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A nearly 60-foot segment of an expressway in a rural area of southeastern China collapsed before dawn on Wednesday after days of heavy rain, killing 24 people and injuring 30 others. Photos released after the incident appeared to show that a landslide had begun under two lanes of an expressway that ran along the side of a hill. A wide, brown scar of mud ran down the side of the hill between bright green foliage, leaving a large gap in the expressway. Vehicles lay jumbled at the base of the hill below the hole, blackened and still smoking from a fire that had burned vigorously during the night, drawing a large number of fire trucks to the area. The state news media said that many of the survivors were seriously injured, with drivers and passengers alike suffering severe bone fractures and injuries to internal organs.

Organizations: Vehicles Locations: China

But Mr. Li maintained that China was on the right track. China had “withstood external pressures and overcome internal hardships,” Mr. Li told the National People’s Congress, a Communist Party controlled body that approves laws and budgets. “The economy is generally rebounding.”The National People’s Congress, a choreographed weeklong event, typically focuses on the government’s near-term initiatives, especially economic objectives. China’s growth goal, and the ways that the government is attempting to achieve it, are under intense international scrutiny this year. Communist Party leaders are trying to restore confidence in China’s long-term prospects and to harness new drivers of growth, such as clean energy and electric vehicles.

Persons: Li, ” Mr, Li’s Organizations: Stock, National People’s Congress, Communist Party, People’s Congress Locations: China

☆ China Deflation Alarms Raised by Falling Prices for Food and Cars
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Consumer prices fell last month in China by the most since the global financial crisis in 2009, the latest sign that weak spending and a glut of output from factories and farms are forcing businesses to offer discounts. The decline in consumer prices was mostly confined to food and electric cars. But wholesale prices charged by factories and other producers also fell last month, and have been down from their levels a year earlier in every month since October 2022. A broad decline in the overall level of prices, a phenomenon known as deflation, could be very troublesome for the economy. Falling prices make it hard for households and companies to keep up on monthly payments for mortgages, corporate loans and other debts.

Persons: ”, Eswar Prasad Organizations: Cornell University Locations: China

☆ Chinese Leader Gives Early Estimate of Economic Growth
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s second-highest leader said Tuesday that his country’s economy had grown “around 5.2 percent” last year, providing an unusual early glimpse of important economic data a day before its official release. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Premier Li Qiang, the second-highest official in China after Xi Jinping, said that China had beat its target last year of economic growth of about 5 percent. He also insisted that China had managed to expand the economy without using risky or short-term measures, like large spending or credit programs. “In the course of economic development, we have held to avoiding major stimulus, and have not sought short-term growth at the price of accumulating long-term risks,” he said. Mr. Li’s comments were consistent with publicly available estimates of economic growth for last year.

Persons: China’s, Premier Li Qiang, Xi Jinping, ”, Li’s Organizations: Economic, “ Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Premier, China, Beijing

☆ China’s Economy Grew Last Year, but Strains Lurk Behind the Numbers
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Many factories ran at half capacity or less because of weak demand inside China, and are working to export more to make up for it. China’s economy grew 5.2 percent last year as it rebounded from nearly three years of stringent “zero Covid” pandemic control measures, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday. During the final three months of the year, output rose at an annual pace of 4.1 percent. Longer term, China’s growth is slowing. High debt, a housing crisis that has undermined confidence, and a shrinking and aging work force are weighing on output.

Organizations: National Bureau of Statistics Locations: China

“China and the United States’ relations will forever be linked to the name ‘Kissinger,’” Mr. Xi said to Mr. Kissinger as the two men sat side by side in cream-colored armchairs. It was the same building where half a century earlier Mr. Kissinger had met Zhou Enlai, who was then China’s premier: Villa No. When Mr. Xi was on the cusp of power in 2012, he met Mr. Kissinger twice — once in Beijing and then in Washington. In a sign of the high regard in which he was held, Mr. Xi respectfully cited Mr. Kissinger’s views in speeches. “It is understandable that he cared about the interests of the United States,” Professor Lu said.

