ICBC-Standard Bank Deal

China's biggest bank ICBC has agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in South Africa's Standard Bank for US$5.6 billion. Standard is the largest African bank.

This looks to be a good deal for both companies. For ICBC, it can expand its international network and profile using the huge cash reserve it has. For the Standard Bank, it can receive a big cash infusion and use it to expand its business in other countries.

Zhang Jingchu to Star in 'John Rabe'

Canadian Press reported that Zhang Jingchu will co-star in a film about the true story of a German businessman, John Rabe, who shielded locals from Japanese slaughter in Second World War-era China. More here.

Recently, Zhang starred in the American film "Rush Hour 3", along with Jackie Chan and Chris Carter.

(Image: Zhang Jingchu)

Hengdian Films and TV Base

The US National Public Radio reporter Louisa Lim has an interesting article on the Hengdian World Studios on its website.

Bright Shadow Films has produced an hour-long documentary with an in-depth look at Hengdian. Here is the trailer.

(Image: Hengdian World Studios)

CITIC-Bear Stearns Deal

Forbes Magazine online reported, American investment firm Bear Stearns and China's CITIC Securities announced Monday that they would swap stakes. Bear Stearns and CITIC Securities would invest US$1 billion each in one another. For its investment in Bear Stearns, CITIC would receive securities that can be converted into 6% stake in Bear Stearns. CITIC also has the right to buy an additional 3.9%. In return for its investment in CITIC, Bear Stearns would get a 2% stake in the firm. It has the option to purchase an additional 5%. The deal would give the financially troubled American firm a head start in China. Additionally, the two would combine their Asian businesses outside of mainland China to form a 50-50% joint firm, to be located in Hong Kong.

This is a much better deal than China Investment Corp.'s US$3 billion investment in Blackstone for a 10% non-voting stake.

Jet Li in Mummy 3

Action superstar Jet Li stars in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, directed by Rob Cohen. Li plays a Chinese emperor who seeks immortality, Brendan Fraser reprises his role as explorer Rick O'Connell, and Michelle Yeoh portrays a sorceress.

Bohai-rim Economic Circle

The Bohai-rim economic circle is one of China's most dynamic economic regions, along with the Yangzi River delta region, and the Pearl River delta region. In the Bohai-rim region locate the national capital Beijing, industrial city Tianjin, tourism and well-known cities such as Dalian, Qinhuangdao and Yantai, and other cities such as Yingkou, Panjin, Huludao, Tangshan, Cangzhou, Dongying, Weifang, and Weihai. (Image: Yahoo! Maps)

Financial Times Apologizes

The Financial Times has apologized and paid libel damages and costs to Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong and his father, Lee Kuan Yew, the country's founding prime minister after accusing them of nepotism, the Guardian reported. The apology reads,

"We recognise that the article meant or was understood to mean: that minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew secured, or was instrumental in securing, the appointment of his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, as prime minister, for nepotistic motives; that prime minister Lee Hsien Loong secured, or was instrumental in securing, the appointment of his wife, Ms Ho Ching, as the chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited for nepotistic motives; and that Ms Ho Ching is promoting her brother-in-law Lee Hsien Yang's interests by securing or helping to secure his appointment as Mr Jackson Tai's replacement at DBS Bank for nepotistic motives.... We admit and acknowledge that these allegations are false and completely without foundation....We unreservedly apologise to prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Ms Ho Ching for the distress and embarrassment caused to them by these allegations. "

The Financial Times declined to reveal the amount of money it paid out in the libel action. The apology was related to an article written by Sundeep Tucker, titled "Sovereign funds try to put on an acceptable face" that appeared on the September 29.

CITIC Looking at Bear Stearns

China's CITIC Group is interested in buying a stake in the US investment firm Bear Stearns, Bloomberg reported today. The American company was hit hard by the crisis of the subprime mortgage market in the US.

CITIC Group President Chang Zhenming indicated the Chinese company's interest in Bear Stearns, confirming earlier comments by Jiang Dingzhi, Vice Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Now let's see what the US Congress will say about it. Will this be replay of the CNOOC's failed purchasing of Unical, a US oil company.

Give Taiwan Residents National Treatment

According to Chinese law, Taiwanese are Chinese citizens. Therefore, they are entitled to national treatment. For example, they should be able to travel to the Mainland, study in Mainland schools and universities, work in Mainland-based companies, and live on the Mainland.

In fact, various estimates indicate that millions of Taiwan residents already travel to the Mainland every year for sightseeing, study, work, or investment. The Mainland should make this process of integration more convenient and natural. The Mainland can more readily issue permanent resident permits to Taiwanese who want to study, work or reside there.

China Has 106 Billionaires

That's right. Up from 15 last year, according to China-based Hurun Report. Topping the list, Yang Huiyan, the 26-year-old daughter and receipent of the $17.5 billion of a property developer. China's billionaire club is second only to that of the U.S., which has 400, the Hurun Report said. Yang's net worth is a result of gift shares from her father in property developer Country Garden Holdings Co.

The second richest on the list, Zhang Yin, saw her wealth in a paper-recycling company she founded surge to $10 billion. She was the richest person in mainland China last year with $3.4 billion.

