BEIJING, Oct. 10 – The China Securities Regulatory Commission has requested unofficial ‘audits’ of all foreign financial institutions operating in the country, amid concerns that an overseas bank failure could lead to the global credit crisis spilling over the mainland.

The decision also includes Hong Kong banks as well as international entities. CSRC has ordered that all joint-venture fund management groups to report on the financial stability of their foreign partners and provide details of how the global banking crisis could affect operations in China.

According to an e-mail sent by the CSRC and obtained by Reuters, “Recently, the international capital markets are hugely affected by the subprime crisis.”

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Oct. 9 – The world’s central banks cut short-term interest rates almost simultaneously in an effort to deal with the worsening global financial crisis.

The central banks in the United States, the Euro zone, Britain, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Switzerland cut short-term interest rates by a half percentage point, noting that “the recent intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Bank of England cut its rate by half a point to 4.5 percent and the European Central Bank’s 21-member Governing Council agreed to slice its rate by half a point to 3.75 percent from 4.25 percent.

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Oct. 8 – According to an official from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), ninety percent of foreign-funded companies in China will be unionized by the end of this year; eventually all foreign-funded companies will have trade unions by 2009.

Wang Ying, a division chief of the grassroots organizations and capacity for ACFTU told China Daily that currently 82 percent of foreign-funded companies have trade unions.

In July, only less than 50 percent of the Fortune 500 firms in country had trade unions. There are more than 4,100 major foreign companies run by the Fortune 500 doing business in the country.

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Oct. 7 – Although its name is obscure, Manzhouli is an important gateway for business in Inner Mongolia and receives 60 percent of all of China’s trade to and from Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe.

It is the country’s largest inland port of entry.

Manzhouli borders the Russian city of Zabaykalsk with a free trade zone that allows residents from both sides to cross visa free.

Many Russian citizens have actually purchased property and live on the Chinese side because houses are cheaper and considered to be better made.

The combined population of the two cities is about 400,000, with 250,000 of them living on the Chinese side. Manzhouli, while small in terms of population, is an important gateway to Russia and is fast developing as a trading city.

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By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Oct. 6 - The extensive plans to develop trade links between Xinjiang and Central Asia have led Middle Eastern investors to become interested in assisting China in opening up the region to global trade.

The stakes seem to be more than just about money. Moderate Islam has been under threat from insurgents in the region, preying largely on poverty and creating divisions within the Muslim Diaspora. To correct this, and at the same time lift millions of Muslims within the Central Asian regions out of poverty, are becoming a priority for governments from Ankara to the Middle East.

This suits China’s plans too since a stable Xinjiang Province will no longer be an issue for mainstream Muslim thinkers. Instead, there is the prospect of increased trade with China as road and rail links running into the region become convenient and increasingly attractive for all.

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Oct. 3 - Kunming is a long way from the prosperous eastern coastal regions and until recently its development has been stunted by its isolation. Foreign investors have so far been much slower to embrace the city. Even since the central government implemented the Go West policy, levels of FDI have remained low. However, all this could change as Kunming is in a position to benefit from a potentially historic opportunity. The city has been earmarked as a major commercial and financial hub for the upcoming China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area. Once put into effect in 2010 the FTA will be the world’s largest, encompassing 1.8 billion people.

In addition, Kunming is ideally placed to take advantage of the increasing trade between India and China as traditionally frosty relations between the two regional giants have improved.

Kunming is one of China’s 30 second- or third-tier cities to watch in the coming five years according to the 2007 report, China 30: China’s Rising Urban Stars by real estate, by services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. The report focused on the 26 mainland cities other than Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen that the study believes will be on the radar screen of real estate occupiers, investors and developers over the next five years. (more…)

Oct. 2 - Yichang, the ancient Hubei trading town sited on the Yangtze River just downstream from the Three Gorges Dam, is poised to boom as the city makes it’s presence felt as the gateway to the Three Gorges and the subsequent river trade it controls. At the west of China’s Hubei province,Yichang is where the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River are divided. Thanks to its advantageous geographic location, Yichang has been defined as a distributing center, an important trading port and a transportation hub along the Yangtze river linking West Hubei and East Sichuan since ancient times. (more…)

Oct. 1 - Liuzhou, the second largest city in Guangxi and the region’s industrial center, is poised to become a major recipient of relocating domestic manufacturers and an investment hub for access to trade with South-East Asia. It is, in many ways, an archtypal second tier city.

The city, which is bisected by the Liujiang River in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has convenient land and water communications and is a newly developing industrial base. It is also rich in natural resources, being a major global supplier of zinc. It lies 150 kilometers from Guilin in the northeast, 250 kilometers from the provincial capital of Nanning in the southwest, and about 400 km from the sea ports at Beihai, Fangcheng, and Qinzhou. (more…)

Sept. 30 - Changzhou, a second-tier city nestled between Nanjing and Suzhou on China’s east coast, is beginning to bloom into a bustling manufacturing hub. Two hours by train from Shanghai, the city offers foreign investors competitive skilled labor, reasonable land costs, and a foreign-investor-friendly local government offering manufacturers who want to expand or relocate in China a more affordable alternative than Shanghai.

In 2007, the booming city boasted a GDP of US$25.8 billion and a GDP per capita of over US$7,000. Changzhou’s pillar industries include machinery, electronics, information technology, renewable energy, advanced materials and bio-pharmaceuticals. Machinery is this manufacturing city’s primary industry. Changzhou is an important base for rail and metro equipment, power transmission, distribution equipment as well as agricultural and construction equipment. (more…)

Sept. 29 - During the Han and Tang Dynasties, Zibo, at the center of Shandong province, was a major source of the commodity that gave the Silk Road its name. Today, Zibo continues to be an important industrial base because, though now its the city’s rich resources in coal, kaolin and other chemicals that makes it a must stop.

The city has 5 districts and 3 counties under its jurisdiction. Each district is only 20 kilometers apart from each other making transportation within the city easy. The city is well connected by road to the capital, Jinan and to other major destinations via the national network. Zibo is linked to the provincial capital of Jinan via a high speed rail link that only takes 30 minutes. (more…)