Showing posts with label Bill Dodson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Dodson. Show all posts

Friday, March 16, 2012

New controls on wind and solar power - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Premier Wen Jiabao spelled out China's new energy initiatives during the meeting of the National Power Congress. Energy specialist Bill Dodson summarizes on his weblog strict control of wind and solar power, and the resumption of approvals of nuclear power projects.

Bill Dodson:
During the 2012 session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Premiere Wen Jiaobao presented a government work report on China’ energy plan. The annual NPC session was held at the beginning of March. The report stresses the need for China to curb uncontrolled expansion in sectors such as solar energy and wind power. Qian Zhimin, NPC deputy and the deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA), cited that government policy would slow overheated development in PV glass and wind power equipment manufacturing, among others. 
China’s solar PV industry exploded to more than 500 enterprises in 2011 from less than 100 in 2008. PV makers relied on old and traditional methods of production. They paid little attention to R&D. As a result, the market became saturated with homogenized products. Overcapacity and oversupply block the industry’s healthy development. 
Premier Wen said in his government work report that China will develop nuclear power safely and effectively. Zhu Zhiyuan, NPC deputy and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Branch, said the report implies the Chinese government will resume the normal development of nuclear electricity, according to .  
NPC deputy and general manager of China Nuclear Engineering Group Corp (CNEC), Mu Zhanying, added that China is very likely to resume approvals of new nuclear power projects in the first half of 2012, once the government releases the country’s nuclear safety plan. Mu also said that a new development target for nuclear power set by the National Energy Administration would come out in 2012. The goal will adhere to the nuclear safety plan. Mu expected new nuclear power projects to start construction in 2012. 
The original nuclear power plan targets that more than 70 nuclear power reactors in operation in 2020. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) sees nuclear power accounting for 5 per cent of the country’s total capacity by that time.
Original from EnergySector.com

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Thursday, March 08, 2012

Doing a Foxconn - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Suicide in China has now been linked to the poor working condition at Apple supplier Foxconn. But, as China veteran Bill Dodson discovers at a plant a Suzhou, love might destroy also the lives of workers. From his weblog:

Bill Dodson:
The attempted suicide in his factory comes on the heels of two suicides just a couple weeks before at a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province
“Boy trouble?” I asked. My friend nodded in agreement. “I think so. These young people just can’t cope with disappointment,” he observed. “Now we’re probably going to have to put up nets around the building and bar the windows, just like Foxconn,” he said despairingly.

I know the manager had prided himself on creating a working environment in whcih people for the most part enjoyed coming to work. Changes to prevent suicides would only create a prison-like atmosphere, of course. Still, managing suicides as commentary on the conditions of worker environments or their love lives seems a permanent fixture of doing business in China.
More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Friday, March 02, 2012

Drinking English tea in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Getting a cup of Whittards English tea in Suzhou, China, seems like an surprising experience. China veteran Bill Dodson explains on his weblog why foreign products like tea might have a chance in this tea drinking nation.

Bill Dodson:
With the popular concern domestic consumers have about the integrity of foodstuffs grown and sold in China – including tea – international sellers have a window of opportunity to make inroads into the country with quality tea products. Once local vendors clean up their act, though, they’ll be doing their best to replicate the English tea experience. 
Whittards of Chelsea is a famous English tea house and shop that for 125 years has been selling select teas, coffees and porcelain (china) to discriminating customers. According to the website of its Shanghai shop, “It offers more than 30 kinds of house teas, over 80 types of specialty teas, and around 40 varieties of fruit and herbal caffeine-free blends.” Increasingly affluent Chinese love that sort of product... 
The waitress passed us heavy menus. The young woman was dressed in a simple frock of floral design and wore a small cap that reminded of engravings of the bar maids of yore. I perused the generously illustrated menu. It was stocked full of teas from around the world. There were even some Chinese teas. 
My companion asked me to order; she was already keenly aware of my enthusiasm for infusions. I ordered a pot of Earl Gray with oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot oranges grown in India. I looked around at the customers buzzing with light caffeine highs. 
Every table was full in the place. 95-percent of the customers were women in their 30s. They dressed well, though not splendidly; at least, they were not the Gucci crowd. They clearly had disposable incomes and time to spare – likely husbands who worked at good jobs, not necessarily executive level. 
My associate told me the place was popular with young people who were open to new experiences. And the price was right: for just over 100 rmb the polite and attentive waitress delivered us a strong pot of Earl Gray (no re-fills) and a three-tiered platter of finger sandwiches, tarts and biscuits, all freshly made.
More on his tea drinking experience in Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

