The Wild Home Xmas Turkey Buffet Party

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

We organized one more great party in our not-so-small home/office. All office furniture was moved around to accommodate the far over 40 guests, a great mix of nationalities, Chinese being naturally in a majority. The foreign camp however beat them by emptying a countless amount of wine bottles, beer and 3 great bottles of champagne.
In the enthusiasm of the evening, someone lost an earring (no panties were found) and Peter lost one of his babies. The small one was immediately adopted by the Rotary Club of Beijing, comforted with Rotary Champagne and trained to be our performer for the next Gala Ball. The Board did not approve yet to auction the baby at that occasion.
The turkey was better than better and voted the most succulent in Asia. The newly appointed chef from Belgium (sponsored by Bencham) demonstrated his cutting expertise as well as  drinking and eating capabilities in front of enthusiastic female fans.
Some special demo in the kitchen attracted a mainly female audience. As minors could read this, we cannot be more specific.
The CAAC crew was later called in to check the flight capabilities of the airplanes and helicopters, after intense usage by curious kids, and after minor repairs all received their airworthiness certificate.


The empty bottles resulted in some guests ending up exhausted. To protect their identities we photoshopped their faces. (Where is Ginny?).
We say thanks to all our guests who made this a real fun evening! (And thanks for all the presents!). Also thanks to Charles Dukes & Ning Ning for their pics!
Gilbert survived his back problems with all the good liquid medicine.

China reserves: going (a bit) down

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

As I predicted in my speech in CBD (17 October), hot money is likely to leave China. This is now confirmed.
Cai Qiusheng, an official with the capital account management department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, says that China’s foreign exchange reserves had fallen from their peak of over US$1.9 trillion but did not give details on when or by how much they had fallen. Foreign exchange reserves have already fallen from the first time since December 2003. Calculated on a month-on-month basis, their highest level was over US $1.9 trillion, but they are now definitely lower than that figure.” According to the data from China’s central bank, China’s foreign trade surplus was US$35.24b in Oct., and US$40.09b in Nov., respectively. Meanwhile, the actual FDI was US$6.72b in October, and US$5.32b in November, respectively. That means, based on rough calculations, a capital of more than US$80b flew out of mainland China in Oct. and Nov. [source: Hexun]
Liu Mingkang, chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission said that China may start seeing capital outflows after years of being on the receiving end of huge inflows. He says that China’s economic recovery will be a U-shape rather than a V-shape. He adds that the possibility of inflation becoming deflation is increasing in China. [source: Eastday]


And this how some companies might change their logo in 2009. It’s all in the recession!
(I selected the best from a long series I got…)

New Australia Tourist Map & Belgium

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

See here the latest map for you to enjoy tourist attractions in Good Down Under!
aussiemap
The map is circulating here among joke-happy Beijing residents.
For our Aussie friends to feel better: Belgium is even more “interesting”. On Friday I had a private lunch here with our Belgian Ambassador and his wife (a very nice couple, BTW!). He was talking about the Belgian Government in a kind of “all swell” matter. By Saturday morning the government had disappeared in thin air. I now suggest Belgium does not mention anymore any of those headlines. Except to say, we DO have a government (and for longer than 6 months). Now, that would be news! Well, at least there is great news: for once it fell down not because of those silly Flemish/Walloon disputes.
On a more serious note, I was quite surprized to learn that Belgium’s GDP is around US$ 420 billion, at the same level as Switzerland and Sweden. I confess, not that bad for a country most of the time governmentless. Maybe that’s the reason?

China looking at the USA

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

China Daily recently did a web survey on how the U.S. are looked at here. Some interesting results, all in order of hits:
– favorite websites: Google – Yahoo – Hotmail – Youtube
– most powerful biz person: Bill Gates – Warren Buffett – Alan Greenspan
– president with biggest contribution to bilateral relations: Bill Clinton (47%) – Richard Nixon (37.9%) – George W Bush (9%!)
– non biz celebrities with highest commercial value: Michael Jordan – Bill Clinton (!) – Michael Phelps
Not mentioned is that quite a number of Chinese think the financial meltdown was intentionally caused by the U.S. to “harm China”. I guess those are mainly the ill-informed “Patriotic Cybernationalists”, a dangerous breed here. They should have a round table discussion with their American counterparts who genuinely believe bad China is going to attack the USA.
Whatever misunderstandings between the two countries, China is now the major owner of U.S. debt instruments. It’s like the expression “riding the tiger”: you can’t get off. Unless China decides to terminate the USA – not by a big bomb. Simply by dumping all the dollars (and losing their reserves in the process). They are an odd couple: bickering but can’t do without the other.