The successful IPO of Pinduoduo,  the third e-commerce platform in China after Alibaba and JD.com, took many by surprise. But it does not mean Pinduoduo will be equally successful in the future, warns business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, at the South China Morning Post. Just days later, it was accused of hosting counterfeit goods.Read More →

The developing trade war between China and the US focuses on tariffs for commodities, while China could hurt the US really nasty by deploying its consumer power by boycotting products, tourism and US-related education. Political analyst Victor Shih, author of Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation, explains in Bloomberg why China has not done so.Read More →

Figuring out who might be hurt by the trade war between China and the US is still be tough, but tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent see their US ties as a liability, says financial expert Sara Hsu to Cheddar. “The trade spat between Washington and Beijing has not only quelled investors’ appetites, it has also discouraged Chinese tech giants from expanding internationally.”Read More →

Concerns have been raised about the quality of the deals closed under the wide One Belt, One Road program. Economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know, admits that some deals could be “wacky”, he tells the New York Times.“It certainly is a very capacious arena for opportunists, that’s for sure,” Mr. Kroeber added.Read More →

For many outside China the successful IPO on Nasdaq of group purchasing platform Pinduoduo, mildly comparable to the less successful Groupon, came as a surprise. Shanghai-based business analyst Ben Cavender tries to explain the success at Inkstone. It uses the popular Tencent platforms WeChat and QQ.Read More →

The trade war between the US and China has been heating up, but – says business analyst Shaun Rein and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order – they are basically negotiation tools, not here to stay. Where Donald Trump is right, and where he is wrong, tells Rein in an interview at Marketplace.Read More →

Less than a decade ago, the relations between China and the US dominated globally, not only for the economy but also for human rights. When the flight of Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo, to Berlin last week, shows one thing, it is that Germany is taking over that role, says Pulitzer price winner Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, who gave a eulogy on Liu Xiaobo in Berlin, last Friday, at DW.Read More →

Eyes were on Sofia, Bulgaria, last week, as China’s prime minister Li Keqiang tries to improve relations with Eastern Europe. Economist Sara Hsu puts Li’s efforts into perspective as both trade and investments between China and Eastern Europe have been stagnant, compared to other countries in the One-Belt, One-Road initiative, she tells at CGTN. Also: the contagious relations with the EU.Read More →

Despite talks of trade war and erratic tweets and policies by US president Donald Trump, China’s rich still see in the US the preferred destination for migration, says the 2018 Hurun report on immigration and China’s HNWI’d. And despite talk of the Brexit, London is moving upwards in its annual rankings, says Hurun chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf.Read More →