New, smarter trends in raising children - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Raising children in China has been cause for concern, because of tough parental and educational traditions, making kids' lives to a hell, especially when you are not outstanding. But China watcher and father Bill Dodson sees - here on his weblog - also some positieve trends.

Bill Dodson
Mimi’s ten year old son is – how to put it delicately – average. Of course, to his mother, he’s precious; but to his teachers at school his scores are abysmally second-rate – and therefore he is second-rate, too. Mimi is a very mature and dignified manager of a foreign firm with offices in China. She is in her mid-thirties. Mimi sees her ten year old son suffering within an education system that emphasizes rote learning and endless memorization over creativity and initiative. 
Her son developed a low opinion of himself, as a result. Mimi explained to me, “Chinese people at an individual level do not really know what they want. Their entire lives they are told what to think, what to say, what to desire.” Last year, though, Mimi decided to get to the bottom of herself., of her own values and desires. 
For several months Mimi has been attending an evening program led by a Chinese woman that helps parents re-evaluate their lives, learn what’s really important to them, and basically realize there’s more to their lives than meeting the expectations of others. About sixty adults participate in the program, she told me. During the late winter last year she took her son to a camp on the island of Hainan where mother and son could get to know each other better and he could explore parts of his personality and expression he never knew he had.
More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Shanghai's focus on clean energy - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Shanghai municipality has published plans to reduce non-fossil energy sources dramatically over the next five years, writes energy specialist Bill Dodson on his weblog. Reducing the usage of coal is high on Shanghai's energy Plan.

Bill Dodson:
The Plan cited that by 2015, three offshore wind farms (East Sea Bridge, Lin Port and Old Port) will be established or extended. Shanghai plans to achieve one-gigawatt of wind power capacity by 2015. 
Solar energy development will prioritize establishing “Golden Sun” demonstration projects and roof solar energy demonstration applications in industrial zones, including: Waibaoqiao, Old Port, or Chenjia Town, newly built districts, and large public buildings. The plan projects a total capacity of 150 megawatts met by 2015. 
Biomass energy development will be combined with waste treatment. The construction of biomass demonstration power plants in the Chongming, Songjiang, Fenxian and Old Port districts are on the drawing board. 
The plan includes the development of several incineration plants. The newly-added capacity will contribute 200-megawatts to Shanghai’s energy portfolio. Shanghai’s energy plan offers the development of Chongming into a national green-energy demonstration town and adding a new-energy plant with an installed capacity of 300 to 400-megawatts.
More on Bill Dodson's weblog on energy in China.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Bill Dodson's work on China's economy at Storify.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Local governments more eager to clean up their pollution - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Protests and other bad public relations force local governments increasingly to clean up sources of pollution, writes energy expert Bill Dodson in his cleantech website.  Foreign companies have here great opportunities when they play their cards right.

