Managing The Dragon

From the point of view of U.S. companies and investors, the direction of China’s currency; the level of overseas investment by Chinese companies; and the extent to which China might help to solve the North Korea problem are key questions going into 2018. MTD believes that 2018 will be another strong year for U.S. exports and that this strength will heavily influence China’s actions on other fronts, just as they seemed to do in 2017. If MTD is right, we may just run the table with our 2018 predictions. If we are wrong, we are likely to strike out on most of them.

While vehicle sales in January and February are always problematic due to the timing of Spring Festival in China, a number of additional cross currents were at work this year.

More than three million shared bikes can now be seen in over 40 Chinese cities. From a standing start at the beginning of 2016, there were an estimated 18.9 million bike-sharing app users in China at year-end, a number that is expected to triple in 2017.

Shanghai plans to be an international finance center by 2020, and creating a board on the Shanghai Stock Exchange where foreign companies can list their shares is seen as an essential component. Preparations for the board have been taking place over the past two years, and Shanghai’s Deputy Mayor, Tu Guangshao, who is responsible for […]

As mentioned in China’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities, I visited Yizheng, one of China’s so-called Tier 3 cities, last Monday. After leaving Jiangsu Province, I had an opportunity to visit the equivalent of another Tier 3 city, this time in neighboring Zhejiang. With a population of approximately 400,000, Yuhuan County is about one-half […]

In an interview with Alex Dumortier of The Motley Fool in 2008, I was asked which industries I thought had good future prospects in China. I mentioned several growth areas, but Alex focused on my third suggestion: “any technology that has anything to do with the environment.” With China having now surpassed the United States […]

There are many reasons not to buy the newly-issued shares of the Agricultural Bank of China: China’s economy is slowing; the country’s property market remains in bubble territory; China’s stock market, one of the worst performing in 2010, is down 25 percent this year; AgBank’s vast network of 24,000 branches staffed by 440,000 employees is […]

Note to MTD Readers: The following summary overview of China’s stock markets was prepared for one of the clients of JFP Holdings. I thought that our readers might also have an interest in the background information that was prepared. Background When economic reforms began in China in 1978, the Chinese government first reformed the agricultural […]

When past U.S. presidents have visited China, discussions with their Chinese counterparts have been largely limited to trade and human rights. This time around, when President Barack Obama comes to Beijing, it will be different. Never has the agenda between China and the United States been so broad. The list of items that President Obama […]

Sometimes the simplest questions are always the most difficult to answer. For example, I’m always asked how many expats there are in Beijing. It’s a difficult question because the numbers I’ve heard over the years have been all over the map. Several years ago, I was having dinner with a senior member of the Beijing […]