Going against the dominant line of the communist party seldom ends well. One of the exceptions was Li Rui, a confidant of Mao Zedong, tells journalist Ian Johnson in Li’s obituary for the New York Times. He fought against the Three-Gorges Dam, and most recently against the position of Xi Jinping, while he remained a member of the party he often criticized.

China’s bad loans are increasing, but the country’s financial authorities have been trying to crack down on this source of financial stability. How are those efforts faring now China is suffering from a relative drop in economic growth. Financial analyst Sara Hsu discusses the dilemma’s the authorities are facing especially now the trade war is ongoing.

China banned in September 2017 ICOs (Initial Coins Offerings) after some high-profile cases of fraud but certainly not block all blockchain activities. Lawyer Mark Schaub looks at the China Law Insight at how the government tries to regulate blockchain, one year after the initial ICO ban.

Trade talks between Beijing and Washington are on its way, but the trade war is not China’s real problems, says economic analyst Harry Broadman. China’s economy is strangling itself, he writes in the Financial Times.

Even when China and the US will reach a kind of trade agreement, both countries have such different ideologies, solving hostilities will be a matter of the long haul, says economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know to the Atlantic. “Xi has clearly nailed his colors to the mast of a much more state-directed economy,” said Kroeber. 

State TV has been pulling a set of historical dramas from their channels because they were having a negative influence on their audiences, according to state media. Journalist Zhang Lijia, the author of Lotus, a novel, a bestseller on prostitution in China, understands the ratio behind this action, she tells in the South China Morning Post.

The stagnation of China’s growth caused a massive drop of rich out of the Hurun China Rich List, says Hurun chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf. But that drop has been more than compensated by the record growth of new unicorns in the country, he tells the South China Morning Post. China fostered almost 100 new unicorns in 2018.

Western interest on Taoism has much focused on sex and especially premature ejaculation, and Amuse author Kate Lister asked journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, for his take on the subject.

Negotiators at both China and the White House are figuring out what kind of trade deal might be possible, while the trade war is still moving on. Leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, looks into the next moves for both parties for the South China Morning Post.

President Xi Jinping is effectively replacing former leader Deng Xiaoping as the thought leader of China’s development, and he is well on his road to set the road for the country as a global power, says economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at Bloomberg.