Nielsen: China’s consumer confidence remains at record high – CCTV.com

Chinese consumer confidence remains at a record high, according to new data from Information company Nielsen. The report released on Monday shows that for the third quarter in a row, Chinese consumer confidence for Q2 is staying unchanged at 111 points… Read Full Story

Tencent invests $3.2M in a laundry-on-demand service in China –  VentureBeat

Not be outdone by the U.S. and its Washio, Chinese Internet giant Tencent has invested $3.2 million in an on-demand laundry service with an app made by laundromat chain Rongchan, reports say… Read Full Story

A Chinese luxury e-retailer raises $100 million for global expansion – iResearch News

Beijing Secoo Trading Co., a Chinese retailer that sells such luxury items as watches and handbags online, has raised $100 million to open shops in major Western cities to cater to the growing number of affluent Chinese traveling abroad.The series D financing round was led by China-based CMC Capital Partners and is one of the largest infusions of capital into a Chinese luxury e-commerce company. Also participating were four existing investors: U.S-based IDG Capital, Japan-based Vangoo Investment Partners, and French companies Ventech Capital and Crehol China.  Secoo also announced that it has secured a credit line of “tens of millions of U.S. dollars” from Silicon Valley Bank in California…Read Full Story

Shanghai passes law to bolster Free Trade Zone – ShanghaiDaily

THE Shanghai People’s Congress unanimously passed a new law today that covers regulations on supervision, investment, trade, financial services and taxation in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone…Read Full Story

Where’s Upton Sinclair? The Roots of China’s Expired-Meat Scandal – Wall Street Journal

Meat madness is overtaking China this week, and while consumers have been quick toblame fast-food chains for lax oversight of suppliers, industry insiders say the real beef is with China’s inspectors.Gao Guan, deputy secretary-general of the China Meat Association trade group, said there are no regular inspections of meat-processing plants here. “In China neither the laws nor law enforcement is sound and complete enough,” Mr. Gao said.The number of regulators is actually small, so authorities rely on the public and media for supervision of the industry, Mr. Gao said…Read Full Story

Tainted food scandal now focuses on supply chain – ChinaDaily

Shanghai Husi Food Co was suspected of using expired meat and was shut down by local regulators in China. The long-time McDonald’s meat supplier was also cut by other fast food chains it supplied.Due to the vast size of the fast-food market in China, which poses an obstacle to consistent regulating, foreign companies are going to need to invest a lot more resources in their supply lines, an expert said.”We’ve got a situation now where a lot of multinationals and domestic firms as well are really facing a credibility issue in the China market,” Ben Cavender, a senior analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai, told the Wall Street Journal… Read Full Story

China and US reached agreement on cooperation on infrastructure – ChinaDaily

China and the United States agreed Wednesday to strengthen cooperation on infrastructure while calling for an acceleration of talks on a bilateral investment treaty.”This year’s dialogue led to new consensus on infrastructure investment between China and the US,” Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said at the closing of the Sixth Annual US-China CEO and Former Senior Officials’ Dialogue, held in Beijing this week…Read Full Story

Why Tmall is the smartest route into China’s ecommerce market – Venturebeat

The challenges that face a western company seeking China online market share are increasing in proportion to the size of the opportunity, and that opportunity grows daily. China passed the 300 million mark in online shoppers last year, representing 25 percent year-over-year growth, while total e-commerce transactions rose 30 percent to $1.64 trillion… Read Full Story

Chinese Ecommerce Market Exploding But Logistics Tricky – Multichannel Merchant

While the Chinese ecommerce market is growing wildly as consumers there love western brands, getting goods to them can prove tricky even with an in-country partner, attendees were told during a packed session at Multichannel Merchant’s Growing Global conference last week in Long Beach, CA… Read Full Story

Napa’s Quixote Winery Sold to Chinese Company – Wine-Searcher.com

After 43 years in the wine business in Napa Valley, Carl Doumani was looking for a retirement plan; he found it earlier this month, selling his Quixote Winery to a Chinese company for more than $20 million...Read Full Story

