Tianchen Xu is a Beijing-based senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit for China and Asia. Tianchen focuses on China’s economy, policy developments, and its engagement with the world, tracking the US-China trade war closely. He has been a regular guest for international media, featuring on the New York Times, the South China Morning Post, Reuters, and CNBC, and has spoken at many events hosted by chambers and industrial associations in China. Before the EIU, Tianchen worked for several Chinese and international firms and organisations, including the United Nations Secretariat, Bloomberg, and JD.com.

Yifei Zhang leads Control Risks’ China business. He manages our strategic relationships in China, coordinating teams and resources around the world. He helps our clients understand and mitigate the risks they face in China’s ever-changing environment, enabling them to stay resilient and seize opportunities both within the country and more broadly.

Yifei has extensive experience providing multinational companies and investors with solutions in China across business strategy, market and business intelligence, and compliance reviews. He has worked with numerous multinational clients on investigations into compliance breaches, responding to extortive whistleblowers, and crisis management and negotiation planning for companies facing restructuring.

Yifei also supports Chinese companies with risk management planning for outbound projects, evaluating new business partners, and resolving business disruption and complex security matters overseas. He helps clients identify and prepare for varied risks in a global environment, improving and evaluating their security management, training programmes and market entry approaches.

He has worked closely with clients across the ICT, financial services, automotive and healthcare sectors.