ChinaFile Recommends
06.08.17U.S. Business Group Urges Trade Fixes Ahead of China’s Party Congress
Reuters
A U.S. business lobby in China said on Thursday that Washington should use leverage afforded by China’s desire to avoid trade frictions with the United States ahead of its Communist Party Congress this fall in order to fix market access...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.17China Won’t Beg India to Join OBOR: Chinese Media
India's primary concern about the initiative is the “flagship” China Pakistan Economic Corridor leg that runs through Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Despite this concern, an OBOR white paper in May declared CPEC as a flagship project.
Sinica Podcast
06.07.17
Kai-Fu Lee on Artificial Intelligence in China
from Sinica Podcast
Kai-Fu Lee is one of the most prominent figures in Chinese technology. He founded China’s noted early-stage venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures after launching and heading up Google’s China operations during their years of growth from 2005 to...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.17China Is in the Middle of Diplomatic Spat With One of Its Oldest Allies in Africa
Quartz
Zambian authorities have detained 31 Chinese citizens on suspicion of illegal copper mining, according to Chinese officials who have formally complained about the arrest.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.17China’s Reserves Rise For 4th Month
Associated Press
China's foreign currency reserves rose again ahead of a possible U.S. interest rate hike that might put new pressure on Beijing's exchange rate controls.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.17Trump Lies. China Thrives.
New York Times
While Trump is a serial liar, his broad complaint that China is not playing fair on trade and has grown in some areas at the expense of U.S. and European workers has merit and needs to be addressed — now.
The China Africa Project
06.06.17
Chinese Debt in Africa: How Much Is Too Much?
China now owns more than half of Kenya’s external debt, and that figure is likely to grow even higher as President Uhuru Kenyatta turns to Beijing to finance large infrastructure projects across the country. Most recently, China completed the first...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.05.17As China Pulls Trade from North Korea, Russia Gets Cozy with Kim Jong Un
USA Today
Trade between Russia and North Korea increased by 73% during the first two months of 2017 compared to the same period the year before, boosted mostly by increased coal deliveries from Russia, according to Russian state-owned news site Sputnik.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.05.17China PM’s ‘Dream Team’ Should Be Asia, Not Europe
CNBC
Last Thursday (May 29), Mr. Li Keqiang’s “dream team” became “golden partnership” as he presented in Berlin a glowing report card on a lucrative alignment between “Made in China 2025” – an innovation-driven manufacturing – and Germany’s “Industry 4...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.05.17Ivanka Trump’s Firm Seeks New Trademarks in China, Reviving Ethical Concerns
CNN
A trove of Chinese trademark applications filed by Ivanka Trump’s namesake business is focusing attention once again on the ethical complications presented by the Trump family’s business ties.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.02.17Google Is Already Late to China’s AI Revolution
Wired
“Some of the major Chinese companies are some of the most sophisticated deep learning and data companies in the world.”
ChinaFile Recommends
06.02.17Billionaire Anbang Boss Prevented from Leaving China
Financial Times
Acquisitive insurer sees plans stymied by financial controls and political infighting.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.02.17Trump Hands the Chinese a Gift: The Chance for Global Leadership
New York Times
The Chinese are eager to fill the void that Washington is leaving around the world on everything from setting the rules of trade and environmental standards to financing infrastructure projects.
Conversation
06.01.17
Can China Supplant the U.S. in Europe?
