Advice from Alibaba Founder

Alibaba Founder Jack Ma talks about his firms battle against eBay in China and other interesting issues. Alibaba can be a great resource for sourcing Chiense products, so when Jack speaks, we listen...

Credit to the Chinese Internet Blog for brining this interview to our attention.

Very Impressive China Internet Directory

If you're interested in reading about China and other parts of Asia, this Annotated Directory of Internet Resources is the motherload. Dr. Robert Eng of the University of Redlands updates and maintains the directory, which has received acclaim from the Librarian's Index to the Internet and the Federation of International Trade Associates. We're adding it to our Links section on the lower right --->>>

Cool Blog on China

China Digital News is a blog operated within the journalism department at Cal Berkeley. It's a great source for information about the Internet's rise in China. Most smaller American iimporters without acess to the services of an import broker (such as Facutly Imports) find sources through the Internet, so following trends on Internet usage in China can be very interesting. Check it out some time...

Shakeup in the Textile Industry

The start of '05 brings the expiration of global texitle tariffs. Analsysts forsee massive changes in the global textiles sectors, as quotas are dropped allowing the free market to better determine allocation of productive resources. China figures to attract manufacturing currently done in Thailand, Bangladesh, the Phillipines, and Taiwan, whose smaller and younger textile industries may not be able to compete. Faculty Imports will monitor this development closely in the months to come, both for our clients and readers of the company's "Asian Imports Blog." Read more about the coming textile industry shake up.

WTO complaints against China

The WTO says members filed fewer final anti-dumping measures this year than last. Nonetheless, China commanded the most attention from jealous rivals, attracting 16 new charges that it sells its products abroad below the cost of production.

Interesting Read

I just finished reading "Understanding China," a very interesting book about China's political and economic systems authored by John Bryant Starr, a former UC Berkeley and Yale professor. This is one of the first books I've read about China that is not optimistic about the future prospects. The author conisistently argues that the myriad problems faced by the Chinese are too large and complicated to be handled by the inept and corrupt central government. While I disagree with many of his findings, I found it refreshing to read an alternative to the down-right giddy reporting on China's econoimc outlook that appears in most newspapers and magazines. Link to Amazon page on Understanding China...