China Speakers Bureau: June 2010

Why Google needs a mapping service in China - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger by Fantake via Flickr

Mobile is going to be the next big thing in China and when Google fails to get permission to have its own mapping service, its mobile applications might not work in the world's largest mobile market, says Paul Denlinger in Forbes. Google Maps is already Google's most popular service in China.

More significant is the Chinese government's choice of mapping companies that can provide services in China. This has traditionally been a tightly controlled and regulated sector; this was reinforced by the Chinese government's announcement that only Chinese companies would be allowed to offer the service, not WFOEs (wholly foreign-owned enterprises). Such an announcement would be in line with the Chinese government's recent support of "Internet sovereignty."

If this is indeed the case, many iPhone and Android mobile phone users will find that their location-aware apps don't work well in China, or if Google Maps are blocked, just don't work. In practical terms, this will mean that developers will need to develop China-specific location-based services, which routinely access map services sanctioned by the Chinese government. Since these companies do not provide services outside of China, this will mean that these apps are China-specific only.

More in Forbes.

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Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Key lesson China billionaire: Sharing - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

China counts a growing number of billionaires and Shaun Rein summarizes three key lessons an - anonymous - billionaire friend learned him. He writes it up in Forbes.
Sharing is the main lesson Shaun Rein learned from the man he baptized Mr. Chen:

Mr. Chen believes in sharing wealth. He lets business partners make more than he does, so that the next time they secure a good deal they'll think of working with him first. He sees no point in ever trying to shortchange business partners. ... Chen built a fortune out of dogged determination and a reputation for being assiduously honest, fair and respectful. He sees no reason why the same shouldn't work for anyone else. As he told me once, "If I can do it with as little as I had growing up, anyone can do it."

For this and other lessons, check Forbes.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you want to share his insights at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

No big shocks expected for the RMB - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

China's financial authorities have created a mechanism to loosen the peg between its currency, the Renminbi, and the US dollar, the Chinese currency has actually appreciated slightly, but economic analyst Arthur Kroeber is not expecting any huge changes, he tells CSM.

When the RMB was last allowed to float within limits, between 2005 and 2008, it gained almost 20 percent in value. Low-end manufacturers stayed open by boosting efficiency, says Arthur Kroeber, head of the Dragonomics consultancy. “But they’ve squeezed as much efficiency … as they can,” he adds. “This time a rising currency will start to make these guys less competitive. Over the next five years, low-end industries will be moving out of China.” Mr. Kroeber does not expect the RMB to gain enough value to cause “large-scale havoc” for exporters.

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

What's wrong with shopping malls in China - Paul French

Shopping mall in Shanghai by Fantake via Flickr

Consumerism is on the rise in China, and the new consumers get their own temples too. But according to retail specialist Paul French, quoted in a good article in The Guardian, There is something wrong in the retail kingdom:

The retail market, meanwhile, is becoming less diverse the bigger it grows. Paul French, a Shanghai-based marketing consultant, says the problem is that the shopping malls designed to create the image of a good life do not reflect reality for most people: "They are building more and more malls filled with luxury brands. Like the power stations in Soviet-era Russia, they are being built not because of demand but because of prestige. Every official in China wants one to show their city is on the international map."

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Do you need to hear more from Paul French? He is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do let us know if you need him or other retail specialist.

After eco-city Dongtan: looking for a modest way to sustainability - Paul French

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

China might be rocking on mega-events like the Beijing Olympics or the Shanghai World Expo, the failed eco-city Dongtan in Shanghai, originally meant to be part of the World Expo, failed dramatically. In the New York Times Paul French is one of the experts, commenting on its demise.
The director of market research comnpany Access Asia calls it "dead in the water" in the New York Times:

The reasons these plans did not come to fruition are now well known. Among them, said Mr. French, was confusion over who — Arup, the giant British engineering company commissioned to design the sustainable city, or Shanghai Industrial Investment, the state-owned developer — would actually fund Dongtan. “The government thought that Arup was going to pay for this and Arup thought the government was going to pay for this, and it turned out that nobody was going to pay for it,” Mr. French said.

