One of the few good reasons to buy the South China Morning Post these days is to read Jake van der Kamp’s “Monitor” column. I’ve only met him once, but he struck me as a nice guy and he takes a refreshingly independent view on most issues, normally backed up with facts and figures. I…

Hong Kong and Britain have agreed to end all restrictions on passenger and cargo services between the two destinations in the most liberal air services agreement ever signed by the SAR. Not quite as liberal as it may sound, because it doesn’t actually open up the route to all-comers. Oh, no! Instead we are promised…

From Bloomberg (via the SCMP): I thought this was interesting but rather confusingly written, so I have paraphrased it. Then I concluded that perhaps it wasn’t so interesting… Before China joined the World Trade Organisation in December 2001, how many brassieres sold in the United States did the mainland make – three out of five?…