economy

The Russia-China border winds for 2,600 miles through rivers, swamps, and vast forests. It’s a region most businesses rarely interact with, though it’s home to many potential consumers and is a major cross-trade border too. Paul French caught up with the authors of a book about the Russia-China border to find out what the prospects for enhanced trade opportunities might be Academics Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey spent years travelling …

Political analyst and academic Kerry Brown looks ahead to what we can expect from the UK-China relationship in 2022 Britain and China’s relationship in 2022 will offer a continuation of themes and issues we have seen developing over 2021. Geopolitically, the tensions between the US and the People’s Republic will continue to overshadow everything else. Having signed up to the AUKUS (Australia, UK, US) security pact in September, and framed …

The RCEP free trade agreement will deliver substantial new trade and investment opportunities within the participating countries. Dezan Shira & Associates’ China Briefing examines the background to the RCEP and what specific benefits it could create for businesses operating in China On 22 March 2020, China and 14 other countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement at the virtually-hosted ASEAN Summit, formalising the largest free trade agreement (FTA) …

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 …

The misfortunes of Chinese property giant Evergrande have dominated the headlines recently, but presenting Evergrande’s predicament as China’s version of the collapse of Lehman Brothers is not accurate, writes Joe Cash Evergrande currently faces liabilities of $305 billion (£222.8 billion) and was supposed to pay its creditors $83.5 million (£61 million) in bond interest by noon on Friday, 24 September Hong Kong time. The interest repayment deadline passed without any …

Understanding the China in 2021 is about more than just looking at the numbers. These 5 recent books on the Chinese economy attempt to make sense of it in the context of the country’s past, present and future, its people and its politics. Land of Big Numbers, Te-Ping Chen When we think about China, we often think about it in terms of hard facts: GDP, export volume, population growth. Chinese-American …

China’s trade figures for August are out and are surprisingly positive. According to the country’s customs administration, Chinese exports rose 25.6% year-on-year, to £212.6 billion, up from July’s 18.9% growth Imports also increased 33.1% to £170.5 billion, up from the previous month’s 28.7%. In RMB terms, imports from the UK grew 19.8%, while exports to Britain saw an increase of 18.7% in the first eight months of 2021 compared to …

The success of many British companies operating in China today is, in large part, a product of the post-Mao reform movement and the plan for economic growth that avoided either the ‘shock therapy’ economics of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe or wholesale neoliberalism, says political economist Isabella Weber. Paul French finds out more The arguments over reform in China throughout the 1980s and since have been much commented upon …

The announcement of a new political slogan — Common Prosperity — is the big news out of China in recent weeks, coming in the wake of crackdowns on tech companies and the private education sector On Tuesday, 17 August, Chinese state media reported that, in a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, President Xi Jinping – who was chairing the meeting – announced that the government …

Improved state capacity, deeper commercial and financial links with the outside world, and online activism will have an important impact on Chinese politics in the coming years, while many trends point towards more, not less cooperation between China and western countries On 1 July 2021, China’s ruling Communist Party celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1921 in Shanghai’s French Concession. The official festivities included a massive show titled …