The Financial Times has a style of reportage that I would place somewhere between a newswire and The Economist. The reporters are superb, the coverage is excellent, and I happily pay my monthly subscription for online-only access. But because of that same style, the FT all too rarely delivers stories that can deliver memorable analysis and insight. Those sorts of things tend to get shunted into "special reports" and the opinion section.

But occasionally there is an exception, and Sundeep Tucker and Jamil Anderlini penned one in early July entitled "Exiting the Dragon," which chronicled the recent spate of global banks divesting their China financial holdings, putting that activity into the context of the troubles that the global financial industry has faced in trying to build businesses in China.

There has been some buzz about Air China (AIRYY.PK) spending US$812.8 million to buy an additional 12.5% stake in Cathay Pacific Airways, Ltd. (CPCAY) from CITIC Pacific, another state-owned enterprise. That's a lot of greenbacks to lay down at a time when the world economy, rising fuel prices, and the spectre of an influenza pandemic hover over the airline business.

Of course, as both a government-owned business and the national flag carrier, Air China doesn't need to worry as much about empty coffers as, say, EasyJet (EJETF.PK) or Southwest Airlines (LUV). So the cash issue is a bit of a red herring.

A few days ago, I explained why I thought Zeebo is going to have a tougher time succeeding in China than we - or Qualcomm (QCOM), the backer of the cellular game console - may think.

Today, my humble suggestions on what Zeebo will need to do to overcome those challenges.

In case you missed it, one of the interesting developments coming out of the recent Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco - at least as far as China is concerned - is an interesting item about a new game console called "Zeebo."

Brought to you by Qualcomm (QCOM), the people who invented third-generation wireless technology and the Eudora e-mail client (and many other useful bits of technology), Zeebo is a game console designed for those of us who cannot afford - or cannot buy - an XboX, Wii, or Playstation. Created with the growing middle class in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and other emerging markets in mind, Zeebo eliminates the need for game cartridges or discs by allowing you to select, buy, and download games directly to your console over a cellular telephone network - apparently even if you don't have a mobile phone account.

I'm about to spend a bunch of posts diving into the promise and reality of 3G in China, but before I do, a brief call to all of my friends in the information technology business.

Not Different, Just Extreme

Just after the Ministry of Commerce announced that it had rejected Coca-Cola's (KO) bid for Chinese juice-maker Huiyuan (CYUNF.PK), I got a message from a very astute friend of mine who noted "that deal was dead the minute it made the headlines in the South China Morning Post."

We are going to hear a lot of hindsight-laden "I knew it was going to be rejected" statements in the coming days. So let me start by stating for the record that this will at first sound like one of those posts, but what I really want to do is explore (with the full benefit of hindsight) why this deal may have been killed, in the fervent hope we can learn something at Coke's expense.

Jason Dean at The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Lenovo (LNVGY.PK) has replaced CEO Bill Amelio with Chairman Yang Yuanqing, and that co-founder Liu Chuanzhi is returning from his pasture to resume a seat on the board. They're also upping senior VP Rory Read to the new role of Chief Operating Officer and President, and the company has decided to re-focus itself on its home market, China.

Bring on the Empty Horses

Recent revelations that China is planning on investing over US$7 billion in an effort to create a credible global radio and television news service using Al-Jazeera English as a model have provoked comments that range from the dismissive to the skeptical to the paranoid.

I am not convinced China is going to create a credible global voice in the near term, but I think it is only a matter of time before it happens. Rather than concern America and the world, however, we should see this effort as a positive development because even the sketchy details we have of the program suggest a new maturity in China's approach to strategic communications, public diplomacy, and indeed world opinion.

Now that the Year of the Golden Calf Ox is shaping up to be the year when all three of China's mobile operators - China Mobile (CHL), China Unicom (CHU), and China Telecom (CHA) - will deploy third generation mobile networks, or 3G, it is useful to explore the extent to which 3G networks elsewhere in Asia are living up to 3G's promise to raise average revenues per user (ARPU).

