Harry Chen Thinks Aloud

News from the Hong Kong Cable TV reports that an Air China pilot was unable to communicate with the control tower in English minutes before landing at the JFK airport. Watch this YouTube video (in Cantonese).

In the interview, an Air China spokesperson blames the incident on the air traffic control agent accusing the agent failed to use the standard language. Some readers of the Virtual China blog believe that it’s the fault of the pilot. I’m actually sympathetic for the pilot but very angry at the officials.

First, I believe the pilot was doing the best he can. Learning English for the Chinese is not easy. The same is true for Americans learning Chinese. When American pilots flying into China, I doubt too many of them can communicate with the air traffic control agents in Chinese. Should Chinese force all American pilots to learn Chinese? For that said, I suggest serious English language training courses for the Air China pilots. Because English is a widely used language in the world today, which is something we can’t change overnight, it’s necessary for pilots to be fluent in English, especially for those who flying into the US.

Second, pilots unable to communicate the US control tower in English is the fault of the Air China officials and the pilot training agencies. They failed to set tough standards and provide adequate education. When serious incidents occurred, like the one reported in the news, not only they don’t admit fault, but also they blame the fault on other people. This is extremely irresponsible.

Third, meanwhile, American agencies, e.g., JFK control towers, should provide adequate language translation support in case foreign pilots do not speak fluent English. This is not a matter of national pride that everyone must speak English, it’s a matter of passenger’s life. If pilots failed to follow instructions this time, an accident may have happened and people may have died.

Let’s not putting people’s lives in danger because some people are “lost in translation”.

To many people a democratic China sounds like a oxymoron. A recent New York Times article discusses democracy in China. Before I go on with my comments, here is a summary of the article.

China’s elite talks democracy

A pro-democracy article is recently published in a state-run news media. To some, this is a sign that the Communist party is ready to move forward with democracy reforms. The New York Times interviewed few analysts and China top officials on this news. The conclusion is that the Communist government is “talking” democracy, and any major democracy reforms are unlikely.

Democratic China

I wonder whether or not it is remotely possible for China to be democratic? If yes, how should we go about doing it? To answer these questions, we must first understand: (1) what’s democracy? (2) what does it mean for China to be democratic?

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In 2006, the estimated revenues on the Las Vegas Strip were about $6.5 billion. However, that’s less than the casino revenue in Macao in 2006.

Macao has overtaken the Las Vegas Strip to become the world’s biggest gambling center, according to industry analysts and government figures released Tuesday.

Fueled by a massive casino investment boom and millions of Chinese gamblers flooding into the former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999, Macao said its casino revenue soared 22 percent in 2006, to $6.95 billion.

This gambling boom is not only fuel by the local gambling houses but also by Las Vegas tycoons.

Hoping to cash in on the city’s gold rush, some of the world’s biggest casino operators, including Las Vegas tycoons like Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn and Kirk Kerkorian, have invested more than $20 billion to dress the city up with new luxury hotels, mega casinos and VIP suites to cater to the enormous gambling appetite of Chinese, many of whom have only recently been granted the opportunity to travel to Macao.

The economic boom in Macao proves two things.

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Shortage of wives and poor retirement systems are key social issues in China. Because the country is governed with a one-child policy and a Chinese tradition that prefers boys over girls, by 2020 China will have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women. Since most families have only one child, without an improved social security system, young people are facing the prospect of supporting two parents and four grandparents well into their old age.

Are there solutions to the problems? Here is what I think. To solve these problem will require major social changes in multiple generations. However, there are few things that the government can do to help. First, the government should reform its poor social security system, and give extra support to people that are with multiple aging parents and grandparents. Second, via education, the government should bring open-minded thinking to young people. People should abandon the old Chinese tradition that gives preference to boys.

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A key to maintain a country’s competitiveness is to invest heavily in research and development. The U.S. is a good example. Scientific advances and entrepreneurship have helped this country to be a dominant force in the global market.

According to OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), by the end of 2006, China will become the second-highest investor in R&D.

The burgeoning economic powerhouse has rapidly increased the money and manpower being invested in R & D, and spending by government and businesses will reach more than $136 billion in 2006, the OECD said Monday.

For comparison, Japan, formerly the nation with the second-highest investment in research and development, will dole out $130 billion this year, and the EU nations (including France, Germany and the U.K.) together will allocate $230 billion.

An interesting fact is that the growth rate of China’s R&D surpasses the growth rate of the country’s GPD.

Its R&D went from 0.6 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product) in 1995 to more than 1.2 percent in 2004. That doubling growth rate is faster than the rate of growth for China’s entire economy.

Source: China rising rapid in R&D, report says, CNET.com

Not too long ago, the world is buzzing about the strengthen tight between China and African countries. Now everyone is focused on a different relationship, the strengthen financial tight between China and the Middle East.

According to The New York Times, instead of seeking foreign investments from the Western countries, Chinese have been seeking more investments from Saudis and other Middle Eastern investors. At the same time, investors from those countries are shifting their money into the Chinese red-hot IPO market. Read the rest of this entry »

The rapid growth of China’s economy is a two-edged sword. On one hand, young people have prospered because of the booming economy. Their wages have increased, their life styles have improved, and the wealth of few elites have even surpassed their Western counterparts (link, link, link). Because the country becomes richer, the government now plays a bigger role in changing the political balance in various regions in the world. On the other hand, the booming economy has also brought about critical social issues that people have never faced in the past.

Two articles from The New York Times tell this story well.

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“There is basically at least one Chinese equivalent for every single US web2.0 service“, says Benjamin Joffe, CEO of Asian Internet consultancy. I’m quite surprised. Since I live in the US and use web sites that are mostly in English, I don’t have much knowledge about the popular web sites in the Chinese market.

Here are few interesting observations about the Chinese startup market from Read/Write Web.

• Chinese startups often copy the Silicon Valley model. Sometimes, according to an expert, they are copycats even without any change. No surprise here!
• Mergers and acquisitions are rare in China. I think that this is because the Chinese IT market is still relatively young comparing to the US market. Most companies are still in their early stage of business development, trying to figure out how to make profits and survive. Consolidations and buyouts probably don’t make much sense to many of them.
• Foreign companies find it difficult to compete in China. Since Chinese culture and its government polices are great different from which of the US, what works in the US may not work in China. For example, the biggest search engine in China is Baidu, and not Google.

I think it will take some time before we see any China-based web startups to make big impacts in a global market, given the lacking of innovation and its disability to compete in an English language dominated web sphere. Nevertheless, Chinese web users should benefit greatly from the booming of Chinese web startups.

Among those Chinese web startups mentioned, my all time favorite is eDuShi.