Why The Great Malls of China Are Starting to Crumble

Irina Ivanova
CBS News
China, which for years has been goading consumers to spend their hard-earned yuan as the country seeks to modernize its economy, faces an all-too-American problem: too many shopping malls, and not enough people to shop there.

Caixin Media

06.05.17

China to Boost Checks on Overseas Spending

China is stepping up supervision of the use of bank cards overseas, a move the foreign-exchange regulator says is needed to fight money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion.Starting September 1, banks will be required to report on a...

Reports

05.24.17

China’s Social Credit System: A Big-Data Enabled Approach to Market Regulation with Broad Implications for Doing Business in China

Mirjam Meissner
Mirjam Meissner
Mercator Institute for China Studies
Under the catchphrase “Social Credit System,” China is currently implementing a new and highly innovative approach to monitoring, rating, and regulating the behavior of market participants. The Social Credit System will have significant impact on...

Why Chinese People Won’t Boycott Trump Fashion

BBC
In a week that saw a political storm after Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump fashion lines and reports in the U.S. media that her younger sister Tiffany Trump was “shunned” at New York Fashion Week, there was one unlikely win for the first family.

China’s Growing Obesity Problem

Benjamin Shobert
Forbes
A recent study published shows that China can now lay claim to having a greater percentage of obese men and women than in the United States.

How China’s Pink Economy Is Leading the Country’s Battle for LGBT Rights

Charlie Campbell
Fortune
China’s burgeoning LGBT community—estimated at some 70 million people—is a free-spending sector that few businesses can afford to ignore.

China’s Millennial Consumers: What Victoria’s Secret Got Wrong, and Nike Got Right

Helen Wang
Forbes
Chinese millennials are conflicted between their national pride and their love for western brands

Environment

12.13.16

Chinese Consumers Adopt Greener Lifestyle

from chinadialogue
For the last two years, Helen Ni has hosted low-carbon technology workshops for local kids and their parents. The informal gatherings take place at her ground-floor apartment in the Shanghai suburb of Minhang, close to Jiaotong University, one of...

Meet the Ma Family: How Millennials are Changing the Way China Thinks About Money

Engen Tham and Adam Jourdan
Reuters
China's millennials - roughly those aged between 18 and 35 - are embracing debt like never before

Though Awash in Fakes, China Rethinks Counterfeit Hunters

Sui-Lee Wee
New York Times
As China grows and matures, and moves to protect brands and ideas, it still struggles with how to get rid of fakes. Enter Mr. Ji.

Swinging Singles' Day: Alibaba Holiday Drives Shoppers in China

Eva Dou
Wall Street Journal
China’s online-retail giant once again broke its sales record on the shopping day it helped create

How Alibaba Turned China’s Singles Day into the World’s Biggest Shopping Bonanza

Amanda Lee
Forbes
Sales this 11/11 are expected to reach $20 billion–-a 40% year-over-year surge

Alibaba Earnings Show It Again Defying China’s Slowdown

Paul Mozur
New York Times
Amid concerns about a slowdown of Chinese economic growth, China’s largest e-commerce company is showing that business on its platforms is holding steady

Amazon Delivers Prime Program to China

Alyssa Abkowitz and Laura Stevens
Wall Street Journal
The U.S. e-commerce behemoth hopes to capitalize on Chinese consumers’ desire for overseas products

China’s Urbanites Embrace Sacrifice to Ride Property Frenzy

Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo
Reuters
There are signs mortgages are crimping household spending, in an economy increasingly reliant on domestic consumption

Sinica Podcast

09.27.16

Fakes, Pirates, and Shanzhai Culture

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Fakes, knockoffs, pirate goods, counterfeits: China is notorious as the global manufacturing center of all things ersatz. But in the first decade after the People’s Republic joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, a particular kind of knockoff...

China’s Xiaomi Guns for Apple with Latest Premium Smartphone

Bloomberg
The Mi S5 is a luxury phone costing less than half the most expensive iPhone

China Will Resume Imports of U.S. Beef After a Ban Long Seen as Political

Hannah Beech
Time
For an American industry that relies increasingly on global demand, the news is welcome

Meet Pizza, the World’s Saddest Polar Bear

Echo Huang Yinyin
Quartz
Pizza is just one of thousands of “wild” animals languishing in China's malls

Apple Holds Firm On China iPhone Premium

Doug Young
Forbes
China has become a particularly worrisome market for Apple in the last year.

