China Matters
Of all the China blogs out there, the award for most thorough, in-depth and comprehensive (is that redundant?) has to go to China Matters. China Matters usually posts only around once a week, but that makes sense because each post likely takes a week to research and write. When China Matters posts, it really posts. Its posts are typically so in depth that even if you knew nothing on the topic going in, you leave as an expert.
China Matters has been in existence since April, 2005, and it is written anonymously. The blog is occasionally a little too conspiratorial, too leftist, and too international (as opposed to China-centric) for my taste, yet it is so consistently excellent that anyone with an interest in China should subscribe.
Its most recent post, entitled, "The Worldwide Gambling Storm," is on worldwide Internet gambling and a portion of it deals with its impact on China. Before that, there were a couple of posts on the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, here and here.
China Matters has been on our blogroll since its inception, with good reason.
Comments (4)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endDavid Li - February 12, 2007 11:11 AM
Well, maybe I should go trolling his blog but hey, I like it here. ;)
I am interested in the subject of Internet gambling as it's related to a couple of my recent projects. I found the blog on the US sides are well researched but the China side has obvious problem of researching China by Googling in English. He focuses too much on what parallel to the US regulation, e.g. "Gambling is illegal in China--except for limited lottery and keno concessions."
Gambling is "illegal" in China but for anyone who have even been to a tea house or a sauna in China, there is never lack of people playing MaJian and Pokers. They don't play for fun and typical games are of thousands of RMB, typically with winner picking up the bill. The Internet casual games boom last year has created a surge in investment into hundreds of casual gaming sites offering games of pokers and majian using virtual cash. Beijing court has created a precedence protecting the value and ownership of virtual property last year. Moreover, some virtual cash like QQ chips has developed a vast ecosystem in which one can pay for just about everything from grocery to sex with QQ chips.
So, Chinese is not as deprived for gambling as the blog describes. Also, from a political point of view, it's better for Beijing to keep it people entertained with pirated DVDs, gambling, and online gaming then thinking about their rights. ;)
Moreover, the successful IPOs of British bookmakers in the past couple years and the sheer size of the market potential also have China considering regulation for internet bookmakers in Macau. It's a market where China has huge domestic potential and the large MNC such as MGM in the US are tied down by the US regulations.
China Law Blog - February 13, 2007 7:52 AM
Mr. Li --
Glad you like it here. Thanks. I always appreciate your insights.
I agree with you on the gambling article. In fact, I thought that he/she had just put in the portion on China just to have China content because it is a China blog.
I confess that I did that with my post on Gerald Ford. I just really wanted to say something about him and threw in the tagline asking who is China's Gerald Ford just so the post would have some connection with China. I had no idea so many people would respond.
China Hand - February 13, 2007 12:17 PM
Thanks for your kind words and the perceptive comments. I am aware of China's illegal gambling situation--the figure I saw was $100 billion--but my focus was on what types of legalized gambling were being promoted as a matter of government policy. I agree that the article started off with on-line gambling and then took a detour to brick and mortar casinos in Macau. However, looking back on it, I think the most interesting fact is not that the US and China are choking off Internet gambling; it's that both countries are satisfied with a business model in which 90% of gambling is illegal. And that's an interesting choice in light of the social and fiscal costs involved. Thanks again for the nice plug and the insightful comments.
China Law Blog - February 13, 2007 1:09 PM
China Hand --
Thanks for checking in. That is an interesting observation. Not sure if you are American or not, but this sort of situation is quientessentially American. First off, it serves everyone's interest by on the one hand taking a tough moral stand, while on the other hand, knowing full well that stand is going to have very little impact. For very different reasons, China is probably doing the same thing. China though becuase it does not want to allow what it fears it may not be able to control.