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Kandy Wong
Kandy Wong
Hong Kong
@KandyWong_SCMP
Correspondent, Political Economy
Kandy Wong returned to the Post in 2022 as a correspondent for the Political Economy desk, having earlier worked as a reporter on the Business desk. She focuses on China's trade relationships with the United States, the European Union and Australia, as well as the Belt & Road Initiative and currency issues. She graduated from New York University with a master's degree in journalism in 2013. An award-winning journalist, she has worked in Hong Kong, China and New York for the Hong Kong Economic Journal and the Financial Times, E&E News, Forbes, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Nikkei Asia and Coconuts Media.

China’s Generation Z is already expressing preferences in consumption and tourism that diverge from their older predecessors, with a predilection for digital shopping and experiences over commodities.

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In the lead-up to Premier Li’s maiden work report on Tuesday, he sat down with a delegation representing US business interests in China, and signs point to investor confidence remaining subdued.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has been invited to visit Australia in late March, anonymous sources say, confirming a continued interest in smoothing over fraught relations.

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Analysts say that while enhanced financial ties between the two countries could help internationalise China’s currency, Beijing tends to play it safe when upholding its neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.

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Washington’s report on China’s compliance in the World Trade Organization continues accusations since US-China trade war began, and Beijing says US is distracting from its own WTO ‘violations and sabotage’.

Prominent economist Teng Tai says cash coupons are the ‘most effective way’ to encourage consumption, with Beijing having heeded calls to issue cash coupons and consumption vouchers to aid the economic recovery.

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The EU’s inquiry over subsidies issued to a Chinese company in the procurement of a train order, announced shortly after a similar probe over electric vehicles, indicates China-EU relations are likely to remain touch-and-go.

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President Joe Biden is seen trying to avoid ‘undue escalation’ with China, while Donald Trump hails his friendship with President Xi Jinping despite threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods if re-elected.

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Recent comments from officials, as well as years of tension over trade, indicate regulatory action may be taken by the US to limit the potential of China’s electric vehicle industry – which could sour efforts to boost economic growth and export activity.

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Small and micro-sized firms are considered vital to the health of China’s overall economy, and a new report offers suggestions for financial institutions and governments to empower growth and enhance resilience.

Berlin economic report says China’s once ‘huge’ lead waned heavily last year, and the trend looks to intensify as the US and Chinese economies head in ‘opposite directions’.

Despite the winter chill, Chinese gives 45-minute open-air performance at Hong Kong theme park, featuring arrangements of songs from Disney films such as Let It Go, from Frozen, and It’s A Small World.

US economy surprisingly expanded at an annualised rate of 3.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, while China is faced with challenges at home and abroad.

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China’s luxury goods market recorded 12 per cent year-on-year growth in 2023, according to Bain & Company, but challenges remain even as it is still seen as a leading market.

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Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene says interconnectivity is being prioritised to enhance resource trade and investment flows, and his country is ready and waiting for its two neighbours to act.

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Demand for containers in China has increased ahead of the Lunar New Year, with firms seeking to avoid the Red Sea following recent attacks by Houthi militants.

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Russia surpassed Australia and Germany to become China’s sixth-largest trading partner by individual countries and regions last year, underlining the ‘no-limits’ partnership between Beijing and Moscow.

With geopolitics unlikely to thaw this year amid several periods of election campaigning, China has been encouraged to stick to a strategy of openness to withstand or mitigate the erosion of relations.

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China might further increase its influence in Southeast Asia through visa-free deals with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc already its largest trading partner.

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As the United States appears unlikely to back down in its efforts to relocate manufacturing away from China, a recalibration of priorities has been suggested to accommodate the new status quo.

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Russia’s economy appears to have defied the Western sanctions that followed its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, potentially offering China some insight amid its ongoing economic and technological rivalries.

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The bar has been raised for Chinese security firms – pushing them to become more internationalised and more commercialised to meet the growing need for protection overseas.

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De-risking, geopolitical tensions and tightening regulation have turned some investors away from China, while others still see the potential in its market of 1.4 billion people.

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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is back in China for the second time this year, and the neighbours’ latest trade deal involves greater oversight of capital flows and bonds.

‘If fragmentation deepens, we could find ourselves in a new cold war,’ International Monetary Fund’s Gita Gopinath says at the 20th World Congress of the International Economic Association.

Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City, with trade and Vietnamese infrastructure on the agenda.

Thailand’s Land Bridge project could reduce dependency on the Malacca Strait for shipping goods, but it has yet to be included in China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.

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The Conference Board think tank’s twice-yearly survey finds that confidence among dozens of polled CEOs has taken a big hit while Beijing struggles to stimulate the market and lure investors.