As debt obligations mount, some local governments are pushing banks to extend maturities and cut interest rates, sources said. Local Government Financing Vehicles (LGFVs) have 5.5 trillion yuan ($790 billion) worth of onshore bonds coming due this year, the highest since 2021, according to Fitch.
A sharp drop in income from mainstay land sales and fewer options for raising fresh funds have fuelled concerns about LGFVs’ ability to meet debt obligations and its impact on the broader banking sector and markets.
The Netherlands’ government on Wednesday said it plans new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to protect national security, joining the U.S. effort to curb chip exports to China. 荷兰政府周三表示，计划对半导体技术出口实施新的限制以保护国家安全，加入美国遏制对华芯片出口的行列。
Excluding 2020, when COVID-19 upended the global economy, last year’s economic growth rate was the lowest since 1976, the last year of Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. Although China’s economy appears to be rebounding strongly from the pandemic — manufacturing activity in February, for example, smashed expectations, expanding at the fastest pace in more than a decade — Chinese officials have warned of risks ahead. While acknowledging China’s “vast potential and momentum for further growth,” Li pointed to the rise of “uncertainties in the external environment,” including high inflation, and “external attempts to suppress and contain China” — a thinly-veiled reference to the country’s heated geopolitical competition with the US. China’s economy faces serious long-term challenges domestically, too, including an enormous housing bubble and a shrinking working population due to a rock-bottom birth rate. Many economists believe that China’s high-growth era — characterised by decades of double-digit expansion each year — is now in the past.
The yuan had its worst year in 2022 since China unified market and official exchange rates in 1994, dropping nearly 8% as rising US interest rates diverged from falling Chinese ones, supporting dollar gains.
Now the prospect of Chinese tourists using foreign exchange for their trips abroad, fresh concerns that US interest rates might rise further, and geopolitical tensions keeping investment flows away from China are all weighing on the currency.
“It’s possible to see the yuan go past the 7-mark against the dollar in the near term given the escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the US,” said Tommy Wu, senior China economist at Commerzbank.
China will likely set one of the country’s lowest growth goals in decades at the annual National People’s Congress next week, experts told AFP, hit by long-running property woes, a sluggish global economy and geopolitical tensions.
Thousands of party delegates from across China will converge on Beijing for a rubber stamp conclave set to confirm key personnel appointments and make policy for the coming year.
Among the first declarations is expected to be a target for gross domestic product growth over the coming 12 months, announced by outgoing Premier Li Keqiang at Sunday’s opening ceremony.
Last year, the economy expanded just three percent, one of its weakest in decades on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns and a real estate crisis.
Many of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects are plagued with construction flaws, including a giant hydropower plant in Ecuador, adding more costs to a program criticized for leading countries deeper into debt
The Chinese-built Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in Nosari, Pakistan, shown in 2017, has been shut down because officials said they detected cracks 中国于2017年在巴基斯坦努萨里兴建的尼勒姆-杰勒姆水电项目因官员称发现裂缝而被关闭
China’s infrastructure boom in recent decades has been dazzling yet costly in environmental, financial and social terms. In 2016, Oxford researchers concluded that “poorly managed infrastructure investments are a main explanation of surfacing economic and financial problems in China.” Those analysts concluded that “China’s infrastructure investment model is not one to follow for other countries but one to avoid.” 近几十年来，中国的基础设施繁荣令人眼花缭乱，但在环境、金融和社会方面却代价高昂。 2016年，牛津大学的研究人员得出结论说，”管理不善的基础设施投资是中国经济和金融问题出现的主要原因。 这些分析人士得出结论说:”中国的基础设施投资模式不是其他国家可以效仿的，而是应该避免的。”
https://lab.org.uk/the-amazon-be-dammed-ecuadors-china-connection/ A control panel inside the generation center of the CCS project. Photo by Max Nathanson
3 Gorges Dam | thousands of cracks found in China’s dam built in Ecuador 中国厄瓜多尔大坝发现数千处裂缝
https://youtu.be/w6cG2eoEZFg
Ecuadorean law enforcement officials say they are investigating whether Mr. Pólit and other officials were paid by the Chinese to overlook the problems. It was part of Mr. Pérez’s inquiry before his resignation, they say. Now, 7,648 cracks have developed in the dam’s machinery, according to the government, because of substandard steel and inadequate welding by Sinohydro. Sand and silt are also big concerns because they can damage vital equipment. On a recent visit, an engineer looked on nervously as readouts showed sand flowing into the dam. But workers say they’re sometimes confused because of shoddy translations. One sign in Chinese reads correctly: “Direct-Current (DC) Pumping Group.” 厄瓜多尔执法官员说，他们正在调查波利特和其他官员是否被中方付钱以忽略这些问题。 他们说，这是佩雷斯辞职前调查的一部分。根据政府的数据，目前大坝的机械有7648处出现裂缝，原因是钢材不合格，中水电的焊接不够。 沙子和淤泥也是人们关注的焦点，因为它们会损坏重要的设备。在最近的一次访问中，一位工程师紧张地注视着沙流入大坝的读数。 但工人们说，他们有时因为翻译不当而困惑不解。一个中文标记正确写着:”直流泵组”。
In 2011, Ecuador’s then-president Rafael Correa toured the Toachi Pilatón works. During the ten years of his government, the construction of eight hydroelectric plants was announced. (Image: Miguel Ángel Romero/Presidencia de la República)Ecuador’s Coca Codo Sinclair dam during construction. Photo by http://www.presidencia.gob.ec/ on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
