The billionaire determined to transform his country

..The sound of 16,000 people chanting “Ali, Alibaba” fills the Yellow Dragon Stadium in Hangzhou, a city on China’s eastern coast. As the theme to The Lion King begins to blare over the sound system, a diminutive figure rises through the stage floor.....

Questions raised over ‘China fever’ development on Mersey

The faded red banners welcoming the “Wirral council leaders” were propped against locked glass doors just inside the office of Sam Wa Resources Holdings on Tuesday in Jiangyin, a city on the banks of China’s Yangtze River.....

The former empire strikes back

Is it a great opportunity for mutual benefit or a case of the empire striking back? While Indians are investing in British steel, cars, tea and oil refining, the Chinese are piling into sensitive areas from telecoms to nuclear power, seen by some as turning the tables on a foreign power blamed for stirring the 19th-century Opium Wars.....

Editorial: Lighting the taper

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Southeast Asia faces a perfect storm

Rising interest rates, slowing economic growth, political uncertainty and a stronger US dollar - any one of these factors could spell trouble for the small, volatile markets of southeast Asia. But in 2014, the region looks set for the perfect storm of all four.....

Fed taper presses on emerging markets

Markets soured, the dollar climbed and vulnerable emerging markets came under pressure the day after the US Federal Reserve started to pare back its asset purchases to $75bn a month.....

Alibaba riches lure China’s bank depositors

Li Mingyang only joined Alibaba’s investment platform one month ago but he has already transferred almost all the cash in his bank account – nearly Rmb200,000 ($32,000) – to the online fund.....

Dutch artist: vacuum cleaner purify the air in Beijing

A Dutch artist and designer has come up with a device he hopes will suck pollutants from Beijing's smog-cloaked skies, creating columns of clean air for the city's surgical-mask wearing residents.....

Building brands in Africa------Pyramid scheme

Marketing types the world over know that word-of-mouth recommendations carry more punch than advertisements. This is especially true inAfrica, where the mass media are fragmented and brands less familiar. Shoppers on tight budgets can ill afford to make bad choices. They value advice from peers and a chance to sample before they buy.....