How Xi Jinping turned his corona drama into a win - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia at the BBC

China was in chaos when the coronavirus emerged in public at the beginning of 2020, but instead of a drama, president Xi Jinping was able to turn the events into a global win for the country, says London-based journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in China, to Barbara Demick of the New York Review of Books.

NY Review of Books:

I’ve heard this from other overseas Chinese. Lijia Zhang, a writer who lives in London, told me, “In the beginning, it was a mess. People were thinking this could be Xi Jinping’s downfall. Now they are saying China is in a much better position to deal with a crisis, with its authoritarian system. The West is too chaotic.’’
The respective failures of the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom clearly bolstered China’s confidence. But the turnaround couldn’t have happened without an almost textbook propaganda operation, involving coercion, misinformation, and manipulation.

More in the NY Review of Books.

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Is China killing the Hong Kong goose with the golden eggs? - Harry Broadman

Harry Broadman

Former US President Clinton's assistant trade representative Harry Broadman fears China might be killing its Hong Kong goose with the golden eggs. He also sees not providing data on the leadership views on economic growth is foolish, he tells at Bloomberg.

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China's post-corona problem: their customers are in trouble - Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers

China might be opening up slowly after its coronavirus crisis, but the problems are not over, warns super investor Jim Rogers at Platts, as most of their international customers are just at the start of their economic downturn.

Jim Rogers at Platts:

One of the biggest challenges for China as it emerges from the crisis will be their customers. China is one of the largest trading nations in the world. Now Europe is in trouble. Japan is in trouble. America is in trouble. Yes, Japan is opening up. China is opening up again, but their customers are in trouble. So the biggest challenge for China now is to find customers for their factories, for their companies, for everybody. That’s everybody’s problem, by the way.
Are there any other bright spots?
Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. China’s opening up and many other countries are already opening up. People in Sweden got sick – they are no worse off than other people health-wise but their economy has not suffered as badly. So it seems to me that one lesson from this is that, nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to get sick. But if you just look around what’s happening in the world, closing off does not seem to be the best solution. But we’ll know. We’ll know in a year or two.

More at Platts.

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What can brands learn from China's corona crisis? - Arnold Ma

Arnold Ma

What can brands learn from China for the post-corona crisis? Marketing expert Arnold Ma from Qumin in London joins a discussion at Retail Marketing. Building loyalty during a crisis is key, he says. Some traditional behaviors will return to the old patterns, but consumers will stick to newly developed insights, he adds.

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Moving to the new normal - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Shanghai-based VC William Bao Bean used to spend 30-40 percent of his time at planes and airports, now found himself back in an office job in Shanghai after the corona lockdown had ended and explains to CNBC how that may work out.

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How companies use corona fears to sell their products - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Most of China is moving away from the coronavirus crisis, but the fears are still running deep. Companies, notably the hard-hit car industry, try to use that fear for marketing their products, says business analyst Shaun Rein to the BBC. 

BBC:

Shaun Rein, managing director at the China Market Research Group, ...: "Companies are trying to take advantage of fears of Covid-19 to sell products and services to consumers and to be able to charge a premium." 

In 2015, Tesla sold cars with anti-pollution filtration systems that were very popular in China. Its "Bioweapon Defense Mode" was aimed at people worried about air pollution in cities. 

"Auto makers are now trying to position their cars as safe against viruses too. I'm no doctor or scientist, but I'd warn consumers to be cautious of any company saying their products reduce virus transmissions, especially Covid-19 ones," Mr Rein said.

More at the BBC.

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How the coronavirus changed retail in China - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

China is going to be the most expensive and complicated market in the world, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok to Rethink Industries. How the new normal looks like in retail after the coronavirus crisis.

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Making sense out of the Covid-19 information explosion - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber

Renowned economist Arthur Kroeber, author of the bestseller China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, dives into the information explosion after the Covid-19 virus did hit China. Much information is available, but most is of low quality, he argues, and here he does a reality check of what we can say at this stage in April, including Europe, the US and their relations with China.

