Welcome to the 67th 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 a full-blown trade war with the United States will bring “substantial impacts” to the Chinese economy, dragging down growth for 15 manufacturing-related sectors, according to a top government think tank in China.
- We discuss the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.
- We hear that online media giant Bytedance has nearly finished a new fundraising round that should total about $3 billion, as it seeks a lofty valuation that would make it China’s third-largest internet company.
- We analyze a recent report that found out China has quietly opened its cinemas to more foreign films, with movie imports exceeding the official annual quota for the first time since 2016.
- We learn that China’s leading hotpot chain, Haidilao, which debuted its shares in Hong Kong last month, launched its first “smart” concept restaurant this weekend with the hope of resolving one of its biggest branding crises: rat infestation.
- We report that lawmakers from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress suggested that if workers of the powerful National Supervisory Commission or its local branches committed crimes such as abusing suspects during corruption investigations, then prosecutors should be allowed to investigate them.
- We find out that U.S. electric-car maker Tesla is planning to produce two models in its Shanghai factory, with one of them slated to roll off production lines next year.
- We learn the news that despite measures to loosen China’s family planning policies, experts think gender imbalance caused by decades of enforcing birth restrictions will last for years to come.
In addition, we talk with Olivia Ryan, reporter for Caixin Global, about the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Beijing, and a new study released by it on China’s environmental targets. We also chat with Doug Young, managing editor at Caixin Global, about Malaysia and its reevaluation of some of the deals that the previous administration had made.
We’d love to hear your feedback on this product. Please send any comments and suggestions to sinica@thechinaproject.com.
