Dear Members and Friends

We've reached the midpoint! With six more months left in 2023, if the coming half-year proceeds as the first, we will have gained much more insight into managing crises, and learned more about identifying early warning signs of storms or crosswinds by December.

We faced an unexpected and breathtaking 36-hour event in late June. It rattled not only us but also the Russian and Chinese governments. It prompts us to question what else might be off our radar, thereby fostering global economic uncertainty. Have you encountered any surprises in this process?

We've noticed that financial bloggers in China are increasingly losing access to their communication platforms. Earlier this year, consulting firms received warnings about how they report on Chinese companies, complicating 'due diligence' and deal-making processes. At the ‘Summer Davos’, the Chinese Premier praised the recovery of the Chinese economy, while western business media promote India as the global economy's growth engine. How should we interpret these signals?

All of this is happening as most of us are planning our summer holidays. It's time to ensure that our vacation destinations have the network capabilities to accommodate the occasional, potentially short-notice video call with office colleagues.

Many of us planned, but have yet to travel to China, due to the busy first half of the year responding to market developments. The shortage of skilled workers has not made it easier to free up time or send a deputy instead.

Business life has certainly not returned to pre-pandemic conditions. Therefore, it's time to plan for the next six months. It's important to focus on the major tasks and allocate time for these! One such task is your postponed trip to China, where you can make sense of news from the media and your colleagues, understand the market, and ideally make some sales calls.

That's why SCCC is resuming our trailblazer and market insight trips to China, which we had to halt during the pandemic. In early November, we will organize a delegation to the Greater Bay Area, Hangzhou area, and Shanghai. Our timing aligns with the CIIE in Shanghai, the most prominent event on the Chinese business calendar. Our objective is to visit a mix of large corporations and smaller SME-sized entities across various industries. The selected companies are all leaders in their fields and will provide interesting insight into the current economic affairs in China.

Please click HERE to learn the where, when, and how of this delegation. The pricing makes it a valuable opportunity for our members, and an incentive for non-members to join us. Given the limited spaces, we advise you to reserve early.

Our office team is working tirelessly to organize the event, so some of us will be in Asia and China during the summer for preparations. Consequently, we will be responding to requests via email during this period.

We wish you a wonderful July and August, and we'll return with our next newsletter in early September. Have a re-energizing break.

Kind regards

Jí sī guǎng yì.

Four eyes see more than two.