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Mark R. Schlarbaum thinks China's economy just fine

Alibaba thinks China’s economy is just fine

This is why Alibaba thinks China’s economy is going to be just fine

The story around China for the last year or so has been the incredibly painful shift from an economy based on infrastructure investment to consumer spending.

To put it mildly, it hasn’t been pretty so far.

A centerpiece of this transition to the consumer-based “new China” has been online retail behemoth Alibaba.

The company reported earnings on Thursday and during the analyst call executives laid out their bullish argument for China and their company.

“China is still one of the fastest growing economies in the world and we have no reason to think anything different in the foreseeable future,” said executive vice chairman Chung Tsai. “We are witnessing two significant trends consistent with Chinese government reforms that provide the secular drivers to Alibaba’s business.”

These trends, as Tsai sees them, are:

Consumption-driven growth is clearly more sustainable and this plays to the strength of Alibaba with more than 400 million Chinese consumers shopping on Alibaba’s platforms.
China’s manufacturing sector lost jobs in 2014 but the service sector added 17 million jobs. Job growth is taking place and it is driven by the services economy. People now have more employment opportunities in technology, commerce, logistics, entertainment, leisure, travel and finance.
Additionally, Tsai underscored the pace at which consumer spending is picking up.

“First, consumer retail sales in China grew 10.7% in 2015; and second, and largely because of Alibaba, online penetration of retail grew from 10.6% in 2014 to 12.9% in 2015,” he said. “Taken together, these two factors help drive 30% year-on-year [gross merchandise volume] growth on our China retail marketplaces in calendar 2015.”

The company came in at $5.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. Additionally, the company said GMV, the total value of transactions made on the platform, grew 23% year over year to $149 billion.

While the company is certainly not without controversy, these numbers are impressive and indicate some strength from Chinese shoppers.

The company’s potential is also in unlocking the purchasing power of even more consumers, such those living in China’s rural hinterlands. Currently, most shopping is done in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but Alibaba and others are trying to unlock the buying power of rural workers.

For Alibaba, this also is a unique opportunity because many rural areas do not have brick-and-mortar stores and will almost necessarily be more reliant on online orders. However, according to estimates, only around 50% of Chinese consumers have the internet.

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Mark Schlarbaum

MARK SCHLARBAUM - Experienced in China - US business partnerships. Never giving up for those that never stop fighting! Help me join the fight against blood cancer and reach my fundraising goal! Visit My Fund Raising Page

China’s coolest grandpa

China’s coolest grandpa: farmer, 85, catapulted to fashion fame

Tom Phillips in Beijing

Ding Bingcai, who survived famine, civil war and revolution, perfects suit and fedora look thanks to grandson

An elderly Chinese farmer who has lived through famine, civil war, revolution and one of the greatest economic booms in history has spoken of his delight at becoming an unlikely international fashion icon in his twilight years.

Ding Bingcai, 85, was catapulted into the headlines last month after his photographer grandson, Ding Guoliang, 30, made him the star of a fashion shoot for which he donned green, blue and mulberry suits, tartan bow ties, designer glasses and fedoras.

Photographs of the dapper grandfather-of-10 – who had never before worn a suit – quickly went viral with internet users anointing him “China’s coolest grandpa”.

One Chinese newspaper claimed the octogenarian trendsetter had achieved world-class levels of charm.

The English-language edition of the People’s Daily, the Communist party’s official mouthpiece, gushed: “The old man is totally turned into a heartthrob.”

Speaking on Monday with the help of his grandson, Ding said he had enjoyed his unforeseen transformation from farmer to fashionista.

“They are beautiful,” the softly spoken grandfather said of his grandson’s viral photographs.

The retired farmer said he was unable to pick his favourite look from his menswear collection. “I like all of them,” he told the Guardian.

Even more remarkable than Ding’s rise to fashion fame are the staggering social and political upheavals he has witnessed during his life.

Ding was born in 1931, six years after the death of China’s first president, Sun Yat-sen, and almost two decades before Chairman Mao’s communists seized power in 1949.

He grew up in Songshuping, a rural village on the outskirts of Fujian province’s Shaowu city and became a subsistence farmer, growing rice and cutting bamboo for a living.

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When is Chinese New Year 2016? Year of the Monkey

When is Chinese New Year 2016? Year of the Monkey – Everything you need to know and how to celebrate in London

The Chinese New Year party in London is the biggest outside of Asia. But when and where do the holiday celebrations take place?

