https://www.scmp.com/rss/323026/feed Zhigang Tao is HSBC Professor in Global Economy and Business Strategy and director of the Institute for China and Global Development, the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the growth dynamics of the Chinese economy, multinational strategy in China, and the integration of China with the global economy. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Last month, HSBC reported a 28 per cent year-on-year drop in its first-quarter profits, mainly due to troubled loans in its Russian and mainland Chinese businesses. Since then, there have been calls for HSBC to split into two – one side focused on Asia, the other on its global business. First, The Wall Street Journal reported than an unnamed investor had made the demand via a public relations firm. Then Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported that Ping An, China’s largest insurer and the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3176478/chinese-spin-would-ring-fence-hsbcs-golden-goose-amid-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3176478/chinese-spin-would-ring-fence-hsbcs-golden-goose-amid-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 May 2022 01:16:22 +0000 As Hong Kong begins the process of selecting its leader for the sixth time since returning to the motherland, it is also time for the city to find new growth models in response to a changing world. Hong Kong has been fortunate in its opportunities to reinvent itself in the last 70 years. In the 1950s, amid restrictions on trade with mainland China, Hong Kong built its manufacturing capability with capital and know-how from Shanghai industrialists, and exported its own industrial output to the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143780/hong-kong-flux-dual-strategy-reinventing-its-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143780/hong-kong-flux-dual-strategy-reinventing-its-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Aug 2021 00:30:13 +0000 The National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed the new anti-sanctions law at its closing session, writing a new chapter in the ongoing Sino-US clash. While the details are yet unknown, foreign multinationals operating in China are anxious to know how it would affect their future business strategy. In 2018, then US president Donald Trump began to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese exports, sparking the Sino-US trade war. The battlefield soon shifted, as Chinese tech giants ZTE and Huawei... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3137362/chinas-anti-sanctions-law-how-companies-can-avoid-picking-side?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3137362/chinas-anti-sanctions-law-how-companies-can-avoid-picking-side?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000 At the heart of the trade war between the United States and China is Washington’s vehement objection to the prominence of state-owned enterprises in the Chinese economy. To the US, SOEs smack of unfair competition and represent a blatant violation of the rules of free and global trade.  China, unsurprisingly, begs to differ. Beijing is so adamant about SOEs that it is doubling down, intensifying the role of the state-owned sector in open defiance of the US. And in an ironic twist of economic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2164854/what-mcdonalds-can-teach-donald-trump-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2164854/what-mcdonalds-can-teach-donald-trump-about?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Sep 2018 03:30:30 +0000 The US-China trade war may seem to revolve around the United States’ colossal trade deficit with China, but it actually hinges on investment. Grasping this is key to making sense of why each country is acting the way it is. To better understand the dynamics of the trade war, let us turn briefly to China’s economic history. The roots of today’s trade war reach back to the late 1970s, when China launched expansive economic reforms and threw open its doors to foreign investment. It set up so-called... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2160342/why-donald-trumps-trade-war-aimed-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2160342/why-donald-trumps-trade-war-aimed-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Aug 2018 18:00:30 +0000 Right on the heels of a ruling against China’s claims in the South China Sea, the US filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation on July 13 challenging Beijing’s export duty on nine key commodities, on the grounds that the practice provides Chinese manufacturers a cost advantage over their US counterparts which produce with the same materials. The US has reason to question China’s intentions when imposing duties on these commodities, including copper, graphite and lead. After all, China... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1992623/beijings-mineral-export-taxes-show-its-duty-environment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1992623/beijings-mineral-export-taxes-show-its-duty-environment?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Jul 2016 02:38:05 +0000