Draft:Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein (Chinese: 小山 - Xiao Shan) is an American businessman, writer and commentator. He has lived in Shanghai since 2003 and writes on the Chinese government establishment.

Early life

His early life was spent at St. Paul's School (New Hampshire), a boarding school affiliated to the Episcopal Church, where his father, Richard Rein, was the resident dance director and ballet instructor. He graduated as a student of St. Paul's in 1996 and maintained close contact with the school. He married his wife in the school's chapel in 2003. He was elected executive vice president of the school's alumni association for a three year term starting in 2020, and thereby a trustee of the school. Shaun Rein graduated from McGill University with a B.A. in East Asian studies in 2000, and he went on to take an M.A. from Harvard in 2002 in the same subject.

Business career

Rein has lived in Shanghai6 since 2003. His wife, Jessica Lo, is the granddaughter of Li Lili, a noted 1930s Chinese actress and singer. His first job in Shanghai was working for Inter-Asia Venture Management, a venture capital company. He then started and remains managing director of the China Market Research Group, a market research company.

Books

Rein has written five books. His first, written in 2004 for the Chinese language market, had the English title of How to get into Harvard and America's top universities.. He has since written four further books in English.

= End of Cheap China His first book in English, The End of Cheap China was published in February 2012. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+End+of+Cheap+China%3A+Economic+and+Cultural+Trends+that+Will+Disrupt+the+World-p-9781118239940 Byline: Alexander Heffner USA Today, 14 May 2012, p. 04B "China's evaporating cheap labour pool will disrupt supply chains and consumption habits around the world. Executives and policymakers need to prepare ahead of the curve, to evolve and take advantage of the changes -- or else face extinction." Thürer, M. 2014, "The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World", The Quality Management Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 60-61. It provides a different view about China, which will help readers get a more differentiated view than what is typically presented in the media China Today - CCP publication - April 2013 - byline Mathilde Nielsen-Earle Nielsen-Earle, M. (2013) ‘Get Ready for the Wave’, China Today, 62(4), p. 77. Available at: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=2c3f1bb3-8a6d-3702-9a10-f9c1c86625b9 (Accessed: 13 January 2026).

= The End of Copycat China, was released in September 2014. Book review: The End of Copycat China, by Shaun Rein - SCMP https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/The+End+of+Copycat+China%3A+The+Rise+of+Creativity%2C+Innovation%2C+and+Individualism+in+Asia-p-9781118926727 https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1650706/book-review-end-copycat-china-paula-campbell FT Book review: The End of Copycat China https://www.ft.com/content/a383dc3e-1bdc-3717-b46d-f71056d1d509

= War for China's Wallet

The War for China's Wallet came out in December 2017 with a different publisher De Gruyter.

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501507618/html China’s efforts to use its power over consumer spending for its own purposes. LA Review of Books https://web.archive.org/web/20211026015617/https://chinachannel.org/2018/05/07/chinas-wallet/ mediocre review SCMP https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2126477/book-review-war-chinas-wallet-readable-if-one-sided-view-chinas

= The Split was published in December 2024. The Split is an analysis of the different sectors of China's economy, where the author suggests that future foreign investors into China need in some cases to be cautious, since the opportunities for growth and investor returns will vary markedly. The returns of investment on semi-conductors may well be unattractive, whereas the development of health and wellness industries, serving China's emergent middle classes, may prove more attractive. https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/shaun-rein/the-split/9781399816427/

Rein has contributed article to journals and news channels.(NYT, FP) He also provides comments to news organisations when China's companies get into the news. (BBC, Newsweek). Newsweek, 2009-12, Vol.154 (25), p.16-16 - Diamond BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68563339 Foreign Policy: "Red Flag and the Silver Screen: Why is China buying America's movie theaters?"May 22, 2012, 10:31 PM NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/07/25/if-china-rises-will-the-us-fall/chinas-is-a-different-type-of-power

Deepfake podcast

In January 2026 the London based The Bookseller magazine reported that Rein's voice had been cloned by a maverick podcast site, apparently based in Singapore, showing the author reading extracts from his book The Split on a YouTube channel. The author said that the cloning was sufficiently convincing that he could not easily tell it was a deepfake, until the channel produced a similar video of Rein speaking Chinese, where the voice was clearly fabricated. Rein suggested this was being done to monetise his material through affiliated sales of his work, and he expressed concern of the impact on particularly audiobooks in respect of copyright and royalties.

Rein's Scottish publishers, John Murray Business, condemned the infringement of copyright in view of the impact on authors and publishing business. The chief executive officer of the Society of Authors, Anna Ganley, said that generative AI threatened the sustainability of creative industries: "This goes beyond copyright laws as tech companies are helping themselves to the broader intellectual property and personal data of the creative workforce without consent, transparency or payment.”