It really hasn't improved much in 20 years.

If you think Hong Kong's expensive today, wait 'til you see it five years from now. We'll call Tokyo Macy's bargain basement. It is going to be an extremely expensive city. The pressure's going to be on companies always to define what value-added role does Hong Kong have.

The problem in some cases is the abuse of weak democracies, the exploitation by leaders of those parts of the system which aren't really democratic or strong.

Is the Philippines a real democracy or just an elitist group going through the motions of democracy?

I'm surprised cases like China Aviation Oil and this one don't happen more often. There are a lot of gray areas among Chinese agencies on who's responsible for what. It's a faulty system.