﻿ Actually, Now Has Never Been a Better Time to Invest in or Sell to China - China Briefing News
International media is over-analyzing ‘Xi Jinping’s Crackdown’ while the China consumer market is booming. We introduce ‘Expat Connect’ to help join the dots.
China has been recovering well from the pandemic. The first six months of 2021 saw growth at 12.7 percent although an H2 decrease is expected to average out at an overall 2021 GDP growth rate of 8.5 percent. That is better than the pre-pandemic 2019 China GDP growth rate of 6.1 percent. Yet you wouldn’t believe it according to reports by the Wall Street Journal (“China’s economy is losing steam“), Reuters (“China’s economic growth to halve“), or Goldman Sachs (“Lower China growth forecast on Delta virus outbreak“), which failed to note that Chinese cases of Delta COVID are in the hundreds and have been falling (just five new cases yesterday), while the United States is heading towards 200,000 new daily cases (CNN, here.)
Whichever way you look at it, China is a hot market and businesses should be selling to it. Yet here are a couple of random media headlines:
How China’s Stock Market Meltdown Puts US Investors At Risk
EU Suspends China Trade Deal
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t discussed much in Western media, but China became the world’s largest recipient of foreign investment last year, making it in dollar value terms, a preferred FDI destination for growth opportunities than either the United States or Europe. That statistic was provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in January 2021, where it was noted that “China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest FDI recipient, with inflows rising by 4 percent to US$163 billion in 2020.” That report can be read here.
Our own article here explains the reasons this has happened, which include the increases in Chinese consumer spending as mentioned earlier, but also digs deeper into Chinese policy of actively seeking free trade and other trade agreements at a time when the United States and EU have been disengaging. Overall, corporate businesses are smart and have resources at hand to show where the opportunities are – most agree, in complete contrast to the position taken by Western media and politicians, that China is the place to be.
Happily, there are ways around this misinformation, in that China today has a greater population of experienced expatriates with their feet on the ground that can give proper advice than ever before. Many are happy to provide tips, encouragement, and intelligence to new-to-China businesses, and especially those from their own country of origin.
Most will provide some opinion and give some advice for free and can either later assist with services for a fee or introduce you to a contact that can help. I have had a 25-year professional career in China, I am well known and have a wide circle of friends and contacts in different industries. Readers interested in China but unsure where to go for advice can drop me an email: expatconnect@dezshira.com and I’ll be happy to discuss, and if required, make professional introductions to fellow expats in China who are in the know. (I can also do the same for Asia overall, having also worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and India, while our firm has 32 offices throughout China, ASEAN, and Southeast Asia).
China and Asia are great markets to be in. The fundamentals are all in place, and if as a business or an individual, you wish to explore the potential and opportunities – and make money – it is time to get connected. Drop me a line – there’s no catch – and let’s get some intelligence to the entrepreneurs out there with an eye on Asia.
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