Author Zhang Lijia of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in today’s China talks ahead of her lecture at Spittoon Book Club talk January 19 at Timesdirect.tv in Beijing.

There are strong political incentives to reach a trade deal between the US and China, but that does certainly not mean that hostilities between both countries are over, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, in an overview of his expectations for 2019. 

US investor Jim Rogers started to explore China in 1984 and has since become a bridge builder between the East and the West. At China’s state TV CGTN he dives into his views on China, the way he raises his family in Singapore and the ongoing madness in Washington. Jim Rogers published several bestsellers, including A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing.

Zhang Xiaolong, the founder of Tencent’s WeChat, delivered a speech on how the future of the company looks like. Tencent watcher Matthew Brennan looks at the way Tencent is doing things different than Apple, and why their mini-programs might be a winner, in Technode.

Social engagement has changed the Post-’95 generation in China beyond recognition. China veteran Tom Doctoroff dives into the ways brands can reach this complicated “slash generation” for Mumbrella Asia. How a new generation walks away from traditional conventions.

US investor Jim Rogers visited on January 8th the Hainan Global Fintech Innovation Summit and explored the possibilities of the island to become China’s Silicon Valley at Contact Hainan. “You have fabulous weather, you have a fabulous lifestyle in Hainan if you continue to open up, and make it easy for people to come here, Hainan probably will become the greatest place in China.”

On March 1 the 90-day truce in the trade war between the US and China expires. Leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, expects a deal is possible, but that certainly does not mean the end of all hostilities, he tells Barron’s.

The American political landscape might be more divided than ever before, political analyst Harry Broadman sees one field where Republicans and Democrats find common ground: restricting foreign investments, especially but not only those from China through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), he writes in Gulf News.

China’s central government has been cracking down on both Protestantism and the Islam over the past year. The direct future looks grim, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao at Foreign Affairs in an addition to a piece he wrote two years ago. The government can still go back to its pragmatic take on religion, but Johnson is not sure it will.

The US-China trade war has another casualty: the CES consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order to the South China Morning Post.