The biggest trade bloc in history, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, provides its member states with a tariff-free route into the China market. However, as Joe Cash explains, China’s membership brings challenges as well as opportunities Just after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, trade negotiators in Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam likely raised a second toast congratulating themselves …
Disruption created by Covid-19 lockdowns and port closures has brought the global shipping business to its knees, so Joe Cash asks: when shipping between the UK and China will recover? The cost of shipping between the UK and China continues to test the resilience of companies of all sizes, be they from Liaocheng or Liverpool. Shipping containers remain in short supply. As a result, the cost of securing passage on …
The UK has done well through partnering with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) before, but is it now considering extricating itself from further BRI collaboration with Beijing to align itself with the US or the EU? Joe Cash investigates A global contest is brewing. China, the US, and the EU are all vying for influence along routes that Beijing first turned its attention to in 2013 when …
As China’s economic growth slows, stable monetary and fiscal policy remain the top priorities for 2022. Beijing is also expected to focus more on housing, pronatalist incentives and ‘tertiary distribution’ under its new Common Prosperity policy From 8-10 December, Chinese leaders convened their annual Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC). The read-out of the conference stresses the urgent need to address ‘three pressures’: shrinking demand, supply shocks, and a weakening economic …
Multiple new laws and regulations that affect doing business in China came into force on 1 January 2022. Foreign investors and businesses engaging in cosmetics, food and beverage, import and export, and businesses that care for older adults should pay special attention 1. Negative Lists for Foreign Investment Access The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce released the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment …
China’s intellectual property environment and legislation has been significantly strengthened and standardised in recent years, with a number of key intellectual property rights cases being ruled in favour of international companies. Tim Van Gardingen looks back over some of the biggest IP cases and policies changes in 2021 In October 2020, Dow and Johnson Matthey won a major intellectual property case against Shanjun Clean Energy Technology over the two companies’ jointly …
Ninety-seven per cent of foreign firms intend to keep investing in China, according to a survey of over 2,000 companies either doing business in China, or who intend to do so in the future Speaking to the results of the survey, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chair of the China-Britain Business Council and Group Head of Public Affairs at HSBC, said: “Companies from the UK and around the world clearly continue to …
The communiqué of the Communist Party’s recent Sixth Plenary Session sets the tone for China’s domestic politics and society for decades to come. So what’s in it? And how does Xi Jinping compare to his predecessors Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping? The prognostications of most China analysts turned out to be right, and speculation over whether President Xi Jinping had the base to pass what is only the third ‘Resolution …
The Market Access Negative List outlines the areas where investors first need to obtain regulatory approval, a licence, or a permit regardless of whether they’re a foreign or domestic company. This year’s list reduces the number from 123 items to 117 Last Friday, China’s National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) published draft revisions to the Market Access Negative List (hereafter referred to as ‘the List’). …
Although a Maoist term, Xi Jinping’s ‘common prosperity’ has little in common with radical egalitarianism. The concrete policy proposals that we have seen to date — like those in Zhejiang’s Common Prosperity Polit Area — are relatively modest and below the standards of many modern welfare states, writes Torsten Weller China’s dramatic crackdown on the country’s tech firms is turning into a broader reform of the welfare system and a …