Anyone who has ever traveled during Spring Festival knows that even in the best of circumstances it is frustrating and difficult. Train tickets tend to sell out (often to hawkers who up the prices) and airports are crowded. Basically it’s like Thanksgiving in a country of nearly four times the population of the US.

This year’s blizzards have made a normally difficult situation nearly unbearable. Over at Managing the Dragon they do a good of conveying the problems the snows have caused for travel and potentially the economy, but for many Chinese the situation is more dangerous than simply making getting home tough. For people with not much money, living in places with rudimentary infrastructure, and often with no heat, this year’s blizzards have been nothing short of a disaster.

Hopefully you and your family are able to get out of town, if that’s where you are trying to head, or can stay warm if you are staying put. However, even if weather conditions are slowing you down or making you a little grumpy, please remember that AmCham members are fortunate to be a position where snow only inconveniences us, rather than putting us in severe peril.

If you would like to help out those in this country who are less fortunate than we are, please take a look at the list here of ways to donate.

Enjoy your holidays and stay safe and warm.

Chris Padilla, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, will outline the Bush Administration’s strategy for economic engagement with

China in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday January 30 in Washington, D.C. He’ll also discuss the administration’s response to concerns from Congress and the public about China’s trade practices, and what steps should be taken in the coming year to further improve economic relations with China.
More information about the event can be found on the CSIS web site.

UPDATE:
The text of Chris Padilla’s speech is available on the International Trade Administration’s website.

A nationwide campaign against plastic bags has been launched, with the government banning production of ultra-thin bags and forbidding supermarkets and shops from handing out free carriers from June 1. People use too many of the bags and fail to dispose of them properly, wasting valuable oil used in their production, and littering the country, the State Council said in a notice posted on the central government website (www.gov.cn). Starting from June, shops, supermarkets and sales outlets will be forbidden from offering free plastic bags and all carriers must be clearly marked with prices. “We should encourage people to return to carrying cloth bags, using baskets for their vegetables,” the notice said.

According to an article in Jiangnan Times, the new labor law recently put into effect will cause prices of home appliances to go up. Liu Ke, general manager of Siemens Sichuan branch, says this new law has caused rising labor costs.  Get more info from AmCham’s China Wire.

The start of the new year brings with it China’s new Labor Contract Law. AmCham member companies weigh in on goals of the law and its application. O’Melveny & Myers LLP provides a top-line analysis of the new law. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has an eight-page overview and Paul Weiss examines the impact that the law may have on employers operating in China.

China’s State Council, or cabinet, began phasing in the new unified corporate income tax which took effect on January 1 with new rules covering the transition to a single tax rate of 25% for foreign and domestic firms by 2012. In a statement published on the website of the Ministry of Finance, the five-year phase-in period involves a tax rate of 18% in 2008, 20% in 2009, 22% in 2010, 24% in 2011 and 25% in 2012, for companies previously assessed at the 15% rate. Get more info about the new tax law from AmCham’s China Wire.  Also read AmCham member Deloitte’s Unofficial Translation of the Enterprise Income Tax Law.

On the heels of several well-publicized toy recalls earlier this year, AmCham China worked with the US Trade and Development Agency and the US-China Standards and Conformity Assessment Cooperation Program to bring several industry associations and US and China governmental agencies together for a conference to discuss standards, certification requirements, and the relationship between product safety, quality and working conditions. The 2007 US-China Toy Safety Conference was organized by the Toy Industry Association, The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, the Inspection and Quarantine of PRC, the Certification and Accreditation Administration of PRC (CNCA) the Ministry of Commerce of PRC (MOFCOM) and the China Toy Industrial Association.

More about the event can be found on the Toy Industry Association website.

China is in the midst of its biggest ever modernization of labor laws and labor market regulation, coming into force Jan. 1, 2008. The labor reforms grant the individual worker more employment protection rights enforceable by law, and mean more legal certainty for foreign employers. A total of 7,000 employees resigned from Huawei en masse. Wal-Mart is also cutting its labor force worldwide. Despite China’s spectacular GDP growth of nearly 10% per year since 1978, and despite Beijing’s claim that the country remains on a socialist course, in the eight years leading up to 2005, workers’ wages as a proportion of GDP plunged from 53% to 41.4%. This comes from  a report translated from Chinese and published in AmCham-China’s News Wire.

Two CCTV-9 shows; BizChina and Dialogue, interviewed AmCham-China President Michael Barbalas recently. President Barbalas shared his thoughts about the recent Strategic Economic Dialogue and the state of trade between China and the US.

Watch the Dialogue interview.

Watch the BizChina interview.

Chinese and Americans generally hold favorable views toward each other and most people in both countries believe bilateral trade benefits both economies, according to a new survey released in Washington on Monday (Dec. 10). The survey, entitled American and Chinese Attitudes Toward Each Other, was released by the Committee of 100, a nonprofit organization made up of well-known Chinese Americans. It found that 60% of the Chinese people surveyed have a favorable impression of the US, while 52% of the Americans give a favorable rating to China. Both American and Chinese respondents have very positive feelings about Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, agreeing that the event will help improve China’s economy and global image. Get the full report.

This fall, AmCham-China was a promotional sponsor for the Committee of 100’s “BRIDGE TO CHANGE (II)” conference held in Beijing.  Prominent journalists, business leaders, Chinese scholars and politicians addressed hot-button issues including Corporate Social Responsibility: The Strategic Imperative, China’s Capital Markets: Going Global,  Energy Security and Environmental Responsibility: Two Sides of the Same Coin and Brainstorm China: The Drive for New Ideas, New Media and New Talent.