Persons: ”, Henry A . Kissinger, Mr, Kissinger, Nixon’s, Xie Feng, Biden, Xi Jinping, “, ‘ Kissinger, ’, Xi, Zhou Enlai, Li Shangfu, John F, Kirby, Kissinger “, Wu Xinbo, —, President Trump, Wu, Trump, Kissinger’s, Charles T, Munger, Lu Yeh, Lu Organizations: Global Times, Communist Party, Beijing, United, Mr, U.S . National Security Council, Institute of International Studies, Fudan University, National Chengchi University Locations: China, United States, Washington, Communist, Beijing, U.S, ” China, “ China, Diaoyutai, Shanghai, Philippines, Australia, Weibo, Taiwan, Taipei, “

They are using their savings to buy overseas apartments, stocks and insurance policies. Able to fly again to Tokyo, London and New York, Chinese travelers have bought apartments in Japan and poured money into accounts in the United States or Europe that pay higher interest than in China, where rates are low and falling. The outbound shift of money in part indicates unease inside China about the sputtering recovery after the pandemic as well as deeper problems, like an alarming slowdown in real estate, the main storehouse of wealth for families. In some cases, Chinese are improvising to get around China’s strict government controls on transferring money overseas. They have bought gold bars small enough to be scattered unobtrusively through carry-on luggage, as well as large stacks of foreign currency.

Persons: Xi Jinping Locations: Tokyo, London, New York, Japan, United States, Europe, China

In 2019, Yu, worried that the stories of Jewish refugees in his hometown were being forgotten, came up with the idea for the piece. He approached the New York Philharmonic, which has had a partnership with the Shanghai Symphony since 2014, about commissioning the work together. Yu said he never expected the oratorio to premiere in wartime but hoped that its message would still resonate. Yu has long known Zigman, who has composed more than 60 Hollywood scores, including “The Notebook,” and he and Thibaudet suggested the idea for a tango concerto. “Our project is really about bridging cultures and humanity and love, hope, loss and tragedy,” Zigman said.

Persons: Yu, ”, Jean, Yves Thibaudet, Thibaudet, ” Zigman Organizations: New York Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai, Hollywood Locations: Asia, Europe, Nanjing

Boeing is holding 85 Max planes in storage awaiting delivery to Chinese carriers, for which the planes were even painted years ago. Over the next two decades, Boeing projects, China will account for 20 percent of global airplane demand. This means China will need an estimated 6,500 single-aisle planes like the 737 Max and more than 1,500 larger, twin-aisle planes, such as Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, Boeing said. The first Max passenger flight there was in January, and all 95 Max planes in China are now back in service. Boeing has also sold and delivered dozens of 777 freighters to customers in China in recent years.

Persons: Max Organizations: Boeing, Max, ICBC Leasing Locations: China, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Dubai

In Shenzhen, a metropolis born of China’s economic prosperity, Paibang Village is a reminder of the city’s modest past and the challenges ahead for reviving the country’s property sector. Paibang is what China calls an urban village, a labyrinth of low-slung apartment buildings and mom-and-pop storefronts connected by a maze of alleyways and narrow roads. There are hundreds of them in Shenzhen, a municipality of 18 million people next to Hong Kong, and thousands of such villages across China. Now with China mired in an unyielding property crisis, policymakers want to revamp aging urban neighborhoods like Paibang to kick-start construction and spur local economies. Seven years ago, Paibang was chosen for an “urban renewal” by city officials, and in 2019 China Evergrande, one of the country’s biggest real estate firms, took control of the project.

Persons: Paibang, Evergrande Locations: Shenzhen, China, Hong Kong

President Biden will press the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday to crack down on the Chinese firms that are helping to produce fentanyl, a potent drug that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. An agreement to curb China’s illicit exports of fentanyl — and particularly the chemicals that can be combined to make the drug — could be one of the more significant achievements for the United States out of Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi’s meeting, which is taking place as leaders from Pacific nations gather for an international conference in San Francisco. China is home to a thriving chemical industry that pumps out compounds that are made into pharmaceuticals, fragrances, textile dyes and fertilizers. Some of those same compounds can also be combined to create fentanyl, an opioid that can be 100 times as potent as morphine. U.S. officials argue that this vast chemical industry is playing a key role in the American fentanyl crisis by supplying the bulk of materials used in illegal drug labs, including in Mexico, which is now the largest exporter of fentanyl to the United States.

