Society

After Kim Jong Il's safe return, North Korea confirmed what for days had been clear: the Dear Leader was on a not-so-secret trip to northeastern China.

Kim hobnobbed with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, toured factories and paid a nostalgic trip down Kim family memory lane, according to Chinese and North Korean state media — possibly, rumor had it, accompanied by the son many believe is being groomed to succeed him as North Korea's next leader.

There was no sign of Kim Jong Un, the 20-something son said to be in his favor, and there was no mention of him in either nation's dispatches about the five-day trip that ended Monday and was shrouded in typical secrecy.

Still, signs that the North Korean regime is laying the groundwork for a succession movement abounded in the 68-year-old Kim's pointedly patriotic and strategic trip by train through northeastern China.

A municipal court in central China has accepted the country's first lawsuit alleging work discrimination because of HIV status, state media reported Tuesday.

The China Daily newspaper said a court in Anhui province's Anqing city accepted the case Monday. The plaintiff, who was not identified by name, alleges that the city's education bureau denied him a teaching job after he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the paper said.

After ignoring or demonizing people with AIDS for much of the 1980s and '90s, China's authoritarian government has taken a more compassionate line on the disease and combating its spread in recent years. But people with HIV and AIDS still face discrimination when seeking education and work.

A recent study by the Economic Intelligence Unit indicates that Chinese consumers only make up 5% of the world’s $36.9 trillion consumption. However, we need to keep in mind that Chinese consumer market barely existed about a decade ago. The trend in Chinese consumption is, significantly, moving upward.

Retail spending has increased steadily at 15% and more in recent years. Chinese consumer confidence remained high even during the worldwide recession in 2008-2009. China has already become the world’s largest market for automobiles, television sets and cell phones, and the world’s second largest market for luxury goods.

It has been a big news month for China’s top two sportswear brands, Li Ning and Anta, each of which announced endorsement deals with NBA headliners, the number two pick in the draft Evan Turner and Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett. But the small news item that caught my eye was the mid-year report this week from a third Chinese sportwear label, Xtep International Holdings: revenues and profits up 22%.

Then I looked at the Hong Kong-listed company’s stock price, with mild professional trepidation as I had singled out the company for an optimistic appraisal in Forbes Asia 16 months ago, interviewing the supremely confident founder Ding Shuipo. I need not have worried. The stock had spiked 140% since I met Ding, and is trading six times higher than at its financial crisis nadir at the end of October 2008, making the company worth $1.7 billion on paper, or 18 times earnings. That makes it look cheap by comparison to its two leading competitors, whose shares have also surged. Anta, for example, is trading more than seven times higher than its darkest day in that October. Investors are valuing it at $5 billion, or 27 times earnings.