Political analyst Ian Johnson answers some basic questions on the upcoming 5-yearly meeting of the Chinese Communist Party at the website of the Council of Foreign Affairs. Most Polit bureau members will retire, Premier Li Keqiang will prepare for his replacement in March, and secretary-general Xi Jinping will be re-elected for his third term. What will it mean for Xi’s position?Read More →
Unlike in the past, youngsters in China are unsure of what the future brings, and they have become more frugal, says Shanghai-based consumer analyst Ben Cavender, executive director of the China Market Research Group (CMR). to Reuters.Read More →
China’s economy is heading for a rough time as it continues to curtail activities under its dynamic zero-COVID policies, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein in the Global Eye. Heatwaves, drought, and high unemployment among youngsters add to those problems, he says.Read More →
Tense relations between China and the US, a pandemic, and limited access to the country are firmly limiting a new generation of China hands to explore a career in the second economy of the world, says China professor Victor Shih in the South China Morning Post. “China was [once] seen as a kind of land of opportunity for young foreigners. That is no longer the case,” said Shih, Read More →
China’s consumers have developed new behavior during the lengthy quarantine, writes marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok and dives into newly emerged economies like the smart home market, and the fitness market for Dao Insights.Read More →
China’s real economic problem: they increase capital spending, but are not able to improve productivity that is already at a shockingly low level, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at a panel at CSIS discussing with Thomas Orlik, Chief Economist for Bloomberg Economics, and author of the book, China: The Bubble That Never Pops. While an economic collapse is unlikely, a grinding halt to economic development might be its largest danger, Kroeber adds.Read More →
The story that Western companies are fleeing China is as old as the presence of foreign companies in China. China lawyer Mark Schaub looks at the recent flare in Western media and explains why they are wrong, again, in his weekly China Chit-chat.Read More →
China lawyer Mark Schaub returned to London after three months of quarantine in Shanghai, including a COVID camp. He looks back at the experience in his resumed China Chit-Chat. How bad was it really? How different is it from the US? And: are his Chinese friends leaving Shanghai?Read More →
At the current pace, China’s COVID-19 vaccination program would need up to three years to protect its population, hurting its consumer confidence and economy, says Helge Berger, head of the IMF’s China mission, in an interview with Bloomberg.Read More →
Leading political analyst Victor Shih joins a panel at the Atlantic Council to discuss China’s top leadership, including the different style premier Li Keqiang tries to display in a situation where little deviation from the top leadership is possible. Including the leadership perspective on the Shanghai lockdown.Read More →
The number of Covid cases in Shanghai keeps on dropping and residents do get small bits of freedom back from the stringent lockdown. But Shanghai-based consultant Ben Cavender expects only business activities to resume by the end of June, he tells in RTHK.Read More →
China veteran and lawyer Mark Schaub dives into the issue of the upcoming exodus of ex-pats from Shanghai, triggered off by the stringent COVID-19 lockdowns. More foreigners than ever will be leaving, while fewer are coming to replace them unless their companies reinvent themselves. But to a large degree, this is a long overdue cleanup in a dynamically changing climate, he argues in his second weekly column China chit-chat.Read More →