By Rozina Sabur and and Cameron Macphail

The new year, also known as the Spring Festival, is marked by the lunisolar Chinese calendar, so the date changes from year to year.

The festivities usually start the day before the New Year and continue until the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the new year.

The Chinese symbol for monkeyThe Chinese symbol for monkey

Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 blocks (or houses) just like its western counterpart, but with the major difference being that each house has a time-length of one year instead of one month.

This year it’s the Year of the Monkey, the ninth animal in the cycle. The next Year of the Monkey will be in 2028.

The personality of the Monkey

People born in the Year of the Monkey are characterised as quick-witted, curious, innovative and mischievous, but it is also believed to be one of the most unlucky years in the Chinese calendar.

The general image of people in this zodiac sign is of always being smart, clever and intelligent, especially in their career and wealth.

They are lively, flexible, quick-witted and versatile. In addition, their gentleness and honesty bring them an everlasting love life. Although they were born with enviable skills, they still have several shortcomings, such as an impetuous temper and a tendency to look down upon others.

Strengths: sociable, innovative, enthusiastic, self-assured
Weaknesses: suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant, jealous

Lucky Signs for the Monkey

Lucky numbers: 1, 7, 8
Lucky colours: white, gold, blue
Lucky flowers: chrysanthemum, alliums
Lucky directions: north, northwest, west

Famous people born under the monkey sign

Julius Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Celine Dion, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Christina Aguilera, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Alice Walker, Michael Douglas, Owen Wilson, Daniel Craig, Mick Jagger, Bette Davis, Annie Oakley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gisele Bundchen, Kim Cattrall, Nick Carter, Patricia Arquette, Alyson Stoner, Christina Ricci, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Nick Jonas, Selena Gomez.

Which Chinese Zodiac sign are you?

Your sign is derived from the year you were born in the Chinese lunar calendar.

The years below are a rough guide, but if you were born in January or February it may be slightly different as the new year moves between 21 January and February 20.

Rat: 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960
Ox: 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961
Tiger: 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962
Rabbit: 2011, 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963
Dragon: 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964
Snake: 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965
Horse: 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966
Sheep: 2015, 2003, 1991, 1979, 1967
Monkey: 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968
Rooster: 2017, 2005, 1993, 1981, 1969
Dog: 2018, 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970
Pig: 2019, 2007, 1995, 1983, 1971

What does your Chinese zodiac sign mean?

In Chinese astrology, the 12 animal zodiac signs each have unique characteristics.

Rat: Intelligent, adaptable, quick-witted, charming, artistic, sociable.
Ox: Loyal, reliable, thorough, strong, reasonable, steady, determined.
Tiger: Enthusiastic, courageous, ambitious, leadership, confidence, charismatic.
Rabbit: Trustworthy, empathic, modest, diplomatic, sincere, sociable, caretakers.
Dragon: Lucky, flexible, eccentric, imaginative, artistic, spiritual, charismatic.
Snake: Philosophical, organized, intelligent, intuitive, elegant, attentive, decisive.
Horse: Adaptable, loyal, courageous, ambitious, intelligent, adventurous, strong.
Sheep: Tasteful, crafty, warm, elegant, charming, intuitive, sensitive, calm.
Monkey: Quick-witted, charming, lucky, adaptable, bright, versatile, lively, smart.
Rooster: Honest, energetic, intelligent, flamboyant, flexible, diverse, confident.
Dog: Loyal, sociable, courageous, diligent, steady, lively, adaptable, smart.
Pig: Honorable, philanthropic, determined, optimistic, sincere, sociable.

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Chinese Teens Coming To America For High School

Growing Numbers Of Chinese Teens Are Coming To America For High School

Josie Huang

In a high school theater in Arcadia, Calif., Amber Zhang and the rest of the teenage cast of a production of Molière’s comedic play The Miser gather in a tight circle.

“Everyone say, ‘Hey, hey, hey!’ ” bellows Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, an instructor at Arroyo Pacific Academy. “Helloooo!”

Zhang, cast as a spunky ingénue, throws her body — and pipes — into the exercise.

“In China, if we have class, for sure we sit down on a chair,” says Zhang, 17, who grew up in Guangzhou. She’s an only child whose parents, both doctors, sent her to the U.S. for high school. Back home, there was “not a lot of time to have fun like this.”

Zhang belongs to a growing population of Chinese teens leaving the test-driven, high-pressure world of schools back home for the U.S. — more than 23,000 at last count, according to the Institute of International Education. Their goal is to better their children’s chances of getting into an American college; a degree earned in the U.S. carries a lot of weight.

