Originally published in the eTaiwan News on Aug 09, 2010 by Bonnie Cao
China has ordered 2,087 steel and cement mills and other factories with poor energy efficiency to close as the country struggles to cut waste and improve its battered environment. The "backward" facilities produce steel, coke, aluminum, paper and other materials throughout China and must close by late September, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology...
Originally published in the Purchasing.com on Apr 08, 2010 by James Carbone
While supplier audits are not new, many companies have conducted more of them in recent years as they sourced more from suppliers in low-cost regions and because of last year's economic downturn, which challenged the financial solvency...
Originally published in the Christian Science Monitor on Feb 23, 2010 by Alec van Gelder
To protectionists and Sinophobes, the news of China recently surpassing Germany to become the world’s largest exporter represents yet another nail in the coffin for manufacturing in “[insert Western country]”. But China’s exports include Apple’s ubiquitous iPods and countless other products designed in the West. More than a reflection of China’s growing economic might, this is testament...
Originally published in the BusinessWeek on Feb 04, 2010 by William Foreman and Ji Chen
Pulling suitcases and hefting heavy bags on their shoulders, millions of Chinese workers are boarding trains to head home for the Lunar New Year -- a holiday that triggers the world's biggest annual migration of people. This year some may not come back from the holiday, which begins Feb. 14, a growing worry for factory owners...
Originally published in the the Wall Street Journal on Jan 14, 2010 by James T. Areddy
Google Inc.'s challenge to Beijing is not a first: Levi Strauss & Co. 17 years ago walked away from China. Today, Levi's brand jeans are produced in China, and in Beijing last November the company opened its 501st store in the country. What happened in between? In 1993, the iconic San Francisco maker of dungarees declared it would end relationships with contractors in China because of what it called that country's "pervasive violation of human rights...
Originally published in the USA TODAY on Jan 09, 2010 by Calum MacLeod
Tainted toothpaste, drugged catfish, lead-painted Elmos, poison pet food. Scandals involving Chinese-made products have ordinary people here worried that a bad reputation threatens to derail their status as No. 1 exporter in the world. So what to do? Call in Madison Avenue. "Made in China, made with the world" is the theme of an ad...
Originally published in the the China Daily on Dec 24, 2009 by Qiao Xinsheng
As part of a global campaign to improve overseas opinions on Chinese-made products, a 30-second advertisement aimed at promoting the "Made in China" brand made its debut on the Cable News Network (CNN) on Nov 23, 2009. The government-sponsored television ad - showing a fashion model working a camera, an executive awaiting...
Originally published in the Xinhua on Dec 14, 2009 by Jiang Xufeng and Lin Jianyang
Although some Chinese exporters have seen a fledgling market recovery, they should prepare for a long-term struggle as trade pressure grows, says Wu Tiejun, assistant mayor of Qingdao City, one of China's export power houses. "Chinese export enterprises are facing growing trade frictions and expectations of a yuan appreciation," Wu says. Chinese products with a total value exceeding 11.68 billion U.S. dollars have been subject of 101 trade remedy investigations launched by 19 countries and...
Originally published in the The Los Angeles Times on Dec 07, 2009 by David Pierson and Tommy Yang
Plagued by recalls of toxic toys, poison pet food and other products, and facing rising trade barriers for its exports, China is taking a page from the American corporate playbook. It has hired a Madison Avenue ad agency to help burnish its image.In what is believed to be Beijing's first global ad campaign, a television commercial now airing on CNN...
Originally published in the Xinhua on Nov 24, 2009 by Li Xianzhi
Guangdong, China's major toy manufacturing province, saw a slump in toy exports in October amid increasing costs, said the provincial customs Tuesday. The toy export volume of Guangdong dropped by 13.3 percent to 670 million U.S. dollars in October. The province's overall toy export volume in the first 10 months amounted to...
Originally published in the BusinessWeek on Nov 20, 2009 by Stacy Perman
Founders Lexy Funk and Vahap Avsar were better at retailing than manufacturing. So they researched and tested Chinese plants and decided to outsource. Entrepreneur: Lexy Funk, 39. Background: New York City native Funk met her partner, Turkish-born Vahap Avsar, at an artists-in-residence program in upstate New York. A year...
Originally published in the Washington Post on Aug 10, 2009 by Sanjeev Miglani
More than 300 children from a county in northwestern China need treatment for lead poisoning that their parents blame on a nearby metal smelter, the official China Daily reported on Monday. China's pollution and lax product safety standards have long been a source of tension and unrest when parents or residents of pollution hotspots -- dubbed "cancer villages" because of high rates of the disease -- feel their worries are being ignored. "Both of my children took physical examinations that showed the lead...
Originally published in the Wall Street Journal on Jul 16, 2009 by Carlos Tejada
The publication Media reported Thursday that China is revisiting previously delayed plans to launch a public relations campaign promoting products made in China. If so, that’s almost a year since the campaign ran up against a nasty surprise from China’s dairy industry. China and ad agency DDB were nearing a launch of the campaign last fall to...
Originally published in the Computerworld on Apr 17, 2009 by Thomas Wailgum
Somali pirates who brazenly attacked container ships in the Indian Ocean have garnered a lot of recent attention. But for companies that source products from Chinese manufacturing partners, there are even greater and longer-term business risks due to pirating attacks on companies' intellectual property and supply chains...
Originally published in the Xinhua on Feb 13, 2009 by Du Guodong
Guangdong Province, China's key production base and export hub, hopes to strike a relative increase in exports and 8.5 percent of GDP growth this year amid the global economic meltdown. Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong, announced the economic goals while delivering a work report of the provincial government at the local people's congress that opened here Friday...
