The mystery of the missing Foreign Minister Qin Gang was partially resolved with his removal from his ministerial post, but the question of what the hell happened remains. His predecessor became his successor, the ministry website was cleaned of references to QG and then the items were re-instated, and the world moved on…. sort of, and puzzled.
In other news, the private sector received lots of public love from the Center but it’s not clear how effective the various assurances and measures will be in offsetting the widespread perception that the Center views SOEs as the core, and the role of private enterprise as being to fill in the gaps and accept the sometimes fickle twists of fate that are decided upon above. There is an argument that the chain of trust has been broken, while many of the positive growth-friendly aspects of the economy are just no longer there. A senior property company executive shared the view that there is still life in some markets, primarily Shanghai and Shenzhen, but the prospects for the property market in much of the rest of the country are bleak.
Meanwhile, VW bought a small stake in one of the feistiest of the China EV companies, XPeng, thereby confirming in a way that it is well behind the curve on EV car development. The VW story in China is ultimately one of short-sightedness and missed opportunities. The likelihood is that the brand is going to fade fast from China’s roads from here on in.
We are now heading into what has usually been over the past few decades the summer doldrums in China affairs, but it doesn’t feel like a time of calm and peace anywhere particularly. Climate, Trump, