Year of the black water snake - China Weekly Hangout (updated with link)

Year of the Snake 2013 (Photo credit: kenjonbro)

Past week has been pretty busy, as the celebrations for the Chinese New Year forced many to make decisions, they did not want to delay until after the new year. Zhang Lijia noted, this year of the black water snake we should be careful in making drastic decisions for both business and personal. But while maternity clinics might be emptier than last year, it is not going to be a quiet year, snake or no snake.
For the +China Weekly Hangout of coming Thursday 14 February we have not prepared an agenda, but will hold open office hours. Here we can exchange (belated) new year wishes, discuss plans for the coming months, or you can simply figure out how hangouts work, if this is your first time.

Not that we are short of subjects. China has just replaced the US as the largest trading nation - if the figures are correct. Figures, figures, figures will be abundant also this year.
The country is preparing for Xi Jinping to become its president in March, and more than once we will ask ourselves: are we seeing real reforms, or just window dressing? When it comes to the reform of the economy, is China becoming a consumer's paradise? And can it afford to do so, looking at the already rampant pollution? Is it really cleaning up corruption, its security apparatus? How is the restructuring of its administration working out? Can we expect more, less or different freedoms in the state-owned media and on the internet?
And will rich Chinese keep on leaving China, as we discussed earlier? European countries, like Cyprus, Ireland, Spain and Portugal not only look for Chinese investors into their industries, but are also looking for rich Chinese to take up its redundant real estate, possibly in exchange for a residence permit for the Schengen countries. (One guest already agreed to participate: Polykarpos Panayiotides from Cyprus, but more are welcome).

Join us to exchange thoughts on your plans, the country's plans and the future agenda of the China Weekly Hangout at Thursday 14 February at 10pm Beijing Time, 3pm CET and 9am EST. You can register here, leave your questions and remarks.
You can see earlier hangouts on our YouTube Channel here.
Last week +Paul Fox , +Andrew Hupert and +Fons Tuinstra discussed in the China Weekly Hangout education: a gold mine or a black hole, and for who?

Over the past months we had a wide range of other participants, you can join in the coming months. They included also +Janet Carmosky +David Wolf +Richard Brubaker +Sam Xu +Isaac Mao +Merritt Cooke +Steven Millward +G. E. Anderson +Meixian Li +Benjamin Cavender and many others.

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