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Looks at Asia's Silk Road. Its history; Sites, services, and cuisine in Kashgar, China; The revival of interest in the Silk Road; The drawbacks of visiting, including road and hygiene problems; Description of Turfan and Urumqi; Recommended reading on the silk road. INSET: How to get get there, (Silk Road) by Alexandra Alger.

Focuses on town and village enterprises (TVEs) in Rongqi, China. What they are; The expansion in industrial output at TVEs; Fact that they are creating most of the new nonfarm jobs in China; Why their ownership is somewhat of a mystery; Their growth surprising China's leaders and foreign economists; Some TVEs as tightly controlled by local government, and some as capitalist in all but name.

This article reports that China is acting belligerently toward Taiwan because it fears the democracy in Taiwan could spread to China. Taiwan has less than 2% of the population of China. Not from any threat to Chinese unity: Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui does not advocate political independence for his island, nor does he deny that it is Chinese. Taiwan's threat to Beijing, China is moral rather than material--and therefore perhaps a greater threat. The free election for president on Taiwan on March 23 highlights the embarrassing contrast between the modern society on Taiwan and the primitive one in China.

Observes the geopolitical impact of the change in China's eating habits. Dependence of China on the United States, Canada, and other efficient grain producers; China having 21 percent of the world's population and only 7 percent of the arable land; 1.2 billion Chinese moving up the food chain; The good news for American farmers; United States farm exports to China in 1995 expecting to more than double. INSETS: Asian carnivores;Trust the market;Half free.

Discusses current business trends in the city of Shanghai, China. Overview of the city's early history; How it has fared under communist rule; Why Shanghai is undergoing a feverish building boom. INSET: Where to stay, by A.T..

Offers suggestions on how people can enjoy the sites while conducting business in Beijing. Must-see sights, including the Forbidden City; The Watch Museum; The Temple of Heaven; China World Hotel; Other highlights. INSETS: Marco Polo's favority (Hangzhou), by A.T.;Tips for business travelers, by A.T..

The article states that despite current fears of an inflationary blow off, it is not inconceivable that early in the next century, China could become the world's biggest economy. Fueled with money from second jobs, flouted taxes and underground economic activity, the Chinese economy is growing 9% a year, even though it's prone to boom-bust cycles. Socialist taxation is widely ignored. Almost no one reports his or her true income, and incentive payments at primary jobs often go unreported. In fact, few workers pay in- come taxes. Because the remnants of the socialist state still shower urban workers with huge subsidies, most of their income gains go right down to disposable income. The same China that today offers a welcome and hospitable market for foreign businesses will one day provide strong competition for world markets.

This article reports that China's Guangdong province is firmly set on a road to capitalist prosperity. A $1 billion six-lane toll-levying superhighway, scheduled for completion in mid-1994, will tie Guangdong closer to adjacent, free enterprise Hong Kong and further integrate the two economies. When it is finished, Guangdong will be far closer ideologically as well as geographically to Hong Kong than to Beijing. As recently as 1984, Guangdong ranked fifth among provinces in China in exports, but that was before economic reforms and a massive migration of industry from Hong Kong transformed the economy. As in Korea and Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s, Guangdong's exports are fueling a blaze of growth.

Reports on the growth in the cellular phone industry in China. Number of subscribers; Market domination by Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia; Telecommunications role in China's economic modernization; Price reduction in products and services; Lack of pricing mechanism for air time; Marketing strategies by Motorola.

Focuses on foreign brewing companies in China. Losses incurred by breweries, including Foster's of Australia, Anheuser-Busch of the United States, Lion Nathan of New Zealand and others; Chinese beer consumption statistics; Mistakes made by the breweries; Anheuser-Busch's long-run prospects.

The article focuses on Xiamen, one of China's four Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which is not only reopening its doors to Western capitalists but rolling out the red carpet for them. For three years after Xiamen opened its SEZ in October 1980, the response was embarrassingly feeble. But in recent months the pace has quickened and some pillars of American capitalism, including Eastman Kodak, R.J. Reynolds and Coca-Cola, have signed up. By June foreign investors had signed contracts for 82 projects worth $385 million, 53 of those signed in the first half of 1984 alone. Xiamen, like the other zones, offers foreign capitalists three- to-five-year tax holidays, followed by a flat corporate income tax rate of 15%, less than Hong Kong's 18.5%.

Looks at the investments and business dealings of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). Background on the PLA's involvement in business; The variety of businesses in which the PLA is involved, including airlines, hospitals and hotels; Estimates of the scope and scale of the PLA's commercial empire; The policies of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. INSET: The preferred partner..

