A bit of bearish news in the media this week, lots of challenges for sure. Thanks to Michael and Sinocism for several links:
- Faking It in China from The New York Review of Books (a month old but still interesting regarding copy-cat towns)
- Performance of China’s Hong Kong Shares Has Been a Long-Term Letdown from The Wall Street Journal (unfortunately the Shanghai exchange is no better, both due in part to SOE capital absorption)
- More Chinese Students Choosing Workforce over College, Opting out of the Gaokao from Tea Leaf Nation (great, sobering write-up that mirrors my own observations after working in higher ed on the mainland)
- Plight of the sea turtles from The Economist (met hai gui over the past several years. it’s a mixed situation, certainly depends on what univ you went to, what skills you learned and what kind of guanxi you and your family have)
- China’s Looming Entertainment Problem: Not Enough Lawyers from The Hollywood Reporter (maybe in some areas like contract, corporate or personal law… no need for IP lawyers though, would be a detriment to their overall growth just like massive IP litigation has been a drag on western economies. see Against Intellectual Property from Stephan Kinsella)
- The Territorial City from The China Story (again, if urbanization was the key, surely migrants would have already voluntarily moved to the cities. coerced, artificial migration of unskilled laborers seems like wishful thinking. see my post a couple weeks ago on this issue.)
- Urbanisation not the cure-all China’s leaders are hoping for from South China Morning Post
- Cash Crunch Drives China Auto Sector Into Ditch from The Wall Street Journal
- New Flashpoint For Chinese Food Consumers: Genetically Modified Soy from Tea Leaf Nation
- Gaokao whiz evinces changing views from People’s Daily (surprised he was allowed to have a girlfriend or even try to have a girlfriend)
- Camacho to receive large compensation from Xinhua (hire and fire every couple of years, you can probably retire wealthy if you’re willing to temporarily coach players who buy their way onto the team)
- Central Bank Raises the Red Flag over P2P Lending Risks from Caixin (hard to arbitrarily separate the wheat from the chaff)
- China pushes to make renminbi freely tradable from Financial Times (i’ll believe it when i see it)
- Audit rotation in China from China Accounting Blog (or a third possibility, banks on the mainland do not operate as banks since they have to roll over debt via political dictum, no amount of high quality auditing will change that)
- Investors Pull Back From China Assets from The Wall Street Journal (i am paid in RMB and would love it to appreciate while i’m hear, but in the nearly 5 of years since i first landed it has appreciated only about 10%)
- Land prices surge in Chinese cities from Xinhua (all of the efforts have been band-aids)
- In China, a replica of Manhattan loses its luster from Marketplace (modern illustration of the cargo cult, just because you build the artificial shells does not mean the skilled human capital and/or institutions will necessarily follow)
- Debt of Business, Financial Sectors ‘at 270 Pct of GDP’ from Caixin
- The Revolving Door of Chinese Politics from The Economic Observer (one of the reasons i avoided discussing opportunities in segments dominated by SOEs)
- Living the American dream in Jackson Hole, China from CNN (good luck with that)
- Big Move? China’s Highest Court Flirts With Transparency from The Wall Street Journal (how to remove the files once guanxi kicks in?)
- Chinese Malls Waive Rents as Vacancies of 30% Loom: Real Estate from Bloomberg (because, in part, household’s have to forgo shopping and consumption to prop up SOEs)