The project was further stalled when Chen Liangyu, the former Shanghai Communist Party chief and Dongtan’s primary political backer, was sentenced in 2008 to 18 years in prison on corruption charges...

Mr. French: "So what if you’ve built this eco-city, if down the road, within spitting distance, is a city of 19 million people that is so unsustainable it’s unbelievable?” he said.

Buildings in Shanghai continue to spring up without loft insulation or double glazing. “Just fixing that would reduce electricity massively,” Mr. French said. “Not everything has to be an Expo or an Olympics. We need to start with the small stuff. We need to start improving the cities we’ve already got.”

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Paul French is speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do let us know.

CSB June 2010 Newletter released

We just released our June 2010 newsletter of the China Speakers Bureau with of course news on Kaiser Kuo and Baidu, our book publishing service and more news of our speakers from the past month. You can read it here.

Labor shortage to continue 2nd half 2010 - Zhang Juwei

Zhang Juwei by Fantake via Flickr

The increasing shortage for labor in same industries, especially in the export industries, is likely going to continue in the near future as hiring hits a six-year record, tells professor Zhang Juwei in the English language media of the central government.

"The labor shortage, together with the contradiction that many businesses cannot find employees when many are jobless, would become a permanent phenomenon in our society," said Zhang Juwei, professor and director of the labor and social security research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said the increased hiring enthusiasm in the third and fourth quarter of this year would widen the gap, considering that the nation's economy is recovering rapidly and the new workforce pool is decreasing.

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Do no need to learn more about the developments on China's labor market? Professor Zhang Juwei is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do get in touch if you need him at your meeting or conference.

The Party sets the digital agenda - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger by Fantake via Flickr

When the outside world looks at China, their own perceptions are often more important than the realities in China itself. Paul Denlinger addresses this phenomena for the internet in his weblog Chinavortex. Despite what the outside world might hope for, it is obvious that the Communist Party will set the digital agenda for the country.

This is a very sophisticated Chinese strategy which has the west, including individuals, investors and governments, over the barrel. On the one hand, many in the west hope that China will change and become a more open society. In fact, the party in China also knows that Chinese society must change and become more open, but it wants to set the terms and the agenda. Should investors go to China, which offers better returns than most other parts of the world, including the west? Or should they obey their consciences, and stay out of China? Looking at things now, I would say that most are more interested in their investment portfolios than their consciences.

Better live with this reality, since there is no alternative for the party-rule, says Denlinger.

This lack of a viable substitute is what has prevented change in China. It’s easy to criticize the party on multiple issues; it’s much harder to find a better solution.

So far, I have not found anyone in the west take a clear stand on this crucial issue, except for Google, which moved its search engine operations to Hong Kong earlier this year.

“Exactly what is the attitude of the west with regard to change in China?”

This lack of open, honest dialogue on the key issue of meaningful strategy with China is what prevents many western companies from moving forward with China.

Unless western companies, the public and their governments reach some kind of consensus on what they support, and what their position on change in China is, there will always be misunderstandings and disappointments for the west in China.

More at the Chinavortex.

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Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Kaiser Kuo joins Baidu as director international media relations

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr

Celebrity speaker, rock musician and internet watcher Kaiser Kuo has today joined China's largest search engine Baidu as their director international media relations. The news broke late last night through Twitter, a micro messaging service blocked in China. Kuo will report directly to Baidu's CFO Li Xin Zhe.
Baidu became a quasi-monopolist on the search market in China, after Google withdrew earlier this year from the market. Baidu has already been a market leader almost since its start in 2000. The search engine mostly focuses on the Chinese market, although it tried to have minor inroads into Japan too.
While the exact function of Kaiser Kuo inside the company is still undisclosed, the NASDAQ-listed company got more than once international attention, but mostly ignored any media upheaval about the search engine. Not surprisingly, it does censor its search results according to the political requirements of the day. Also, part of its popularity derives from the availability of illegal mp3-files for music. Baidu also combined its paid searches with other searches, without making a distinctions.
While those issues came up in the international media, most of the Chinese internet users did not seem to be bothered by either of them.

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Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him or any of our other internet watchers at your conference, do get in touch.

