China Economic Review: In Review
Wed Oct 29, 2008 at 1:37 pm By Matt
China Economic Review is a crouching tiger, or maybe hidden dragon.
Published since 1990 in Hong Kong, and with bureaus in Beijing and Shanghai, neither the magazine’s history nor its name betrays any journalistic beast worth noting.
When I began reading it earlier this year, there were, however, hints of emerging greatness, like the appearance of some of its stories in BusinessWeek, and vice versa.
I also began reading a subtle, but extensive China business blog, broken down by sectors which always are up-to-date. Dry perhaps, but comprehensive and timely.
What is by no means dry is the recent article on consumer spending, which convinced me that this is a magazine of China coverage greatness beyond even the BusinessWeeks of the world.
China Economic Review takes its time convincing you of the importance of its prose.
The lead of this article, “The massive shopping mall in the Shanghai suburb of Xinzhuang is still under construction,” is very nearly boring. No, it is boring.
Read on, because it’s just a pixel in the big picture, which depicts this: “Amid a global economic slowdown, the Chinese consumer is resilient.”
Still not earth shattering, but let’s rewind for a moment.
You want a good lead? You want a great picture?
Go back to the cover, which shows a frenzy of consumer shopping, and wittingly, Economist-like asks, “What downturn?”
When was the last time a chamber of commerce magazine cover was witty?
Or sardonic, like in the article’s following paragraph?
Half-jokingly, he added that as small businesses profited from property investments, “a lot of small businesspeople essentially gave this money to their mistresses, who went out to buy LV bags and luxury cars … that’s basically the trickle-down economy in China.”
Whoa, is there a Mark Twain in the house?
No. China Economic Review’s strength is not its writing style. It is in what is says it is: an economic review. It offers up a thesis, and it makes good on defending it more thoroughly and convincingly than many other articles I’ve read in recent history.
It shows that despite global economic gloom, China’s consumer spending is increasing year-on-year. It points to tragedies that could have derailed this, like the Sichuan earthquake – not because of the quake itself – but because of “temporary psychological fallout.”
Western-like, it acknowledges that what the government says sometimes is B.S. But it reads through the B.S. to find the truth:
Official government retail sales numbers factor in wholesale and service trade figures, which serves to inflate the headline statistics. Nevertheless, the lines still point upwards: People are shopping.
Why are people shopping? The answer includes the most impressive analysis of all, striking at the core of what magazine readers want. Not the who, the what, the where, the when – but the why.
China Economic Review sets this up as a perplexing question. Yes – why - when China itself is experiencing a tumble in stocks (the Shanghai Composite Index slid more than 60% this year from January to mid-September)? And yes – why - when the property market is hurting. Why, when there is so much “wealth destruction,” are consumers still spending?
The answer is multifactorial, as of course any good review would conclude.
The middle class – in specific China terms – is growing. Incomes are rising quicker than China’s recent dreaded problem of inflation. More stores are actually selling things that upwardly mobile Chinese people desperately want. Says one store, “We’re actually selling the American dreams and the American lifestyle.”
Still more evidence is cited: more available credit, more consumer choices nearer to home (i.e. serious suburb growth), and more money physically in their pockets tempting them to spend.
This is no propaganda rag. China Economic Review cited plenty of challenges that could damper consumer spirit.
The most refreshing element to China Economic Review, therefore, is its honesty that comes from China itself, or at least from Hong Kong. No matter how much the Western press puts its editorial independence on display, it will forever be based in the West, writing with a Western prejudice for readers with the same bias.
China Economic Review understands things differently.
“There’s nothing Chinese about China,” is a quote the story ends with. “They’re just people.”
At China Economic Review, they’re just good journalists, and that’s a great start.
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October 29th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
So why have you got a cover of the Beijing Review there? Thats a totally different publication.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Thanks for the clue, Rabid Panda. Yeah, I actually used to work for the state-owned Beijing Review, and so I know it doesn’t always have the same editorial quality as China Economic Review (to put things mildly). Right next to it is a copy of China Economic Review, and so, as we said, “One of these magazines is not like the other.”
October 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Matt,
Nice call out. I completely agree and I am proud to add that our own Steve Dickinson is the legal columnist for China Economic Review.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hello, Matt. For the record, I wrote the cover headline for that issue, and also happen to edit a chamber of commerce magazine (EuroBiz).
Best,
James
October 30th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hi Dan,
I saw that Steve is a columnist for China Economic Review and look forward to reading more from him. It appears that the Review is serious about getting decent columnists in the mix. Tom Doctoroff looks like another columnist, who I’ve spoken to on occassion, and who is extremely knowledgeable about advertising in China.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi James,
Thanks for the note. I like EuroBiz and didn’t mean to dis the chamber of commerce mags. I like Joerg Wuttke’s editorials in particlar, although we enjoyed picking one of them apart here: http://www.bizcult.com/content/?p=346 . Having worked for two association magazines, though, I realize there’s only so much one can get away with editorial-wise. Perhaps China Economic Review has its own issues, but the latest article proves it has the kind of insight that in my opinion rivals that of major magazines out there. Your own writing/editing is obviously good. I don’t know how much you contribute to the Review, but my guess is, your writing time for that pub is time well spent.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
“Ones not like the other”. Yeah, right it’s not. One is a Western business magazine, the other is the Communist Party journal for announcing new legislation and political reform. You can’t compare them. Beijing Review has been around a very long time, founded by Chairman Mao. You should have some respect.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The China Economic Review just came 3rd in the “Best China Business Resources” category at the BSchool rankings. China Business Review was 4th, China Briefing Magazine 8th (very good considering it’s complimentary) and Wall Street Journal 10th. All are essential reading:
http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/
http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/
http://www.china-briefing.com/
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
Zhang,
Beijing Review does more than announce “new legislation and political reform.” If you have read it lately, you would know that. I’ve done more than read it. I worked there as business news editor. I certainly respected it enough to take a job there. And I clearly know enough about it to make a fair comparison with China Economic Review. Unfortunately, despite the stoic efforts to modernize the magazine of some staff at Beijing Review, namely, Francisco Little, and a handful of others, changes have not been enough to warrant it being a best China resource.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
Steve,
Thanks for that list. I suspect The Wall Street Journal is lower in the rankings because it doesn’t focus on China specifically. But for me, it’s still the first news resource I check when I open my web browser. Despite all that it does, the Journal always has the most relevant and timely stories on its site.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I think you seem to have something against Beijing Review. Maybe because you’re foreigner working in a Chinese government publication, you can’t appreciate what that magazine really does for China. It has interviews with top Ministers and often is first with new laws and regulations published in English for the first time. It is not so good at journalistic stories but its political and reform content is very good and better than anywhere else. You can’t be comparisons.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Zhang,
What does “reform content” mean? More to the point, I urge anyone that wants to read “reform content” to read Beijing Review. You’ll be more than mystified by the “political” editorials laden with such mysterious language. Its “journalistic stories” are in fact better, thanks to the foreigners working there and a handful of serious Chinese journalists working in the bottom rungs - and certainly not at the top where publishing decisions are made.
After all that, if you think Beijing Review is important because of being “first with new laws and regulations published in English for the first time,” then why Zhang is it so tremendously difficult to find a copy of Beijing Review in Beijing, even at typical places where you find foreigners? Beyond the magazines terrible distribution problem (which actually, I consider to be its worst evil), it clearly isn’t well read today for obvious reasons.