China Gets Tough on Smog Offenders
on January 3, 2017
China has slapped millions of dollars worth of fines on alleged offenders for violating anti-pollution rules, according to state media.
Q & A with Peter Dahlin, the Swedish NGO Worker Who ‘Endangered the National Security’ of China
on January 3, 2017
China Should Set More Flexible GDP Growth Target in 2017: Central Bank Adviser
on January 2, 2017
China should set a more flexible economic growth target this year to create more room for reforms, a central bank adviser told the official Xinhua news agency, suggesting a range of 6.0 to 7.0 percent versus 6.5 to 7.0 percent in 2016. China has made reform of its lumbering and uncompetitive state-owned enterprises - many in heavy industries - a priority as excess capacity and idle workers bleed what precious resources such "zombie" companies have.
China Smog: Millions Start New Year Shrouded by Health Alerts and Travel Chaos
on January 2, 2017
Millions in China rang in the New Year shrouded in a thick blanket of toxic smog, causing road closures and flight cancellations as 24 cities issued alerts that will last through much of the week. On the first day of 2017 in Beijing, concentrations of tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs climbed as high as 24 times levels recommended by the World Health Organization. More than 100 flights were cancelled and all intercity buses were halted at the capital’s airport.
China's Homegrown Populism to Test Xi Jinping
on January 2, 2017
Britain voted to leave Europe, and the United States voted to elect Donald Trump. Now, could China be facing a populist backlash of its own? Some China watchers say a growing populist movement will test the nation's leadership ahead of the 19th Party Congress in late 2017, set to be one of the year's biggest political events. The Congress is essentially a three-week long meeting in which the ruling Communist Party selects and announce the country's next leaders. PresidentXi Jinping is widely expected to be given a second term. However, his ability to manage rising socio-economic pressures will be a major theme in the lead-up to the Congress, Nicholas Consonery, senior Asia-Pacific director at FTI Consulting, told CNBC last week.
Twitter China Chief Kathy Chen Departs
on January 2, 2017
Twitter Inc.’s controversial China chief has departed after only eight months, the latest executive to leave amid a global reorganization. A stream of executives has left the company since it announced layoffs in October amid continued losses. Profitability has long been a challenge for the popular social network and its revenue growth has slowed. In a series of tweets on Dec. 31, Twitter’s Managing Director for China, Kathy Chen, announced her departure but said Twitter would keep open its Hong Kong office. “Now that Twitter’s APAC [Asia Pacific] team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave the company,” Ms. Chen wrote in a tweet.
In Banning Ivory Trade, China Saw Benefits for Itself, Too
on January 2, 2017
China’s vow to shut down its commercial ivory trade by the end of this year was welcomed by environmentalists as a turning point in the fight against poachers. Activists cheered the government’s pledge for swift action, and the state-run news media called it a “monumental win for elephants.” But in making the decision, announced on Friday, to bring the world’s largest ivory market to a halt, the Chinese government also saw benefits for itself. The ban reinforced President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corrupt officials, who have been known to use ivory products as bribes.
Wilbur Ross’s Chinese Love Affair
on January 2, 2017
A decade after Wilbur Ross used a tariff on imported steel to weather Chinese competition and make his American mills profitable, he hung a picture taken in Beijing on his office wall. It shows a poster of three women in military uniforms marching proudly through Tiananmen Square, a platoon of People’s Liberation Army soldiers behind them. The picture followed a pair of Qing dynasty guard dog statues that Ross had stationed at the headquarters of his investment firm in New York and six sculptures of Coca-Cola bottles rendered in white-and-blue Ming porcelain displayed in the dining room at his waterfront villa in Palm Beach.
China Box Office Crawls to 3% Gain in 2016
on January 2, 2017
Gross theatrical box office in China grew by just 3% in 2016, reaching RMB 45.3 billion in local currency terms. That compared with RMB43.9 billion in 2015. In U.S. dollar terms the data points to a 3.5% drop in the value of the Chinese market from $6.76 billion (using end of 2015 exchange rates) to $6.52 billion (using end of 2016 rates.) Those numbers are a far cry from the 49% surge enjoyed in 2015 and requires a sharp revision to forecasts of when China’s numbers will overtake North America. The 2017 target figure, so widely used at the beginning of the year, now seems not only wildly optimistic, but also to have misunderstood the dynamics of the market.