SHANGHAI | Via Caixin | To root out the graft that has seeped into every aspect of the society and economy, China must build institutions that put power under scrutiny. No one is off-limits in the government’s campaign against corruption. CCTV financial news channel director Guo Zhenxi was put under investigation late last month, three months after the sacking of security vice-minister Li Dongsheng, who also worked for the state broadcaster.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | Stimulus proposals won’t transform the economy in China, but spending on industrial research, building megacities and globalizing the white collar labor force will.
BEIJING | By Yang Kaisheng via Caixin | A monopoly on either the buyer’s or seller’s side often means one or several enterprises relying on their strengths keep squeezing out or forcing the merger of small and medium-sized enterprises to gain unfair pricing power. It is often caused by a monopoly over resources or entry barriers that result from government intervention. In light of this, is it reasonable to say that China’s banking industry is monopolized?
Chinese Internet companies such as Weibo, Baidu and Tencent are sophisticating their business models to offer innovative products and services. This crucial change brings to the brands made in China greater value at a global level as they go public on the New York Stock Exchange.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | The quality of China’s GDP growth is rising with falling property prices. The economy is diverting resources away from wasteful bubble activities to productive ones. While growth is slowing, it reflects shrinking of the bad GDP. Two-thirds of the economy is still expanding steadily. More importantly, China is experiencing a labor shortage due to a shrinking of working-age population and steady economic expansion. The economy is in a strong position to absorb the fallout of a deflating property bubble.
By Ray Kwong | It’s not an “ultimate weapon” like the Death Star from the Star Wars movie franchise, but the giant oil rig that China has parked just 140 miles away from Hanoi is equally as ominous. Much as the Galactic Empire used the Death Star’s presence to keep the weak in line, China’s decision to position the rig in the South China Sea in an area claimed by Vietnam is a demonstration of its regional muscle and resolve to assert its territorial claims.
BEIJING | By Liu Ran via Caixin | E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. has taken another step forward in the online video business by establishing a video production business. China Vision Media Group Ltd., which is 60 percent owned by Alibaba and listed in Hong Kong, registered Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd. in Hong Kong on April 3, a source who works at Alibaba said. The legal representative of the new company is Dong Ping, the chairman of China Vision.
Mid-April the largest Chinese micro blogging service, Weibo, raised $286m in its Nasdaq debut. Within weeks, Alibaba, the largest e-commerce platform in the world is expected to complete probably the biggest IPO in history. These are some of the main players of China’s booming Internet economy, which saw revenues of 600.41 billion Yuan in 2013, and it is expected to reach 1.72315 trillion Yuan in 2017. But censorship and strict regulations are hindering the growth of the country’s cyber players.
BEIJING | By W. Jiapeng, H. Haoyi, Z.Shiyun and G. McCubbing via Caixin | The second time around to China has offered much more promise than the first some two years ago, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Inc, said in an interview with Caixin. In three or four years, Musk plans to have cars produced in China, which will mean setting up a joint venture with a local partner, influencing the car industry to move faster in the direction of electric cars.
BEIJING | By Andy Xie via Caixin | What’s important in today’s financial world is perception, not substance. If you check out what important financial figures have proposed in the past, they have been good for forming bubbles, not for growing the real economy.People around the world will only begin to question their economic policymakers when they realize living standards are slowly worsening.