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☆ Tesla cuts prices in China for second time in three months as demand slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN —Tesla has slashed car prices in China for the second time in less than three months, in an effort to boost sales amidst slowing demand in the world’s largest car market. The electric vehicle maker cut prices for all versions of its China-made Model 3 and Model Y on Friday, according to its website. This is the second price cut since October 24, when Tesla (TSLA) reduced the prices of Model 3 and Model Y by as much as 9.4%. “Tesla’s price cuts are backed by innumerable engineering innovations,” said Grace Tao, Tesla’s vice president for external relations in China, on her Weibo account on Friday. Tesla’s price cuts come days after Beijing ended a 13-year-long subsidy for electric vehicle purchases on December 31, a move that is expected to put further pressure on car demand.

☆ Jack Ma's Alibaba, China tech giants are making a comeback post zero Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —Chinese tech giants are witnessing a dream start to the year. US-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce firms Alibaba (BABA), JD.com (JD) and Pinduoduo (PDD) added $53 billion to their combined market value on Wednesday. The surge comes as investors are feeling optimistic that Chinese regulators will go easy on tech firms this year and also introduce measures to boost growth in the industry. The change in sentiment comes after Jack Ma’s Ant Group won a key approval for capital expansion. Chinese tech companies have faced a sweeping regulatory crackdown since late 2020, which drove investors away.

☆ Tom Zhu: Elon Musk’s right-hand man at Tesla
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —Tesla’s China chief has reportedly been given a big promotion. Tom Zhu, Tesla's executive in charge of China, speaks as a new Tesla experience store opens near West Lake on August 18, 2015 in Hangzhou, China. Zhu joined Tesla in 2014 and has been described as “pragmatic,” “industrious” and “a workaholic” by the Chinese media. Aerial view of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory at Lingang New Area on July 11, 2021 in Shanghai, China. Tesla’s China successZhu’s reported promotion came after an impressive performance by Tesla’s China operations.

☆ Global markets try to put last year’s misery behind them
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —Global stocks are striding higher on the first major trading day of 2023 as investors try to look beyond a gloomy outlook for the world economy, China’s worst Covid outbreak and stubbornly high inflation in Europe. ET Tuesday, extending strong gains posted Monday when Chinese and US markets were closed. In Asia, markets ended the day firmly in positive territory, recovering from early losses. Still waryTuesday’s market gains provide cheery news for investors after a rollercoaster 2022 that saw $33 trillion wiped off global equity markets. Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund, warned in an interview with CBS that aired on Sunday that 2023 will be tougher on the global economy than 2022 was.

☆ Xi Jinping estimates China’s 2022 GDP grew at least 4.4%. But Covid misery looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —China’s economy grew at least 4.4% in 2022, according to leader Xi Jinping, a figure much stronger than many economists had expected. China’s annual GDP is expected to have exceeded 120 trillion yuan ($17.4 trillion) last year, Xi said in a televised New Year’s Eve speech on Saturday. Economists had generally expected growth to slump to a rate between 2.7% and 3.3% for 2022. But an explosion of Covid infections, triggered by the abrupt easing of pandemic restrictions in early December, is clouding the outlook. However, some forecast the economy will rebound after March, as people learn to live with Covid.

☆ As China abandons zero-Covid, what will the economy look like in 2023?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

And with the global economy now facing significant challenges, including energy shortages, slowing growth and high inflation, China’s reopening could provide a much-needed and timely boost. China’s historic property downturn and a potential global recession could also cause more headaches in the new year, they added. They expect China’s economy to contract by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2023, before rebounding in the second quarter. Trade had powered much of China’s economic growth earlier this year, as exports were boosted by rising prices of the country’s goods and a weaker currency. “But a looming global recession means they probably have further to fall over the next few quarters.”

☆ China adds billions to its 2021 GDP estimate, but its economy is facing a big test this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Hong Kong CNN —China’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021 was over half a trillion yuan more than initially calculated, official data revealed Tuesday. The update comes at a time the world’s second-largest economy faces severe strain from an unprecedented wave of Covid infections sweeping the country. The new data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows the nation’s economy grew 8.4% in 2021 from a year earlier, higher than the 8.1% initially reported. Per the revised figures, China’s GDP reached 114.92 trillion yuan ($16.52 trillion) last year, up 556.7 billion yuan ($80 billion) from the previous estimate. Revisions to initial estimates of GDP are common in many economies, mainly because of the large amount of information used in data construction.

The country will also scrap all other restrictive Covid measures for travelers, including quarantines for positive patients and contact tracing. China downgraded Covid management to a less-strict “Class B disease,” in the same category as less-severe diseases, such as Dengue fever. The existing quarantine policy for international arrivals to China was first launched in 2020 and modified over the course of the past several years. Since the world’s second largest economy drastically eased its Covid restrictions, there has been no clear data on the extent of the virus’ spread on the national level. China’s current focus is to prepare sufficient medical resources, according to the NHC statement.

