Sony is up against an issue that has plagued the studios since at least January: The Chinese government wants to impose a value-added tax that cuts into what the studios expected to be their 25% revenue share of the Chinese box office.
Former French diplomat Lionel Vairon believes that the fear of a rising China results from the inability of Western countries to recognize China’s legitimate national interests. China will become problematic only if dominant powers attempt to contain it and deny its place in the international society.
Arthur Kroeber:
The environment for foreign companies in China has been getting steadily tougher since 2006, when the nation came to the end of a five-year schedule of market-opening measures it pledged as the price of admission to the World Trade Organization. Soon after the WTO-mandated reforms concluded, foreign firms began to complain of an increase in discriminatory practices, more difficulty in getting licences and approvals, and a generally less friendly attitude from officialdom.
As part of a government restructuring program initiated at the National People's Congress in March, the General Administration of Press and Publications was merged with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
As well as diversifying China's sources of fuel, by supplying energy to the vast and less developed west the Myanmar-China gas pipeline could help Beijing's attempts to promote economic growth there.
The report, set to be released on Monday by New York-based nonprofit China Labor Watch, alleges safety and environmental violations; the withholding of worker pay or the identification cards they need to work elsewhere; and poor living conditions.
China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding has launched a free 24-hour live Internet-broadcast of the cuddly critters, state-run Xinhua news agency said Monday.
These past few years as a reporter, I have met some people with nothing left to live for and now another person can be added to the list. Ji Zhongxing, the disabled man who set off a bomb in a Beijing airport on July 20, is that person.
Ji and I are the same age. We were both born in 1979. Last night, when I read his story, I was grabbed by a strange feeling.
China will start a nationwide audit of government debt this week as the new Communist Party leadership investigates the threats to growth and the financial system from a record credit boom. The State Council, under Premier Li Keqiang, ordered the review.
Bo Guagua, the son of disgraced former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, appears to be enrolled in the prestigious Columbia Law School at Columbia University, according to public records available on the school’s website.