US-China spat on Taiwan arms hard to defuse - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick by Fantake via Flickr

The arms sales deal of a US 6 billion between the US and Taiwan continues to hamper the relations between the US and China, writes Wendell Minnick in Defense News. Chinese academics and others explain that this time "enough was enough" and might be hard to defuse the conflict as China continues to ban military exchanges and agreements.
Wendell Minnick in Defense News:

"Too often times, American policy makers tend to take for granted Chinese acquiescence on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan," said one Chinese academic source, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "And that is something that has become increasingly counterproductive, if not dangerous, as the shifting balance of power, perceived or real, between China and the U.S. has unsettled the equilibrium of the game."

Defense analysts indicate China has roughly 1,300 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and is engaged in a major military build-up that includes new submarines, surface ships, fighter aircraft and long-range missiles.

Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, director general, strategic studies department, National Defense University, directly challenged [US defense secretary Robert] Gates, saying that arms sales to Taiwan "hurt China's core interests" and that the U.S. treated China as an "enemy."

More in Defense News

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Internet not yet a healthy market in China - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger by Fantake via Flickr

China might have more than 400 million internet users, but that does not mean it offers a pleasant market for start-up, writes business and internet analyst Paul Denlinger in Forbes. The recent departure of Google's search engine from China was only one of many indications of a market that is rather immature, compared to that in the US.
A few of Denlinger's suggestions (and he might have a few more):

There is now no healthy online market in China for good market segmentation and lead generation. In the U.S., market segmentation and lead generation are spin-off businesses and services from advertising revenue. Somehow, a new market for lead generation companies needs to be built. This is a good opportunity and area for venture capital firms and entrepreneurs to apply their skills and time.

Data privacy. One of the main concerns in the market segmentation and lead generation business are consumer privacy rights. These need to be discussed and enforced.

The search advertising market is still a black box in China. Eventually, the model has to move toward a model where each advertiser manages their own campaigns and adspend. There is no reason why advertisers in other countries can directly manage their own campaigns, but Chinese can't. And there is no reason why any single company should maintain a quasi-monopoly in this field.

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Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Military expert hits top-10 most-sought speakers in June

Wendell Minnick by Fantake via Flickr

A shake-up in our top-10 of most-sought speakers for June, at least at the top. Not only was Jasper Becker able to maintain his surprising top position, he earlier got in May. Wendell Minnick, the Asia Bureau Chief of Defence News, who recently joined the China Speakers Bureau, go into top position, an achievement we have not seen from a new speaker since we started our top-10.
While not all of the rankings can be explained from the media exposure our speakers got, it is certainly a reason behind the interest for speakers. Rupert Hoogewerf has been extremely active as he published new lists on the luxury consumer index and the position of Chinese women.
Getting books published, like Paul French did again in the past month, does help, although it might be tough to follow his speed of book publishing.
Both Kaiser Kuo and Shaun Rein have been travelling a bit over the past few weeks, possibly explaining why both speakers are no longer in the top-3, where they have been most of the time. Of course, they still maintained their position in the top-10.
Otherwise the changes are rather minor, so we can turn to the June 2010 top-10 ranking of most-sought speakers: (May 2010 in brackets.)

Chinese women take over top-10 rich list - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf by Fantake via Flickr

Six out of the top-10 richest self-made women are Chinese, illustrating the upsurge of women in China's corporate life, says Hurun list composer Hupert Hoogewerf in Shanghai Urbanatomy.

This year’s list of the World’s Richest Self-Made Women, compiled by the Shanghai-based Hurun Report and Forbes magazine sees a staggering six women from the Chinese mainland among the top 10, knocking out the likes of J.K. Rowling, worth $1billion, and pushing Oprah Winfrey, worth $2.4 billion, into ninth place. The world’s richest woman, ‘Paper Queen’ Zhang Yin, worth US$4.9 billion, hails from Guangdong.

“If this were a ping pong team, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that five out of 10 of them were from the Chinese mainland,” Rupert Hoogewerf, founder-editor of the Hurun Report, told us. “But, when you are talking about the top 10 self-made rich women in the world, this is really mind-blowing.”