Ecuador’s power company CELEC has found new problems at its Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant that threaten water flow and electricity generation, the company’s chief executive said, the latest issue at the facility built by China’s Sinohydro Corp. The findings come after CELEC in May requested arbitration through the International Chamber of Commerce to settle a dispute over cracks in the 1,500-megawatt plant’s machinery that have prevented it from operating at full capacity since it was completed in 2016, after $2.2 billion in construction costs. During a shutdown of four of Coca Coda Sinclair’s eight turbines for planned maintenance, state-owned CELEC discovered missing bolts on some of its valves, CEO Gonzalo Uquillas said, adding that the problem could prevent valves from opening and closing to adequately regulate the flow of water. “Of the 96 bolts that secure the seals on these valves, some bolts are missing,” Uquillas said in an interview on July 16. “I don’t want to believe they weren’t installed, but they are missing.” 厄瓜多尔电力公司CELEC首席执行官说，该公司在可口可乐辛克莱水力发电厂发现了新的问题，这些问题威胁着水的流动和发电。今年5月，CELEC要求通过国际商会进行仲裁，以解决1500兆瓦电厂机器裂缝的纠纷，该工厂自2016年竣工以来一直无法满负荷运转，此前，该工厂耗资22亿美元。该公司首席执行官冈萨洛·乌奎利亚斯说，在可口可乐公司八台涡轮机中，有四台因计划维修而关闭时，国营的CELEC发现其阀门上缺少螺栓。 他补充说，这个问题可能妨碍阀门开闭，从而无法充分调节水流。Uquillas在7月16日的采访中说:”在这些阀门上固定密封件的96个螺栓中，有些螺栓不见了。” “我不想相信它们没有安装好，但是它们不见了。”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands in front of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge on March 18. (Turkish Presidency)
“The 1915 Canakkale Bridge will leave this history of collision and conflict behind and will be a bridge between East and West, starting a new era of peace and prosperity,” South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during the ceremony, in reference to the Canakkale region’s historic battlefields.
The bridge, which was built by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean companies, will also strengthen the bonds between Turkey and South Korea, Kim said.
The “1915 Canakkale Bridge” cost $2.7 billion to build, but Turkey will save $458 million per year from a reduction of fuel consumption and carbon emissions, Erdogan said. He said the bridge’s toll will be 200 Turkish lira, about $13.50.
China’s Elderly have hit the streets in Wuhan to protest the government’s new health insurance reforms. These reforms include cuts in monthly allowances paid to retirees. Molly Gambhir reports.
Crowds of retirees in China have again taken to the streets to protest against cuts to their medical benefits.
They gathered on Wednesday for a second time in Wuhan, where Covid was first detected, and also in the north-eastern city of Dalian.
The second round of protests in seven days puts pressure on President Xi Jinping’s administration just weeks before the annual National People’s Congress, which will usher in a new leadership team.
Protests first took place in Wuhan on 8 February after provincial authorities said they were cutting the level of medical expenses which retirees can claim back from the government.
Social media footage shows the protesters to be largely elderly retirees, who say this comes at a time of soaring healthcare costs.
Although such health insurance matters are handled at a provincial level, protests have spread to different parts of the country in what appears to be a renewed belief in the power of demonstrating in China.
In a press conference on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice detailed(Opens in a new tab) newly-unsealed charges against two alleged spies(Opens in a new tab) from China. According to the DOJ brief, Chinese intelligence officers Guochun He and Zheng Wang had attempted to obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation of a “global telecommunications company” based in China through bribery and espionage.
Xi’s extraordinary backflip left analysts alarmed and confused. China was not the only country to choose a zero-Covid strategy, and certainly not the only one to “let it rip” once it dropped it. But it was the last, and global health experts say there were plenty of lessons it could have heeded – primarily, making sure vaccinations and health resources were high before the tsunami of cases hit.
“All governments had to decide to open up at some stage or risk the consequences of lockdowns far outweighing the problems of Covid,” says Professor Emma McBryde, an epidemiologist at James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
“Most models suggest that it would be better for the health system to open up slowly. Although there would be little change in how many people get infected, it could mean some lives are saved if the health system can function well.”
But Xi threw the gates open. Right up until the day of repeal, local governments were still developing and enforcing zero-Covid measures and infrastructure. The city of Chongqing was building a 21,000-bed quarantine centre.
Experts on health and Chinese politics have told the Observer they believe the local authorities were hamstrung. Any preparations for ending zero-Covid would be seen as a vote of no confidence in both the policy and Xi – an act of political suicide.
We saw them say something to the staff there, then suddenly no one would speak to us, so I went outside and asked nearby stores if they had seen lines outside the clinic a few weeks ago. Every time, the government minder would interrupt the conversation to speak to the interviewee, clearly telling them not to say anything.
The government officials again appeared at the next hospital we visited. This time, there were more of them. I tried confronting them, asking why they were following us. Anytime I spoke to them, they would immediately walk away and ignore me. Then, the moment I turned away, they would continue tailing us, while obstructing our reporting.
Japan and the Netherlands are poised to join the United States in limiting China’s access to advanced semiconductor machinery, forging a powerful alliance that will undercut Beijing’s ambitions to build its own domestic chip capabilities, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
China is a clear example of a country with a significant illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing problem, especially for its long-distance fishing fleet that operates in the ocean globally,” said Vanya Vulperhorst, campaign director for illegal fishing and transparency at the NGO Oceana. — Read on www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/pressure-on-eu-to-sanction-chinese-fisheries-mounts/
