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 →

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 →

China’s latest scandal on the fake vaccine for hundreds of thousands of children is the latest example of a deep moral decline in the country, argues Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel, a research novel on prostitution in China, in the South China Morning Post. “I believe that the lack of a value system and a spiritual vacuum lay at the roots of China’s moral crisis.”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 →

Alibaba has been successful in cracking China’s financial markets, but going global, even to Hong Kong proves to be tough. The difference: innovating in China proved to be long overdue, while Hong Kong had already a well developed financial system, says financial analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Two decades ago Jim Rogers moved to Singapore as he emerges as a major bull on Asia. Since then he stuck to his guns as a successful investor, made sure his daughters were fluent in Mandarin and became a leading voice on investments in China, Asia and elsewhere. Now he is predicting a bear market, the worst we have ever seen. Most recently he published Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets. Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, interviewed the sociologist Guo Yuhua, a known critic of the government. One jewel in the interview on how she was able to open an account on WeChat, despite the governmental censorship, for the NY Review of Books.Read More →

Is China moving ahead or stalling in economic reforms? That question is often asked by Western observers of the country, and a profoundly wrong one, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® at the Asia Society. He blames his fellow economists for wishful thinking that is not helping to understand China.Read More →

More than once selling US bonds in the hands of China has been suggested as a powerful tool in the trade war with the US. But selling those treasuries does not make sense, says economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Chinese consumers always had a preference for foreign brands, because of quality and status. But the wealthy Generation Z – the post-millennials – is turning the tables, warns branding analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson gained most recently celebrity by his latest book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. Last week we got a peek into his research activities showing what immerging into a subject mean for a dedicated journalist like Ian.Read More →