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China’s H World, one of the world’s biggest hotel groups, took in a record 8.3mn guests during last year’s Lunar New Year holiday — more than the entire population of Hong Kong. As this year’s festivities get under way and hundreds of millions of Chinese take to the road, the company expects to surpass that total. It added an estimated 1,700 hotels over 2025 on a net basis and is aiming for 20,000 by 2030 through US-style franchising, a fourfold increase on pre-pandemic levels. “With this kind of speed, for…

Karthik Sankaran is a senior research fellow, geoeconomics in the Global South program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. China has precious little of the exorbitant privilege/ burden (delete according to your priors) conferred on reserve currency issuers. Despite China’s economy being the world’s second largest, the renminbi ranks a lowly seventh place in the IMF’s COFER league table of official foreign exchange reserves. But MainFT reported recently that Xi Jinping plans to change this. What even are the requisites for a currency to be truly international? And how…

China’s export powerhouse is feeding global demand for cheaper electronics, cars, clothing, and plenty more besides. But the supercharged competition driving that trend is causing problems within China itself, including deflation and thin or negative profit margins. China’s government has recognised the problem, but what is it actually doing in response – and how should the country’s trading partners react? Soumaya speaks to Yanmei Xie, senior associate fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, to discuss. Subscribe to Soumaya’s show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world The CIA has stepped up public efforts to recruit Chinese spies by releasing a Chinese-language video to appeal to People’s Liberation Army officers who are disillusioned with corruption and extensive purges of top generals. The US intelligence agency on Thursday released a video titled “Save the Future” on YouTube and other social media, nine months after it published Chinese-language videos to help recruitment for the first time. “Last…

Ever since Frank Dikötter’s first book, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992), this prolific star of China studies has challenged conventional truths and broached taboo subjects. Earlier in his career, he often dealt in sexy topics such as race, sex and drugs — which was why, already in the 1990s, Dikötter’s histories sold like paperback novels.  In the 2000s-2010s, Dikötter widened his reach, becoming perhaps best known for his stark trilogy on Mao Zedong’s years in power: The Tragedy of Liberation (2013), Mao’s Great Famine (2010), and The Cultural Revolution (2016). Mao’s Great Famine won much acclaim but…

Ever since Frank Dikötter’s first book, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992), this prolific star of China studies has challenged conventional truths and broached taboo subjects. Earlier in his career, he often dealt in sexy topics such as race, sex and drugs — which was why, already in the 1990s, Dikötter’s histories sold like paperback novels.  In the 2000s-2010s, Dikötter widened his reach, becoming perhaps best known for his stark trilogy on Mao Zedong’s years in power: The Tragedy of Liberation (2013), Mao’s Great Famine (2010), and The Cultural Revolution (2016). Mao’s Great Famine won much acclaim but…

For individuals Discover all the plans currently available in your country For multiple readers Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. Financial Times

For individuals Discover all the plans currently available in your country For multiple readers Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. Financial Times