Persons: Biden, Xi Jinping, Xi’s Locations: United States, Pacific, San Francisco . China, Mexico

☆ China’s Prices Fall Again, Renewing Fears of Deflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prices are falling again in China after a two-month reprieve, with households and businesses wary of spending even as state-controlled banks pump money into the construction of more factories. The decline in prices could put China on the cusp of a pernicious economic condition called deflation, in which companies and workers find that they receive less money for their goods or their work, while their debts remain as heavy as ever. In the United States, by contrast, inflation has been brought down substantially, although consumer prices are still higher than before the pandemic. Consumer prices in China dipped 0.2 percent in October compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Falling food prices played an important role, notably a 30 percent plunge in pork prices as Chinese farmers began raising more pigs.

Organizations: National Bureau of Statistics Locations: China, United States, Europe

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

☆ More Semiconductors, Less Housing: China’s New Economic Plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s political leaders, under pressure to support the country’s fragile recovery, are slowly steering the economy on a new course. Enormous sums are instead being channeled to manufacturers, particularly in fast-growing industries like electric cars and semiconductors. A greater emphasis on manufacturing will probably lead to more exports, an increase that could antagonize China’s trading partners. China’s extra lending also poses a challenge for the West, which is trying to foster extra investment in some of the same industries through legislation like the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The shift to manufacturing loans underlines Beijing’s reluctance to bail out China’s debt-burdened property market.

Organizations: Biden Locations: China

☆ China Is Lending Billions to Countries in Financial Trouble
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s early, rapid expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative alarmed U.S. officials, who saw the program as eroding American influence. The Trump administration and Congress merged and expanded two agencies in 2018 to create the development finance corporation. Between 2014 and 2017, AidData found, China was providing nearly three times as much development financing as the United States. But by 2021, China was outspending the United States by only 30 percent. (The American loan for up to $553 million would be for expansion of the busy port in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital and main city.)

Persons: Trump, China’s, AidData, Mahinda Rajapaksa Organizations: United States International Development Finance Corporation, Initiative Locations: Greece, Sri Lanka, China, United States, Hambantota, Colombo, Sri

China is installing about as many solar panels and wind turbines as the rest of the world combined, and is on track to meet its target for clean energy six years early. It is using renewables to meet nearly all of the growth in its electricity needs. Yet there is another side to that rapid expansion, one that is causing consternation in Washington at a critical period of climate diplomacy: China is also building new power plants that burn coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, at a pace that dwarfs the rest of the world. China accounts for a third of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions — more than North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Africa combined. President Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, began a joint push for climate action a decade ago at Sunnylands.

Persons: John Kerry, Biden’s, Xie Zhenhua, Barack Obama, Xi Locations: China, Washington, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Southern California

☆ Foxconn, Apple’s Manufacturer in China, Is Said to Be Under Tax Audit
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Foxconn, whose full name is Hon Hai Technology Group, issued a statement hours later that said the company would comply with its legal obligations: “Legal compliance everywhere we operate around the world is a fundamental principle of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn). “The two sides exchanged views on Apple’s development in China, industrial chain supply chain cooperation and other issues,” the ministry said in a statement afterward. In recent months, central government authorities have warned local and provincial governments facing budget shortfalls not to use arbitrary fines to raise money. Beijing is trying hard to woo foreign investment to strengthen economic growth and maintain China’s leading role in global supply chains. The two developers that vied for national leadership over the past several years, China Evergrande and Country Garden, are in peril, unable to make punctual debt payments.

Persons: Foxconn, Tim Cook, Jin Zhuanglong Organizations: Hai Technology Group, Hai Technology, Study Times, Communist, Central Party School Locations: Beijing, China

☆ China’s Economy Gets a Boost From Beijing, but Housing Woes Persist
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s economy grew more than expected over the summer, though the real estate market continued to weaken, as the government and the banks it controls poured money into infrastructure and new factories. Data released on Wednesday showed that economic output increased from July through September compared with the prior three months. Over the past year and a half, China’s economy, the world’s second largest, has struggled. In the third quarter — from July through September — the gross domestic product grew 1.3 percent when compared with the three previous months, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said. For the second quarter, however, economic growth was revised down to 0.5 percent.

