Mainland China makes first investment in Taiwan since civil war

Some highlights --

Taiwan stocks are soaring after the mainland made its first investment in the Island since the civil war.

China mobile agreed to buy a 12% stake in Taiwan's 3rd largest mobile phone carrier, Far East Tone Telecommunications.

Direct flights between the two will increase.

Mainland institutional investors will be able to buy shares as of today.

Korean nationals are leaving China as the financial crisis spreads

Great article from Danwei, about how Korean nationals are leaving China because of the worsening global economy. Danwei is a website about media, advertising and urban life in China which does a great job of combing their own knowledge and observations of China with great skill at reading in between the lines of what Chinese state media reports.

Here's an excerpt of the article:

Beijing and Shanghai are home to tens of thousands of Korean nationals whose lives and businesses have been hit hard by the snowball effect of the downturn. The Korean won's decline against the RMB forced many Korean businesses to scale back or close down, and drove up the relative price of education in China. An exodus of failed business owners, out-of-work foreign employees, and foreign students left shops and services competing for a substantially smaller Korean population, and has driven many of them out of business, too.

The cover feature of the March 16 issue of CBNweekly profiles a few Koreans living in the communities of Wangjing (望京) in Beijing and Gubei (古北) in Shanghai who have decided to remain in China despite economic uncertainties.

To read the rest of this article from Danwei click here.