Welcome to the 45th 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 that Hainan Province is flinging open its doors to international tourists, granting visa-free stays to 59 nationalities amid a push to transform itself into “China’s Hawaii.”
- We find out about digital payments leader Alipay’s launch of its service on buses.
- We learn that Putuoshan Tourism, the official travel agency of Mount Putuo, or Putuoshan, has postponed its IPO in the wake of a controversy over commercializing the country’s religious sites.
- We discuss that China will further open its car market by allowing foreign automakers to take full ownership of their local joint ventures by 2022.
- We explore a recent report by China Orient Asset Management, a state-controlled asset management company, which indicates that Chinese banks have likely understated their bad debt.
- We hear that China’s central bank said it will cut the amount of cash that most banks are required to hold as reserves — a move to release cash into the banking system.
- We analyze China’s endorsement of “online hospitals,” an emerging concept that Chinese internet giants Alibaba and Tencent have bet on.
- We discover that Chinese authorities have released a doctor who called a well-known “medicinal” liquor a poison, after news of his three months in detention provoked national anger.
In addition, we talk with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about China’s biggest telecom equipment makers such as ZTE and their problems with the U.S. We also chat with Liu Xiao, reporter for Caixin Global, about a story regarding Ant Financial.
We’d love to hear your feedback on this product. Please send any comments and suggestions to sinica@thechinaproject.com.
