Tag: Economy

Beijing —  Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s agenda for the annual meeting of the ceremonial legislature: Revive the economy by encouraging consumers to spend more now that severe anti-virus controls have ended and install a government of loyalists to intensify Communist Party control over the economy and society. Xi, China’s most powerful figure in decades, has no formal role in the National People’s Congress, which will convene a meeting of its full membership on Sunday. But he looms over every event: the 69-year-old awarded himself a third five-year term as party…

In a possible sign that the so-called “decoupling” of the U.S. and Chinese economies is continuing, a recent media report said that the Chinese government has urged large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to cease using the world’s biggest global accounting firms to audit their onshore businesses. The report, published last week by Bloomberg, cites people familiar with communications between the Chinese Ministry of Finance and large SOEs, in which the ministry encouraged the companies to allow their existing contracts with Western firms to lapse when they expire, and to replace them…

Hong Kong —  The disappearance of a star Chinese dealmaker has left his bank struggling to reassure clients and staff, people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, and has heightened concerns about “key man risk” for investors. Shares of China Renaissance Holdings 1911.HK fell by as much as 5% on Monday, following a record low in the previous session after the investment bank said it could not contact its founder, chairman and CEO Bao Fan. The stock ended the day up 0.1% in the Hong Kong market that…

Beijing —  China’s job fairs are making a comeback after being forced online by COVID-19 for three years, but subdued wages and less abundant offerings in sectors exposed to weakening external demand point to an uneven and guarded economic recovery. Authorities announced hundreds of such events across the country this month, the latest sign that China is returning to its pre-COVID way of life and that youth unemployment, a major headache for Beijing, may ease from its near 20% peak. In a country of 1.4 billion people, job fairs are…

HONG KONG —  Long before the pandemic shut down Hong Kong’s vibrant retail sector, traders from China crossed the border to purchase everything from cosmetics to cars tax-free for profitable reselling upon returning home, where buyers worried about the quality of locally available products. The brisk parallel import trade, which included some Hong Kong residents taking goods into China, survived protests by Hong Kong residents who felt it caused shortages of in-demand items such as baby formula and increased prices. COVID-19 travel restrictions shut down parallel trading more effectively than…

Phnom Penh —  Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is expected to visit Beijing next week looking to borrow more than $4 billion for a high-speed railway line that will connect Cambodia’s capital with the economic hub on the Thai border. The deal would be the latest symbol of the “ironclad” friendship between the two countries that has observers worried that Cambodia’s growing dependence on Chinese largesse could lead to a “debt trap” with long-term economic and geopolitical consequences. “I hope that my upcoming visit [to China] will produce more new…