The International Federation Red Cross (Federation) is planning to launch a multi-million dollar appeal to support the Chinese Red Cross Society’s Earthquake response for victims of the Chengdu disaster.
Those interested to support this effort can either make contributions directly to the Chinese Red Cross Society, or to the Federation’s Beijing office (contact Carl Naucler: +86-10-6532-7162).  For corporations wishing to make contributions from their home offices in the U.S. to a registered 501C charity, the American Red Cross will be facilitating collection of donations which will be provided towards this International Appeal, in support of the Chinese Red Cross efforts.  For more information on how to contribute directly via the American Red Cross HQ in Washington D.C., please contact their Regional Representative for Asia at +91-99-7180-0406, or e-mail rayyis@gmail.com. 

Thanks to Ramsey A. Rayyis, senior field representative at the American Red Cross for passing along this valuable information.
If your firm is contributing to the relief effort, please let us know by posting about here.

The embassy has issued a travel alert for all US residents and visitors in China. The e-mail, sent out to people on the amcitbeijing@state.gov e-mail list, cautions Americans about the threat of terrorist activity by unspecified groups. From the e-mail:

There is a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within China in the near future. In light of these security concerns, citizens traveling in China are advised to use caution and to be alert to their surroundings at all times, including at hotels, in restaurants, on public transportation and where there are demonstrations and other large-scale public gatherings. Consistent with our standard advice, American citizens are urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations.

For those who have been in other cities during the Olympics, is this kind of warning standard or is does there appear to be a different approach by the State Dept. to security this year?

There’s more information about travel safety and specifics about the 2008 summer Games on the State Dept. website.

The Chinese government earlier this week outlined its remaining plans to clear the air for the summer Games.  The International Herald Tribune reports on the details.

The measures announced Monday include a two-month halt in construction, beginning July 20, and government directives that will force coal-burning power plants to reduce their emissions by 30 percent throughout most of the summer. Officials said that 19 heavy-polluting enterprises, including steel mills, coke plants and refineries, would be either temporarily mothballed or forced to reduce production. Gas stations that do not meet environmental standards will closed, as will all cement production, and the use toxic solvents outdoors will be forbidden.
Read the whole article.

The article goes on to quote Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau urging reporters to “just tell everybody they don’t have to worry.”

In late August of last year AmCham-China members met with a US International Trade Commission (ITC) delegation visiting China.  The group was in Beijing gathering information from business leaders for use in a report about China’s economic policy. AmCham members offered insights about the current business climate and shared their assessments of Chinese policies governing innovation and R&D, as well as their analysis of the current state of standards development  in various industry sectors.

The the first report generated by the ITC delegation, “China: Description of selected Government Practices and Policies Affecting Decision- Making in the Economy”  is now available as a pdf. This exhaustive document, delivered to the US House and Ways Committee, examines industrial development, rationalization and privatization in the state and non-state sectors and in domestic and foreign invested enterprises. It also provides information about banking and finance, infrastructure development, price coordination, utility rates and taxation.

The Associated Press is reporting that, according to travel agents, Chinese authorities are no longer issuing multiple-entry visas to foreigners. Additionally, visa processing in Hong Kong has been slowed down.  While this might not be a big problem for visitors only coming to China for the Olympics, it could be a massive headache for those who need to travel for business in the region. Read the full story on the IHT site.  Have you been affected by the changes in visa policy? How do you anticipate handling the situation?

Chinese inflation might be causing bigger problems than costing you more to eat huiguo rou  and beer at dinner time in Beijing. Economists are starting to re-evaluate whether America’s historic streak of low inflation is rooted as much in the low cost of imports as the “genius of Greenspan.” The NY Times has a front page article on the issue today:

“Inflation is the major threat to Asian countries,” said Jong-Wha Lee, the head of the Asian Development Bank’s office of regional economic integration.

It is also a threat to Western consumers because Asian exporters, even in very poor countries, are passing their rising costs on to customers.

Developing countries have had bouts of inflation before. Indeed, some are famous for them, like Brazil, which experienced triple-digit inflation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But two things make this time different, and together promise to send prices higher at Wal-Mart and supermarkets alike in the United States, just as the possibility of recession looms.

If China begins (continues?) exporting inflation to the US, it’s just possible that politicians in America might begin longing for the days of “currency manipulation.”

While it has not received extensive media coverage, the below announcement via Xinhua is an important one. Please keep checking AmCham Daily for other relevant Olympics transportation and logistical updates.

Beijing subways will try to run round-the-clock on the opening and closing days of the Olympic Games.

The move was aimed at relieving heavy traffic on the two days, Aug. 8 and Aug. 24, while the operating hours would be extended on other days of the Games, Tuesday’s Beijing Daily quoted an official with the Beijing metro operation company as saying, without giving further details.

The subway is expected to carry the bulk of passengers to the National Stadium, also known as the “bird’s nest”, on the opening day when about 100,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony, he said.

The No. 10 route linking the stadium with the downtown area was expected to have intervals between trains shortened from four minutes to three minutes during the ceremonies, said the official.

Subway stations would have “green channels” for ticket holders, Games staff and volunteers, who will be exempted from paying the 2-yuan fare during the Olympics.

According to an article just released by AmCham-China’s news service SinoFile, the first phase of the “wireless city” plan for Beijing will be finished at the end of this month. This project, based on Wi-Fi and WiMAX technology, is for the Olympic Games. Beijing-based CECT-ChinaComm is building the network.  Here’s the original story in Chinese.

Earlier this month the US Chamber of Commerce hosted an event with Congressmen Rick Larsen (D-WA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Steve Israel (D-NY) on the “US-China Competitiveness Agenda”, a series of bills they have introduced, along with Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA), aimed at bolstering US competitiveness with China, and expanding resources for bilateral engagement.

The bills would:

• Increase resources for American SMEs exporting to China
• Expand America’s diplomatic infrastructure in China
• Make more funds available for Chinese language teaching in the US
• Create new cooperative energy ties between the US and China.

The US Chamber expressed its strong support for Congressmen Larsen, Kirk, Israel, and Davis’ efforts in a press release, which can be found on the US Chamber’s website along with a webcast of the event.

Do these bills go far enough? What needs to be added or subtracted?

What do AmCham-China’s Chair James Zimmerman and China’s top action star Jet Li have in common?

It might not be instantly apparent, but the two share a love of baseball. Chair Zimmerman poses here with Jet Li, the star of such Chinese movie classics as “The Shaolin Temple”, “Hero” and the soon-to-be released movie “The Forbidden Kingdom,” which also features Jackie Chan. They met at last week’s reception for Major League Baseball.  Jet Li threw out the first baseball at Sunday’s game between the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.

From most reports, the games went well after sports fans finally got into the stadium; the security was quite tight and many people  had to wait in long lines to get into Wukesong stadium. And then there was the issue of running out of refreshments.
Any other incidents?