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☆ China Evergrande Founder Accused of Exaggerating Revenue by $78 Billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China Evergrande Group exaggerated its revenue by more than $78 billion and committed securities fraud over two years before its spectacular collapse in 2021, a top Chinese regulator said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission accused Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande, of “making decisions and organizing fraud,” the company reported in a filing to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges on Monday night. Xia Haijun, a former chief executive, was fined $2 million and also banned from financial markets, along with several other executives. The New York Times reported in December that questionable accounting and poor oversight led to Evergrande’s demise. Over the years before it defaulted on its debt, Evergrande had been treating money it received for apartments as revenue even though at times it had not built those apartments, the Times reported.

Persons: Hui Ka Yan, Hui, Xia Haijun, Evergrande Organizations: China, Group, China Securities Regulatory Commission, New York Times, Times Locations: Shanghai, Shenzhen

China’s ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to have more babies. Chinese women have been shunning marriage and babies at such a rapid pace that China’s population in 2023 shrank for the second straight year, accelerating the government’s sense of crisis over the country’s rapidly aging population and its economic future. China said on Wednesday that 9.02 million babies were born in 2023, down from 9.56 million in 2022 and the seventh year in a row that the number has fallen. China’s total population was 1,409,670,000 at the end of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Persons: China’s Organizations: Communist Party, National Bureau of Statistics Locations: China

☆ Apple to Offer Rare Discount on iPhones in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ever bought a discounted new phone from Apple? But in China, Apple is slashing the price of some of its latest iPhones by $70 amid worries that Chinese consumers have cooled on the brand. That would save a buyer about 6 to 8 percent, based on prices on Apple’s China website. Cutting prices on high-end electronics to buyers in China is an unexpected move for Apple, one that highlights the challenges the American company faces in China, where patriotic shoppers are choosing domestic brands amid rising US-China tensions. Apple and its Chinese rival, Huawei, are on the front lines of a battle over technology between Beijing and Washington that has seen both countries restrict access to foreign technology.

Organizations: Apple, Huawei Locations: China, Beijing, Washington

Once China’s most prolific property developer, China Evergrande has narrowly averted liquidation. A Hong Kong bankruptcy judge on Monday gave Evergrande another two months to work out a deal with foreign investors who lost money when the company defaulted two years ago with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. It was an unexpected development in a bankruptcy lawsuit filed 18 months ago by one investor trying to get paid by forcing the dismantling of Evergrande. It was one of the country’s most successful companies and at the heart of the real estate industry, which drove one third of the nation’s economic growth. But years of overexpansion left it financially precarious, and when it defaulted, it had more than $300 billion of overdue bills.

Persons: China Evergrande, Evergrande, Jan, Linda Chan, ”, Neil McDonald, Kirkland, “, overexpansion Organizations: Hong, Ellis Locations: China, Hong Kong

President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China plan to meet in California on Wednesday for a discussion that Mr. Biden’s advisers say is meant to stabilize relations even as it features a host of topics on which the two fiercely competitive countries disagree. The Biden administration, which formally announced the meeting on Friday morning, said the two leaders would have the highly choreographed discussion as they attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, known as APEC. In a call with reporters on Thursday, two senior advisers to Mr. Biden said the meeting was intended to be wide-ranging, with Mr. Biden prepared to bring up issues including Taiwan, election interference, the war in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas. Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China, is set to hold elections early next year, and one of the advisers said Mr. Biden would seek to “present” Mr. Xi with “clarity” — meaning that the United States expects Beijing not to interfere and is concerned that it might. Mr. Biden is also expected to warn Mr. Xi against interfering in U.S. elections.

Persons: Biden, Xi Jinping, Mr, Xi Organizations: Economic Cooperation Locations: China, California, Asia, San Francisco, Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, United States, Beijing, U.S

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday of risks posed by China’s financial and property sectors even as it took a more optimistic view on the country’s economic growth. forecast that China’s economy will expand 5.4 percent this year and 4.6 percent in 2024. Each estimate was 0.4 percentage points higher than the fund had predicted four weeks earlier. Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director of the fund, said at a news conference in Beijing that the changes reflected stronger economic performance than expected from July through September and recent efforts by Beijing to stimulate the economy. But Ms. Gopinath voiced worries about China’s housing sector, which faces falling prices and sales as well as loan defaults by leading developers.

Persons: Gita Gopinath, Gopinath Organizations: Monetary Fund Locations: Beijing, China

☆ China’s Male Leaders Signal to Women That Their Place Is in the Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At China’s top political gathering for women, it was mostly a man who was seen and heard. Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, sat center stage at the opening of the National Women’s Congress. From the head of a large round table, Mr. Xi lectured female delegates at the closing meeting on Monday. In the past, officials had touched on the role women play at home as well as in the work force. But in this year’s address, Mr. Xi made no mention of women at work.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, “, ”, Xi’s Organizations: National Women’s, Communist Party’s, Communist Party

After two years in detention, a Chinese journalist who spoke up against sexual harassment stood trial on subversion charges on Friday along with a labor rights activist, the latest example of Beijing’s intensified crackdown on civil society. Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist who was once a prominent voice in China’s #MeToo movement, and her friend Wang Jianbing, the activist, were taken away by the police in September 2021 and later charged with inciting subversion of state power. Their trial was held at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China. Little is known about the government’s case, but the vaguely worded offense with which the two were charged has long been seen as a tool for muzzling dissent. A steady stream of activists, lawyers, tycoons and intellectuals have been put on trial and sentenced.

