The Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, episode 69

Welcome to the 69th 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 find out that Li Yang 李扬, head of the National Institution for Finance & Development, has forecast that China’s economic expansion may be entering a long-term “downward spiral” as all three engines of growth — investment, exports, and consumption — slow down.
• We report that car sales in China declined for a fifth consecutive month, bringing the world’s largest market closer to its first annual drop in two decades.
• We note that China will launch a high-tech stock board in Shanghai and experiment with a registration-based IPO system, President Xi said last week at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
• We hear that an order has been issued for the arrest of Lai Xiaomin 赖小民, the former boss of China Huarong Asset Management, indicating that the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog has obtained evidence that Lai broke the law.
• We learn the news that a consortium led by China Telecom has been granted a “provisional” license to run one of the Philippines’ telecom networks, a win that analysts said was born from the “political advantage” of good ties between the two countries.
• We analyze Xiaomi’s move to enter the British market, as it tries to show the world it can compete with big names like Apple and Samsung not only geographically but also at the high end of the market.
• We discuss leading hotpot chain Haidilao’s decision to open its first store in Europe soon, introducing the boil-it-yourself style of dining to a market in which authentic Chinese cuisine is still marginal.
• We dive deep into a report by the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce, which found out that all the tea in China is apparently not enough for the nation’s increasingly wealthy consumers, who are turning to foreign cuisines, with imports of overseas foods swelling past $60 billion last year, according to a new report.

In addition, we talk with Doug Young, managing editor of Caixin Global, about this year’s Import Expo in Shanghai and its potential impact on the trade hawks in Washington.

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