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Editor's Note

If there’s a lesson to be learned from recent events in China and around the world, it is that we truly live in a global village, and ignoring that reality is a very bad idea.

Whether product manufacturers in China or financiers on Wall Street, the results of any error are widely felt and are no respecter of bystanders. People who have nothing to do with milk or toys in China or financial matters in western countries are feeling the pinch resulting from a lack of respect for globally accepted market principles and proper market regulations.

But, in the end, this may turn out to be a good thing. Many observers in the United States and Europe now accept that reasonable regulation of financial markets is necessary to check the greed that prospers in an unregulated market space. At the same time, it appears that free market activity is adjusting rapidly to the credit crisis in the West and to regulatory measures taken by western governments; markets are rapidly deciding what the real value of questionable assets and financial instruments, and financiers such as Warren Buffet are stepping in and snapping up stocks where real value is found.

Now, we will see the real value of China’s socialist market economy. We will see how reasonable regulation coupled with a reliance on market forces plays out in this global credit crisis and perhaps find new reasons for greater cooperation between China and the West in building a more rational and reliable global financial system that is also more efficient and just.

In this month’s Business Beijing, we take a look at some of these issues as they might affect China and Beijing, while keeping an eye on the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which has taken actions to take actions strengthening socio-economic development in China’s countryside. We are also on the lookout for job opportunities: take a look at Chai Jingnan’s story about the need for more animation-industry professionals and technicians. Only the creative need apply.

As economic observers, this is an exciting time. We can only hope that when the economies of the world recover, and they will, that our readers end up on the upside and have safe and stable bank accounts and stock portfolios to prove it.

Good luck, wherever you are.