"State Street’s China plan turns on its tech center" by Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | July 12, 2010
HANGZHOU, CHINA — When State Street Corp.’s electronic trading system for investors began crashing frequently, the Boston financial services firm made an unconventional move to fix the aging technology.
Rather than go with proposals from IBM Corp. or Microsoft Corp. to solve the problem for upward of $5 million, State Street turned to a small group of doctoral students studying computer sciences in Hangzhou, a city two hours from Shanghai that is known as the Silicon Valley of China.
This risky move, motivated in part by challenging economic conditions in 2002, ultimately paid off: In less than 10 months and for just $90,000, students at Zhejiang University rebuilt the system to work faster and handle larger trading volumes.
It was an epiphany for State Street and transformed the way the company tackles technology.
Today, Hangzhou is home to more than 1,000 State Street employees, making its presence one of the largest among Massachusetts firms in China.
And the technology center it operates here is part of a new campaign to introduce Chinese mutual fund companies to State Street as the Boston firm attempts to penetrate the huge market....
Technology has become a key part of State Street’s business as it has evolved over the years from a commercial bank to one of the world’s leading providers of financial services for institutional investors.
Why is China inviting Wall Street snakes into the house?
State Street employs about 4,000 IT staff globally and the division accounts for between 20 and 25 percent of the company’s annual operating expense budget....
The Hangzhou site has allowed State Street to make highly trained staffers available around the clock to support the technical needs of the global operation. Often, US companies that outsource IT jobs overseas contract with a firm that is not intimately familiar with the business. But State Street directly employs workers, grooming them for years through a partnership with Zhejiang University, where students with advanced degrees study cutting-edge technology....
Weren't those the GOOD JOBS promised you, Americans, as the Chinese slaved away at manufacturing jobs you didn't want?
In China, the technology center has helped State Street gain an edge in a tough market.
Chinese regulations make it difficult for foreign financial services firms to manage investments and service assets of financial institutions — segments that make up the vast majority of State Street’s business in the rest of the world. It can take years for international companies to get the proper licenses to manage domestic investments of Chinese consumers....
For a big fat fee and commi$$ion, right?
The rapid growth of the Hangzhou team is not just about labor cost savings....
Yeah, sure.
In recent months, the company has begun promoting the technology center as a way to show off its commitment to China and tap into national pride....
But like any pioneer, State Street faces growing competition. In recent years, IBM and Microsoft have set up partnerships with universities in China, and technology start-ups are looking to the country for skilled workers....
You know, those good jobs the globalists promised you, 'murkn.
I guess that's why the shoe factories are moving to Indonesia.
Just wait, America, the jobs will get back to you -- at reduced wages, of course.
Related:
Executive Payday: State Street Escape
Better be careful over there; they will take your head for looting.
Maybe not for much longer:
"Bay State judges build bridge to China; Exchange program offers rare, personal ties" by James F. Smith, Globe Staff | July 20, 2010
The emotion-charged visit to Boston last September was just one of many ways that Massachusetts judges and legal scholars have worked with their Chinese counterparts for more than a decade to improve the rule of law in China.
As if we have any standing after the torture.
American legal officials and diplomats say the Massachusetts program may be the most sustained, hands-on exchange between this country’s legal community and the fast-evolving legal system in China....
Many foreign activists and academics have been blunt in condemning the Chinese government for arbitrary use of the law to detain suspects and crack down on individuals campaigning for human rights.
Related: U.S. Tortures for China
Turns out that is not what the judges are over there for.
The Chinese are sensitive to foreign interference and criticism, but have been willing to accept some input from abroad while rebuilding their legal system following the end of the brutal Cultural Revolution in 1976. The government has formed a system of people’s courts that try civil and criminal cases at grass-roots and regional levels.
Yeah, keep kicking around that kettle, AmeriKan MSM pot.
China’s legal system is highly centralized, and complaints about human-rights abuses have raised tensions between the US and Chinese governments. The Chinese judges who recently visited Massachusetts declined to speak with a Globe reporter....
So would I.
The Massachusetts judges have made a tactical choice not to criticize the Chinese system directly or suggest that the Chinese should embrace American judicial traditions. But the programs demonstrate how US justice works, offering a model for potential reforms....
Related: AmeriKan Justice Arrives in Afghanistan
Don't the Chinese have cable?
There are lessons for the Bay State judges, too. The Chinese cut through some costly, adversarial procedures that allow cases in US courts to drag on for months and years. Chinese courts are more efficient than American courts in gathering the facts in some civil cases, reducing the need for costly discovery and the need for each side to present expert witnesses, said Peter Anderson, a retired judge from Boston who has made 13 trips to China since 2001....
Maybe WE could LEARN SOMETHING from THEM, huh?
--more--"
Such as:
"Tainted milk products resurface in China" by Associated Press | July 10, 2010
BEIJING — Chinese officials have found 76 tons of milk powder and dairy products laced with a deadly industrial chemical that were apparently left over from a milk scandal in 2008 that killed six babies and sickened hundreds of thousands.
The discovery in at least three provinces shows that toxic milk remains a danger in China despite a crackdown in which dozens of people were arrested and two — a dairy farmer and a milk salesman — were executed for producing or selling toxic milk....
Maybe then AmeriKan looters would get the message, 'eh?
In a separate case, also in June, authorities seized about 1,000 packets of tainted milk powder in the northeastern province of Jilin, Xinhua said.
A spokesman for the National Food Safety Regulating Work Office told Xinhua that the owner and two others at the Dongyuan Dairy Factory had been arrested.
--more--"
And then there is this new requirement for which State Street:
"China requires officials to report assets" by Associated Press | July 13, 2010
BEIJING — China issued new rules requiring officials in government and state companies to report everything from personal assets to the business activities of spouses and children in a renewed attempt to quash endemic corruption Beijing sees as a threat to its rule....
Amerika's government doesn't seem to care much.
Ordinary Chinese frequently complain about official corruption, and the Communist leadership recognizes it is a major threat to political stability.
How come the Chinese care more about that than your democratic republic, America?
Is it because the powers that rule us WANT POLITICAL INSTABILITY!?
To DIVIDE and KEEP CONQUERED?
The regulation appears designed to prevent officials from hiding illicit income under the names of spouses, former spouses, or other close family members.
Oh, that happens ALL the TIME over here!
Critics say graft is too deeply ingrained in the system and cannot be solved with regulations....
That is the way I feel about my government.
--more--"
Also see: Google, China reach compromise
Then I do not want to hear or see any more war talk with China, 'kay?
