Barron’s (July 24)
“China’s property slump and suffering economy is leading some to wonder if China could be on the brink of its own Lehman-style crisis. While the troubles facing China’s economy are substantial, it’s unlikely to push China into the type of meltdown that sends the country’s financial system into a tailspin.”
Tags: China, Crisis, Economy, Financial system, Lehman-style, Meltdown, Property, Slump, Suffering, Tailspin, Troubles
Nikkei Asia (July 19)
“A Chinese startup this month became the first in the world to mass-produce large, bendable perovskite solar panels, based on technology initially developed by researchers in Japan.” The revolutionary “technology is seen as a candidate to win a Nobel Prize” and holds tremendous commercial potential, but “Japanese companies have little capacity to make new investments, allowing China to take the lead in large-scale perovskite panels.”
Tags: Bendable, China, Commercial potential, Investments, Japan, Mass-produce, Nobel prize, Perovskite, Solar panels, Startup, Technology
The Economist (July 2)
“The pecking order of financial centres is changing.” Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are all vying as “the map of Asian financial hubs is being redrawn.” Given that, “the region’s two emerging giants, China and India, have partial capital controls,” Singapore stands to “be the main beneficiary—provided it can handle some of the downsides of being a global centre for other people’s business.”
Tags: Asia, Beneficiary, Capital controls, China, Downsides, Financial hubs, Hong Kong, India, Pecking order, Redrawn, Shanghai, Singapore
New York Times (June 23)
“First pineapples, now fish.” China is flexing its “economic muscle” with import bans that “pressure Taiwan.” The pineapple industry bounced back when public support rallied domestic consumption, but “Taiwan’s lucrative grouper industry is bracing for heavy losses after China’s recent ban on imports of the fish from the island.”
Tags: China, Domestic consumption, Economic muscle, Fish, Flexing, Grouper, Import bans, Losses, Lucrative, Pineapples, Taiwan
The Guardian (June 9)
The pandemic supply chain disruptions are “still rumbling on thanks to China’s drastic zero-Covid strategy.” This is prompting “a major rethink of how companies should organise themselves. Amid the buzzwords such as ‘reshoring’ and ‘diversification’ is the basic need to make western economies less reliant on China and other far-off manufacturing centres.”
Tags: China, Companies, Disruptions, Diversification, Drastic, Pandemic, Reshoring, Rethink, Supply chain, Zero-Covid strategy
Reuters (May 27)
Covid-related restrictions “have battered the world’s second-biggest economy even as most countries have been seeking to return to something like normal.” Although “China’s economy is now staggering back to its feet,” the recovery remains “grinding and partial… with businesses from retailers to chipmakers warning of slow sales as consumers in the country slam the brakes on spending.”
Tags: Battered, Businesses, China, Chipmakers, Consumers, Covid, Economy, Grinding, Normal, Partial, Recovery, Restrictions, Retailers, Sales, Staggering, Warning
Bloomberg (May 24)
“For decades, the surest way for ordinary Chinese families to grow their wealth and guarantee future financial stability was to put most of their money into real estate, and the rest into the stock market. Now, even those with money to spare are clutching onto their cash, not willing to take a chance in the Covid-battered Chinese economy.”
Tags: Battered, Cash, Chance, China, Clutching, Covid, Families, Financial stability, Future, Guarantee, Money, Ordinary, Real estate, Spare, Stock market, Wealth
South China Morning Post (May 18)
“A surge in the number of Chinese professionals looking for emigration opportunities in response to China’s strict zero-Covid measures could affect the country’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.” The “noticeable spike” in interest in leaving China began after “outbreaks of the Omicron variant emerged in Shanghai” around the end of May.
Tags: Ambitions, China, Emigration, Omicron, Opportunities, Outbreaks, Professionals, Science, Spike, Strict, Superpower, Surge, Technology, Variant, Zero COVID
Financial Times (May 13)
For some time, “private equity firms have set their sights on the many profitable yet unloved parts of corporate Japan that sit under the umbrellas of conglomerates such as Toshiba, Hitachi and others.” Currently, “the attention on Japan could not be any greater. Much of the ‘dry powder’ sitting in funds raised for Asian dealmaking is now less likely to be used in China than to back increasingly ambitious deals in Japan.”
Tags: Ambitious, Asian, China, Conglomerates, Dealmaking, Dry-powder, Funds, Hitachi, Japan, Private equity, Profitable, Toshiba, Unloved
The Guardian (May 10)
“Tensions between Shanghai residents and China’s Covid enforcers are on the rise again, amid a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones to meet President Xi Jinping’s demand for achieving “dynamic zero-Covid.” To express their displeasure with what are increasingly being viewed as violations of human rights and the rule of law, residents are sharing incriminating videos on social media. “Censors have been taking down many of these videos, but determined residents have continued to post them.”
Tags: China, Covid, Displeasure, Enforcers, Human rights, Infections, Quarantine, Residents, Rule of law, Shanghai, Social media, Tensions, Videos, Violations, Xi
