unclechina.org

Remember how China and the Europeans screamed when there was a hint of “buy-American” wording in some of the U.S. stimulus package?  This week China released information on its manufacturing industry stimulus plan, which calls for the outright maintenance of a specific domestic market share for Chinese companies. The “Implementing Regulations for the Equipment Manufacturing Industry Revitalization Plan” sets a […]

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I was thumbing through a brochure from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) today and reading about their new project to develop a mid-sized trunk liner to compete against Boeing and Airbus.  The new plane, known as the 919, is currently set to be launched in 2014.  Currently, western aircraft companies are scrambling […]

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You may ask why business should care whether the U.S. has a pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 or not.  The answer is complex, but it boils down to national branding, soft power and potential retribution from China.   As this article in the Washington Post points out, the US is only one of […]

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What many businesspeople don’t realize is that as we go about our business on a daily basis there exists an army of people doing valuable research for us, poking their heads into every nook and cranny of the world, asking the questions we need the answers to, and writing up the results for free distribution […]

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China moved quickly this week to ban hog and pork imports from Mexico and parts of the United States the Chinese agriculture ministry and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Perhaps confused by the facts, the Minister of Agriculture apparently thought that swine flu was […]

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There’s some confusion among American businesspeople regarding the American Chamber of Commerce/s in China so now’s a good time to clear it up.  There is not one AmCham (as the Chambers are usually called) in China - there are several.   Yes, the one in Beijing calls itself “the American Chamber of Commerce in China” but […]

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American drug and supplement exporters should read this Reuters article published here in the The Peninsula of Qatar.  As the writer points out, the pharma market in China is poorly regulated but flush with products making unsubstantiated claims.  Chinese consumers don’t trust Chinese medicines as a result and are turning to foreign imports which they trust […]

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Factors including exchange rates, transportation costs and small volumes are bringing some outsourced manufacturing back to the U.S. from China according to this report in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Labor and materials costs have risen to an extent in China that for low-volume high-value production runs many US manufacturers are pulling orders out of China […]

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We recently exhibited at a trade show in Shanghai that was organized by a municipal agency.  The agency’s representative called us about a week before the show was to open to tell us that they would like to give us the Best Exhibit Award for the show “if we’d like to pay the award fee”.  […]

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As Adam Minter mentions in his Shanghai Scrap blog, at least one large conference that was scheduled for China in late May has been rescheduled because would-be foreign attendees are having trouble getting visas.  The reported reason that China has tightened up on issuing visas is because of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding […]

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