The article focuses on Hong Kong-based money manager Marc Faber of Marc Faber Ltd. Faber's views about inflation and the relative value of assets--be they Mao badges, Hong Kong real estate or emerging market stocks and bonds--are rooted firmly in an Old World belief in the iron law of supply and demand. Sniffing inflation early last year, he bought precious metals stocks and hard assets. But few investors will go to the lengths Faber will to find things that are out of favor. Faber took a doctorate in economics from the University of Zurich and believes that economic history is useful for investors.

It's little wonder that investors worry about the turmoil spreading to the world's other financial markets - or about whether to invest in the humongous Chinese market at all. AHEAD AHEAD TOPIC A THE NEWS FROM CHINESE financial markets in recent months certainly has succeeded in grabbing headlines. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents an outlook for the stock market in the U.S. in 2009. David Wyss, chief economist of Standard & Poor's (S&P), estimates that operating earnings of S&P 500 companies will decline by 5 percent in 2009, following a big decline in 2008. It notes that the country could be in for years of slow economic growth. It cites the influence of China on global and U.S. economic growth. It offers several stock and fund ideas for investors. INSET: IT'S A MARKET BOTTOM IF....

The article points out some of the economic strengths and weaknesses of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and identifies investment opportunities. The Brazilian government's skilled management of fiscal and monetary policy broke the back of inflation and restored confidence in the nation's currency, the real. Russia is running trade and budget surpluses, while India has good corporate and management quality. It is also noted that China's fast-motion industrialization, urbanization and infrastructure construction are driving the global economy. INSET: HOW THE BRIC ECONOMIES AND MARKETS COMPARE.

This article explains the economic expansion of emerging Asian countries. The expansion has helped increase prices of most commodities, from edible oils to petroleum. Considering the strengths of China, the stock performance of India is far better. A closer look at the dynamics of China's growth and its stock markets explains much of the divergence. Although the contrasts between China and India are apparent now, they will likely blur after some time.

The article discusses problems that China may face in an effort to embrace globalization on a local scale as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Under the WTO, import duties on cars will fall drastically to 25%. But the new trade regimen will be slow in breaking down many internal walls that fragment the Chinese market. Provinces and municipalities have erected tariff and nontariff barriers to keep out one another's automobiles. Many of the nearly 500 breweries across the country--usually owned by local governments--are protected from outside brews by dubious health requirements and arbitrary duties. Beijing seeks to promote a handful of strong national cigarette brands, but each province wrestles to preserve its inefficient but tax-generating factory.

Profiles Chip Connor, of William E. Connor & Associates Ltd. How the company functions as the overseas buying agent for United States retailers; Perceived importance of monitoring the quality of merchandise and working conditions in factories making goods for United States companies; History of Connor's company, which was founded by his father; Comments of Connor regarding global sourcing.

Examines why United States tobacco companies are not experiencing strong sales abroad. Amount of money China takes in each year in taxes on tobacco products; The duty that China imposes on cigarettes; Size of the cigarette export industry in the US; Why there has been a market share slump for US cigarettes in South Korea; The rising taxes and tight restrictions on advertising that US tobacco companies encounter.

Focuses on Hong Kong electronics manufacturer VTech Holdings Ltd. Comparison of 1998 stock performance to the local Hang Seng index; Earnings information; The dominance in the markets for electronic learning aids for children and high-frequency cordless telephones; Background of the company; Chairman Allan Wong's approach to his product; The company's international management.

The article presents information about Johnson Electric Industrial Manufactory Ltd. Johnson is the world's second-largest independent producer of micromotors. The billion-dollar micromotor industry is expanding by over 10 per cent a year in volume terms. Johnson was founded in 1959 by Wang Seng Liang, a textile industrialist who immigrated from Shanghai via Taiwan. Johnson has subcontracted much of its most labor-intensive processes to factories just across the border near the booming city of Shenzhen, China.

This article focuses on plans of Frederic Hsieh, a Los Angeles real estate developer, to build only small hotels in Shanghai. Learning from the mistakes of earlier Chinese hotel ventures, Hsieh has hired Hong Kong's big Gammon Building Construction to oversee construction in Guilin and a subsidiary of Grand Metropolitan PLC, Great Britain's largest hotel group, to manage the hotel. Hsieh has signed contracts to build a $36 million apartment-cum-hotel complex in Peking and a $12 million hostelry in Yantai. He is negotiating for hotels in Wuhan, Harbin, Qingdao and Jinan and an apartment-hotel-office complex in Shanghai.

Presents an interview with Taiwan's Premier Vincent Siew. His response to comments made by President Bill Clinton about Taiwan while visiting China; Relations between Taiwan and China; Taiwan's economic growth independent of foreign capital; Siew's comments on how long it will take Asia to recover from the 1998 financial crisis; Why Taiwan has fared better than other countries in Asia.