At the same time, these students — often called “parachute kids” — enjoy the looser contours of an American education, one that students like Zhang say lets them be more creative and independent.

It’s a trend that immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea popularized in the 1980s. The numbers of students from China have grown fast because of the sheer size of its population and the rise of a wealthy class buoyed by years of economic growth.

So many high schoolers have come that they’ve helped to tilt the overall age of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. downward, according to the Census Bureau. Among the age groups of Chinese immigrants seeing the biggest growth was the 15 to 19 crowd.

Many live with host families and attend private schools like Arroyo Pacific. U.S. immigration law gives them little choice: International students can attend public schools for only one year and must reimburse the school district.

California is a top destination for these students, and the Los Angeles suburbs in the San Gabriel Valley, home to one of the world’s largest Chinese diasporas, are particularly popular. That’s where Arroyo Pacific is located. During lunch, the sound of Mandarin fills the hallways, with accents originating from all over China — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou. In a matter of six years, Chinese students have transformed Arroyo Pacific’s student body. Where there were just a handful of Chinese students before, the school is now more than 70 percent Chinese, said Robert Nguyen, the school’s director of admissions. He said many students are learning about the school by word-of-mouth.

“Being a small school with small class sizes, we can pretty much tailor our program to suit the students pretty well,” Nguyen says.

Students here work hard, going to teachers after school, or hopping into an Uber to study at the nearby Starbucks with friends. But they say the workload is considerably more manageable than in China, where high schoolers are expected to prepare for China’s national college-entrance exam gaokao, which means “high test.” It’s given just once a year and takes nine hours to complete. Senior Jesse Chou said when he was in China, he used to stay at school until 10 p.m. doing test prep. Failure was not an option.

“That means your life is done. Most people think that,” Chou says. Now, he has free time to go skateboarding.

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More than 100 Chinese cities now above 1 million people

China’s answer to Silicon Valley fosters hundreds of start-ups

China’s answer to Silicon Valley fosters hundreds of start-ups as old-world industries wind down

By China correspondent Matthew Carney

China is pinning its future economic growth on a high-tech future, with the world’s second biggest economy shifting towards innovation and away from manufacturing and construction.

The old economy of manufacturing, steelmaking and construction that has lifted 500 million out of poverty is starting to wind down.

Production has plummeted and hundreds of thousands have lost jobs. Migrant workers that have been the backbone of China’s industrialisation are starting to return home.

There is a street in Beijing’s north-west Zhongguancun district, and from the outside it hardly looks the part, but the buildings are packed with start-up companies. Last year the street housed 600 and pulled in billions in dollars.

Garage Cafe was one of the first incubators in the street and now 40 are operating. An Meng, the founder and president, says the entire focus is innovation.

“We don’t set any barriers. It’s everyone’s right to be innovative, to start up,” he said.

When the ABC visits Garage cafe, it is buzzing with energy as teams discuss and develop their latest ideas.

It’s a creative melting pot where people get a free workspace and internet and are powered by endless cups of coffee — a world away from China’s stagnant state-owned enterprises.

Mr An says they want everyone to be a entrepreneur.

“We allow everyone to try, to make mistakes. One may suddenly reach success and this one could become an engine that drives China’s economy growth, even the world’s,” he said.

New graduate Sheng Jie has been coming to Garage Cafe everyday for the last five months. His start-up team is developing a property management website.

“This start-up company is my baby and I want to see him grow,” he said.

“I could get a stable job but it wouldn’t be as satisfying. I’m not paid much but at least I’m happy.”

It’s also a place to meet investors and venture capitalists.

Wei Qingchen has just received $1 million to develop his technology that can read human emotions. He believes it will be applied in home devices, robotics and marketing.

“The Garage Cafe gives us a lot of help. Many technician difficulties are solved by cooperation between different teams,” Mr Wei said.

Risks of start-up ventures
This week China posted its lowest growth rates in a quarter of a century.

Professor Yao Yuqun, one of China’s top graduate employment specialists, said start-ups only have a success rate of about 10 per cent.

“Chinese high education doesn’t provide suitable graduates for these needs, and secondly the economy is declining so there is fewer opportunities. We don’t provide the proper education for this,” he said.

But there have been success stories from Zhongguancun — innovative phone maker Xiaomi has just been valued at $10 billion.

