Devaluating the Yuan and dumping US treasuries regular pop up as ‘nuclear options’ China has in its trade war with the US. Financial and political analyst Victor Shih explains why that might be a wrong idea. “These options are not credible, because they conflict with other important policy objectives of China,” he writes at the China File.Read More →
Tradition and an unequal political system hamper women in their development in China, says author Zhang Lijia at the Addison Gazette. “Women are being left behind in terms of political participation and the salary gap between men and women is becoming wider.”Read More →
One hundred years ago students protested in Beijing for patriotism and democracy. President Xi Jinping has jumped on the centennial anniversary by praising the patriotism of the May Fourth protests. Commentator Zhang Lijia notes that he ignored that democracy was an inherent part of its legacy, she writes in the South China Morning Post.Read More →
Religion is on the rise in China, despite worries from the government. China’s diaspora’s are a source of Christianians, as a growing number of Chinese return home with their newly found religious feelings, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at CNN in a story on Kenya.Read More →
For the outside world, Xi Jinping looks like the effective authoritarian leader, killing effectively public debate in the country. But journalist Ian Johnson noted over the past few months an amazing growth of opposition inside the Party, he writes in the NY Review of Books.Read More →
In its fight against an economic slowdown, China has opened the bank vaults again and pumped more credit into its financial systems, again, says political analyst Victor Shih, author of Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation to the New York Times. It is an old solution in a country where debts are already at dangerous levels, he says.Read More →
After a lengthy crackdown on shadow banking, this risky financial tool seems to be back in grace as China’s economy is slowing down. It is the pragmatic way China’s financial authorities deal with the economy, financial analyst Sara Hsu says. Shadow banking will be allowed, as long as it works, she writes in China Focus.Read More →
Renowned trade negotiator Harry Broadman will be visiting Beijing next month from 22 till 26 May. He is still having some time slots available to attend conferences and events during that short period.Read More →
Some analysts see in the new Foreign Investment Law a way for China to placate the US, but China veteran Mark Schaub sees here no quick fix triggered off by the trade war. It is the first new foreign investment law since the Berlin Wall came down, he says to the BBC News Service.Read More →
Shanghai lost its top position for international schools in China to Beijing, says The Hurun Education Top International Schools in China 2018, according to Shanghai-based Hurun chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf in the Pienews. The survey is based on research on 330 professionals at those schools and government agencies.Read More →
Women in China might be regaining some tracking in the economy, they are still lacking political leverage and earn on average less than men, says author Zhang Lijia at Wion. “According to Zhang, if China wants to improve the lives of women, it will first need to accord them equal status in society and politics.”Read More →
London-based author Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel, on prostitution in China, recalls at Varsity the crude reality women have to face in China’s economy, a story many outside China might not see, speaking at Cambridge PEN, about the process of writing her latest book.Read More →