The article reports on the growth of Chinese computer company Legend Group, with Liu Chuanzhi as chairman. Topics discussed include the history of the company, its financial performance in 1997, and the continued growth of the computer industry in China. Also mentioned are the company's lead in the industry, its growth forecasts to 2000, and the Chinese government's push for computerization.

Focuses on the opening of the Shanghai Museum in China in October 1996. Display of ancient Chinese art and relics; Information on the building material used in the construction of the museum; Resemblance of the museum with an ancient Chinese bronze urn; Inclusion of modern gadgets such as cordless headsets.

Reports that although Hong Kong's economy is in good shape, tourist attractions are gone and prices have increased dramatically. Reasons why the attractions are gone; Reasons for the inflation; Hong Kong prices of various goods compared to prices in New York City; Recommendation to visit, and brief description of Macao, Taipei, Xiamen, and Shanghai.

The article presents information on Yizheng Chemical Fiber Co. Ltd., China's largest maker of polyester. Yizheng's plant is relatively modern, its oldest factory entering production in 1984. The newness is a significant advantage in a nation where most state enterprises must make do with ancient Chinese equipment; Yizheng's plant and technology came from the West. The government in Beijing owns 60% of the equity, private Chinese investors own 5%, with the remaining 35% trading actively in Hong Kong.

Claims that inflation is threatening China's economic growth and examines other problems hampering market reform. Opinion that the Chinese rulers remain socialists at heart; Maanshan Iron & Steel Co.; How plants like Maanshan have modern technology yet are inefficient because plant managers have their hands tied when it comes to staffing levels; The state-owned plants as welfare agencies.

The article focuses on the career of Richard Lee of Wo Kee Hong Ltd., and discusses his work in the stereo equipment market in China. One of Richard Lee's first moves on joining Wo Kee Hong was to begin exporting stereo equipment to southern China. In 1982 he began marketing Pioneer Electronic's laser disk players in Hong Kong, Macao and China, just two years after the Japanese company had launched the digital disk technology. The Pioneer machines distributed by Wo Kee Hong hold over 60% of the household laser disk market in Hong Kong and China, and 80% of the commercial market. And there is still enormous room to grow as disposable income in China compounds.

This article presents information on Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd. Johnson Electric turns out 13 million micromotors a month; most are assembled just across the border, in China's Guangdong Province. Johnson is the world's second-largest micromotor manufacturer. Johnson's earnings have increased every year since 1982; the company manages to shrug off recessions in major markets by finding new customers and producing motors for new applications. Johnson Electric was started in 1959 by chairman Patrick Wang's father, Wang Seng Liang. To stay close to its customers, Johnson operates design and technical centers in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

This article profiles Oei Hong Leong and his Hong Kong, China-based publicly traded investment vehicle China Strategic Investment Ltd. (CSI), which has committed to spend about $300 million on the mainly domestic consumer-good factories. Oei has used connections and his considerable charm to buy controlling interests in nearly 200 former state-run factories in China since early 1992. Last year CSI simultaneously purchased a majority stake in all 41 state- run factories in Quanzhou from the local government, and took control of more than 30 plants in Ningbo, a deep-water port near Shanghai. Early this year Oei's firm snapped up 101 state-owned factories in the northeast port city of Dalian. Production capacity of CSI's pulp and paper plant in Ningbo was raised from 36,000 tons to 50,000 tons after the process was adjusted by experts brought in from Indonesia.

The article focuses on the Hong Kong's most profitable newspaper "The South China Morning Post." Publisher of an English-language daily with a circulation of just 110,000 in a city that's 97% Chinese, South China Morning Post (Holdings) Ltd. earned $68 million--after taxes--on $118 million in revenues in the fiscal year 1992. In late 1986 to early 1987, the owners sold the paper to Media Tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd. In buying the Post, Murdoch saw something that escaped the sellers: a tight labor market and a surging middle class of Chinese job-hoppers who eagerly pored over the Post's classified help-wanted advertisements. Since Murdoch acquired the Post, classified lineage has nearly trebled and rates have been almost doubled. Such large employers as Hongkong Bank and Cathay Pacific are virtually permanent job advertisers.

Discusses how Robert Theleen invested on the coattails of Hong Kong industrialists pouring in the Guangdong province of China and did well. Loss of money by United States corporations who invested in Bejing; Chairman and cofounder of Hong Kong-based ChinaVest Ltd.; Companies that are benefitting from the capitalist ferment in China.

