With President Obama scheduled to make his first presidential trip to Beijing this weekend, China Region Fund (USCOX) co-manager Romeo Dator appeared on CNBCrsquo;s ldquo;Power Lunchrdquo; today to discuss the U.S.-China relationship. The other guest in the segment was former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, who stressed that the U.S. relationship isnrsquo;t the only one thatrsquo;s important to China. [Obama] wonrsquo;t be able to give them a public lecture. Hersquo;s going to find a more assertive, a more confident China. The only thing playing in our favor this time is that the whole of Asia is up in arms about the dollar. Since the Chinese peg their currency to the dollar, itrsquo;s giving them a benefit versus the rest of Asia. The only real chance we have here is for Asia to convince China (to let the yuan appreciate). Romeo predicted that Asia on the whole will grow in importance for investors. I think ...

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We maintain our Buy rating on Ctrip.com International (CTRP), a leading consolidator of hotel accommodations and air ticket booking in China.  In spite of the Sichuang Earthquake, the company reported strong financial results for the second quarter of 2008, again exceeding market consensus estimates.

Its profit margin continued to improve due to strong revenue growth and increased commission per ticket sold. CtripÂ’s results were driven by growth in all of its business units. We think CtripÂ’s past results demonstrate that the companyÂ’s long-term growth story remains intact under almost all circumstances.

Ctrip primarily targets the fast-growing frequent independent traveler (FIT) segment as opposed to the traditional tour-group focused travel agencies. The company expects its growth to be driven by the expanding FIT segment. Moreover, the company has a solid competitive advantage with 95% of its hotel bookings revenue coming from star-rated hotels, which offer higher commissions.

Furthermore, CtripÂ’s scalable

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