Conversation

05.19.22

Is Beijing Changing Tack on Big Tech?

Rui Ma, Ruihan Huang & more
In recent weeks, news has emerged that China may be slowing its Big Tech regulations. On Tuesday, the CPPCC held a special meeting on the digital economy, with Vice Premier Liu He highlighting the need “to support the platform economy.” This...

New Round of U.S.-China Trade War Rattles Global Markets

Alexandra Stevenson
New York Times
President Trump’s escalating trade war with China rattled global markets on Wednesday.

China Stocks Plunge to Two-Year Low on Tariff Threat; Yuan Sinks

Bloomberg News
Bloomberg
China’s benchmark equity gauge tumbled to a two-year low and the yuan weakened as a worsening trade dispute with the U.S. spurred panic selling. Bonds gained.

U.S. Stocks Surge after China’s Xi Eases Trade Fears

David Hodari and Allison Prang
Wall Street Journal
U.S. stocks climbed Tuesday, with the Dow gaining more than 400 points, as remarks from Chinese President Xi Jinping soothed concerns about a trade war that have roiled markets in recent weeks.

White House Sends Mixed Message on China Trade Thaw

Shawn Donnan, Michael Hunter and Ben...
Financial Times
Markets rally but questions remain over US willingness to talk to Beijing.

Xiaomi Ceo Calls China’s Plan to Lure Tech Listings ‘Excellent’

Bloomberg News
Bloomberg
China’s trial program for encouraging technology giants like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to list their shares at home is drawing positive early reviews, a sign their stocks may soon be available in the world’s most populous country.

It’s Not Just Facebook: China’s Biggest Tech Company Is Getting Crushed

Daniel Shane
CNN
Tencent (TCEHY) -- the company often referred to as China's Facebook -- has lost more than $70 billion in market value over the past week.

China Levies Record $870 Million Fine for Stock Manipulation

Bloomberg News
Bloomberg
China slapped a logistics company with fines totaling 5.5 billion yuan ($870 million) for manipulating the stock market, the biggest ever punishment for such an infringement.

Xi’s Power Grab Gives a Short-Term Boost with Long-Term Ramifications

David Dollar
Brookings Institution
China’s stock market and currency rallied Monday on news that the country would revise its constitution to abolish term limits for the president.

The Upside for China in the US Stock Market Plunge – from the Chinese Economist Who Tipped a Big Fall

Frank Tang
South China Morning Post
A record points plunge in the US stock market this week could be good news for China’s exporters, according to a Chinese government economist who predicted a big correction in American shares four weeks ago.

China Stocks at Risk of Outpacing Fundamentals

Gabriel Wildau and Emma Dunkley
Financial Times
As the Chinese stock market’s disastrous 2015 boom-and-bust fades from memory, investors are in a mood to buy. Chinese stocks both on the mainland and in Hong Kong outperformed the S&P 500 last year, as economic growth accelerated for the...

Chinese Stocks Are Beginning to Show 'Cracks.' Here's What It Means

Rebecca Ungarino
CNBC
China’s stock market has been steadily rising all year, but according to one technician the charts are beginning to show signs of weakness.

More Turmoil for China’s Wanda as Rumors Fly

Variety
China’s Dalian Wanda issued a stern denial Monday following rumors that company chairman Wang Jianlin had been detained by authorities as he attempted to fly abroad. The unsubstantiated reports caused stocks in Wanda’s hotel group to swoon. “Rumors...

China Southern Air to Raise up to $1.9 Billion in Share Issue for Aircraft Purchase, Capital Boost

Reuters
China’s largest airline by passenger numbers said 7.8 billion yuan of the proceeds will be used to acquire 41 aircraft, and the selection and installation of lightweight seats for its A320 series aircraft.

Big China Companies Targeted over ‘Systemic Risk’

Financial Times
China’s bank regulator ordered domestic lenders to check the “systemic risk” presented by “some large enterprises” involved in overseas buying sprees, sending stock prices of some of the country’s most acquisitive private-sector companies sharply...

Some Global Investors See Fresh Worries in an Old Problem: China

Michael Schuman
New York Times
While investors have been preoccupied with President Trump and chaos in Washington, nerve-rattling elections in Europe and the uncertainty created by Federal Reserve policy and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, a once-familiar — and...

Rags to Riches: Delivery Man Now China’s Third-Richest Billionaire

Sophia Yan
CNBC
Wang Wei, chairman of SF Holding—the FedEx of China—has seen his fortune grow to around $27 billion, according to a Forbes estimate.

