Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao interviews author and journalist Yuan Ling after he got into quarantine in his home province Shaanxi. “The virus has already had a deeper impact on the people than even the [2008] Sichuan earthquake [that killed 69,000],” Yuan Ling tells Ian Johnson on the phone, for the New York Review of Books.Read More →
Last week we saw a resumption of economic activities in China, and hoped our speakers’ business would be up to steam before the summer, including a few months for event organizers to get their act together. But recent developments show that the coronavirus crisis might only be starting in the rest of the world, as European countries and the US have started to lockdown their economic activities to stop the spread of the virus. Together with gloomy assessments of the lackluster way those countries deal with the crisis, our first analysis might have been too optimistic.Read More →
Super investor Jim Rogers discusses the monetarian measures by Western central banks, while in China their colleagues have not lowered interest rates to fight the effects of the coronavirus. In Europe and the US they have not even started to fight the virus and we have to see how that works out, he tells at CGTN.Read More →
US president Trump might be doing his best to upset China in every possible way, but US-China relations are no longer top priority for either country, says political analyst Victor Shih at NBC News. “Fundamentally the big problem on both sides is that you now have leadership which no longer considers having good bilateral relationships as a highest priority,”Read More →
Countries in Europe, Africa and other parts of the world have turned to China to seek for help in their struggle against the coronavirus, as the European Union and the US are failing to offer assistance. But China expert Howard French wonders at the Intercept whether China can face up to this new challenge.Read More →
Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein was with his family on a well-deserved holiday as the fallout of the corona virus crisis caught up with his trip. Panic is spreading over the world, especially now in the US. Rein is back in Shanghai and feels himself more safe than in some of the countries he has been in over the past few months, he tells at CGTN, although there is a lot room for improvement in China too.Read More →
The West could have known about the dangers of the corona virus when China started to fight it. But the West preferred to watch on, in stead of jumping into action, writes Beijing-based journalist Ian Johnson in an opinion piece in the New York Times.Read More →
Although not taken serious, when a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Affairs ministry blamed the US army for bringing the coronavirus into China, many paid attention. Political analyst Victor Shih explains why China relied on this very unlikely scenario at the New York Times.Read More →
China and South Korea might be starting to resume their economies, the rest of the world is getting further into lock-down mode. After Italy, the rest of Europe and the United States are only at the beginning of the corona virus pandemic. And for sure nobody in those countries is in de mood to prepare for a life after the current crisis.
At the China Speakers Bureau, we do start to look ahead, also as more events are cancelled and international flights still seem in a unstoppable free fall. But one thing is sure: even when timing is unclear, this crisis will be disappearing in the months to come, even when experts already predict a second wave of patients after the summer. In our line of business the average lead time between inquiries for speaker’ assignments and execution is on average three months, and we do not want to start for resumption of our business until the pandemic has officially stopped.Read More →
The key question for China is: is there sufficient market reform to allow more growth, says former U.S. Assistant Trade Representative Harry Broadman at a conference at the London School of Economics in February 2020.Read More →
Becoming a successful marketeer can be learned, says China-veteran Ashley Dudarenok at Hive Life. She gives six tips to move forward in selling into China. For example: get a mentor. “You can do it all – but it’s going to take you twenty years. Do you want to do it the hard way? Or do you want to pay somebody some money to show you how to do it in probably in just two to three years? “Read More →
The medical magazine The Lancet was one of the first Western media to point out the rest of the world could learn from the way China had dealt with the corona crisis. The severe lock-down of Wuhan and Hubei province, and the extended deployment of medics from the rest of China, was then still seen as too draconian to be used on other parts of the world.
Now Italy is in a lock-down and medical care in Northern parts are in crisis, while the rest of Europe looks surprised. “They are in a crisis,” said a shaken Dutch doctor on Dutch TV last night, after he made a phone call to a colleague in Milan. Displaying confidence in your own capabilities sometimes becomes a handicap.Read More →