Apple’s new iPhones are not getting the buzz the Apple products used to get in the past, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in Bloomberg. It might a against the bible of Steve Jobs, but it would help if they would listen to their users. And the fingerprint technology is not helping either.Read More →
Mooncakes and watches are just a few of the items you cannot give officials as a gift anymore, as Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive is gathering steam, in stead of losing it. But gift-giving is not disappearing, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in the Jing Daily, it is just changing.Read More →
While consumer confidence in China might be high in general, the so-called middle class – earning between 6,000 and 115,000 US dollar per year – are fairly pessimistic, explains business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. Mid-tier consumer brands are being hit, he predicts.Read More →
The French L’Oreal groups bought China’s leading facial masks group Magic Holdings. A brilliant move, says retail analyst Ben Cavender in the China Daily, in a fast growing market segment.Read More →
Doubts on whether China is still the place to be for foreign companies are on the rise in media reports, especially now GlaxoSmithKline is on the chop board. Economic analyst Arthur Kroeber believes those headlines are deceiving and he explains in ChinaFile that foreign firm are profitable and want to expand.Read More →
Paris and Europe in general are losing track as hot spots for buying luxury goods, as the crisis hits China’s middle class, and consumers move from luxury goods to lifestyle, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in WSJ. “Why buying expensive goods, if you cannot have clean water and air?”Read More →
Giving bribes to doctors and hospitals is illegal, and goes against the beautiful mission statements many pharmaceutical companies have written. But if you want to expand your drug business in China, there is not other way than paying bribes, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in NPR.Read More →
China-bashing occurs in the odd years, notes China analyst Arthur Kroeber in ChinaFile, because in the even years – election years – US politicians have to focus on problems American really care about. This week, in 2013, the US Senate scrutinized the Smithfield-Shuanghui pork deal, one of the more sillier problems in US-China relations, writes Kroeber.Read More →
China will remain a manufacturing base, but will have to move up the value chain, argues author Shaun Rein of The End of Cheap China,
in AsiaPacific in answering three questions. Where will we see most innovation in China?Read More →
US president Obama took along a larger number of business people on his trip to Africa, in an effort to outbid the Chinese success in the continent. Former China and Africa correspondent Howard French sees a positive sign as the US wants to do ready with Africa, but wonders in an interview with Valley Public Radio whether the US are ready for a different Africa.Read More →
The French luxury goods conglomerate Kering scored a major PR-success by returning two bronze statues, looted by foreign troops from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860, to China, business analyst Shaun Rein tells in the Washington Post. The bronze heads of a rat and rabbit were given to China’s National Museum in Beijing.Read More →
Pork manufacturer Shuanghui’s purchase of Smithfield was the latest move of Chinese companies to enter a global economy, and they want to hedge a slower growth in their domestic markets, tells business analyst Shaun Rein AFP.Read More →