McDonald´s used to be a winner in China, but has started to face dropping sales. Retail analyst Ben Cavender explains why the US firm is likely to keep on dropping in AsiaOne. Food scandals caused loss of confidence among the consumers, and McDonald´s has been unable to repair the damage.Read More →
In a surprise move US internet giant Amazon is opening a webshop at Tmall, part of its competitor Alibaba ´s empire. Retail analyst Ben Cavender explains why Amazon is teaming up with its competitor to enter the China market at CNBC.Read More →
Brazil depends to a large degree on China´s demand for its ore. But that dependence is dangerous, economist Arthur Kroeber told a conference in the country. Demand will be high for the next five years, but then drop sharply, and cause trouble if Brazil has not diversified its economy.Read More →
Financial leasing companies, unless they are supported by one of the banks, are increasingly running into problems, as they lose access to funding, writes financial expert Sara Hsu in The Diplomat. ” Ordinary financial leasing companies in particular are feeling the funding pinch.”Read More →
China´s lawmakers are preparing for their annual sessions of the advisory CPPCC and the National People´s Congress. Among them a large amount of influential business people. Political analyst Victor Shih explains the interaction between business and politics in China in the New York Times.Read More →
A declining economic growth and stiff anti-pollution measures hit especially the coal industry in China hard, as prices fall in an industry suffering from overcapacity, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat. The trend will continue. although “the transition to a diminished reliance on coal is difficult.”Read More →
Much on the consumer debate in China focuses on the high-income buyers. Time to change that, says retail analyst Shaun Rein, and author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia. Spending power of low-income consumers is going up fast, he tells KTUU.Read More →
Massive investments along the planned new silk road, and planned new economic zones, might offer cities in poorer provinces like Xinjiang and Yunnan great opportunities to develop, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat.Read More →
Wages have been rising fast in China, and companies are struggling to improve productivity of their workers to remain competitive. There is still much to win, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia in Business Week.Read More →
Coal used to be literally gold in China, but those days are over. Formal coal capital Lüliang has now been the center of president Xi Jinping´s anti-corruption drive, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. A case study on disrupting the Party establishment.Read More →
China´s spending spree starts at Single´s Day, and ends with Spring festival, but even Christmas has gained support among the consumers, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat, although it a a indigenous Christian celebration.Read More →
Author and journalist Howard French discusses his book China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, at the Sinica Podcast with Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn. He explains why the original title The Haphazard Empire, covers his book better: the unplanned migration of over a million of Chinese to Africa.Read More →