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Emerging China Posts
China coming out of recession – the numbers are mind-numbing…
December 8th, 2009
I suppose it’s as if we’ve been cowering in our bunkers for the past year whilst the recession rages around us; banks collapsing, mass unemployment, consumer fear.
We’ve become used to recession.
Poor figures. Bad news.
Agreed –the past few months have shown an improvement but we all know that any recovery is fragile.
So it was with some interest that I arrived in China recently. I had heard of mass redundancies there too – millions losing jobs as factory after factory closed.
What I found was an amazing ‘can do’ attitude by everyone. Yes – the recession had been tough but it was the fault of the US and UK, not Asia, it was explained to me.
In one meeting I had, I was told that the company, a major power in retailing globally, had decided to turn its attention away from the West and to China, which is where the future lay.
Open the South China Morning Post and the numbers are mind-numbing; it stated that growth in mainland China’s industrial and retail output accelerated last month. Industrial production, which accounts for over 40% of China’s economic output, rose 16.1% in October, up from September’s 13.3%. Annual growth would meet the 8% target.
Gordon Brown would be a permanent fixed grin if that was the case in the UK.
Retail sales were up over 16% too, in a sign that the Chinese are shopping again. Looking at the shopping malls and restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing, they certainly are.
Cynics would say that the numbers are massaged. Maybe that’s the case, but I have no doubt that this country is growing rapidly once more. Vehicle sales were up 72% on 2008, with sales of 1.22 million units for October alone. 30 years ago only senior government employees or the very rich owned a car at all.
This is the market of tomorrow. And if there is a wider post recession trend, then it is the rise and rise of Asia.
I for one will be spending more time developing this massive potential over the coming year.
As Obama arrives, I leave. It’s all go in Shanghai
November 26th, 2009
Last Sunday I was in Shanghai airport on my way to Hong Kong, sipping a beer, waiting for my flight to be called. At the same time, Barack Obama was due to arrive, at the start of a 3 day Presidential visit of China.
Shanghai is an extraordinary place – one of the biggest cities in the world, thriving and buzzing. The commercial centre of Mainland China.
Obama – loved with almost saint-live reverence outside his own country, represents so much to the Chinese people.
The ability of the underdog to win
Freedom to all
Self expression
Equal rights.
I was therefore shocked (but sadly not surprised) to learn how so much of Obama’s visit was censored by the Chinese authorities.
Obama went to a local college the following day in Shanghai and spoke about the importance of freedom and equality. This was on the news the following day in Hong Kong and other countries, but not in Mainland China, where it had been censored out of the news.
It simply hadn’t happened.
Ask a young Chinese what they can and can’t do and it will be a shock to you and I.
• Facebook banned
• Twitter banned
• Heavily censored internet coverage and website access
• No BBC
• Permission denied to travel in parts of the country or the same city
• Only government approved Western films allowed
Plus many other restrictions you and I would take for granted.
This country has a long way to go. Of course I respect all cultural differences but the Chinese system is one of flexible communism – an entrepreneurial spirit but of total control.
It won’t be long before we all see a strong Chinese global brand
October 29th, 2009
I have been going to China for many years.
When I first went there were rickshaws everywhere, most people wore bamboo hats and parents would point to me and tell their children – ‘look – a bignose’ (I was told at the time that this is what Westerners were referred to as we have much bigger noses than the Chinese). The villages were surrounded by paddy fields, with farmers standing bare-foot in ankle-deep water, trousers rolled up.
Then a few years later I noticed a massive change. Where once there was a small village at the border with Hong Kong, a city mushroomed out of the fields and Shenzhen was born.
In Panyu, we built a new clothing factory with 5000 workers. Within 2 years Panyu had changed from being a town to becoming Panyu City of over 3 million. The mountain I had seen on my last visit was no longer there. ‘We have removed it’. I was proudly told.
And then just before the 2008 Olympic Games I was in Beijing, and for most parts it could have been a western city. The rickshaws of the past were long gone, now replaced by BMW’s and Mercedes, as the skyscrapers towered over the city skyline.
But China is a fascinating place, if not for its pace of change and innovation. I have never seen such an entrepreneurial spirit and this convinces me of one thing.
I confidently predict that China will soon develop a global brand that will become the envy of the world.
In my childhood I remember seeing electronic goods marked ‘Made in Japan’ which we would patronising refer to as ‘Jap crap’. Well the Japanese learned quickly, and the ‘Jap crap’ are now global brands such as Toyota, Sony and Honda.
China will take up the baton very soon.