Organizations: Housing, China’s National Bureau of Statistics

☆ Slowing, Graying and in Debt, Can China’s Industrial Heartland Be Revived?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hundreds of workers at a factory in Shenyang in northeastern China weld automated machines, 95 yards long, that are used to bore subway tunnels. At another factory there, employees assemble robots that China’s solar panel makers will use to streamline their production. Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province, one of three large provinces in the northeast that constitute the cradle of China’s heavy industry. Now the central government, confronting a national economy that has slowed because of a real estate crisis that defies easy fixes, is turning to cities like Shenyang. Fewer people are buying new homes, apartment prices are falling and construction cranes are less active.

Locations: Shenyang, China, Liaoning Province, Beijing

The United States and China have created a new structure for economic dialogue in an effort to improve communication between the world’s largest economies and stabilize a relationship that has become increasingly strained in recent years. The Treasury Department said on Friday that the United States and China had agreed to create economic and financial working groups that will hold regular meetings to discuss policy and exchange information. The Treasury Department said that the new working groups would create “ongoing structured channels for frank and substantive discussions.” Treasury officials will report to Ms. Yellen, who traveled to Beijing in July. China’s representatives, from its ministry of finance and the People’s Bank of China, will report to Vice Premier He Lifeng. “These working groups will serve as important forums to communicate America’s interests and concerns, promote a healthy economic competition between our two countries with a level playing field for American workers and businesses, and advance cooperation on global challenges,” Ms. Yellen said in a statement.

Persons: Biden’s, Yellen, ” Ms Organizations: Treasury, Treasury Department, People’s Bank of China Locations: States, China, United States, Beijing

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

In the gloom of China’s economy, one area of business is booming: cosmetics. After enduring nearly three years of mandatory masks and frequent lockdowns during the pandemic, many Chinese consumers, wary of big-ticket purchases like apartments, are now splurging on lipstick, perfume, moisturizers and other personal care products. But cosmetics companies from France, Japan, South Korea and the United States, which have invested heavily in China, are missing out on a lot of the action. As China’s cosmetics companies are booming, imports of cosmetics are wilting under regulations that the country imposed on foreign manufacturers during the pandemic. While China’s trade conflicts with the West over semiconductors pivot on national security and technological innovation, the dispute over cosmetics is largely about money.

Locations: France, Japan, South Korea, United States, China

☆ China’s Slumping Economy: What the Latest Numbers Are Signaling
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s trains, planes, stores and beaches were a little fuller last month than a year ago, and the pace of activity picked up at factories, particularly those making mobile phones and semiconductors. A batch of numbers released on Friday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed a modest improvement in the country’s overall retail sales and industrial production during August. A series of small steps taken by the government over the summer, including two rounds of interest rate cuts, seems to be yielding a slightly better-than-expected improvement in the country’s economy. “The national economy has accelerated its recovery, production and supply have increased steadily, market demand has gradually improved,” Fu Linghui, China’s director of national economic statistics, said at a news conference. “Some may be of the view that China’s economy has already bottomed out, but we remain cautious,” said a research note from Nomura, a Japanese bank.

Persons: ” Fu Linghui, ”, Nomura Organizations: China’s National Bureau, Statistics

☆ China Frees Banks to Lend More in Latest Attempt to Spur Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Keith Bradsher | More About Keith Bradsher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s central bank announced a policy change on Thursday that will allow the country’s banks to lend more money, but a nationwide economic slowdown has left many companies and households wary of borrowing. Other measures taken to strengthen borrowing and spending have included government-guided interest rate cuts in June and a round of rate reductions last month on many bank loans. Policymakers in some of China’s biggest cities have taken steps to make it easier to get a mortgage by lowering down payment requirements. The dilemma for the banks is that many companies, facing weak sales, are reluctant to borrow more. Banks have found themselves under pressure to lend money by buying bonds from deeply indebted provincial and local governments that need to pay for big infrastructure projects to create jobs.

Persons: Banks Locations: China’s

China has discouraged the use of foreign-made electronic devices by government officials for a decade. It has told agencies and state-owned companies to replace American computer servers and other devices with domestic ones. And officials frequently show off to Americans their phones made by Huawei, China’s cellphone giant. Now, some employees of government agencies said they have received directives not to use Apple iPhones for work. Chinese authorities have issued no public pronouncements about broader restrictions on iPhones.

Organizations: Huawei, Apple, Street Locations: China, American, U.S

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