The Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, episode 48

Podcast

Welcome to the 48th installment of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, a weekly podcast that brings you the most important business stories of the week from China’s top source for business and financial news. Produced by Kaiser Kuo of our Sinica Podcast, it features a business news roundup, plus conversations with Caixin reporters and editors.

This week:

  • We note social networking giant Twitter’s first-ever client event in China to expand its footprint in the country.
  • We learn that a resurgent and refocused Baidu was the big winner among China’s top internet companies in the first quarter of the year, while an overinflated Weibo moved to the bottom of investors’ lists as its red-hot growth showed signs of cooling.
  • We hear that after Baidu’s COO, Qi Lu 陆奇, announced he would step down due to personal and family reasons, the company’s stock price plummeted.
  • We explore a new report that found that around 62 percent of Chinese use ride-hailing platforms, compared with 23 percent in the U.S. and 29 percent in Germany.
  • We discuss the news that Li Ning 李宁, an education official seen tucking into an endangered animal in viral photos last year, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for unrelated corruption charges.
  • We find out that Chinese top judicial authorities have raised the amount of compensation given to people who are wrongfully imprisoned, but the amount still falls short of what legal experts argue is adequate.

In addition, we talk with Fran Wang, economics reporter with Caixin Global, about Beijing’s ongoing push to regulate wealth management products. We also have a conversation with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about the latest with Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo and hotpot chain Haidilao.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this product. Please send any comments and suggestions to sinica@thechinaproject.com.