By Perry Wu
Finishing off the first full week of December, China's online portal overseas stock prices kept going up. But stock prices are rarely a clear indication of the true goings-on at many companies.

Boosted more by an increasing amount of frivolous press releases than actual real financial worth, CDC Corporation's (CHINA) stock has leapfrogged more than 100% in the last six months. In the last week the company reported a new acquisition of Vis.align to prop its bustling CDC Software division. And on its China.com side (a Hong Kong company in which CDC holds a controlling stake), the web portal has announced recent deals with Xianzai.com and Meetic and it recently purchased MVAS company Timeheart. These deals are making day traders happy, but what goes up must come down eventually.

With all the China recent activity for Juniper Networks (JNPR), one would think it a China-based firm. Juniper designs and sells products and services that together provide its customers with Internet protocol network solutions. Zhejiang Telecom, Jiangsu Telecom, and CERNET2 are just some of the company's recent deals. This past week Juniper sealed a deal with Chongqing Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Telecom (CHA), to deploy Juniper Networks E320 Broadband Service Routers. The type of network that Juniper is helping to build will provide the backbone for many smaller players to enter the China telecom value-added services market.

Littlefuse (LFUS) has given China business critics something to complain about. Littelfuse has announced plans to transfer its semiconductor wafer manufacturing from the United States to China. Littlefuse says the transfer from its American plant in Irving, Texas to Wuxi will be a phased transition over the next three to four years. Upon completion of the transfer, the Irving facility will be closed. Too bad for these American workers, but let's all give Littlefuse a high-five for embracing globalization. "This was a difficult decision given that Irving employees have been a significant part of our growth and success," said Gordon Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of Littelfuse. Where's Michael Moore?

No matter how much I like Jack Ma and respect how he's grown Alibaba, I will forever wonder what noxious cocktail the Yahoo (YHOO) executive team was drinking when they paid Alibaba US$1 billion to take charge of Yahoo China (shouldn't it be the other way round?!). And now there's squabbling, since Yahoo China's chief Xie Wen resigned from his post after only forty days on the job and rumors abound on Chinese bulletin boards that strategy problems still exist for the wayward global portal in the Middle Kingdom. When will all these foreign portals realize that they need to act more like Sohu (SOHU), Sina (SINA), or Netease (NTES) to have success in China?

In the last week I have started to see lots of RoHS stickers on electronics at the shopping malls in Shanghai and Beijing. RoHS stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This European Directive bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl and polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants. A conference in China this past week solidified the importance of RoHS in China's manufacturing cycle and has sparked the growth of a new industry. Where there's trash, there will be garbage men.

And China also saw the launch of new anti-spam initiatives as global representatives from Microsoft (MSFT), AOL (TWX), Sohu.com, Ironport, Spamhaus, Outblaze, Acxiom, BDL Media, Sina.com, Tom.com (TOMO) and APCAUCE converged on Beijing for the 2006 International Anti-Spam Summit. The conference was a mix of discussions on sound email marketing practices and anti-spam fighting. Hosted by the Anti-Spam Committee of the Internet Society of China, Spamhaus unveiled the Policy Block List, a new service for Internet Service Providers in China and around the world. As I always say, spam only belongs in a nice winter hotpot in China.

Chinese are putting the "mass" into Christmas and the holiday has been developing over the last decade into a buying frenzy. Thanks to Hollywood, most Chinese believe it to be a time to buy gifts and dine with family, and merchants aren't complaining. I'm waiting to see how eBay (EBAY) Eachnet, Taoabao, Joyo.com, and Dangdang.com do during this holiday season.

About the author:
Perry Wu is a writer and correspondent for ChinaTechNews.com and can be reached here at the site. Perry Wu does not hold any positions, long or short, on any of the Chinese or American company securities mentioned in this article.