China

When China’s private real-estate developers started sliding into distress more than a year ago, the government encouraged state-owned property companies to step in and take over their ailing peers’ projects and assets, the Wall Street Journal reported. That call has gone largely unheeded—a big reason why the country’s housing market remains in the doldrums. State-backed property companies have considered and ultimately decided against acquiring a great number of projects started by private developers.

China said it is launching a pilot program for real estate private equity investment funds as part of efforts to promote the property industry, Bloomberg News reported. The investment scope of the funds would include residential housing, commercial property and infrastructure projects, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement Monday. Investors in the pilot products have to put in no less than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) and would mainly be institutional investors, according to the statement. It was unclear when and where the pilot would start.

In October, Hong Kong rolled out the red carpet for crypto businesses to help revitalize the embattled financial hub. Signs are now emerging the push has under-the-radar backing from Beijing, providing impetus for mainland Chinese firms to return, Bloomberg News reported. Representatives from China’s Liaison Office and other officials have been frequent guests at the city’s crypto gatherings over the past months, swapping business cards and WeChat details. The encounters have been friendly, with officials checking on developments, asking for reports and in some cases making follow-up calls.

China Evergrande Group’s weak controls and poor management decisions were to blame for a funding arrangement that ultimately led banks to seize $2 billion of deposits held by a subsidiary, an independent investigation found, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property giant used deposits from six units of Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd., a separate Hong Kong-listed company, to borrow money between late December 2020 and early August 2021, when the developer was in need of capital.

Thousands of retirees confronted local officials and the police outside a popular park in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to demand the repeal of recent cuts in government-provided medical insurance for seniors, the New York Times reported. The protest on Wednesday, the second in Wuhan in a week, was the latest sign of strain on the finances of China’s local governments, which are responsible for covering much of the cost of everything from health care to heating homes.

China must stop taking positions that block debt relief to some of the world’s poorest nations and be willing to take losses on its loans to them, India said in its capacity as the current Group of 20 leader, Bloomberg News reported. “China needs to come out openly and say what their debt is and how to settle it,” said Amitabh Kant, the sherpa for India during its presidency of the G20 this year. “It can’t be that the International Monetary Fund takes a haircut and it goes to settle Chinese debt. How is that possible?

The United States is violating the principles of market economy and international trade rules in considering a ban on Chinese citizens buying property in the United States, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday, Reuters reported. "Generalizing the concept of national security and politicising economic, trade and investment issues violate the rules of market economy and international trade rules," spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.

Beijing is trying to kick-start economic growth after lifting its stringent Covid-19 restrictions. One challenge: Chinese citizens borrowed less and saved more last year and it isn’t clear how long it will take to return to freer-spending ways, the Wall Street Journal reported. Individuals in China took out the equivalent of $564 billion in new loans in 2022, down more than half from a year earlier, marking the lowest total since 2014 according to government data. The big drop was largely due to a decline in home sales, which translated into lower demand for new mortgages.

The absence of Chinese visitors devastated Thailand, where officials say tourism accounted for a fifth of gross domestic product in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported. About a quarter of arrivals that year came from China, bringing in 40% of international tourism revenue. By the time Thailand reopened its borders in October 2021, many businesses that relied wholly on the Chinese market had collapsed. China’s strict zero-Covid policy kept its citizens from traveling abroad until rules were eased in January, raising hopes for a surge of pent-up demand.

China's central bank said on Sunday it will roll over three lending tools to increase support for targeted sectors of the economy, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China will roll over a lending tool for supporting carbon emission reduction to the end of 2024, and extend a relending tool for promoting the clean use of coal to the end of 2023, the bank said in a statement on its website. The central bank will also extend a relending tool for the transport and logistics sector to June 2023, it said.