My Internet Notebook

Wired’s article on the global Madarin ‘Chinese Fever’ – http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/mandarin.html

The main Chinese government sponsor is Hanban, where Ma Jianfei is serving as the deputy director general of the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. His goal is to reach 100 million Chinese speakers around the world in four years (i.e. 2010).

In 2007, high school kids across the US will be able to take the first ever AP exam for Chinese language and culture …

Gaston Caperton, ex governor of West Virginia, now president of College Board and unofficial promoter for Chinese-language education is on the road ever since the AP Chinese course was established, trying to solve the shortage of qualified Chinese teachers in the US by prodding American universities to offer certification programs and persuading elementary schools and colleges stateside to offer more Chinese language classes. He’s recently been in Beijing, meeting with Hanban officials about their volunteer-teacher program. But today he’s in Shanghai with his wife, Idit Harel Caperton. She spent the fall teaching software engineering at a university here and is a consultant and major investor (along with MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte) in a language software company based in China.

By Michael Erard (erard@lucidwork.com)

A great quote from Stephen Roach, chief economist for the investment bank Morgan Stanley, on a proposed senate bill that will impose a 27.5 per cent tariff on all Chinese exports to America.

“At a time when the US is more dependent on foreign capital than ever before, to impose tariffs not just on a major provider of goods but a major lender of capital I think would be close to economic suicide.”

Everyone is interested in China these days, and almost everyone is also interested in China’s real estate as well. Here are some macro economics data I gathered from Chinese news articles.

The one says that in 2005 GDP of the Yangtz Delta economical body surpassed Zhujian (Pearl River) delta and Beijing, Tianjing combined:

发改委8月30日发布的数据显示，今年(i.e. 2005)上半年，长江三角洲的经济总量30994.28亿元，已经超过珠江三角洲（7312.22亿元）和京津唐环渤海经济带（7559亿元）经济GDP总和。

This one says in 2005 disposable income per capita reached US$2,000 in Suzhou.

2005年底，我市(Suzhou)人均GDP按户籍人口计算达到66826元（按现行汇率折算超过8000美元），比省目标值高1.8倍，按常住人口计算达到54143元（按现行汇率折算超过6000美元），比省目标值高1.3倍。全市城镇居民人均可支配收入达到16276元，农民人均纯收入达到8393元，分别比省目标值高276元、393元。

Every major city in China has a High-tech Industrial Development Zone. Here is the one from my home province – Hunan:

长沙国家高新技术产业开发区

长沙国家高新区创业服务中心

湖南高新网

Totally missed this news last week (1/9/2006):

China’s fast growing economy is expected to help the nation’s private equity market to double over the next three years to $10 billion, but competition is also rising.

Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital firm Doll Capital Management said on Monday it would expand in China with 4 billion yuan ($500 million) of planned investment there over the next decade. “China is an agent of change for (global) technological innovation,” said David Chao, a co-founder and managing general partner of DCM. Hurst Lin, COO of Sina will join DCM as a general partner, extending a trend where successful Chinsese entrepreneurs move to venture capital industry.

DCM will target Chinese companies involved in wireless services, outsourcing, semiconductors and digital media, said Chao.