The Daily China News Update is produced by Charles Silverman
German Electronics Retailer Pulls Out Of China (chinatechnews.com)
Download 438.17 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- The Coming Android Invasion of China (theatlantic.com)
- China: rising wages will drive economic change under new leadership (The FT Beyond BRICs Blog)
German Electronics Retailer Pulls Out Of China (chinatechnews.com)March 8, 2013 http://www.chinatechnews.com/2013/03/08/19173-german-electronics-retailer-pulls-out-of-china Media Markt China announced on its official website that the company will be closing its seven electronics retail stores in the country on March 11, 2013.
http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/03/the-coming-android-invasion-of-china/273826/ An glut of cheap cell phones powered by Google's operating system may have big implications for China's economy- and society. A massive glut of commodity smartphones running a stripped-down version of Google's Android software is coming to market in China, with the potential to upend the mobile phone marketplace and swamp the country's Internet censors. Android already accounts for 90 percent of new smartphone purchases in China, a trend that is alarming the government enough that it is complaining about it. The volume of smartphone shipments in China hit 70 million in the fourth quarter --a 112 percent year-on-year increase--and the total number of Chinese smartphones is projected to reach a staggering 240 million this year. (That doesn't include simpler "feature" phones that can't as easily run software or access the Internet.) Foreign firms like Samsung were the first to bring Android to China, and homegrown manufacturers like Lenovo -- set to become the top-selling Chinese Android handset maker this year -- are coming on strong. But they may all be eventually swamped by cheap commoditized handsets from more than a thousand no-name manufacturers, which TechRice's Kai Lukoff has dubbed "ChinaDroids." They have chipsets from Taiwan's Mediatek, run a heavily modified version of the "Ice Cream Sandwich" series of Android, and come preloaded with Chinese apps. By one estimate they already control 40 percent of the Chinese smartphone market. These ChinaDroids don't carry any traces of Google's brand or its apps, but that doesn't mean that Google isn't indirectly benefitting. The sheer numbers of these smartphones could make life nearly impossible for China's army of censors. The watchdogs may be numerous, but they're only human: a recent study found the number of government deletions on the Sina Weibo micro-blogging service dipped sharply when censors were watching the evening news. The idea of pushing censors to the breaking point must be satisfying indeed for Google, which has repeatedly butted heads with China over the country's Internet restrictions. Bill Bishop, who has closely followed these developments on his essential Sinocism blog, concludes: "Android is Google's revenge, powering hundreds of millions of affordable smart phones that are empowering Chinese at almost every level and dramatically increasing the operators' and government's censorship load." By releasing Android into the wild, Google may have irrevocably tilted the playing field against China's Internet restrictions. Now the same ruthlessly efficient and low-margin companies that transformed China into the world's pre-eminent manufacturer could end up powering a smartphone wave that drowns its censors under billions of Weibo posts. China: rising wages will drive economic change under new leadership (The FT Beyond BRICs Blog)Mar 7, 2013 by Stefan Wagstyl http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/03/07/china-rising-wages-will-drive-economic-change-under-new-leadership/#axzz2Mtzlp8UU Higher wages and rising labour costs lie at the heart of the economic questions facing China’s leaders as they gather this week in Beijing for the National People’s Congress. For hard-pressed exporters the developments are clearly negative. But for China as a whole they should be positive -with millions of workers earnings more pay and creating a growing consumer market – as long as the transition is managed properly. Hannah Levinger of Deutsche Bank writes in a report that with rising GDP and a declining working-age population, real wages in China have already recorded striking increases, changing the country’s competitive position vis-a-vis Asian rivals: Indeed, since China’s WTO accession in 2001, real wages paid in the manufacturing sector have risen by almost 200% in USD-terms, surpassing Thailand and closing the gap with the Philippines. Strikingly, Chinese wages continued to move ahead in 2009-11, even as regional peers felt the dampening impact of the global recession. But China’s real GDP per worker is still below Thailand’s and Malaysia’s, not to mention South Korea’s. And, as Levenson writes: over the last couple of years labour productivity growth started to slow down. In 2012, China’s productivity grew the least since 1999 (although it outpaced the rest of Asia). Worryingly, a similar slowdown was observed in total factor productivity, which takes into account efficiency gains such as managerial competences and technology diffusion. So, China’s unit labour costs (ULC) have in the last two years risen faster than those of Asian competitors. That’s tough for manufacturing exporters. But it’s not the whole story. Levenson says the increases in unit labour costs “may contribute to the needed shift in China’s growth model”. Levinger highlights three supportive trends. First, the labour market is becoming more specialised and fragmented. Companies are moving inland, creating jobs closer to the homes of the millions of migrant workers who have left the countryside for coastal cities in the last three decades. “In 2011, workers taking jobs within their home provinces accounted for more than half of total migration,” she notes. This boosts inland growth and accelerates geographical restructuring and encourages companies to match skilled labour with specialised functions. Second, rising worker incomes create demand for services which in turn generates new jobs. Services already account for the largest share in employment but for less than half of GDP growth. Finally, while south east Asian countries have been able to profit from China’s labour costs, China remains a powerful competitor, even in labour-intensive industries. For example, Vietnam’s real wages in manufacturing have risen almost as fast as China’s but Vietnamese labour productivity was stuck at just 26 per cent of China’s, says Levinger. She concludes: “Higher wages are sure to come, and are in fact a political imperative, but increasing efficiency can offset them at least partly.” In other words, China’s leaders and its companies have to steer a careful way between maintaining export competitiveness in manufacturing by increasing added value, and promoting domestic consumption. Levinger doesn’t go into this but the right approach will involve a complex mix of policies involving the exchange rate regime, credit allocation, financial deregulation, the promotion of small and medium-sized companies, education, residence permits (hukou), and urban development, to name just seven categories. The new men in Beijing have a lot to think about. Directory: 2013 2013 -> Annual InStructional unit plan 2013 -> The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine 2013 -> #1 a lifesafer of virginia inc 2013 -> Name(s): your name here team or Group #(if applicable): Professor’s name 2013 -> Alcott Local School Council (lcs) Meeting Minutes 2013 -> Table Of Contents introduction 2 2013 -> Supplemental demographic information 2013 -> 【Education&Working Experience】 Download 438.17 Kb. Share with your friends:
|