Viewpoint

05.09.17

Beijing Is Weakening Hong Kong’s Rule of Law. How Far Will It Go?

Alvin Y.H. Cheung
“The American Chamber of Commerce has urged Hong Kong’s next government to reach out to international businesses still ‘unclear’ about what opportunities the city can offer under the one country, two systems policy.” —South China Morning Post, April...

China Pitch by Kushner Sister Renews Controversy over Visa Program for Wealthy

Michael Kranish
Washington Post
A much-criticized visa program that allows foreigners to win fast-track immigration in return for investing $500,000 in U.S. properties was extended in a bill signed by President Trump just one day before a sister of senior White House adviser Jared...

Syria Says up to 5,000 Chinese Uighurs Fighting in Militant Groups

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Up to 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said on Monday, adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about it.

Ride-Hailing Giant Didi Finally Offers an English Language Option for Foreigners in China

Jon Russell
TechCrunch
There’s good news for foreigners living in, or visiting, China after Didi Chuxing — the local ride-sharing leader — added support for English language and overseas credit cards to its service for the first time.

U.S. Investigates Work at Pacific Island Casino Project with Trump Ties

NEIL GOUGH, CAO LI
New York Times
Officials say contractors illegally hired Chinese workers in Saipan, part of an American commonwealth, to build a casino overseen by a former Trump protégé.

China’s Answer to Airbus, Boeing Due to Take off on Friday

Daniel Ren
South China Morning Post
After a three year delay the long-awaited maiden flight of China’s 158-seat C919 passenger aircraft is scheduled for Friday, the latest step by the country to break the duopoly of Western giants Airbus and Boeing.

How Not to Lose Asia to China

Foreign Policy
This week, the foreign ministers of the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are coming to Washington for an annual U.S.-ASEAN dialogue.

Books

05.02.17

China’s Mobile Economy

Winston Ma
China’s Mobile Economy: Opportunities in the Largest and Fastest Information Consumption Boom is a cutting-edge text that spotlights the digital transformation in China. Organized into three major areas of the digital economy within China, this ground-breaking book explores the surge in e-commerce of consumer goods, the way in which multi-screen and mobile Internet use has increased in popularity, and the cultural emphasis on the mobile Internet as a source of lifestyle- and entertainment-based content. Targeted at the global business community, this lucid and engaging text guides business leaders, investors, investment banking professionals, corporate advisors, and consultants in grasping the challenges and opportunities created by China’s emerging mobile economy, and its debut on the global stage.The year of 2014-15 marks the most important inflection point in the history of the Internet in China. Almost overnight, the world’s largest digitally-connected middle class went both mobile and multi-screen (smart phone, tablets, laptops, and more), with huge implications for how consumers behave and what companies need to do to successfully compete. As next-generation mobile devices and services take off, China’s strength in this arena will transform it from a global “trend follower” to a “trend setter.”Understand what the digital transformation in China is, and impact on global capital markets, foreign investors, consumer companies, and the global economy as a whole.Explore the e-commerce consumption boom in the context of the Chinese market.Understand the implications of the multi-screen age and mobile Internet for China’s consumersSee how mobile Internet use, its focus on lifestyle and entertainment is aligned with today’s Chinese culture.Learn about the mobile entertainment habits of China’s millennial generation and the corresponding new advertisement approaches.The development of China’s mobile economy is one of the most important trends that will reshape the future of business, technology, and society both in China and the world. China's Mobile Economy introduces you to the digital transformation in China, and explains how this transformation has the potential to transform both China and the global consumer landscape. —John Wiley & Sons, Inc.{chop}

Depth of Field

05.01.17

From the Inside Looking Out

Ye Ming, Yan Cong & more from Yuanjin Photo
Each March, Beijing hosts the “Two Sessions,” massive meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Members of the two bodies of the nation’s legislature meet for a week in the Great Hall of...

Anbang, Chinese Company with Global Reach, Faces New Scrutiny

New York Times
Wu Xiaohui, the Chinese tycoon who was in failed talks with President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to buy into a skyscraper project in Manhattan, is fighting allegations of financial chicanery and has threatened to sue a Chinese magazine that...

Interview: Belt and Road Initiative to Boost Sustainable Economic Development -- Former U.S. Diplomat

Yang Shilong, Zhang Zhihuan
Xinhua
The Belt and Road Initiative is a very positive project that helps boost sustainable economic development in the world, especially in ill-connected Asia, a former U.S. diplomat has said.

Alibaba Acts on Vow about 1m U.S. Jobs

Paul Welitzkin
China Daily
Jack Ma announced on Tuesday that Alibaba will host a two-day conference in Detroit in June to teach U.S. businesses how to sell to the company’s 443 million customers in China on the world’s biggest e-commerce site.

