Paul French is the Chief China Market Strategist for Mintel International based in Shanghai. He specialises in consumption and retail economics in China and Asia and is regularly quoted in a wide range of media. He is a columnist for a number of publications commenting on China including The China Economic Quarterly, the China Economic Review and Ethical Corporationmagazine.
He is the author of a number of books on modern Chinese history as well as various social issues in Asia including, for Zed, North Korea – the Paranoid Peninsula: A Modern History and Oil on Water: Tankers, Pirates and the Rise of China. His most recent book, Midnight in Peking (Penguin, 2011) was a New York Times Bestseller, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, Edgar awards winner in the USA and nominated for the 2013 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Midnight in Peking is to be made into an international mini-series for TV in the UK by Kudos Productions. His current major focus of interest is the growing power of the emerging Asian middle class and China’s shifting demographics.
