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Tom Hancock
For Tom Hancock's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Snow collects on solar panels in a residential district of Berlin.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 23, 2024
China overtakes the EU on clean-energy research, study shows
China led on the number of peer-reviewed publications in areas including solar and wind power, as well as lithium battery, heat pump and carbon-capture technology, in 2021.
Doubts about China’s official investment statistics — which measure spending on things like housing, factories and infrastructure — have been fueled by frequent revisions in recent years, and the latest data implies an unusually large adjustment.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2024
Did China’s economy really grow 5.2% in 2023? Not all agree
Doubts over Chinese data, particularly on investment, have resulted in alternative calculations that put its GDP growth last year at as low as 1.5%.
Electric vehicle chargers at a BYD Co. factory in Chongqing, China, on Sept. 5
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 28, 2023
China shies away from row with EU over EV probe
Europeans have found President Xi Jinping’s government ready to talk, make promises and avoid aggressive rhetoric.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 11, 2022
China's shot at overtaking the U.S. economy is at stake in Xi's next term
If the property downturn is deeper than expected and 'COVID zero' restrictions remain beyond 2023, GDP growth may average below 4% over the next decade.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2022
China party congress to offer clues on overhaul of economic team
China watchers say the next generation of officials are likely to have previously served in senior economic roles, ensuring policy continuity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2022
China’s lure for European companies outshines flaring tensions
Investment from the European Union into China was up 15% in the first half of 2022 compared with a year ago, data has shown.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 7, 2022
Marxism makes a comeback in China’s crackdown on ‘disorderly capital’
Since the end of 2020, when China's Communist Party began vowing to rein in the 'disorderly expansion of capital,” a regulatory onslaught has swept through the economy and stock market.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2022
How China’s communist officials became venture capitalists
The municipal government of Hefei has pioneered a shift in Chinese capitalism over recent years in which local governments are increasingly taking minority stakes in private companies.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Nov 16, 2021
China faces GDP growth at 1990s levels amid Beijing’s property crackdown
President Xi Jinping seems willing to accept the lowest growth in three decades in order to reduce the country's dependence on its property sector.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2021
China's energy crisis is hitting everything from iPhones to milk
Several companies have already experienced downtime at their Chinese facilities to comply with local restrictions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Aug 2, 2021
Xi Jinping’s capitalist smackdown sparks a $1 trillion reckoning
The tutoring sector crackdown has triggered a growing realization that the old rules of Chinese business no longer apply.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2021
A year after COVID-19 began, China’s economy is beating world
China's enhanced role in a post-pandemic world increases the urgency of debate among the rest of the world about how to engage with Beijing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Dec 17, 2020
China's move toward monetary tightening attracts influx of capital
People's Bank of China Gov. Yi Gang has vowed to normalize policy, widening a divergence with other large economies in ways that will shape global capital and trade flows.

Longform

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