China’s big cities are developing a new city life, including new identities, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at the opening chapter of, Shanghai Sacred: The Religious Landscape of a Global City, by photographer and anthropologist Liz Hingley, quoted in a review of the photo exhibition in Liverpool at Creative Boom

Western media too easily assume the protests in Hong Kong are supported by many mainland Chinese. Wrong, says author Zhang Lijia. There is a wide dived between mainland Chinese and Hongkongnese, and that is not only because of the media censorship in the mainland, she adds at the South China Morning Post.

China’s competitive landscape is changing fast, and the blooming incubators for startups offer multinational a much-needed edge in local competition, says William Bao Bean, managing director of the Chinaccellator in Shanghai to Forbes. “When you’re under pressure and local players are taking market share from you, you look to innovation.”

US President Donald Trump wants US companies to fight China, but they rather flee for greener pastures not to their home countries, says financial analyst Sara Hsu at the ChinaUSFacus. But some might decide to swap countries too early, she warns.

Competition between Starbucks and Luckin has been heating up, and Luckin seems to focus on a higher segment of the market. But business analyst Ben Cavender warns the company might fall into a sword it helped to create itself, he tells to Reuters.

China is nowadays even compared with former colonial powers when it comes to its economic rise in Africa. Journalist Howard French, the author of China’s Second Continent, takes a step back and looks at how it all started in the 1960s for Worldpoliticsreview, and how it relates to South Africa.

Hong Kong’s days as a financial market are not yet numbered, but in the long run, the city has tough problems, says celebrity investor Jim Rogers to RT. Rogers is Singapore-based, an island that hopes to benefit from the downturn of Hong Kong as a recession is looming.

E-commerce in China showed drama this month, as Alibaba purchased NetEase’s Kaola for US$2 billion, says e-commerce expert Ashley Dudarenok at her vlog. The number one and two in cross-border e-commerce did not change hands so easy, and Dudarenok explains why.

Alibaba will not be the same after its charismatic chairman Jack Ma has left, says business analyst Shaun Rein, according to the China Daily.” “I’m not sure that people want to meet Daniel Zhang in the same way they want to meet Jack Ma.”

The effects of a slowdown in China’s economy on foreign companies might vary, on the industry they are working in and on their size, says Shanghai-based business analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. Smaller firms might close down, while larger ones try to diversify over time, he adds.