China’s recent troubles with Islam and unruly provinces like Xinjiang are not new, nor typically for communist rule, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, for the New York Review of books. “It would be tempting to say that all of this is just typical Communist excess, something in the party’s DNA that forces it to turn to repression and violence to solve problems. But the long history of Islam’s persecution points to older, deeper problems in the Chinese worldview.”Read More →

The upcoming Trump-Xi meeting in Argentina generates some hope, but economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, does not expect a fast end to the ongoing trade war between the world’s largest economies, he tells at NPR. NPR: ARTHUR KROEBER: I think people in the U.S.Read More →

Fashion brand Dolce&Gabbana got blamed for racism by its Chinese customers after using a promotional video, celebrities withdrew from a show planned for Wednesday in Shanghai and the brand withdrew its goods. The damage to the brand will be lasting, says branding expert Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order to AP.Read More →

Videos of 5-star hotels in China showed unhygienic practices and went viral last week. But business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, did not see anything new here, apart from the Western media picking up the upheaval this time, he tells at the Bangkok Post.Read More →

Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok, co-author of Unlocking the World’s Largest E-market: A Guide To Selling on Chinese Social Media, looks back at the successful 11.11 Single’s day and compared Alibaba and competitor JD. She also noticed an emerging anti-consumerism movement at Weibo, where a growing number of people refuse to buy during this shopping festival.Read More →

Blue-collar workers in China have started to make a lot of money, but are mostly ignored as a force in domestic consumption, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order to CGTN from Shanghai. The focus is on billionaires or youngsters, but the fast emerging wealthy blue-collar workers are forgotten, he argues.Read More →

The Euromonitor divided up China’s luxury consumers into five categories, to make life easier for marketers selling to them. Marketing veteran Ashley Dudarenok, author of Unlocking the World’s Largest E-market: A Guide To Selling on Chinese Social Media, applauds the effort, but thinks the market in China is more complicated than that, she tells in the Jing Daily.Read More →

One of the purposes of Trump’s trade war is convincing US companies to leave China. But they are not yet ready to move, says economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, in the Channel News Asia. And when they move, they might before countries like Vietnam over the US, he adds.Read More →

China routinely dismisses accusations it is copying the behavior of former colonial powers in Africa, but is missing the point, says journalist Howard French, author of China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, at the Sydney Morning Herald.Read More →