The Chinese insurer Anbang got quite some attention with efforts to purchase the Waldorf Astoria (US$1.9 billion), Blackstone (US$6.5 billion) and Starwood (US$14 billion). Worries that Anbang cannot meet its obligations are overblown, tells business analyst Shaun Rein to the BBC.Read More →
Sales of living Chinese artists at auctions dropped with almost half in 2015, reports the Hurun Art List 2016 this week. Causes: a slowing economy and the anti-corruption drive, tells Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf to AFP.Read More →
Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia, will spend, most of July at the American east coast, and is available for speeches. For clients in the US that will be considerable cheaper, since he does not have to fly in from Shanghai.Read More →
Apple has presented its iPhone SE, a cheaper model of earlier iPhones. For the China market, such a more might not be good, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Reuters. They might be copying earlier mistakes on this competitive market.Read More →
Trust and clean air are key, and Australia and New Zealand could even get more Chinese buyers to their countries if they play their cards right, says business analyst and author Shaun Rein to the Australian Financial Review. The visa process is vital.Read More →
Today China celebrates the World Consumer Day with the traditional naming and shaming of companies who have – according to the TV program – let down their consumers. But the effect of the show, once compulsory for fearful foreign executives, is slowly beginning to lose its luster, says retail expert Ben Cavender to Bloomberg.Read More →
Getting a Chinese defense company at an exhibition would be awkward, since they were not prepared to give any information, not even to customers, writes defense analyst Wendell Minnick at Defense News. At the latest Singapore Airshow they improved, but only slightly.Read More →
China´s farewell to double-digit growth is causing multinational companies headaches, also in the services industry where China is heading to, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat. Now the downturn seems manageable, but she sees a rocky way ahead.Read More →
The purchase of the GE appliances section by Haier is part of a strategy to enter American homes, says IMD professor Bill Fischer, who studied Haier intensively to Bloomberg. How different is Haier from GE?Read More →
While competition can be fierce in China, another feature is even more remarkable. Competitors team up, like Ctrip and the Baidu-supported Qunar have swapped shares. Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo explains in the New York Times why the companies together can serve better the travel market.Read More →
Going cheap is no longer the prevailing trend among China´s consumers, as especially the younger ones, who have traveled a lot, look for good quality, says retail analyst Ben Cavender in the International Business Times.Read More →
President Xi Jinping´s “China Dream” comes along with a slick propaganda campaign. But the center piece of the campaign, a clay figurine of a chubby peasant girl in a red smock, has split the artisan Tianjin family who made the image, discovered journalist Ian Johnson for the New York Times.Read More →