China

How China got to be the market leader for electric vehicles and what the US can do to catch up
Asia, China, Market

How China got to be the market leader for electric vehicles and what the US can do to catch up

The U.S. blinked, and China built an electric vehicle empire. "They're taking over the world, except North America," said Lei Xing, a Chinese auto industry expert. "The U.S. will be the last frontier." In the last 15 years, China has rolled out a public charging network over 10 million strong, convinced billions of drivers to go electric by dangling subsidies and other incentives, and introduced over 100 EV brands with a bevy of pricing options. The push exemplifies "China Speed," a term Xing used to describe the country's hypersonic development. The speed and scale of the shift has slingshotted China past the U.S. and every other nation in the transition to electric vehicles, while also positioning Chinese automakers near the front of the pack to dominat...
China Is Not Rich, But It Has Become Powerful
Asia, China

China Is Not Rich, But It Has Become Powerful

On Aug. 22, China commemorated the 120th anniversary of the birth of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, whose market reforms catapulted China from famine-stricken communist backwater to global economic power. Xi praised Deng for his contribution to the party and the nation. Despite the two leaders’ common goal of a powerful China, however, Xi’s strategy for achieving it markedly differs from Deng’s. By extending his reign as China’s paramount leader beyond the two-term limit favored by Deng and making no preparations for a transition of power during his lifetime, Xi has discarded one of Deng’s main ideas for ensuring long-term political stability. Whereas Deng emphasized market reforms, Xi is reasserting centralized control by the party-state. But the most remarkable change ha...
China announces several economic stimulus plans.
China, Market

China announces several economic stimulus plans.

China's central bank has unveiled a major package of measures aimed at reviving the country's flagging economy. People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng announced plans to lower borrowing costs and allow banks to increase their lending. The move comes after a series of disappointing data has increased expectations in recent months that the world's second largest economy will miss its own 5% growth target this year. Stock markets in Asia jumped after Mr Pan's announcement. Speaking at a rare news conference alongside officials from two other financial regulators, Mr Pan said the central bank would cut the amount of cash banks have to hold in reserve - known as reserve requirement ratios (RRR). The RRR will initially be cut by half a percentage point, in a move ex...
Asia, China, Market

China boosts its struggling economy with its most aggressive intervention in years.

China’s central bank has cut interest rates in an attempt to revive flagging economic growth and prevent scores of debt-laden property owners from going bust in its boldest intervention to boost the economy since the pandemic. Adopting a suite of measures to reduce borrowing costs, the People’s Bank of China cut interest rates on existing mortgages by 0.5 percentage points and supported new lending by reducing the level of reserves banks must set aside before making loans. The bank’s governor, Pan Gongsheng, said he would also ease restrictions on borrowing to invest in stocks and shares on Chinese exchanges, boosting the Shanghai composite index by more than 4% within hours of the announcement. Oil prices rose, with Brent crude up more than 1% at nearly $75 a barrel. The central...
China, Market

To boost its economy, China unleashes a financial bazooka.

What’s happened? On September 24th a series of policies were announced by China’s three top financial officials at a press conference to backstop the stalling economy. These notably included a 20-basis-point cut to the seven-day reverse repo rate (RRR; the policy interest rate); a 50-basis-point cut to the reserve requirement ratio (RRR); a rate cut on existing mortgages; capital replenishment of large state-owned banks; and other measures to support the housing and the stock markets. Why does it matter? The rare, simultaneous rollout of so many measures highlights the urgency for policymakers to prop up the economy. We believe that real GDP growth this year will miss the government’s annual target, and may even undershoot our own conservative growth forecast of 4.7%. The cuts to...
<strong>China is looking all set for a recession</strong>
China, USA, World

China is looking all set for a recession

Ray Dalio the owner of American investment management firm, Bridgewater Associates which helps top investors worldwide to grow their money, in a recent interview with Bloomberg television, said that he had sold most of the investments in China. He warned that China was facing serious economic problems. “You have an environment in China which is changing and becoming a more difficult environment,” Dalio said. The trouble is evident in the stock market. The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index is on a free fall for more than two years. Investors both foreign and domestic are divesting investments to stop loss. Foreign investors are going to other emerging markets. Chinese nationals are holding on cash or buying gold coins and bars to prevent further erosion of personal wealth. “The...
China, Market

Et tu, Milei? Is Argentina Regaining Contact with China?

When Mauricio Macri was elected president of Argentina in 2015 as leader of the center-right coalition Cambiemos, he adopted a confrontational stance on China, distancing himself from the approach of his predecessor, Cristina Kirchner. He instead privileged relations with the United States and other Western powers to “reinsert Argentina into the world.” It did not last. By the end of his first year in office, Macri had signed a series of economic agreements with Beijing. By the end of his administration in 2019, China had consolidated its role as a strategic partner. Similarly, Javier Milei came to the Casa Rosada skeptical about Argentina’s friendship with China. In his case, however, the libertarian leader also brought an ultra-ideological and personalistic approach to foreign policy...
<strong>China targets Canadian Canola amid trade dispute</strong>
China, World

China targets Canadian Canola amid trade dispute

Trade wars are a common occurrence in the global market, and the friction between China and Canada is no exception. These conflicts are often fuelled by geopolitical issues. Back in 2019, China halted Canadian meat imports after Huawei’s CEO, Meng Wanzhou, was detained. Officially, China blamed banned feed additives in the meat, but many saw it as a diplomatic move in response to the Ottawa-Beijing rift. Now, China is considering probing Canada for allegedly dumping canola into its market. In the realm of international trade, dumping refers to selling a product at a lower price in a foreign market than in the domestic one, essentially a form of price discrimination. Following Canada’s imposition of a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium from Chin...
An economist claims that China’s economy is undergoing a “slow, painful, grinding adjustment.”
Asia, China, Market

An economist claims that China’s economy is undergoing a “slow, painful, grinding adjustment.”

SINGAPORE — Following a slew of data released over the weekend from China that painted a fairly bleak outlook for its economy, analysts have tapered their expectations for the country’s full year GDP growth. “There hasn’t been much good news in this latest round of data, and this has been the pattern for the last few months,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of international trade and economics at Cornell University, on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday. “Both the long term issues related to property prices and so on, and the short term issues related to domestic demand in particular, especially private investment and household consumption have not been doing well at all,” Prasad said. He warned that Beijing’s economic outlook for the second half of the year is now “flas...
China, Market

In September, China’s consumer prices increased more slowly.

C hina's consumer inflation rate slowed in September, official data showed Sunday, in a sign that demand remains fragile in the world's number two economy. The slowdown comes as authorities have been seeking to boost domestic activity and shore up China's ailing property sector, with officials on Saturday announcing plans for a significant fiscal stimulus package. The consumer price index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 0.4 percent year-on-year in September, down from the 0.6 percent recorded in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The figure came in below the 0.6 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. August's figure, the highest level since February, had raised hopes that consumer confidence may be picking up. While many major Western economies ha...