China

Volvo paves the way for production in China

The Chinese-owned auto maker is still considered foreign in the People's Republic, but it's working on making China its "second home market."

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- Eighteen months after a Chinese consortium led by Zheijiang Geely Holdings Group Co. bought Sweden's Volvo Cars, the venture is finally securing key agreements that will allow it to build vehicles in the People's Republic.

This week the venture also hired a new pitchman, Chinese-American MORE

Who is the real Bo Xilai?

A political power struggle has erupted in China after the controversial politician was removed from his position. Here's how the charismatic leader evolved from victimizer to victim.

By Bill Powell, editor-at-large

FORTUNE -- In the spring of 2001, I sat in the cavernous office of the provincial governor in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning. China was on the brink of joining the World Trade Organization then, arguably the most significant step it MORE

Ikea takes on China

FORTUNE -- The Swedish retailer's stores in China have become a favorite leisure destination for shoppers. At Ikea's Beijing outlet (below) -- its busiest store in China -- patrons can be seen sipping lingonberry juice in the cafeteria, taking family portraits in showrooms, or even sleeping on the beds. Last year 33 million people visited Ikea's Chinese mainland stores. Revenue growth of 20% makes this one of the company's fastest-growing MORE

Molycorp's $1 billion rare-earth gamble

How an American company is trying to break China's monopoly on high-tech minerals.

By Richard Martin, contributor

FORTUNE -- Few weekenders making the four-hour run from L.A. to Vegas notice the big mill works overlooking Interstate 15 at Mountain Pass Summit in California, near the Nevada line. Even fewer realize that the pale-pink buildings, gone patchy with age, are the focus of an extraordinary business drama that involves national security, China's monopolizing MORE

Pro basketball hits a wall in China

Many players -- and fans -- were hoping to see some NBA talent shoot hoops in China while the lockout continues. But China is expected to nix the plan, at its own peril.

By Eli Epstein, contributor

FORTUNE--For weeks it was all NBA fans heard: Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul are all headed for China, lured by lucrative contracts, cushy accommodations, and an untapped, outrageously accessible Chinese apparel MORE

China: The next biotech superpower?

China will spend billions on biotech, even as the industry struggles in the U.S. to turn research into gold. Will U.S. biotech become the next Detroit?

By David Ewing Duncan, contributor

FORTUNE -- Now it's China's turn to fling lots of cash at trying to come up with cures.

For more than a decade, the U.S. has lavished funding on efforts to transform a wealth of biological breakthroughs in the lab into actual MORE

Wal-Mart's Mike Duke: Davos Man?

Mike Duke sees Wal-Mart (WMT) shoppers embracing smart phones. He "loves" his company's business in Mexico. And given Wal-Mart's history of buying the goods it sells in developing countries, especially China, he's even excited about the handful of U.S. products Wal-Mart is exporting to places like Japan and China.

Duke is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for the first time, yet another sign that the once-insular Wal-Mart is MORE

Can P&G make money in places where people earn $2 a day?

As Western companies duke it out for a piece of the developing-market pie, Procter & Gamble is going deeper  -- courting not just the newly rich but also the very poor. The company's vaunted R&D operation is turning up surprises.

By Jennifer Reingold, senior editor

We are a long, long way from Cincinnati. Getting here required a 15-hour flight to Beijing, followed by a nearly three-hour flight to Lanzhou, an industrial city MORE

JPMorgan: There's no housing bubble in China

By Nin-Hai Tseng

Contrary to what many investors and banks fear, JPMorgan's (JPM) China guru Jing Ulrich doesn't think there's a housing bubble in the world's second largest economy.

Ulrich, speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit Wednesday morning about how to navigate China's marketplace, says the surge in home prices exist in a few areas such as the country's major cities but prices generally aren't inflated.

Her remarks come as Chinese government MORE

Buffett: U.S. economy is making a comeback

The Oracle of Omaha is optimistic about the American economy.

By Nin-Hai Tseng, reporter

While many corporate executives complain that America appears to be losing its competitive edge, billionaire investor Warren Buffett paints a resilient picture of the U.S. economy, which he says is filled with a level of innovation that's hard to find in other parts of the world.

In an interview with Fortune's Carol Loomis Tuesday at Fortune's Most Powerful Women MORE