The world´s most populous country is facing an unprecedented crisis, as its population ages fast, tells former New York Times Shanghai-bureau chief Howard French to PBS. The fast rising demand for social security, health care and a diminishing work force, will narrow down China´s economic expansion in the near future. The aging crisis not only shows the immense failure of the one-child policy, it will also force the country to become more welcoming to much-needed immigrants.Read More →

Leading economist Arthur Kroeber does not see reason for financial volatility in the short run, he tells at Bloomberg. The Chinese government will not try another devaluation, like they mistakenly did in August, and the funding of banks is very solid, at least for the next two to three years.Read More →

There has been too much negativity about Alibaba, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. While commodities like steel and coal have a hard time, consumer spending it going up in the 3-4th tier cities, and Alibaba will profit from it, even more than competitor JD.com.Read More →

China has three scenario´s to choose from by the end of next year, when the new Party Congress convenes, tells author Arthur Kroeber,China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at the European Council of Foreign Relations. Or Russia-style nationalism, Japan-style slowdown 2.0 or a Singapore on steroids.Read More →

How deep are the pockets of the People´s Bank of China (PBOC) to keep on funding its financial system? According to economist Arthur Kroeber they are safe for another year, and can use the time to clean up the current mess. Learning how to communicate with the markets is one talent that needs urgent development, he tells Bloomberg.Read More →

Chinese companies have often been blamed for copying Western innovation and patents. But now China takes the lead in mobile innovations, the argument seems to go the other way. Many of the features we know from WeChat we see now popping up at Facebook. Innovator William Bao Bean discusses whether Facebook has become a WeChat clone.Read More →

Luxury spending might have been hit by Xi Jinping´s anti-corruption campaign, but travel is on the way up. Rupert Hoogewerf just published his 5th China Luxury Travel Report and sees the super rich spending more time and money on more trips. Technology and luxury travel agencies set the trends, he tells Thoughtful China.Read More →

Huawei has replaced Xiaomi as the preferred mobile in China. Is you want to be cool, you buy Apple, if you want a decent local product, you buy Huawei, says business analyst Shaun Rein in Yahoo Finance. Xiaomi is still a good company, but US$45 billion might be a little bit high, he says.Read More →

Alibaba bought the video-services Youku-Tudou, a mash of Youtube and Netflix, but at least ten times bigger, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in Bloomberg. It is a sign competition between internet giants in China is heating up, and Alibaba first want to strengthen its position there, before taking the rest of the world serious, Rein says.Read More →