China

Gordon G. Chang: China’s Car Sales Are a Fraud

By Bertel Schmitt
October 23, 2009 If right-wingnut Glenn Beck needs a China hater on the tube, he usually calls Gordon G. Chang. Chang is always good for talking bad about China. In 2001, Gordon Chang published a book titled. “The Coming Collapse of China.” In it, he predicted that China would implode by 2006, if not earlier, due to the [...]

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Posted in China | Editorials | 41 comments

Editorial: Where’s The Yellow Peril?

By Bertel Schmitt
October 18, 2009

A year ago, the 21st Century Business Herald reported that SAIC might buy GM and Dongfeng might buy Chrysler. TTAC was the first to break the story in the USA. As a result, our servers melted down, and we were accused of driving down GM’s and Chrysler’s stock price. Usually, buyout rumors drive prices up. But GM and Chrysler had only one way to go: Down. Months later, GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. They became a ward of the US government. Chrysler was given away to Fiat. GM was trimmed down to the barest minimum and is still owned by the US government. And the China story turned out to be a myth. Following this, stories of Chinese car companies buying US car companies became a regular staple. Up to now, it is mostly talk and little action.

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Posted in China | Editorials | 32 comments

Editorial: Trade War Watch 1: Yes, We Can Start a Trade War

By Bertel Schmitt
September 12, 2009

President Obama paid his outstanding union dues and slapped a 35 percent punitive tariff on Chinese car and light truck tires exported to the USA. The new duty will take effect on September 26 and comes in addition to an existing 4 percent duty, Reuters reports. Everybody, except for the United Steelworkers, agrees that this is one of the most boneheaded decisions of the new administration.

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Posted in China | Editorials | Trade War Watch | 75 comments

Editorial: What Would Deng Xiaoping Do?

By Bertel Schmitt
June 17, 2009

China is becoming the new America, while America is becoming the old China. Jack Perkowski thinks it's happening right now. Jack is an Old China Hand and a colleague in the automotive parts business. He's an American, and a Yale graduate. 15 years ago, he came to China and started ASIMCO, an auto component manufacturing company. In January, Perkowski left the company. The global decline in the business didn't spare ASIMCO. Perkowski is a true Lao Wai, which literally translates into "Old Foreigner" in Mandarin. From one of the first in China, we inherited a lot of his experience. Some is chronicled in Perkowski's book Managing the Dragon, which made the best seller lists. Most is regularly updated in Perkowski's blog that goes by the same name. In a recent post, he left us some interesting thoughts. Some may find them revolting, even seditious.

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Posted in China | Editorials | Industry | 25 comments

Editorial: Beijing Tells Hummer to Buzz Off

By Bertel Schmitt
June 6, 2009

China's central government clearly isn't enthralled with Tengzhong getting intimate with Hummer. If you want to get a feel for how they really feel, all you need to do is read Xinhua, their official news agency. Xinhua speaks for China's government - with plausible deniability if something goes wrong. As far as Hummer goes, every single day, Xinhua has sown FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about the marriage. Today's Hummer deathwatch, Xinhua style, opens as follows: "General Motor's Hummer is considered as an exaggerated and extreme example of a disregard for the environment and there are significant brand negatives for the Chinese company Tengzhong to buy it." Make the jump for more death sentences ....

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Posted in China | Editorials | 34 comments

Editorial: GM China: “We Can’t Be Listed in the Filing.” Yes, You Can

By Bertel Schmitt
June 2, 2009

Government Motors is launching a barrage of press releases in an attempt to shock and awe all naysayers. All is fine with its Asian operations, they are insulated from the bankruptcy of the mother ship, it's great business as usual. As far as China (GM's second largest market behind the United States) is concerned, business never has been better! It seems everybody is counting on the Chinese consumer to bail out the US government's bailout. Bankruptcy filing in New York? Never heard of it. It ain't us. There's no such thing. Suan Le Ba! Fuhgedaboutit.

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Posted in China | Editorials | 9 comments

Editorial: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in China for GM’s C11

By Bertel Schmitt
June 1, 2009

US SecTreas Timothy Geithner quickly got out of DC for the Monday curtain call of the artist now known as Government Motors. Geithner went as far as Beijing to distance himself from the performance. Keeping a distance didn't mean keeping his mouth shut. From Chrysler and GM, "we want a quick, clean exit as soon as conditions permit," Geithner told students at Peking University in Beijing. Reuters took notes. "We're very optimistic these firms will emerge from restructuring without further government assistance." Strangely, everybody shares his optimism . . .

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Posted in China | Editorials | Industry | 10 comments

Editorial: Volt Syndrome Strikes In China

By Edward Niedermeyer
April 20, 2009 A few weeks of vacation from the blogosphere's non-stop news cycle can leave a blogger feeling a bit behind the times. Two weeks is an eternity in internet time, but stepping away from the barrage of news, spin, hype and hysteria is good for the sense of perspective. Especially if the down time is spent exploring countries on the local typical family vehicle, complete with two wheels, four speeds and about 100ccs of thundering power. Beyond the sheer novelty of seeing entire families commuting on a moped ("Daddy, Nguyen isn't staying on his side of the pillion seat"), travel in the developing world shows how insulated America is from the transportation realities of the rest of the world. If the $1,000 entry to the world of moped ownership is a major (if attainable) hurdle for workaday Vietnamese, even sub-$10k vehicles face what a GM sales release might call "a challenging sales environment." Try to explain the "green premium" for hybrids and plug-in vehicles to an auto-aspirational third-worlder, and watch as the idea of paying more for less room and power draws only puzzled bemusement. Hair shirts, it appears, are strictly a fad for the western and wealthy. Case in point: the world's first plug-in hybrid, the Chinese BYD F3DM.

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Posted in China | Editorials | Electric vehicles | Green | Sales and Marketing | 8 comments

Editorial: GM Shrivels, Chery Blossoms, Detroit’s Brands Shipped Off To China

By Bertel Schmitt
February 13, 2009

Yesterday, we related a Reuters report that SAIC might buy out the Chinese part of GM, that GM might take the money and bail. Today, true to form, the denials arrived. Again according to Reuters, GM says they have no plan to sell shares in its joint venture SAIC. This according to Henry Wong, a spokesman for General Motors China. Reuters is positive that GM held talks with SAIC Motor about selling part of its 50 percent stake in the joint venture, or other assets. As if on cue, GM's plan to enter a joint venture with SAIC's competitor FAW received new traction today. The plan had been on hold for a while.

In the meantime, the speed dating game between Chinese companies and desperate Detroit companies who want to swap their corporate children for cash continues. Today on the radar screen, again: Volvo. Reuters has picked up indications that Chinese car maker Chery Automobile has held talks with several European auto brands, including Ford's Volvo, and is interested in an acquisition. Volvo and GM are not alone.Whole China is turning into a speed dating frenzy, anything goes, and the dates are getting cheaper by the minute.

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Posted in China | Editorials | 21 comments

Unsafe At Any Sense: Ralph Nader Punks Chinese Auto Parts Makers

By Bertel Schmitt
December 21, 2008 Failed four time presidential candidate and god of all ambulance chasers Ralph Nader has found a new enemy: China. The Center for Auto Safety, founded by Ralph Nader with part of the $425K court settlement paid by GM in 1970 for invasion of his privacy, has been researching recalls of Chinese auto parts. Those recalls are now posted on the safety center's website. The New York Times took the bait, and ran a long story under the headline "Recalls of Chinese Auto Parts Are a Mounting Concern." If the NYT would have just taken 20 minutes of research, they would have found that they've been snowed.

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Posted in China | Editorials | 49 comments