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china
china
Best Buy To Employees: "Don't Worry About Stores Being Closed. We're Opening Stores In China"
By Chris Morran on January 31, 2012 2:15 PM
99 Comments
Back in January, Best Buy CEO Brian "Brooks and" Dunn confirmed reports that the electronics retailer would continue to shrink the footprint of its bricks-and-mortar stores. But a recent memo sent to employees says not to worry about those shuttered outlets because Best Buy is opening up new stores — in China. More »
Cheap Chinese Labor Will Die On Jan 1 With A Minimum Wage Increase
By Ben Popken on November 11, 2011 2:00 PM
62 Comments
Many of the things you buy and own were touched at some point by Chinese hands, and those hands are about to get a little more expensive. The Guangdong province in China, the seat of the country's manufacturing might, is going to get a 20% minimum wage increase starting January 1st, 2012. More »
(mrbill)
U.S. Hoping Chinese People Will Travel Here To Buy Products Made There
By Chris Morran on October 3, 2011 3:30 PM
37 Comments
With a large number of Americans still feeling the sting of the economic doldrums, the U.S. is banking on a hope that tourists from China will come to this country and spend money on products that were probably made in China. More »
(Manhattan District Attorney's Office)
Feds Seize Deadly And Illegal Pest Poison Called "The Cat Be Unemployed"
By Ben Popken on September 21, 2011 12:30 PM
108 Comments
The amusing name belied the deadly and illegal contents. "The Cat Be Unemployed" read the package, featuring a yellow background with a bright-eyed cartoon feline and thick black Chinese characters underneath. Within, was rat poison, and the chemical brodifacoum at 61 times its legal limit. It doesn't kill just rodents. More »
China's Demand For PCs Overtakes That Of U.S.
By Phil Villarreal on August 24, 2011 8:30 AM
20 Comments
According to research firm estimates, China's hunger for devouring PCs is finally surpassing that of the U.S. During the second quarter of the year, shipments in China rose 14 percent to 18.5 million while they fell 4.8 percent in the U.S. to 17.7 million. More »
(FRBSF)
Only 1.2% Of American Spending Actually Ends Up In China
By Ben Popken on August 11, 2011 1:00 PM
71 Comments
For all the ballyhoo about how Chinese products have infiltrated our shelves, it turns out that only 1.2% of American spending actually ends up in their coffers. How is this? More »
(TVS)
Landlord Suspected Of Releasing Thousands Of Scorpions To Get Tenants Out
By Ben Popken on August 9, 2011 5:00 PM
69 Comments
A man named Chen woke up recently to find a scorpion crawling over his body. Snapping on the bedroom light, he found his bedroom to be full of scorpions. He gathered his family and worked to capture several hundred of the arachnids. When they left the apartment, they found their neighbors had been battling the poison-tipped beasts, and their landlord, who wants them out to make way for a construction project, is suspected of letting them loose. More »
China Shuts Down Two Fake Apple stores
By Ben Popken on July 25, 2011 10:00 AM
52 Comments
Chinese officials moved to shut down two detailed fake Apple stores in Kumnmig after a blogger's post exposing the counterfeits went viral. More »
Counterfeit World Of Warcraft Theme Park Opens In China
By Ben Popken on July 22, 2011 3:00 PM
86 Comments
The Chinese may have been the first to invent gunpowder and delicious pork-filled fried dumplings, but they have not caught up to the rest of the world when it comes to respecting intellectual property rights. Case in point, the recent opening of an entire themepark dedicated to World of Warcraft and Starcraft, two of the most popular online games in the world, in the Changzhou, Jiangsu province. It's a sprawling $30 million megaplex spanning 600,000 square meters that aspires to compete with Disney and Universal Studios as a global theme park destination. And it's a total knockoff. They didn't pay Blizzard, the company behind those two games, a dime. More »
China's Hypergrowth Fueled By Building Giant Cities No One Lives In
By Ben Popken on July 15, 2011 4:00 PM
112 Comments
Chin up, America. China ain't so great. That 10% GDP growth they've been having? A lot of it is fake. Take this investigate report that looks at the big trend over there of Chinese ghost cities and ghost malls. China is building ten of these cities a year, cities that can serve millions, with rows of apartment complexes, shopping malls, and universities. But almost no one lives in them. By pouring materials and resources and labor in, the government can keep national GDP at its state-mandated levels, even if its not meeting any real demand. It's like someone is playing SimCity with all cheat codes, but this is a game China is going to lose. More »