Disappearance of Chinese Billionaire Alarms Financial Sector

Yifan Xie and Josh Chin
Wall Street Journal
Xiao Jianhua is one of several high-profile Chinese businessmen to go missing since China’s 2015 stock-market crash

Asian Shares Mixed as Investors Eye Trump’s Inauguration

Aza Wee Sile
CNBC
Asian markets were a mixed bag on Friday after China’s latest set of economic data suggest the economy is recovering, even as risk sentiment sours ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration

China’s Markets are Tamed— but Not Tempting

Anjie Zheng
Wall Street Journal
The roller-coaster ride may be over, but global investors say that still hasn’t made China attractive for 2017

China Stocks Drop as Insurers Face Crackdown

Shen Hong
Wall Street Journal
China’s top securities regulator has accused some big insurers of behaving like ‘barbarians’

China’s Risk-Loving Mom & Pop Investors Abandon Local Stock Markets for Bitcoin

Zheping Huang and Joon Ian Wong
Quartz
China’s two biggest exchanges account for more than 90% of global trading.

China Shares Hit Seven-Month High; World Yields Keep Falling

Marc Jones
Reuters
Chinese stocks helped offset news that Japan’s economic growth had ground to a halt.

Samsung Bets on China’s BYD for Growth

In-soo Nam
Wall Street Journal
The South Korean technology giant plans to invest in the electric vehicle and battery maker’s $2.3 billion share sale.

China Stocks Rise on Reform Hopes, as Other Asian Shares Sag

Dominique Fong
Wall Street Journal
President Xi calls for overhauling state-owned enterprises....

China Stocks Extend One of The World’s Best Post-Brexit Rallies

Bloomberg
Shanghai composite climbs as the MSCI All-Country World Index tumbles....

Viewpoint

03.24.16

Why China’s Economy Can’t Collapse

from Radio Free Asia
China’s economic outlook once again became the focus of attention for many last week. For one thing, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) listed the possibility of a hard landing for China’s economy as the topmost of the world’s top 10 risks. There...

Caixin Media

02.24.16

Regulators Leave Wealth Management Industry Unplugged

Financial market supervisors admit that gaping holes pockmark the regulatory fences they’ve built in recent years to control the wealth management industry and protect its investors.By occasionally introducing new rules and regulations, supervisors...

Sinica Podcast

01.29.16

The China Meltdown

Jeremy Goldkorn, Kaiser Kuo & more from Sinica Podcast
[—Editors note: this podcast was recorded on January 18, 2016]With equity markets in free fall, housing prices skipping downwards, foreign reserves plummeting, and industrial production on a road trip back to the last decade, it’s no surprise...

Africa Feels the Chill of China’s Cooling Economy

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
It hasn’t even been a month since Chinese president Xi Jinping was in South Africa for the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) confab where he unveiled a massive $60 billion financial package. Oh how those were innocent, halcyon days...

Caixin Media

10.13.15

Insider Trading Is Hindering Development of Stock Market

A series of investigations into apparent market violations emerged after the recent stock market turmoil, bringing down Zhang Yujun, an assistant chairman at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC); Cheng Boming, general manager of CITIC...

How China’s Economic Slowdown Will Impact Africa

Eric Olander & Cobus van Staden
The tremors in China’s faltering economy are being felt across Africa. Now that China has replaced Europe and the United States as most African countries’ largest trading partner, there is understandable concern that slowing demand in the P.R.C...

China Market Rout Doesn't Reflect Economy, Top Diplomat Says

Bloomberg
“Some movements on the stock exchange in China should not equal the whole picture of the Chinese economy.”

Caixin Media

09.15.15

Stock Market Volatility Is Not a Harbinger of Collapsing Growth

It would be a sad end to an amazing story. An economic miracle—one that lifted 300 million people from poverty and shifted the world's economic center of gravity—collapsing under the weight of risky investments and a financial crisis.This seems...

Media

09.03.15

Chinese Web Users Aren’t Blaming Detained Journalist for Market Panic

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
China’s stock markets have been in free-fall for some time. Now, so is a financial journalist who had the temerity to write about them. On August 31, Chinese journalist Wang Xiaolu confessed on state-run China Central Television (CCTV) to writing a...

The China Economy: What Lessons for Africa?

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
When African policy makers scan the globe in search of inspiration on how to structure their economies, that search often leads to Beijing. Not surprisingly, African leaders look at what China has done over the past 30 years where it went from being...

China’s Stocks Cap Biggest Selloff Since 2008 on Rescue Doubts

Enda Curran
Bloomberg
Bearish options market bets climbed as traders weighed level of state support before a World War II parade this week.

China Punishes Nearly 200 Over ‘Rumors’ About Stocks, Blasts and Parade

Edward Wong
New York Times
The moves indicate the political sensitivities aggravated in recent weeks by several volatile issues.

For China, a Plunge and a Reckoning

Orville Schell
Wall Street Journal
Anyone trying to design an event to bring Xi Jinping’s China back to Earth couldn’t have engineered something much more elegant than the turmoil in China’s financial markets and the resulting global aftershocks. The upheaval is traumatic for China’s...

