CSG news update -- 2006-08-21

[China Study Group <chinastudygroup@gmail.com>]

China Study Group news update

Foreign firms 'help drive growth
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/08/21/289661/Foreign_firms___039_help_drive_growth__039_.htm
Shanghai Daily | 2006-08-21
Allen T. Cheng
ALMOST two-thirds of China's largest manufacturers are foreign-funded companies, first among them Motorola Inc, the world's second-biggest cell-phone maker and No. 6 among all industrial companies in the world's fourth-largest economy, a report said.  Motorola had 74 billion yuan (US$9...

'Made in Vietnam' labels appearing more and more
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06232/714937-28.stm
LA Times | 2006-08-20
Don Lee
LONG THANH, Vietnam -- Check that label: "Made in China" is starting to give way to "Made in Vietnam."  Taking a page from Beijing's economic playbook, Vietnam is luring makers of shoes, garments and computer chips with tax breaks, inexpensive land and cheaper labor.  Factory wages average $...

Carlyle takeover bid stirs new debate
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/680/680p20.htm
Green Left Weekly | 2006-08-20
Eva Cheng
China's brewing debate over its rulers' aggressive denationalisation program has recently been bubbling with new heat after a Chinese private firm threatened to launch a hostile takeover in an attempt to stop the US Carlyle Group investment firm from taking over the state-owned Xugong Constr...

Less than half of top 500 China manufacturing firms are state-owned - survey
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/08/20/afx2960807.html
AFX | 2006-08-20
Less than half of the top 500 manufacturing companies in China are actually state-owned, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).  Only 220 of the biggest enterprises in the manufacturing industry are directly controlled by the state, the report said...

More to Jiang `textbook' return than meets eye
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=5&art_id=25391&sid=9386733&con_type=1&d_str=20060819&sear_year=2006
LA Times | 2006-08-19
Three years after leaving the political stage former president Jiang Zemin is back in the national spotlight. So is the famous slogan that seemed to have retired with its creator: the murky theory of the "Three Represents."  Jiang, who turned 80 Thursday, engineered his comeback through the public...

iPods supplier caught out on work practices
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=5&art_id=25390&sid=9387527&con_type=1&d_str=20060819&sear_year=2006
Bloomberg | 2006-08-19
Apple Computer said its main supplier for iPod music players in China allowed some employees to work more than 60 hours a week and disciplined workers in a way that violated Apple's code of conduct.  The manufacturing partner, Foxconn, is taking steps to correct the violations, said Apple spok...

China's Central Bank Raises Rates in Latest Effort to Slow the Economy
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/business/worldbusiness/19yuan.html
New York Times | 2006-08-19
Keith Bradsher
China's central bank raised interest rates on Friday evening, the latest in a series of moves by the government to choke off a binge in speculative lending and investment that threatens to saddle the country's banks with more bad loans if the economy slows.  The People's Bank of China ...

Wal-Mart sets up 19 trade unions in Chinese outlets
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/19/eng20060819_294782.html
Xinhua | 2006-08-19
The world's retail giant Wal-Mart has established 19 trade unions in its Chinese outlets since late July, disclosed an official of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on Friday.  "The negotiations between Wal-Mart and the ACFTU have proved fruitful. The two sides have agreed to se...

Chinese Take a Turn at Turning a Sub-Saharan Profit
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/africa/18letter.html
New York Times | 2006-08-18
Lydia Polgreen
DAKAR, Senegal, Aug. 17 — The Boulevard du Centenaire was once the preferred address of a certain class of this city's Paris-educated elite — the career civil servants, university administrators and other upper-level functionaries of the vast state bureaucracy.  These days the stre...

Wal-Mart's Union Part II
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-stern/walmarts-union-part-ii_b_27542.html
Huffington Post | 2006-08-18
Andy Stern
So let me finish my story on Wal-Mart.  The issue in China is not whether there are going to be unions in state or foreign owned companies; Wal-Mart's unionization is a signal to all multinationals that the government is no longer going to tolerate any Foreign Owned Enterprise (FOE) to ignore ...

 Wal-Mart's Union
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-stern/walmarts-union_b_27431.html
Huffington Post | 2006-08-18
Andy Stern
Well, I went to my first unionized Wal-Mart; unfortunately it had to be in China for the experience.  Three decades ago, with over 800 million people in farming and state-owned enterprises aging, China initiated a series of economic reforms. They chose to do what Russia failed to do: open itself t...

Ex-Kelon boss to be charged in accounts scam
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=22&art_id=25123&sid=9339364&con_type=1&d_str=20060816&sear_year=2006
Reuters | 2006-08-16
Mainland prosecutors have decided to indict the former chairman of Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings for his role in an accounting scandal.  Prosecutors in Foshan, Guangdong, have completed investigations and will charge Gu Chujun with falsifying financial statements, embezzlement and fraud, Xin...

Goldman deal in China passes regulatory hurdle
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=2006-08-16T125148Z_01_PEK190718_RTRIDST_0_FOOD-CHINA-GOLDMAN.XML
Reuters | 2006-08-16
A consortium led by Goldman Sachs has passed a major regulatory hurdle in its effort to buy China's biggest meat-processing firm -- a positive sign for other foreign investment deals in the country.  The Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has approved the consortium's winning...

China rejigs foreign takeover rules
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20093819-36375,00.html
The Australian | 2006-08-12
Mure Dickie
CHINA'S Ministry of Commerce yesterday published new rules on foreign takeovers of local companies designed to ensure standard treatment for acquisitions while protecting "national economic security".  The rules are part of a raft of new regulations governing overseas investors and a continuin...

China debates Carlyle-Xugong takeover
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7b1cd170-2245-11db-bc00-0000779e2340.html
Financial Times | 2006-08-02
Sundeep Tucker
Senior government officials in Beijing held an unprecedented meeting to try to break a year-long impasse over whether to approve the controversial takeover deal of a Chinese company by Carlyle Group, the US private equity firm.  The landmark three-day gathering involved bureaucrats from six depart...