Hoogewerf believes that when it comes to business, women on the Chinese mainland have many advantages over their Western counterparts. First, there is a level playing field between men and women - the financial slate was wiped clean for everyone during the first three decades following liberation in 1949, which means there is little to no inherited wealth here. Additionally, Chinese women have benefited from social emancipation and education which followed after liberation.

Equality between men and women in China, combined with the country's one-child policy has given the women a historical advantage women in the West did no have, says Hoogewerf. The glass ceiling for women in the West for higher corporate functions does not exist in China.

In China however, the fast elevation of women to high corporate positions is turning heads. “People are surprised women in China have become such successful entrepreneurs,” says Hoogewerf. “The open door policy means women were able to go out and make money in the same way as men.”

China’s one child policy has also freed up women’s time. “The fact they only have one child, means a much shorter career break,” says Hoogewerf. “They may just have had 10 weeks out of their career, giving them time to build their business.”

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Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

What do China's workers want? Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia by Fantake via Flickr

Former rocket factory worker Zhang Lijia compares in the New York Times her working life in Nanjing in the 1980s with todays life at the new factories of Foxconn and Honda.

People often ask me if things have improved. It’s hard to say. There are still rigorous rules and restrictions. Foxconn workers are allowed only a few minutes for toilet breaks and are barely permitted to talk to their colleagues. To keep the production line running, they have to work 12-hour shifts, leaving hardly any time to use amenities at the plant...

Compared with their predecessors, the new generation of workers are better educated; they are more worldly, savvy with the Internet, and have higher expectations from life. These workers, more aware of their rights, are no longer willing to be treated like machines. It was not entirely accidental that the Honda strikes took place when the spate of suicides at Foxconn sent shock waves across the factory floors in China.

As someone who have endured the demoralizing existence at a factory, I know how these protesting workers feel. Their motivation may be economical, but in a broad sense, they are also demanding to be respected as human beings.

More comments at the New York Times

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your conference or meeting, do get in touch.

China's elite: lonely at the top - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf by Fantake via Flickr

Becoming part of China's elite is becoming harder, as the prices for luxury goods are rising fast, tells Rupert Hoogewerf, composer of the Hurun rich list, the Shanghai Daily. Especially property prices pushed the luxury index CPI sky high.

The luxury CPI grew 11.3 percent in the year ending June 1, compared with a growth of 4.6 percent last year amid the fallout from the global financial crisis.

The figure was more than 8 percentage points higher than the general CPI, which rose 3.1 year on year in May, according to the Hurun Luxury Living Index Report for 2010 released over the weekend.

"It is getting more expensive to buy one's way into China's elite inner circle," said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

"Demand, driven by more wealth creators looking for ever-more sophisticated luxury products, is far outstripping supply."

The Hurun Luxury Living Index tracks retail price changes of a basket of 58 luxury products and services including education, liquor, jewelry, cars, and high-end homes.

Luxury property in Shanghai has tripled over the past four year, Hoogewerf discovered.

Luxury property prices rocketed 45.1 percent year on year in June, much higher than any other category.

The climb followed a fall of 1.8 percent last year and rises of 29.8 percent and 13.9 percent from 2008 and 2007, the report said.

"The limited supply of luxury property in the face of strong demand, in the context of a generally buoyant housing market, was a significant factor in large increases such as these," the report said.

The Hurun Report, best known for compiling the China Rich List, at the same time released a study, "New Aristocracy Threshold," which gave a guideline on just how much cash is needed for a family unit to have a super-luxury lifestyle in China.

The annual spending threshold for the rich rose to 106 million yuan (US$15.51 million) this year, up 22 percent from a year earlier.

