ChinaWatch: Lessons In Life

U.S. Education Valued

Dozens of U.S. colleges and universities are seeing a surge in applications from students in China, where a booming economy means more families can pursue the dream of an American higher education, the New York Times reports.

But that success — following a 30 percent increase last year in the number of Chinese studying in the United States — has created a problem for admissions officers.

At Grinnell College in Iowa, for example, how do they choose perhaps 15 students from the more than 200 applicants from China? After all, the 11-member admissions committee cannot necessarily rely on the rubrics it applies to American applications (which are challenging enough to sort through).

Consider, for example, that half of Grinnell’s applicants from China this year have perfect scores of 800 on the math portion of the SAT, making the performance of one largely indistinguishable from another.

But the most accomplished applicants will have grades in the 70s or 80s, because Chinese schools tend to grade on a far less generous curve than American high schools.

Few will have had the opportunity to take honors or Advanced Placement courses to demonstrate their ability to do college work, since such courses are rare in China.

Foreign Investors Watched

China will launch a state-level investment review body to check that merger and acquisition deals struck by foreign firms in one of the world's fastest-growing economies do not endanger “national security,” says China's State Council, the cabinet, Reuters reports.

The new regulation, which will come into effect in March, is set to install a new red-tape barrier for doing business in China, the world's second largest economy where double-digit growth has attracted more than $105 billion in foreign direct investment last year.

Foreign investments in military, agriculture, energy and resources, key infrastructure, transport systems, key technology sectors and “important equipment manufacturers” may be subject to reviews, according to a statement published on the central government Internet portal.

Vying For Workers

China’s coastal and inland cities are fiercely competing to attract migrant workers as the nation’s labor shortage spreads to less-developed central and western regions, according to straitstimes.com.

In south-west China's Chongqing, many firms have set up booths at railway and bus stations to persuade workers to stay home instead of returning to the coast. Tens of millions of migrant laborers travel by train or bus during the Spring Festival break, which ends Feb 17.

At the city's North Railway Station, about a dozen workers told the China Daily that they will stay in their hometown if they can get similar wages.

Jiang Haitao, 21, who worked at Foxconn Technology Group's Kunshan plant in East China's Jiangsu province last year, says the corporation's Chongqing operation offers a base salary that is only “slightly less.”

“I'd feel happier working in my hometown,” he says, adding that earning 200 yuan ($38) more outside “cannot buy the same happiness.”

Migrant workers in the east earned an average of 5 percent more than those in western regions in 2009, yet the disparity was 15 percent five years earlier, show figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

ChinaWatch