LinkChinese UK News

Scotsman newspaper interviews Christian Hogg, founder and chief executive of Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med), which develops Chinese medicines and healthcare products, and bring them to the Western market.

Hogg, who grew up in Jedburgh and went to school at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, founded Chi-Med in 2000 and became its chief executive in 2006, when the company floated on London’s alternative investment market (Aim).

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Mark Kleinman reports in Sunday Telegraph about Financial Times’s publisher, Pearson’s expansion in China. According to the report, Pearson’s plan includes the purchase of LEC, a group of private schools in Shanghai, and the launch of a Chinese-language magazine Rui targeting Chinese business elite.

The deal, likely to be announced this week, underlines Pearson’s aim to expand its Chinese operations as the country’s economic growth presents opportunities for foreign companies. Demand for English language tuition is at an all-time high in mainland China as a result of the country’s continuing integration into the global economy.

China currently accounts for less than 1 per cent of Pearson’s revenues. The group, led by Marjorie Scardino, its chief executive, is keen to tap into the rapid growth in Chinese education spending. Government expenditure is rising at an annual rate of about 15 per cent, while private education spending is growing even more rapidly, at about 25 per cent.

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Xinhua News Agency reports:

BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) — A China Tourism Association official suggested on Saturday that Chinese tourists avoid shopping in the Paris-based Galeries Lafayette.

The unnamed official said the association was concerned about an incident where two Chinese tourists were treated insultingly while shopping in the famed French department store.

“We are discontent and regretted that Chinese tourists were treated so rudely in Paris. We suggest travelers not to go shopping in the store before the incident is properly handled.”

He asked domestic travel agencies to suspend organizing tourists to visit Lafayette.

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Forbes reports:

BEIJING (Thomson Financial) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would be pressing the China’s government to lift restrictions on Chinese companies looking to raise capital on the London Stock Exchange.

Speaking at the opening of the LSE’s representative office as part of his visit here, Brown said he wanted to double the number of Chinese companies listed in London in the next five years. So far 68 have done so.

Full report.

 

Xinhua news agency reports:

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a five-point proposal here Friday to boost China-UK scientific innovation, especially in the fields of technological transfer, joint innovation program, energy and environmental protection, financial service and intellectual property rights (IPR).

Wen made the proposal when he addressed a China-UK business summit. He expressed his hope that the cooperation between the two countries in the fields could help push forward bilateral collaboration in technological innovation and two-way trade to a higher level.

Full report.

 

The Times reports on the new regulatory power given to Natural Healthcare Council:

Aromatherapy, homoeopathy and other popular complementary therapies are to be regulated for the first time under a government-backed scheme to be established this year.

The new Natural Healthcare Council – which is being backed by the Prince of Wales – will be able to strike off errant or incompetent practitioners. It will also set minimum standards for practitioners to ensure that therapists are properly qualified.

Full report.

 

ITV has licensed its popular show Ant and Dec to Chinese Hunan TV (湖南卫视). Intially 13 episode will be made following the show’s formula. The show will be renamed as Super 2008: Friday Night Takeaway.

Guardian’s Mark Sweney reports

ITV is to remake its scandal-hit show Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway for Chinese TV, complete with a new version of the controversial Jiggy Bank phone-in competition using a giant hippo instead of a pig.

Granada International, ITV’s international division, has struck a licensing deal with Hunan TV for a Chinese version called Super 2008: Friday Night Takeaway.

Full report.

 

Euronews reports:

Italy’s Fiat says it has pulled out of a money-losing Chinese joint venture with Nanjing Automobile after the firm merged with bigger Chinese group Shanghai Motors SAIC. Fiat will keep working with Nanjing in making vans and parts, but analysts say the break-up casts doubt on Fiat’s ability to meet its target of selling 300,000 units in China by 2010.

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AFP reports:

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Union is bracing for the expiry of import quotas on Chinese textiles at the end of the year amid fears of a new wave of T-shirts and trousers bearing “Made in China” labels flooding in.

The quotas, which the EU and China agreed to put in place in 2005, are to be replaced with a joint monitoring system that will be on the lookout for new signs of an upsurge in Chinese imports over the ensuing year.

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BBC reports:

Morgan Stanley has revealed a bigger-than-expected write-down of assets and sold a $5bn (£2.5bn) stake to a Chinese sovereign wealth fund.

The US investment bank said that it had been forced to write down $9.4bn for the three months to 30 November.

The bank said last month that it would be taking a charge of $3.7bn.

Morgan Stanley said that the injection from China Investment Corp - which equates to 9.9% of the bank - would help it to replenish its capital.

China’s willingness to invest in Morgan Stanley was seen as a vote of confidence on Wall Street and the firm’s shares rose 4% in Wednesday trading.

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