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Back to basics: Taoism - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

COVID-19 or the Coronavirus has triggered off a lot of soul-searching in China, says social commentator Zhang Lijia in the South China Morning Post. "All these problems at home and abroad are proof that nature has been interfered with, as humans go against the natural order. This is a good time to revisit the philosophical aspects of Taoism, writes Zhang Lijia.

Zhang Lijia:

Scientists have established a link between the emergence of highly pathogenic bird flu viruses and the intensification of poultry production systems. In his 2016 book, Big Farms Make Big Flu, biologist Rob Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations in developed countries.
Chicken and other poultry are packed into mega-barns, grown out in a few months, slaughtered, processed and shipped all over the world. If a virus emerges, it can race through a flock packed together without any resistance. If it then spills over into humans, the consequences are dire.
All these problems at home and abroad are proof that nature has been interfered with, as humans go against the natural order. This is a good time to revisit the philosophical aspects of Taoism.

The Tao-te Ching says: “Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.” In the eyes of Taoists, mankind and nature are bound together in an organic chain, and therefore in a relationship of reciprocity. If nature is in agreement with mankind, the world is harmonious and prosperous. If nature is mistreated by mankind, it can retaliate by causing calamitous suffering.
So far, two million people around the world have been infected with Covid-19, and millions more have been affected by the pandemic and lockdowns. This is a shrill wake-up call. The world must respond to it.
After the Covid-19 outbreak began in China, the authorities issued a temporary ban on wildlife trade, shutting down nearly 20,000 farms raising peacocks, porcupines, ostriches and other animals. Then a permanent ban on wildlife trade and consumption was announced, but with exceptions for trade for fur, medicine or research.
Some conservationists fear that traffickers might exploit these potential loopholes to continue trading wildfire. Still, the ban is a big step forward in the right direction.
The West doesn’t give China enough credit for its green leadership.
For years, international conservation groups have criticised the way China regarded wild animals as commodities. Corruption has also made it that much harder to police the illegal trade of live wildlife. Biodiversity loss is severe in China, where 61 percent of wild animals face extinction.
The prevention of future global pandemics must be a collective effort by people from around the world, but what China chooses to do is crucial to this battle. We will have to address the roots of the problem – the destruction of our environment – and shift our development model away from an overemphasis on economic benefits towards an environmentally sustainable model.
China’s air and water quality significantly improved during coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Sustainable development is a relatively new idea. Interestingly, Taoism, in its creed and practice, is compatible with sustainable development: notably, it is deeply concerned about harmony with nature, and nature’s ability to provide for mankind’s present and future needs.
Naturally, no religion or philosophy alone can resolve an environmental crisis or a pandemic. But if we are able to hermeneutically reconstruct Taoist teachings and reintegrate them into our culture, we may benefit greatly from ancient wisdom.
Take, for example, the issue of vegetarianism. Although the two main schools of Taoism hold different views on this, the religion generally encourages devotees to avoid meat and minimise harm, because animals are sentient beings. Just imagine how much good it would do the environment if 1.4 billion people could cut their meat intake by half!

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Coronavirus disrupts food deliveries in China - Sara Hsu

Sara Hsu

Logistical chains are disrupted the coronavirus crisis, and limited export of pork by corona-hit processing plants in the US hit China additionally, says financial analyst Sara Hsu to CGTN.

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Retail in a post-corona market - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

Retail in China has changed after the corona crisis and marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok explains how brands have to adjust themselves to reach those much-wanted consumers in China, she tells in Valtech.

Valtech:

Ashley Dudarenok: So you see definitely a lot of shifts, and it’s going to be very interesting. What I definitely see is that Mainland Chinese is definitely recovering first, because it just originated in China first, and also very severe measures were taken to contain the virus after the initial first weeks where the time was wasted outside. So it is definitely going to be a very interesting adjustment period, and we’re all looking forward to that.
Julia Raymond: We certainly are. Streaming is a trend that perhaps in your agency, you’ve seen take off in China. Is that something you think brands and retailers will specifically continue doing, even after the pandemic has ended?
Ashley Dudarenok: Absolutely. In China, live streaming is not something new. So, in China, this is a reality of life. In the West, we live stream for fun primarily, but there’s very little e-commerce live streaming. In China, because the whole blogger world is operating very differently, they actually started live streaming for fun. So basically, when you watch somebody, you give them gifts, and that’s how the blogger makes money.
Ashley Dudarenok: But in China, they went to step forward and they said, “Okay, live streaming as e-commerce channel is a phenomenal opportunity, because I can show you my farm, and I can sell you oranges.” So, it’s live streaming turned into a bizarre copy of early ’90s TV advertising and people love it. It’s entertaining and people feel that it’s also a place to talk to others. And the social isolation has not completely shifted or changed the way people purchase right now, but it has accelerated this move towards live streaming. So, it’s definitely there to stay. In China though, a lot of people do live streaming, but everybody but the brands is making money.
Ashley Dudarenok: The platform is making money, the agencies are making money, the bloggers are making money, but the brands obviously, are on the suffering side, because it’s not for them. They are going to sell a lot, but the cost to operate a live stream is very expensive. So, you need to make sure that after selling, you are able to get a repeat purchase, or you’re able to somehow retain your customers. So that’s what I think in the West when we talk about this live streaming in China, people do not understand. E-commerce live streaming comes at a price, it comes at a cost, but it’s a great opportunity to acquire customers, but essentially, it’s not going to make or have a positive ROI, initially.
Julia Raymond: It sounds like it’s a bit of a long play then.
Ashley Dudarenok: Yeah, absolutely. Like everything else, China is a very complex market. Consumers are very spoiled by having so many products and services that target them. They’ve got a lot of money, they are very excited, but they also know the good stuff. And you need to be reasonable in terms of price, you need to be good quality, and you need to be adapted to that market in order to cater to them.

More in Valtech.

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Foreign brands in need of a post-corona strategy - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok(left), Shirley Ze Yu (right), Martina Fuchs (under)

Marketing veteran Ashley Dudarenok sees great opportunities past-corona crisis as foreign brands desperately look for new China strategies. She discusses with political economist Shirley Ze Yu and Martina Fuchs, and is a bit gloomy about Hong Kong for the next six months, but optimistic about China.

Ashley Dudarenok and Shirley Ze Yu are speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need one of them (or both) at your meeting, conference or online meeting? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Shadow banking might be on the way back - Sara Hsu

Sara Hsu

China's government has been trying to phase out shadow banking as a risky form of lending money. But now the country's economy is hit by a trade war, COVID-19 and other mischiefs, shadow banking might make a return, says financial analyst Sara Hsu at the East Asia Forum. 

Sara Hsu:

There are signs that this risk may be tolerated to some extent. Head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Guo Shuqing supported the crackdown on shadow banking but recently changed his tune and is allowing banks to increase their tolerance of bad debt during the coronavirus outbreak. Banks have also been directed to increase lending and extend repayment schedules in areas strongly affected by the coronavirus. At the beginning of February 2020, regulators granted a grace period for banks that are struggling to meet the tightest shadow banking rules. 

Shadow banking will be a double-edged sword for the Chinese economy. While it may temporarily give the economy the nudge it needs to maintain target GDP growth levels, granting permission to banks to lower lending standards is likely to result in the doubling of bad debts. It is a desperate measure fit for desperate times. 

Guo remarked before the coronavirus outbreak that China should continue to dismantle shadow banking by focussing particularly on high-risk shadow banking. This suggests that the industry will experience renewed suppression when the crisis is over. Shadow banking is unlikely to make a major comeback or to remain in vogue past the conclusion of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Shadow banking is one of the riskiest aspects of China’s financial system and has been subject to extensive regulation. Whether more shadow bank activity will be tolerated due to the coronavirus outbreak is yet to be seen. But a resurgence in shadow banking is unlikely to last.

More at the East Asia Forum.

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Rule one: don't panic in the corona crisis - Harry Broadman

Harry Broadman

CEO's worldwide are figuring out strategies for the future, after the corona or Covid-19 crisis started to emerge from China. Veteran advisor Harry Broadman dives into the future for CEO's at the Chief Executive. Rule one: do not panic, he says.