From May 31 to June 2, Premier Li Keqiang will visit Germany and Belgium, to “further deepen and enrich China’s relations with the European Union (EU) at a time of increasing global uncertainty,” according to an article in China’s state newswire...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.01.17China and Europe Are Moving Forward without Trump
CNN
Beijing is in prime position to capitalize on major policy fissures that have emerged between Europe and the Trump administration on climate, trade and defense. The new dynamic will be on full display on Thursday in Brussels, when Chinese Premier Li...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.01.17Canadian Winery Owners Arrested, Put on Trial in China for Customs Valuation Dispute
Huffington Post
The daughter of two Canadian winery owners being held by Chinese authorities over an alleged customs valuation dispute says the case should serve as a warning for other Canadians hoping to do business in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.31.17Activists Investigating Ivanka Trump’s China Shoe Factory Detained or Missing
Guardian
A labor activist working undercover investigating abuses at a Chinese factory that makes Ivanka Trump shoes has been detained by police and two others are missing, raising concerns the company’s ties to the U.S. president’s family may have led to...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.31.17Senate Democrats Ask Trump for Answers on China Trademarks
Voice of America
A group of Senate Democrats has sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump requesting information about a raft of trademark approvals from China this year that they say may violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on gifts from foreign governments.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.31.17China, Russia Share Much to Expand Economic Cooperation
China Daily
Roughly three months ahead of a BRICS summit to be held in China, Russian analysts saw immense potential to increase and diversify economic cooperation between Russia and China.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.29.17China’s Ill, and Wealthy, Look Abroad for Medical Treatment
New York Times
Hospitals and a new generation of medical tourism companies are luring well-heeled Chinese patients away from an overburdened health care system.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.25.17China Throws out More Trade and Business Offers to Trump’s America
South China Morning Post
A report issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said China may buy further goods from the U.S., including crude and refined oil products, cotton and machine tools.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.24.17Trump Adds Another Chinese Trademark to His Portfolio
New York Times
China has granted President Trump preliminary approval for another trademark in apparel, expanding business interests that have already generated criticism over potential conflicts.
Reports
05.24.17
China’s Social Credit System: A Big-Data Enabled Approach to Market Regulation with Broad Implications for Doing Business in China
Mirjam Meissner
Mercator Institute for China Studies
Under the catchphrase “Social Credit System,” China is currently implementing a new and highly innovative approach to monitoring, rating, and regulating the behavior of market participants. The Social Credit System will have significant impact on...
China in the World Podcast
05.24.17
What Do Trump’s Views on Europe Mean for China?
from Carnegie China
President Trump will travel to Europe in May for his first time since taking office to meet with European Union (E.U.) leaders, attend a NATO meeting, and visit the organization’s headquarters in Brussels. Although he has walked back some of his...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.22.17Why Soft Power Could Be the Real Value of China’s Massive Belt and Road Project
CNBC
The real benefits of OBOR to China could be the international clout it stands to gain as its attempts to spearhead international policy and improve relations with OBOR partner countries.
The China Africa Project
05.18.17
‘The New York Times’ on China, from on the Ground in Namibia
Western news coverage of China’s engagement in Africa often is confined to the business section, generally focusing on loans, resource deals, or other financial dealings. Moreover, ambitious international feature reporting, particularly from Africa...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.17Can South Korea and China Patch Things up over THAAD?
CNN
Moon will be attempting to start the healing process Thursday, when South Korean special presidential envoy Lee Hae-chan meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and two more senior officials Friday.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.17What Belt and Road Snub Means for Singapore’s Ties with China
South China Morning Post
China’s decision not to invite Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to last weekend’s Belt and Road Forum highlights the still-strained ties between the two countries, observers say, though officials in the Lion City have tried to shrug off...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.17China’s Strength and Its Shopping Lift Alibaba’s Results
New York Times
Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, will host a conference in Detroit next month to help small businesses learn about the company.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.17.17China’s Silk Road Project Shows Putin Needs Xi Way More Than Trump
Forbes
There are more U.S. multinationals in Russia than there are Russian multinationals in the U.S.. Moscow and Beijing are nowhere near as close as Beijing is to Washington, but Russia stands more to gain by the Silk Road than the U.S. if not for...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.17.17China’s Xi Positions Himself as Free Trade and Climate Champion
CNN
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the world to reject protectionism and promote free trade in the latest attempt by Beijing to take up the mantle of globalization since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Conversation
05.16.17
How Big a Deal is the New U.S.-China Trade Deal?
Last week, the United States and China announced a new trade deal on the eve of China launching a sweeping conference to promote its One Belt, One Road development and infrastructure investment initiative. How good are the terms of the Washington-...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17India Boycotts China’s Global Trade Jamboree
CNN
India’s main objection is the partnership China is developing with Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key component of One Belt, One Road -- passes through the disputed region of Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in its...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17China’s New Silk Road Promises Trade and Riches, with President Xi at Helm
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping and 29 other heads of state on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to build an open economy and ensure free and inclusive trade, under the ambitious Belt and Road initiative led by Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Why China Will Never Put America First
National Interest
The Trump administration will eventually awaken to the fact that Beijing cannot, and has no desire to, deliver on North Korea.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Kushner Company a No-Show at China Visa Event After Ethics Uproar
NBC News
Richard Painter, who was an ethics attorney for President George W. Bush, told NBC News last week that Saturday’s meeting in Shenzhen came “very, very close to solicitation of a bribe” and amounted to “corruption, pure and simple.”
