China congratulates Joe Biden on presidency after week-long silence November 13, 2020 China’s foreign ministry has broken its week-long silence to congratulate US President-elect Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris on their White House victory. “We respect the choice of the American people. We extend congratulations to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular daily briefing. In a faint [...]
The clock is ticking for Oracle to make sense of the TikTok deal September 29, 2020 What does the world’s largest enterprise software firm see in a Chinese video-sharing social networking app? Putting the intense political pressure by the US government to make this deal work to one side, the two businesses seem like chalk and cheese to hard-nosed City investors. One company is a behemoth known for serving the corporate [...]
Tiktok files for injunction to overturn US app store ban September 24, 2020 Tiktok has submitted a request to block President Donald Trump’s plans to ban downloads of the video platform from US app stores on Sunday. The request, filed in a Washington district court yesterday, marks the latest attempt by the Chinese social media company to protect its service in the US in the face of a [...]
Could the bounce-back be quashed by a second wave? August 4, 2020 | City Talk With some countries fearing a second wave of Covid-19 cases, Schroders’ chief economist Keith Wade considers whether a bounce back in the economy could be quashed. While there are hopes that the easing of lockdowns and reopening of businesses are beginning to give life to the global economy, fears of second waves of infections are [...]
Chinese industrial production picks up but consumers remain cautious June 15, 2020 Chinese industrial production rose for a second straight month in May as factories began to recover from the coronavirus hit, but the weaker-than-expected gain suggested that the country’s recovery remained fragile. Data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics also showed sustained contraction in retail sales and investment, showing the continued pressure Covid-19 is placing [...]
First-hand account: my observations on China’s return to work May 1, 2020 | City Talk Emerging markets analyst Shuyu Gao provides a personal account of virus containment measures on her return to China, and reviews the recovery in activity. Amid the global spread of Covid-19, with lockdowns necessitating working from home more broadly, I decided to return to China and work from my family home in Nanjing. At the time, [...]
Chinese passenger car sales fall 80 per cent in February March 4, 2020 Sales of passenger cars in China fell 80 per cent in February due to the coronavirus impact, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The industry body did not give an exact sales figure, but earlier this month had reported that for the first 16 days of February only 4,909 units were sold, down [...]
Hong Kong retail sales plummet as coronavirus continues to dent economy March 2, 2020 Hong Kong’s retail sales fell 21.4 per cent in January on a year-on-year basis, as fears over the spread of the coronavirus kept tourists away from the city’s shopping centres. Sales dropped to $4.9bn according to government data, the 12th consecutive month of decline. The coronavirus outbreak has compounded an already challenging environment for the [...]
Chinese passenger car sales fall 92 per cent in February February 21, 2020 Chinese sales of passenger cars collapsed 92 per cent on an annual basis in the first 16 days of February as the coronavirus outbreak halted business output across the country. According to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), only 4,909 vehicles were sold in the period, down from 59,930 in the same period a year earlier. [...]
Markets must wake up to the risks of the coronavirus February 3, 2020 It is still too early to be certain on the relative infectiousness or mortality rate of the new coronavirus. Nevertheless, there have been close to 10,000 confirmed cases, and 40m people in China are currently facing travel restrictions. The virus has now spread to 23 territories, including the UK, where two cases were confirmed last [...]