Western fashion models have long been in high demand for catwalk shows and photo shoots in Shanghai and Beijing. However, dozens of them were rounded up recently on alleged visa infractions and chucked out of the country. Leggy beauties are not the only foreign models now under threat in China. Unsourced rumours are swirling of a forthcoming ban on state-owned enterprises (soes) buying Cisco telecoms equipment and ibm computer servers. This week the Financial Times reported that American consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain would be blocked from working for soes. The American tech firms and consultants appear not to have been informed of any prohibition. The big soes say quietly that they have not received any written notice to cut off contracts.
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