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Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

Self-publishing: a disruptive technology

Source: WSJ by Fantake via Flickr

In the first week of June at the China Speakers Bureau we expanded our book publishing service. That was noted and friends have sent us this link to this June 4, article in the Wall Street Journal, putting our new service in a new development of disruptive technologies, a nail in the coffin of traditional publishers.
Not only is the usage of so-called books exploding, self-publishing hard cover books and paperbacks is returning the power from the publishing houses solidly back into the hands of the authors. Not only books who are not interesting for traditional publisher get a chance, even authors of bestsellers are making the move:
The WSJ quotes Richard Nash, a former traditional publisher turning digital:
"It shows best-selling authors that there are alternatives - they can hire their own publicists, their own online marketing specialist, a freelance editor, and a distribution service..."
Amazon is offering authors now 70% of their royalties. Richard Nash: "If they have already a loyal fan base, will they want 70% of $100,000 of 15% of $200,000 for a hardcover?"
At the China Speakers Bureau we have joined the bandwagon, helping authors to find their way in this fast moving industry, helping to find ghost-writers, copy-editors, art designers, and the most lucrative publishing service. For more information and a quotation - also for authors who do not belong to our speakers' agency, do get in touch.

Growing gap in China's labor market - Zhang Juwei

Zhang Juwei by Fantake via Flickr

Assessing China's labor market has become a tidbit more complicated at shortages grow dramatically in for example the export industry, while fresh graduates from universities still have a hard time finding a decent job. Those discrepancies in the labor market might growth in the foreseeable future, says Zhang Juwei of the China Academy of Social Sciences to the China Daily:

The labor shortage problem will also continue in the long term as hiring demand will surge continuously, said 51job, a well-known online employment service company in China.

According to one of its polls in 63 major cities, the ratio of vacant positions to applicant numbers reached 0.98 in April this year from 0.85 in 2009.

"The labor shortage, together with the contradiction that many businesses cannot find employees when many are jobless, would become a permanent phenomenon in our society," said Zhang Juwei, professor and director of the labor and social security research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said the increased hiring enthusiasm in the third and fourth quarter of this year would widen the gap, considering that the nation's economy is recovering rapidly and the new workforce pool is decreasing.

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Zhang Juwei is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Demographics behind the labor unrest - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

The recent unrest at Honda, Foxconn and other manufacturers in China are only the start of a change in the country's demographic structure, Arthur Kroeber tells The Washing Post.

"This is the thin end of a very long wedge," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal-Dragonomics, a research firm. He said the number of 15- to 24-year-olds in China is set to fall by one-third over the next dozen years, from 225 million today to 150 million in 2022.

Kroeber noted that as the number of young workers declines, the number of factories needing laborers has increased rapidly. "This is the beginning of a long process in which bargaining power is going to shift from the company to the workers," he said.

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

China's increased frustration with North Korea - Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick by Fantake via Flickr

Chinese delegates at the 9th Asia Security Summit earlier this month in Singapore showed increased impatience with their North Korean ally, writes Wendell Minnick in Defense News, as an open debate seems impossible.

"There is no open debate on the North Korean issue in China," [a Chinese academic] said. Unlike academic, media and government debates on Taiwan and relations with the U.S., there is no debate on North Korean issues due to fears of being harassed by North Korean embassy officials.

If a Chinese academic or media outlet writes something suggesting a change on Beijing's policy on Pyongyang the North Korean embassy sends someone to "your office to complain," he said.

"The North Koreans are very effective at silencing debate in China on North Korean issues." It is a form of intimidation and a successful way of controlling debate that could lead to positive changes, he said.

More at Defense News.

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Wendell Minnick is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

Debt in the West is a problem, not in China - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

When China has a huge debts, financial experts in the West move into the crisis mode, while they better look what is happening in their own economies, says Arthur Kroeber in a comment in DNA India.

“I’m mystified as to why people are obsessed with this debt issue,” says Arthur Kroeber, managing director of GaveKal Dragonomics, an independent research firm.

Kroeber recalls that between 2000 and 2005, “every investor I talked to” was worried about the prospect of a financial crisis in China. “They never asked me about the risk of a financial crisis in the West, and the reality is that we had one in the US.” Similarly today, he says, people say the public debt issue in China is “terrible”, whereas in fact, it should be the situation in the West they should be worrying about.

“The purpose of debt,” say Kroeber, “is to finance stuff where there is a high upfront cost and the return comes much later.” In China, which has a structural growth rate of 8%, debt has been used to finance infrastructure — which will generate future cash flows. On the other hand, in the US and other Western countries, which have structural growth rates of 2-3% public debt levels are way higher.

