Asia

Hong Kong has a history of being a refuge for exiled political leaders. Sun Yat-sen attended school there made it a base from which to agitate for the eventual fall of the Qing dynasty. Filipino independence leader Emilio Aguinaldo was sent to Hong Kong by Spain in the late 1800s before returning to fight against colonial rule. Now there …

Further to Ling’s post below is the news that the auction went off without a hitch (actually that’s an understatement: it pulled in $260 milllion) after a judge threw out the appeal to stop the sale of the heads. Pierre Berge, Saint-Laurent’s former partner who is conducting the sale seems like a scrappy fellow. Here’s exactly what he …

Here’s a tidbit from the China Daily to follow up on the Merrill Lynch post below:

Lian Ping, chief economist of Bank of Communications, China’s fifth largest commercial lender, said Sunday that the Chinese economy is expected to pick up speed starting from the second quarter this year.

The Shanghai-based bank predicted China could

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For a diplomatic meet-and-greet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s weekend visit to Beijing produced a surprising number of developments. They all seemed to fall in the category of things which are known but not usually said, especially by diplomats. As I wrote on Saturday, Clinton signaled ahead of her arrival that she wasn’t …

Just got this from Merrill Lynch. Given economists (and fund managers) recent track record on predicting the course of future economic development, I am a little skeptical, to put it mildly. But who knows? Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an approaching train:

FEBRUARY 18, 2009, NEW YORK AND LONDON – Fresh optimism

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Here’s the web story from my trip into the Tibetan area of Qinghai Province that I mentioned in an earlier post below.

Oops. We were a bit too quick to post on the a-little-to-perfect story about the impact of the deteriorating economy in China below. Apologies. And thanks to Roland Soong, (among others) for pointing this out.

Lin Yang writes:

Unfortunately, the “mistresses get pink slips” story we read about turned out to be a least partly and

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My colleague Lin Yang writes:

With the flagging economy, no one’s job is secure, not even for a mistress. A Qingdao newspaper reported that a Qingdao businessman facing money problems decided to “fire” four out of his five mistresses last December.

According to the paper the man, surnamed Fan, was “inspired by those

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The state press reported today that Beijing has added nearly 1,500 new cars a day so far this year, about 100 more daily than last year. With the economic slump, declining auto sales and ongoing restrictions on driving in the Chinese capital, you’d think that the rate at which new vehicles jam onto the streets here would at least slow. …

For more on Hillary Clinton’s Asia tour, our colleague Massimo Calabresi has the view from Washington on what issues the new U.S. Secretary of State will discuss in Beijing including North Korea, Iran, Taiwan and the economic crisis.

Just back from a trip to the Tibetan areas of Qinghai province, where things are very tense in the wake of the new year holiday. Celebrations were largely aborted by Tibetans to commemorate the shootings in Lhasa last year where ordinary Tibetans believe that thousands of their compatriots were killed. Official Chinese figures say 19 …

My colleague Jessie Jiang examines the attack this weekend on a prominent Chinese writer:

As many followers of the Chinese blogosphere will know, Xu Lai, a popular blogger and reporter whose blog “ProState In Flames ” has become a major source of political humor for many, was stabbed by two unidentified men on Valentine’s Day at an

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