their parents when they live in the same house or neighborhood,” the former Harvard graduate writes.

 

Rein goes on to make the following points: 

¨         Millions of girls since the late 1970s have been raised as little princesses in one-child families.

¨         While much has been made of the statistic that there are 117 males for every 100 females in China (because of abortions), it's also true that in urban areas there is much gender parity.

¨         Women now contribute about half of household income, up from 20% in the 1950s. Their educational opportunities have greatly grown, and they've entered the white-collar workforce.

¨         They now spend as much as men on luxury consumption, accounting for 50% of luxury purchases from companies like Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

¨         She is cutting back on impulse purchases, spending more time before entering a store to do research online on what she wants to buy, consulting blogs and search engines and websites.

¨         Women are becoming less price sensitive and more sophisticated about the brands and products that they finally buy.

¨         Women are also extremely influential in big-ticket family purchases such as homes and even televisions that traditionally have been up to men. In Shanghai, we found that many women control their households' finances. They keep the bank accounts in their own names and give their husbands a weekly allowance.

¨         These young women are greatly concerned about the safety of the products they buy for their children. If Americans worry about the "Made in China" label, Chinese women worry even more, for they have to deal with it every day.

¨         In general they trust foreign brands more than domestic ones. The vast majority of females in 15 cities told us that they would spend 20% or more for products for their babies if they felt they could fully trust that they were safe.

 

As a foreign man with a Chinese wife for the past three years, I believe every one of the above points is true. During my nine years in China, it is clear to me that most Chinese women are confident and many have the ability and opportunity to earning the money to keep on spending.

 

Rein concludes, “To be successful selling to them, you have to cater to their emotions and concerns more than ever before, even when selling products that men traditionally buy. As Chinese women work harder, raise children at the same time, and pay for their parents, they want to spoil themselves and relax a little. They are willing to pay a premium for safe and healthy quality products that let them do so.”

Job Title: English editor and Proofreader for ERSEC 2009 conference proceeding
Agency: UNESCO
Application deadline: July 8
Period: 2 weeks

The UNESCO Office Beijing is seeking for an experienced editor to proofread and format the ERSEC conference proceeding: Sustainable Land Use and Ecosystem Conservation. The editor is expected to (1) edit and proofread the wording and grammar of the proceeding without changing the content; (2) format the proceeding as necessary and in consultation with UNESCO Office Beijing. (3) write the summary of ERSEC 2009 Conference. The editor will be given 20 days since the editor signs the contract to edit around 370 pages of the proceeding. The selection of the editor will be based on an open competition in accordance with UNESCO's rules.

The UNESCO Office Beijing would like to invite you to participate in the competition for this editing assignment. Should you be interested in it, please ki ndly send your CV by email to beijing.sc@unesco.org at your earliest convenience.

I'm back in China (the "mainland") this weekend, and did a long read of the South China Morning Post on the train from Tsim Sha Tsui to Lo Wu.  I couldn't help but notice a couple of things that jumped out at me as potential blog posts.  Then I realized, when taken as a whole, it really does confirm my suspicion that I'm a huge cynic.

The first was called "TV to air patriotic ads" (all articles mentioned here are behind the SCMP's paywall).  It proceeds as follows:

A series of civic education adverts featuring astronaut Zhai Zhigang waving the national flag in space will be broadcast on local television starting from Monday. 

The 12 minute-long videos, titled Accomplishments of our country, will be shown on four Chinese-language television channels before news programmes, replacing Our country, our glory.

The committee, together with RTHK, will launch other videos presenting facts on Chinese history and culture next year and might consider an English-language campaign.

The Accomplishments feature will also apparently contain moving images of the Sichuan earthquake and China's dominance at the winter Olympics.

After working in state-run media for many years, I was quite happy to come to Hong Kong where patriotism and the greatness of China wasn't on the television daily.  As Hugh J has pointed out previously, the media machine is sparing no effort to remind viewers of China's golden Olympic moments.

I don't object to this per se... China does have a number of great accomplishments, especially in the last 30 years of reform and opening.  What I object to is the state blitzing us with this material for their own benefit, and using public airwaves (taxpayer funded) to do so.  I sincerely hope RTHK is charging to run these advertisements.  It would be a sad day to see Hong Kong's relatively free media go down the path of CCTV.

My flight leaves Shenzhen Baoan Airport shortly, so I only have time to mention one other article.  It's called "Maiden flight of first homemade passenger jet hailed a success".  Yes, China is now building passenger aircraft.  In light of corruption, product quality, shoddy construction, and other pressing issues which have come to light in other industries, does this worry anyone?

It appears China itself wasn't so confident about this test flight of the ARJ21:

The ARJ21, which stands for "advanced regional jet for the 21st century", took off in great secrecy from Shanghai shortly after midday.  The hour-long test flight was revealed by state media only after the plane had landed.

Nice.  You can count me among the millions that might have a few apprehensions about getting aboard one of these flights.  Perhaps that sounds unfair, and chances are this plane is as safe as any other.  But that's the price one pays for a reputation of incompetence.

As a cute reminder of China's corruption issues, the adjacent page outlines the charges against the Shenzhen police officer accused of accepting bribes to keep a dangerous nightclub open that ended up killing dozens of people when a fire broke out.

On that note, I'm off to catch my flight!