Bill Dodson:
During mid-2011 the central government designated 4.75 billion yuan (about US$700 million) in subsidies to establish 100 counties as green energy demonstration zones during 2011-15. By 2008 the government had already identified 50 national sustainable development experimental areas and over 100 provincial sustainable development experimental areas. Commensurate with the status is the extent to which cleantech production in the areas is actually “clean”; that is, in which any toxic waste production created is adequately recycled and managed. 
If the waste must be stored, citizens are increasingly holding local authorities responsible for ensuring storage is safe and secure from leakage into surrounding soil and water sources. The most prominent experimental areas have been working to make themselves centers of excellence in cleantech production, and polishing green environment badges of honor... 
Foreign investors that apply their waste disposal or recycling technologies to bear in these designated areas may be able to kick-start their operations in China more quickly than if they randomly target potential buyers throughout the country. Chinese operations are under duress to invest in state-of-the art waste management technologies only to the extent their local governments feel the heat of higher-level officialdom; or, less often, to the extent to which the companies want to develop global brands that differentiate them from the pack in China. 
Global branding of cleantech requires the image of end-to-end application of maintaining environmental integrity in the manufacture of their products. Most Chinese companies, however, still see investments in proper waste disposal or recycling as a balance sheet liability they would prefer to leave to future generations to pay. Foreign suppliers who have local governments on their side find it easier to persuade such companies to adopt more efficient and effective waste management technologies.
Much more at the China Energy sector.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Bill Dodson and doing business in China at Storify.
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The property industry is booming like crazy - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Many media report China's property industry is collapsing and heading for a rough landing. That is not what business analyst Bill Dodson sees on the ground. On his weblog he reports how construction actually went crazy over the past month.

Bill Dodson:
The past month here on the ground in the Yangtze River Delta has seen activity that runs counter to macroeconomic measures in the property development sector. By all accounts, construction sites are supposed to be grinding to a halt and new projects deferred indefinitely. Instead, what I and Western friends are seeing is an acceleration of construction activity. 
Where for the last two years we’ve only had to bear incessant noise, dirt and dust from sunrise to sunset, now we are hearing construction activity 24/7 the past three weeks (whenever I became conscious in the shift of pace of construction). And new development projects are continuing to sprout up around us in a region that theoretically is economically mature. It seems a near-impossibility to escape the din of construction machines punching the ground or stamping steel or crunching concrete... 
We’re not entirely sure of why construction activity has accelerated recently; however, we’re sure it has to do as much with uncertainty about what the government will do next with the property sector as much as uncertainty about the Chinese economy in general. Some of the questions likely at the forefront of the minds of developers include: will the government end bank loans to developers completely at the end of the year? will they end all construction projects for and indefinite period of time? and will they be able to find buyers for their residential projects and renters for their office property? 
One thing, however, is certain: the accelerated pace of construction does not fill me with any greater sense of security in the integrity of the finished structures.
More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

More links for Bill Dodson at Storify

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Building bridges on garbage - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Quality is an ongoing problem in China, and business veteran Bill Dodson reports on his weblog about the habit of filling railway bridges not with concrete, but with trash. Old habit die hard, he sights.

Bill Dodson:
I wrote about this sort of padding two years ago in an article for CHaINA magazine, when there was a rash of bridge collapses. Though officials were censured and construction companies fined, seems old habits die hard. Of course, the last thing the nation’s leaders need is for this to be found on their coveted high-speed railway. 
Nevertheless, the company responsible for the garbage bridges, China Railway Material Commercial is pushing ahead with a Rmb14.7 billion ($2.3 billion) IPO in Shanghai. 
A migrant worker who helped build the bridges said to Chinese media, “I wouldn’t dare to take the train once it’s finished.” 
A wise man indeed.
More on Bill Dodson's weblog

More on Bill Dodson and China's economy at Storify.


Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
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Monday, November 14, 2011

The poor state of China's animation industry - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
China's animation industry has trying to promote itself on the international market, writes business veteran Bill Dodson on his weblog. But they gain mostly domestic customers, as quality does not meet international expectations.

Bill Dodson:
Now that I have a toddler of my own I find myself flicking through local Chinese TV stations to find children’s programming that’s interesting for ME to watch. It doesn’t exist – at least, the stuff that’s domestically made. It’s all South-Park style animation – flat, basic shapes put together with citrus-sliced smiles. South Park animators, though, draw their characters with affect. Chinese domestic animators, I think, don’t have the budgets or the delivery schedules or the skills or the technology or the patience to produce Japanese-style animations (anime). I think the best Chinese animators are working for the gaming industry, where they can copy World of Warcraft and other popular universes. 
Of course, salary inflation in China and salary deflation in the West have rebalanced the flow of animation work, dealing a blow not just to animation as a services outsourcing industry, but also to software application development, back office administration and other long-distance support services. 
Seeing Chinese services outsourcing for international customers on the same scale as Indian-style platforms is as likely as seeing a well-drawn children’s animated feature come out of China with international appeal. A very long shot at best.
More on Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch, or fill in our speakers' request form.