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Kung Fu Panda 3 Kicks Up $6.5M In China Preview

Box Office: ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Kicks Up Awesome $6.5M In China Preview

In the “Hmm, this is interesting even if I don’t know what it means for the long term” category, DreamWorks Animation DWA +3.85% and Oriental DreamWorks debuted Kung Fu Panda 3 in China on Saturday afternoon for a special three-hour sneak preview session. And the all-important animated sequel earned a pretty terrific $6.5 million. That makes up $6.5m for basically two showtimes at various theaters nationwide (the film is around 89 minutes with credits) and offers something of a taste for the film’s presumably blockbuster debut in America and especially China next weekend.

Now China had some pretty lousy weather as well, so it can be argued that the figure would have been even higher had yesterday been a little nicer outside. The film, which of course is the follow-up to 2011′s Kung Fu Panda 2, is debuting in America and China (among other markets) on the weekend before the weekend of the Chinese New Year. And as I always say, the weekend before a holiday is the best one to open with since the holiday blunts the impact of a would-be second-weekend drop.

The film is a Chinese co-production alongside state-run China Film Group and cost, depending on who you asked, between $120 million and $140 million to produce. The film was initially going to be released on December 23rd of last year but jumped ship once Walt Disney’s DIS +2.08% Star Wars: The Force Awakens moved from May of 2015 to December 18th. It initially planted itself on March 18th, one weekend before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but eventually went bold and plopped itself in January to basically become the biggest movie ever to open in January (in America at least).

You might make the case that this was the first “American” franchise blockbuster that picked its domestic release date due to reasons related to the Chinese calendar, but honestly I’m more interested to see how such a big sequel of this nature performs in what is customarily a dump month. Kung Fu Panda opened in 2008 with a whopping $60 million opening weekend before earning $217m in America and $603m worldwide, including a then-stunning $12m in China. Kung Fu Panda 2 dipped in a bit in America ($48m opening, $165m domestic total), but made up for it overseas with a $665m worldwide cume, including a then-eye popping $92m in China.

This may be a case where the Chinese performance of ”worldwide” blockbuster is almost expected to outgross the American performance. To that goal, DreamWorks has actually crafted two version of the film for China, one that is the “regular” version with local movie stars and voice over artists dubbing accordingly and a second version animated somewhat differently to more accurately reflect the mouth movement and/or body language.

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China’s central bank plans to launch its own digital currencies

hina’s central bank wants to launch its own digital currencies to cut the costs of circulating traditional paper money and boost policymakers’ control of money supply, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Wednesday.

A PBOC research team set up in 2014 to look into digital currencies should make preparations for launches, according to a central bank statement posted on www.pbc.gov.cn.

“The team … should set up a clearer strategic target for launching digital currencies, overcome the key technological barriers … and aim for an early launch of the central bank’s digital currencies,” the PBOC said.

Virtual currencies can also help boost transparency of economic activities and curb money laundering and tax evasions, it added.

One of the most popular digital currencies is bitcoin, which is created through a ‘mining’ process where a computer’s resources are used to perform millions of calculations.

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China to Finalize Plans for $22 Billion Plane-Engine Giant

China plans to merge more than 40 entities working on plane engines into a group with 145 billion yuan ($22 billion) in assets as part of a broader push into advanced industries to propel its economy, people familiar with the proposal said.

The entities have combined assets of about 110 billion yuan, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The Chinese government and companies including Aviation Industry Corp. of China, known as AVIC, will invest an additional 35 billion yuan under the plan, which could be announced as soon as this month, they said.

China is eager to develop its own engine to power its planes, and also is keen to push its economy from labor-intensive work into more sophisticated sectors. The Made in China 2025 blueprint, released last March, cited aerospace as a sector that leaders hope will help make China into an advanced economy along the lines of Japan and Germany.

Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, known as Comac, is developing the C919 single-aisle jet, which is expected to make its first test flight this year. CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation and a division of France’s Safran SA, will supply a version of its LEAP engine for the initial C919s.

Shares Jump

Shares of Avic Aero-Engine Controls Co. closed up 7.7 percent Tuesday in Shenzhen, while Avic Aviation Engine Corp. ended up 6.7 percent in Shanghai. AviChina Industry & Technology Co. finished up 8.6 percent at HK$5.55 in Hong Kong in its biggest single-day gain since Oct. 2.

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China to Take on Intel

Qualcomm Forms Joint Venture In China to Take on Intel

by Stacey Higginbotham

They’ll build server chips in Guizhou.

