At the start of his third term China’s president Xi Jinping has been flexing his muscles internationally, while the country also promised to be open for private and foreign business. Ian Johnson, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, tries to make sense of the conflicting messages at the CFR website.Read More →
China calls itself a democracy, to the confusion of people living in democracies. China scholar Ian Johnson explains how China moves between democracy and dictatorship, and how both terms can be defined, in an explanatory video from the Council of Foreign relations.Read More →
China’s economy took a positive turn after the government ended in December 2022 its zero-Covid policies, but economist Sara Hsu warns 2023 offers still many headwinds, she writes in Project Syndicate.Read More →
Political analysts Victor Shih looks into the background of Li Qiang, China’s new premier, and his past in the country’s elite for NPR.Read More →
China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) will this week approve a significant reform of its financial institutions. Financial analyst Winston Ma looks at the background of this sweeping shift, according to Reuters.Read More →
China limited its GDP growth for 2023 to a modest 5 percent at the opening of the National People’s Congress this weekend. Political analyst Victor Shih explains the background of this lower-than-expected ambition in the Guardian.Read More →
While China is seriously trying to get to terms with the end of the zero-Covid policies since the end of December 2022, international business has not been following suit, according to the Financial Times. International business delegations and other foreign visitors have not yet returned to Shanghai, writes the paper.Read More →
China veteran Ian Johnson describes how faith and value systems in China have been developing over the past century and how the government and the communist party acted on religion at the USCCA.Read More →
China’s crackdown on its tech sector in the past few years might have loosened, but the fallout is still hurting its development after the government has loosed its grip, says business analyst Shaun Rein to AP. “The crackdown was deep and cut far to the bone, probably more than the government expected it to,” said Shaun Rein,Read More →
China saw for the first time its population drop. Journalist and author Zhang Lijia explains in the South China Morning Post why the government should take this development seriously and what actions it could take. “Leaders will have to learn to treat citizens with respect,” she adds.Read More →
A default of the US is highly unlikely, even in the current chaotic political setting in the United States, says leading China economist Arthur Kroeber, but today the risks for China are much higher than during the 2008-2009 crisis. A crisis would not offer an opportunity to build an international financial system around the Renminbi, next to the US dollar, he adds in the ChinaFile.Read More →
China is heading for a fundamental breakdown, argues Harry Broadman, Partner, and Chair, Emerging Markets Practice, Berkeley Research Group LLC, at a wide-ranging speech at the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, November 2022 (Charleston, South Carolina). It started by bailing out investors at its stock markets, which are no real markets, he says. Read More →