Everything that Apple is doing right in China – Quartz

While Apple reported a mostly ho-hum quarter on July 22, the company’s growth in China was an unexpected bonus. “China honestly was surprising to us,” CEO Tim Cook said. “The unit growth was really off the charts across the board.” Revenue from Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, grew 28% to $5.94 billion, as buyers snapped up iPhones, iPads and computers at much faster rates than in the rest of the world. Chinese iPhone sales were up 48%, Mac sales were up 39%, and iPad sales (which were down 9.2% globally), were up an impressive 51%… Read Full Story

Chinese Now Prefer Mobile When Going Online – The New York Times

For the first time, more Chinese people are gaining access to the Internet with mobile devices than with personal computers.The shift is significant, if expected, in China, which is the world’s biggest market for both Internet and smartphone users…Read Full Story

Alibaba, banks launch online service to make loans to SMEs – Ecns.cn

Alibaba Group Holding joined seven of China’s major banks in launching an upgraded online financial product to offer low-interest loans to small and medium-sized trade companies, a move the largest e-commerce company in China said would help ease funding costs for these companies… Read Full Story

Ethiopia Becomes China’s China in Search for Cheap Labor – Bloomberg

Ethiopian workers strolling through the parking lot of Huajian Shoes’ factory outside Addis Ababa last month chose the wrong day to leave their shirts untucked…Read Full Story

China to contribute to new global trade system- Xinhua News

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) — China will join in and contribute to the construction of a new global trade system, said Premier Li Keqiang here on Tuesday. Li also called on the United States to be more open and to create more favorable conditions for the two countries’ deeper cooperation, while meeting a delegation of U.S. business leaders and former senior officials… Read Full Story

McDonald’s and KFC Caught in China’s Latest Food-Quality Scandal – BloombergBusinessweek

An investigation aired by China’s state media on Sunday turned into one of the worst possible advertisements for Big Macs, Happy Meals, and KFC Chicken Burgers. The broadcast showed workers at Shanghai Husi Food, a supplier to bothMcDonald’s (MCD) and KFC parent company Yum! Brands (YUM), preparing expired beef and chicken and packaging meat that had been picked up off the floor…Read Full Story

Xiaomi Unveils a Fresh Chapter in Its Plan to Conquer the World – Bloomberg

Chinese smartphone upstart Xiaomi (XIAOMZ:CH) is turning the release of high-end, low-priced gadgets into a ritual. At a press conference on Tuesday in Beijing, Xiaomi Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun unveiled the Mi4, a metal-backed iPhone-esque smartphone with a 5-inch display, the latest Qualcomm (QCOM)Snapdragon chip, and a $320 price tag that puts it far closer to the reach of China’s middle class than the iPhone 5S (AAPL), which sells in that country for close to $700… Read Full Story

German group plans to launch hospital in Free Trade Zone In Shanghai – ShanghaiDaily

THE first wholly foreign-owned hospital will open in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in about 18 months, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.Germany-based medical and health care provider Artemed Group signed an agreement to establish Artemed Hospital in Shanghai’s FTZ… Read Full Story

Strategic and Economic Dialogue Kicks Off in Beijing Following US-China Discussions on Innovation, Climate Change, and Security – The US-China Business Council

US and Chinese government officials kicked off the sixth annual meeting of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) Wednesday in Beijing, the highlight of a busy week of bilateral meetings on topics such as innovation and climate change. Despite recent tension in the relationship, both sides continue to message that they plan for robust, constructive discussions on bilateral issues. Formal outcomes remain unclear at this point, but key topics of discussions include China’s economic reform agenda, state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms, currency, investment restrictions, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, licensing barriers, and trade and investment agreements… Read Full Story

18 die in China’s strongest storm in decades, with more rain on way – Shanghai Daily

THE death toll from the strongest storm to hit China in decades reached 18 yesterday, as forecasters issued warnings of more extreme weather.Typhoon Rammasun, the most powerful typhoon to hit south China in 40 years, brought gales and downpours to a number of southern provinces. At least five people are missing, according to local civil affairs authorities…Read Full Story

