Thinking you can become a balanced investor in Chinese assets without a firm grasp on at the very least the basics with respect to culture would be misguided at best. And having a firm grasp on “all things culture” without including religion into the mix would be (severely) sub-optimal, so let us take a few
Trends in China
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Will China Become the World’s Next Number One Economic Superpower?
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, let us start with a straightforward answer and then spend the rest of the article elaborating and nuancing. And that answer is a definite… “probably” (apologies in the advance for the corny humor). Right off the bat, it is worth pointing out that when the productive potential of over
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Nov
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Censorship in China: A Multi-Generational Paradigm?
Pretty much all analysts acknowledge that censorship-related practices tend to be ubiquitous in China, with the main debates revolving around their effectiveness (or lack thereof). Of course, there is the occasional contrarian analyst who believes the issue is blown out of proportion but for the most part, the “Is censorship a significant issue in China?”
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Nov
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China and Isolationism: A Two-Way Street?
The strong Western isolationism trend became brutally obvious in 2016, first with the Brexit vote and later that year with the United States elections. Needless to say, China in general and more specifically the problematic trade balance with China that most Western nations are dealing with have been and still are major talking points. It
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Oct
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As (Not) Seen on TV: China’s Poorest Regions
Time and time again, Western media depictions of China involve prosperous neighborhoods from Beijing or Shanghai, industrial success stories such as Shenzhen and so on. At the political level, the same principle tends to be valid in many cases, for example president Donald Trump criticizing China for continuing to define itself as a developing nation
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Oct
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Medical Tourism in China: A Tale of Two Worlds
In a previous article, we have made it clear that China’s medical system (just like quite a few other sectors of the Chinese economy) is a textbook fragmentation case study. On the one hand, we have affluent regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc.) with Western-level medical services and on the other hand, poorer regions of China
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Oct
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The Rule of Law in China: “Wild West” or First World Status?
As someone who grew up in Eastern Europe, I’ve witnessed first-hand that simply having comprehensive laws in place is nowhere near enough. If this were the only variable involved in the rule of law equation, China as well as my own country would pass the proverbial test relatively easily. Unfortunately, things tend to be multiple
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Oct
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(How) Does The Chinese New Year Affect the Economy, Markets and… Investors?
One might be tempted to think that, finally, we have a common denominator when it comes to China and the proverbial West, one pertaining to how disruptive the “holiday” season(s) can be. However, as frustrating as it may seem, things are once again different in China, as this article will hopefully make clear. On the
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Sep
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Investment vs. Speculation in China: Is Any Trend Your Friend?
One of the top mistakes investors make when allocating capital (toward Chinese assets or any other asset class, for that matter) is lumping all assets of an asset class in the same category. Or assuming that just because an asset class is doing well, every asset you touch will turn to gold just because it’s
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Sep
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A Glimpse into China’s Booming Insurance Industry
We have referred to a wide range of secular mega-trends here on ChinaFund.com, some of which can be considered… well, problematic, for example China’s aging population. However, even the challenging ones have quite a bit of upside, sometimes lifting entire industries. While the insurance industry of China has most definitely not been lifted by demographics