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Kenya President Urges Rebalance of China-Africa Trade
Financial Times
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has called on China to rebalance an increasingly skewed trade relationship between Africa and the rising superpower, arguing that Beijing must do more to tackle a widening trade deficit.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Trump’s Pretty Good China Deal
Wall Street Journal
Wilbur Ross made some startling claims after Thursday’s announcement of a 10-point agreement with China on trade. The U.S. Commerce Secretary boasted that the “herculean accomplishment” was “more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17China Pledges More Than $100 Billion in Belt and Road Projects
CNBC
China is pledging more than $100 billion to finance projects under its “One Belt, One Road” strategy, an ambitious initiative to strengthen the world’s second-largest economy’s investment, influence and trade links to the rest of the globe.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17U.S. Firms Want In on China’s Global ‘One Belt, One Road’ Spending
New York Times
As China plans to build a raft of roads, rail lines, ports and airports across Asia, Africa and Europe, skeptics say Chinese companies will be the only real winners from the ambitious initiative.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17North Korea Blights China’s One Belt, One Road Party with Missile Launch
North Korea’s missile launch Sunday came at a highly embarrassing time for China, its chief ally and economic partner. As Chinese President Xi Jinping prepared to inaugurate the Belt and Road Forum, Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile from a base in...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17China’s Summit for Its New Silk Road Is Missing 44 Heads of State from the 65 Nations Involved
Quartz
World leaders are gathering in Beijing this weekend for a big summit touting China’s infrastructure spending spree to connect Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The project, known as the Belt and Road Initiative—or “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.17Peter Loehr to Exit as Legendary Entertainment’s China Chief
Variety
Longtime China hand Peter Loehr will exit Beijing-based Legendary East at the end of the month, leaving another senior post to be filled at Dalian Wanda-owned Legendary Entertainment after the recent departure of founder Thomas Tull.
Sinica Podcast
05.12.17
What It Takes to Be a Good China-Watcher
from Sinica Podcast
China-watching isn’t what it used to be. Not too long ago, the field of international China studies was dominated by a few male Westerners with an encyclopedic knowledge of China, but with surprisingly little experience living in the country or...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.11.17Western and Japanese Snub of China’s Belt and Road Summit Is a Missed Opportunity
South China Morning Post
The conspicuous absence of the heads of state from the major Western economic powers and Japan at the belt and road summit this month in Beijing is a big mistake and a missed opportunity for enhancing dynamic and cooperative globalisation.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.11.17China Focus: Construction of Boeing’s First Overseas 737 Factory Starts in China
Xinhua
Construction of Boeing’s first overseas facility as part of its 737 production system started Thursday in the east China port city of Zhoushan. The construction will consist of two parts -- a Boeing 737 completion center and the delivery center. It...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.11.17Director behind ‘Great Wall’ Says China Has a Long Way to Go to Rival Hollywood
CNBC
Chinese audiences hotly follow U.S. actors and movies, but Americans “probably” don’t care much about Chinese movies, Zhang told CNBC. On the outside, maybe they’ve tracked a couple of stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jet Li, he said.
The China Africa Project
05.10.17
China Appears to be Losing Interest in Africa
Beijing-based investment attorney Kai Xue joins Eric and Cobus to discuss why he thinks Africa is no longer appealing to Chinese companies. Kai Xue is a longtime Sino-African affairs analyst and carefully monitors trade, foreign direct investment,...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.10.17China’s Big Play for Middle East Oil
Bloomberg
China’s Middle East energy footprint has been expanding. In February, it made a deal for a stake in Abu Dhabi’s onshore oil. In March, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz travelled to China to strengthen trade ties, and now a Chinese consortium...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.10.17China Says Silk Road Plan Is Not Tied to Presidency
Reuters
China’s President Xi Jinping initiated the ambitious “Belt and Road” development plan but it has become a world plan not tied to his presidency, the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday, days before Xi hosts a global forum on the initiative.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.10.17The Princeling in the West Wing
New York Times
Over the weekend, there was the unseemly spectacle of Jared Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, hawking golden visas to connected Chinese investors if they would put $500,000 into one of the Kushners’ real estate projects in Jersey City.
