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Back Issue

WiC pinned (Dec 9, 2022)

Five hundred and counting

Talking Point Editor Steven Irvine on Week in China’s history and who we reported…

The original idea for Week in China came about in 2007, germinating over many discussions with my wife (our Ask Mei columnist). She would mention ...

Healthcare, Talking Point Why China’s Covid policy dramatically shifted this week

You may be surprised to learn that ‘goblin mode’ has just been selected by English speakers as the ‘word of the year’. Referring to behaviour ...

A bet on red that won

China Tourist, Talking Point US casinos retain Macau licences in spite of worsening Sino-US relations

Macau’s emergence as the world’s casino capital was explosive once it opened up its gambling industry to new entrants in 2002. Five new casino ...

The real World Cup winner?

Sport, Talking Point Why China has emerged as the economic victor of Qatar’s tournament

The host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were decided at the now infamous FIFA Congress in December 2010 (for gripping details on the ...

‘Red lines’ and Strait talking

China and the World, Talking Point As Biden and Xi meet in Bali it’s another island –…

When Joe Biden won the US presidential election in late 2020, there was plenty of interest from the media in his personal relationship with Xi Jinping, ...

Real estate reality check

Property, Talking Point Questions aplenty as Rmb1.5 billion goes missing after raid on Sunac safe

“Sometimes I think I am very lucky. I made mistakes when I was young, or at a time when I still had the chance to make amends,” Sun Hongbin told ...

A factory’s health in focus

Economy, Talking Point Reports of an ‘exodus’ of workers shake Foxconn and its top…

Talk of ‘peak globalisation’, or the view that we have reached a high point in international trade and finance, started to find its way into ...

Third term agenda

Economy, Talking Point Who are the new guard at the top of China’s political…

Donald Trump was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Xi Jinping on his “extraordinary elevation” after the Chinese leader tightened his ...

Decoupling in Duisburg?

China and the World, Talking Point Sino-German relations come into focus after 50 years of formal ties

Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, was one of a small group of foreigners deemed to be “an old friend of the Chinese people” (601 people ...

Strong and stable?

Rise of the RMB, Talking Point The yuan drops to its lowest level against the dollar for…

“Our currency, but your problem” was the unsympathetic verdict from Richard Nixon’s Treasury Secretary John Connally (or ‘Typhoon’ Connally ...

One for the future

Property, Talking Point Vanke defies the gloom with property management IPO in Hong Kong

As the world’s most expensive property market, Hong Kong is poorly nourished soil for start-ups. But ironically enough, when the government made a ...

Guo fights back

Economy, Talking Point Fosun’s founder angered by claims about his firm’s financial health

The Chinese have a range of sayings to warn against the dangers of rumour mongering. “Zhen Shen commits murder” (曾参杀人) references a ...

Turbulent times

Aviation, Talking Point After a dismal period for China’s airlines could the worst be…

It doesn’t happen very often: a major company announces a multibillion share sale only to report net losses a month later that exceed the fundraising ...

Soon to reach 100

Economy, Talking Point New entrants to the HSI reinforce the view it’s become a…

The Hang Seng Index (HSI) stands out as “the ultimate capitalist measure of Hong Kong,” wrote Robert Nield, president of the Royal Asiatic ...

He flew too close to the sun

Economy, Talking Point What can we learn from the jailing of Tomorrow tycoon Xiao…

Xiao Jianhua once ranked himself as the leading contender among a group of tycoons aspiring to be known as the Warren Buffett of China. It was only ...

Beijing’s new Donald debate

China and the World, Talking Point How did Chinese react to the dramatic raid on Trump’s home?

One of the most feared punishments in imperial China was called chaojia, a term for ransacking a house and confiscating all of the possessions ...

Collective bargaining

Energy & Resources, Talking Point Why did Beijing set up a new SOE to deal with…

Iron ore ranks just behind just semiconductor chips and oil as China’s third biggest import annually. No surprise then that Chinese mills have been ...

A building crisis

Property, Talking Point The ‘Stop Mortgage Payment’ campaign spreads nationwide from Henan

Many consumers in China shop on Taobao. Part of the reason is that they know they can request refunds if the goods turn out to be defective. Trust is ...

The ‘Lithium OPEC’

Energy & Resources, Talking Point As Tianqi lists in Hong Kong, the story behind it and…

Lithium – known as the ‘white petroleum’ – is a metal commonly used in the making of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). A dozen years ago ...

China and the World, Talking Point How the Ukraine crisis and China’s rise are splitting the world…

G20 summits are typically pedestrian affairs, based around photo opportunities and bland closing statements. But this year’s gathering in Indonesia ...

Greener pastures

Economy, Talking Point Chinese firms look for new growth in ‘Going Overseas’ trend

After launching the open-door policies and economic reforms of the late 1970s, Chinese policymakers made inward foreign investment the first priority ...

Decoupling: phase two

Economy, Talking Point Washington pushes for new law to block US investment in China

What’s the best way to stop China challenging for semiconductor supremacy? Probably not by trying to suffocate its supply of key equipment and ...

