Economy – China Digital Times (CDT)

The European Parliament voted this week in favor of regulations to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made using forced labor. While the ban does not explicitly target any single country, ...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/i-l-o-e-u-pass-new-laws-against-forced-labor-with-eye-on-xinjiang/

On April 14, Sina News Hot Topics published a lengthy article on Weibo under the clickbait headline “The First Batch of DINKs, Exposed: Where Are They Now, and Do They All Regret Not Having Kid...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/weibo-users-discern-pro-natalist-propaganda-in-sina-dinks-article/

After a decades-long infrastructure spending spree, many of China’s local governments now find themselves saddled with unsustainable levels of debt and a surplus of vastly ambitious but often u...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/translation-the-problems-of-inefficient-infrastructure-spending-are-beginning-to-surface/

This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz completed a three-day visit to China. It was his second trip since becoming chancellor and his first since the German government produced its China strate...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/scholz-visit-to-china-draws-trepidation-over-germanys-economic-dependence-european-disunity/

On March 16, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy was off to a good start in 2024, with reported 5.3% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of the yea...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quote-of-the-day-official-disposable-income-figures-derided-as-todays-daily-dose-of-humor/

A recent WeChat post from oft-controversial entrepreneur, publicity hound, and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao urging the Chinese government to keep its hands off people’s pocketbooks has attract...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quote-of-the-day-stop-obsessing-about-ordinary-peoples-pocket-change-they-know-better-than-you-where-that-money-ought-to-be-spent/

At an April 8 press conference to unveil IM Motors’ new L6 electric sedan, company CEO Liu Tao enumerated the many sacrifices his workers had made, which suggested to some observers that the co...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/im-motors-ceo-liu-tao-praises-overwork-violation-of-labor-laws/

Two Chinese manufacturers of video surveillance equipment—state-owned Hikvision and publicly traded company Dahua Technology—have joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in an attempt...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quote-of-the-day-hikvision-and-dahua-claim-to-support-the-ten-principles-of-the-u-n-global-compact-on-human-rights-labour-environment-and-anti-corruption/

Over a whirlwind two weeks of diplomacy in Beijing, China has sought to strengthen its ties to both the United States and Russia—a difficult balancing act. Xi Jinping took a phone call with U.S...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/whirlwind-weeks-of-diplomacy-in-beijing-center-on-ukraine-green-tech/

On April 6, a Weibo user from Zhejiang province reported a case of local anti-fraud center overreach that resulted in his bank cards and Alipay account being frozen after he made a work-related c...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/tales-of-anti-fraud-center-overreach-freezing-your-bank-cards-for-your-own-good/

Last week, the bodies of eight Chinese nationals were discovered off the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, after their boat capsized along a route often used by migrants attempting to reach the U.S. This ...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/chinese-migrants-face-perilous-journeys-en-route-to-the-u-s/

Efforts by the Chinese state and its state-affiliated actors to engage with global media can be seen as part of a broader drive to enhance China’s soft power and shape narratives in the state�...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/chinas-state-media-cooperation-with-brazilian-media-yields-soft-power-gains/

Weibo censors deleted an essay blaming China’s stagnating economic growth on “a failure of political reform” that also compared the Party-state to gangsters and “underworld bosses.” The...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/03/weibo-essay-comparing-party-states-economic-policy-to-gangsterism-censored/

On Tuesday, a suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan killed five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver. This is the third attack against Chinese interests and nationals in Pakistan over t...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/03/deteriorating-security-environment-in-pakistan-threatens-chinese-nationals-investments/

The use of the standard Party formulation of Xi Jinping “pointing the way forward” on various policy issues has become so commonplace that the phrase has become an object of satire, a way of ...

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/03/words-of-the-week-xi-jinpings-penchant-for-pointing-the-way-forward/