Got a Visa? MasterCard?

OK, so about a half hour after I finish the last post about the this guy's adventures in Carrefour, my wife pipes up, "Let's go out or a walk"  Innocent enough, except as we're going down the elevator (that's lift for you Brits) she mentioned that the "walk" was to Carrefour because she wanted to look around there.   I think she's trying to collect on my life insurance. 

As it was, all quiet and back to normal.  They did have some really great sales.  One thing about Carrefour, they've also have the best prices in town,

The other big issue going on these days is the "temporary" change in the China visa situation.  For those not familiar, it's become very difficult to get the usual multi-entry visa for China visits. This affects a lot of business people working and living in China, as they have to get a visa now every time they go to Hong Kong, or for people in Hong Kong they have to get a visa for every time they come in.  The intricacies of the whole thing can be found on The China Visa Blog. 

There is some speculation around here that this visa crackdown has several intentions.  First, to get a lot of the foreigners working in China on business visas without work permits to switch to residence visas with work permits, and start paying China income taxes. 

Second, in some cities there's been an influx of not so desirable people, basically not doing anything productive apparently.  From what I'm gathering, their main business is running 419 scams on who ever they can, a lot of these folks are from places like Nigeria, etc. I do know quite a few people that have been "accosted" in Guangzhou by these folks, "Hey, my uncle just died and there's a lot of money in a bank account,  If you open a joint bank account with me and put so much money in I can have his money transferred over and we can split it. Also, the  payment for goods with a bogus check scam apparently.

As usual, while the visa requirements keep changing,  There's nothing official published except "The Chinese visa is issued in accordance with laws and regulations of China, with reference of the practice of hosting countries of previous Olympic Games and other international sporting events. Compared to most other countries, it is relevantly easy and convenient to apply for a Chinese visa. Genuine visitors to China and those attending Olympic Games will not be affected" - from the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong. 

And so it goes.
Uncle Bob

What a Target Rich Environment

Ok, so we've had a bunch of excitement over the weekend. First, and the most disastrous bit of excitement, the hard drive on my laptop crashed. And of course I hadn't done a back up in who knows how long, so a lot of company records, e-mails, etc are history. Not to mention a few photos, etc. Not sure what happened, tried several recovery programs, and was actually starting to get data off the hard drive when it started knocking, jumping around on the desk in it's final death throes.

Good news, I put a much larger hard drive in the laptop, upgraded some software etc. Thing about living where we live, these giant "computer centers" are all over the place, so it was kind of a go out for morning pastry and a hard drive type of deal.

Other news, the weekend typhoon that wasn't. Not sure what's with the weather here in Dongguan, but it's sure missing a lot of chances to rain. Usually by now you can set your watch by the 4:20 thunderstorm, but not this year. Any rain is welcome, lots of streams, lakes and ponds are pretty low.

Now for the commentary on the news.

While we were "down" with the hard drive crash, anti-French sentiment arose to a fever pitch, even in Dongguan. The local Carrefour was even a site of protests for a few days. We of course had to walk by to check it out, being careful not to get too close lest we meet the same fate as the American volunteer in ZhuZhou in Hunan province - News on that from Shanghaiist. In all fairness there seems a bit of a confusion on the whole subject, first the guy was attacked, then not attacked, etc. Either way, numbnutz, you don't go wandering into the middle of a protest in a foreign country.

Here, it seemed more like some bored folks milling around waiting for something to happen, and police running back and forth in front of the store. From our apartment about a block away from the store we could hear the occasional shouts and cheers, and the sirens of the police bus, but from what I can see, it was pretty much a peaceful affair.

Thing is, when you go about insulting the Chinese, and especially the Chinese government, it's a "face" thing. Chinese culture is not one to then get introspective and apologetic, it only drives the Chinese to be more nationalistic. There's an interesting article in The Age out of Australia, by Michael Backman, entitled "The West is Bear-Bating China"

As usual, things here are interesting for us China watchers.

Later

Uncle Bob

All the Prerequisites

Ok, today we’re off to the Canton Fair, hopefully. If you’re not from around here I’ll let you know the main expressway from Dongguan to Guangzhou is closed for repair, seems it’s mostly an elevated highway, and one of the support piers sank by about a meter on the northbound side. So, you have to take trusty National Road 107 all the way up. Turns a 45 minute drive into a 2 plus hour drive. Fun for all.

Anyway, today’s subjects. All the stuff that has to be in a blog about China in one easy post. These subjects have already been covered to death elsewhere, so I'll just mention them in passing.

New Labor Law: Attended a seminar given by the British Chamber of Commerce on this subject, I need to get a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, but what it amount to is mostly enforcing employment contracts, and giving the workers more protections. Also lays out the work days and hours, and states employees get time off after a year, etc.

Seems, as stated by the Britcham folks the big multi—national corporations and the large factories are already following, for the most part, these laws, and other than a couple more HR people, won’t be having the 30 to 30 percent labor increase a lot of factories are crying about. I do know one of my previous employers followed the laws very closely, and I don’t see where it would increase their cost much. They already paid well above minimum wage, and followed the contract law closely. Another former employer, well, that would be a different story. Office hours 12 hours a day 6 days a week, etc. They’re gonna have higher costs.

Funny thing, an expat like me, who is pretty much “local” gets covered by the same laws possibly. See how that one works.

So, seems that the factories that are complaining about higher costs weren’t following the rules to begin with, and now may be forced to. Forgive me if I don’t’ shed much of a tear, I’ve seen factories like that and I don’t mourn their loss.

I’ll probably write more later on this subject, but it gets it out of the way for now.

Next subject Tibet

Ok, first, when a large part of the population starts with rioting, looting, and such, uh, you send in the troops to quiet it down. You don’t say “oh, it’s Tibet, and it’s a shame to send in the troops because they feel oppressed, lets just let them be and let them burn businesses, cut off people’s ears and burn people in their houses” You Tube, as prolific as it is, tends to cut through what ever censorship issues a government ma have, and the videos showing rioting aren’t staged. Any country experiencing rioting on that scale would do the same. I seem to remember the Rodney King incident in LA….

What didn’t work was the China PR after word, they could really use a better spin doctor. Not being used to being under media scrutiny, local and state officials haven’t gotten the PR thing down yet. I hear Carl Rove is looking for work.

Ok, enough for now, off to find out how to get someplace when the maps are inaccurate. Usually out of date by the day they are published. Plus, the maps are in Chinese.. which I can’t ready mostly.

All for now

Uncle Bob

Another Day, Another Blog

We used to say, "Another day, another dollar." That's what my parents, and even grandparent's said when you asked them "how are things going" Except if you asked my grandparent's the answer would most likely come back in Italian, but that's another story.

So, I guess it's "another day, another blog" this time my probably slightly skewed version of life and goings on in Dongguan, China. Funny thing is, if you're in Dongguan, you probably can't access the blog unless you're using a proxy or VPN. So much for journalistic freedom in China.

The title, "China FUBAR" well, if you've never been military FUBAR means "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition" - that's the polite term. Our aim isn't to sit here and just bag on the goings on in China, believe me, the rest of the world is pretty FUBAR too at times. More just my observations of the day to day silliness that life in general can provide. Kind of like back in high school when the wise guy used to sit in the back of class and make smart ass comments.

But, hopefully I"ll add some useful information and insight on what's happening in this part of the world, from someone who's "on the ground" so to speak. And maybe some "education" for the folks that just get their news from CNN.

Cheers
"Uncle Bob"