Welcome to the 76th 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 discuss the seemingly never-ending trade talks between China and the U.S., which made what both sides called progress last week in Beijing.
- We report that China’s trade surplus more than doubled in January, driven by stronger exports, as businesses rushed to fill orders before the Lunar New Year holiday at the beginning of February.
- We learn the news that Lai Xiaomin 赖小民, the former chairman of China Huarong, one of the nation’s four largest distressed-asset managers, has been formally charged with corruption and bribery.
- We hear about the death of Yu Min 于敏, one of the major contributors to the development of China’s hydrogen bomb.
- We note that China’s ride-hailing leader, Didi Chuxing, announced mass layoffs in a meeting at the company’s Beijing headquarters on Friday morning.
- We take a close look at Huawei, a telecom equipment maker that has been embroiled in several scandals lately.
- We analyze Hong Kong’s push to stop the rising trafficking of endangered species through its territory.
In addition, we talk with Doug Young, the managing editor of Caixin Global, about the wine scene in China. We also chat with David Kirton, a reporter with Caixin Global, about China’s major audit of companies in the country’s opaque power grid.
