After not too much time observing China’s economy it becomes clear that the government likes to arrange organised competition in industries it considers strategic. Thus the country gets three major airlines – China Eastern, China Southern and Air China, as well as three major mobile phone networks in China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

From talking with Shanghai’s business cognescenti in the bars up and down Tongren Lu, the mood of late has been that business is getting back on its feet. And from the recent news in the China Daily (if this is a worthy source) the uptick in business is reflected in figures and not just [...]