Interpreting history

Talking Point Nixon’s translator talks Sino-US tensions and Taiwan invasion prospects

Chas Freeman is a veteran American diplomat who has witnessed a half-century of Washington’s international relations with China and the Middle ...

A model restructuring?

Property, Talking Point Lessons from the bailout of a troubled real estate baron in…

You could infer pretty much everything about the dramatic changes that Chinese football and the beleaguered property sector have undergone recently ...

Not clicking like it used to

China Consumer, Talking Point How lockdowns and crackdowns have hurt China’s e-commerce giants

For decades the ‘Four Great Inventions’ of the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing have been celebrated as historic examples of ancient ...

The great reconfiguration

Economy, Talking Point Is the global supply chain set to be reshaped after Shanghai’s…

Is Shanghai’s two months of Covid lockdown finally coming to an end? Not quite yet, it seems, with most of the city’s 25 million residents still ...

China Consumer, Talking Point Luxury labels look beyond the pandemic for China profits

Wearied by weeks of home lockdowns, the fashion-conscious residents of Shanghai found a new way of lifting their spirits last month. With virus ...

Zeng Yuqun’s global leader

Auto Industry, Talking Point Should investors think of CATL as the “Huawei of EV batteries”?

Prior to the invention of USB chargers, the swapping of dry cell batteries was a significant business opportunity. The US government’s post-war ...

The diversification trade

Economy, Talking Point Analysts mull ramifications of Vietnam’s exports now surpassing Shenzhen’s

Not many Chinese pay too much attention to what is happening in Vietnam. But the Southeast Asian country did make unwelcome headlines in February after ...

Tian Huiyu’s dramatic fall

Economy, Talking Point Why has China’s most successful banking boss just been removed?

“Two things awe me most,” Immanuel Kant wrote in his Critique of Practical Reason. “The starry sky above me and the moral law within ...

Charging into our list

Economy, Talking Point Latest update to our Top 50 Unicorns ranking adds more EV-related…

For anyone watching the new Apple TV+ drama WeCrashed about Adam Neumann’s meteoric rise and implosion as the boss of WeWork, the unicorn ...

Waiting for the final audit

Economy, Talking Point What do Didi, TuSimple, Arm and TikTok tells us about Sino-US…

In September 2014 Facebook hosted a conference at its headquarters to discuss how the tech sectors in China and the US could work more closely ...

When the shoe fits

China Consumer, Talking Point Hillhouse’s Belle looks to make IPO return as Anta plays to…

There was a time that passengers couldn’t walk through a major airport without passing a Tie Rack. At its peak the British retailer had 450 branches ...

The politics of lockdown

Economy, Talking Point Debates over Covid policies resurface as Hong Kong modifies its approach

In April 2003, the Chinese health minister and the mayor of Beijing were both dismissed for their mishandling of the deadly SARS outbreak. The ...

Speculative failure

Energy & Resources, Talking Point How China’s biggest nickel producer got caught out in the futures…

Chinese investors sometimes refer to ‘demon stocks’. These are characterised by logic-defying lurches in their share prices and are frequently ...

Prime minister’s questions

Economy, Talking Point Li Keqiang tackles old problems as his 10-year premiership draws to…

When Li Keqiang met the press as the Chinese premier for the first time in March 2013, he vowed to keep the economy growing by continuing with market ...

Beijing’s Kyiv conundrum

China and the World, Talking Point Assessing China’s reaction to Russia’s Ukraine invasion

The Chinese word for Ukraine is Wukelan (乌克兰). The word itself is a broadly phonetic representation of the country’s name but each of the three ...

A golden endorsement

Sport, Talking Point Who were China’s big commercial stars at the 2022 Winter Olympics…

The handshake between Deng Xiaoping and Muhammad Ali in December 1979 was a ground-shaking moment in both sport and geopolitics. China had just ...

The case for the defence

Internet & Tech, Talking Point STAR Market listing signals new era for China’s original “Mr Internet”

About 20 years ago Edward Tian was one of the most talked-about CEOs in China. In an economy dominated by state-owned enterprises run by ...

A theme for the future

Talking Point, Tourism How the metaverse may help local rivals challenge Disney and Universal

For decades South Sky Column, a 1,080-metre sandstone pillar, has been a must-see for visitors to Zhangjiajie in Hunan province. In 2010 the ...

No end in sight?

China and the World, Talking Point Debate rages over the endgame for Beijing’s costly ‘zero Covid’ policy

“How could some of China’s remarkable achievements be made to look less credible by the Western media?” That was the question from China’s ...

Making more sense

Internet & Tech, Talking Point SenseTime stock spikes higher after Hong Kong IPO, despite US sanctions

The 1956 novel Minority Report, which was turned into a blockbuster film of the same name by Steven Spielberg in 2002, underlined the Cold War ...

Internet & Tech, Talking Point Ride-hailing giant Didi set to reverse course and delist from US…

Call it ‘China speed’. Luckin Coffee was founded in October 2017 as a challenger to Starbucks. By the time it went public in New York less than two ...

Media & Gaming, Talking Point Macau’s casino sector stunned by the arrest of its top junket…

Different casino companies lay claim to the status of the largest gambling firm. Spanning at least 600,000 square feet in area, the WinStar World in ...

