The ruling Chinese Communist Party has announced new regulations that will ban foreign companies from publishing online media, games and other “creative” content within China’s borders from next month. The “Regulations for the management of online publishing services” also ban… Read More ›
The current bout of anxiety is a symptom of the fact that China’s transition from an export-led growth strategy is proceeding far less smoothly than hoped China’s management of its exchange rate peg continues to rattle global financial markets. Uncertainty… Read More ›
Are we on the edge of a new Cold War era? Or, alternatively, every power struggle mindset has to be considered a lost legacy of the XX century and we’re headed to a new era of global cooperation? These are… Read More ›
The unreliability of Chinese official economic data has become almost a cliche. A few years before he became China’s premier, Li Keqiang said that the country’s numbers were “man-made” and “for reference only.” If the top economic policy maker of a… Read More ›
The world’s second-largest economy may be able to stem a financial crisis, but don’t count on it to stimulate the world’s economy. Global stock markets have rebounded after the shock of Black Monday, but worries over the Chinese economy are… Read More ›
Faced with slower growth at home and rising labour costs, Chinese entrepreneurs are seeking foreign markets as never before. But as they rush abroad, they are grappling for the first time with unruly trade unions, independent courts and meddlesome journalists…. Read More ›
We have finally arrived at a point in history that economists have been dreading for years: The moment when the total number of Chinese workers goes into decline for the first time in decades. Since way before the 1990s, China… Read More ›
China has had 35 years of hypergrowth, but now it’s over. It’s going to have to settle for really, really good growth instead. But that’s still going to be hard now that fewer Chinese are working-age, fewer people are moving… Read More ›
Asia has a China problem. Beijing has just initiated its biggest cut in bank reserve requirements since 2008, a move that underscores just how worried it is about its economy. But the cut is also a stark wake-up call for neighbours that have gotten… Read More ›
Around a quarter of China’s remarkable economic growth over the past three decades or so was delivered by the dividend from its demographic structure, with a young population augmenting the workforce and lifting output in new jobs. A large proportion… Read More ›
China’s exports for the month of March fell by 15% from a year ago (in dollar terms), the General Administration of Customs said today. It was a big surprise to markets and investors, who were expecting a rise of as much as 12%…. Read More ›
With the Chinese economy slowing down and its population dividend diminishing, foreign capital has been exiting the market at an accelerated pace, leading to concerns over a possible large-scale capital flight which may impact domestic banking capital and forex reserves,… Read More ›
A recent study performed by two economists affiliated with a Chinese state agency found that China’s state investments have becoming alarmingly wasteful and ineffective. There are two indisputable facts about China’s mammoth investments in its infrastructure and factories. One, they… Read More ›
The U.S. is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies. The US has been the global leader… Read More ›
Multinational firms are planning to invest less in China because of market access barriers and slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy, a U.S. business lobby said on Tuesday. China’s economy expanded 7.4 percent year-on-year in the January-March quarter, its… Read More ›
January’s PMI data for China’s manufacturing sector, as released by Markit Economics and HSBC, showed a marked decline in production activity. More disturbing, however, is their analysis on the individual sectors of the manufacturing economy. According to the report, firms… Read More ›
Bloomberg recently reported that China, in order to aid its own cotton farmers by supporting cotton prices, has been buying up excess production into government stockpiles. The world’s biggest producer and user of cotton will have 12.7 million metric tons… Read More ›
The Chinese economy needs to create 10 million jobs per year and must sustain growth of at least 7.2% to achieve that, Premier Li Keqiang has warned ahead of a key meeting of the Communist Party. Li’s comments, in a… Read More ›
In 2008, I wrote an article for an international business consultancy newsletter that outlined the opportunities associated with Chinese investing abroad. In the article, I wrote that since China commenced opening up in 1979, most international capital flow has been… Read More ›
“Those who live in worries and hardship survive while those who live in ease and pleasure perish,” says Chinese sage Mencius. In Reuters’ report titled Ditch the stats: China retailers don’t buy signs of recovery, it says that recent improved government… Read More ›
After many years of euphoria over China’s rapid growth and the country’s apparently inevitable rise to global economic dominance, the China story has taken a serious turn for the worse. China, it now seems, is about to collapse, and along… Read More ›
China’s growth has slowed significantly in recent months. But even its current pace of expansion may not be sustainable, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday, unless China starts making significant and systemic economic changes — and soon. “Since the… Read More ›
Former Australian prime minister John Howard has warned Australia not to become mesmerised by China, and instead focus on maintaining an efficient and productive economy. In a major speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, Mr Howard said… Read More ›
Paul Salo has been selling real estate in China for more than twenty years, and now wants to show others how to sell real estate to wealthy Chinese buyers. Paul has made a series of eleven videos, showing how to… Read More ›
Risks are rising that China’s economic growth will slide further in the second quarter after weekend data showed unexpected weakness in May trade and domestic activity struggling to pick up. Evidence has mounted in recent weeks that China’s economic growth… Read More ›
