China | Business Post

Money trail: Why Huawen’s clients want answers about their cash

The Huawen Foundation has successfully raised €50 million from Chinese investors wishing to avail of what is colloquially known as Ireland’s ‘cash for visas’ scheme

High on ambition: Meet the Irish pilot seeking to develop the world’s biggest distillery in China

Converting the Chinese population from their favourite spirit baijiu to whiskey might be a big ask, but shareholder Stephen Alexander’s Nine Rivers Distillery aims not only to produce quality whiskey, but to start exporting non-whiskey products to Ireland, Britain and the US as early as next year

Dan O’Brien: Germany caught between Russia, China and a hard place

It is no exaggeration to say that Germany’s reputation as a reliable partner has been damaged as badly as Britain’s has been by Brexit

The Big Picture

Vincent Boland: After 40 years of freakish growth, China’s economy is at a crossroads

Recent actions by Xi Jinping’s government, including its strict Covid lockdown in Shanghai, have sowed doubt about the sustainability of the ‘party-state capitalism’ model

Ireland needs to ditch its ‘nod and wink’ policy towards China

The head of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong is lobbying politicians around the world to take a tougher approach to the Asian superpower

Chinese investor claims cash-for-visa firm no longer operating in Ireland

Zhiming Xi, who invested €1m through the Immigrant Investor Programme, is suing the Huawen Foundation after it failed to respond to his concerns

Trading carefully: As the world cuts ties with Russia, should Ireland be taking a firmer line with other rogue nations?

The government acted swiftly and forcefully after Russia invaded Ukraine, but Ireland continues to develop trade links with countries like Saudi Arabia and China, which stand accused of grave human rights abuses. Experts say it’s time we started to question this approach, but any change would have major economic consequences

China’s Covid lockdowns could cause ‘more trouble for Irish firms’

Bank of Ireland expert Conor Magee says increasing pressure from China’s lockdowns and the war in Ukraine is forcing Irish firms to change supply chains

Huawei’s Russia pullback could indicate a bigger signal from Beijing

Huawei’s decision to send its staff in Russia home and to suspend all orders there could well point to bigger moves in China relating to the current conflict in Ukraine

Vincent Boland: For all its faults, the modern, democratic, capitalist, globalised world in which we live is worth defending, and fighting for

Doing business is becoming ever more political as the right turns on its corporate base

Elaine Byrne: A global realignment is happening before our eyes as China ensnares Russia in its power game

The Sino-Russia relationship, with Russia the subservient partner, is united by the belief that a strong autocracy is a bulwark against a decadent democracy

Aidan Regan: Ukraine war exposes lie at the heart of global ‘free trade’ myth

Globalisation doesn’t lead to free and fair societies, instead it helps to prop up dictators and the democratic world needs to wake up to this reality

Dan O’Brien: The world faces a dangerous stand-off between democracy and autocracy

Greater European insecurity, changes to energy policy and a radical increase in political risk for businesses are among the long-term consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, regardless of when and how the conflict ends

Vincent Boland: Is China edging towards a cautious embrace of the free market?

Developments in Beijing suggest that Xi Jinping’s administration is trying to engineer the economy’s reorientation from one development model to another without derailing it entirely

Why China’s own interests will decide whether it supports Putin’s Ukraine invasion or not

There is a long history of border disputes between China and Russia, and one which almost led to all-out war in 1969. Whether the ‘friendship’ between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will lead to actual Chinese support for the assault on Ukraine may come down to more practical matters

Comment: China cannot fudge the Ukraine question indefinitely

Xi Jinping wants to present his country as a responsible stakeholder in a peaceful, prosperous world, but this is not possible if he is an ally of Putin

Dan O’Brien: Thirty years on from The End of History, the world appears to be facing a democratic recession

Francis Fukuyama’s influential 1992 work The End of History proposed that liberal democracy had triumphed over the ‘isms’ of the 20th century. But today liberal democracy faces three challengers: the authoritarian right, the illiberal left and non-democratic regimes imposing themselves on others

UCD seeks fundraising agent to tap donations from Chinese investors

College aims to seek support from Chinese-dominated IIP visa programme, after professors warned of political interference on campus

George Soros: Why 2022 will be a pivotal year in world history

The most important event could come in October when China’s 20th Party Congress decides on whether to give President Xi Jinping a third term as General Secretary

Editorial: O’Halloran case illustrates the perils of doing business in China

As China’s powerful leaders increasingly behave in a capricious and unpredictable manner, more organisations and individuals like Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran are in danger of being caught in a nightmare no-man’s land