China Urges U.S. To Abide by WTO Rules in Aluminum Imports Investigation

Xinhua
A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Thursday urged U.S. authorities to abide by World Trade Organization rules in its investigation of aluminum imports.

China’s Uber worth $50 Billion after Raising More Cash

Alec Macfarlane
CNN
China’s homegrown answer to Uber is about to become the world’s second most valuable startup.

China Is Crushing South Korea’s Tourism Industry

Alec Macfarlane
CNN
Pro tip for countries looking to keep their tourism numbers up: Don’t annoy China. That’s the lesson South Korea is learning the hard way. The country suffered a 40% plunge in Chinese visitors last month, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

Sinica Podcast

04.24.17

Chris Buckley: The China Journalist’s China Journalist

Chris Buckley, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Chris Buckley is a highly regarded and very resourceful correspondent based in Beijing for The New York Times. He has worked as a researcher and journalist in China since 1998, including a stint at Reuters, and is one of the few working China...

Is China Too Tough a Steel Beast for Trump to Tame?

Manolo Serapio Jr, Muyu Xu
Reuters
China exported 620,000 tonnes of steel direct to the United States last year, a fraction of the 800 million tonnes it produces each year, equal to about half of world output.

Books

04.21.17

A New Deal for China’s Workers?

Cynthia Estlund
China’s labor landscape is changing, and it is transforming the global economy in ways that we cannot afford to ignore. Once-silent workers have found their voice, organizing momentous protests, such as the 2010 Honda strikes, and demanding a better deal. China’s leaders have responded not only with repression but with reforms. Are China’s workers on the verge of a breakthrough in industrial relations and labor law reminiscent of the American New Deal?In A New Deal for China’s Workers? Cynthia Estlund views this changing landscape through the comparative lens of America’s twentieth-century experience with industrial unrest. China’s leaders hope to replicate the widely shared prosperity, political legitimacy, and stability that flowed from America’s New Deal, but they are irrevocably opposed to the independent trade unions and mass mobilization that were central to bringing it about. Estlund argues that the specter of an independent labor movement, seen as an existential threat to China’s one-party regime, is both driving and constraining every facet of its response to restless workers.China’s leaders draw on an increasingly sophisticated toolkit in their effort to contain worker activism. The result is a surprising mix of repression and concession, confrontation and cooptation, flaws and functionality, rigidity and pragmatism. If China’s laborers achieve a New Deal, it will be a New Deal with Chinese characteristics, very unlike what workers in the West achieved in the last century. Estlund’s sharp observations and crisp comparative analysis make China’s labor unrest and reform legible to Western readers. —Harvard University Press{chop}

China Rolls Back Taxes by $55 Billion to Encourage Consumer Spending and Boost Growth

CNBC
China is cutting taxes this year by 380 billion yuan ($55 billion) in efforts to encourage spending and boost growth.

United Airlines CEO to Visit China after Dragged Passenger Incident

China Daily
Facing a backlash over an incident this month involving an Asian-American passenger, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is planning a visit to China.

China, EU Push Message of Free Trade, Engagement

ABC
Top diplomats from China and the European Union pledged closer cooperation Wednesday, highlighting their common interests in peace and security and pushing a message of free trade and open engagement in contrast to fears that the U.S. is turning...

China Says Ivanka Trump Trademark Requests Handled Properly

Chicago Tribune
China is defending its handling of trademark applications from President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her company, saying that all such requests are handled fairly.

An SUV Called Trumpchi, and Other Marketing Challenges for Chinese Autos in the U.S.

Wall Street Journal
The country’s auto makers aim to boost sales overseas, and are starting by building better cars. That’s just the first hurdle.

China’s Korea Policy ‘in Tatters’ as Both North and South Defy Sanctions

Washington Post
On Monday, South Korea announced that it would press ahead with the “swift deployment” of a U.S. missile defense system, despite vociferous Chinese opposition.

China’s Economy Grows 6.9%, but Warning Signs Persist

New York Times
China’s economy, the world’s second-largest behind that of the United States, grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter, led by strong expansion at factories, Chinese officials said Monday.

Conversation

04.14.17

Ivanka: A ChinaFile Conversation

Rebecca E. Karl, Yishu Mao & more
At a time of strained and erratic relations between the U.S. and China, Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and, more recently, a member of his administration, has emerged as an unlikely but singularly potent emissary, not to just to China’s...

