5 Expensive Chinese Construction Projects That Are Useless
By Irene Luo
Source: Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1411225 ... campaign=6
The idea that China is still an engine of growth, and that there are big profits to be made there, is dangerous for investors.
China is opening its $6.7 trillion bond market—the world’s third-largest—as it tries to spread the risk from its credit binge.
Bank lending into China grew five times from 2010 to 2015 to $1 trillion, according to the IMF.
China knows it needs to keep its economy growing, but so far the only way that’s worked is by borrowing more. That poses risks to the bond market, to companies that have invested abroad and to banks that have lent in China.
One solution to boost growth would be to devalue the yuan.
At least 8 family members of current and former members of China’s supreme ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee, have been exposed in the Panama Papers.
Jiang Zemin and Li Peng placed their interests above all else during their reign,” Xu added.
Jiang the former Party chief, and Li the ex-Chinese premier had “formed cliques, engaged in corrupt activities with their children, and bred streaks of tigers and swarms of flies everywhere in China.”
Jiang had built up a sprawling political network during his time in office, and continued to influence Chinese politics for over a decade after relinquishing the position of Party leader. (He only gave up the military chair three years later.)
Elder son Jiang Mianheng leveraged his father’s prestige to build up a telecommunications empire, while younger son Jiang Miankeng had a stranglehold on the transportation and public works industry in Shanghai
Li Xiaolin, the daughter of former premier Li Peng, was for many years a state electricity mogul, and until last year, was the CEO of the Hong Kong-based China Power International, a subsidiary of one of China’s five biggest electricity companies.
In 2015, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that Li and her husband had a Swiss bank account with about $2.5 million, and the Panama Papers showed that Li owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands; offshore companies are often used as tax havens by the wealthy.
China imposes strict capital control on residents, only allowing each individual to buy no more than US$50,000 in overseas assets annually.
“A widely used method is to fake invoices, such as overstating the value of imports,” he said.
For example, a Chinese company imports a machine and invoices it at US$1 million, while it’s actually worth US$500,000. The company pays the actual amount and puts the rest of the money in offshore bank accounts or invests it in other overseas assets.
For individuals who want to sneak out more than US$50,000 to buy overseas assets, such as a house in New York or Vancouver or Sydney, a popular way is to pool quotas of a group of family members or friends, with each person transferring US$50,000 out of the country.
The process is called “smurfing” in the banking industry, or “ants moving their house” in Chinese.
Another widely known method by individuals is to use underground private banks, which are popular in China’s southeastern provinces such as Guangdong.
A Chinese resident can deposit 1 million yuan in his account in a domestic private bank, and take out the same value of money in foreign currencies, such as Hong Kong dollar or US dollar, in the overseas branches of the bank as quickly as within hours.
US$1.6 trillion tracking the MSCI EM Index.
MSCI said that it will include 222 A-share stocks, which only accounts for 0.73 per cent of the weighting of the EM Index.
The inclusion will take place in two steps, first in May 2018, and second in August 2018.
The full inclusion of domestic Chinese stocks in the widely tracked MSCI Emerging Markets Index could pull more than $400 billion of funds from asset managers, pension funds and insurers into mainland China’s equity markets over the next decade.
It also raises questions not only about the quality of economic data from the world’s second largest economy, but also the willingness of the government to take the steps necessary to accurately report information.
It has long been believed that local Chinese officials inflate figures reflecting their economic performance, which is closely tied to their opportunity for promotion.
Local governments have fewer incentives to manipulate VAT revenue, since a large portion of it is eventually transferred to the central government, therefore overstating VAT would only increase fiscal revenue losses.
Return to ASIA, OCEANIA & AFRICA: Data, News & Commentaries
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests