While Indians are known to have a genetic proclivity for diabetes, the incidence of diabetes in China is a wake-up call. If Type 2 is attributed to a high caloric diet and sedentary lifestyle, one has to question the ultimate extent of diabetes in the world. It could be a lot higher than assumed, and with expectations of healthcare coverage rising in emerging economies, the cost of diabetes treatment could skyrocket.

Charles Hess

BGI is China’s premier gene-sequencing institute. It was started on the ninth day of September, at nine seconds past the ninth minute in the ninth month in 1999. This was done to promote longevity according to Chinese numerology. In 2006, the institute was lured to Shenzen, as the city advanced its plan to be the “factory of the world.” BGI’s goal is to sequence genomes at twice the speed and half the price of anyone in the world. In January, BGI purchased 128 of the world’s fastest gene-sequencers, called the Hi Seq 2000 by Ilumina. Each Hi Seq 2000 produces 25 billion pairs of sequences a day, or theoretically, 10,000 human genomes in a year. Should this pace continue, BGI’s output could surpass the entire sequencing output of the U.S. (Nature, 3/4/10)

In addition to contract research, BGI is developing its own scientific expertise and now has 220 patents to its name. The Chinese are applying the same volume explosion strategy to science, as they have applied to industrial (e.g., steel, autos, power plants, chemicals, etc.) production. The use of these discoveries will fuel advances for Chinese sunrise industries in the next decade.

Charles Hess

In February, China opened a 505 km (313 mile) high-speed rail line between the nation’s important interior city of Xian and the major eastern rail-hub city of Zhengzhou.  Trains travel 330 kph (205 mph) and cut the travel time from six hours to less than two.  China has also opened a 664 mile (comparable to a Boston to Southern Virginia trip) high-speed line from the southern export city Guangzhou to the major interior city Wuhan, which makes the trip in just over three hours, less time than it takes for Acela to travel from Boston to New York.  (China Daily, 2/6/10; New York Times, 1/13/10)

These ambitions and early successes lead us to ask several questions: 1) What companies benefit from China’s full-speed-ahead plans to build a massive high-speed rail network?  2) Where does China’s plans and capabilities leave the U.S. in terms of fast, efficient and reliable transportation infrastructure?  3) What are the social implications of this increasing mobility in China, a place of limited mobility just a few years ago?

Michael Hines

Analysts of Chinese consumers’ spending habits have often cited a fear of lack of savings in old age as a reason for China’s high private savings rate.  Beijing’s increases of pension payments as well as making the pensions mobile will help address the retirement concern and potentially boost personal consumption expenditures in the communist state – a stated goal of the Beijing government in light of depressed export demand.

Michael Hines

Beginning in 2001, the Institute of Computing Technology in China started developing the Loongson chip – also known as the Dragon chip – with the goal of creating a chip versatile enough to drive anything from industrial robots to supercomputers.  The first chip appeared in a computer in 2006, and the third generation chip, currently in the prototype stage, will be used to power a petaflop supercomputer.  To encourage the adoption of the processor, the Institute of Computing Technology is adapting everything from Java to Open Office for the Loongson chip and releasing it all under a free software license.  (Wired, 1/10)

The first-generation Loongson chip is being used in a netbook built by Chinese company Lemote.  By releasing everything under a free software license, China is creating a platform for low-cost solutions for the domestic market as well as in Africa and other emerging economies.  This will be a challenge for other chip makers and software providers counting on those markets for future growth.

Eric Zavolinsky