David Leggett's automotive industry blog - from just-auto.comDavid Leggett's automotive industry blog - from just-auto.comChina geopolitics backgrounder- June 20, 2008 If you want to understand China at even a basic level, you perhaps need to know a bit about the history and the country's geopolitics. A colleague sent me a link to an article that is one of the best I have seen. It's not very long and is an excellent summary of the main points. Read it on the plane. I also recommend the book Wild Swans by Jung Chan if you want to read more about twentieth century Chinese history and culture, as seen and documented through the experiences of.http://www.just-auto.com/blogdetail.aspx?ID=1841 Jerry Flint- June 19, 2008 There's an interesting article by Jerry Flint on the Forbes website. It's projecting the possibility of a UK industry scenario for the US in which the US ends up with very little US-owned vehicle making. Does that matter if you have the jobs and all the economic activity that comes with foreign investors I've always argued that actually, it does matter and that ideally you want the right balance and that is not a domestic: international ratio of 0:100. Flint is exaggerating slightly I.http://www.just-auto.com/blogdetail.aspx?ID=1840 Chinese earthquake appeal- June 19, 2008 Some motor industry companies have got together to raise money for the relief effort supporting victims of the Sichuan earthquake in China which killed 50,000 but left millions more vulnerable. Led by Paul Stowe, Project Director at Shanghai LTI (a Joint Venture between London taxi maker LTI and Chinese motor group Geely), and Ashley Sutcliffe, the man behind the highly-regarded China Car Times web site, the initiative involves a charity auction conducted over the eBay web site. On offer are...http://www.just-auto.com/blogdetail.aspx?ID=1839 |