540 Archives | Week In China

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WiC 540 (May 14, 2021)

Hailing investor interest

Internet & Tech, Talking Point The race is on as Didi and Dida hit the accelerator…

There is something about powerplay profits that persuades commentators to invent acronyms for top performing companies. The Chinese first came up ...

A billion staycations

China Tourist With foreign trips off limits, ‘Golden Week’ domestic tourism surges

In 2019 Chinese tourists made some 170 million trips abroad. Now, thanks to Covid-19, a foreign holiday isn’t an option. The result is a trend that ...

Best foot forward

Cross Strait Taiwan’s richest man doesn’t make chips – he manufactures sneakers

The story of sneakers begins in 1839 when an American scientist called Charles Goodyear found a way of treating rubber with sulphur. The technique, ...

Beating a retreat

Healthcare Waterdrop IPO underperforms as tighter insurtech rules loom

When 34 year-old Shen Peng founded Waterdrop Inc in 2016, he was setting his sights on building China’s answer to UnitedHealth Group, a $383 billion ...

Entertainment Mengniu marketing tactic backfires as TV show gets banned over milk…

There is rarely a shortage of ‘survival’ shows in China’s relentless stream of reality TV output. Less than a week after the debut of Tencent ...

Space Programme China’s space station mission raises concerns over rocket debris

The core module and control hub of Tiangong, China’s first permanent space station, is called Tianhe, or ‘Heavenly Harmony’. Its launch on ...

Vaccine diplomacy

Healthcare The only Filipino taker of Sinopharm’s Covid shot is...

Rodrigo Duterte is known as the strongman of the Philippines. Yet on May 5 the outspoken president publicly apologised for getting a Sinopharm ...

Telecoms China Telecom closes in on A-share return

Few companies are more symbolic for long-term China-watchers than the original China Telecom (now China Mobile). In 1997, it set the template for ...

Banking & Finance Will it be fourth time lucky for developer Sanxun?

In Chinese folklore the humblest carp became mighty dragons if they swam upstream and leapt over a waterfall on the steepest stretch of the Yellow ...

The Alibaba effect

China Consumer More Chinese firms target Hong Kong shoppers

In 2013, the Hong Kong government sparked a public outcry over its refusal to give a television broadcast licence to Hong Kong Television (HKTV). ...

Lost in translation

Society, Sport Cannavaro gets Confucian

During the Warring States period that began about 2,500 years ago the gulf between the nobility and the rest of society was a gaping one. However, the ...

Selling pressure

Sino-File “The pressure will probably emerge in June. The rising commodity prices…

Qiu Zhiming, chairman of Beifa Group, tells China Daily that Chinese exporters could face surging cost pressures in the second half. He added that the ...

Not a fun day out

And Finally Elderly scammed in unwanted cemetery visit

On April 13 a group of retirees from Chongqing boarded a bus for what they thought was going to be a trip to a scenic spot. They had paid Rmb18 ($2.80) ...