I remember 15 years ago, there was the Japanese real estate collapse. Every so often, you would read in the news about the United States trying to pressure Japan to discipline and close the banks with bad real estate loan portfolios.

A few years ago, there was a lot of noise about China’s bank lending to bad companies, and another pressure to close or discipline banks.

Well, its now the american banks turn, and I guess the United States is having a problem also closing these banks. It is always easier to preach….

Apparently, in China you are allowed only one child, but you may keep several spouses or mistresses.

Chinese mistress contest takes tragic turn - CNN.com

A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.

But the contest took a fatal turn when one of the women, eliminated for her looks, drove the man and the four other competitors off a cliff, Chinese media reported.

Just going over Forbes list of Japan’s 40 richest. What is interesting is that the richest man is the retired chairman of Nintendo. He is worth $7.8 billion, and his fortune has recently just tripled since 2006 due to nintendo’s success with the Wii.

what is noteworthy is the average age of the country’s top 40 richest as analyzed by Forbes. It shows you the ‘old’ rich countries, as well as the ‘new’ rich countries quite distinctively. Here is the average age of the country’s top 40 richest:

Germany 68
Japan 66
United States 65
India 56
South Korea 54
China 48
Russia 46

According to Verisign, there are over 76.5 million domains with .com extension, with over 12.1 million with .de extension.

However, domain names with .cn exension grew more than threefold the last 12 months, and is now third largest with 11.8 million, overtaking .net which had 11.6 million as of May 2008.

Reports also indicate that internet users in China is now over 220 million, which might well already overtake the US online population as the largest in the world.

Internet domain name for China surpasses “.net” - Yahoo! News

It is dilemma for US now that it is hit with inflation and slow growth.

Last year, China enjoyed over 250 billion dollars trade surplus with US.

Without China goods, the cost of products to American consumer also increases. After all, it was China who kept inflation at bay for US as well as most of the world.

China yuan hits new high against US dollar - Yahoo! News

The yuan has gained about 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since Beijing revamped its foreign exchange trading system in July 2005, revaluing the currency by 2.1 percent to 8.11 yuan to one dollar.

On Wednesday, the yuan began trading at a 6.8823 to the dollar, continuing a steady advance against the dollar that has taken it to record highs in recent weeks.

It was supposed to be a guarantee of success.

The world’s biggest mall, in the world’s most vibrant region - the Pearl River Delta, in the world’s fastest growing economy hosting the world’s most populous region… but sometimes, everything can be right, and it still didn’t work…

Mall of misfortune - The National Newspaper

The big attraction of the South China Mall was supposed to be its “foreign” design. Learning from Las Vegas, where replicas of European monuments and New York landmarks draw throngs of tourists, the Dongguan mall modeled seven zones after various exotic world locations. Its rooftops reflect at least twenty different influences, from Czech town halls to Turkish mosques.

In this list of the top universities, Harvard University of US is first, OXford University of UK is second, University of Cambridge of UK is third.  Yale University of US is fourth.

In ASEAN, Thailand and Malaysia has five universities in the top 500.  India has eight, and Indonesia has three.  Philippines has two.

University of the Philippines was 398th, and Ateneo de Manila University was 451th.

La Salle University, another prestigious universtiy was 519th, and Santo Tomas was 535th.

QS Top Universities: Top 400 universities in the THE - QS World University Rankings 2007

Hu Jin Tao was reelected president by the national People’s Congress and received 99.7% of the vote.  His hand picked successor Xi Jin Ping, was elected vice president with 98.5 percent of the vote.

You don’t get this kind of unanimity in western countries.  Some will say this hides dissent, but in some way, it gives the enlightened leader a much better free hand to do what is needed to be done.

As we become more global, it amazes me how Asians feel that they don’t understand the American way, and vice versa.

I am currently reading a book entitled, “ Guanxi - The ARt of Relationships… Microsoft, China and bill Gates Plan to Win the Road ahead” by Robert Buderi and Gregory Huang.”

In the book is outlined some of Microsoft’s experiences in trying to bridge cultural diversity and understanding between Western culture and Asian thinking.

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In China, they said, Guanxi ( the art of relationships) is everything.

I guess in most Asian countries, it plays a big role in businesses.  We deal with the Japanese, and the Chinese, and yes, it makes a difference if you are good chummy friends with your partners and customers.  Yes, it pays also to know people who are in power or who makes the decisions.  No, meritocracy still plays second fiddle.  If you are favored, you can win contracts and concessions even if you are not the best supplier or lowest priced contractor.

Yesterday, I meet a Taiwanese and he coined to me a quote:

With Guanxi, then no Guanxi.
No Guanxi, then everything Guanxi.

This is a little bit hard to explain and cryptic.  Although the first Guanxi reads like the second Guanxi, the meaning is different.  Translated it means:

If you have the right relationships, then nothing is impossible.
If you don’t have the right relationships, then everything is difficult.

Relationships goes to the fabric of the culture, and i think it will be sometime before that changes.