Brazil’s Growth Depends on China

October 6, 2010

In America, we often hear complaints about the trade deficit between China and the U.S. but seldom China’s trade with the rest of the world.

One example is Brazil.

On the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, which is the commercial heartland of Brazil and home to 17 million, people are in a fever over China–but that fever is not the same as in the U.S.

With limited resources , China has been buying raw materials from all over the globe helping keep raw material prices up.  This has benefited Brazil.

China is the world’s most populous nation but only has 7% of the world’s fresh water, 3% of the globe’s forests and 6% of the land that grows food.

However, Brazil has what China does not have–water, forests and land to grow food on.

Today that has made Brazil the largest national economy in Latin America. In 2009, China moved past the U.S. to become Brazil’s largest trading partner. Source: Telegraph.com.uk

Trade between China and Brazil is not a one-way street. China is also investing in Brazil in areas such as telecommunications, pipelines, shipping, manufacturing, the oil industry, etc.

In fact, a BBC, World Service poll explored people’s opinions in 33 countries and discovered that China had almost twice the positive influence globally that the U.S. has. Source: Global Scan.com

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Continued Growth

October 6, 2010

The Economist for September 25, 2010, mentions China a number of times proving that China’s growth as a world power is not ending soon. 

In Valuable Vale, we learn that China has transformed a Brazilian iron-ore company from a small fry to a giant in a decade with more to come.

“China has propelled (Vale) from insignificance…to a market capitalization of $147 billion.  It is now the second-largest miner (on the globe).”

Then some of the yuan that went to Vale to buy iron ore flowed back to China when Vale ordered a fleet of enormous ships from China.

In A Mao in every pocket we discover that China struggles to continue “managing” the value of the yuan since China’s central government still fears the unpredictability of global markets.

However, the way China manages the yuan may be changing since recent currency reforms allowed exporters to price their good in yuan, rather than dollars.  Yet, some controls are still in place since “yuan flowed out of China only if goods or services flow the other way.”

In the meantime, pandering to voters, the U.S. Congress is looking for ways to punish China over the way the yuan is managed but only if the proposed bills comply with WTO (World Trade Organization) rules.

Wild is the wind shows that continued growth in the green-energy industry also depend on China. The Economist says that “installations (wind turbines) this year in America could be little more than half what they were last year” and that “the only market that continues to grow is China.”

The evidence shows that China is still crucial to the world’s recovery from the Wall Street, U.S. sub-prime mortgage induced economic meltdown of 2008.

Learn more as China Moves Toward Orbit and Beyond

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Charity and Philanthropy Sprouting in China

October 5, 2010

Now that China is the 2nd largest economy on the planet, the responsibility of helping the needy has come of age.

Today, China has about 875,000 multi-millionaires – 55,000 are billionaires, the highest number after the United States.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are visiting Beijing to have dinner with China’s wealthy and share their passion for giving.

So far, two of China’s super rich have accepted the invitation and the central government is encouraging others to attend requesting that all of China’s billionaires donate at least one million yuan annually to charity. Source: Wall Street Journal

It is estimated that there are more than 1,800 charitable foundations across China but most are not very transparent and this breeds suspicion and distrust.

To solve that problem, Actor Jet Li’s charity is one of the co-founding organizations behind a new China Foundation Center with goals to increase the transparency of Chinese charitable groups.

The Chinese may turn to the U.S. to see how America deals with charity theft, which has been a big problem with smaller charities.  Although larger charities are closely watched by the U.S. government, smaller charities often lack the financial controls to prevent theft. Source: MSNBC.com

It isn’t that the Chinese are unwilling to give. The China Daily reported that China’s top 100 philanthropists have donated $3.3 billion dollars since 2005.

After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, individuals donated $8.9 billion, the highest level in China’s history.

The China Law Blog also had a post that said in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, so many in China donated blood that there wasn’t enough room to store it all showing the world that when China’s government cannot handle a crises, the Chinese people will step in.

See When the Generals Laughed to discover what Chinese military did soon after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – Part 1/2

October 4, 2010

In 2008, Al Jazeera broadcast a program about China celebrating three decades of market-oriented reforms with a look at how the global financial crisis was affecting the world’s second-largest economy.

At the time, average annual income was almost $3,000 compared to $55 dollars in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping launched the economic reforms that transformed China.

The Al Jazeera commentator introduced the panel of experts.

Andrew Leung was a FMR Hong Kong Government Official, who said that China, unlike other countries, must produce twenty million new jobs a year just to stay even. He then explained that China’s huge stimulus package on infrastructure development was the only way China was going to put people back to work during the global economic crises.

Then the Al Jazeera commentator introduced Ze Xia, as a Chinese journalist working for New Tang Dynasty TV in America.

NOTE: Al Jazeera does not say that New Tang Dynasty TV is part of the Falun Gong religious cult that has been banned in China.  Before the commentator cut her off, Ze Xia managed to criticize China’s on several issues.

The commentator quickly cut to Bruce Reynolds at the University of Virginia, who was a former editor of The China Economic Review

Reynolds countered the Falun Gong reporter’s tirade by saying we are only talking about a labor force of perhaps 100 to 140 million workers in export-oriented factories along the seacoast.

He then said that China’s entire labor force was more like 700 million and the export sector was only one part of China’s economy. Those workers who lost their jobs will migrate back to the rural areas they came from.

Andrew Leung agreed with Reynolds and predicted that it would take a year or so for China to smooth out the impact of the global economic crises.

The camera did not return to Ze Xia, the Falun Gong reporter.

Visit China Economy Watch for up-to-date information on China.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Apple’s iPhone 4 – Hot in China

October 3, 2010

CNN Money.com’s Fortune reported that massive crowds recently greeted the iPhone 4 in China. 

Last November’s sales were dismal when Apple first started selling the iPhone in China.

However, this time, more than 200,000 had pre-ordered the iPhone 4 paying as much as $1,000 US which is about 6,000 yuan.

The video shows about a 1,000 people waiting at Apple’s store in Beijing.  Some had been in line for two days.

For those who couldn’t wait, hunger for this Apple drove some to buy outside of China.

China Unicom reported that 50,000 customers signed up for an iPhone 4 on the first day of pre-orders.

Apple also opened two new stores the same day as the official launch—one in Shanghai and another in Beijing bringing the total to four.

Apple’s plans to open 24 retail outlets over the next 2 years.

Estimates say there are 800 million wireless users in China. Since China’s cell phone market is the largest in the world, and Apple holds about 7% of the market, that translates to about 56 million potential customers for Apple.

The Guo Top Treadmill Review says the Sunning Appliance Company has 300 stores in China selling the iPhone 4.

See The Coming Apple-Google War in China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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