Last (12/01/2009) 
December 1, 2009
Chinese State Firm to Build New York City Subway Infrastructure
China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York's Manhattan area, marking the construction giant's third order in the United States' infrastructure space this year.
SUBWAY VENTILATION... Given extraordinary precautions regarding biological agents, etc., and the exposure of 5 million riders daily, isn't this an extraordinary decision?
Click this link for the QueensCrap blog plus comments.
WSJ confirms, quoting DOW Jones in Shanghai:
SHANGHAI (Dow Jones)--China State Construction Engineering Corp. (601668.SH) recently signed contracts totaling $94.35 million to build subway ventilation facilities in Manhattan, a person familiar with the deal told Dow Jones Newswires on Monday. The contract was given to China Construction American Co., a unit of the firm, said the person, who declined to be named.
Anyone with specific information on the project is more than welcome to write a post on it for Asiabizblog.
[H/T to Miss Johnson from London.]
November 30, 2009
China: To Become a Spendthrift?
Getting China to spend rather than save turns out to be harder than it sounds.
I have been tooting this horn for a decade, with few other Western watchers in agreement, until this rather tepid, but ultimately concurring, WSJ piece. China will not become the spendthrift the US wishes it to become. Of course, Chinese have known what Westerners, especially Americans, haven't dared to assume.
Posted by Richard at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)November 12, 2009
Video: Taiwan
Some lovely pictures of Taipei and a top level overview, narrated in a drab voiceover -- why don't they ask me to narrate these?
By the way, if you've any video you'd like a China-focused audience to see, please let me know. Video attracts a substantial number of unique viewers and I'd like to carry more of it.
I've always found it fascinating that the last bastion of traditional Chinese ideas -- as opposed to the militaristic and authoritarian "model" -- has become the most receptive to democratic and cooperative political decision-making.
Posted by Richard at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)November 4, 2009
More on the "Overseas Client Scams Law Firm" Scam: Suits Filed
Two American law firms, unable to reach the scammer, now basking in sunny climes foreign to this great land, have taken to suing the banks which -- allegedly, I must say in self-protection -- processed the checks.
What I find particularly fascinating is this:
The client's instructions, two days later, to wire $128,600 to Nassco Korea Co., raised a red flag because a new client in a foreign country was asking the firm to pay money to a third-party foreign entity. So before depositing the check into its trust account at the Glen Rock, N.J., branch, "in an abundance of caution," it sent a copy to Bank of America asking it to contact Citibank to make sure the check was good, the firm alleges.
Bank of America allegedly responded with an e-mail saying "go ahead and deposit the check," adding that it was drawn on Citibank's account, not the customer's, which made it Citibank's obligation to make sure it was funded and that "[i]t would be unheard of for the bank to bounce one of its own checks."
Bank of America has evidently admitted the fact of the email communication, but with a caveat not fully described in the article. An abundance of what passes for ordinary caution, it seems, is not necessarily sufficient. Caveat leguleius!
After each post on this subject, I am flooded by law firm scam emails for several days thereafter. (I've got quite a collection now.) I think the guys read this blog. Welcome! If one would like to post on his methods and successes, let me know. It'd make for scintillating reading.
Posted by Richard at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)November 2, 2009
ANNOUNCEMENT: Publication of China Labor and Employment Law Resource
Ron Brown, friend of this blog, has authored UNDERSTANDING LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW IN CHINA, published by Cambridge U.P.
Continued economic prosperity in China and its international competitive advantage have been due in large part to the labor of workers in China, who for many years toiled in under-regulated workplaces. Now, there are new labor law reforms raising the rights and standards of workers throughout China. These new laws have been praised for their progressive measures and at the same time blamed for placing too many economic burdens on companies, especially those operating on the margins and those that have caused business failures. This, combined with the recent global downturn and the millions of displaced and unemployed Chinese migrant laborers, has created ongoing debate about the new labor laws.
Meanwhile the Chinese Union has organized Wal-Mart and many of the Global Fortune 500 companies and a form of collective bargaining is occurring. Workers are pursuing their legal labor rights in increasing numbers.
This book provides a clear overview of the current labor and employment law environment in China and its legal requirements, as well as current practices under these laws used to deal with growing labor issues. Never has there been a time when understanding China s labor and employment laws is more important.
Our thanks to Ron for sharing an announcement of this new book with us!
October 16, 2009
Apologies for the Radio Silence
I've been busy preparing to open a second location for my law practice and have not written much. But let me give you something to read in the meantime:
After 11 years of trial, New Taiwan Dollar/RMB exchange, based in bank branches and open to the public, has expanded to the entire province of Fujian. Very doubtful that this is of much importance to any but the tourist, as, evidently, only smaller quantities of cash may be exchanged, Surely not benefiting Taiwanese manufacturers or investors. However, this appears to be a further indication of the generally positive interaction between government officials in Taipei and Beijing. Perhaps this will put a dent in the black-market operators who often hang out around local bank branches offering slightly better rates of exchange than the branches do themselves.
A Sina.com article here.
Posted by Richard at 7:52 PM | Comments (0)October 6, 2009
Can China Lead a Recovery? Right...
More pie-in-the-sky dreams about a consumer economy in China. Note this paragraph, buried in the article:
It remains unclear whether the Chinese have abandoned their traditional caution [to spend]. "Over the past decade or so, the growth of China's household consumption has been outpaced by fixed investment growth and exports, and consumption as a percentage of GDP is low and has been on the decline," said Morgan Stanley analysts Qing Wang and Steven Zhang in a report last month.
The topic is a long-standing Western fantasy about which I have written often over the past 10 years on this blog and will not spend any more time on.
Posted by Richard at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)
Stumble It!