Report Shows Labor Conditions at Chinese and American Firms in Kenya Comparable

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
Nairobi-based researcher Zander Rounds joins Eric and Cobus to discuss a new comparative study on employment relations at Chinese and American firms in Kenya. Zander co-authored the report with China House Kenya founder Huang Hongxiang as part of a...

Is Trump Backing Down on China?

Eric Geller and Doug Palmer
Politico
The president last year compared China’s economic behavior to “rape.” Now he says he and Xi are “in the process of getting along very well.”

China’s Fosun Big on Expanding in Pharma

CBS News
Chinese conglomerate Fosun International will remain on the lookout for investment opportunities in the West amid concerns in the market over capital controls and debt levels, according to the company’s chairman.

Why Ford’s Electric Push in China Might Get Grounded

Wall Street Journal
On Thursday Ford Motor announced its China-focused electric-car strategy, including new vehicles. Ford’s Chief Executive Mark Fields said the “time is right” for his company to beef up in China. It is playing catch-up, though.

China Tech Investment Flying under the Radar, Pentagon Warns

New York Times
China is investing in Silicon Valley start-ups with military applications at such a rapid rate that the United States government needs tougher controls to stem the transfer of some of America’s most promising technologies, a Pentagon report says.

Viewpoint

04.05.17

Xi Is Ready for the Summit. Trump Can’t Possibly Be. So What Should He Do?

Robert Daly
At the summit in Mar-a-Lago, U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to alter deeply-rooted Chinese policies despite having no China strategy. China’s Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping hopes that by making deals on secondary matters important to Trump...

Trump Team Takes Steps to Keep Chinese Away from Westinghouse

Bloomberg
The Trump administration is so alarmed that Chinese investors may try to purchase Westinghouse Electric Co.’s nuclear business that U.S. officials are trying to find an American or allied buyer for the company instead, two people familiar with the...

U.S.-China Trade Scorecard: Advantage China

Roger Yu
USA Today
When President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, he will remind his guest that China runs the largest trade surplus with the United States.

Why China’s Got Beef with U.S. Beef

Bruce Einhorn
Bloomberg
Beef may be on the table when the U.S. president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discuss trade during this week’s summit at Trump’s Florida resort.

Viewpoint

04.05.17

No Winners or Losers, Please

Paul Gewirtz
Who will be the winner of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit? My answer: That’s a dangerous—and wrongheaded—question to focus on. Yes, we want the U.S. to win, but the U.S.-China relationship must be played and judged as a long game.The present situation...

Books

04.05.17

China’s Crony Capitalism

Minxin Pei
When Deng Xiaoping launched China on the path to economic reform in the late 1970s, he vowed to build “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” More than three decades later, China’s efforts to modernize have yielded something very different from the working people’s paradise Deng envisioned: an incipient kleptocracy, characterized by endemic corruption, soaring income inequality, and growing social tensions. China’s Crony Capitalism traces the origins of China’s present-day troubles to the series of incomplete reforms from the post-Tiananmen era that decentralized the control of public property without clarifying its ownership.Beginning in the 1990s, changes in the control and ownership rights of state-owned assets allowed well-connected government officials and businessmen to amass huge fortunes through the systematic looting of state-owned property—in particular land, natural resources, and assets in state-run enterprises. Mustering compelling evidence from over two hundred corruption cases involving government and law enforcement officials, private businessmen, and organized crime members, Minxin Pei shows how collusion among elites has spawned an illicit market for power inside the party-state, in which bribes and official appointments are surreptitiously but routinely traded. This system of crony capitalism has created a legacy of criminality and entrenched privilege that will make any movement toward democracy difficult and disorderly.Rejecting conventional platitudes about the resilience of Chinese Communist Party rule, Pei gathers unambiguous evidence that beneath China’s facade of ever-expanding prosperity and power lies a Leninist state in an advanced stage of decay. —Harvard University Press{chop}

South Korean Automakers Cut China Production amid Missile Dispute

Hyunjoo Jin
Reuters
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp have sharply cut vehicle production in China, sources said, as anti-Korean sentiment and competition from Chinese brands play havoc on sales and threaten earnings.

China Meeting Spotlights Trump Ethics Swamp: Sen. Cardin

Ben Cardin
USA Today
We can't tell if he's acting in the public interest or tending to the family business.

Conversation

04.04.17

What Should We Expect When Trump and Xi Meet in Florida?

David Dollar, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
On April 6-7, U.S. President Donald Trump will host Xi Jinping in their first face-to-face meeting when China’s President arrives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The meeting comes early in Trump’s presidency, after a campaign in which he frequently...

If U.S. Trade with China Is So Unfair, Why Is GM the Best-Selling Car There?

