The World Is Falling All Over Itself to Attract Chinese Tourists

Allison Jackson
Global Post
The number of tourist departures from China hit a whopping 97.3 million in 2013, up more than nine fold from 2000, according to the Germany-based China Outbound Tourism Research Institute

Media

05.13.14

Why Are There No Credit Scores in China?

Few would dispute that Chinese society suffers from a serious trust problem. After surviving crafty scams and shoddy products for years, Chinese people have become guarded with strangers and cautious in business dealings. Given all that, it would be...

China’s Alibaba Launches Crowdfunding-Like Service for Film Investment

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba, launched a micro-finance service for movies.

China’s Party Platter of Overhauls

Alex Frangos
Wall Street Journal
There is hope that the Third Plenum, an important meeting in the life cycle of each five-year Party Congress, could bring real change in the spheres of real estate, banking, state-owned enterprises and currency. 

Infographics

10.23.13

To Save or Not to Save

from Sohu
China is known for saving money, and as the country has become wealthier, the household saving rate has increased. China’s personal saving rate has risen steadily since the mid-90s and now exceeds 50%, much higher than Germany’s 10%—considered high...

Reports

03.28.13

China’s Demography and its Implications

Il Houng Lee, Xu Qingjun, Murtaza Syed
Luo Xiaoyuan
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In coming decades, China will undergo a notable demographic transformation, with its old-age dependency ratio doubling to 24 percent by 2030 and rising even more precipitously thereafter. This paper uses the permanent income hypothesis to reassess...

Caixin Media

10.26.12

Below-Belt Blows in Kungfu Restaurant Battle

The crestfallen former chairman of fast-food restaurant giant Kungfu Catering Management Co. Ltd. is awaiting a verdict after a trial on corporate embezzlement charges apparently instigated by his former business partner’s wife.If Cai Dabiao is...

Is the 2012 China Stimulus Some Kind of Unicorn?

Kate Mackenzie
Financial Times
Wang Tao at UBS thinks it is not really real: Well, that is what we call a bit of make-believe. Sure, the weak August data seem to have prompted more policy actions by various government agencies and we expect better&...

A Slowdown is Good for China and the World

Michael Pettis
Financial Times
What the rest of the world needs from China is not faster growth but more demand. Rebalancing will provide that, although the trade surplus will probably rise before it begins to decline. This will result in falling prices for hard commodities, and...

Caixin Media

06.29.12

Barclay’s Diamond Offers an Optimistic Vision

A calm, confident Robert Diamond discussed financial restructuring in Europe and economic options for the Chinese government during a June 14 interview—thirteen days before the British bank where he serves as CEO, Barclays Group, was fined for...

Reports

02.20.12

China’s Banking System: Issues for Congress

Michael F. Martin
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
China’s banking system has been gradually transformed from a centralized, government-owned, and government-controlled provider of loans into an increasingly competitive market in which different types of banks, including several U.S. banks, strive...

Reports

11.01.11

Internationalizing the Renminbi and China’s Financial Development Model

Robert N. McCauley
He Jianan
Council on Foreign Relations
Internationalization was a spontaneous outcome of the marketplace for the rest of the world’s major currencies, but China is breaking with history by making it official policy to steer the renminbi on a path toward reserve currency status. However,...

Reports

09.23.10

China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund: Developments and Policy Implications

Michael F. Martin
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
China’s ruling executive body, the State Council, established the China Investment Corporation (CIC), a sovereign wealth fund, in September 2007 to invest $200 billion of China’s then $1.4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. As with other...

Sinica Podcast

07.02.10

Newsweek Bid, Renminbi Revaluation

Kaiser Kuo, Evan Osnos & more from Sinica Podcast
In a sudden move clearly intended to stave off criticism at the G20 meeting in Toronto, China loosened the yuan’s twenty-three-month-old peg to the American dollar earlier this month, allowing its currency to appreciate against the greenback. This...

Reports

12.11.09

China’s Economic Conditions

Wayne M. Morrison
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
Since the initiation of economic reforms and trade liberalization thirty years ago, China has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and has emerged as a major economic and trade power. The combination of large trade surpluses, FDI flows...

Reports

07.16.09

East Asia’s Foreign Exchange Rate Policies

Michael F. Martin
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
Financial authorities in East Asia have adopted a variety of foreign exchange rate policies, ranging from Hong Kong’s currency board system which links the Hong Kong dollar to the U.S. dollar, to the “independently floating” exchange rates of Japan...

Reports

07.01.09

Broad Money Demand and Asset Substitution in China

Ge Wu
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Recent changes to China's financial system, in particular ongoing interest rate liberalization, gradual movement toward a more flexible exchange rate regime, and rapid development of capital markets, have changed substantially the environment...

Reports

09.01.08

Creating Financial Harmony: Lessons for China 

James A. Dorn
Cato Institute
The current turmoil in global financial markets, which began with the American subprime crisis in 2007, has put market liberalism in a bad light. But it was the socialization of risk—not private free markets—that precipitated the crisis. This...

Reports

04.01.08

Real and Financial Sector Linkages in China and India

Jahangir Aziz
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In the spirit of what is known as business cycle accounting, this paper finds that the investment wedge—the gap between household rates of intertemporal substitution and the marginal product of capital—is large and quantitatively significant in...

Reports

03.01.08

Hong Kong SAR as a Financial Center for Asia: Trends and Implications

Cynthia Leung and Olaf Unteroberdoerster
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
We document Hong Kong SAR's evolving role as an international financial center in the Asia region, the importance of the growing special link with China as well as supply-side advantages, and outline the scope for future financial services...

Reports

05.01.06

Do Financing Biases Matter for the Chinese Economy?

Yasheng Huang
Cato Institute
It is widely acknowledged that China’s financial system is deeply troubled. Its banks have very high nonperforming loan ratios and its stock market has lost 50 percent of its value since 2001 amidst a GDP growth rate averaging some 9 percent a year...

Reports

01.26.06

Ending Financial Repression in China

James A. Dorn
Cato Institute
Chinese economic liberalization largely stopped at the gates of the financial sector. Investment funds are channeled through state-owned banks to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), there are few investment alternatives, stock markets are dominated by...