The successful social platform Tiktok got into hot water when it comes to its relation with China, now the company goes international. Former Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo looks at The Ringer how Tiktok thrived, like others, in this climate of uncertainty, fuzziness and unpredictability that is key for China’s internet.

Tencent’s WeChat has been an unprecedented success story on the China internet. But new platforms are undermining the dominance of WeChat, says marketing expert Arnold Ma, CEO of London-based Qumin, at  CBBC. Short-video medium Douyin is one of them.

A limited trade deal might be in the pipeline for the coming weeks, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® in the Stock Daily Dish. But the trade war is far from over, he warns. “There is a material risk (say 20 to 25%) that we don‘t get a deal.”

Online education is a booming business in China, and regulations are catching up, very slowly, says China-lawyer Mark Schaub in a thorough overview of the legal minefield for online educational ventures at the China Law Insight. “Curiously for a business that combines two highly sensitive areas of the Chinese economy – the internet and education – online education was only first officially addressed in 2018.”

Amazon is trying to return to China, but business analyst Shaun Rein doubts severely whether China’s consumers are waiting for the elsewhere so successful Kindle, he tells in Abacus News. China’s Xiaomi could be more successful as a competitor, but has problems of its own, he adds.

When companies cannot pay enough, they often give their key people fancy titles, like Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). But startup guru William Bao Bean, the managing director of Shanghai-based startup accelerator Chinaccelerator, warns against titles with a ‘C’ in it, unless it is your CEO, especially when you are a startup, he tells Phocuswire.

China’s women are no longer satisfied with the marriages they took in the past for granted, says Zhang Lijia, journalist and author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, in the South China Morning Post. “Although gradually easing, there’s still stigma attached to divorce,” she adds.

Pulitzer-price winning journalist Ian Johnson describes the decline of Hong Kong, in all possible ways – not only economically, as China rose, for the NY Review of Books. “Hong Kong failed to install visionary leaders who might have helped Hong Kong retain its place among the handful of truly key global cities,” he writes. 

What is Beijing’s worst nightmare? The trade war? The troubles in Hong Kong. No, says political economist Shirley Ze Yu. China’s real nightmare is a collapse of the property market, she writes in the South China Morning Post. “China’s property market is the grey rhino, overfed on massive liquidity steroids.”

Local governments in China have amassed an amazing amount of debt. Dropping revenue and disappointing economic performance is a major challenge, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the China-US Focus. “The outlook for local government financials is not positive.”