China

Hundreds of Chinese investors who lost savings in the collapse of China Evergrande launched a coordinated campaign this month to press authorities for an update on the failed property developer, Reuters reported. In the previously unreported action, small groups of disgruntled investors turned up at three Shenzhen government offices in succession to ask for an update on an investigation launched more than a year ago, the people told Reuters. They said they hoped this method of applying pressure on officials would not be deemed as a form of unlawful public protest.

Donald Trump’s new tariff pledges send a clear signal that he wants to rewrite the terms of North America’s free-trade pact and follow through with plans to hit China with tariffs, demonstrating to allies and adversaries alike that he is serious about renewing confrontation over a global trading system that he believes costs the U.S. dearly, the Wall Street Journal reported.

China’s central bank kept a key policy rate steady in November and drained billions in liquidity from the financial system via a medium-term liquidity management tool, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China on Monday injected 900 billion yuan of liquidity, or about $124.26 billion, into the banking system via its one-year medium-term lending facility at an unchanged rate of 2.00%. That compared with a total of 1.45 trillion yuan of such loans due this month, representing a net drain of 550 billion yuan in November.

When China’s top leaders pledged this summer to act more aggressively to stimulate economic growth, they rounded off their remedies with a political order: Slash red tape, the Wall Street Journal reported. There were promises to revitalize the world’s second-largest economy by boosting household incomes, consumption and bank lending to businesses. But plans will be hobbled, the Communist Party’s elite Politburo warned in July, if front-line officials remain bogged down by busywork.

China's commerce ministry on Thursday announced a series of policy measures aimed at boosting the country's foreign trade, including pledging to strengthen financing support to firms and expand exports of agricultural products, Reuters reported. With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs in excess of 60% on all Chinese goods, which has rattled Chinese manufacturers and accelerated factory relocation to Southeast Asia and other regions, exporters in the world's second-biggest economy are bracing for any trade disruptions.

On his first day in office, leader Xi Jinping inherited an ambitious road map to build 10,000 miles of high-speed rail to link China’s biggest cities. He took those plans and supersized them. What has emerged 12 years later is one of the biggest public works in history, soon to exceed 30,000 miles of high-speed rail, the Wall Street Journal reported. For many of its citizens, the vast network is one of the clearest signs of China’s progress, especially compared with the U.S., which has struggled to get any high-speed rail going.

China’s beleaguered solar industry, wracked by a glut and fierce price war, is already on the road to recovery, according to one of the country’s largest panel manufacturers, Bloomberg News reported. “We’re at a turning point,” Li Zhenguo, founder and president of Longi Green Energy Technology Co., said in an interview.

In ways big and small, Beijing’s takeover of Hong Kong’s financial sector is looking irreversible. With stunning speed, the world’s pre-eminent East-meets-West investment hub has become more Chinese as international financial institutions, corporations, and expatriates retreat, the Wall Street Journal reported. Foreign banks played major roles in one-fifth of Hong Kong’s initial public offerings this year, compared with roughly half just two years ago. Chinese banks have taken the places of Western ones as top earners in the city’s debt-capital market.