China’s new Premier Li Qiang reiterated the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s new “reform and opening-up” policy at the Boao Forum a few days ago. However, observers believe that the CCP’s fundamental policy and economic situation won’t experience significant changes as long as the CCP is around, despite the leadership’s change in tone. Li Qiang…

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced on March 28 that it will split into six units, as news emerged that its co-founder Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has returned to China per the communist party’s request, after spending more than a year overseas. China observers believe this shows that Beijing’s policy toward privately-owned large Chinese tech companies…

Beijing once again pledged to embrace its private sector amid record shrinkage in the country’s private fixed asset investments, one of the main drivers of China’s economic recovery in 2021. China’s annual growth in private fixed asset investment has shrunk to 0.9 percent in 2022, the lowest in 11 years, despite Beijing’s renewed embrace of…

A Chinese agricultural economist’s claim that China’s economy should be a “people’s economy” has triggered fierce criticism in China and overseas. Wen Tiejun, a 71-year-old professor at China’s Renmin University, is better known as an expert in China’s agricultural and rural issues. In the 1980s and 1990s, Wen was engaged in rural policy research for the…

Small and medium-sized businesses in China have suffered dearly under the country’s dynamic zero-COVID policy amid an economic downturn. Since February 2022, China’s Small and Medium Enterprise Development Index (SMEDI) has declined for three consecutive months. “Nearly all customer flow, logistical flow, and cash flow [for small and medium-sized private businesses] have stranded,” Mr. Ma,…

A group of 160 Republican lawmakers have sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to “reevaluate his priorities” and address the supply chain and ports crisis in the United States before considering additional social spending. The letter was led and signed by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and also…

News Analysis In recent years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has gradually tightened control over private capital. State-owned enterprises took over countless private businesses amid a wave of bankruptcies and in a bid to redistribute wealth. During a conference with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on Aug. 17, Xi called for “common prosperity” and redistribution of…

The pandemic has highlighted the challenges that developed countries face around the world. Not only that, it has also exposed Canada’s huge income inequality gap between public- and private-sector workers, where the impact is only going to increase in significance as people get older. Those who work in the public sector—the protected class of Canadians—have…