Latest news with #FrankChen
South China Morning Post
07-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
‘Two Sessions' 2025: how can China get its private sector back on track?
As China's political elite gather for the country's annual legislative sessions in March, we examine the broader forces likely to influence policies for the coming year – and how decision-makers will respond to the unpredictable second term of US President Donald Trump. In the sixth part of a series , Frank Chen reports on China's first privately owned high-speed railways and how they reflect the wider challenges facing the private sector. Advertisement When the first bullet train roared along a new high-speed rail line in eastern China's Zhejiang province in September, the project's investors were ecstatic. The 350km/h railway would not only slash travel times between two of Zhejiang's biggest cities; it had also broken new ground for private capital in China. The 218-kilometre line, which links the coastal city of Wenzhou and the provincial capital Hangzhou, is one of the first Chinese high-speed rail projects to be funded, built and controlled by a private consortium, rather than the state. It is part of a broader push in China to open up more parts of the economy to private investment, as the government seeks to restore confidence in the private sector and tap new funding sources to sustain its infrastructure-building drive. Advertisement As an early test case for the new model, the stakes of the project are high. Investors across China have been watching every twist and turn closely, to see if the line can succeed in generating positive returns for the consortium. So far, it has been a bumpy ride. Six months after going into operation, the line is still firmly in the red and the consortium has found it has limited powers to turn things around.
South China Morning Post
28-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's ‘two sessions' 2025: with tech the X factor, does the GDP race still matter?
As China's political elite gather for the country's annual legislative sessions in March, we examine the broader forces likely to influence policies for the coming year – and how decision-makers will respond to the unpredictable second term of US President Donald Trump. In the first part of this series, Frank Chen surveys the status of the country's high-octane economic competition with the US. Advertisement When President Xi Jinping brought China's most prominent entrepreneurs to Beijing for a symposium on February 17, his message was clear: though the race for economic and technological supremacy will be long, the country will ultimately come out on top. The world's second-largest economy has been plunged into a new trade war with the United States, as a flurry of tit-for-tat tariffs has settled in and more are likely to arrive. Investor sentiment and consumer confidence, two key pillars of domestic activity, have been subdued. Though Beijing's gross domestic product gap with Washington had widened for a third straight year, the Chinese president remained optimistic. The east wind is still prevailing,' he said at the high-profile meeting, reiterating earlier pronouncements of the country's rise concurrent with Western decline. Advertisement 'The East still holds a great deal of promise in the long run, and the Chinese economy remains incomparable on the world stage.' This declaration comes as US President Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops to consolidate his country's economic supremacy.
South China Morning Post
11-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Can China's bet on home-grown jumbo jets challenge the Airbus-Boeing duopoly?
Frank Chen in Shanghai and Ralph Jennings in Hong Kong Published: 6:00am, 11 Feb 2025 Updated: 11:17am, 11 Feb 2025 China has long held ambitions of turning global aviation into an 'ABC' market: breaking the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing with the entry of world-class Chinese jets. That strategy is already well under way, with the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) having already received orders for hundreds of its regional and narrowbody planes, the C909 and C919. Now, the Chinese aircraft manufacturer is doubling down on plans to expand its fleet to include widebody models – including a self-developed answer to Boeing's iconic 747 jumbo jet. Enter the C929 and C939. Comac appears laser-focused on producing its own liners capable of undertaking long-haul flights, an endeavour that is not only being driven by market demand but also political and strategic factors. 'There are not too many other engineering products other than big planes that are so visible, so recognisable,' said David Yu, a professor at New York University Shanghai specialising in aviation financing. 'Just like America and Europe, China has many reasons to develop and fly home-grown widebodies that reflect its status and ambitions.'
South China Morning Post
10-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China dreams of building its own jumbo jet. Can it do it without the West?
Frank Chen in Shanghai and Ralph Jennings in Hong Kong Published: 6:00am, 11 Feb 2025 China has long held ambitions of turning global aviation into an 'ABC' market: breaking the duopoly of Airbus and Boeing with the entry of world-class Chinese jets. That strategy is already well under way, with the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) having already received orders for hundreds of its regional and narrowbody planes, the C909 and C919. Now, the Chinese aircraft manufacturer is doubling down on plans to expand its fleet to include widebody models – including a self-developed answer to Boeing's iconic 747 jumbo jet. Enter the C929 and C939. Comac appears laser-focused on producing its own liners capable of undertaking long-haul flights, an endeavour that is not only being driven by market demand but also political and strategic factors. 'There are not too many other engineering products other than big planes that are so visible, so recognisable,' said David Yu, a professor at New York University Shanghai specialising in aviation financing. 'Just like America and Europe, China has many reasons to develop and fly home-grown widebodies that reflect its status and ambitions.'
South China Morning Post
08-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
New measures by Trump administration keep Chinese exporters' heads spinning
01:40 US Postal Service suspends inbound parcels from Hong Kong, mainland China US Postal Service suspends inbound parcels from Hong Kong, mainland China Mandy Zuo in Shanghai and Frank Chen in Shanghai Published: 6:00am, 7 Feb 2025 Updated: 8:35am, 7 Feb 2025 From tariffs to package deliveries, unexpected policy declarations – and in some cases, near-immediate reversals – from US President Donald Trump are becoming an inescapable aspect of risk calculation for Chinese companies with links to the American market. Only a few weeks into Trump's second term, many businesses are already struggling to cope with the swift changes, including the brief suspension and resumption of accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong – an order issued and rescinded in a matter of hours on Wednesday. Though unpredictability appears to be a fact of life under the new US president, Chinese exporters and cross-border e-commerce sellers must be on constant alert as rapidly changing geopolitical circumstances can lead to sudden surges in cost. David Wang, who manufactures baking tools in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, said he planned to develop new products after the Lunar New Year and sell them through e-commerce platforms in the US. 'But given the current situation, it seems wiser to put those plans on hold for now,' he said, referring to the delivery stoppage. If another moratorium is announced later, he said, 'many cross-border e-commerce businesses will struggle.'
