Changing China
Giant on the move
Supply Push?
This is almost certainly not what Chinese policy makers had in mind when they started encouraging exporters to explore the domestic market to help make up for a drop in Western demand: sex toy makers opening flagship stores in Beijing.
But as an article and a video by my colleagues Ben Blanchard and Kitty Bu explore, that is just one of the side-effects the global slowdown is having on the world’s most populous country.
With factory owners looking to tap the local market to soak up excess capacity now that the export market is less reliable, many are setting up their own local brand names and retail outlets.
In the case of many products, like clothing and electronics, that does not necessarily portend any significant change in habits or lifestyle.
But in other areas, companies’ efforts to build up demand for their goods in the home market will themselves increasingly serve to shape tastes and lifestyles.
It’s not just firms like Sweet Secrets, which says it holds the country’s first registered trademark for a sex toy company.
An array of products previously sent straight overseas has been popping up on shelves in many of Beijing’s markets over the past several months, exposing especially young shoppers to a new set of possibilities.
Olympic-sized “Guanxi”
It’s not often that speeches by Chinese policy makers make you laugh, but that was certainly the case on Wednesday evening when Vice Premier Wang Qishan spoke to an audience of U.S. business leaders after two days of high-level economic talks in Washington.
Speaking off the cuff, Wang had the audience rolling as he delicately broached the subject of the negative publicity surrounding the Olympics, which reached a cresendo earlier this year when riots in Tibet sparked protests along the Olympic torch relay in cities such as London and Paris.
Rather than lecture his audience on how the Olympics should not be politicised, Wang thanked them for the support they and people around the world had given to China in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit last month, saying he hoped that unity could be channelled into the Olympics.
He even jokingly dangled the prospect of a little “guanxi” for anyone in the audience going to the Games themselves — those all-important connections needed to get many things done in China.
“Whoever is coming to Beijing to watch, if you can’t get tickets, just ask me,” Wang said.
“If you can’t find a hotel, we have the head of the tourism administration here — so put your minds at ease,” he deadpanned.
The crowd erupted in laughter.
