Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, looks at the arrest of 100 participants of the Early Rain Covenant Church and their pastor, Wang Yi, this weekend. Johnson did spend over a year with the underground church and wrote this fast overview for the New York Times.

Pulitzer prize winner Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, addresses the change China went through over the past twenty years, beyond the poor cliches we often look at. How the country became more important military, as a consumer heaving, but also developing cultural values that were believed to be missing.

Accountants have to figure out what is happening in a company, and the difference between Western and Chinese practices makes that often hard, says Paul Gillis, accounting professor at Peking University, and author of the leading website ChinaAccountingBlog to Young China Watchers.

The world, including China, is still trying to make sense out of the Trump/Xi trade talks. The Trump trade team is fighting the wrong battle, argues former U.S. Assistant Trade Representative Harry Broadman for Gulf News. “The Trump trade team continues to fight the wrong battle with China.”

Consumers from China are spending less, and certainly luxury brands in the US will feel the downturn at least in the short run, says luxury consumer expert Ben Cavender to AP. Tighter visa restrictions under President Donald Trump also make it harder for Chinese shoppers to get to the United States.

China owns Asia, after the US under Donald Trump decided to leave the continent, argues super-investor Jim Rogers, author of Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets, at AMTV. The US moved out, and now you see the Chinese everywhere, in Russia, in Iran, just because they have no competition anymore. “You should invest in markets others hate,” he says.

Author Ian Johnson got quite some people thinking after his most recent book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao hit the bookshelves. Some of them got stuck with questions and for Oclarim Johnson answers some of them. How does he define religion, and why are the Tibetans and Uighurs not included.

China’s president Xi Jinping has painted himself into a corner, summarizes the famous economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, the economic dilemma China finds itself in, according to NPR. “He cannot back down from his China Model.”

China is becoming a center point for money laundering activities from Latin America, writes the military magazine Dialogo. Financial expert Sara Hsu explains how those links could work out.

Ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, the main competitor of Uber, is trying to move upscale, into self-driving cars, foreign cooperation and projects out of China, but at home, they still face basic challenges, says Shanghai-based business analyst Ben Cavender. Local authorities focus on illegal drivers, according to Reuters.