Taught a tough lesson

Economy, Talking Point Edtechs exit our Top 50 China Unicorns ranking after regulatory storm

Start-ups that reach $1 billion in value were once regarded as a rare breed. Today the unicorn story is much more commonplace. Indeed, unicorns are ...

Establishing the guard rails

China and the World, Talking Point What did the debut Sino-US presidential summit of the Biden era…

Ronald Reagan first met Deng Xiaoping in Beijing in April 1984 – almost exactly 39 months after the former Hollywood star first became US president. ...

Looking for a good reception

Talking Point China Mobile hopes to rekindle investor interest with Shanghai IPO

Two decades ago a ranking of China’s most valuable A-share firms was dominated by energy-intensive counters such as Baosteel and Huaneng. Much of the ...

Xi’s no go to Glasgow

China and the World, Talking Point How has China responded to “the last chance” to save planet…

The successes of the Paris climate summit of 2015 could not have been achieved without months of groundwork from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and former ...

Xi calls for flat tax

Property, Talking Point Long discussed levy on property owners looks set to be launched

The Communist Party of China (CPC) was created with a core mission of redistributing the means of production. On taking power in 1949 it started to do ...

The new litmus test

Talking Point ‘Development models’ debated as Lenovo barred from STAR Market IPO

Just a few years ago Liu Chuanzhi was warmly regarded in his home nation as one of the “Godfathers of Capitalism” in modern China (see WiC291). ...

Power struggle over coal

Economy, Talking Point Will electricity outages force China to rethink its green goals?

China’s electricity sector is in a crisis, made worse as winter approaches. Power outages, of course, have occurred in the past. But the disruption ...

Blue chip quality?

Banking & Finance, Talking Point Our WiC30 A-Share Blue Chip Index is up 12.5% annually since…

Journalist Charles Dow founded his famous index on May 26, 1896, with the intention of creating a “window” on the stockmarket and the wider ...

GBA, Talking Point What do the big policy announcements on Qianhai and Hengqin mean?

Sometimes it’s easier to breathe new life into a city by rebuilding it from scratch or moving it to an entirely new area. These scenarios can give ...

A tale of three cities

Banking & Finance, Talking Point Why does China need a new stock exchange in Beijing?

London first got a stock exchange in 1698 but Beijing had to wait until 1918 for a bourse of its own. The Peking Securities Exchange was the first ...

The lady vanishes

Entertainment, Talking Point High drama as government turns sour on China’s entertainment stars

“Husband and wife are like birds in the woods, they flee separately when troubles come.” So goes one of the more cynical Chinese proverbs in ...

Spreading the wealth

Economy, Talking Point After decades of prioritising ‘efficiency’, Beijing’s new mantra is ‘fairness’

These have been a bruising few months for many of China’s best-known businesspeople, with some prominent tycoons now knowing what it feels like to be ...

Capitulation in Kabul

China and the World, Talking Point What a hasty US pull-out and an Afghan regime collapse mean…

There are only five mentions of the Taliban in WiC over the last 13 years. Perhaps that’s because Chinese media outlets haven’t been particularly ...

Thinking the unthinkable

Internet & Tech, Talking Point Are Alibaba and Tencent close to agreeing a strategic ‘truce’?

The longstanding rivalry between Alibaba and Tencent on China’s internet scene has sometimes been compared to the decades of Cold War tension between ...

Last exit for Brooklyn?

Economy, Talking Point Post-Didi, are Hong Kong IPOs now the priority for our Top…

Policy risk has always been a concern for Wall Street investors in Chinese firms – dating back to when minivan maker Brilliance China was the first ...

Challenging times for Didi

Internet & Tech, Talking Point How a regulatory probe derailed trading debut of ride-hailing giant’s IPO

In a collaboration with the state news agency Xinhua, the R&D team at the ride-hailing platform Didi published a review in 2015 of bookings made by ...

Beijing’s Beltway guy

China and the World, Talking Point The career of top diplomat Cui Tiankai is a good way…

In 1996 the United States was threatening to unleash a trade war against China following a dispute over copyright piracy. “Confrontation will lead ...

Vaccine diplomacy

China and the World, Talking Point How the politics of Covid-19 is preventing a quicker victory over…

After getting to know each other for just 49 days, Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu and Wang Xiaofei, the mainland Chinese heir to the South Beauty ...

Renewed scrutiny over dam

Environment, Talking Point After Covid-19, China grapples with the challenges of flood relief

More than two months of torrential rain have created a major crisis along the Yangtze, China’s longest river. Higher up the watercourse in Sichuan, ...

Bigger is better

Banking & Finance, Talking Point The recent rally in China’s A-shares anticipates a landmark regulatory shift

In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt signed an emergency act – commonly known as Glass-Steagall – to restore confidence in an American financial system that ...

Internet & Tech, Talking Point Meituan takes over from Baidu in China’s internet triumvirate

Wang Xing, the co-founder and chief executive of Meituan Dianping, was dubbed the “mad man” of China’s internet sector at the outset of his ...