The crisis engulfing the Chinese property sector appears certain to intensify in 2022 as companies face debt repayments in the new year that are double those of the final months of 2021, risking what one China expert calls a systemic crisis for the world’s second-biggest economy. Although concerns about the stricken giant China Evergrande have receded in recent weeks behind a massive state-led restructuring operation, it missed a bond repayment of $255m (£190m) on Thursday and the debt problems that have pushed the second biggest developer in the country into…
Tag: Chinese economy
From economic miracle to mirage – will China’s GDP ever overtake the US?
“The east is rising, the west is declining”, according to the narrative propagated by the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Many outside China take its “inevitable rise” as read. On the way to becoming a “modern socialist country” by 2035, and rich, powerful, and dominant by 2049, the centenary of the People’s Republic, China wants to claim bragging rights as its GDP surpasses the United States, and project its power based on its expanding economic heft. There is, however, a critical flaw in this narrative. China’s economy may fail to overtake…
China housing market slumps again as another developer runs into trouble
China’s giant housing market has continued to decline in the past month and another major developer showed signs of financial distress as state-owned enterprises began carving up the carcass of the failing property giant Evergrande. House prices, sales, investment and construction data released on Wednesday all showed renewed signs of the crisis in the market, which accounts up to 30% of the country’s output and which appears certain to drag on the world’s second biggest economy. It comes a day after shares in one of China’s largest developers, Shimao Group,…
Hong Kong doubles down on Covid restrictions to fall into line with mainland China
It used to be an international business centre, the bustling, vibrant commercial gateway to China and the rest of Asia. But after weeks of lobbying by Hong Kong’s global business community for the government to ease border restrictions and harsh mandatory quarantine to bring it into line with other trading hubs, the authorities have instead responded with even tougher measures. At her regular press conference on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced most exemptions from the city’s mandatory and self-funded quarantine periods of up to 21 days will…
China Evergrande shares fall sharply after $2.6bn asset sale collapses
Shares in the struggling property giant China Evergrande have fallen sharply after plans to offload a stake in one of its units for $2.6bn fell through, casting further doubt over whether it can avert the country’s biggest ever corporate failure. China Evergrande Group, the parent company for the sprawling empire built by former steel industry executive Xu Jiayin, closed down 12.54% in Hong Kong on Thursday. Evergrande announced on Wednesday that it had formally abandoned plans to sell a 50.1% slice of Evergrande Property Services, one of its most profitable…
‘Ecological civilisation’: an empty slogan or will China act on the environment?
This week, China took charge of hosting a major UN environmental conference for the first time, at the opening of Cop15 in Kunming. The world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter and largest consumer of natural resources might seem a strange choice to host talks to stop the destruction of ecosystems and mass extinctions of wildlife, but the conference marks a tipping point in China’s development and an international debut for “ecological civilisation”, a little-known phrase outside its borders with big implications for the planet. Amid uncertainty around whether President Xi Jinping…