Yawen Chen
Reuters Top News
Hong Kong
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Past articles by Yawen:
Missing China bank boss is the wrong big deal
The disappearance of Bao Fan is a chilling dampener on the reopening of the world's second largest economy. China Renaissance’s revelation that it is unable to contact the man who is its founder, chairman and chief executive sent shares of the boutique investment bank crashing as much as 30% on Friday. The Hong Kong-listed business had already shrunk as its work with clients like Didi vanished… → Read More
China's reopening generates mirage of normality
China’s first big vacation of 2023 offers shallow relief to investors. Movie sales during the lunar new year holiday week surpassed last year's to top nearly $900 million, per ticket provider Maoyan Entertainment . Travel is rebounding too. → Read More
Chinese GDP surprise sets expectations too high
The Chinese economy grew 3% in 2022, the government reported, beating forecasts but way below the official 5% target. Ending consumption-suppressing policies is removing drags on growth, but with fiscal coffers low, and debt and inflation rising, China is short on tools to drive growth. → Read More
China’s property debt red lines need a redraw
Beijing’s efforts to cap developers' leverage are backfiring. The “three red lines” policy on debt ratios has begun aggravating market stress and impairing balance sheets. → Read More
Quiet quitting China will start with the Chinese
China has become a headache for Western executives. But uprooting supply chains and rejecting the buying power of 1.4 billion people is hard. The good news is that the dilemma need not require drastic action from U.S. and European chief executives, since local Chinese partners could solve the problem by relocating themselves. Tesla’s increasing footprint in Mexico is a case in point. → Read More
China Covid ills go from bad to chronically worse
Protests across China underscore a rising fear among people that President Xi Jinping’s stringent pandemic restrictions may be here to stay. Unfortunately, two squandered years to vaccinate vulnerable groups and bolster hospital resources validate those anxieties. → Read More
China’s reopening will come with big late fees
The pandemic has helped Chinese authorities to keep a lot of money at home. With expectations rising for a full reopening of the country, including its international borders, capital outflows could be Beijing’s next headache. → Read More
China’s Covid pivot may be damned by faint praise
Beijing’s abandonment of its draconian zero-Covid policy has reassured markets and calmed protesters, but it may not do much for the economy. It is one thing to stop harsh lockdowns and ease travel restrictions. Persuading households that hoarded $1.9 trillion this year to spend will be far more difficult. → Read More
China needs a Covid target more than a GDP target
After an unprecedented wave of protests against harsh lockdowns, Chinese officials appear to be preparing citizens to live with Covid-19. Beijing has plenty of economic goals, quotas and deadlines but so far has published no roadmap for transitioning away from containment to management. → Read More
China property bailouts leave most out in the cold
President Xi Jinping is wrapping up his massive property stress test, but it looks like few have passed. On Monday Beijing announced homebuilders can use equity financing again, lifting a ban in place for years as Xi tried to rein in property prices. → Read More
China's tech giants will have to keep on giving
Investors must be hoping that a looming fine for fintech player Ant and e-retailer JD.com’s decision to boost benefits for lower-paid workers at the expense of executives are one-offs. After all, the former might suggest that Beijing is reaching the end of its two-year-long crackdown on the “disorderly expansion of capital”, while the latter comes on the heels of strong quarterly earnings. But… → Read More
China GDP delay amplifies economic distress signal
It’s mid-afternoon Monday in Beijing and a simple question is doing the rounds: will China’s latest GDP figures be published as scheduled the next day? The Chinese customs had unexpectedly its trade data on Friday. By 4PM it’s clear that the statistics bureau has followed suit, the only indication being a tweak to the online publication timetable set a year earlier. A day later, there’s still no… → Read More
China’s next big trade is nationalism
President Xi Jinping has just made clear that he has bigger worries than the flagging economy. He opened the twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress on Sunday with a . → Read More
Wall Street has chance to put Hong Kong to work
Leaders from the West’s biggest financial firms will land in Hong Kong next month — in most cases their first trip to the city in three years — with some tough questions for their hosts. The top one will probably be: what have you done for us lately? → Read More
China's dreary Golden Week has shades of grey
China’s lackluster Golden Week holiday this year casts a dark cloud over the economy. Domestic tourism sales during the country’s annual spend-and-travel blitz fell to $40 billion, less than half of pre-pandemic levels. Wealthier regions might get a welcome spending boost from shoppers that stayed put, but the sector drives nearly 30% of Chinese consumption. → Read More
Review: Tencent reflects China’s blunted tech edge
To many foreigners, Chinese innovation has negative connotations. The People’s Republic was long known for churning out cheap manufactured goods, while spawning corporate copycats which took full advantage of the country’s vast market, domestic protectionism, and a relative lack of intellectual property rights. Over the last decade, the rise of internet giants like Tencent exposed the flimsiness… → Read More
Anxious Kaisa investors throw good money after bad
Foreign bondholders in Chinese property developer Kaisa , which is starting to default on $12 billion of offshore credit, are offering up to $2 billion to take over stalled housing projects plus restructure debt. A similar proposal failed last year, but as its woes worsen, Kaisa may reconsider. Pricing is the trick. → Read More
China biotech has bitter U.S. pill to swallow
China biotech’s American honeymoon is ending. Cross-border tie-ups in the sector have boomed despite intensifying geopolitical tensions , but U.S. President Joe Biden wants to cut dependence on foreign manufacturers. While building up domestic capacity will take years, some form of decoupling is now underway. → Read More
Breakingviews: China congress will keep investors catastrophizing
China’s faltering economy puts the set-piece of the country’s political calendar on a big stage. The twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress starting on Oct. 16 is likely to hand an unprecedented third term to President Xi Jinping. Amidst the grandstanding, there will be hard-to-decipher clues on the financial future, too. → Read More
Hong Kong seeks VIP cure for strategic ills
Hong Kong has been absent from the travel itinerary of Wall Street bosses for nearly three years. Now central bank chief Eddie Yue wants to lure them back for a November summit that he hopes will reassert the Asian financial hub’s status. But they’re unlikely to come without exemptions from the city’s Covid-19 quarantine rules. That risks local ire, but there’s little choice. A bolder move… → Read More