Weekend in China

The reconstruction process in China's earthquake zone is moving into the planning stages and the scope of what has to be done is simply daunting. The thing that fascinates with China, in things good and bad, is simply its size and the numbers involved. Here we are dealing with an area the size of Iceland, with "30 million affected and another 5 million losing their homes" (China Daily).

Despite the massive amount of work that needs to be done, financing the reconstruction seems to be the least of the worries, and a reflection of China's ongoing economic vitality.

The country's sound fiscal condition will ensure adequate funding for the reconstruction, says He Fan, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Fiscal revenues amounted to 5.13 trillion yuan last year, up more than 30 percent year-on-year. Revenues are expected to increase to more than 6.4 trillion year this year, says Liu Yuanchun, economist and head of the School of Economics at the Renmin University of China. "Therefore the funding demand can be met by adjusting the government expenditure structure and using private donations."

"In the worst-case scenario (in the event of fiscal difficulties), China can use financial instruments such as a 30-year special quake treasury to pool money," says He from CASS. "In this way, it can spread out the fiscal pressure."

Concerns remain about reconstructing in an area prone to quakes.

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It's not only within China that we see economic change from both domestic and international influences, but the face of Chinese business in the wider world is changing as well. From the Golden China Brands blog we see a move by Chinese retailers into Europe in an attempt to create large scale retail experiences.

“I visited today one of the Chinese stores of the Oriental Group in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. A truly amazing experience, showing that the Chinese are becoming mainstream in a rather unexpected way. I knew already quite some well-run Chinese stories, but this was a supermarket chain, having products also from Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asian countries. The staff was in majority Cantonese, but I noticed also Thai and Dutch staff members."

(More at can also be found at China Herald)

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For a lot of fun insight on what is going on in China, take a walk over to China Machete.

I started to focus on one particular post about a well endowed television show host who seems to have gotten sacked for the appearance of nipple, but there are a bunch of good posts: everything from the lack of adequate aircraft in the Chinese military (PLA), to whether it is seemly for IRC's (interracial couples) to be smooching in public. Particularly interesting is a piece (from April) on Australia's Mandaran speaking prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is proving a big hit among the Chinese population.

One can only imagine what having an American president with such fluency might do on the world stage, but the majority of politicians here speak politics, mostly and unfortunately.

And here, a quote from the least important item:

As a shallow man, I can admit that one of the few pleasures the movie report gave me was having a perv on Jingwei’s giant knockers. I have always been rather curious about the story behind these knockers – judging by the slenderness of Jingwei’s legs, she is skinny like her co-host. I wonder whether some plastic surgery may have come into play. Being well aware of Jingwei’s assets, I am bewildered about why she decided not to wear a bra before going on air.

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And finally, did you know that UPS has its Asian logistics hub in China? Well now you do, and you can read it here. This represents a loss for the Phillippines and the hub at the former Clark Air Force base.

This is not new news, but it's important, representing increases in, and the importance of, inter-Asian trade.