I'm happy for all the Chinese billionaires, but have a question. Will you follow the example of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Li Ka-shing? They are most admired billionaires who donate most of their wealth to public causes.

Dangerously High Trade Figure

In an earlier post, I said China's export-driven economy is polluting the country. Here is another chart showing how high China's total trade was in 2006, comparing to the US and Japan. At 70% of GDP, Chinese trade is dangerous to its economical and social stability, to its environment. China needs to bring down its total imports and exports to between 20% and 25% of its GDP.

China Needs 50 Provinces?

[Click on the map to enlarge]

Some Chinese provinces are more populous or geographically larger than many countries. Provinces such as Henan, Shandong, Guangdong and Sichuan, each with a population of 80-100 million, are more numerous than Germany and France. On the other hand province-level regions such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, with an area over one millon square kilometers, are geographically larger than these same countries. So, I took the liberty to redraw China's map and thought it would be a good idea to add more provinces. Above is the "new" map of China.

The Water Cube

A recent photo of another would-be iconic landmark, the National Aquatics Center in Beijing, aka, the Water Cube. It'll hold the Beijing 2008 Olympics aquatic events. (Image: BOCOG)

The Bird's Nest

A recent photo of the would-be iconic National Stadium in Beijing, aka, the Bird's Nest. The Beijing 2008 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies will take place here. (Image: Xinhuanet)

On Korean Wave

The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, has a very insightful editorial on Korean Wave or Hallyu on June 1, 2007. In case the link may disappear, I copied the whole editorial here:

Sobering Words from a Global Entertainment Player

Park Jin-young, the singer and dancer-turned entertainment entrepreneur responsible for creating the international phenomenon that is Rain, on Thursday said the Korean Wave will have to be abandoned for true global success. In a lecture at Yonsei University, Park said, “You must be prepared to give up the Korean Wave to achieve greater success on the global stage. In the U.S. market, the home to mainstream music, drama and movies, who will listen to a Korean singer if all he or she does is shout about how great Korea is? It’s not a smart move to flog products emblazoned with a country’s flag.” After opening his own entertainment company at the age of 27, Park went to the U.S. in 2003 and spent every day going round 20 different music companies. His efforts paid off when he succeeded in getting one of his songs featured on the album of a popular rap artist. After Rain, he brought the Korean singer Min to the U.S. and picked out singing sensation Nichkhun Horvejkul, who is seen as Thailand’s answer of Rain. The reason Harvard University and other educational institutions rush to invite Park to lecture is because they value the way he took on the challenge of succeeding on the global stage as well as his accomplishments.

Park has always felt uneasy about having his activities linked to the Korean Wave. He said he is neither a “patriot” nor a “messenger of the Korean Wave.” He warned, “There are too many people making a living off nationalism in Korea. The ‘Korean Wave’ ended up becoming ‘Korea is Great’, and that’s why we’re seeing an anti-Korean Wave trend overseas.” He sighed in despair when he cited an instance where Korean fans became furious after they learned about Park’s plan to dress Rain in Chinese costume and incorporate kung fu moves into his dance routine at a concert in China. He is frustrated by the closed-mindedness of Korean society, which tries to view even pop culture through the narrow lens of nationalism.

Park said, “You can become a global success if you do something well, whether it is Korean or not. We still lack diversity, yet are strong in uniformity.” His comments are bold and provocative. That’s why they have stirred up heated controversy. But Korean society has matured enough to be able to listen to the candid advice of such unconventional figures and pioneers. Park’s advice is to throw away the narrow view of things through Korea’s eyes and to open our eyes wider. Those words apply not only to pop culture, but also to education, the economy, politics and other areas of our society. Korea’s so-called leaders, who are so far from global standards and spend their days fighting amongst themselves, can learn a thing or two from this young and ambitious entrepreneur who’s striving to become the world’s best and Asia’s no. 1.

Feng Xiaogang's 'The Assembly'

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's latest film "The Assembly" kicks off this year's Pusan International Film Festival in Korea. The film is about a soldier fighting to win recognition for comrades who died during China's civil war.

Universal Suffrage in 2017 in Hong Kong?

According to Hong Kong's newspaper The Standard, 64% of Hong Kongers in a Chinese University poll will accept an universal suffrage date as late as 2017, instead of the earlier option in 2012, if the central government considers it necessary. That's good news for the Beijing government because this will give it more time for transition.

Therefore, it's in the central government's interest to announce as soon as possible the date for universal suffrage in Hong Kong, that's 2017, so that Hong Kongers are reassured that will happen. Ideally, the announcement should happen this year, giving the HK SAR time for preparing the changes in the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

Not Internal Affair

Myanmar's monks were in revolt. Its military suppressed the peaceful protests. Many in the world asked for intervention, in particular, China's intervention. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responded,

“China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated.”

China's noninterference and bury-its-head-in-the-sand foreign policy does no longer make sense. China needs to intervene and it's in China's interest to intervene. It's in the international community's interest for China to intervene.

Otherwise, Myanmar will descend into instability, and even chaos, which will not be in China's or Myanmar's interest.