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Beijing migrant crackdown disrupts e-commerce industry

The sudden eviction of tens of thousands of migrant workers from their homes in Beijing is threatening the business model of the country’s booming ecommerce industry, according to the Financial Times. Low-wage migrant labor is used to transport everything from toothpaste to televisions across the “last mile” of China’s sophisticated logistics network. Dirt-cheap wages make […]

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Business Practice Law & Regulation Politics & Society Tech, Media & Telecom

Alibaba employees lift lid on tech giant's cozy relationship with the government

Alibaba Group’s sprawling campus has collegial workspaces, laid-back coffee bars and, on the landscaped grounds, a police outpost. Employees use the office to report suspected crimes to the police, people familiar with the operation told The Wall Street Journal. Police also use it to request data from Alibaba for their own investigations, tapping into the […]

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Banking & Finance Business Practice Economics & Trade Markets Politics & Society Tech, Media & Telecom This Week in China Uncategorized

Future shock

China’s stock markets took a sudden dive this week for no apparent reason, which was a useful reminder of how out of touch with economic realities those markets are. Investing in Chinese stocks on the basis of research into economic trends and company performance, as in a normal market, makes little sense here. That is […]

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Business Practice Economics & Trade Investment Law & Regulation Markets

US considers new restrictions on Chinese investment

Hurdles to foreign investments in sensitive US companies would be raised under proposed legislation that responds to perceived threats to national security from China and elsewhere. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Wednesday put forward legislation that would broaden the remit of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and widen the criteria […]

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Banking & Finance Business Practice Markets Tech, Media & Telecom

Jianpu stripped of unicorn status

Jianpu Technology, the Chinese financial comparison site poised to list later this year, has been stripped of its status as a “unicorn” worth $1bn after regulatory filings revealed it had inflated the funds raised from investors. Jianpu’s filing is the latest to raise questions over the veracity of fundraising claims by Chinese private companies, a flurry […]