The Chief executive.com:

“Even in this unusual environment, we’re all trying to out-game one another,” Harry Broadman, managing director of Berkeley Research Group and a globally recognized strategic advisor to CEOs, boards and the White House, told Chief Executive.  

“Even in crisis, that begets opportunities. You have to think carefully as the bathtub drains on everyone. You get important information because you’re going to observe how you’re doing relative to competitors—important market signals that you honestly wouldn’t have without this crisis.” 

Broadman said that one of the most important “overarching lessons from all of this will be how you manage risk.” It’s crucial in that regard, he advised, for CEOs not to panic; to remain confident in decisions that were made amid prosperity; to understand how the COVID-19 recession is going to stress the existing framework of your industry; and to make sound decisions right now about how to capitalize for the future.  

This is where fellow occupants of the “bathtub” come in. “Assume for the sake of argument that you’re all in the same bathtub and you’re all going to fall pretty much at once, even in different ways. Then the bathtub is going to refill again, and you may find that we all will be in the same relative positions as when the crisis began.  

“CEOs and boards need to be thinking through that issue in a cool, clinical fashion.”

More at the Chief Executive.

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In a killing stock market, China has been a relative winner - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

The massive drop of stock markets has wiped away unprecedented amounts of capital, says Hurun China Rich List founder Rupert Hoogewerf at the South China Morning Post. But in that bloodbath, China has been a relatief winner, he adds.

The South China Morning Post:

While most billionaires have seen their fortunes shrink drastically amid a stock market rout brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures launched by governments, a handful have seen their wealth rise – significantly.

According to research by Hurun Report calculating the pandemic’s impact on billionaires’ fortunes, Eric Yuan, the US-based founder and chief executive of Zoom, the video conferencing software company, saw his net worth skyrocket by US$3.5 billion – or 77 per cent – to US$8 billion. This makes him the fast riser of the past two months.

Zoom has become ubiquitous as executives at companies around the world try to stay in touch while working from home. 

“The last two months have wiped out all the wealth made in the past two-and-a-half years, with the World’s Top 100 down 12.6 per cent, or US$408 billion, equivalent to each of the Hurun Top 100 losing US$75 million a day,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report’s chairman and chief researcher.

“China has been the relative winner,” he said. The country added six billionaires to the top 100 list, while India lost three and the US lost two. He said that the Hurun Report had 2,816 known billionaires before the Covid-19 pandemic, but that number had dropped by 20 per cent, as tanking stock markets wiped out net worth estimations.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Is China taking over the US? - Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers

China is taking over the US, and the US are among the least competitive countries in the world, says super-investor Jim Rogers on SBTV.

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Where does the world stand in the covid-19 corona crisis? - Shirley Ze Yu

The covid-19 crisis is not about the political system, but about the efficiency of government, argues economist Shirley Ze Yu. She puts the current crisis into perspective, the lack of international cooperation and different leaderships styles.

Shirley Ze Yu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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How to catch a fast-changing China after the coronacrisis - Shaun Rein/Ashley Dudarenok

Shaun Rein, interviewed by Ashley Dudarenok

An even faster shift to online, domestic tourism and health care related activities. Business analyst Shaun Rein sums up how China is changing faster after the corona crisis is over, in an interview with Ashley Dudarenok. Are international brands even more leverage to domestic brands, both wonder. And interesting details on US rumors.

Shaun Rein and Ashley Dudarenok are both speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you looking for one of them for your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. 

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Why China is leading the way after the coronavirus crisis - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

While the rest of the world is firmly into a lockdown, China is slowly getting back to normal. That is only one of the reasons why the country is leading the way after the coronavirus crisis, says William Bao Bean, partner, SOSV Capital and Managing Director, Chinaccelerator from Shanghai to Webintravel in a podcast.

Webintravel:

“We’re in China. We’re talking to you from the future. Most of the world are just coming into quarantine. And we’re coming out of it after two months. So think about what happens. People still have to eat. So how do they get their food? People get very bored and they also get very angry and distracted by their children. So there’s actually quite a lot of opportunity here.”

