Many Western brands in China might be targeting the emerging middle class, but that does not exist in China, like it does in the US, argues retail analyst Shaun Rein. Chinese consumer got for the premium products, or for the cheap, there is no middle ground, he writes in Bloomberg.Read More →

Apple might celebrate a huge success in China, but the US company could have done much better if they had followed a ‘China-first’ strategy from the beginning, says Shaun Rein, author of the book The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that will Disrupt the World in SFgate and on Bloomberg.Read More →

Internet search engine Baidu is now the most-wanted employer for graduates from Beijing’s top universities, writes their director communication Kaiser Kuo on their weblog Baidu Beat. Job search engine Zhaopin listed the internet company as the 2011 Best Employer.Read More →

Baidu director international communication Kaiser Kuo explains on CNN why Baidu is better than Google in China. “Google is better in English search, but – surprisingly – most Chinese speak Chinese.” Including quotes on Baidu’s global aspirations and internet censorship.Read More →

Many signs show that the lives of workers in China are improving, financially and otherwise. About time, writes former rocket-factory worker Zhang Lijia in The Guardian. Time for the former “Masters of the Nation” to gain some benefits.Read More →

Silicon Valley companies face fast rising costs when they make their products in China. Low-end production might move to other Asian countries, but for high-end products, companies should face the new China reality, says Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China, in Mercury News.Read More →

China’s factories are running out of labor already for years, but now also companies looking for white-collar workers have a hard time to fill in the fast-growing number of vacancies, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in BusinessWeek. And wages go up fast.Read More →