Piers had been in China for all of two days in 2009 when he was used as a “white monkey” for the first time. He had travelled to a village in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, to attend a friend’s wedding and had stopped in the village to try a special crab dish at a small restaurant. Weeks later, a Chinese guest who had been at the wedding told him the restaurant had had an uptick in business because the locals had heard that a laowai, a foreigner, had been seen dining…
Tag: Business
UK drivers struggle to get insurance for Chinese EVs such as Jaecoo
UK insurers are more hesitant to cover some hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) from China than cars from other countries, research suggests. While some drivers can save money by buying cars made in China, they may have more limited options to get insurance than those buying electric, hybrid and petrol cars from Europe, the US and South Korea. And when policies are available, they can sometimes cost almost twice as much as those for similar petrol vehicles from outside China. Chinese brands such as BYD, XPeng and Jaecoo have become…
EU carmakers pave way for Chinese rivals as balance in market shifts
Chinese carmaker Xpeng is on the hunt for a factory in Europe. Volkswagen is aiming to reduce the number of its factories. It seems like it should have been the perfect set-up for a deal. Yet there was one problem with the plant on offer, according to Elvis Cheng, Xpeng’s managing director of north-eastern Europe: “It’s a little bit, I would say, old.” The withering verdict on the facilities of Germany’s carmaking champion, delivered this week at a Financial Times conference, may cause some awkwardness between Xpeng and Volkswagen, which…
Nissan ponders building cars for Chinese rivals at Sunderland plant
Nissan’s chief executive has confirmed he would consider building cars for other manufacturers at the UK’s largest car factory in Sunderland, amid talks with China’s Chery. Ivan Espinosa said Nissan was “looking at options” for Sunderland and its 6,000 workers as the struggling Japanese carmaker on Wednesday reported steep losses for the year to March. Nissan announced last week it was closing one of its two production lines at Sunderland, in north-east England, because of faltering demand for its vehicles. However, it has held talks to produce vehicles on behalf…
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joins other US bosses on Trump trip to China
The billionaire chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has joined Donald Trump’s China delegation after a reported last-minute invitation, highlighting the US’s AI and tech ambitions. Huang will join a roster of US bosses including the Tesla chief executive and X owner, Elon Musk, the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon at Trump’s 36-hour meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The high-stakes summit is the first overseas trip for Trump since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. The…
Europe should behave more like China does if it wants to survive this age of chaos
The US and Israel may have started the war in Iran, but – apart from the belligerents themselves – it is China and Europe that stand to lose the most from it. Yet while European leaders watch like rabbits caught in the headlights as energy prices shoot through the roof, China has responded to the crisis with remarkable equanimity. It is striking how self-confident Beijing is ahead of this week’s Trump-Xi summit. That’s because China is better prepared for what I call an age of “un-order”. This is not the…
Trump may not be a fan of clean energy but Iran war is accelerating global shift from oil and gas | Heather Stewart
Operation Epic Fury has thus far achieved none of Donald Trump’s war aims, but it may well accelerate the global transition towards the clean energy he loves to hate. Last week brought the latest exchange of verbal blows in the standoff over the strait of Hormuz. Iran was “choking like a stuffed pig” on the oil it was unable to export because of the US blockade, Trump claimed. From Tehran, the supreme leader shot back that foreigners who “maliciously covet” the waterway “have no place there except at the bottom…
‘Temu Range Rover’: what the bestselling Jaecoo 7 says about China’s electric car ascendancy
The UK is no stranger to foreign cars. The bestseller lists in recent years have been dominated by the US’s Ford Puma, Japan’s Nissan Qashqai, Korea’s Kia Sportage and occasionally even Tesla’s Model Y. But in March the top 10 provided a shock: a Chinese car leapt into the lead. Little more than a year after launching in the UK, China’s Chery sold 10,064 of its Jaecoo 7 crossover SUVs during the month, beating all the usual suspects. It was not the first Chinese-made car to make it to UK…
Reliance on Chinese green tech poses ‘serious’ risk for Europe, experts say
Europe is “sleepwalking” into a series of economic and national security problems because of an over-reliance on Chinese green technology, according to experts. A report co-authored by Michael Collins, a former deputy head of national security strategy at the UK Cabinet Office, described the risks of depending on China for green tech as “serious”. “Europe risks sleepwalking into a series of economic and geopolitical national security problems because of over-reliance on Chinese low-carbon technology,” he said. The report said Europe was heavily dependent on Chinese green technology, with China supplying…
Siri, where does Apple go next? – podcast
Where does Apple – perhaps the most iconic tech company on Earth – go next? Last week its CEO, Tim Cook, stood down after 15 years. As US Guardian tech editor Blake Montgomery explains, when Cook took over after the death of the charismatic Steve Jobs, there were doubts he could build on his predecessor’s success. In fact, he has overseen extraordinary growth. After a decade of building global supply chains – and charming presidents from Xi Jinping to Donald Trump – he now presides over a company worth $4tn.…