When I logged into my Netvibes account this morning I saw the headline, Beijing’s fastest-growing export is inflation   It describes how China used to export deflation through low-cost goods, which helped prevent inflation from gather ground in the West. Now due to China’s growing demand for resources, China is exporting inflation to the West in the form of higher resource costs (it’s also driving up its domestic inflation).

Then later in the day I read this story from China Economic Review: 

China launches first environmental investment firm

Environment
10 September 2007

China launched its first environmental investment management corporation, Zhongzhuo Energy Investment, last week in Beijing, Economic Observer reported (in Chinese). The new state-owned firm will be devoted to providing investment management services for the coutry’s energy-saving, environmental protection and sustainable development projects. The founding of the new organization is seen as a formal effort on the part of the government to actively promote a “recycling economy.”

After reading that story something clicked (hopefully it did for you too). China is racing to buy lots of resources because its industries are very inefficient and produce a lot of waste. This waste isn’t just causing the country to export inflation, it’s destroying the environment. If Zhongzhuo Energy Investment is really what the Central government say it is — something that will help business to become more energy efficient  — then some* of that inflation should go away and the country’s environment will hopefully improve.  If not then we’re all in trouble either economically or environmentally.

J.

* Unfortunately, these energy-saving measures will mark the end of cheap Chinese products — if the VAT refund policy on July 1/07 didn’t kill it already.

When I signed up for Facebook on Wednesday I decided to try a little experiment. I would send out a number of requests to add me to their list on both Facebook and LinkedIn (I sent messages to different people I knew on either network).  Well after four days of testing, I got 20 friends added on Facebook (from eight requests sent out) and one on LinkedIn (from five requests sent out).

Why did I get more friend connections on Facebook? The network there is larger. And I think it’s larger because Facebook is more of an interactive platform compared to LinkedIn. You can really personalize your Facebook space and since Facebook’s source code was revealed, people have been able to produce their own applications to personalize their personal pages. These things are attractive as everybody wants to individualize their space — whether they’re a business or an individual — and that’s the attraction and the best benefit of Facebook. It is truly a Web 2.0 platform.  Facebook users aren’t just consuming they are producing, connecting and individualizing their own content and their own online spaces.

I’d like to hear other people’s opinions on this.

J.

Okay, I couldn’t resist any longer. After signing up for del.icio.us and Twitter, I felt I couldn’t resist Facebook any longer. Anyone looking to add me can find me under John Guise.

J.

I found a story in the China Daily today that says China’s Ministry of Public Security is going to monitor the behaviour of police officers in the host cities for the 2008 Olympics in an effort to ensure good service for visitors during the Olympic Games.

“Spearheaded by the Ministry of Public Security, the campaign will assess the behavior of on-duty officers, particularly those working in public areas and policing large-scale events.”

I’m all for better public services so this sounded like a great idea to me until I read this part:

“”If a member of the public sees a police officer smoking, eating or chatting on duty – all of which are regarded as harmful to the image of the police – they can report them by dialing 110,” Jia Chunming, vice-director of the police affairs supervision division of the Beijing municipal public security bureau, told reporters at the launch of the compaign.”

110 for those readers not living in China is the country’s equivalent of 911. Now if people are calling 110 to report rude cops that is reducing the efficiency of the police dispatch system and therefore reducing public services. So how does that help the people. In a country where new public complaint hotlines open every month you think they could create one for rude cops. That would really ensure this project improves China’s level of public service.

J.

If I had to describe the films I watched this weekend to my colleagues in one sentence here’s what I’d say:

• Jesus Camp: A horror movie for non-evangelical Christians where all the children act like they are 35 and Republican.
• Evan Almighty: Noah’s Ark for the Global Warming era.
• Afro Samurai: Violently murderous hip hop anime starring Samuel L. Jackson.

J.

Digital Watch’s Kaier Kuo is off to the World Economic Forum in Dalian this week (“Summer Davos”) and he’s blogging about it at his personal blog Ich Bin Ein Beijinger.  I will be following this all week and will let you know if anything good develops.

J.

1) According to Simon Elegant at Times’ China Blog, activist Yuen Wenjing tried to escaped her village where she is under house arrest. The local police caught her and now she is confined to her home. Regular readers know that I’ve been following this case rather closely. In my opinion this is just another case of why the Olympics aren’t improving human rights in China they are just making things worse (of course this probably would have happened even without the Olympics.

2) ESWN has a post on what he called White-Collar Photo Gate. You can read the full story by clicking the link. But here is a short summary: a female administrative staff member at Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux, Jessica Shi Jing, was revealed to be the woman in a number of nude and lingere-clad photos that were found in the password-protected online photo album of an American businessman named Robert Kulgar. This lead to a number of Chinese bloggers to invoke nationalist tendencies and claiming that the woman was a whore and the American should be hunted down and deported. The opinions grew to such a fever pitch that the Chinese media took interest and when they called Electrolux to see if Ms. Shi was available for an interview, they found out she’d gone on medical leave due to mental pressure.

Some of the comments posted by Chinese bloggers about this case include (from ESWN):

“The problem with Shi Jing is not that she posed nude, or she had intercourse with someone. There are so many Japanese adult video girls, but why should any normal person scold them? Shi Jing’s problem was that ‘she wants to look aloof in front of her compatriots, but she acts like a dog in front of foreigners’.”

“Let us unite all our powers and find out the true identity of this foreigner.”

My opinion is this is silly and a woman’s choice (whether you see it as a mistake or not) is being used as an excuse to invoke nationalistic rhetoric against foreigners living in China. The thing is the people in this story are both adults. Even if the woman regrets it now, she consented to the pictures — that includes the nude ones, so I don’t think the foreigner tricked her into it (I can’t comment on the fact that she acts like a dog in front of foreigners). And to be honest all those people posting nationalistic comments on this issue should settle down — there are enough mixed couples in China that this should not be a big deal anymore to most people (at least in the major cities). Trying to go and hunt down the woman or man involved in this issue just makes China and its people look really intolerant. That’s not an image you want to promote when you’re trying to invite the world to your capital for the Olympics in about 11 months time.

That’s my two cents.

J.

All I have to say about Knocked-Up is that Seth Rogan is a genius and he has great chemistry with Paul Rudd. Go see that movie.

J.