China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week: McDonald's owns the night... KFC woes... Middle-class spending... GM exports... Buick and Toyota recalls... Adidas fakes... GSK scandal... Volvo and Carrefour look West... Hollister brah... Givenchy... Dreamworks' Tibet Code... Durex gets spanked... and more.Continue reading...

"Put down your Huawei" is the message behind a new campaign from China tech giant Huawei. Wait, what?

In a new campaign in China, Huawei is warning about how products—such as its own—are causing families to lose valuable communication time. It's all centered around Huawei's "honey box." It's a brave new endeavor by a few brands in China to show people how unbearable their lives have become, just before showing them how a product can solve that.

In separate, 30-second episodes broken off of a longer 3:30-minute central piece, families struggle with the distracting screens of the modern age. A father gets a message from his wife to put down the smartphone during a family dinner; an elderly man leaves to wander the streets alone after unsuccessful attempts to engage his son and grandson who are both glued to glowing screens;  a child messages his mother in the next room, asking her to come and watch TV with him and grandma. The mother, herself watching TV on her laptop, ignores him.Continue reading...

A beer can memorializing the US Army's victory in World War II is not unthinkable. A beer can memorializing the US Army's victory in World War II targeted solely at the Chinese market is a little less likely. Yet, there it is.

"World War Two Edition in memory of US Army" reads the English on the side of a green Pabst Blue Ribbon can now on sale at select groceries in China. Under a stoic photo of a helmet-clad soldier's face, the exclamation "Yes we can!"

The "Yes we can!" cans come in a variety of US Army soldiers, including grizzled guy on a beachhead, grizzled guy on a battlefield, and grizzled guy introspectively looking heavenward as a (French?) town behind him burns.Continue reading...

China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week: Nike WeChats... No-logo lux... BMW's Zhi Nuo... Disneyland... Gap... Xiaomi... First Lady Peng LiYuan's iPhone... Jackie Chan for Kirin... and more.Continue reading...

The recent announcement that China's Shuanghui International was buying US pork producer Smithfield Foods has produced much reaction. Some claim the deal is good. Some say it's bad on grounds ranging from food safety to national security. One of the more interesting opinions comes from the China Private Equity blog which complains that "a Chinese company isn’t buying Smithfield. A shell company based in Cayman Islands is."

The latter is a legitimate clarification. "China" isn't buying Smithfield—the Cayman Islands are. It's a little reported note that could provide meaningful leverage to groups both looking to force corporations to pay taxes and groups looking for straightened environmental agencies.

The claim that Smithfield is being bought not by China but by the Cayman Islands is, while true, a little like saying America doesn't sell iPhones, the Cayman Islands (or Ireland) sells iPhones. The fact that the media does not mention that the Shuanghui that is doing the buying is a Cayman-located extension of the China-based Shuanghui should be no surprise as every report on Apple's quarterly earnings makes no mention of the fact that all that money goes to a company that, almost literally, does not exist. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out last week, Shuanghui is made up of "multiple subsidiaries and holding companies."Continue reading...

Chinese have a sweet tooth but, unlike Americans, it's not mainly for chocolate. So the iconic American chocolate maker is finally adapting itself to the tastes of China as Hershey makes its first major product launch beyond the U.S. market.

Lancaster, known in Chinese as Yo-Man, is a condensed-milk candy aimed at the fastest-growing segment of the quickly expanding Chinese confectionery market. Hershey estimates the segment to be worth $1.2 billion a year, and it accounts for about a quarter of all candy sold.

"We've spent the last two years working with core suppliers, with our consumers and our customers to really develop something that makes sense for the Chinese palate," Steven Schiller, a senior vice president of Hershey, told CNBC. "It's got a premium nature in terms of the slow roasting milk quality to it and we really think that we've hit on something that Chinese consumers are going to love."Continue reading...

China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week: Pepsi taps into The Voice of China... why Baijiu is not like tequila... Samsung outsells Apple... Boss fashion shows... MBA kindergartens... Chengdu does Fortune 500s... Internet Explorer and China's banks... 3D printing boom... new Ikeas... the Backstreet Boys and pandas... Lenovo... and more.Continue reading...

"United Airlines have many precedents of bullying Chinese passengers."

So reads a photo slug contained within a recent People's Daily report on how "UA refuses to apologize after insulting passengers." It's part of the newspaper's "The Dishonest Americans Series"—a title since removed—that is easily dismissed as just another of China state-run media's hatchet jobs targeted at foreign brands. (See, esp., Apple.) The piece ends without mincing any words: "Chinese passengers may choose not to consider UA. This probably is the best solution."

But the report—about United Airlines' culture of discriminating against Chinese passengers—hints at a deeper growing confrontation as China becomes the largest and most profitable tourist market in the world.Continue reading...