Chinese Consumers May Be Experiencing ‘iPhone Fatigue’ As Product Launch Nears

Fortune
Convincing shoppers to replace their smartphone is a tougher sell than it used to be.

Sinica Podcast

09.07.16

Yiwu, a City at the Core of Cheap Chinese Goods

Kaiser Kuo, David Moser & more from Sinica Podcast
Renowned as a trading town during the Qing dynasty, the eastern city of Yiwu again became famous for its markets after China’s economic reforms kicked in during the 1980s. Since then, the metropolis of 1.2 million people has transformed into a hub...

Gig Economy Arrives in China (Officially); Ride-Sharing a Go

New York Times
A Cabinet document sets guidelines for registration, fares, employment of drivers and payments.

Apple’s China Problem Is That Local Phones are Good — and Cheap

Alex Webb
Bloomberg
Apple has lost market share to Huawei and Oppo.

Netflix Eyes China as New Market

Fortune
Netflix is trying to counter slowing growth in the U.S. by moving into 130 new markets worldwide.

What China’s Successful Reforestation Program Means for the Rest of the World

Elizabeth Shockman
Public Radio International
China, as it turns out, is looking elsewhere to get the lumber it needs.

China Bars Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada (and Rights Advocate)

New York Times
A Chinese who moved to Canada as a kid, the charismatic Lin is a practitioner of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement China calls an “evil cult.”

How China Conquered France’s Wine Country

New Republic
French connoisseurs sold the Chinese pomp and prestige, until they started manufacturing it themselves.

With Help from 007's Daniel Craig, how Alibaba Turned 11-11 into China's Biggest Shopping Day

Julie Makinen
Los Angeles Times
Online shopping and entertainment fused into a consumerist juggernaut.

P&G Tripped Up by Its Assumptions About Diapers in China

Serena Ng and Laurie Burkitt
Wall Street Journal
Pampers diapers fall behind after aiming too low at the growing middle class.

Americans Buy a Fifth of China’s Exports

Bloomberg
Americans bought almost $1 out of every $5 worth of goods that China exported in May, the highest share since August 2010.

China Malls Rise Amid Growing Xenophobia in South Africa

Cobus van Staden & Mingwei Huang
Chinese immigrants in South Africa have not been spared from the violent, anti-immigrant riots that have swept across Durban and Johannesburg, two of the country’s largest cities. There have been reports of injuries along with at least 40 business...

Why India’s E-Commerce Boom Will Look Nothing Like China’s

Shelly Walia
Quartz
In five years, the number of Indians with internet access is estimated to reach the level of China back in 2012.

China is Still Rising, Just More Slowly

Hu Angang
Foreign Affairs
Embracing China's "new normal" or why the economy Is still 
on track.

Conversation

04.16.15

How Much Consumerism Can China Afford?

Andrew Batson & Matthew Crabbe
This week, a blockbuster movie celebrating speedy cars and the racing life landed atop China’s box office. The Hollywood import Fast and Furious 7 grossed $63 million in one day (as reported by Bloomberg), the most-ever for a single title in that...

BMW China Dealers Press Auto Maker for More Financial Support

Rose Yu and Colum Murphy
Wall Street Journal
In letter to German luxury car maker, dealers call on BMW to set more realistic sales targets.

China’s G.D.P. Slows to 7 Percent, the Weakest Rate Since 2009

Neil Gough
New York Times
China’s G.D.P. Slows to 7 Percent, the Weakest Rate Since 2009 

Conversation

01.26.15

Does Size Matter? (In the U.S. and Chinese Economies, That Is...)

Taisu Zhang
Last week, President Obama’s State of the Union Address touted a U.S. economic recovery. Meanwhile, China’s economic growth is slowing and Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, has said that China’s economy, contrary to overseas...

Books

10.15.14

China’s Super Consumers

Savio Chan and Michael Zakkour
China has transformed itself from a feudal economy in the 19th century, to Mao and Communism in the 20th century, to the largest consumer market in the world by the early 21st century. China's Super Consumers explores the extraordinary birth of consumerism in China and explains who these super consumers are. China's Super Consumers offers an in-depth explanation of what's inside the minds of Chinese consumers and explores what they buy, where they buy, how they buy, and most importantly why they buy.The book is filled with real-world stories of the foreign and domestic companies, leading brands, and top executives who have succeeded in selling to this burgeoning marketplace. This remarkable book also takes you inside the boardrooms of the people who understand Chinese consumers and have had success in the Chinese market.A hands-on resource for succeeding in the Chinese marketplaceFilled with real-world stories of companies who have made an impact in ChinaDiscover what the Chinese consumer wants and how to deliver the goodsThis book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants a clear understanding of how China's Super Consumers are changing the world and how to sell to them. —Wiley {chop}

China Approves $3.25 Billion Universal Theme Park in Beijing

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
The facility will cover a 300-acre site in the suburbs of China's capital.

