Chinese companies going global. Global companies capitalizing on the size and growth of the China market. State-owned enterprises. Policy-based state investment. Startup unicorns with Chinese characteristics. There is no shortage of business stories to tell in China.
Beijing has cracked down hard on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but China still has a thriving ecosystem of startups and entrepreneurs working on decentralized finance technology, or DeFi, based on the blockchain technology behind bitcoin.
The Chinese developer Modern Land said today that it had missed all payments on a $250 million bond, highlighting continuing strain in China’s property sector. At the same time, Evergrande appears to have averted multiple crises and the IMF says that risks are “contained,” for now.
China’s new five-year pilot program for property taxes is thin on details — including where it will be introduced, who will have to pay, how high, and how often. But Beijing is hoping the long-dismissed continuation of trials last implemented in 2011 is a way to safely and smoothly deflate the real estate bubble.
New research shows that in the first year of the U.S.-China trade war, the Trump administration’s tariffs and other actions elevated political risk for companies — but the American firms in China that were most exposed to tariffs were not more likely to exit the Chinese market, let alone repatriate to the U.S.
One reason why apartments in Chinese cities are so expensive is that their owners pay no tax on them, which distorts the economy and creates a host of socio-economic problems. But fixing this problem might just be too difficult, even for Xi Jinping.
China needs to burn coal to end power shortages, but is the country’s ongoing electricity crisis all bad news for the climate? No, writes energy policy researcher David Fishman, because by using the crisis to implement fundamental price reforms for power markets, Beijing has actually disadvantaged coal in the future and taken a major step toward decarbonization.
LinkedIn, which since 2014 has represented the largest social media portal through Beijing’s Great Firewall, has decided to close down its localized China version. Increased censorship pressure, compliance costs for new laws, local competition, and bad PR outside of China may have all contributed to the move.
After Beijing banned for-profit tutoring, parents asked for their money back. Now the government is stepping in to ensure they can actually get it.
Chinese tech companies are notorious for their punishing work schedules that often mean 12 hours a day at the office, six days a week. Since 2019, there has been a growing clamor from tech staff to cut their work time, but it does not seem to have worked, judging from a new crowdsourced survey.
Another Chinese for-profit after-school tutoring company is in trouble after Beijing’s blanket ban on the industry.