China’s consumers turn to local brands because they tend to be cheaper than international brands, and because of patriotism because of the US-China trade war, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein to CNBC. Anti-US sentiment was already virulent under Biden because of anti-Chinese measures. Under Trump that has not yet improved, adds Shaun Rein, but the Chinese hope Trump is more transactional than Biden was.Read More →

While in the past youth looked for jobs in the private sector or at foreign companies, they now look for government jobs as they offer more security, says Arthur Kroeber, leading economist and author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Most graduates feel the sluggish Chinese economy will continue for some time, he says on CNBC.Read More →

Some e-commerce firms in China have profited from a rally of their stocks, triggered off by a major financial stimulus, but that might not help the economy to really improve, says financial analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. It’s a rally of exuberance, he adds, and might only triple down into the economy in six to nine months. The real problem is for example companies cannot fire their staff very easily, and make their lives hard, hoping they will leave by themselves, he says.Read More →

The crowds might be back in China’s restaurants but they are not spending as much as they used to. The economy is not back on track, the labor market is bad and salaries are being cut. Business analyst Shaun Rein has sent his researchers out, and they did come back with bad news, he tells CNBC.Read More →

Women have been bearing most of the burden of China’s shift from state economy to market economy, says author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel, on prostitution in China, at the BBC World Service. Despite a lot of advantages, women suffered severe setbacks. State owned companies let women go at 45 years of age, and getting hired at the sexist job market has been harder than ever, she adds. “Some refuse to hire women at a child-bearing age.”Read More →

Top executives at China’s internet giant Tencent earn higher salaries than their counterparts at Amazon, Twitter, Intel Apple and IBM, according to job portal Zhaopin.com. Business analyst Shaun Rein is not surprised, he tells the South China Morning Post. There is no other way to retain their talent in China.Read More →

China´s labor conditions were notoriously bad, but the shift to higher-skilled, younger laborers, and better legislation has changed the country profoundly, writes urbanization expert Sara Hsu in the Diplomat. Although, there is still room for more improvement.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 →