Impact on big vs small 

“Big, disruptive downturns have a big negative impact on larger companies, as opposed to small companies, because small companies don’t have that physical and human infrastructure. They’re also much more nimble and it’s easier to make cuts.”

Asia leapfrogging in mobile innovation in health tech

“Asia has a bit of an advantage in terms of speed because they’re more open to (tech) adoption than other markets. This is the leapfrog effect twe’ve seen in travel, fintech and banking. And now we’re seeing it in the health industry, where new solutions innovation is rolled out much more quickly.”

On China’s Health Code app, Singapore’s TraceTogether app 

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. I think globally, what you’re going to see is an increase in adoption in technology and the lead has really been taken by Asia. People are citing South Korea, China and Singapore.”

More in Webintravel.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. 

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Coronavirus: larger effect than the 2008 earthquake - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao interviews author and journalist Yuan Ling after he got into quarantine in his home province Shaanxi. "The virus has already had a deeper impact on the people than even the [2008] Sichuan earthquake [that killed 69,000]," Yuan Ling tells Ian Johnson on the phone, for the New York Review of Books.


Ian Johnson:

Ian Johnson: You’re now back in your home province, Shaanxi, but why are you under quarantine?

Yuan Ling: I took the high-speed rail and they said it was dangerous for spreading the virus. So I’m here in my apartment doing nothing.

That’s hard to believe.

In fact, I have had a chance to think and reflect. In the past, when writing about the realities in China, it was hard to find a milestone-type of event that has significance as a topic for writing. Sometimes you think there is a key event, but its significance disappears very quickly because, no matter what happens, there’s always the opposite argument and explanation. Things that you think matter often don’t matter to others. Even with big topics like the Cultural Revolution, some think it’s good, some think it’s bad, and others think it’s best not to discuss it. So it has been hard to find a starting point.

But the virus has already had a deeper impact on the people than even the [2008] Sichuan earthquake [that killed 69,000]. The virus causes isolation and shutdown, which mirrors the isolation and shutdown in Chinese society, and also because it was directly the result of controlling speech and clamping down on “rumors.” Everyone is isolated, even though it’s not necessary. This is symbolic. During normal times, people aren’t free but they don’t feel it, but now everyone feels their unfreedom.

You’ve written both fiction and nonfiction. What would be the best way to approach Wuhan?

I interviewed a family in Wuhan. The grandmother got sick and died. Both parents are also sick but are away. When they finally got beds in the hospital, the child, who is only eighteen years old, now needs to shoulder a lot of responsibilities. I wrote a nonfiction story like that for Phoenix News.

But I don’t emphasize the boundary between nonfiction and fiction. I hope I can write a novel in the future with a core that touches on the truth about China’s real problems and is based on real things, instead of escaping reality in order to achieve literariness. We need to transcend the boundaries between nonfiction and fiction and reflect truth and be thought-provoking. Camus was a philosopher who wrote novels. His value lies not in the novels themselves but in how he brought up social issues and thought about the human condition.

A lot of people are talking about Camus and his novel The Plague. But you told me earlier that you’re reading Paul Celan [the Romanian-born German language poet and translator]. Why is he significant to you?

Celan lived through the Holocaust. China also has experienced many tragedies. Our writing is an act of reflection and persistence after these tragedies. It’s not some cheap praise for the glories of mankind. As we see in the Wuhan crisis, pessimism, desperation, and cheap praise are not good. We need to take part of the responsibility for the tragedies and reflect on them.

Paul Celan also reflected on whether God exists or not, the state of the world, the absurdity of the world. He had his doubts, and we share similar questions: Will the future be better? Is there hope? We live in all kinds of doubts. If we can keep writing and thinking while doubting, then writing is significant in itself. I think that should be our attitude toward China’s reality: neither pessimism and disappointment nor cheap praise and optimism. So his influence on me is substantial, because Celan takes a truthful approach.
An introduction on Yuan Ling and more of the interview at the New York Review of Books.

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