Features
Amway Made China a Billion-Dollar Market.
LANZHOU, China — Feng Gang stood in front of 150 people in a conference hall in Beijing that Amway, the American marketing giant, calls its flagship “experience center.”
Chinese drones slink into North Korean arsenal
Shenyang (China) (AFP) - Wang Dewen's daughter-in-law says the Chinese businessman could be dead. His wife claims he is travelling. But they are sure of one thing: he is definitely not working in North Korea.
China’s Soccer Push Puts a Storied Team Under Murky Ownership
BEIJING — When the Chinese businessman Li Yonghong bought A.C. Milan, the world-famous Italian soccer club, virtually nobody in Italy had heard of him.
Virtually nobody in China had, either.
Inside the Unregulated Chinese Hospitals That Make Men Impotent
On the afternoon of September 30, 2015, 23-year-old Little Huang stood on the roof of the 11-story Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission building, ready to jump to his death.
A Deal for an Australian Dairy Wrapped in Layers of Chinese Loans
SMITHTON, Australia — Not long after China’s leader, Xi Jinping, visited the remote island state of Tasmania, a little-known Chinese entrepreneur with big ambitions followed in his footsteps, buying Australia’s largest dairy, with 20,000 cows and rolling green pastures, for more than $200 million.
For Couriers, China’s E-Commerce Boom Can Be a Tough Road
BEIJING — Zhang Heng barged through an exam-room door, surprising a doctor and a patient. He didn’t have time to knock. In Mr. Zhang’s business, every second counts.
In China, North Korean firms still trading despite shutdown order
Some North Korean businesses in China had closed their doors on Tuesday but others remained open, despite Beijing’s deadline to shut down under UN sanctions intended to strip the regime of cash.
AFP
'Big family' but divided: North and South Koreans in China
While North and South Korean officials hold rare talks this week, in a bustling Korea town in northeast China the rival communities have little to say to each other.
AFP
The Barracks Are Cast of Iron: Working in a Chinese foam factory
On September 3, 2013, I arrived at a worker’s dormitory in Guangdong, China, to find my new roommate sprawled out on a plywood bunk in the corner of the small and musty room. He was wearing a hot-pink uniform emblazoned with the letters EPS
Harper's Magazine
Troops, cameras, radiation: China prepares for North Korea crisis
China has ramped up security along its border with North Korea, installing new surveillance cameras, deploying extra security forces and operating radiation detectors as it braces for a potential crisis.
Meet the North Korean firm which reinvents itself to beat sanctions
While the United States pushes for new sanctions on North Korea, one trading company from the hermit state has creatively reinvented itself to survive. Its latest offer: a US$50 root to “cure” cancer.
US firms face tough legal battles in China IP theft
It took a crucial piece of evidence for Microsoft to win one of its numerous anti-piracy lawsuits in China: A computer seller telling an investigator that he could install a Windows 7 knock-off for free.
Beijing spends big as it prepares for 2022 Olympics
Villages are being razed in northern China. Mountains are being cut to size. And new stadiums, high-speed train lines, expressways and three separate Olympic villages are coming to life.
Here’s How a Chinese Tech Firm Borrowed $2.1 Billion in a Hurry
When a Chinese tech company with global ambitions began to run short of cash last year, it sought billions of dollars from new investors. One of them was a music teacher.
Chinese Internet Tycoon Resigns From Troubled Company
The embattled internet tycoon behind struggling Chinese tech company LeEco has resigned from all his positions at the company’s publicly traded arm, the latest action in a stunning fall for one of the country’s most flamboyant tech icons.
Court Freezes $182 Million in Assets of Chinese Internet Tycoon
BEIJING — A court in Shanghai has frozen $182 million in assets tied to the chairman of the Chinese technology company LeEco after one of its affiliates missed loan payments.
China prepares tech sector for battle as US trade team arrives
[BEIJING] The first salvos in the budding US-China trade conflict struck old-school sectors like steel and agriculture, but Beijing is now bracing for moves against its strategic ambitions in hi-tech.
China extends party policing to civil servants
BEIJING – Millions of Chinese public sector workers will be exposed to the harsh policing tactics of the Communist Party as President Xi Jinping brings his corruption crackdown to China’s sprawling bureaucracy.
Chinese grumble about ’emperor’ as congress fetes Xi
BEIJING – President Xi Jinping’s bid to rule for life has stunned many people in China. It left retired state-owned newspaper editor Li Datong cursing in a foreign language in a crowded mall.
North Korea's firms face China axe amid UN sanctions
BEIJING (AFP) - From restaurants with singing waitresses, to secluded traders in back alleys, North Korean businesses in Beijing face a precarious start to the New Year with a looming, sanctions-linked January deadline to close shop.
The siege of Xian Village
The residents of China’s Xian village congregate most afternoons in a sitting room at 30 Fanyang Main Street, a brick alley just wide enough to allow three-wheeled carts to pass abreast. The alley is flanked by the rubble of demolished and hollowed-out homes.
China's electric carmakers bloom at Beijing auto show
Auto executives from across the globe are plugging their plans for an electric car future in China at the Beijing auto show, but they will find their Chinese counterparts are already motoring ahead.
China's doorway to North Korea feels sanctions pinch
Rows of sewing machines in one Chinese garment factory on the border with North Korea are now silent, unmanned after UN sanctions sent home their seamstresses from the secretive country.
Migrant worker evictions tear at Beijing's backbone
They fuelled their nation's dramatic economic rise, toiling in jobs far from home, but China's migrant workers are now finding themselves increasingly unwelcome as authorities try to cap the population explosions in key cities.
China targets booming online lending as crisis fears build
When Jia Xinru needed to borrow money to buy new clothes, order food and buy a projector to screen Breaking Bad on her wall, she had instant access to China's growing number of lenders via her mobile phone.
China's tech giants reach global elite with gamers, shoppers
Beijing (AFP) - Powered by Chinese smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, China's tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world's most valuable companies.
Business leaders bow to Xi as Communist Party pushes in
BEIJING – Chinese billionaires are boasting about their Marxist bonafides. The Communist Party is tightening its grip on state-owned companies. And foreign companies are being asked to invite party cells into their offices.
Jim Rogers, Intrepid Investor, Finds Bumpy Road to North Korea
HONG KONG — China was an economic backwater when Jim Rogers began traveling its dusty byways more than three decades ago. Still, Mr. Rogers, a former partner of George Soros, saw its promise.
Inside the US Effort to Clear Millions of Vietnam-Era Bombs in Laos
Last spring, deep in the rainforest-tangled limestone mountains of Laos's Annamite Range, blasts from American cluster bombs ripped through the air as the jungle burned. A small, square-jawed, 66-year-old farmer named Somphone (some Lao farmers do not use surnames) had set the fire to clear his land for rice planting, then fled
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