With their business prospects dwindling by the year – including in search (Google.cn), online video (YouTube), blogging (Blogger) all at best playing second fiddle, Google today announced that they will take off the filters from Google.cn in a “what the hell? we might as well go out swinging with head held high” blog post. Whether you think it’s brilliant, courageous and/or desperate (I think it’s some of all, with the caveat that I also want a completely free and uncensored web for everyone, everywhere), it certainly marks another milestone in this ongoing clash between one of the world’s tech darlings and China. Continue reading “Google Decides to Throw Haymaker at China”
Over the last few weeks, some people have been saying that 2000-2009 was China’s decade, including Fareed Zakaria. China’s acendency was also named the most read news story of the decade. Having spent the majority of this decade in China, all of this got me thinking – was this China’s decade?
From a personal standpoint, this was certainly China’s decade for me. I lived, got married and found a career in China this decade. I traveled to over 20 provinces, SARs and autonomous regions. I celebrated the new millennium with a few million other people in Shanghai, worked from home in Beijing during SARS, spent a week going to the Olympics, and even had a major role in a never-made-it-to-TV-because-the-plot-was-too-controversial-prime-time-soap-opera. Above all though, this was China’s decade for me because of the amazing friends that I made – all of which were helping to make China even more spectacular for me and others.
But that’s me. Other people (Chinese and expats) that have spent most or all of the last decade in China may or may not have the same feelings, or not. But I know that’s not what everyone wants to know – people want to know on a worldwide scale if this was China’s decade. Continue reading “Was This China’s Decade?”
This is Part 2 of my pre-visit thoughts on President Obama’s visit to China next week. In Part 1 I focused on issues, but here I want to talk about why I think that Obama will get a very warm welcome in China next week (despite some Chinese English publications such as this one trying to tone down his overwhelming worldwide popularity).
First of all, lets face it, Obama is cool. Most likely the coolest president ever. He’s a rock-star, etc., etc. China’s citizenry is just as susceptible to coolness as every other citizenry in the world, and if for no other reason than his coolness and his personality, Obama will be very well received. Ok, enough scientific analysis. Continue reading “Expect China’s Citizenry to Embrace Obama”
President Barack Obama will make his first trip to China as president on November 16-18, first in Shanghai and then in Beijing. He is the first president to make the trip in his first year in office, and follows on the heels of earlier meetings this year with Hu Jintao in Italy and at the United Nations. Beyond the standard US-China relations issues – human rights, Tibet, Taiwan, currency valuation (which is becoming more internationalized, see below) – Obama will also need to discuss a number of worldwide issues with his Chinese counterpart, and probably to an extent that no other US President has before. Beyond that – and although the Chinese press is trying to downplay it – the reaction that Obama will receive in China is going to be very interesting. Part 1 here will focus on the issues and in Part 2 I’ll talk about how I think Obama will be received in China and how he’ll approach Chinese domestic affairs. Continue reading “Obama in China, What to Expect – Part 1″
China Mobile announced their third quarter results yesterday, as well as one little, small tidbit of a milestone – they just passed half a billion subscribers. However, even with 508 million users and plans to have 3G networks set up in 238 cities by the end of the year, China Mobile is still facing stiff competition from both China Telecom and China Unicom, the later gearing up to launch the iPhone 3G & 3GS in Q4 (which should be a boom for content providers such as QQ). Bloomberg has more info and analysis on the results. Continue reading “China Mobile – Half a Billion Users and Counting”