Reports that as there is risk in every business and career decision, so is there risk in Hong Kong's future. Yet it remains fertile ground for Americans seeking their fortunes. Profiles several businessmen including a hotelier, a mountain gear man, and a publisher.

The article reports that China and East Asia have more influence on the world's oil price fluctuations than the United States does. Prices are driven by that last barrel of demand, not by the installed base of consumption. Demand is huge in the U.S., but it grows by only 1 per cent a year; consumption in Western Europe is flat. Meanwhile, demand in China and India races ahead. Last year, Asia accounted for 92 per cent of global net growth in oil consumption, up from 68 per cent in 1999, according to the East-West Center, a Honolulu-based research institution. Many of Asia's largest oilfields are petering out and exploration prospects are poor.

The article describes how Charles Zhang, an entrepreneur and the founder of Chinese-language search engine and directory Sohu.com, manages to operate a Web portal in China, where active Web users are jailed. Figures presented show the revenues generated by Sohu and the amount of capital raise from investors since 1996. Topics covered include the relaunch of Sohu with the addition of content, and the shift of Internet users from academics and so-called black guests to young urban professionals.

The article discusses the different business investments of Robert Theleen, a Vietnamese veterinarian and president of Orange Nassau Asia Ltd., in China. According to the author, Theleen invested three capital funds in companies manage by Chinese entrepreneurs. Theleen states that despite the economic and political turmoil faced by the country, it is still business as usual on the industrial zones and they never perceive any signs on the effect of the situation in their business operations.

The article reports on the economic conditions in Hong Kong following the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China in 1997. Topics discussed include the regional turmoil adversely affecting the region's economy, the decline of the stock markets, and the decrease in property prices in 1998. Also mentioned are the business conditions in Hong Kong following its handover to China.

The article examines China's economic condition in the wave of Asian financial crises in 1997. It emphasizes that the economic mess in East Asia may prod Beijing's rulers into speeding the reform process. China ha so far escaped the worst of the Asian economic crisis, in part because its currency, the renminbi, is not fully convertible and is therefore not vulnerable to attacks by currency speculators. But China, too, will be hurt as markets for its goods dwindle in neighboring economies and as those economies dump goods in an effort to earn foreign exchange.

States that the Chinese are becoming obsessed with computers. The popularity of a television show that educates the masses about personal computers through the antics of a fictional family; the Chinese culture as putting value on educating their children and improving job prospects; Home personal computers as a fast growing market segment; The brand leader being Legend, a state supported manufacturer; IBM, HP and Compaq following.

The article presents information about the computer publications of International Data Group Inc. (IDG) in China. IDG has partnered with Chinese government bodies in producing these computer publications. IDG chairman Patrick McGovern forecasted that revenues of $80 million in China in the present year and said that China is already his third-largest publishing market, after the U.S. and Germany. McGovern reinvests profits in China, some of it through a $100 million venture capital fund. McGovern thinks his company's revenues in China could surpass those in the U.S. in a decade.

This article discusses increased advertising revenues in China. As consumer demand in China takes a great leap forward, so does advertising. According to Lynda Graham, boss of Saatchi & Saatchi's China operation, the 1993 advertising spending there rose 42%, in real terms, to nearly $2 billion. Foreign companies are charged a big premium over Chinese companies, plus there's constant pressure to pay bribes in exchange for print space and air time. Then there's the Beijing newspaper that rejected an advertisement submitted by an agency.

States that China's economic boom poses an interesting problem for the administration of President-elect Bill Clinton. If it follows a China policy in line with Clinton's views before he comes into office, the United States risks losing a potentially vast export market. Linking trade with human rights; Recommendations.

States that a few years ago they weren't interested in the place, but now United States fund managers have caught China fever. Economic boom in southern China; Rising Hong Kong stock market index; Predictions for the future of the Chinese economy as a world powerhouse.

Reports that as the 1997 deadline for Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty nears, the future of Hong Kong and its six million inhabitants could give any business executive an upset stomach. Details the move of Dairy Farm Co., overseas, to nearby Taiwan. Enormous potential in Taiwan; Plans.

Reports on the implications of the upgrading of Chinese people's diet and the massive increase in imports of foods and feed grains for countries like the United States and Australia. Typical urban Chinese diet; Growth of meat, egg and fish consumption; Inability of China's farm sector to keep up with the surging demand; Wheat importation; China's potential to influence the price of grain. INSET: Helping China to help itself, by Georgi Stickels..

Focuses on the predicted growth of China's cellular telephone market to benefit foreign telecommunication companies. Trend boosted by the Chinese government's investment support for telecommunication infrastructure; Market growth credited to the marketing campaigns of mobile phone handset vendors in the country.