The short answer is "pretty good." As the operators find ways to deliver new services for which users are willing to pay, the revenues are going up.

Lonnie Hodge, who I would fairly say is something of a fan of Baidu (BIDU), takes the search company's CEO Robin Li to task over his failure to show up to do his keynote at last month's ad:tech confab in Shanghai, ostensibly for a "sore throat." Most of the attendees to whom I spoke shared varying degrees of pique that Li didn't show up, and Hodge in particular sees this as emblematic of Baidu's disdain for Cluetrain-style engagement:

Baidu, or any company, would do well to join the party (not that one...) and join in on the many conversations, those that honor AND those that harangue, which can only make us better business people, more responsible netizens, and decent global citizens.

Richard over at AsiaBizBlog (just blogrolled - not sure what took me so long) is less than impressed with the idea that the FDA will open an office in China. He believes, not without justification, that the office will be a non-factor in the effort to improve the quality of China's exports of non-farm foods, medicines, and medical devices.

Watching the Watchers

In the flurry of news about plans to reform land use in China, much of the coverage focuses on the new potential for Chinese farmers to either pay to farm the land of others, or to indeed expand their own plots by renting more land, thus building scale and offering the greater potential for profit. I think a lot of people noted this, and after checking to ensure that neither Monsanto (MON), John Deere (DE), nor DuPont (DD) was in their stock portfolio, dutifully forgot it.

There is, however, more to this story.

Covering this year's Zhuhai Air Show, The Economist takes a look at China's first domestically-produced jetliner, the AVIC1 Commercial Aircraft Corporation's ARJ-21, and on the eve of the regional jet's maiden test flight takes a moment to consider its commercial prospects. Their verdict: don't count China out.

Many foreign analysts doubt that Western airlines will ever be prepared to buy Chinese aircraft. But, as in other fields, China is playing a long game.

Better writers have covered the Melamine Milk Crisis at great depth already (check out Imagethief's article here as an example, or China Law Blog's coverage) so I won't belabor the story. I do, however, have two points to add, germane to what we've been writing here till now.

The Joint Venture and Ethical Rot

Over the weekend, The Register ran a special report on Baidu (BIDU), alleging that the Chinese search giant is engaged in technological chicanery in order to keep users plugged into vast and illegal reservoirs of online music (h/t Maths at Music 2.0). The report is here.

Searching for trouble

In all of the attention given to Microsoft's (MSFT) selection of an aging comedian to be its voice to a wider computer and software market whose tastes skew quite young, very little attention is given to a larger question:

Even if Jerry Seinfeld retains relevance and power within the United States, how is this $300 million campaign going to help the company outside of the English-speaking world, in places like China, Brazil, India, and Russia that will decide the future of the company? As Wilson Ng at SunStar Cebu points out, there are more Windows users in the world than there are English speakers.

As the rest of the world (and China's banks) obsess on the unfolding saga of Fannie Mae  (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), here in China Coca-Cola's (KO) announced intention to purchase Chinese beverage maker Huiyuan Juice Company is about to force the government to make a very hard choice.

An excellent acquisition...

The Olympics have ended. The athletes are heading home. Songs for Tibet is off of the iTunes main page, but it is apparently still available for sale. The iTunes music store is once again accessible from China.

Maths over at Music2dot0 did us all a real service by expanding my Bipolar Apple post into a broader discussion. By the way, apart from excellent coverage of the realities and the posturing of all sides as the music industry evolves, Maths has the additional upside of having a very international view of the related issues. A superb blog and well worth a regular read if you follow the music business, and not just because he agrees with me.

So here is the deal.

Apple (AAPL) starts selling an album called "Songs for Tibet" on its iTunes Music Store (iTMS), and it does it right in the middle of the Beijing Olympics. Coincidence, or passive-aggressive middle finger to China? Apple isn't saying anything about it, so we are left to reach our own conclusions.