More links to Bill Dodson on Storify
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Rising costs forces Chinese factories to streamline - Bill Dodson

As costs for resources, including wages, are on the way up in China, its manufacturers have to streamline their manufacturing processes, where in the past they would waste resources. Business analyst Bill Dodson quotes a friend describing the changes in his weblog.

Bill Dodson:
The Chinese owners of the factories in China are beginning to reign in waste in their production processes. “Before, if they screwed up an order they’d just call in another hundred bodies for pennies, have them work overnight to remedy the situation, then let them go,” he told me. “Now,” he explained, “pay rates have gotten more expensive, material inputs are more expensive, and there’s not as much business to go around. So Chinese owners are beginning to look at how to improve their processes, get the orders right the first time the most efficiently they can. That’s another reason why some of them are looking into or investing in robots to do some parts of the job. Fewer errors.” 
The former plant manager put the change into context for me. “It was the same in Britain in the sixties. We wasted a lot of material, made a lot of mistakes. Then, in the seventies, everything began getting more expensive to manufacture. We cleaned up our lines, our processes. Things like Total Quality and Lean Manufacturing came along. It’s a natural process. China’s not special in that way,” he added.
More in Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Building too fast in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Author Bill Dodson takes the no.10 subway in Shanghai several times per week and just missed the collision yesterday. An annus horribilis for China's infrastructure, he sights on his weblog. But taking the bicycle in stead of the train is no longer an option.

Bill Dodson:
This has been an annus horribilis for China infrastructure. This year has seen wind turbines blowing up, bridges falling down, bullet trains crashing into one another and, most recently, a terrible accident on a Shanghai subway line I take several times a week. On hearing the news about the Shanghai accident my (Chinese) wife simply shook her head and said, “Everyone knows they’re building things too fast.” She told me of a program she had seen on Chinese national television in which engineers echoed the same sentiment. “I don’t want you to take the bullet train to Shanghai,” she said quickly, “and I don’t want you riding the subway in Shanghai, either. Ride your bicycle!” Of course, that’s hardly feasible with a 150 km to cover between Suzhou and Shanghai; leave alone the thought of navigating Shanghai traffic on a bicycle.”
More on Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Fast internet key for innovation in China - Bill Dodson

Author Bill Dodson muses in his hot pot podcast whether real innovation in China is possible when the internet has the slowest possible speed and keeps information away from the people who need it. He believes the censored internet curtails innovation.

 Here you can listen to his podcast.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Thursday, September 01, 2011

Dam-story censored by China Daily - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Foreign experts can have their say, now and then, in China's state-owned media. But then you should not writes about its dams, discovered energy specialist Bill Dodson when asked to write for the China Daily, HK edition, he reports in his weblog. Bill Dodson gave in.
The Hong Kong edition of The China Daily recently invited me to contribute an article about China’s renewable energy development trends and the country’s relationship with southeast Asia. So I wrote about all the dams China is building in the south, southwest and west of the country it’s neighbors are unhappy with.The editor didn’t like the story. It might be Hong Kong, I was told, but it’s orbit is very close to Beijing’s, after all. So I wrote another story, about how the subsidies for solar power in China will lead to even more (over-)production that will drive down the costs of photovoltaic technologies even further – a natural for archipelago nations like Indonesia, which have islands of people unable to hook into a national grid.
More in Bill Dodson's weblog Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

