Local Chinese Clothing Retailers Copy Foreign Brands

To local Chinese living in Shang Di on the northern tip of Beijing, the new mall opening was a blessing. For four years residents have had to put up with long lines at the supermarket and little entertainment. The opening of Hualian Mall , the eighth Hualian Mall to open in Beijing alone, brought the first cinema, video arcade and mega shopping market to Shang Di. But during my first walk through the mall I couldn't help noticing dozens of local Chinese retailers knocking off established western brands. Here are some examples from the mall and down the road in nearby Wu Dao Kou.

Above the retail store scrambles the luxury car brand acronym BMW, which stands for Bavarian Motor Works, and inside the store a modified logo of the German car brand is on display. -Hualian Mall, Shang Di, Beijing

This product line of baggages are branded similarly to the luxury brand 'Hugo Boss', which was founded in Metzingen, Germany in 1923 by Hugo Ferdinand Boss. -Hualian Mall, Shang Di, Beijing

A hybrid knockoff of luxury brands Calvin Klein and Paul Smith, a posh Nottingham based UK brand. -located nearby Shang Di in Wu Dao Kou, Beijing

It should be noted that the Hualian Mall did contain a legitimate branch of the London based coffee powerhouse Costa Coffee. Within three months the Costa coffee shop was closed down, apparently not tailoring its beverages to the local tastes of Shang Di residents who are likely more accustomed to tea, or Tsingtao.

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China Censors Foreign Websites

The Open Net Iniative (ONI) recently mapped out locations where Internet censorship is "pervasive". Leading the list is China, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, and Tunisia. As chronicled by ONI and experienced in person, in March Youtube was permanently blocked. Two months later in the days before the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising and also the one year anniversary since violence erupted in Tibet in 2008, Blogspot and Wordpress were summarily blocked and have not returned. On June 4th, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Twitter and Hotmail were blocked within China during the anniversary of the Tiannamen Square protests. In early July violence broke out in Xinjiang's capitol Urumqi between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese, which saw the blocking of Facebook.

The irony is social media facilitates one of humanities most basic needs - the sharing of ideas. Much has been written about how China needs creative people to help the country transition from a largely agragarian economy in rural areas and low-skilled manufacturing to high value added service industries. But how many creative ideas are blocked with a swift invisible hand of censorship? How many innovative new technology videos such as Google Tech Talks will never be seen by local Chinese? How many inspiring photos will never be seen by any of China's more than 50 ethnicities? And how many potential business conversations and relationships will never be forged online? Yes, China has its own search engines like Baidu, and its own versions of youtube such as Youkou, but in a 'flat world' a country cannot benefit from the collective wisdom of the crowd when billions of people's outside voices are restricted. As Richard Florida states in Flight of the Creative Class, a country's ability to compete is largely based upon its ability to attract the most talented and creative global people. Mr. Florida states that this is facilitated when regions embrace openness, and harnesses the power of creative individuals. What would my hometown of Silicon Valley, California be like without creative immigrants like Google co-founder Sirgey Brin of Russia, Intel co-founder Andy Grove of Hungary, or Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla of India? If the U.S.A. had restricted individual forms of self expression and sharing then these creative individuals may have never have chosen to work and live in America. Each foreign website that China blocks deters talented people from choosing to make the move to China. Ironically, it is a global creative class who can help China realize its ambitions to establish the modern service economy it so badly craves.

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China's Economic Growth Continues Faster than the West

In July 2009, Bloomberg reports that China's stock market displaced Japan as the second most valuable stock market in the world, with the Shanghai Composite Index growing 75% from the same period last year. Investors are reacting positively to the Chinese stimulus package, which unlike the US stimulus, has created record lending, increased domestic consumption and boosted the stock prices of domestic firms. Infrastructure spending in the less developed western provinces, high auto and real estate sales and domestic consumption for manufactured goods are credited with China's recent economic recovery. Despite the 'global financial crisis', China's economy grew 7.9% over the same period last year. China's spectacular economic rebound points to a meltdown in the U.S. housing, credit and securities market, which have hit western economies hardest. The globalized impact from U.S. financial troubles did not cross the Pacific as hard as predicted. For the first time in modern history, governments in the developing countries may be looking to China rather than the U.S. for economic and political models to copy. The long term effects of this socio-economic change are unknown.

Millions of Boy Security Guards

With a national slogan of a "Harmonious Society", why all the security? Every large apartment complex in China is guarded by young Chinese security guards who can be seen staring bored into space, harassing motorists, or listening to music on their mobile phones. Beijing has more security guards at residential areas than any city I have ever visited. In 2007, the Beijing Municipal People's Congress stated there are 200,000 security guards in Beijing alone, of which 50,000 security guards patrol properties. Xinhua News Agency states that a security guard earns only 1,000 RMB ($133) a month, which is less than a waiter. The report also states that 30,000 guards are employed illegally. In 2006 there were five cases of murder in Beijing by security guards, in which all five of the convicted guards were below the age of 20, were not natives of Beijing, and had no high school education.

Note: Once I saw a badly beaten guard, who looked about 16, but a elite police officer who arrived stopped me from helping him and refused to let me give him a cold Coke for his swollen cheek. Often I donate my old clothes and magazines to the guards who stand freezing for hours in the cold winters and sweating during hot summers. If China wants to be a world class country, and not only the largest economy, then the 50,000 young men standing in place at Beijing apartments will need a high school education and a more purposeful role in society. For a start, how about an Eco-Corps of newly trained botanists, forestry majors and biologists planting trees and plants in the barren, deforested hills surrounding Beijing?

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