☆ Covid-19: China's surge in cases hits factories and consumer market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN —China’s economy is under severe strain as a wave of Covid cases sweeps across the country. Factories and companies are also forced to shut down or cut production because of more workers getting sick. Nationwide, truck cargo volumes and delivery orders both shrank in the past week, according to statistics from the transportation ministry and the postal service regulator. Many factories have been forced to shut down for weeks because of sick workers and lack of orders, according to Chinese media. The next few weeks may be “the most dangerous” for China’s battle with Covid, said Capital Economics analysts.

Nanjing, a historic city in eastern China, vowed to ensure daily supplies of fever medicines. The rapid spread of the virus across China has left many pharmacies sold out of medication to treat COVID-19. A major Chinese pharmaceutical company said this week that it expects the shortage of fever medicines to ease soon as manufacturers ramp up production. The Haikou-based drug manufacturer said there was a “short-term” shortage of its fever and cold medicines mostly due to hoarding. Tech giant Tencent announced this week that it had rolled out a program via its social messaging app Wechat allowing people to share surplus fever medicines.

Even home remedies such as canned peaches are being snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid. Macao is another special administrative region of China, while Zhuhai is a southern mainland Chinese city which it borders. Current rules don’t allow medicines to be mailed directly from Hong Kong to mainland China, according to the salespersons. Sending agents directly from Hong Kong, which also shares a land border with the mainland, isn’t feasible due to a lack of available agents, Simon said. In Macao, the drug regulator ordered pharmacies last week to limit purchases of pain relievers, fever medicines and antigen test kits.

☆ Xiaomi layoffs: Thousands of tech jobs cut as China’s unemployment crisis deepens
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The Chinese company’s decision to slash jobs comes soon after tech giants across the world, including Meta and Twitter, have laid off thousands of workers. The Beijing-based firm recently conducted a “routine personnel optimization and organizational streamlining,” a Xiaomi spokesperson told CNN. In the first nine months of 2022, Xiaomi reduced its workforce by nearly 1,900, according to its financial documents. Diminishing tech jobsThe layoffs at the Chinese smartphone giant come at a time when the country is struggling with mounting economic challenges. The urban unemployment rate, the broadest official measure of jobs, rose to 5.7% in November, the highest in six months, according to most recent government statistics.

☆ China steps up support for private sector to boost Covid-hit economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —Beijing has vowed to go all out next year to save its Covid-hit economy by boosting consumption and loosening control over private industry, including the struggling tech and property sectors. Covid infections are surging in China after leaders unexpectedly eased its restrictive Covid policy earlier this month. Stabilizing economic growth is the top priority for 2023, according to an official readout following the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), a key annual meeting of top leaders, which ended Friday. “We need to encourage and support the private sector economy and private enterprise in terms of policy and public opinion,” the statement said. A shopping mall is decorated with rabbit stickers to welcome the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, on December 10, 2022 in Beijing, China.

Hong Kong CNN —James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has premiered in China, 13 years after the original film took the country by storm. A poster of film 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is seen at a cinema on December 11, 2022 in Beijing, China. I immersed myself in the plot and enjoyed an unprecedented audio-visual feast.”Shot in the armThe “Way of Water” is expected to buoy China’s pandemic-depressed box office. By mid-December, China’s box office reached only 28.8 billion yuan ($4.1 billion), down nearly 40% from last year. The “Way of Water” accounted for 80% of screenings scheduled for Friday, the Maoyan data showed.

☆ Stock delisting risks averted as US gains access to audit papers of Chinese tech companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The announcement marks a major breakthrough in a yearslong standoff over how Chinese companies listed on Wall Street should be regulated. There are more than 260 Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges, with a combined market capitalization of more than $770 billion, according to recent calculations posted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The United States had increased pressure by passing a law in December 2020 requiring Chinese companies listed in the US to open their books to audit watchdogs. In Friday’s statement, the PCAOB said it had inspected the audits of eight Chinese companies completed by KPMG Huazhen LLP in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. She added that the watchdog is continuing to demand complete access in mainland China and Hong Kong moving forward.

☆ Premarket stocks: The Grinch comes for retailers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

What’s happening: US retail sales, which measure the total amount of money that stores make from selling goods to customers, fell 0.6% in November, the weakest performance in nearly a year. The Fed factor: November’s report could indicate that consumers are feeling the double-punch of sky-high inflation and painful interest rate hikes from the central bank. This retail sales data adds to recessionary concerns, as it suggests that consumers may be becoming more cautious with their spending. Those increases were spurred by the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented campaign of harsh interest rate hikes to tame soaring inflation. The Fed announced on Wednesday that it will continue to raise interest rates — albeit by a smaller amount than it has been.

