Sino-File
Slow, but not steady Oct 7, 2022 (WiC 603)
‘A slow-motion financial crisis’
How Logan Wright, a partner at the consultancy Rhodium Group in Hong Kong, described the impact of the slowdown in China’s property sector to the Financial Times this week. The crisis in the property market is spreading to other parts of the economy, Wright said, with predictions that thousands of local government financing vehicles are about to default.
Striking the right note Sep 30, 2022 (WiC 602)
“If two fine orchestras are to work together harmoniously, their conductors must first set the same tone, and all the players must follow the same music score”
Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, speaking at the Asia Society in New York last week, complained that the “US team seems to have two different sets of music score” in which commitments from Joe Biden to a “stable bilateral relationship” were not being translated into “logical policies”.
Mixed messages Sep 23, 2022 (WiC 601)
“In my view, ‘strategic ambiguity’ is being eroded, but what is replacing it is closer to ‘strategic confusion’ than ‘strategic clarity’”
Bonnie Glaser, a Taiwan expert at the German Marshall Fund, responds in the Financial Times to comments from Joe Biden that the US military would defend Taiwan from an “unprecedented attack”. Beijing responded angrily that the remarks “severely violate” Washington’s policy towards the island.
The home stretch Sep 16, 2022 (WiC 600)
“We have to work hard and put our nose to the grindstone to ensure the delivery of projects. Only in this way can we satisfy the homebuyers, resume sales, resume operations, repay all types of debts and get out of the predicament”
Evergrande chairman Xu Jiayin says construction has started again on 668 of the company’s 706 pre-sold projects in China. Investors in the company are still waiting for details on its restructuring, though, although one creditor has just seized its Hong Kong headquarters building after failure to repay a $968 million loan.
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