“And that debt is being used mainly to finance social welfare spending, which produces no cash flow whatsoever.”.

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.

No rhyme or reason to internet censorship - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr

Many internet users in China were pleasantly surprised when suddenly a range of previously blocked website were available, last Friday, including the twitter-interface Hootsuite, Voice of America, video-sharing site Vimeo and URL shortening site bit.ly. Even some foreign pornography was suddenly available.
But that happiness might be shortlived, tells internet watcher Kaiser Kuo to CP:

"I think it's totally just a glitch. These things have happened often before. (Censors) screw up and some site will suddenly become available for a day or two days and then be back to normal again. There's never any rhyme or reason to it," said Kaiser Kuo, a Beijing-based technology analyst. "It's almost certainly not deliberate policy."

The sites have become available amid a "sweep out pornography and prostitution" campaign in the Chinese capital of Beijing, which has resulted in the closure of several nightclubs and karaoke parlours.

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Kaiser Kuo is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.
Kaiser Kuo also contributed a chapter to our recently released book A Changing China, on the early stages of rock music in China.
The China Speakers Bureau has this week started an expanded publishing service, following the publication of our book. When you are interested in our details, please click here.

CSB expansion of publishing service

Brasschaat, June 3, 2010

Dear friends,

With pride I can announce a new expansion of the CBS.

Earlier this year we published our first book, A Changing China, available worldwide through Amazon. The process involved our entire editing staff, and outside consulting from US publishing experts, as well as the development of relationships with international printing companies and with Amazon. Several authors have since then approached us about producing their books under our imprint. The first of these books is already in production, and is due on the shelves in mid July.

Although our key editors are based in the U.S. and Europe, we are able to use our China and India-based editorial staff for research, fact-checking, copyediting, and layout, thus significantly reducing production costs, while producing a book that's up to American business press standards.

If you would like to set up your own publishing house, feel free to contact Maria Trombly in Boston and she will happily walk you through the process of finding printers and distributors, registering for ISBN and Library of Congress numbers, and getting your book listed in Amazon and other online booksellers. If you expect to be writing a series of books, this can be a worthwhile project. Expect to take about a year to do your first book, then a few months each for subsequent projects -- less, if you are able to assign dedicated staff to each book.

If you would like to get your book published through a traditional publishing house, we can recommend a couple of agents we work with here in the United States who can help prepare a book for acceptance -- including restructuring the book, rewriting it if necessary, and creating a business plan for its marketing, sale and distribution. Today's publishers are extremely risk-averse, and are increasingly expecting authors to do all this work up front. The process of publishing a book through a traditional publisher takes a year at a minimum, and often two or three years, depending on at what time you enter the annual marketing and production cycle, and how quickly you are able to place the book.

The China Speakers Bureau model is one where the author picks up the initial editing, layout and production costs, in return for higher royalties on every book sold.

Benefits:

Publishing is faster. You can have a printed copy of your book in your hands within two to six months, depending on how much work you need done on the content, and how many revision cycles the text, layout and cover design go through.
You can distribute the book internationally through Amazon, but you also can have as many copies printed as you like through a printer in China or any other printer of your choice. You own the PDF files of the book, as well as all content, both text and graphics. You retain all copyrights, and can take it to another publisher at any time.
You make the final decisions about the content and design of the book, independent of any outside editorial or marketing considerations.
You can market and sell the book through your own channels, through speeches or through your website. We can also recommend book marketing agencies that can help promote and sell your book.
Your royalties through our printer are higher than with a traditional publisher. If you sell the books through your own website, you will also get additional Amazon affiliate fees on each book. You can also order books in bulk at an average price of $6 to $8 per book, and sell them at any price you wish. China Speakers Bureau does not keep any royalties or sales commissions on your book.
You don't have to order a large initial run of the book -- just a couple of proof copies and a handful of copies for yourself. When people buy the book from Amazon, our printing company will print individual copies and ship them directly to the customers.

