The national fight against the coronavirus has also triggered off help in temples, churches and mosques, writes author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the New York Times, but not all help has been appreciated. Religious groups have been donating large amounts of money, a feature hard to imagine even ten years ago, he writes.Read More →

China’ struggle against the coronavirus has been on the front pages worldwide on the past weeks. Western CEO’s of companies with operations in China have been calling for calm and try to convince their audiences all is well for those operations. The question is whether that is more than wishful thinking.

China has been into lunar festival mode over the past weeks and all offices and factories would have been closed anyway. Damage might have been obvious in the consumer industry as even outside Wuhan many inhabitants kept off the streets. But the major question is now, as the lunar festival holidays end, whether China’s massive work force returns to their workplaces.Read More →

China´s first tier cities seem to be getting out of breath, while second and third-tier cities blossom. Business analyst Shaun Rein has been predicting the shift already for a long time, he tells the South China Morning Post. The rising prosperity of lower-tier cities may boost tourism to cheaper destinations like the Philippines and Thailand, he adds.Read More →

January 31 is going to be a major test for the shadow banking in China, as a 3 billion RMB fund matures, without support of the larger banks. One of the main victims could be China´s SME, who had to turn to shadow banking as officials refused them funding, writes financial specialist Sara Hsu in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Shadow banking covers about 25% of China’s financial industry, and poses a threat to the country’s future. Shadow banking expert Sara Hsu fears that these riskier ways of getting finance, shadow banking might collapse and wipe away the savings of many Chinese, if the government does not step in, she tells at the China Weekly Hangout.Read More →