Persons: Beijing’s, Huang Xueqin, Wang Jianbing, Xi Jinping, Huang Organizations: People’s, Communist Party, Human Rights Locations: Chinese, Guangzhou, China

☆ Hong Kong Says It Calls the Shots, Not Beijing. Investors Are Wary.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Isolated from the world and pulled closer into Beijing’s orbit over the past three years, Hong Kong is finding that its fortunes are tied more than ever to China. The city’s stock market, which is seen as a proxy for China’s economy, is among the world’s worst performing this year. The rivers of money that flowed into companies, minting new wealth, have slowed to a trickle. To counter this sentiment, officials are making a big push for investors overseas, with trips to Europe and the United States. Paul Chan, the city’s finance chief, is visiting Paris and London this week and will then travel to Berlin and Frankfurt before moving on to the United States.

Persons: Paul Chan Locations: Hong Kong, China, Europe, United States, Paris, London, Berlin, Frankfurt

American companies doing business in China are less optimistic about the future than at any other time in more than two decades. These are some of the takeaways from reports released Tuesday by organizations representing close to 2,000 European and American firms. The papers by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China portray a business environment that has become more difficult to navigate. Nearly two-thirds of European companies in China have seen business opportunities thwarted by China’s ever more complex web of regulations. The reports also make clear that despite the troublesome landscape, China remains an enticing lure for Western corporations.

Persons: China’s Organizations: American Chamber of Commerce, European Union Chamber of Commerce, Companies Locations: China, Shanghai, Beijing

☆ China Is Full of Risks. So Why Can’t Corporate America Leave?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For decades, America’s corporate chieftains saw China as a money spinner. Western companies doing business in China are facing pressures that were unimaginable several years ago. The country’s economy is floundering and its relationship with the United States is strained. Many Western companies still see their China operations as a long-term bet, but the payoff is tempered with hazards. “There is a recognition among C.E.O.s that they need to mitigate some risks,” said Myron Brilliant, a senior counselor at Dentons Global Advisors-ASG.

Persons: ”, Myron Brilliant Organizations: Global Locations: China, United States

☆ Paid Late, or Never: Painters, Builders and Realtors Hit by China’s Property Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But a drop in sales over the past six months has pushed it to the edge and in August, it threw up its hands. Country Garden skipped two small interest payments on bonds, something that has pushed it to the edge of default. If it fails to make those payments by early September, when a grace period for the interest payments ends, it will join a long list of private companies that have defaulted. “Such apartments have run out; we can’t get them,” said Han Tao, a manager at a landscaping company that is owed $1.4 million from property developers. For Mr. Han, apartments wouldn’t have been that useful anyway; no one is buying them right now.

Persons: China Evergrande, ”, Han Tao, Han Organizations: Garden, behemoth Locations: China

A model Chinese property developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. The broader economy has been threatened, and the confidence of consumers, businesses and investors undermined. So far, China’s typically hands-on policymakers have done little to ease anxieties and seem determined to reduce the country’s economic reliance on real estate. “What is happening in the Chinese property market is really unprecedented,” said Charles Chang, who heads corporate credit ratings for Greater China at Standard & Poor’s.

Persons: ”, Charles Chang Organizations: Greater, Standard Locations: China, Greater China

☆ Why This Company’s Financial Crisis Threatens China’s Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Country Garden, a Chinese real estate giant, has lost billions of dollars and racked up $200 billion in unpaid bills. It’s on the hook to deliver, by one estimate, nearly one million apartments across hundreds of cities in China. In China’s housing market, there are plenty of deadbeat developers no longer paying their bills. The possible collapse of Country Garden is one to pay attention to. “One shall pick himself up from where he has fallen,” Mo Bin, Country Garden’s president, said last week, pledging to “spare no effort.”

Persons: ” Mo, ” Locations: China

☆ Outrage Online as Chinese Property Giant Wobbles and Stock Dives
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now investors are treating Country Garden, the giant property developer, like a ticking time bomb. The company’s shares, which trade in Hong Kong, took a dive on Friday, dragging its value to new depths. The stock is trading around one Hong Kong dollar, or about 13 cents U.S. Commenters on Chinese social media expressed their shock — and anger — at the drumbeat of bad news about China’s housing market. Many invoked the memory of another property giant, China Evergrande, that landed in default two years ago, marking the start of a wave chain of property flameouts.

Persons: China’s, — Organizations: Hong Locations: Hong Kong, China

☆ Another Chinese Property Giant Teeters, Raising Worries About the Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | More About Alexandra Stevenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That this is happening to Country Garden is alarming investors. It had largely benefited from measures to bolster the property market last year that included more financial support. But recent events have led Country Garden to a point of distress that was unthinkable a year ago, when it was making nearly $50 billion in sales. The worry now is that even as Beijing has pledged more support to the property market, the measures may not be enough. But if Country Garden doesn’t make the payments it will trigger a default, scaring those who have lent it money in the past.

Persons: Sandra Chow Organizations: Pacific Research Locations: Beijing, China, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Asia, Pacific, CreditSights

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