Floods in Henan caused huge damage, showing China is not immune from such problems, and the Center is rushing to put together a bailout fund to stop the incredibly negative financial market impact of SOEs being unable to meet their payments on international loans. Of which there have been several recently. The US accused China of massive cyber attacks, and the Center virulently denied it. And a new generation of high-speed train was unveiled, based—NOT!—on the maglev technology that Thyssen Krupp first introduced to China with a short line in Shanghai. The bait at the time for them and for Kawasaki was the prospect of their technology playing a major role in the build-out of China’s high-speed rail network. But, what a surprise, China had parallel and equivalent tech ready to go. The new train, to be introduced in a few years, has a top speed of 600 klicks, so 2.5 hours from Beijing to Shanghai. The WHO chief made a statement saying it was premature to rule out that the origin of the virus was a lab leak, and Beijing reacted strongly saying such a statement was unscientific. One can only imagine the pressures both external and internal that preceded his statement, but by making it, he ensured the topic is going to stay with us for a while. And back on debt—both HNA and Anbang, the two highflying holding companies for money from somewhere or other a few years ago, are both struggling towards a resolution and windup of their affairs. Meanwhile, the economy feels otherwise solid, although Q3 and Q4 GDP numbers could be interesting.
Enjoy a balmy weekend.
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