Wenzhou Falling Apart + Japanification of S Korea?

choi

(1) James T Areddy, Wenzhou's 'Annus Horribilis' Shakes China: Model of entrepreneurial zeal unravels in city of shoemakers, nouveaux Riches; Indebted factory bosses flee. Wall Street Journal, Nov 15, 2011.
http"//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204505304577001180665360306.html

Quote:

"The mystique of Wenzhou--the birthplace of China's private sector, where entrepreneurs have splurged on Bentleys and Helicopters--is cracking.

"Its [Wenzhou's] nouveaux riches captivated the rest of China with unapologetic consumption, whether they were buying Shanghai apartments, Shanxi coal mines or French wine. Now, the trust-based financing networks that took the place of banks in Wenzhou and fueled its binge are collapsing in the face of slowing exports, a trend made worse by Europe's woes.

"The city's tight-knit diasporas trade throughout China. Two million Wenzhouese are estimated to live abroad, with foothlds in Italy's fashion industry and the Africa trade.

"Traditionally a system for channeling friends-and-family money, teh shadow financial system has ballooned. IHS Global Insight analysts estimate Wenzhouese control capital of 800 billion yuan (about $157 billion), or 2% of China's 2010 gross domestic product.

"Numerous Wenzhou factories appear recently abandoned

Note:
(a) The trust in the second quotation is 信任, not 信托.
(b) annus horribilis (n; New Latin, literally, horrible year; First Known Use: 1983):
"a disastrous or unfortunate year
(c) Fung Global Institute was set up this year by and named after Victor K Fung 馮 國經, where K stands for Kwok-king.
Keith Bradsher, Economic Research Institute Created in Hong Kong. New York Times, Aug 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/2 ... d-in-hong-kong.html
(d) The third quotation talks about 2m Wenzhou folks abroad. Earlier, the report talks about "the city of 9.1 million."
(e) I can not find anything (including Chinese name) about Wenzhou Financial Harbor Development Co. which is a money lender, per the report.
(f) Wenzhou's Financial Services Office 温州市金融服务办公室 (官方)
(g) Global Sources: has no Chinese name
www.globalsources.com
(h) Wenzhou Jiadian Shoes Co Ltd  温州市嘉甸鞋业有限公司
(i) The side bar to this report shows:

heading: "City of Commerce[;] Wenzhou's long legacy of trade has started to show cracks.

"* 1876: The Qing Dynasty is forced to open Wenzhou to foreign trade.

"* 1980: A Wenzhou woman gets China's first small-business license for her store--a tabletop.

"* 1991: Local entrepreneurs found China's first private airline.

"* February 2011: A Wenzhou business group says 70% of its smallest members are having cash-flow problems.

(A) "Throughout its history, Wenzhou's traditional economic role has been as a port giving access to the mountainous interior of southern Zhejiang Province. In 1876 Wenzhou was opened to the foreign tea trade, but no foreign settlement was ever established there."
Wenzhou
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou
(B) Keith Forster and Yao Xianguo, Chapter 3 A comparative analysis of economic reform and developement in Hangzhou and Wenzhou cities, in Jae Ho Chung (ed), Chae-ho Chŏng Cities in China: Recipes for economic development in the reform era. Rutledge, 1999, at page 58 (Routledge Studies on China in Transition No 7)
http://books.google.com/books?id ... %201876&f=false
("After the signing of the 1876 Yantai Treaty with Britain, Wenzhou became an open port, and the home to foreign legations, businessmen and missionaries.")
(C) Chefoo Convention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chefoo_Convention
(signed by Sir Thomas Wade and Li Hongzhang in Chefoo on Aug 21, 1876; The official reason for the treaty was to resolve the "Margary Affair," but the final treaty included a number of items that had no direct relation to the killing of Margary the year earlier)

Margary Affair 马嘉理事件/滇案 (in which British diplomat Augustus Raymond Margary (1846-1875) was murdered.

(D) Yantai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantai
(烟台 市; The largest fishing seaport in Shandong and a robust economic center today, Yantai used to be known to the West as Chefoo, a misnomer which refers, in Chinese, solely to Zhifu Island 芝罘島, which is historically governed by Yantai)
(E) tabletop (n): "the top of a table"
(F) Regarding "China's first private airline."

"There are many area in which people of Wenzhou open the first example of private economy. For instance, Junyao Airlines is built on July, 1991, which is the first and still the only private airline company in China. Jinwen Rail Way is also the first rail way company which is built with private capital."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou
(G) Junyao Group
http://www.juneyao.com/index.jsp
("均瑶航空从王均瑶和王均金'胆大包天'开创私人包机业务开始，经过二十年的发展，目前已成为均瑶集团的两大主要产业之一")

The airline's predecessor was Wenzhou Tianlong Chartered Flight Company Limited 温州天龙包机有限公司 in 1991, which contracted the flight course from Changsha to Wenzhou.  
(H) Jinhua–Wenzhou Railway  金温铁路
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinhua%E2%80%93Wenzhou_Railway


(2) This article, and its title--is speculative, but quotation below is quite true. There is no need to read the text. The author is respectable, however ("Mr Auslin is director of Japan studies at the American Enterprise Institute.")

Michael Auslin, Is South Korea Haded for trouble?  Politics are shifting toward ;eftward and birthrates are plunging. Japanese-style malaise could be the result. Wall Street Journal, Nov 15, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 38114221463818.html
or
http://www.realclearworld.com/ar ... _trouble_99760.html

Four consecutive paragraphs:

"Curiously, the country's emerging economic problems mirror those of its giant neighbor, Japan. Perhaps most urgent is the severe demographic crisis.

"Korea's birth rate is among the world's lowest, dropping to just 1.15 babies per woman in 2010, lower than in Japan. Without a national pension system, many argue, South Koreans will face an uncertain future in which ever-fewer children support elderly parents. As South Korea's labor force shrinks, moreover, businesses will be hard pressed to fill their needs, leading to difficult questions about whether to move operations offshore or import workers.

"Similarly, Korea's agricultural sector, like Japan's, is inefficient and heavily protected from international competition. Korea ranks near the bottom of food self-sufficiency and is second to Japan among Asian importers of grain. Its politically powerful agriculture lobby is actively demonstrating against ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, leading to the pact being held up for now in the National Assembly.

"Many South Korean farmers work tiny plots, largely growing rice, which prevents economies of scale and the use of advanced farming techniques and technologies. This leads to vastly inflated prices for daily commodities, further fueling the political dissatisfaction that imperils President Lee's legacy.


Note: politics: noun plural but singular or plural in construction.

All definitions are from www.m-w.com.