Brand wars: Battling China’s trademark ‘squatters’ –CNN

They’re known as trademark “squatters” and they’ve long caused headaches for foreign companies entering the Chinese market.Savvy to China’s complex trademark laws, these individuals target valuable foreign brands and register them as trademarks in China.When international companies want to launch their products on the Chinese market, they’re often left with little choice but to cough up huge sums to buy back the trademark, rebrand their product or fight for the right to use the brand through lengthy legal battles… Read Full Story

Female Shoppers Remain The Main Force in The Online Shopping Market With Stable Online Shopping Habits – iResearch

According to 2014 China Online Shoppers Behavior Report issued by iResearch, over 30% of online shoppers did the online shopping for more than 40 times in 2013, and over 60% of online shoppers expended more than 3,000 Yuan in this year. Shoppers are gradually forming the habit of online shopping. In comparison with male shoppers, female shoppers spent more money with more frequent online shopping, and they became the main force in China online shopping market… Read Full Story

RMB developing quickly as major world currency – ChinaDaily

The renminbi is on track to become the third-largest international currency behind the US dollar and the euro within five years as China accelerates its promotion of the yuan, said a Renmin University of China report released on Sunday.Last year, RMB cross-border trade settlement amounted to 4.63 trillion yuan ($746 billion), up 57.5 percent from 2012. It accounted for 2.5 percent of cross-border trade settlement worldwide, the report said… Read Full Story

Alibaba has a second attempt at making a social network – Tech in Asia

Ecommerce titan Alibaba has a new social network. It’s a sort of Instagram that’s based around tagging brand names that appear in your photos. Rather than making it a standalone app, Alibaba’s newest effort, called Fun, is built into its Tmall shopping app and is rolling out to users in an update for iOS and Android. Tmall is an online marketplace for large vendors and major brands…Read Full Story

China’s Rich Look Abroad as Home Prices Fall, Others Stay Put – The New York Times

Rattled by falling home prices, some of the wealthiest Chinese are paring their property investments and turning to private equity or overseas holiday homes, a sign of fading hopes that the once red-hot market can bounce back any time soon…Read Full Story

Alibaba’s I.P.O. Could Be a Bonanza for the Scions of Chinese Leaders – The New York Times

It was billed as the biggest private financing deal in the history of China.In September 2012, the Alibaba Group announced that it had completed a $7.6 billion deal to buy back half of Yahoo’s stake in it. The giant e-commerce company raised part of the money by selling shares to select investors, notably China’s sovereign wealth fund and three prominent Chinese investment firms… Read Full Story

Moody’s positive on China’s SOE reform – Xinhua News

Global rating agency Moody’s said reform of China’s six big state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is credit positive, calling it a prudent, yet concrete, step toward broader reform.The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced on Tuesday that six big SOEs will pilot reforms in ownership, management and supervision, including selectively setting up investment companies and a “board of directors” system… Read Full Story

The power of women in China’s booming ecommerce market – Tech in  Asia

In China, there are more male online shoppers than female online shoppers. However, women are the ones really shaping the thriving Chinese ecommerce market that saw a massive US$74 billion spent in the first three months of this year. China’s women spend more and shop online more frequently. More importantly, many female eshoppers view ecommerce as part of their lifestyle. They enjoy the fun of exploring and shopping online… Read Full Story

Chinese Billionaire Guo Guangchang Buys Like Buffett – Bloomberg

Borrowing from the approach used by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A), Fosun buys financial companies such as insurers to secure long-term funding it can use to invest in consumer brands and other businesses. Since 2010 it has invested more than $3.4 billion overseas, buying JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) 60-story tower, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, in New York, and stakes in French resort operator Club Méditerranée (CU:FP) and Raffaele Caruso, an Italian maker of $3,300 suits. “Many people talk about being Buffett in China, but few can pull it off,” says Eugene Qian, Citigroup’s (C) head of global banking for China. “Fosun is the closest in our view.”… Read Full Story

China’s Wine Market Shifts Toward Entry Level – The Wall Street Journal

When the Chinese government announced a crackdown on lavish gift-giving in its effort to root out corruption in 2012, the wine industry braced for a slowdown in corporate entertainment spending. But John Watkins, the chief executive of ASC Fine Wines, never thought the restrictive policies would last…Read Full Story