Tim Fernholz
Quartz
Ahead of a high-stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Donald Trump’s White House has made clear that it isn’t happy with China’s high tariffs on imported American automobiles.

Viewpoint

04.03.17

What Does the Future Hold for Business between the U.S. and China under Trump?

Ker Gibbs
We are now well into the first 100 days of the Trump administration. His supporters expect major changes in the China relationship. They voted for a man who promised to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods and slap China with the currency...

Chinese Capital Constraints Send Shock through Global M&A

Don Weinland and Javier Espinoza
Financial Times
Outbound deals hit lowest level since 2014 after cash clampdown

China’s Hottest New Boy Band Is Actually Made up of Five Androgynous Girls

Zheping Huang
Quartz
Acrush is made up of five women mostly in their early twenties, who all have edgy short hairstyles and dress like a bunch of boyish hearthrobs.

Kushner Family, China’s Anbang End Talks over Manhattan Real Estate Deal

Rob Schmitz
NPR
The family of President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, has called off talks with Chinese insurance company Anbang to redevelop a Manhattan office tower—a deal that raised ethical concerns.

China Should Learn the Golden Rule

Christopher Balding
Bloomberg
The truth is that Chinese companies looking to invest abroad are treated now—as they’ve been for years—far better than China treats foreign investors.

Australian Vote on Extradition Treaty With China Is Canceled

Amien Cave
New York Times
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull canceled a parliamentary vote to ratify an extradition treaty with China on Tuesday after opposition lawmakers said they would not support it

American Airlines Buys Stake in China Southern Airlines

CNBC
American Airlines has agreed to pay $200 million for a stake in China Southern Airlines, the biggest of China’s three major state-owned carriers, in a bid for a bigger share of the country's growing travel market.

China’s Secret Plan to Crush SpaceX and the US Space Program

Clay Dillow
CNBC
China’s breakneck economic expansion may be flagging, but the country's ambitions in space show no signs of slowing down.

China’s Tencent Bought A 5 Percent Stake in Tesla

Johana Bhuiyan
Re/code
Tencent, a Chinese internet giant, is also an investor in Chinese ride-hail player Didi Chuxing.

China’s HNA in Talks to Buy Controlling Stake in Forbes: Sources

CNBC
Acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters

China Plans Fresh Crackdown on Tangshan Steel Production

Emily Feng
Financial Times
China is planning a new crackdown on steel production in the north-eastern city of Tangshan in a bid to prevent false reporting of mill closures by local governments reluctant to obey shutdown orders.

China State Firms Eye Land around Panama Canal: Waterway Authority

Brenda Goh
Reuters
Chinese state firms have expressed an interest to develop land around the Panama Canal, the chief executive of the vital trade thoroughfare said, underlining China’s outward push into infrastructure via railways and ports around the world.

American Airlines Seeks China Southern Tie-Up as Traffic Booms

Neil Gough
New York Times
American Airlines is looking to become the second big carrier in the United States to buy its way into capturing more of the big and growing business of flying to China.

The New (Red) iPhone Shows How a Simple Act of Charity Isn’t So Simple in China

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
In China tomorrow (March 24) Apple will launch the crimson-hued iPhone 7 and 7plus devices in partnership with (RED), an AIDS-relief charity it has promoted and supported for over a decade.

Australia Shouldn't Pick Between U.S. and China, Premier Li Says

Bloomberg
Australia, which has fought alongside the U.S. in every major conflict since World War I, has been careful not to offend China, which was responsible for 31 percent of its merchandise exports in the 12 months to July last year.

Here’s What Happens to the Athletic Wear Industry When China Starts Going to the Gym

Marc Bain
Quartz
If the world’s big sportswear brands could invent a country with just the right mix of ingredients to fuel their businesses for years to come, it would look a lot like present-day China.

Welcome to Yiwu: China’s Testing Ground for a Multicultural City

Helen Roxburgh
Guardian
Unlike Guangzhou’s African community—who have faced prejudice and hostility—Yiwu’s foreign residents enjoy an ‘unusual freedom of worship,’ with the municipal government even consulting international traders on city business

Why China Stoking up Anger over South Korea Missile System Is Doomed to Fail

Josh Ye
South China Morning Post
Encouraging boycotts of South Korean goods won’t stop Seoul deploying the defence shield, but will sour an economically valuable relationship, observers say

Airbnb’s Rivals in China Hold Hands in a Nervous New Market

Amie Tsang and Paul Mozur
New York Times
Airbnb sees big promise in China, where travel spending reached nearly $500 billion in 2015 thanks to a new generation of domestic tourists. On Wednesday in Shanghai, Airbnb unveiled a new Chinese name—Aibiying, which means “welcome each other with...