China News This Week: Wednesday 23 March 2022
This week's news and trends in China:
Chinese Tourists
Sideways in China’s Southwest: As the number of local wineries have increased, competition has grown fiercer — and consumers more demanding. Around 2015, wine tasting clubs began to spring up in major cities nationwide. By 2020, China trailed only Spain and France in land dedicated to wine cultivation and production. With international travel restricted, Chinese wine lovers are lapping up boutique tours of domestic winegrowing regions. These tours are in line with the growing preference among China’s middle class for immersive and original travel itineraries, as moneyed tourists seek out beautiful scenery in niche locations away from the crowds of major scenic spots like the Great Wall or Jiuzhaigou. The typical Chinese wine tour consists of four to 12 people, lasts about a week, and can cost upwards of ¥1,000 ($160) per person, per day, excluding transportation. Underlying the rise of wine tours is a subtle disdain among China’s emerging elite for the old-fashioned "ugly rich."
Education
Chinese Money is Pouring into British Universities: More than 140,000 Chinese students are enrolled in British undergraduate or postgraduate courses, up 50% from five years ago. They account for around £2.5 billion ($3.3bn) of the £7 billion in tuition fees that international students pay in the UK each year. That is about 6% of universities’ total income. Britain has managed to hold onto more of their foreign students during the covid-19 pandemic, with lower declines in first-year international enrolments than seen in America or Australia.
Chinese Consumers
China’s Southern, Eastern Provinces Are Still a People Draw; Northern Provinces See Outflow: Twenty provinces have released their population data for 2021, with 12 having a net increase, while the number of permanent residents in the other eight declined. People from the central, northwestern, and northeastern regions are still moving and settling down on the southeast coast. Zhejiang and neighbouring province Jiangsu as well as Fujian and Guangdong, located further south, recorded a total net growth of about 1.86 million last year. Henan in the north lost 580,000 of its permanent residents in 2021, making it the province with the largest net decline. Northern Heilongjiang province fell by 1.45% last year, the largest drop as a percentage.
Younger Chinese More Likely to Hold Unfavourable View of US, Says Study Which Concludes Donald Trump is Much More to Blame than Propaganda: Researchers say that those born after 1990 are more likely to express negative views compared with previous generations. The study concluded that sentiments had taken a strong downward turn following Trump’s election in 2016. As Trump campaigned for re-election, 75% of Chinese respondents believed that their country’s relationship with the United States has worsened. Shortly after President Joe Biden took office, that figure had dropped to 64%. Respondents who have personal contact with the States were 7% more likely to have confidence in the US president and to believe the US respects its citizens’ freedoms. Another study found Chinese respondents were almost a third less likely to express negative views of Australia and Britain than the US.
China’s Pop Mart, Douyin, Others Take Steps After Being Called Out by Consumer Rights Show: CCTV's annual '315' consumer rights show focused on the platform economy, live streaming, food safety, public safety, and aesthetic treatments this year. Toy retailer Pop Mart has halted sales of blind boxes that contain food and beverages after the CCTV show reported that the mystery packages drive consumers to buy too much, leading to food waste. Douyin banned the live-streaming room CCTV exposed for having a male anchor who pretended to be a woman to get viewers to gift money. 65% of respondents in a China Consumers Association (CCA) survey say they have also had the experience of being treated unfairly. Almost a third of the survey participants said that unfairness is most likely to be seen in marketing.
Chinese Heartthrob Deng Lun’s Career in Limbo After Top Brands Sever Partnerships Following $16.7 Million Tax Evasion Fine: Another week, another celebrity done for a misdemeanour. The Shanghai tax authority say Deng had used fake business deals to hide his personal income. Brands such as Unilever and L'Oreal have ended their partnership with the actor.
Hurun Global Rich List 2022: China led the world with 1,133 billionaires, up 75, followed by the US with 716, up 20. China also lost the most billionaires, with 160 people dropping off the list, followed by the US with 32 and Russia with 13. 9 of the 10 biggest drops in wealth were all in China according to Hurun. The top three cities with the most billionaires are now all in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, followed by New York and London. China accounted for 66% of the 269 self-made female billionaires worldwide last year.
Digital China
Video Insights with China Skinny: Decision Making Using Big Data: China Skinny partnered with Austcham Shanghai to launch their regular video series. In this series China Skinny's Mark Tanner talks about how China Skinny and its clients use data combined with consumer insights to make faster and more informed decisions about the China market.
China's Frenzied Metaverse Poised to Balloon into $50 Billion Business: China's fledgling metaverse sector is on track to grow into a market exceeding $50 billion by the middle of the decade, with signs of an overheating industry drawing the attention of regulators. The metaverse social app called Jelly made headlines in mid-February when it replaced WeChat as the top-ranked free iOS app. There have been over 16,000 applications for metaverse-related trademarks through February of this year. Games and ecommerce are expected to dominate China's metaverse.
China's Tencent Faces Possible Record Fine for Anti-Money-Laundering Violations: Tencent is facing a potential fine which could be at least hundreds of millions of yuan, for violating central bank regulations on its WeChat Pay mobile network.
Food & Beverage
Fonterra Touts Mozzarella-Topped Dumplings to Stoke China Sales: Fonterra has launched a campaign encouraging Chinese to try mozzarella cheese on dumplings as part of a strategy the world’s biggest dairy exporter is counting on to drive sustained demand growth in Asia’s largest economy.
China’s Food Security Concerns Boost Soon-to-Expire Trend, Industry Set to be Worth $6 Billion by 2025: The soon-to-expire-food industry is expected to grow from a market size of ¥31.8 billion ($5 billion) in 2021 to ¥40.1 billion in 2025. Innovations have also seen the market grow, from selling products in supermarkets and convenience stores to being readily available on online platforms, while it has also prompted the launch of businesses that exclusively sell soon-to-expire items.
Health
Woman in China Queues 2 Hours for Covid-19 Swab Test, Realises Queue is for Roast Chicken at Her Turn: The women in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province had woken up early that day, and saw a long queue when she neared the hospital. Unthinkingly, she joined the queue. Considering the amount of time she had already spent in line, she decided to buy two roast chickens and return home.
Cars
Volkswagen’s EV Missteps in China: Once a leader in helping China create its modern auto industry, the German auto giant is stumbling with its electric transition in the world’s most dynamic EV market. In the early years, when most people were buying cars for the first time, consumers tended to prefer functional, hard-wearing models. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in demand for higher-end cars. Some of these consumers would choose luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, while others seek specific features such as off-road performance.