Conversation
05.09.17
Can China’s Approach to Internet Control Spread around the World?
Earlier this month, citing concerns over “cyber sovereignty,” China’s Internet regulators announced new restrictions on the country’s already tightly controlled Internet—further curbing online news reporting and putting Party-appointed editors in...
Viewpoint
05.09.17
Beijing Is Weakening Hong Kong’s Rule of Law. How Far Will It Go?
“The American Chamber of Commerce has urged Hong Kong’s next government to reach out to international businesses still ‘unclear’ about what opportunities the city can offer under the one country, two systems policy.” —South China Morning Post, April...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.08.17China Pitch by Kushner Sister Renews Controversy over Visa Program for Wealthy
Washington Post
A much-criticized visa program that allows foreigners to win fast-track immigration in return for investing $500,000 in U.S. properties was extended in a bill signed by President Trump just one day before a sister of senior White House adviser Jared...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.08.17Syria Says up to 5,000 Chinese Uighurs Fighting in Militant Groups
Reuters
Up to 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said on Monday, adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about it.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.08.17Ride-Hailing Giant Didi Finally Offers an English Language Option for Foreigners in China
TechCrunch
There’s good news for foreigners living in, or visiting, China after Didi Chuxing — the local ride-sharing leader — added support for English language and overseas credit cards to its service for the first time.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.04.17U.S. Investigates Work at Pacific Island Casino Project with Trump Ties
New York Times
Officials say contractors illegally hired Chinese workers in Saipan, part of an American commonwealth, to build a casino overseen by a former Trump protégé.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.03.17China’s Answer to Airbus, Boeing Due to Take off on Friday
South China Morning Post
After a three year delay the long-awaited maiden flight of China’s 158-seat C919 passenger aircraft is scheduled for Friday, the latest step by the country to break the duopoly of Western giants Airbus and Boeing.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.03.17How Not to Lose Asia to China
Foreign Policy
This week, the foreign ministers of the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are coming to Washington for an annual U.S.-ASEAN dialogue.
Books
05.02.17

China’s Mobile Economy
China’s Mobile Economy: Opportunities in the Largest and Fastest Information Consumption Boom is a cutting-edge text that spotlights the digital transformation in China. Organized into three major areas of the digital economy within China, this ground-breaking book explores the surge in e-commerce of consumer goods, the way in which multi-screen and mobile Internet use has increased in popularity, and the cultural emphasis on the mobile Internet as a source of lifestyle- and entertainment-based content. Targeted at the global business community, this lucid and engaging text guides business leaders, investors, investment banking professionals, corporate advisors, and consultants in grasping the challenges and opportunities created by China’s emerging mobile economy, and its debut on the global stage.The year of 2014-15 marks the most important inflection point in the history of the Internet in China. Almost overnight, the world’s largest digitally-connected middle class went both mobile and multi-screen (smart phone, tablets, laptops, and more), with huge implications for how consumers behave and what companies need to do to successfully compete. As next-generation mobile devices and services take off, China’s strength in this arena will transform it from a global “trend follower” to a “trend setter.”Understand what the digital transformation in China is, and impact on global capital markets, foreign investors, consumer companies, and the global economy as a whole.Explore the e-commerce consumption boom in the context of the Chinese market.Understand the implications of the multi-screen age and mobile Internet for China’s consumersSee how mobile Internet use, its focus on lifestyle and entertainment is aligned with today’s Chinese culture.Learn about the mobile entertainment habits of China’s millennial generation and the corresponding new advertisement approaches.The development of China’s mobile economy is one of the most important trends that will reshape the future of business, technology, and society both in China and the world. China's Mobile Economy introduces you to the digital transformation in China, and explains how this transformation has the potential to transform both China and the global consumer landscape. —John Wiley & Sons, Inc.{chop}