By Wieland Wagner in DER SPIEGEL, June 2
German businessman Mohammad-Reza Mouazzen wanted to expand his heavy equipment company into China. But it didn’t take long before he realized that the country’s economic miracle has a dark underbelly.
Expo 2010 is underway in Shanghai, and the luxury bars along the Huangpu River are filled with the delegations of Western companies drinking toasts to the new partnerships they have just formed with Chinese companies. In March, this was also where the Chinese adventure of M.C.M., a construction machinery dealer from the southwestern German …

By John Pomfret in The Washington Post
Quick: Think of a Chinese brand name.
Japan has Sony. Mexico has Corona. Germany has BMW. South Korea? Samsung.
And China has . . . ?
If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. And for China, that is an enormous problem.
Last year, China overtook Germany to become the world’s largest exporter, and this year it could surpass Japan as the world’s No. 2 economy. But as China gains international heft, its lack of global brands threatens its dream of becoming a superpower.
No big marquee brands means China is …

BEIJING — China and the United States opened three days of high-level meetings here on Monday meant to broaden and deepen the ties between the world’s largest developed and developing economies.
But the opening session instead laid bare a recurring theme between Beijing and Washington: the United States came with a long wish list for China on both economic and security issues, while China mostly wants to be left alone to pursue policies that are turning it into an economic superpower.
President Hu Jintao, welcoming the 200-strong American delegation in the Great …

The Dawn, Nov 3
( The author is Co-chairman, Pakistan-India Citizens Friendship Forum, Karachi)
IN the midst of the attacks in Pakistan by terrorists and militants, the offer of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resume the peace process – dialogue — with Pakistan came as a pleasant response as we do need to have a sense of security and peace on our eastern border so that more emphasis may be given by security forces to deal with militants within and in our northern region.
The Indian prime minister is reported to have …

The writer is a journalist and has extensive experience of monitoring in disasters
I was so late. It was almost one thirty in the hot June afternoon and I was feeling guilty about having kept everyone waiting, but I couldn’t help it. The under-construction road was a torture to travel on and it took nearly two hours to reach Karika from Muzaffarabad.
Jawad was asleep by the time I reached there. He looked adorable with his warm brown hair sticking to his forehead and his head resting on the small table, quite …

Islamabad: China is facing tough options on Pakistan with Islamabad, after a 70-day denial mode, finally admitting that the attackers on Mumbai had indeed sailed from Karachi and that Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the assault on November 26 that lasted about 70 hours and resulted in death of some 200 people from 15 countries.
Western diplomats in Islamabad point out that China has deep economic, military and strategic interests in Pakistan and that these are more than outweighed by the stakes Beijing has acquired in the Indian market.  ‘Indian market is …

New Delhi: Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju’s letter incriminating himself of fraud and tainting the auditors with negligence or worse has been enough for Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to spring into action, but the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) says it cannot direct the auditors to explain themselves on the basis of that letter.
But the institute’s chairman of the disciplinary committee is collecting facts like the time of fraud to determine the auditors who might be involved, as it cannot take action against a firm, but …