China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission launched successfully Thursday, initiating a phase of deep space and interplanetary exploration. A Long March 5 rocket launched the Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 12:41 a.m. Eastern. Successful Trans-Mars injection was confirmed around 40 minutes later by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The flight path took the Long March 5 over the Philippines and close to the capital Manila. Spent stages w ...

Russia and China are becoming closer strategic partners, and the Arctic is gradually becoming an area where the two sides can potentially carry out their long-term cooperation. In 2017 Chinese and Russian leaders jointly proposed the "Ice Silk Road (ISR)," with an aim to promote cooperation and development in the Arctic within the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).   China considers the Arctic a shorter and safer route connecting the Chinese mainland ...

As it is the end of the year, we thought we would share some of the best books that explain modern China from the last couple of years. Some are business focused, some political and some cultural: every topic seems important in understanding China today. The list is by no means comprehensive, but simply some of our favourites.                                      &n ...

China is steadily marching toward a cashless society, enabled by Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay. Those two leading payment systems have introduced QR code-backed payments into the daily habits of consumers. Proximity mobile payments are now ubiquitous for purchases in apparel stores to supermarkets to convenience stores.     How many people in China use proximity mobile payments? Proximity mobile payment users in China grew by 10.0% in 201 ...

Whisky is a rapidly growing segment of the higher-end spirits market in China. Demand continues to increase among the urbanized and high-income consumers, especially young adults. The Chinese perceive whisky as a dynamic, international and sophisticated drink. According to Diageo more than 200 whisky bars opened throughout China in 2018. China is an important emerging market for the Scotch whisky industry. From 2000 to 2018, the value of direct exports to China has grown from under £10  ...

Ogilvy China has just released a research report titled “Globalising in a New Economic Reality: Making Chinese Brands Matter Globally”, the report builds on interviews with 40 CMOs of major Chinese companies and insights from Ogilvy experts in Chinese and global brand management. It underlines key challenges currently facing their overseas expansion and presents 7 principles for building sustainable brands on the global stage.     The main motivatio ...

By Xue YueJie, Sixth Tone Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of telecom equipment and a polarizing pioneer of 5G technology, is now gearing up to compete in the field of cloud computing against tech giants like Amazon, Google, Tencent, and Alibaba.     At Huawei Connect 2019, the company’s annual flagship event that kicked off Wednesday, Huawei underlined its commitment to advancing computing power by announcing several breakthroughs — includ ...

China achieves near-universal coverage through the provision of publicly funded basic medical insurance. The urban employed are required to enroll in an employment-based program, which is funded primarily via employer and employee payroll taxes. Other residents can voluntarily enroll in Urban-Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance, financed primarily by central and local governments through individual premium subsidies. Local health commissions organize public and private health care organiza ...

In China, the courts are divided into the Supreme People’s Court, the High People’s Courts, the Intermediate People’s Courts and the Basic People’s Courts. Generally, the Basic People’s Courts have jurisdiction as courts of first instance over civil cases. The Intermediate People’s Courts have jurisdiction as courts of first instance over civil cases that have major impacts on the area under their jurisdiction. The High People’s  ...

Chinese state-owned developer CECEP has completed a 70MW floating solar project - the largest in the world - at a former coal-mining area of Anhui Province, China, in collaboration with French floating solar specialist Ciel & Terre.     China is the world's top investor in renewable energy, having committed $698 billion (£551.4bn) in renewables capacity between 2010 and the first half of 2019 according to a UN-backed report. However, this pro ...

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a framework of regional connectivity. CPEC will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, India, Central Asian Republic, and the region in general. Under CPEC, Pak and China have initiated projects of 17,045 MW of electricity, national level modernization of roads and rail infrastructure, new optical fiber connect with China, development and commercialization of Gwadar port and smart port city, 4 urban mass tran ...

The Cyber Security Law is the first national-level legislation establishing principles for the protection of the People’s Republic of China’s cyberspace security and the law is intended to address, amongst others, the need to control China’s critical information infrastructure (CII) and its data. The law focuses on the security challenges facing information infrastructure in a range of critical sectors, such a telecommunications, energy, transportation and finance and addres ...

Over the past few years, the world has been abuzz with talk of China’s enormously ambitious $1trn Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - also known as the New Silk Road - that seeks to expand its transportation and energy infrastructure around the world to improve connectivity with the rest of the globe, and perhaps extend both its soft and hard power capabilities.     One of the most important aspects of the strategy, however, has nothing to do with highways, ports or e ...

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), domestic vehicle sales increased 3% year-on-year in 2017, to 28.88 million units, a sales increase far lower than the 10% rise seen in 2016. The slower growth was due to higher taxes on smaller cars and subsidy adjustments on electric vehicles. Passenger car sales, led by Volkswage, increased 1.4% (among those SUV sales rose by 13.3%, to 10.25 million units), while sales of minibuses/multi-purpose vehicles plunged 20% and  ...

A Living History: Bound Feet Women in China By Jo Farrel,   A selection of images from this long-term project documenting some of the last remaining women in China with bound feet. A tradition that started during the Song Dynasty, foot binding was banned in 1911 but carried on through 1939 when women had the bandages forcibly removed. Although considered just for the elite, the majority of women in this documentation were farm workers from peasant families living in ...

The following article is reproduced here in it's entiety from the Center for Global Development   China’s Belt and Road Initiative – which plans to invest as much as $8 trillion in infrastructure projects across Europe, Africa, and Asia – raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability in eight countries it funds, according to a new study from the Center for Global Development.     The study evaluated the current and future  ...

This June, China’s Ministry of Finance has unveiled a series of Draft Amendments to its individual income tax (IIT) Laws. These proposed changes are aimed at easing the tax burden for lower-income earners in particular, while taking a tougher stance on both foreigner workers and high-income earners. Below are summarized parts of the Draft Amendments that may affect foreign in China.     The effects of the proposed changes are fourfold:   ...

China has always been a huge consumer of beer (it is the world’s largest consumer and producer of beer), but tastes have recently been shifting away from masse produced beers, such as Snow, Qingdao and Budweiser to more premium and craft flavors. Sales volumes of cheaper Chinese beers have been falling—both Tsingtao and Yanjing posted losses in sales in 2016. However, demand for high-end beers is growing, and China’s market is ripe with opportunities for both domestic and fo ...