CX Daily: Where Analysts Think China’s Economy Is Going This Year
Observers say that the recovery from the latest Covid spike won’t be as robust as the one seen in 2020
Cargo ships at a port in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, June 20. Photo: VCG
Economy /
Roundup: Where analysts think China’s economy is going this year
China’s central government has been rolling out measures to stabilize the economy as the country’s worst Covid-19 wave since early 2020 winds down, but analysts say repairing supply chains and restoring business confidence may take a long time.
In late May, policymakers rolled out a stimulus package containing 33 measures, including tax and fee cuts, favorable loans for certain sectors and accelerated local government bond issuances for infrastructure investment.
Health code /
Trending in China: Sympathy for family kept away from hospital by Covid-control system
A video of a woman and her father being stopped by police on their way to a hospital and getting into a physical conflict went viral, gaining sympathy on social media platform Weibo.
As of Friday afternoon, the hashtag #A father and his daughter in Dandong attacked police after being prevented from seeing a doctor for holding a yellow health code #丹东父女黄码看病被拦后袭警 was viewed over 90 million times, garnering more than 17,000 comments.
FINANCE & ECONOMY
President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing on June 23. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit. Photo: Xinhua
BRICS /
Xi calls on BRICS to safeguard world justice, oppose hegemony and bullying
President Xi Jinping called on BRICS countries to jointly safeguard world justice and oppose hegemony and bullying as the “unprecedented challenges” brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis threaten global security and development.
At the annual BRICS summit Thursday, a virtual meeting of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Xi said “our world today is overshadowed by the dark clouds of Cold War mentality and power politics, and beset by constantly emerging traditional and nontraditional security threats,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Trusts /
Trust industry profits fall 31% amid market volatility
China’s trust industry suffered a 31% decline in profit in the first quarter, though its capital strength and asset structure improved, an industry association said.
In the first three months of 2022, the trust industry reported total profit of 12.4 billion yuan ($1.85 billion), down 31.42% from the same period a year ago, and operating revenue declined 28.25% year-on-year to 20.5 billion yuan, the China Trustee Association (CTA) said.
Bonds /
China debuts interbank transition bonds amid drive to cut carbon
China’s first batch of interbank transition bonds was launched earlier this week, aimed at funding green transformation projects as Beijing pushes its sweeping decarbonization drive.
Five state-owned enterprises (SOEs) issued the bonds, according to a Thursday statement released by the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII), a self-regulatory body of the interbank bond market, one of the country’s two major bond markets.
Quick hits /
Retail investors’ share of Chinese stock markets falls below 70%
China’s small bank risks ‘are under control,’ top regulator says
U.S. tariffs on China provide negotiating leverage, trade chief says
BUSINESS & TECH
News of the incident started circulating on the internet late Wednesday with photos and video clips showing a grey Nio vehicle lying on its side surrounded by broken glass and other debris.
Nio /
Two killed in Nio test car that fell from third floor
A test car developed by Nio Inc. fell out of a third-floor parking lot in Shanghai, killing two staffers on board, the Chinese electric vehicle upstart said Thursday in a statement.
The accident happened around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday in a parking building in the industrial park where Nio’s headquarters is located. Two digital cockpit testing staffers including one Nio employee and one partner staff member were killed, Nio said.
After an on-site analysis, it can be preliminarily confirmed that the accident had nothing to do with the vehicle itself, Nio said in a statement, which was briefly deleted.
Fraud /
China to reinforce law with exit ban on telecom fraud suspects
China moved closer to passing a law that would restrict people who engage in telecom or online fraud from leaving the country amid an intensified crackdown on such crimes.
A new provision in the anti-telecom and online fraud law allows the country’s immigration administration to stop people from leaving the country after they’ve checked out three conditions. One, the traveler must have visited or planned to visit areas severely affected by these scams; two, the traveler does not have legal and credible reasons for departure; and, three, there are valid grounds to believe the traveler is involved in scam activity overseas.
Electricity /
Heatwaves in China raise specter of power crunch
Rising temperatures sent electricity demand soaring to record highs in some Chinese provinces, raising concerns about tight supply after energy shortages last year.
On Tuesday, the maximum electricity load on Shandong province’s power grid hit 92.94 million kilowatts, smashing the record of just over 90 million kilowatts set in 2020. On the same day, Henan province’s grid also set a record at 72.49 million kilowatts, surpassing the previous record of 71.08 million kilowatts set a day before.
Tourism /
China’s travel agents seek savior in local tourism
Chinese travel agencies are turning to new business areas, such as local getaways, as they struggle to survive in a sector battered by the country’s “zero-Covid” strategy.
China began by locking up international tourism early in the pandemic and then the following year imposed restrictions on cross-provincial package tours. In 2022, regional lockdowns curbed movement as China battled its worst wave of Covid since 2020, with outbreaks in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Quick hits /
Spain’s La Liga terminates broadcasting deal with Chinese partner
Tech Insider /
Ericsson’s 5G plans for China, Douyin’s World Cup coup
GALLERY
Frisbees fly off the shelf in China
WEEKEND LONG READ
