Huang Yiping is the dean of Peking University’s National School of Development and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. He also sits on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s Mainland China Advisory Group. In his second Open Questions interview, Huang shares his thoughts on the need for caution in adopting new technologies like stablecoins and artificial intelligence, China’s next five-year plan and whether its tariff ceasefire with the US...

Chinese cross-border e-commerce entrepreneur Andy Guo has just opened two warehouses covering a total of 5,000 square metres (53,820 sq ft) on the outskirts of Moscow. He said the move was not about addressing logistical bottlenecks, but preparing his business for a potential geopolitical shift that could reshape his fastest-growing yet most uncertain overseas market if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal. US President Donald Trump has continued to push for the end of hostilities between...

The southern Chinese megacity of Shenzhen, a symbol of the country’s rapid urbanisation and development, has spent decades transforming urban villages and tenement blocks into dense public housing estates and massive industrial and office parks. Now, in a move that speaks volumes about its scarcity of land, the tech hub is relocating an enormous landfill from the city centre, an act that could allow for the development of floor space totalling more than 1 million square metres (10.76 million sq...

Only a few years ago, the notion that Beyond Meat – the former poster child of the plant-based meat industry – would shut down its operations in China seemed unthinkable. At the height of the brand’s popularity, its label could be found adorning heavily promoted products at restaurants and grocery stores across major cities. Many observers speculated that the alternative meat company and others like it had found the next great success story in the country’s rapidly evolving consumer market. But...

China’s artificial intelligence boom is giving rise to a new cohort of “solopreneurs”, who are turning their business dreams into reality with the help of technology, offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak job market. While there is no government data tracking this group, the proliferation of affordable AI models suggests that the number of AI-powered solopreneurs in China is on the rise. Recent data from the US Census Bureau showed that the US had about 30 million solopreneurs, who...

China’s top aircraft maker is stepping up efforts to promote its first business jet as it looks to break into a market dominated by Western aviation firms like Gulfstream Aerospace. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) took the rare step of showcasing a completed version of the model – called the Comac Business Jet, or CBJ – at an exhibition in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in October. The move signalled the state-owned company was “seeking to break into the large-cabin...

With the technology race between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, intensifying even though a trade truce was reached in late October, analysts say the prospects of China achieving self-sufficiency in semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) are positive, despite American efforts to maintain leads in those fields. “If any country can do it [achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductors], it’s China, owing to its vast resources and pool of engineering talent,”...