カテゴリー: News

“Embrace Change, Change is the Best Plan”

   (Alibaba Chairman Ma Yun at Stanford)

 

                     (Photo: China.org.cn)

                         by David Parmer

 Jack Ma the founder and CEO of China’s biggest e-commerce company says he doesn’t understand technology, but he respects those who do. But this is not to say Jack Ma doesn’t get the big picture. In fact he had the big Internet picture in his mind long before a lot of people in China did. In 1999 he founded what is now China’s biggest e-commerce (B to B) company, Alibaba which boasts 79 million members in 240 countries. In 2003 Ma founded Taobao, (C2C) an online Chinese language (now with English pages) website for online shopping similar to eBay and Amazon. Taobao is reported to be the 13^th most popular website in the world.

Forbes magazine estimates Ma’s net worth to be USD$3.4B, and ranks him 395^th in its list of billionaires. Born on September 4, 1964 in Hangzhou, Zheijiang Province, he graduated from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988 with a degree in English, later lecturing in English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. In 1995 he founded China Yellow Pages, one of China’s first Internet companies. He followed this up with Alibaba in 1999, and Taobao in 2003.

 In 2009 Jack Ma became a Trustee of the Nature Conservancy’s China program. Besides being involved in several environmental initiatives, Alibaba also bans all product postings on its website related to shark’s fins, ivory, bear bile and products made from endangered animals.

 On May 10, 2013, the tenth anniversary of the founding of Taobao, Jack Ma retired as CEO of Alibaba, stating that he is “too old” to run an Internet company. He is now Chairman of the Alibaba group which is said to be heading for a restructuring of Alibaba, the first and most comprehensive since its founding in 1999. Rumors of an Alibaba IPO by 2015 are also prevalent.

 Jack Ma at Stanford (Chinese w/English subtitles) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QV1xjGfE2M

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the North Korean military to keep its combat vessles out of sight. A report on May 27th stated that while reviewing North Korean Naval facilities, Kim spotted several vessles in plain sight. He reportedly stressed that even though it was a drill, North Korea’s enemies were placing the country under increased surveillance.

(Sina English/NHK World)

A report, U.S.-China 2022: US-China Economic Relations in the Next Ten Years, issued on May 21 by the Hong Kong based China-United States Exchange Foundation takes a look at the history of China-U.S. economic relations and prospects for the next 10 years.

The foundation asked academics, business and political leaders from both countries to conduct a study of economic relations past and present. U.S.-China 2022 presents a frank and optimistic appraisal of opportunities and areas of contention in the relationship dating from 1978.The massive report contains a main section and a 19-part second section.

 In the Forward, C.H. Tung, Chairman of the China-United States Exchange Foundation wrote: 

“Indeed over the next 10 years, significant economic opportunities and millions of jobs can be created for the peoples of the two countries if the two countries cooperate together closely.”

U.S.-China 2022 first looks at how the U.S.- China relationship has evolved over the past 35 years and notes how interdependent both economies have become. It then focuses on the future to predict how both economies will develop. Points include:

• China must change its model from export led to internal-demand led and from being the world’s factory to being the world’s market.
• The U.S. must make adjustments to deal with unemployment and address trade deficits. At the same time the U.S. should benefit from its strengths in science technology and innovation, and favorable changes in its energy sourcing as shale oil and gas become readily available.

 The report was issued at an event in New York City at the Asia Society on May 21. Similar events were held on May 22 in Washington D.C., and May 23 in Chicago Illinois. The theme for these events were “US-China Relations in the Next Decade.” Speakers and panelists included Henry Kissinger, C.H. Tung Lawrence Lau, Michael Spence, Wang Chung Zheng and Victor Fung.

 View full report online: http://www.uschina2022.com/

Bloomberg-Businessweek story on launch: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-23/the-powerful-people-arguing-for-u-dot-s-dot-china-free-trade 

In a Pentagon briefing on 13 May 2013, U.S. Army Pacific Commander Lt. Gen. Frank Wiercinski said that he believes North Korea is dialing back its rhetoric.

“I’ve seen this for 34 years –cyclical provocation with the grandfather, the father and now the son. It’s – it’s nothing that I wouldn’t– have not expected. However, I would think that this time it was a tenuous situation. For the first time, we deployed theater ballistic missile defense to Guam in protection of the homeland.

 They have a demonstrated capability to place a missile into space. We’ve seen that. They have a purported testing of nuclear weapons systems. And we take that very seriously. But it appears the rhetoric has died down in recent days and we’re hoping that that cycle of provocation has come to its end-point for this — this cycle.”

 As for relations with the Chinese military, Gen. Wiercinski echoed much the same message presented by U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsy in his meetings with Chinese military officials in Beijing in April of this year.

  ” I believe that the Army is — is extremely well-suited to conduct continuous engagement with the Chinese because our army-to-army forces are literally at this point not a threat to each other.

   Our engagements with disaster management exercises, military medicine, engineering projects, these are all peacekeeping operations. These are all excellent opportunities for us to begin mil-to-mil discussions.And I can only hope that those will continue in the future. I believe that with the four-star headquarters coming to U.S. Army- Pacific, that will only increase the opportunity for increased visits. And I see us with a way ahead, as we move forward.” (DP) 

Transcript of Pentagon briefing: http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5237

Ministry of National Defense PRC U.S.-China Talks April 2013: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/TopNews/2013-04/23/content_4444002.htm

                                                         by David Parmer

 Hangzhou-based Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce group bought an 18% share in Shanghai-based Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media, paying $586 million for its preferred and common stock.

Alibaba has an option to increase its stake to 30% at some future time. This tie- up will let marketers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms better connect and serve Weibo users. Cooperation will focus on account connectivity, data exchange, online payments and online marketing. The agreement is expected to create $338 million in ad and social commerce income for Weibo in the next three years.

 Weibo, with 500 million users is China’s most popular micro-blogging service. Alibaba runs Taobao Marketplace, a consumer-oriented e-commerce site and Alibaba, a business-to-business site. (DP)

 Sina Weibo website (Chinese)  http://weibo.com/

 Alibaba website (English)  http://www.alibaba.com/

 

 

                                    Cooperation and Common Interests Are Key

 In an April 24 meeting with former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Dr. Henry Kissinger, China’s newly-elected president, Xi Jinping, said that China-US relations are off to a good start. President Xi stressed common interests, cooperation, exchange and dialog as paramount to good China-US relations. Xi also urged that relations be viewed on a “strategic” level.

 Dr. Kissinger, is a Nobel laureate, and the key architect of the 1972 re-opening of relations between China and the US and of the visit of President Richard Nixon to China. He has traveled to China more than 80 times and has worked to establish, maintain and improve ties between the two countries.

Kissinger, who turns 90 this month published On China in 2011which includes a detailed discussion of the 1970s re-opening process including his meetings with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

 (Compiled from People’s Daily and Web sources) (DP)

 Kissinger website: http://www.henryakissinger.com/index.html

 Atlantic Article, In Defense of Henry Kissinger: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/the-statesman/309283/