For many, Chinese New Year is a time to splurge

Feb 20, 2018
Here is a look at what people in China are buying to mark the Year of the Dog.
The Year of the Dog was celebrated by millions of Chinese people around the world on Feb. 16.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images

How does China’s social credit system work?

Feb 13, 2018
With a lack of financial data to assess creditworthiness, citizens are being rewarded for honesty and punish misdeeds, which are digitally archived.
In Shanghai, jaywalking could be recorded on your social credit file, along with refusing to visit elderly parents or not sorting your garbage into the appropriate bins.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Inside China's "social credit" system, which blacklists citizens

Feb 13, 2018
Critics of the program have likened it to an Orwellian creation or an episode of the TV series "Black Mirror."
Passengers await a bullet train on the platform at Changzhou North railway station.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

Why Trump's solar and washing machine tariffs may play well in Michigan

Jan 25, 2018
A former Democratic state politician says the taxes are one of the few things the president has done that he can support.
President Donald Trump displays a Section 201 action as US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer witnesses, in the Oval Office, at the White House, January 23, 2018, in Washington, DC. The administration is issuing tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines to protect American manufacturing companies against dumping by foreign countries, mainly China, and including South Korea.
Mike Theiler-Pool/Getty Images

President Trump has upped the ante in trade barriers

Jan 23, 2018
The president built our trade wall a little bit higher this week. He signed off on new import taxes, or tariffs, on foreign-made washing machines and solar panels. China dominates the solar market but at the White House, Trump declared, “there won’t be a trade war.” Is he so sure the Chinese won’t retaliate?

Shanghai caps population to combat "big city diseases"

Jan 17, 2018
China's Cabinet has decreed that the city's population should be 25 million — barely more than it is today.
Two out of five residents in Shanghai are migrants, who mainly take up the jobs others don't want. The government is trying to stop migrants from poorer regions from flooding megacities.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

Artificial demand is driving the electric vehicle market in China

Jan 10, 2018
The cars are roughly the same price of regular autos, but not everyone can drive one.
A man walks past electric cars and tricycles on a sidewalk in Beijing in 2017.
Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

U.S. cotton farmers are suffering from two years of depressed prices — China, weather and yoga pants are mainly to blame

Dec 29, 2017
The trendiness of synthetic fiber yoga pants is hurting American cotton farmers. But deep in the heart of North Carolina, cotton researchers are designing new fabrics to stay competitive.
NC Cotton Farmer David Dunlow in one of his fields.
James Morrison/ for Marketplace

China makes big strides over the U.S. in supercomputers

Dec 20, 2017
The machines are vital for strategic industries and economic growth. Businesses rely on them, too.
The Sunway TaihuLight is the first fully designed and made-in-China supercomputer that is also the fastest in the world.
Courtesy of the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi

China’s new carbon market will be the biggest in the world

Dec 19, 2017
China’s announcement of its carbon market is long-awaited. It was promised for 2017, and the nation has delivered just under the wire. While it will only cover the power sector for now, it’s still set to be the largest carbon-pollution trading market in the world.  Click the audio player above to hear the full story.