Finance

The state is upping the ante in China’s venture capital and private equity markets – with mixed results. Will entrepreneurs soon find their prospects hinge on whether the focus of their innovation aligns with the Chinese government’s ideal for a technologically advanced state? Joe Cash investigates Spread across roadsides the length and breadth of the country, red banners with the ubiquitous phrase ‘Party Spirit’ extol the virtues of the Chinese …

Li Keqiang’s economic policy – called Likonomics – has received new attention as China seeks to recover from the latest Covid outbreak, but weak domestic demand and a struggling property sector might force Chinese leaders to abandon Likonomics at the next Party Congress in autumn, writes Torsten Weller  The dramatic weakening of China’s economic performance – caused by the lockdowns in Shanghai and other big cities – has prompted Premier …

China is asking difficult questions of foreign investors and has seemingly changed how it approaches economic engagement with the wider world. British companies will need to pay even closer attention to what is coming out of Beijing if they are to stay ahead in China, cautions Joe Cash “The world is not waiting for China to resolve its Covid challenge… [foreign companies] move on, and China runs the risk of …

China’s government wants to increase private investment in pension funds, with reforms that could lead to more fundamental changes in China’s financial services sector – and attractive new opportunities for UK insurers and financial institutions, writes Torsten Weller China’s demographic change has become one of the biggest challenges for Beijing, as policymakers try to avert the unwelcome prophecy of the country ‘getting old, before getting rich’. A dramatic drop in …

China has finally launched an app for its digital currency, the e-CNY, which is even available to athletes attending the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. But does the digital yuan app have the potential to replace WeChat and Alipay? 2022 kicked off with a major leap forward for the e-CNY, also known as the digital yuan, as the beta version of the digital yuan app was officially launched on iOS …

Chinese tax authorities have vowed to crack down on tax evasion by celebrities and online influencers such as Fan Bingbing and Viya, but they’re also keen to reduce taxes and fees for businesses and SMEs, writes Torsten Weller One of the most visible expressions of China’s new ‘Common Prosperity’ policy has been the stricter enforcement of individual income tax violations. In December 2021, Chinese tax authorities fined live-streamer Huang Wei …

In this latest article in our series on COP26, we examine the impact of climate change and net zero policies on the finance and banking industries, and how companies like HSBC and the London Stock Exchange are funding and enabling green financial solutions China’s energy consumption mix currently relies heavily on coal, but China has demonstrated its determination to shift to more renewable sources of energy – investing  $83.4 billion …

China’s battle against decentralised cryptocurrency came to a head this year when the country’s State Council released new regulations banning the mining of Bitcoin while also banning any crypto transactions, writes Bryan Grogan The impact was immediate, with prominent cryptocurrency wallets announcing that they would stop providing services in China. Among those were Binance and Huobi, two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, who initially stopped registrations of new …

China supports the G7’s initiative for a Global Minimum Corporate Tax, which it prefers to the EU’s digital service tax proposal – here’s why, writes Torsten Weller. Relations with China figured prominently at June’s G7 summit in Cornwall. Yet despite many media reports highlighting the differences and potential flash points between Western democracies and the Communist Party in Beijing, the meeting addressed several points where both sides are pretty much …

After several years of slowing investment, venture capital investment in China is booming, led by deals from investors such as Tencent and Sequoia Capital in AI, blockchain, e-commerce and more, writes Robynne Tindall According to figures released by business information service provider IT Juzi, startups in China attracted RMB 354 billion (approximately £39.2 billion) of investment in the first quarter of 2021. As the Chinese economy rebounds post-pandemic, the number …