China, spilled with beans all over the place is now trying to collect back the beans

It must be a hot hot place for realty aficionados in the China market when Beijing approved of the billions of dollars to help save China from a soft landing in the aftermath of the financial crises in the US. Overnight, china man, who have been waiting for such a landfall since the inauguration of Hu Jin Tau as the president, have now got the chance to partake in the sudden get rich syndrome like never before. With s much money being spilled unto the bankers, every Hu, Chen and Wang on the streets are figuring what property to buy. It is not so much of buying a house to live in, rather, it is a stampede to grab a piece of the action, with more people buying their second, and third property. They say it is once in a life time thing and if you missed it, then curse yourself to the grave!

So everyone is chasing their third home, at the expanse of the poor, the new graduate who has yet to land a job and the deprived and silenced villager. It was a fantastic exercise, at least from the view of the countries new rich. Besides playing the stock market, indulging in the property sector shows that you have arrived. Looking at the madness, Chairman Moa would have turned in his grave at the revolution that his red guards was assumed to have initiated. But of more concerned is how long can such a debacle last? You have thrown in money unto the streets and the lucky ones are picking them up and even asking for more, how could you put a stop to it. Really, China is a big place compared to other states, and it would even looked bigger if you were to see the amount of unlawfulness and bureaucracy inherent in its structures. Do you ask the bank not to lend anymore? Look, the bank managers have a cut in lending out money for speculations!

It would be a real show to see what China is going to do to rein in the speculators. Already, inflation, especially in essential food items and dwellings, have gone beyond the level that the Chinese have come to accept. Poor factory workers, left behind in the chase for richness in a communist state, have resorted to committing suicide because they can't survive otherwise! Factories, mostly of the sweat shop category, is racing towards a new collective agreement just so as to placate the deprived worker with a meager increase in wages. Now, the Chinese government is really worried about the situation getting out of control. A new proletariat revolution is not unthinkable as temperatures are boiling over from the urban west to the poor east. The least that they want to see is the greedy gobbling up all the funds at the expense of the poor. I looks like the US financial crisis has not only deprived work in America, it has also triggered trouble in the rest of the world, with China the main casualty.

Who is Stealing Your China Trade Secrets?

 

Intellectual property theft always an inside job

What is the big hu-ha about companies getting their intellectual property stolen in China? How could that be? Companies that have operations in China do not keep their files in China. They mostly likely, and these refers to the majority of western firms, do not have anything of value kept in a Chinese office. Nay, all these complaints are propaganda! Just ask yourself, if you have your research and development set up based in the US or Europe, would you put them (the data) in Beijing? Or you have it locked up in San Francisco? Most western firms having operations in China is only using that place because of the cheap labor. For manufacturing firms, China serve as a backyard factory as the labor cost is ten times cheaper than the US. And you only need to keep your finished model in China for reference. The rest of the development data you keep away from China. So, what sorts of intellectual property has got stolen in China?

How about those that provide services like Google and Yahoo? Are their intellectual property  really being stolen in China? Or was it because the Chinese authorities are getting edgy about its own citizens pilfering information to an outside party? There is no way secrets can get stolen in China, purportedly by Chinese spies. There is however a possibility that some trade secrets are being stolen, not by Chinese, but by their own people. Certainly, many of these western firms are manned by their own kind. and some of these are senior stuffs who might be thinking of getting a fast buck. They sold off secrets, or purportedly secrets, but are of not much use. In reality, some of the bigger Chinese companies do have their own R & D departments. manned by a mix of indigenous Chinese and westerner.  There are also some Chinese who were recruited due to their expertise whilst they were working in the west. Obviously, both are highly paid. And the leak, if there are any, will most likely come from inside the firm. After all, who will know of what data is available and who will know how valuable it is?

China Rules Skype Illegal. Tell Me Something New.

The two real problems in China

China is a large country with a large population. If you are given the opportunity to govern China, you will probably grasping for breath thinking of a solution. Mind you, China is made up of many seperate states with as many cultures and beliefs. Although it has a single written language, people in different states talk with diferent slangs and it is not uncommon for a northern  chinese to not understand what a southern chinese is talking about. To govern it, you would need great resources and to be ready to use untried methods. Now, China has progressed to the second largest economy in the world, and is moving towards dethroning US as the largest economy, probably within four years time. But beneath all those money making schemes that a revived China has, two things stand out in importance. One is how to control the communicating links among the citizenry and the other is the great concern about run away inflation. It is therefore not surprising that the present Chinese government spent most of their time debating as to what appropriate actions to be taken to keep the kettle from boiling over.

Communication is a serious matter. In China, with a population of one over billion  and with most of them able to call each other over the handphone, keeping a close eye on what is being chattered is top prioirity. Having emegered from Chaiman Moa's red revolution from the seventies, the China of today will have a whole new set of problems to tackle. It used to be that the citizenry had to be very careful what they talk and who they talk to. Communism does'nt allow freedom of speech, or for that matter, talking bad about the government. Not only that, they have to sing in praise of their leaders, something that is no more in vogue and fully embraced in North Korea. Like people anywhere in the world, praising for government actions is no more popular. People learns about hypocarcies and talking good about the government is one of the worst kind of hypocracy! The latest sign of government intolerance of freedom of speech is the banning of Skype in China. Why is it banned? First, like Blackberries systems, it is a foreign thing. With both systems, the government can't get its hand on tapping what is being conversed. That means they can't effectively put their control on how many people pass of chatting their hatred for the govenment. Without adequate control, the populace could topple the government, perhaps with a little bit of help from the west!

The second big problem in China is running inflation. But why inflation? As China progressed into a world economy, there is a dicotmy between the rich and the poor. A rising middle class is emerging fast, due to the large trade surplus the China has achieved for the past ten years. Unfortnately, this rich sector is unevenly distributed. Large industrial towns , mostly in the western coastal regions is causing a lot of dissent from the poorer states in the interia and western regions. As China grew from an agricultural base, and is still helped by a large rural sector with meagre incomes, it is finding great difficulty in distributing of wealth among the populace. Imbued with endemic corruption in its governing structures, channeling of wealth to the poor is proving to be difficult. Agricultural lands are illegally taken away for sale to private entities for conversion to industrial entities. The poor gets poorer and the rich gets to stake away money in overseas accounts. There is a great fear that another revolution might come along, manned by the destitute poor and rural have nots. The leaders are of the oppinion that they can't use the army, two million strong to control any rebellion. The first sign of an agrieved government is of course the new law in controlling asset bubbles by way of getting the banks from upping their cash asset value. Still, the property market, populaced by the rich is running at a dangerous pace. A burst, no matter how small will affect the economy of China, bringing with it more problems for the poor and also affecting the world. Like China, the other  progressing economies also have property bubble on their hands.