It’s easier to talk about what China’s social credit system isn’t than what it is. Ever since 2014, when China announced a six-year plan to build a system to reward actions that build trust in society and penalize the opposite, it has been one of the most misunderstood things about China in Western discourse. Now, with new documents released in mid-November, there’s an opportunity to correct the record.   For most people outside China, the ...

The last ten years witnessed the US’ return to a reliance on industrial policy, which ironically is more in keeping with the approach taken in China. Already Morris Chang of TSMC fame has pointed out the limitations of trying to attract companies like TSMC to establish fabs in the US because of a lack of comparative advantage in terms of costs and skills. It will take some years to get such fabs up and running and even then they are likely to contribute only a small part of the overall  ...

Peking opera is a performance art incorporating singing, reciting, acting, martial arts. Although widely practised throughout China, its performance centres on Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China.            ...

While China’s president, Xi Jinping, is widely expected to secure his coveted third term as party chief at the upcoming 20th congress of the Communist Party of China, the future of his flagship economic foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), deserves closer observation. XUE GONG argues that China’s connectivity project may be set back by three factors: unresolved sustainability issues, geopolitical shocks, and Beijing’s shrinking capacity for bankrolling the BRI ...

Jinko Solar, headquartered in Shanghai, is one of the world’s largest solar module manufacturers. It started out as a wafer manufacturer in 2006, and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. Since its inception, Jinko has been working on developing a vertically integrated supply chain, which has helped it establish its dominant position in the solar industry. The company now produces mono wafers, solar cells, and solar modules. It was named as one of the top 50 Forbes China M ...

China's pet food industry is developing rapidly. Staple food account for 75% of the pet food market. With the continuous expansion of the market size of the pet-related industry and the upgrading of consumers' scientific pet-keeping ideas, both the brands and categories of the staple food industry are upgrading. Based on product forms and functions, the staple food for pets has four development stages and it's now in stage 2.0 in China.   Penetration rates of families ...

Last week, the 15th China Smart City Conference took place over two days in Beijing. The theme of the event was “Promoting data sharing and integration, serving the people full-time.” The conference included an award ceremony for pioneering smart city apps and software.   Freedo 北京飞渡科技 was one of the companies that received an award. The company’s founder, Sòng Bīn 宋彬, gave an acceptance speech in which he discussed Freedo&r ...

Tiangong space station, or "Heavenly Palace", is China's new permanent space station. The country has previously launched two temporary trial space stations, named as Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2. The new lab Wentian is the second of three key modules to Tiangong. The first key module Tianhe - which contains living quarters for crew members - was sent into orbit in April 2021. The other key module, Mengtian science lab, is due to be launched by the end of 2022. &nb ...

China has agreed to forgive interest-free loans to 17 African countries as it seeks to dispel debt-trap allegations, but sceptics say that the days of Beijing writing off interest-bearing loans are over.   With African economies under severe strain from surging commodity prices and the tailwinds of Covid-19, hopes were high when Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, took the stage for a major African debt announcement in August.     With a po ...

China has long been a coveted assignment for business executives and diplomats, a prestigious posting in a rising power and a valuable addition to one’s résumé.   Now, it is an assignment that few are eager to take on, as China’s “zero-Covid” isolation deepens and concerns about geopolitical tensions and economic delinking rise.     Since March 2020, China’s borders have been closed to most foreigners. Flights ...

When Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil’s last presidential election in October 2018, an editorial in the China Daily, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, reflected Beijing’s cautious optimism about the new leader. Though Bolsonaro had sounded “less than friendly to China on the campaign trail,” the China Daily expressed “sincere hope” that he would “take an objective and rational look at the state of China-Brazil relations,” opining that t ...

Mikhail Gorbachev’s death last month unleashed numerous commentaries and evaluations of his legacy. Predictably, many of these focused on Beijing’s perception of the last Soviet leader and what his political life meant for the future of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, this discussion overlooks a key part of Gorbachev’s legacy within China that shapes Sino-Russian relations to this day: the normalization of relations between Moscow and Beijing that took p ...

China’s alarming lack of freshwater resources is perhaps the single most mispriced macroeconomic risk in the world today. Hard times for China investors are set to get even harder.    China is in the throes of an acute water scarcity crisis, exacerbated by a heat wave of unprecedented severity. The drought has been catastrophic for industries in China. Water is critical to power generation, industry, agriculture, and manufacturing, meaning water scarcity is not only li ...

Mexico, despite its integration with the economy of the United States, as well as its historic distrust for and structural competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is pursuing policies that are expanding options for that country, causing serious strategic implications for the United States and the region.   Mexico has always shown strategic ambiguity with respect to the PRC. It was part of the first wave of Latin American countries to establish relations with  ...

China is reportedly planning to launch a real estate fund to assist property developers resolvea crippling debt crisis, with the 300 billion yuan (US$44bn) warchest aimed at restoring confidence in the industry.   This would be the country's first major step to save the beleaguered property sector since last year's debt troubles became public with the problems afflicting Evergrande. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) will initially support the fund with 8 ...

THE US AND CHINA APPEAR TO HAVE REALISED THE CONSTRAINTS PLACED UPON THEM BY THEIR INTERDEPENDENCE AND ARE SEEKING TO EASE RELATIONS AS A RESULT, WITH HIGH-LEVEL GOVERNMENT-TO-GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE PAIR RAMPING UP SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE PAST YEAR. HOWEVER, COMPANIES FROM THE US AND BEYOND WILL NEED TO CONTINUE TO TREAD CAREFULLY IN AND AROUND CHINA.     In American political circles, China is seen as both a disease and a cure. As President Biden leads th ...

Recent Omicron outbreak and the lockdown measures in China significantly changed the previous soft-landing story of Chinese economy in 2022. In March and April, Shanghai and other mainland cities’ lockdown led to supply- side stagnancy and supply-chain disruptions. Coincidentally, the recent trending-up inflation, tumbling exports and RMB sharp depreciation etc. have shrink the authorities’ policy room for more aggressive easing measures. Chinese authorities indeed face an ...

Over the past two decades, China has built large infrastructure projects in almost every developing country, possibly because, through their own experience they are so good at it. However this is making some Western powers uncomfortable amid wider concerns about Beijing’s intentions global intentioan. A deeper look shows that accusations of so-called debt trap diplomacy are, at least so far, unfounded.   China, we are told, inveigles poorer countries into taking out loa ...