Are We Turning Chinese?

During the 80's, according to The Vapors; we were turning Japanese...

According to Dong Tao, chief Asia economist of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), Chinese demand for oil has been just 2% higher so far this year than in 2004; demand for cement has been flat; and that for aluminium has declined by 5%.

Analysts had been expecting growth of 10-12% for cement and 6-7% for oil and aluminium. So much for the canard that Chinese demand is driving up oil prices.

And those GDP numbers are deceiving too.... Even though GDP growth still looks robust, at 9%-plus, Mr Dong thinks that “the economy is losing momentum perhaps faster than the market currently believes.”

And as for those trade deficits arguments being used to justify the debasement our currency... examine this

On October 25th The Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, became the first foreign buyout group to gain control of a big Chinese company. Caryle paid $375m for 85% of Xugong, the country's leading maker of construction machinery. Carlyle will nominate six of the nine board directors, says X.D. Yang, co-head of its Asia buyout group.

Carlyle had to pay almost twice book value compared with the 30% premium of previous Chinese private-equity deals. It also had to agree to take on Xugong's 43% share of a listed roadbuilding subsidiary that has just posted big losses. Moreover, because the city government still owns 15%, Carlyle cannot gear up Xugong with debt as in a conventional leveraged buyout, potentially reducing its returns.

Ironically, given the above example and foreign complaints aroused by China's trade surpluses with developed countries, 63.3% of China's export growth last year was produced by foreign-invested enterprises, up from 56.8% in 2000.

We are turning Chinese, I really think so...

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