The Chinese government has given preliminary environmental approval for construction of what would eventually be the country’s largest hydroelectric dam. The project, on the Dadu river in the southwestern province of Sichuan, is expected to take 10 years to construct… Read More ›
An unlevel playing field in China costs European companies € 17.5 billion in missed revenues annually, according to a survey of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. The findings – which also highlight alleged regulatory discrimination as a key concern… Read More ›
When James Zhao, 23, read news reports last Friday claiming Renren, the “Facebook of China“, could be laying off three-quarters of the staff at its 3G technology department, his heart sank. Having been unsuccessful in his job applications to several… Read More ›
China’s factory output growth was surprisingly feeble in April and fixed-asset investment slowed, rekindling concerns that a nascent recovery is stalling and adding to pressure on policymakers to take action to stimulate the economy. However, China’s already-easy monetary policy and… Read More ›
China says it will open up capital flows – but will it work? China announced this week that it will formulate plans to permit more capital to flow in and out of the country, a key element of RMB convertibility, and… Read More ›
Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday affirmed China’s government’s bond rating of Aa3 but cut the outlook to stable from positive, the second pessimistic revision by a foreign ratings agency this month. Last week, Fitch Ratings cut China’s long-term local currency… Read More ›
“China is displaying the same three symptoms that Japan, the U.S. and parts of Europe all showed before suffering financial crises: a rapid build-up of leverage, raised property prices and a decline in potential growth.” – Zhiwei Zhang, Nomura economist. An… Read More ›
In just 30 years, China‘s state-controlled economy became the world’s second largest, strictly managed by government policies and decrees. One of the few economic sectors where the rising and affluent middle class could invest was real estate and construction. As much… Read More ›
Every investor knows about the middle income trap.That’s when countries hit a certain income level, say around $15,000 annually per head, and growth ceases to impress. The economy moves slower. It goes through bouts of recessions, some steeper than others…. Read More ›
For a city enthralled by intelligence work, like Washington, D.C., provocative intellects are a rare breed. So Leland Miller didn’t expect a warm reception when he rolled into town recently, declaring that everything everyone thinks he knows about China’s economy… Read More ›
China’s growth rebound may be capped by a labour force squeeze and shrinking resources that leave the government satisfied with rates of expansion as low as half the peak during the past decade. A pace of 7 percent to 8… Read More ›
Coal, iron ore, steel, cotton, clothing, heavy equipment, ship-building, solar cells, LEDs, and property. All of these commodities at one point or another in the last year have been a hot topic due to overstocks caused by government-influenced overproduction. Falling… Read More ›
When Hu Bin started his blog in early 2008, he was a skinny 22-year-old college dropout with a perpetually sceptical look on his face and little doubt he’d soon be a household name. The previous year, the Shanghai Stock Exchange had been… Read More ›
The South Beauty chief Zhang Lan, a businesswoman known for her high-end restaurant chains in China and her celebrity daughter-in-law, recently sparked a heated debate on the emigration of rich Chinese after she was found to possess a foreign passport…. Read More ›
In his latest note Citi‘s Edward L Morse writes “the commodity super cycle is over.” That is a monumental call, given how popular the long commodities trade has been. Why the turn? Basically, it’s all got to do with China…. Read More ›
In the New World Order, the BRIC nations – developing nations – are to be the engine of global growth. That is at least what officials from the foremost global institutions have maintained all along, divorcing their narrative from the… Read More ›
Many of China‘s richest people have grown poorer over the past year and the number of its US dollar billionaires has fallen for the first time in seven years, according to the Hurun Rich List, which tracks Chinese wealth. In… Read More ›
China is actively considering “using its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230bn (£141bn) of bonds to “impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner” and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head.” Meaning: dump Japan’s bonds en… Read More ›
As the Chinese economy continues to slow there is a growing consensus additional stimulus packages are forthcoming. What will be interesting to see is the exact nature of any new stimulus the central government enacts? Will it be focused again… Read More ›
China has given the green light for 60 infrastructure projects worth more than $150-billion as it looks to energise an economy mired in its worst slowdown in three years, fuelling hopes the world’s growth engine may get a lift from… Read More ›
Signs that the Chinese economy is sputtering mounted Friday, in the form of dismally feeble trade data that fanned expectations that Beijing would soon step up its efforts to buttress growth before a key leadership transition this autumn. China’s giant… Read More ›
China is currently facing a spending crunch from Europe and the U.S., which is impacting the economy and threatening a possible “hard landing.” The superlative growth over the last decade has largely been fuelled by export demand for cheaper Chinese-made goods…. Read More ›
1. The frustrated and aggressive central bank If one wants to know how bad the health of China’s economy has gone, look no further than the PBOC‘s composure, which seems rather frustrated and aggressive as of late. On 5th July,… Read More ›
Shujie Yao says serious structural flaws in the Chinese economy mean the days of near-double-digit growth are over. The nation must now prepare for three years of hardship, which will be felt by the rest of the world. The world’s… Read More ›
As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles. Record-setting mountains of excess… Read More ›
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