☆ China's economy faltered before major Covid policy shift, retail sales and unemployment data show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Retail sales declined 5.9% in November from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. It was the worst contraction in retail spending since May, when widespread Covid lockdowns, including in the country’s richest city Shanghai, pummeled the economy. Property sales by value plummeted by more than 26%. Last week, customs data showed the country’s exports contracted 8.7% in November from a year ago, the worst performance since February 2020. China’s economy has been battered by its stringent zero-Covid policy and persistent property woes this year.

Hong Kong CNN —An unprecedented wave of Covid cases in China has sparked panic buying of fever medicines, pain killers, and even home remedies such as canned peaches, leading to shortages online and in stores. Canned yellow peaches, considered a particularly nutritious delicacy in many parts of China, have been snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid. Its sudden surge in popularity prompted Dalian Leasun Food, one of the country’s largest canned food manufacturers, to clarify in a Weibo post that canned yellow peaches don’t have any medicinal effect. “Canned yellow peaches ≠ medicines!” the company said in the post published Friday. The drug shortage has spread from mainland China to Hong Kong, a special administrative region which has a separate system of local government.

☆ China challenges US chip curbs at WTO, citing ‘trade protectionism’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

On October 7, the Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of export controls that ban Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license. The commerce ministry blasted the US move as threatening global supply chain stability and called it “a typical practice of trade protectionism.” The complaint is the first action China has taken at the global trade body against the US chip sanctions. It also comes as the United States is looking to bolster its domestic chip manufacturing abilities, after chip shortages earlier in the pandemic highlighted the country’s dependence on imports from abroad. He called for both countries to boost cooperation in high-tech manufacturing and avoid “the politicization of economic and trade issues.”Chips are a growing source of tension between the United States and China. Before the October sanctions, the US government had already banned sales of certain tech products to specific Chinese companies, such as Huawei.

☆ When China and Saudi Arabia meet, nothing matters more than oil
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Saudi Arabia is China’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and the top global supplier of crude oil. Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesEnergy is coreLast year, bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and China hit $87.3 billion, up 30% from 2020, according to Chinese customs figures. China’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia stood at $43.9 billion in 2021, accounting for 77% of its total goods imports from the kingdom. Beyond security of supply, Saudi Arabia could offer Beijing another prize with bigger geopolitical ramifications. Eurasia Group’s Kamal believes it’s “highly unlikely” that Saudi Arabia would take such a step, unless there is an implosion on the US-Saudi relationship.

☆ Morgan Stanley upgrades China stocks as global investors cheer on Covid reopening hopes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Global traders are increasingly feeling more bullish on China, as they bet the country will gradually unwind Covid restrictions following widespread protests. Starting Monday, Shanghai residents will no longer require a negative Covid test result to enter outdoor venues including parks and scenic attractions. “Multiple positive developments alongside a clear path set towards reopening warrant an upgrade and index target increases for China,” its analysts said in a research note on Monday. MSCI China, an index tracking major Chinese stocks available to global investors, will hit the 70 level by the end of 2023, according to Morgan Stanley. The offshore yuan, a key gauge of how international investors think about China, strengthened sharply against the US dollar on Monday.

☆ Global investors cheer on China reopening hopes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

☆ Debt woes and zero-Covid: China's cities are running out of cash to pay huge bills
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

They spent 11.8 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion) more than they raised in revenue between January and October, borrowing heavily to do so, according to data from China’s Ministry of Finance. Andy Wong/AP‘Widest in history’For nearly three years, local governments have borne the brunt of enforcing pandemic controls. The weak fiscal position of local governments has been a drag on the country’s overall financial standing. Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesLow income, high costsWhy are local governments in this parlous state? In May, Beijing told local governments that they had to bear the costs for regular Covid testing in their regions.

☆ China to punish internet users for ‘liking’ posts in crackdown after zero-Covid protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Internet users in China will soon be held liable for liking posts deemed illegal or harmful, sparking fears that the world’s second largest economy plans to control social media like never before. China’s internet watchdog is stepping up its regulation of cyberspace as authorities intensify their crackdown on online dissent amid growing public anger against the country’s stringent Covid restrictions. For the first time, it states that “likes” of public posts must be regulated, along with other types of comments. This year, the country’s strict zero-Covid policy and Xi’s securing of a historic third term have sparked discontent and anger among many online users. “Cyberspace policing by Chinese authorities is already beyond measure, but that does not stop brave Chinese citizens from challenging the regime,” he said.

☆ Huge trade partner and ‘systemic rival.’ Europe has a China problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and tit-for-tat sanctions between China and EU lawmakers have strained relations since. The total value of the goods trade between China and Europe hit €696 billion ($732 billion) last year, up by nearly a quarter from 2019. China was the third largest destination for EU goods exports, accounting for 10% of the total, according to Eurostat data. Even so, the United States may exert more pressure on Europe to pull away from China, Borges de Castro noted. EU investment into China has also become more concentrated.

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