By pulling together different resources, we can offer a variety of services, depending on your needs. These include, but are not limited to: ghostwriters, copy-editors, artists for covers and interior layout, printing on demand services, ISBN and Library of Congress numbers, printers for high-volume printing, and translation services.

For more information, or for a custom proposal, don't hesitate to contact us.

Fons Tuinstra/Maria Korolov Trombly

Fons Tuinstra

China Speakers Bureau, president
China mobile: +86 139 1734 4564
Europe office: +32 3664 2921
Europe mobile: +32 484 758562
QQ International: 1265806143

Maria Korolov Trombly
Office: +1-508-443-1130
Cell: +1-413-559-9055
maria@tromblyinternational.com
President, Trombly International
COO, China Speakers Bureau

What wants Obama with China? - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein tries to look behind US president Obama's policies on China in Forbes. He is not sure there is any.

The entire strategy seems to be to avoid angering the Chinese. What kind of policy is that? True, it's better not to humiliate and chastise China publicly. Disparaging it only empowers hard-liners there and makes progress harder. And of course it was wise to stay away from sensitive topics like Tibet. But it's absurd that the U.S. squandered an opportunity to push for core interests that the Chinese are less sensitive about, like efforts against Iran. Why weren't such things done?...

If Obama doesn't clearly define America's relationship with China soon, it will be defined by the likes of Paul Krugman and Rush Limbaugh or by congressmen looking to appear hard-line because they're worried they won't get re-elected.

More in Forbes.
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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference? Do get in touch.

China: a white collar nation - Paul French

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

Urbanization is one of the major trends in China, tells Paul French, author of the upcoming book "Fat China" to PBS's newshour.

The great trend in China is urbanization. People are moving into the cities. They're moving away from the countryside, 10 million, 12 million people a year. And that's projected to go on for at least another decade. And those people are coming into the cities.

Increasingly, they're getting white-collar office jobs, and they're getting up in the morning. They're getting the subway to work. They're getting the elevator to the office. They're sitting in a cubicle all day. Then they're getting the elevator downstairs. They're getting the subway home, and then they're sitting in front of television at night and ordering in food.

So, they're leading a much more sedentary lifestyle than they used to. And, of course, you know, many more people are driving around in cars, where they used to ride bicycles. And, also, particularly for children, sport is not a major part of the school curriculum, you know, because of the concentration on passing exams and so on.

So -- so, in general, from -- from toddlers up to elderly people, people are just more sedentary in the cities than they used to be.

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Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do let us know.

Facing a not so docile labor force - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

Foreign manufacturers thought they were dealing with a docile labor force in China, but Arthur Kroeber tells Reuters they might have been wrong. An ongoing strike at Honda, larger numbers of suicides at Foxconn, rising salaries nationwide: foreign investors start to look around and wonder what is happening.
Arthur Kroeber.

"Foreign investors have been lulled into a false sense of security that China has a docile work force," said economist Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics.

"There's nothing intrinsically docile about the Chinese labour force. There was a period when everything was kind of fine; now we are entering a period of more constraint."

No reliable figures exist on the number of job walk-offs each year by Chinese workers, and many disputes are likely short and go unreported. But anecdotal evidence suggests the Honda clash reflects a larger trend, in which the balance of power may be shifting toward workers.

The number of Chinese between the ages of 15 and 24 has hovered around 200 million to 225 million for the last 20 years. That number is likely to fall by one-third during the next 12 years, Kroeber said, giving more bargaining power to the young people pouring into the workforce.

"Ultimately, the teeth that lies behind (labour conditions) is the workers' notion that 'if we strike, we'll be thrown out of a job and there's another 10,000 people to replace us.' Now the teeth are removed because there aren't another 10,000."

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do let us know.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

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Monday, June 21, 2010

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Thursday, June 17, 2010

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

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Monday, June 14, 2010

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Sunday, June 13, 2010

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

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Monday, June 7, 2010

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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Debt in the West is a problem, not in China - Arthur Kroeber

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Friday, June 4, 2010

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Thursday, June 3, 2010

CSB expansion of publishing service

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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

China: a white collar nation - Paul French

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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Facing a not so docile labor force - Arthur Kroeber

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