Internet giant Alibaba paid US$2.6 billion for the retailer Intimate group, another sign Alibaba wants to leverage its online presence to brick-and-mortar retail operations, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. Earlier it bought also leading retailer Suning.Read More →

In line with expectations, McDonald´s has sold a controlling stake of its China and Hong Kong operation to private investors, after competitor Yum did the same last year. With the new financial resources, the China operation can improve fast, says Shanghai-based retail analyst Ben Cavender to Bloomberg.Read More →

First reviews of journalist Zhang Lijia´s touching Lotus: A Novel, are coming in, like here from the Star Tribune, focusing on the Chinese migrants, the unsung heroes who made the country´s economic development possible. “Lotus and Bing, as well as the secondary characters, feel like real, rounded human beings. Zhang portrays them compassionately.”Read More →

One of the main reasons Chinese consumers buy themselves silly abroad – including Hong Kong – is the high difference in pricing of similar products in mainland China. Cosmetic giants Estee Lauder and AmorePacific have lower their prices up to 30 percent, as also the government is revamping its import fees. More will follow, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Social mobility between the generations in China has stalled, argues author Zhang Lijia, even more than elsewhere. While she moved herself from factory worker to a social commentator, and recently wrote Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, most Chinese are currently stuck socially where they were born.Read More →

Author Zhang Lijia explored the life of more than ten million women in the sex trade in China for her book Lotus: A Novel. How is the trade organized? How does their life look like, and how voluntary is a choice to go into prostitution? Zhang Lijia spent years on the ground, and comes with a few remarkable conclusions. Organized crime has only little grip on prostitution, and most is organized by women themselves.Read More →

Recent rumors about better relations between China´s central government and the Vatican has put attention to the small but influential following of the Vatican in China. Author Ian Johnson of the forthcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao elaborates at the NPR.Read More →

The sudden death of George Michael triggered off found memories in Beijing, where Michael´s band Wham! was one of the first to hit the stage after China started to open up in the 1980s. “They certainly had in impact on China, says Kaiser Kuo, now himself a rock legend in China, to Reuters.Read More →

Increased government restrictions on the outflow of capital will severely impend the outbound M&A activities in the first quarter of 2017, after a record year in 2016, expects business analyst Shaun Rein, according to the South China Morning Post.Read More →