China: Pool of consumers
Thursday, April 8, 2004 at 1:40PM The Good.
Wall Street Journal story, "China Eases Its Grip on Media: Beijing Eventually Hopes to Create Its Own Industry Titans," by Kathy Chen, 8 Apr, p. A14.
"This is really the year of media reforms," says one Beijing-based media consultant.
Does news remain off-limits in this reform package? Yup. But everyone there knows that the balance of power is shifting on this score nonetheless. As one government official admits, "We can't do this long term. But in the short term we will do it this way."
What drives this process of internal rule set synchronization with the emerging global rule set? The World Trade Organization, which is doing more right now to reform China than any other force on the planet, except their own driving need to accommodate all that growth.
In the end, though, China wants to open up its media because they want to keep the profits home as much as possible. China is a huge, book-reading, movie-watching, TV-staring pool of consumers. Beijing wants to capture that pie for its own companies just as much as any other country's media players do.
Yeah, that's rightóand I call it capitalism!
There you have it: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Another display of the amazing complexity that is China.
Boy, I hope he quotes the weblog.
Reader Comments