Results tagged “cocacola”

An ex-employee of NBA China's Shanghai office has been detained for alleged involvement in the bribery scandal that engulfed several workers at Coca Cola's bottler, Shanghai Shenmei Beverage & Food Co. earlier this month. The former NBA staff member had been identified during a police probe of irregularities and was handed over to the Shanghai Municipal Prosecuratorate, police have confirmed.

• Ai Weiwei, censorship and sacred facts [My Heart's in Accra] "My friend Michael Anti posted a tweet earlier today about Chinese artist and political activist, Ai Weiwei: "Ai Weiwei to undergo cranial surgery in Germany within hours, a month after beaten by Chengdu police. Let’s pray for him."The post caught my eye because Xiao Qiang, founder of China Digital Times, spoke about Ai’s increasingly vocal protests in talking about the Internet’s transformation of activism in China at the Cloud Intelligence symposium in Linz, Austria."
• Going Solar [Beijing Review] "Tight credit, weak demand, excess capacity, bloated inventories and escalating price competition all have hurt China's export-reliant solar power companies and have left many struggling for their lives during the global recession. But the largest of them, Wuxi-headquartered Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., is about to breathe a little easier after securing several deals with the Chinese Government and opening factories in the United States to mitigate pressures from shrinking demand in European markets"
• Coca-Cola Says Another Former Worker Is Detained in China [New York Times] "Coca-Cola Inc. said Tuesday that a second manager who worked in the company’s Shanghai bottling plant has been detained by police on suspicion of accepting bribes or kickbacks. The announcement came just days after Coca-Cola confirmed that a middle manager at the same facility, the Shanghai Shenmei Beverage & Food Co., was detained earlier this year in a bribery investigation."

It seems that the Chinese government was just getting started when it arrested employees from Rio Tinto this Summer. The newest company in the hot seat is Coca-Cola, which had an ex-employee arrested by the Shanghai police over corruption charges this weekend.

• Advisor: Financial crisis not to affect success of 2010 Shanghai Expo [Xinhua] "The global financial crisis will have only limited impacts on the Shanghai World Expo 2010, an official with the organizers said here Sunday. Wan Jifei, vice director of the Shanghai World Expo Executive Committee, pledged that the financial crisis would not affect the overall success of the Expo at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of China's political advisory body."
• The curious case of the disappearing TV drama [Danwei] "Looking at the headline numbers, 2008 was not a good year for TV drama producers in China. While TV drama production has grown by around 1,000 episodes annually every year since 2003, it actually dropped for the first time in five years in 2008."
• China's key sci-tech projects criticized for "retarded progress" [Xinhua] "China's major projects in its 15-year scientific and technological development program initiated in 2006 is progressing very slowly, a political advisor said here Sunday. The State Council, or Cabinet, approved the last major scientific and technological project late last year, he said. "It means we have spent one fifth of the time to start up the program." "

Coca-Cola's latest commercial push before the Olympics features the TV commercial "Shuang City," starring Yao Ming as a torch bearer leading fans to the "Bird's Nest" stadium and shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (best known for working with directors Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou). Of course, as WSJ's Sky Canaves describes it, the commercial plays up the "feel-good" aspects of the Games: divers jump from skyscrapers, gymnasts leap through the streets and giant balloons emerge from a Coca-Cola truck dangling glass bottles of refreshing Coke.

In our ongoing quest to keep you updated on the sugar free food and beverage options in Shanghai (and to keep with our tradition of posting stories that are "SOOOO interesting"), we thought we'd mention that locally branded Coca-Cola Zero — a sugar free carbonated beverage that "unlike the sugar-free Diet Coke, is formulated to taste like Coca-Cola," according to Wikipedia — started being available in Shanghai grocery stores and convenience stores sometime last week (we think). Coke Zero, which comes in a black can, made its global debut in 2005, and friends in Beijing said they have had it up there since sometime earlier this year.

The above Coca Cola ad image used in the window of a shop in Bremen, Germany, which features Tibetan monks with the caption "Make it real" has come under the spotlight lately, as Chinese netizens question if the company supports Tibetan independence. From Guardian Unlimited:

First Tibetan exile groups attacked Coca-Cola for sponsoring the Olympic torch relay. Now the soft drink company is under fire from the other side of the political divide - with Chinese nationalists boycotting the brand after a blogger claimed one of its adverts supported Tibetan independence.

Continue reading "Ad of the Week: Coca Cola feat. Tibetan monks"

The Xinhua News Agency is reporting that China may allow foreign multinationals to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange(SSE). SSE officials are conducting feasibility studies and companies names mentioned include HSBC Holdings Plc, Coca-Cola Co., and Siemens AG. China is under renewed international pressure to speed up its currency reform and open its financial market. Letting foreign firms trade on domestic bourses may just be the first of many steps toward integrating China into the...

Photo of Liu Xiang in a Coca Cola ad from spicedfish.