CKGSB Knowledge - China Business and Economy

a step forward

With the pandemic proving that the unexpected is always a possibility, China has been looking to the future and trying to forge a way forward into a new post-pandemic world. This issue of CKGSB Knowledge looks towards what comes next and considers China’s ever-expanding role in it. Our cover story, “Your Trade Move” (page 21), explores how China is looking increasingly to bilateral and regional trade arrangements to offset problems with the World Trade Organization, and our commentary “Paradigm Shift Needed for Business Schools” (page 6) discusses the need for business schools to adapt to fast-changing demands in the world of business. The first article in our series on the impact of digitization on society and the economy, “Automated Future” (page 9) delves into China’s manufacturing sector as a whole, and…

paradigm shift needed for business schools

Zhou Li, Assistant Dean of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Editor-in-Chief of CKGSB Knowledge All commentaries reflect the personal opinion of the author and are not necessarily the official position of the school and the magazine Business schools, as they currently exist, were a by-product of capitalism and the first Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. For more than a century, and especially since the end of the Cold War, their number has grown massively to about 13,000, to meet the demand for competent business managers in not just the developed world, but also countries at different stages of economic development, from India and China, to Brazil, Russia and South Africa. But in the last few decades, and particularly since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, economic and business paradigms…

automated future

The microwave oven in your kitchen hardly counts as cutting-edge technology these days, but the factory built by Midea Group in southern China’s Foshan to manufacture millions of them every year certainly does. Automated production lines in the pristine factory beam operational data via 5G networks to an industrial internet platform, while a handful of engineers watch a giant screen for alerts indicating problems in a production process which cranks out more than 44 million microwaves annually. Thanks to digitalization and automation, the state-of-the-art factory has shaved production costs by 6%, more than halved order delivery times, and lowered carbon emissions by one-tenth. These improvements have won international acclaim for Midea, now the world’s biggest home appliances maker—in March, the World Economic Forum selected the Foshan factory as a member of its…

a counter narrative

While the world’s geopolitical environment is never stable, the volatility we see today is unprecedented and is having a greater impact on a wide range of issues including business and trade. Kevin Rudd has witnessed the geopolitical play firsthand, first as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012. He has since remained active in a wide range of international issues including global economic management, the rise of China, climate change and sustainable development. In this interview, Rudd looks at a whole host of issues including rising protectionism, the risks facing China’s economy and the future of the Australia-China relationship. Q. The theme of decoupling has been prominent in recent years with regard to China and the United States, and some other countries.…

glass half empty

If you visit the city of Taiyuan on the dry north China plain, don’t be shocked if your hotel tells you that running water is available for only one hour a day. Such is the state of affairs in this city of 3.7 million inhabitants that taps sometimes run dry. The situation in Taiyuan is just one indicator of a dire situation confronting China. Over 28,000 rivers have disappeared from the country’s landscape in the past three decades and groundwater levels are plummeting in most regions of the country. The writing is on the wall: China has a water crisis that’s worsening by the day. If further evidence was needed of just how valuable water is in China today, one needs to look no further than the bottled water empire Nongfu…

your trade move

In April 2021, China ratified one of the biggest multinational trade deals ever reached—the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which encompasses 15 countries in East Asia and slightly beyond, setting the groundwork for the launch of a grouping that could further boost China’s already dominant role in global trade. Japan and Singapore are the only other signatories to join China in the ratification of the partnership, but six more countries are required to ratify the agreement for it to take effect. The RCEP agreement, signed in November last year after eight years of negotiations, is the largest regional trade grouping ever created, encompassing 30% of the world’s population and 30% of global GDP. But notably absent from the list of RCEP member countries are India and the United States, increasing the…