An energy shortage is more than a shortage - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Author and energy expert Bill Dodson explains for NPR why China's energy shortage mean much more than just a shortage. Why is the government selling power so cheap? NPR:
Bill Dodson is the chief editor of ChinaEnergySector.com and author of the book: "China Inside Out." Dodson says there's more to this energy shortage than, well, a shortage. China's power companies buy coal at market rates. But China's government forces them to sell power to consumers at artificially low prices -- prices that don't cover their costs. So they just turn the power off. Why does China's government insist these companies sell power at bargain basement prices? Dodson says there are three reasons. DODSON: Social stability, social stability, and social stability. So if energy becomes more expensive than consumers are comfortable with paying, they will actually protest. They will come out onto the streets. And that really is one of the last things the central government wants.
More at NPR's marketplace. Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Monday, August 29, 2011

How to put a brake on society? - Bill Dodson

China's railway autorities might have symbolically reduced the speed of fast trains after the Wenzhou train crash, but - wonders author Bill Dodson in his weblog - why is it so hard to slow down society when things go into the wrong direction? From his weblog:
Chinese society – or rather, Chinese people – are still impatiently slamming up high rises like there is no tomorrow, driving recklessly through increasingly congested roadways, and flipping properties like a cook making pancakes on a Sunday at a crowded Iowa diner. Conversations in tea houses and coffee houses  and restaurants are about business – or about money. Never have I heard between sips of lattes by women in vertigo-inducing pumps or men toting man-bags a philosophical discussion about the state of the State or a hearty debate about the direction in which the society is going. It’s all about money: where to find it; how to get it; how to show it off. China is still in the fast lane, with little inclination to slow down.
More in Bill Dodson's weblog. Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The emerging naked marriages - Bill Dodson

BD_Casual2v2revBill DodsonCelebrity author Bill Dodson tells on his weblog how 'naked marriages', without lavish banquets, bells and whistles, are on the rise in China. Love is most that matters, despite parental pressures.

After I had delivered a book talk (about China Inside Out ) to about 60 members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai a young Chinese lady approached me and said, “I’m having a Naked Marriage”. She seemed confessional, as though she was committing some great sin in the eyes of the Almighty. I had been telling the group – which was eighty percent Westerners – about how the inflated values of everything from property through weddings and even wedding rings were blocking young Chinese couples from fulfilling social wishes for a grand send up to matrimony. “Naked weddings” saw couples basically living together, marriage certificate in hand and that’s about it: no property, no dowry, no wedding ring, no wedding banquet (gasp!). Half-naked weddings at least net the girl a wedding ring.
The young lady at the BritCham talk told me that both she and her lad were professionals working in Shanghai and that together they could not afford to buy a flat. She was from Wuhan, where her family still lived. Her parents didn’t like her suitor, who was from Harbin. He didn’t have any money, they said. Apparently, the young fellow’s parents didn’t much like her, either; I supposed they figured their son should be marrying into money there in Shanghai. She told her father she wanted to marry for love.
He told her, “You’re being unrealistic”.
More in Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

On a shoddy construction industry - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
There are many stories on shoddy constructions build in China. Celebrity author Bill Dodson tells on his weblog some inside stories on how business is done in the construction industry, and why things go wrong. The case of his friend Ralf.
Ralph himself finds a colored plastic bag of money on his desk once a week. Business has been good in the city in which the company builds, and he is steadily taking on more responsibility, so the contents of the bag are growing. I’m not really sure if Ralph deposits the money in a bank account or not. Ralph has four bosses, none of whom do much more than smoke cigarettes in their offices, drink tea with friends who pass buy, and drive home and back to work in their BMWs and Mercedes. Ralph is sure the manager to whom he most directly reports is illiterate. He has to go to great lengths to explain documents and spreadsheets to the boss, who is in his late fifties and filthy rich. For the most part Ralph – a high-energy, Type-A soul – enjoys the work. He gets to bash heads together to get things done and his bosses like him. The local government likes him, too, because he is good with working with the Western customers the local government enticed to the area and manages their high expectations for transparency, accountability and transparency of operations. Not all Ralph’s challenges involve people, though. His most recent adventure involved the walls and ceiling of the offices in which he worked literally melting in the torrential rains we’ve been having here in the Yangtze River Delta. I can only suppose the construction company did not mix the cement well enough or did not allow it to set or some other technical reason I have no clue about. Still, the incident does make one wonder about the rest of the structures the construction industry here in China has built in such a money-soaked frenzy. Just how built-to-last is modern Chinese society?
More on Bill Dodson's weblog. Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Friday, August 05, 2011

