Category: The Economist

QUALITY OF LIFE in China has soared in recent decades. The quality of death, however, remains grim. As the population ages, the number succumbing to diseases that can be protracted and painful, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, is soaring. The government wants to make dying a bit less execrable, so it is experimenting with state-subsidised end-of-life care. But deep taboos and bureaucratic hurdles are making progress agonisingly slow. The Economist

MARRIAGE IN CHINA can be mercenary. “Is 380,000 yuan a lot for a bride price?” a woman in Guangdong asks on a social-media site. She is thinking of getting married, and wants to know how much her fiancé’s family should pay for her hand. The sum she is suggesting, equivalent to nearly $53,000, is more than seven times her annual wage. Thousands reply; many say she should demand more. “Sis, life is your own, don’t wrong yourself, at least ask for 888,800,” says one. The Economist

Something was missing when Kweichow Moutai, the world’s most valuable spirits company, held its annual shareholder meeting in May. Participants were not served its famous baijiu, a fiery sorghum-based liquor. They supped on blueberry juice, instead. This was probably wise: the Chinese government is in the midst of yet another campaign to stamp out excessive drinking (and other sorts of extravagant behaviours) among officials. Last month the government banned alcohol entirely at official events; inspectors vowed zero tolerance. “One drink can make you lose your position,” state media thundered. The…

China’s ability to make electric vehicles (evs) cheaply has caused angst in countries with big carmakers, prompting governments to investigate China’s subsidies for the sector and to erect trade barriers. Now, though, it is China’s own government that is worrying about how cheap its producers’ evs are. The race to the bottom shows no sign of letting up, and the industry has become emblematic of some of the broader problems facing the economy. The Economist

It has been a difficult week for Chinese students in America. On May 28th the State Department announced a campaign to start “aggressively” revoking their visas. One of the targets will be Chinese students in “critical fields”, the science and engineering programmes that are deemed to be of strategic interest to China. Another will be those who have unspecified “connections” to the Communist Party. It is unclear exactly how wide the net will be cast and how many students will be forced to leave. But for young people in China…

China’s ability to make electric vehicles (evs) cheaply has caused angst in countries with big carmakers, prompting governments to investigate China’s subsidies for the sector and to erect trade barriers. Now, though, it is China’s own government that is worrying about how cheap its producers’ evs are. The race to the bottom shows no sign of letting up, and the industry has become emblematic of some of the broader problems facing the economy. The Economist

CHINA’S ECONOMY has been through a stress test in the past six months with the trade war shredding nerves. The tensions over tariffs are not over yet. On May 29th Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said that ongoing talks had “stalled” and President Donald Trump complained that China “had totally violated” the preliminary agreement to reduce duties reached between the two sides in Geneva on May 12th. Yet even as the trade war staggers on, two things are proving reassuring for China. One is that so far the economy has…

To help its economy weather the trade war, China wants its consumers to splash out. The government has plans to subsidise consumer loans, and banks have been permitted to raise borrowing limits for creditworthy customers. But the question of who lends to whom on China’s high street is not straightforward. In the West, retailers extend credit to their customers. In China it is often the other way round. The Economist

The rapid growth of China’s economy over the past few decades has come at a high environmental cost to the planet. Mountains of coal have been burned to power factories, releasing tens of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Still more has been belched out in the production of vast quantities of steel and cement to feed construction. Last year China released over 12bn tonnes of the gas, accounting for over 30% of the world’s total emissions. The Economist

On May 21st J.D. Vance, America’s vice-president, described the development of artificial intelligence as an “arms race” with China. If America paused out of concerns over AI safety, he said, it might find itself “enslaved to PRC-mediated AI”. The idea of a superpower showdown that will culminate in a moment of triumph or defeat circulates relentlessly in Washington and beyond. This month the bosses of OpenAI, AMD, CoreWeave and Microsoft lobbied for lighter regulation, casting AI as central to America’s remaining the global hegemon. On May 15th president Donald Trump…