The Chinese government on Thursday unveiled a new multi-pronged approach to tackle the country’s notorious air pollution problem, including a ban on the construction of new coal power plants at three key industrial regions, as well as investments into energy efficient projects that will cut energy consumption per unit of industrial value by 20 percent.
There are now 315 billionaires in China, according to the Hurun Report’s 2013 Rich List, with the top five seeing their net-worth double on average over the last year, as a surge in stock and asset prices helped boost overall wealth.
The Hurun Report, which tracks China’s wealthiest people, named property tycoon Wang Jianlin as China’s new richest person, with a net-worth of close to $22 billion.
China’s great rebalancing act has begun. But how successful and orderly the rebalancing process will be will depend on how realistic the government are in their growth projections. What is clear is that China can no longer accommodate 7-8 percent annual growth if it truly hopes to cure its severe domestic imbalances.
JPMorgan Chase is being investigated by U.S. authorities over claims that the investment bank hired children of influential Chinese officials to secure business advantages in the Mainland, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing a confidential United States government document, the Times said a bribery investigation had been opened to study the allegations.
China’s actual GDP size could be $1 trillion less than what the government claims it to be, said a professor from the HSBC Business School at Peking University this week, arguing that the government had deliberately manipulated housing price data between 2000 and 2011 in order to produce lower inflation results.
There have been many cases in which foreigners were able, perhaps because they tend to be more objective, to identify risks earlier than locals. Despite the claims of the traditional China bulls, there is a great deal of worry among China economists living and working in China about the sustainability of the current growth model, and top officials too have made it obvious that they see the need for reform as urgent.
In the coming years, China’s leadership will need to increase its reliance on financial services for consumption-led growth. However, plans to develop Shanghai as a free-trade zone should not be seen as a threat to Hong Kong’s prosperity and future, but rather a signal to meet new economic challenges on the Mainland.
Hong Kong’s challenge is not China’s economic rise, Shanghai’s free-trade zone, or even the mainland’s impending financial reforms. These are all new opportunities.
China has ordered an urgent nationwide audit of all government debt, underlining fears that heavy borrowing by local governments might pose a broader systemic threat to the world’s second largest economy.
In a one-line statement issued on Sunday, China’s National Audit Office said it had been instructed by the State Council, China’s cabinet, to carry out an examination of total government debt.
According to the official People’s Daily, citing unidentified sources, the urgent order for the audit was issued on Friday and work will begin this week.
The mainstream debate on China has shifted from forecasts of how quickly China will overtake the United States to considerations of what the consequences of a Chinese crash would be. Following weeks of financial drama and weak economic data, the signs are now unmistakable: China is in big trouble, and the problems in its economy are deeper and even more fundamental than previously thought.
China has banned the construction of new government buildings for the next five years as it seeks to cut down on wasteful spending and address public anger at corruption, according to state media.
