USA dream is becoming warmer and warmer in China since 21st century. According to the authoritative statistics recently, there are 150M people are willing to immigrate to USA which includes 22M Chinese people. The Chinese immigrants occupy 70% in the year of 2011. Why USA is still the top choice to the Chinese immigrants? The major reasons are as followed.
 
1)      Compared to the old other attractive immigration countries, the requirement to the net capital of USA are the most affordable. For example, the min net capital limit of Canada is 1.6M CAD, Singapore is 2.5M SGD and Australia is half million of AUD;
 
2)      The tuition of children is almost free;
 

The poster shown here is from the British Ministry of Information for use during World War II, should Germany ever invade.  There were a few other versions that were placed all over the UK at the start of the war -- but this was one never used.

Yet, a message about how to deal with an unknown and chaotic world still rings true today as much as it did in 1945.  And it is still how we co-exist with chaos. Whether we are riding out an economic crisis, a possible EU meltdown, or the rise of an Asia rejoining the world after a few hundred years of isolation -- the lesson is the same. Keep Calm and Carry On.

And for any of you that may have read around a bit here on Flaming Hoops, we have noted that it is much less chaotic here than one might think -- but it is different.  And it is those differences that we all have to deal with now.

Companies IPO for one of two reasons, fund raising or as an exit strategy and sometimes it is a combination of both.

Well, a few years ago it became possible for foreigners to take advantage of the Chinese IPO market for their foreign holdings here in China too.

And given the multiples in China in the 30-35 range, when compared to 7-10 or so in the West, even after all the taxes are paid, a company can do very well here.

 And with the ability to export profits, have any taxes paid in China be deducted from your home  country (due to the Double Tax Avoidance Treaties in place here now) there are fewer and fewer  reasons not to seriously consider using your existing company as a source of expansion capital.

 Fatiuge is a real thing.  Jet lag happens.  A few bad events  all happening in the same day can make you wonder why  you got out of bed at all...

 And this can be a challening environment, even on a good  day things are still going to go wrong sometimes.  

 So, we often find ourselves reminding people that if what  you are trying to do seems too hard, maybe you are doing  it wrong.  Not that your goal is inappropriate, but how you  are trying to get there might be based on something other  than what works here.

 The modernization occurring here has no meaningful Westernization component.  So, if part of  your long term strategy has been to wait until China has "developed enough" to start to do  things your way -- you might as well just pack up and go home.  Really.

From 1 January, 2012 to 2014, Shenzhen Industrial and Commercial Bureau (ICB) who is responsible for issuing Business License will stop charging administration registration fee to all new formalized company.  For example, the investor will save about RMB5, 000 if the regsitered capital of the new company is RMB 1M.   In the meanwhile, the administration charge for increasing Registered Capital for old company is stopped too. 
 
After the Congress Meeting of this year, the central government is also considering lowering the tax burden of middle and small size company feasibly and furtherly.

Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks:  How do we in the West make sense of China and it's phenominal rise?  The author of "When  China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of China.

We have been discussing some of the ideas presented by Martin Jacques for more than ten years and for those of you coming here, or just having an interest in general of the world we live in, it would not be a waste of your time to spend 20 minutes listing to Mr. Jacques speak on this topic.

Le Petit Journal ran an engraving in 1898 about the West carving up China, which at the time was deemed to be the West protecting the world agaisnt the 'yellow peril.'  The term is often credited to Kaiser Willhelm in the same year that this cartoon first appeared. 

The governance that followed was known as the Treaty Port days here in China, which followed the Opium War days in the mid 1800's.   You know, that whole thing about Britian selling opium to the Chinese for silver.  After the Brits hooked the Chinese on opium, they then used the silver collected from drug dealers in China to buy tea with it in China to send back to England.  Often, here in the South, the drug lords and tea sellers were the same government actors.

While there is such a thing as a Chinese firewall, even here it is perfectly legal to have a VPN that allows you to browse anything, anytime, anywhere.  

Meaning, it is expresely permitted to mask your online activity. As long as the State does not make any money on getting you that online access.  We even pay for ours with our Chinese credit card...   Interesting, especially when happening the same week that China topped 500 million online users.

Remember back in school when you first saw a topographic map?  Some were even those three dimensional plastic things as big as a table that showed the lakes, rivers, mountains and such. They were like little models of the world that you could touch.  Totally cool when you're six. 

Well, I was always fascinated with them and when I was old enough to start sailing, it was a pretty easy transition to understanding the outlines of a coast, the depth of a channel, where the reefs were, etc... So, it is pretty cool that I make those for a living now here in Mainland China.

My maps come in the form of legal opinions, rather than in the fancy three dimensional colored plastic versions I first saw back in elemantary school - but they are maps, of a sort, just the same.

Sometimes, it does not matter who is right or wrong.  Life happens.  And while it is ok to lose your patience or your sense of humor for a few minutes every now and agian - there are times when you are swept up in a series of events that are going to beat you whether you like it or not.

We do a pretty good job of keeping these to a minimum with our clients.  But, every now and again you just get sideswiped.  When that happens the only thing you can do is recognize you have to pick your battles and move on.

A tree branch falls on the power lines during a snow storm?  Get out the candles and call it a romantic night at home.  A freighter runs aground in New Zealand?  Send all your customers a link to CNN and figure out how to push the restart button.