By the time I got to the third line of the news story I found myself rolling my eyes - again.  The item was about the latest crisis in China and how the government is responding to it. This time, bad eggs have ended up on store shelves in Hong Kong. Investigators traced the problem to mainland chickens and puzzled over how this could have happened. I don't raise chickens, I just eat them, but even I figured that it was probably in something they ate. Sure enough, a couple of days later, investigators determine that the chicken feed was laced with the infamous chemical melamine. The answer from the authorities was all too familiar: more rules. I mentally filed this story with a growing list of similar events that have very similar themes: something has gone very wrong after being allowed to fester for a protracted period of time. The regulations that were in place obviously haven't worked. The answer from the authorities? More regulations.  

Before this it was the tainted milk scandal. Thousands of infants suffered, some died, from prolonged ingestion of the chemical that was added to milk formula by nefarious individuals in a scheme to cut costs and eek out a little more profit.   

Earlier this year, the world realized that children everywhere might be unwrapping toys this Christmas that were painted with a date rape drug, or worse. Some Chinese toy makers, it seemed, were painting their products with whatever they had lying around. After a brief investigation, I believe the government’s new regulations were worded something like this: Don't paint toys with date rape drugs, this makes other countries very angry.  

The overheated housing market saw rampant speculation, then a subsequent ‘downturn’ because prices were too inflated. Regulations to limit the buying have since been followed by regulations to encourage buying.   

The tragedy of the Sichuan earthquake was much worse that it should have been thanks to shoddy building construction, particularly in schools. There were minimal codes in place, but builders have a way of skirting those. This time the answer was more regulations with a healthy sprinkling of 'severe punishments’. Too late for the thousands of dead children, however.  

Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the authorities announced reduced car days. Almost half of Beijing's cars were pulled off the roads on alternating days based on their license plate numbers. The measures worked and traffic became bearable. New regulations since then now take cars off the road just one day a week. "The new government measures will effectively reduce congestion on the city's streets," we were told. Tell that to a Beijing cab driver and watch the laughter ensue. A Chinese co-worker of mine, who also works for the government, has managed to obtain a piece of paper from her boss that exempts her from the rules. Apparently, the boss has handed out these “keep on driving” passes out to numerous other employees.   

Weeks ahead of the Olympics, the Chinese government trumpeted the fact that smoking would no longer be allowed in government buildings. In one sweeping move, Chinese workers would become health conscious. I work in one of those buildings. Six months after the introduction of the new regulations, I can still barely see down the corridor in front by my office because of the permanent halo generated by my smoking coworkers. Not only are the regulations not enforced, building managers even provide ashtrays for all these nicotine-addled souls. They understand what most everyone else here also realizes: No one takes government rules too seriously because there is always a way around them. The reason is simple - there is no proper enforcement. 

The list of similar stories is long and getting longer.  

I get a daily reminder of Chinese government regulations and their general lack of effectiveness every time I walk out of my apartment building. Almost a year after it was opened, the new road in front of my building has become a parking lot. Motorists actually use it and the bicycle lanes and sidewalks on either side of it for parking. It is absolutely crammed with cars. Sometimes they just leave there cars right in the middle of traffic. It's become a parking circus. Ironically, there are easily half a dozen available parkades within in a two block radius. Parking is not only allowed on this street, it is encouraged. ‘Parking attendants’ even charge for the privilege. Walking on this street has become a life or death exercise. I don't know what the body count is at this point, but I'm sure it's rising. All this goes on, of course, under the watchful gaze of the local police. Keep in mind this isn’t happening in some remote 3^rd tier city where yaks roam freely. This is happening in the nation’s capital, in the prestigious Central Business District. I haven't actually read Beijing’s parking laws, but I am assuming that using bike lanes and sidewalks as parking lots for Mercedes and BMWs is 'officially' frowned upon.   

Whether it’s quality of life issues or life and death issues, the ongoing lack of enforcement undermines the best interests of the Chinese public and their government. If they aren't already, the authorities should be concerned. The roots of these problems, in my estimation, don't always stem from ineffective regulations. Neglect, corruption, contempt, apathy, a lack of proper enforcement and/or general disregard were all factors that compromised China’s food chain. Chinese government officials sometimes become incensed when foreign governments or consumers don't take seriously their latest announcement of a new bunch of regulations designed to stem the latest crisis or embarrassing scandal. Next time, as the authorities chest-thump their latest set of rules, they should also think about how those rules will be enforced.

There's always room for one more...

Trouble in parking paradise...

It looks like it could be true.  James Fallows has posted some information on his blog, while the actual job posting is found at JournalismJobs.com.

It clearly states the position will be in New York, and requires a start-date no later than January 2009.

Now the question that begs to be asked:  Who will spend money on China's official English newspaper in the United States?  While some American media can be less than interesting/fair/balanced/unbiased, it's still a league apart from their Chinese counterparts.  Does anybody watch CCTV 9 in the United States other than for a laugh or two, or because of a serious interest in China?

Even those people will likely not be enough to keep a US edition afloat (mind you, with the government backing the project, money is not an option).

If China ever releases its hordes of talented people from the shackles of government censorship, I have no doubt journalism would flourish in China.  Perhaps, at that time, there would be a wide readership of Chinese publications in other corners of the world.  But until then, the China Daily, in no matter which edition, will only be seen as a simple propaganda rag.