(jon crel)
Hotels.com Leaves You Without A Place To Stay In Beijing, Shrugs
By Laura Northrup on June 15, 2011 9:30 AM
39 Comments
Dylan traveled to China a few months ago. His consumer complaint doesn't directly involve any company in that country, though: his issue is with the company that was supposed to provide him with a place to stay in Beijing, Hotels.com. Miscommunication ensued when Hotels.com first had the wrong address for the hotel, then failed to actually reserve a room for Dylan. When he called the company for help, he learned that while they help customers book rooms in foreign countries, they don't necessarily have anyone on staff who speaks the language of those countries to smooth over issues. More »
(SZTV)
Boy Wishes He Hadn't Sold His Kidney For An iPad 2
By Ben Popken on June 2, 2011 1:00 PM
119 Comments
A 17-year-old boy in Shanghai is experiencing extreme buyer's remorse after his health has begun to falter after selling his kidney to buy an iPad 2, reports the Global Times. More »
(jerine)
Chinese Prisoners Forced To Farm Warcraft Gold Or Get Beatings
By Ben Popken on May 26, 2011 5:00 PM
65 Comments
To get ahead in online games like the popular World of Warcraft, sometimes people will turn to the black market and purchase in-game gold from other gamers using real world dollars. It sounds relatively harmless, except the person you're buying it from could be a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp under threat of cruel physical punishment. More »
Three Workers Die In Explosion At Foxconn Factory
By Marc Perton on May 23, 2011 11:00 AM
66 Comments
Three workers have died in an explosion at a plant run by Foxconn Technology Group in Hongfujin, China. Fifteen other workers were injured at the plant, said to be a manufacturing base for Apple's iPad. More »
(swiftmed)
Fisticuffs Erupt When iPad 2 Goes On Sale In Beijing
By Ben Popken on May 9, 2011 2:00 PM
54 Comments
Four people were sent to the hospital when the crowd outside Beijing's number one Apple store turned violent as they stormed to get their hands on the new iPad 2 when it went on sale there this weekend, reports AFP. More »
(Start)
Pizza Hut Put Kibosh On The Amazing Salad Towers Of China
By Ben Popken on March 31, 2011 3:00 PM
47 Comments
Our post last week about "How To Game The Salad Bar" reminded commenter power lurker of the Chinese way of playing the game at Pizza Hut. See, in America when you tell people their salad bar is limited to one plate, they shrug because no American eats salad. But in China in the mid to late 2000's, they turned into a competition to see who can create the tallest and most elaborate salad tower. More »
You Can Now Open A Chinese Bank Account, Invest Directly In Yuan
By Ben Popken on January 19, 2011 2:00 PM
43 Comments
This week, for the first time ever, the Bank of China in the US is letting American customers open up accounts and invest directly in Chinese currency. Last year the "closed" currency yuan gained 3.3% against the dollar while the highest American "high interest" accounts were delivering around 1.7%. WSJ gives 5 reasons for getting in on the hot renminbi action: More »
New Law Says Pentagon Must Buy American Solar Panels
By Phil Villarreal on January 11, 2011 9:15 AM
95 Comments
Sorry, Chinese solar panel salesmen, your days of racking up commissions from sales to the American military are over, because a new federal law forbids the Pentagon from buying non-American panels. More »
Starbucks To Grow Its Own Coffee Beans In China
By Chris Morran on November 19, 2010 1:20 PM
44 Comments
In March 2011, Starbucks will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its first store. And while the company has since grown into the beverage behemoth we all know today, it has never attempted to actually grow its own coffee beans. That's all about to change as the Starbucks CEO announced yesterday that they are going to be going the DIY route in China. More »
(Gizmodo)
Pix Of Where The Chinese iPhone Worker-Drones Sleep
By Ben Popken on November 4, 2010 2:00 PM
55 Comments
Gizmodo's Joel Johnson got to peek inside the Foxconn factory in China where your iPhone and other fancy gadgets get made. Some 200,000 workers work inside, and also live in on-site dorms. Perhaps the most gripping images, however, are of what's on the outside. Every building is draped in protective nets to prevent workers from suiciding off the roofs. More »
