Former Shanghai-based foreign correspondent Howard French recently returned to Shanghai for the first time after corona and takes stock of its current state, by talking to Chinese and foreign residents in the city. In Foreign Policy he reports about these findings. French: “All I can say with certainty is that we are all in for a turbulent, costly, and possibly dangerous ride.”Read More →

Unlike their counterparts in the rest of the world, China’s youngsters are fiercely saving their money, says business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. “Unlike youths in the 2010s who often spent more than they earned and borrowed money to buy fancy items like Gucci handbags and Apple iPhone, young Chinese have started saving more,” he told CNBC. Read More →

Business analyst Shaun Rein discusses the current state of China’s economy, how consumer confidence is slowly recovering, and why the fear of geopolitical tensions stops them from spending more in the economy. Why investors should be careful in investing right now into the second economy.Read More →

China’s consumers are still nervous, the economy is weak, but looking good in the longer run, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. Consumers are trading down now, but both real estate and infrastructure are not helping the economy, he adds. In the next decade, China’s middle class will grow from 400 to 800 million. Rein saw many of his clients move temporarily to Japan but is sure they will return to China.Read More →

Financial expert Victor Shih dives into the 2024 figures at the annual NPC and concludes China cannot roll over debts anymore and finance its budget like it did before. He tells Bloomberg that central state policies have increasingly replaced a market-driven economy.Read More →

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 →