Apple Stock Recovers After Tim Cook Email Praises China Sale

Brian X. Chen
New York Times
CEO Tim Cook emailed “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer to say the App Store in China had its best performance of the year in the last two weeks.

Features

08.20.15

Is China About to Plunge the World Into Recession?

David Wertime
On Aug. 18, China’s stock market plummeted by a vertigo-inducing 6.2 percent in one day of trading, part of a months-long decline that’s erased over $3 trillion worth of market value from the country’s equity markets. That followed last week’s...

China Seeks to Calm Markets as It Devalues Currency for 3rd Consecutive Day

Neil Gough
New York Times
Since Tuesday, the currency, the renminbi, has fallen 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in decades.

Bearish Bets Multiply as China Slows

Henry Sender
Financial Times
A slowdown in China is harder for its trading partners and manufacturing competitors than it is for China itself.

China Shares Post Biggest One-Day Gain in a Month

Chao Deng
Wall Street Journal
Weak economic data boosts stimulus hopes; investors signal confidence in Beijing’s support.

Caixin Media

08.03.15

Villain or Hero for Stock Market Saga?

An obscure equities-trading finance agency that brokers often slighted in favor of bank loans has suddenly taken center stage in the drama playing out in the stock market.But reviews are mixed over whether the four-year-old, quasi-governmental China...

China’s Naked Emperors

Paul Krugman
New York Times
By trying to control the market China's rulers show that despite 25 years of success they have no idea what they’re doing.

Conversation

07.29.15

Can Xi Jinping Turn China’s Economy Around?

Arthur R. Kroeber, George Chen & more
On Monday, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.5 percent, erasing all of the gains it had made in an extraordinary run-up this year. The drop was the second 8.5 percent drop in recent weeks. The first such drop (the occasion for the Conversation...

China’s Shares Tumble Again

Neil Gough
New York Times
Artists, essayists, lawyers, bloggers and others deemed to be online troublemakers have been hauled into police stations and investigated or imprisoned for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that was once confined to physical...

Chinese Stocks Rise as Shenzen Gains 20% on July Low

Chao Deng
MarketWatch
Pressure remains from a continuing unwinding of leveraged positions and analysts said they aren’t optimistic about cash-backed state support.

Caixin Media

07.20.15

How Beijing Intervened to Save China’s Stocks

Top executives from 21 securities firms spent the morning of Saturday July 4 pinned to government office chairs while the future of China’s stock markets hung in the balance.They’d been summoned on a day off to the Beijing office of the China...

Why China’s Sock Market Bubble Was Always Bound to Burst

Orville Schell
Guardian
The sudden collapse of the nation’s share boom left tens of millions of investors in shock. But a massive government intervention to prop up the market has laid bare the contradictions of a capitalist China.

The Real Risk Behind China’s Stock-Market Drama

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
More recently, the Party has offered annual targets for economic growth that almost always bear out, no matter what sort of creative policy, or accounting, steps are required

China Surprises With 7% Growth in Second Quarter

Mark Magnier
Wall Street Journal
China’s growth remained at 7% in the second quarter, a level economists had thought would be hard to reach amid broad signs that Beijing’s policies to jump-start the economy hadn’t taken hold. 

Oil Prices Rise on China Recovery and Iran Deadlock

Nicole Friedman and Matthew Cowley
Wall Street Journal
Oil prices climb as Chinese stocks rebounded, easing concerns about China’s economic growth, and expectations of higher Iranian crude-oil exports receded.

China's Richest Lost $195 bn In One Month

Liyan Chen
Wall Street Journal
The country’s stock market has been a wild ride this year, especially for millions of rookie retail investors who rushed to open their accounts for the first time.

Why Worry About China?

Alen Mattich
Wall Street Journal
The Chinese government has stepped in to the market, the police are involved, and short selling is under fire. 

China’s Web Users Find NYSE Shutdown Hilarious

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Within 30 minutes of the NYSE shutdown, the word spread on the Chinese Internet, and jokes came pouring in on China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo.

China's Stock Market Crash, Explained

Timothy B. Lee
Vox
Chinese stocks surged last year, but those gains didn't reflect broader economic gains. They were a result of more people investing in the stock market with borrowed funds.

China Takes More Steps to Stop ‘Irrational’ Selling'

Grace Zhu
Wall Street Journal
Chinese government agencies step up efforts to shore up China’s plunging stock markets that the securities regulator described as facing panic and irrational selling.

China Stock Slump Spreads as Alibaba to JD.com Whipsaw Investors

Elena Popina and Aleksandra Gjorgievska
Bloomberg
U.S.-traded Chinese stocks tumbled at least four years before rebounding in late trading as the rout that’s wiped $3.2 trillion from the value of mainland equities spreads.