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+ - Alibaba Face Off With Chinese Regulator Over Fake Products->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce on Wednesday issued a scathing report against one of the country's biggest stars, accusing e-commerce giant Alibaba of failing to do enough to prevent fake goods from being sold on its websites. SAIC said Alibaba allowed "illegal advertising" that misled consumers with false claims about low prices and other details. It claims some Alibaba employees took bribes and the company failed to deal effectively with fraud. Alibaba fired back with charges of bias and misconduct by accusing the SAIC official in charge of Internet monitoring, Liu Hongliang, of unspecified "procedural misconduct" and warned it will file a formal complaint. Such public defiance is almost unheard of in China. Apparently, Alibaba has long attained the too big to fail status."
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+ - China opens door for full foreign ownership of e-commerce companies->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "Shanghai's Free Trade Zone entered a new dimension of economic reform on 14 January, allowing foreign investors to fully own e-commerce companies, according to Chinese state-owned media Xinhua News Agency. Previously, foreign investors originally needed a Chinese partner to break into the online shopping market, and were only allowed to have a maximum of 55 percent stake. Currently, the zone, set to be replicated in three other cities, is home to more than 12,000 companies, including 1,677 foreign-funded firms. The Chinese e-retail market is lucrative, with 330 million online shoppers and a trade volume of 5.66 trillion yuan ($910 billion) in the first half of 2014."
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Comment: Re:China has to buy US bonds ... (Score 1) 265

by hackingbear (#48663679) Attached to: Serious Economic Crisis Looms In Russia, China May Help

They mangage/manipulate their currency so that there is effectively a huge discount to all products and services in China.

That's a myth as pointed out in my summary. Back in early 1990's the official rate was something like 1 USD to 3 RMB but the black market rate was 1:8. Nobody would bring their USDs to the bank to get Yuan; instead they all found black market source to get more Yuan. Eventually, the Chinese government realized they couldn't pop up the Yuan and so let it fall to the black market rate. Currently, the black market rate is the same as the official rate. If it is really undervalued, I would think the black market would reflect that. In China, always look at the black market first.

+ - China Vows to Help Russia, Aiming at World Dominance->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "Two Chinese ministers offered support for Russia as President Vladimir Putin seeks to shore up the plummeting ruble without depleting foreign-exchange reserves which is already the largest in the world. Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said expanding a currency swap between the two nations and making increased use of yuan for bilateral trade would have the greatest impact in aiding Russia. Western governments and experts have been criticizing China for restricting exchange and suppressing the value of its currency, even though anyone who lived in China during the 1990's knew that the value of Yuan was cut to align the same as in the (vibrant) black market that is still thriving. But as grandma has warned us, be careful of what we wish for. China has recently greatly sped up the relaxation of currency exchange and is promoting the yuan as an alternative to the dollar for global trade and finance and has signed currency-swap agreements with 28 other central banks to encourage this. Once accomplished, back by China's growing military might, Renminbi would be a formidable competitor to U.S. Dollar and which means U.S. wouldn't borrow almost freely from the world and our state of finance would be like that of Greece."
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+ - China Plans Superheavy Rocket, Ups Reliability->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "China is conducting preliminary research on a super-heavy launch vehicle that will be used in its manned missions to the moon. Liang Xiaohong, deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, disclosed that the Long March-9 is planned to have a maximum payload of 130 tons and its first launch will take place around 2028, comparable to US's SLS Block II in terms of capability and likely beating its schedule. The China National Space Administration has started preliminary research for the Mars exploration program and is persuading the government to include the project into the country's space agenda, according to Tian Yulong, secretary-general of the administration. Separately, China's Long March series of rocket has completed the 200th flight on Dec 7. It took 37 years to complete the first 100 flights but only 7 years for the second 100 flights. In addition, it claims (link in Chinese) a success rate of 98%, on par with EU's and beating US's 97% and Russia's 93% success rates."
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+ - Chinese CEO Said Free Is the Right Price for Mobile Software->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "Sheng Fu, CEO of Cheetah Mobile, a public Chinese mobile software company you probably haven't heard of but have top downloaded products in Android markets around the world, said that the intense competition of the Chinese market leads to products that can compete globally. There are so many recent university graduates working in tech, all with their startups looking to find their place in the market, he said. Chinese companies saw the impact that piracy played in the PC software era, and China’s mobile companies grew up knowing they would need to make money without getting consumers to open their wallets. “Chinese companies are so good at making free but high-quality products,” he said. Sounds like we have a good race to the bottom."
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+ - Alibaba Turned 1111 Into $$$$->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "Bummed that you're home alone on date night, or stuck in your mom's basement, yet again? Don't worry. A new gadget or some scuba gear could help. Observed on November 11 — or "11.11," for the date with the most 1s — Singles Day, which started out as a joke among a group of male college students attending Nanjing University in the 1990s, has become the world's biggest online shopping day, thanks to the e-commerce prowess of China's Alibaba Group, which on this day last year, sold twice what all US companies sold on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. This year, Alibaba has decided to take its 11.11 promotions worldwide, highlighting global brands including online jewelry store Blue Nile, clothing brand Juicy Couture, and even Costco. Amazon has tried to get a piece of the action. The Seattle-based company launched promotions for the holiday last year on its Chinese site, and it's done so again this year."
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+ - China To Merge High-Speed Train Makers to Cut Competition->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "China has two high-speed train makers, the China Northern Railcar Corp. (CNR) and China Southern Railcar Corp. (CSR). Despite both being state-owned companies, the two are really competing with each other in the international high-speed train market, undercutting prices. Now, the Chinese government is set to fix that by asking the two to merge. Such a deal also would raise questions about China’s determination to enforce monopoly laws that have been under a microscope in recent months as foreign companies including dairy makers, car makers including Volkswagen AG ’s Audi and technology companies Microsoft Corp. and Qualcomm Corp. have been investigated by antitrust authorities. However, as we haven't been complaining about China's ow prices hurting our business, shouldn't China raising the price be good for other train makers?"
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+ - China Bans "Human Fresh Searching"-> 1

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "The Supreme People’s Court, China's top court, has outlined the liabilities of network service providers in a document on the handling of online personal rights violation cases. “Rights violators usually hide in the dark online. They post harmful information out of the blue, and victims just can’t be certain whom they should accuse when they want to bring the case to court,” said Yao Hui, a senior SPC judge specializing in civil cases. Those re-posting content that violates others’ rights and interests will also answer for their actions, and their liability will be determined based on the consequences of their posts, the online influence of re-posters, and whether they make untruthful changes to content that mislead. This essentially tries to ban the so-called human flesh searching. Though this does not stop others from using the chance to highlight the country's censorship problems even though the rulings seem to focus on personal privacy protection."
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+ - Dramatic Shifts in Manufacturing Costs Are Driving Companies to US, Mexico->

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear (988354) writes "According to the new Boston Consulting Group Global Manufacturing Cost-Competitiveness Index, the often perceived as low-cost manufacturing nations — such as China, Brazil, Russia, and the Czech Republic — are no longer much cheaper than the U.S. In some cases, they are estimated to be even more expensive. Chinese manufacturing wages have nearly quintupled since 2004, while Mexican wages have risen by less than 50 percent in U.S. dollar terms, contrary to our long-standing misconception that their labors were being slaved. In the same period, the U.S. wage is essentially flat, whereas Mexican wages have risen only 67%. Not all countries are taking full advantage of their low-cost advantages, however. The report found that global competiveness in manufacturing is undermined in nations such as India and Indonesia by several factors, including logistics, the overall ease of doing business, and inflexible labor markets."
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