Inequality has been one of China’s central problems, writes author and journalist Zhang Lijia in the South China Morning Post. There is no shortage of efforts to fix it, she argues, and while China has dealt with poverty successfully, getting to common prosperity, as it is called, seems much harder to achieve.Read More →
The arrest of HNA founder and group chairman Chen Feng, and CEO Tan Xiangdong, last week was yet another signal indicating a major change in China’s economic relations, based on guanxi or old-style relations between power brokers, says political analyst Victor Shih to Bloomberg.Read More →
Devaluation of the Renminbi, limiting export or more straining of capital flight are some options China’s government has to deal with its financial dilemma caused by the trade war, but – warns financial expert Victor Shih – all might also cause setbacks, he tells Reuters.Read More →
Under president Xi Jinping, politics has become more dynamic than under his predecessor Hu Jintao. Anti-corruption, political reforms and increased infighting between different factions mark the news on an almost daily basis. And while everybody has an opinion, at the China Speakers Bureau we are happy to have a range of expert opinions on China´s political development.Read More →
Transparency is not a natural thing for China, not domestically nor internationally. But African states can ask China for more transparency, argues journalist Howard French, author China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa, to Inkstone.Read More →
Facial recognition and the exchange of related data seems to meet little resistance in China, compared to Western consumers. Tencent observer Matthew Brennan sees some rubbles among the public, but indeed no big scale anxiety on facial recognition, he tells in Slate and dives into the different perceptions.Read More →
The luxury consumer price index (CPI) went up 4.1% in the first five months of 2018, the highest rise since 2012, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, according to the Global Times. Read More →
As China prepares for the second term of president Xi Jinping, the world wonders what is behind his acts. Political analyst Victor Shih, author Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation takes at the Guardian a helicopter view on Xi’s anti-corruption drive, his global aspirations and plans for the future.Read More →
While President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption is lauded by most, the campaign has some negative side-effects, says author Shaun Rein of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order in the South China Morning Post. Officials have become increasingly afraid to make larger decisions because they fear a possible backlash, he says.Read More →
Known as the ultimate consumer guru, business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, now turned to politics in China, he explains at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club. In the past you could make a lot of money, no questions asked, he tells. Now you can still make money, but not that much and you need much more political sensitivity, he says. The pros and cons of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.Read More →
After the closure of the 19th Party Congress this week, analysts try to figure out what happened during the meeting. It’s not about internal party fighting, as some say, says economist Arthur Kroeber. President Xi Jinping changed the country through his all-out anti-corruption drive, and that started already five years ago, he tells NPR.Read More →
When the official China Daily reported that a scandal like Harvey Weinstein’s sexual escapades could not happen in China, many raised their eyebrows. Author Zhang Lijia, of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, sets the record straight for AFP.Read More →