What Microsoft Has Done Right (And Wrong) In China With Xbox One

Charles Custer
Forbes
Now that we have some details about the Chinese Xbox One—a price, a release date, game pricing and lineup, etc.—it’s possible to assess Microsoft’s chances of making a bigger dent in the market than gray-market consoles have.

A Man Takes His Cabbage for a Walk

Jonah M. Kessel
New York Times
The Chinese performance artist Han Bing recently dragged a cabbage through city centers as a social commentary on people’s relationships with objects in their lives.

China’s Real Estate Downturn Spells Trouble for Global Economy

Chengcheng Jiang
Time
The world's largest trading nation's economic growth remains heavily dependent on property, meaning a sharp downturn in that sector would be felt across Asia and beyond.

Features

05.29.14

Why Defenders of Killer Whales Are Worried About China

Leah Thompson
Late last year, the circus came to Hengqin. Trained elephants from Thailand, Russian jugglers and monkies, Kazakh horses, Bengal tigers, and Cuban acrobats descended on the once-sleepy island near Macau for China’s “First International Circus...

Conversation

04.30.14

Will China’s Economy Be #1 by Dec. 31? (And Does it Matter?)

William Adams, Damien Ma & more
On April 30, data released by the United Nations International Comparison Program showed China’s estimated 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate was twenty percent higher than was estimated in 2005. What does this mean? China's...

Chinese Drivers Pollute Without Guilt

Adam Miner
Bloomberg
Chinese demand for private transportation soars while air-quality plummets. 

China 2013 Box Office Surges 27 Percent to $3.6 Billion

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
Chinese box office revenue rose $760 million to $3.57 billion, an increase of 27 percent over last year's $2.8 billion (17 billion yuan), data from China's biggest online film review site, Mtime, showed.

How China Spends Christmas

BBC
As the western world eagerly anticipates the festive season, in China Christmas will be a relatively subdued affair.

Media

10.22.13

China’s Silly War on Starbucks Lattes

There are worse things in the world than an overpriced latte. That’s the message that thousands of Chinese web users are sending China Central Television (CCTV), a state-owned media behemoth that ran an October 20 segment accusing the Seattle-based...

Why Aren’t Chinese People Reading Books Anymore?

Helen Gao
Atlantic
China’s once-robust trade in serious literature has withered under an increasingly materialistic, results-oriented society.

China’s Millionaire Population Grows Less Quickly

Laurie Burkitt
Wall Street Journal
With the world’s second-largest economy in the midst of an extended slowdown, growth in the population of Chinese millionaires has fallen to its slowest pace in five years.

Now Playing: China’s Booming Movie Market

Wei Gu
Wall Street Journal
In China, where pirated movies can be bought for less than $1, people are flocking to theaters, a sign of how Chinese consumers are willing to spend more on entertainment.

Media

07.15.13

A Rite of Passage to Nowhere

Ying Zhu & Frances Hisgen
Tiny Times, a Chinese feature film set in contemporary Shanghai, made headline news on its opening day in late June by knocking the Hollywood blockbuster Man of Steel from its perch atop the domestic box-office and breaking the opening-day record...

Faking It in China

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
One of the most striking features about daily life in China is how much of what one encounters has been appropriated from elsewhere. It’s not just the fake iPhones or luxury watches—pirated consumer goods are common in many developing countries. In...

China’s Branding Failure

Caitlin Dewey
Washington Post
According to a recent survey by international marketing firm HD Trade Services, 94 percent of Americans cannot name even one Chinese brand. Chinese companies show few signs of working to reverse this trend. &...

Sinica Podcast

04.05.13

The Transgressions of Apple Computer

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
While foreign media coverage these last two weeks has focused on environmental disasters, over-fishing, and emerging forms of the avian flu, the Chinese state media has turned its gaze towards the transgressions of Apple Computer, which found itself...

Conversation

03.13.13

China’s Post 1980’s Generation—Are the Kids All Right?

Sun Yunfan, Orville Schell & more
This week, the ChinaFile Conversation is a call for reactions to an article about China's current generation gap, written by James Palmer, a Beijing-based historian, author, and Global Times editor. The article, first published by Aeon in the U...