Corruption and executions in Suzhou - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson
Suzhou resident Bill Dodson talks about the executing of his corrupt vice-mayor to Paul French of the Ethical Corporation in a podcast. Local debts are becoming a liability and local officials paying with their lives. A look behind China's corrupt economy.

Two high profile executions of the former mayor of Hangzhou and a vice-mayor of Suzhou triggers off speculations on what might behind those high-level capital punishments at a local level. Bill Dodson expects that the attention for the problem of local debts - some of the earlier ones after the first global crisis started - are due very soon.

"It is a signal to local officials," Bill Dodson says. Also, the upcoming change in government in 2012 triggers off internal struggles where communist officials have to rally behind certain issues and leaders, well ahead of the transition.

You can listen to the podcast at the Ethical Corporation

Both Bill Dodson and Paul French are speaker on the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need them at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch. 
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Friday, July 29, 2011

Party arrogance, worn thin - Bill Dodson


Prime-minister Wen Jiabao claimed an 11-day illness to explain why it took him so long to pay respect to the victims of the Wenzhou train crash. But always vigilant internet users noted Wen a day after the crash on official business, notes author Bill Dodson, who analyzes on his weblog the credibility crisis for the communist party.
The sophistication of Chinese users in the use of digital communications technology has matured beyond the online petitions that marked the melamine poisoning disaster, just after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when milk laced with a cousin of plastic was fatal to a dozen children in China and harmed scores more.

This time really is different, with Weibo tweets and blogs and editors of online newspapers combining their efforts to make a concerted attack on the high-handedness and opacity with which the CPC has been operating for decades. Now, though, the “trust me I know what I’m doing and you’re just along for the ride” arrogance of the Party has worn thin as even the man on the street seems to be questioning whether China’s infrastructure development pace is too fast.

In China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World, Chapter 1, I write extensively about the use of the internet in China to flush out abuse of power in the government. This time, though, government censors seem to be on the side of the citizens. Chinese users are still criticizing, tweeting, blogging and investigating with abandon.
More at Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Friday, July 22, 2011

Breasts: big business in China - Bill Dodson

Photo of Rhinoplasty Nose Surgery Cosmetic Sur...Image via WikipediaPlastic surgery on women is booming, together with the wealth of the Chinese consumers. On his weblog China watcher Bill Dodson reports about this wife's visit to a clinic, with queues outside the building, together with their parents, paying for the operation.
“They’re paying for their daughters to have surgery on their faces?”

“And breasts,” she added.

“And breasts.” I could feel a rush of testosterone weaken my knees at the prospect. (Men are such simple animals).

“The parents believe if their daughters are more beautiful they can catch a boyfriend with more money.” Of course, “boyfriend” in China nearly always means “fiancee”. Doesn’t take more than a couple dates to seal the deal. I imagine, as well, a pretty face and shapely figure don’t hurt job prospects, either; especially if one looks at job qualifications for airline attendants, bullet train attendants and secretaries.

The Straits Times reported in January this year about the Chinese cosmetic surgery industry, “About 3 million people had plastic surgery on the mainland in 2010 in an industry worth an annual 15 billion yuan (S$2.9 billion), statistics from the MOH [Ministry of Health] showed. There were also 20,000 lawsuits against clinics in China in 2010 for botched jobs and “lopsided” results.

My wife figures that about 90% of young girls in Suzhou have had plastic surgery of one sort or another. I think her estimate is rather high, though I am amazed at the rapid growth rate in pretty girls with busts locally – where there had been very few of both just a few years ago.

Or maybe, it’s just that Chinese women are drinking more milk and wearing more makeup.


Bill Dodson
More on his weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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