Starbucks sold 60 percent of its China business earlier this week, hoping that local input could help its operation. But Shanghai-based business analyst Ben Cavender sees that the US company still has major difficulties in cracking the Chinese market, he writes at WHTC.com.Read More →

China veteran Kaiser Kuo, host of The Sinica Podcast, looks back at how the debate on China has developed in the West over the past forty to fifty years, and here it ended now, in a debate with host Eric Olander of Conversation Changers. The discussion on what China wants says more about the West than about China, he argues.Read More →

The Hurun China rich-list has reached a record height, says Rupert Hoogewerf,  chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, at the release of the 2025 ranking, according to YiCai Global. Both new technology companies and a surprising export have added to the results, he adds. Also, the rising stock markets added to the wealth of China’s rich.Read More →

Technically, the trade talks between China and the US, and even meetings between Xi and Trump, are on the agenda, but the US has quietly curtailed US exports to China in September, says business analyst Arthur Kroeber in the South China Morning Post. The ramifications of the US rule change became vividly apparent on September 30, when the Dutch government seized control of the chip firm Nexperia.Read More →

China’s influencer economy in 2025 is bigger, faster, and more competitive than ever, writes marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok in an overview of this booming industry in Chozan. “In 2024 alone, MCNs — multi-channel networks — were behind many of the country’s record-breaking livestream sales and viral content trends,” she adds.Read More →

China veteran Kaiser Kuo looks at the lessons the West can learn from China, and how the China debate needs a much-needed reshuffle, a major essay at the Ideas Newsletter. “The question is whether we will meet it with the rigorous self-examination that has historically enabled democratic renewal, or retreat once more into the comforting myths that have blinded us to both our weaknesses and our rivals’ strengths,” Kuo writes.Read More →