Mobile chip giant Qualcomm is getting into the data center market with a new joint venture to design and sell server chips in China. The joint venture was announced Sunday morning in China, and brings together Qualcomm and the government of China’s Guizhou province. A Qualcomm subsidiary will own 45% of the newly formed company and the Guizhou government owns 55% for a total value of RMB 1.85 billion, or about $280 million.

As part of this deal with the province Qualcomm will also establish an investment company in Guizhou that will serve as the vehicle for future investments in China.

The venture, called the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology, will start by selling Qualcomm’s own server designs, expected to launch some time this year. Qualcomm showed off its server designs in October with a 24-core version that it sent to potential customers operating large data centers offering cloud computing services. However, it has not yet set a time frame for when it would offer a production-level server chip for sale. Anand Chandrasekhar, senior vice president and general manager, Qualcomm datacenter group, says a 6-month window was a reasonable time frame to expect but didn’t commit to a definite timeline.

In addition to selling the soon-to-be-launched Qualcomm QCOM -4.00% server chips, the joint venture will also license Qualcomm’s server chip design so the new entity can produce a slightly modified version of Qualcomm’s chip specific to the needs of the Chinese cloud computing market. And finally, Qualcomm and engineers at the joint venture plan to design a completely new chip for the Chinese server market that will rival silicon from Intel INTC -9.10% , the company that currently holds the largest share of the market when it comes to providing silicon in the data center.

The creation of this joint venture is a significant move for Qualcomm, which has made expanding into the data center one of its five strategic priorities after a reorganization at the company in 2015. It’s also an interesting step to take after the San Diego,Calif.-based company spent 2015 fighting with Chinese handset vendors to sign licensing deals after agreeing to new royalty agreements in February of last year for the use of Qualcomm’s radio technology in their handsets.

When asked if Qualcomm thought this joint venture might help keep its other Chinese business deals running smoothly, Chandrasekhar said, “China is a very, very large market, so will there be some spillover? We don’t know, but if there is a halo effect then fantastic, we’ll take it.”

However, the decision to focus on China for the launch of what is a new line of business for Qualcomm and for the entire ARM-based chip ecosystem is about more than handset royalties. The Chinese server market is growing rapidly as providers like Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu ramp up. IDC expects the total Chinese server market to reach $6 billion by 2020. From the last year of data available (Q4 2014 through Q3 2015) the worldwide server market measured $54.24 billion according to IDC. But China is growing rapidly.

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Elon Musk is going to love the latest news to come from China

China may have already overtaken U.S. in electric-vehicle sales

Claudia Assis

China may have already overtaken the U.S. in sales of electric cars, although whether that rapid pace is sustainable is another story.

That’s from analysts at Barclays, who said in a note clients Wednesday that annual sales of electric vehicles in China may grow by about 44% a year until 2020, and are expected to have reached 220,000 units in 2015. That would contrast with less than 120,000 electric cars sold in the U.S. also last year.

That speedy growth scenario would knock China’s annual oil demand by around 1%, the analysts said.

It would also be a boon to U.S. electric car makers such as Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, +2.93% and traditional U.S. car makers, which have announced plans to launch more electric cars or offer electric options of existing models.

Just last week, General Motors Co. GM, -0.62% introduced at the Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show its new Chevrolet Bolt EV, arriving at dealerships in late 2016 with a price tag of $30,000.

Ford Motor Co. F, +0.08% has announced plans for new electric cars, including an electric version of its Focus sedan. Also at the Las Vegas show, Faraday Future Inc., a company with close ties with a Chinese web television company, introduced a new electric “concept” car. The company has said it will build a new factory outside Las Vegas.

China is focusing on pure electric vehicles rather than hybrids, and prioritizing buses and public-utility vehicles as a means to combat pollution and traffic congestion, the Barclays analysts said. The country has also enacted policies encouraging infrastructure development, such as a push to add more charging stations.

China waives sales tax and the annual license tax for EVs, and local benefits are common, particularly in major cities concerned about congestion and smog. For example: In Beijing, electric-car buyers do not have participate in the monthly license lottery.

Barclays estimated that with subsidies and tax benefits, the cost of buying an EV in China is similar to that of a internal-combustion engine car.

EV sales in China have grown rapidly since 2014, and the Barclays analysts said they expect “a continued acceleration in sales to lift China above the U.S. as the world’s largest EV market in 2015.” There’s increasing optimism that EVs “are finally taking off in China,” they said.

The Chinese government has set a target to lift EV sales to 1.5 million vehicles, or 5% market share, by 2020, from 75,000 in 2014.

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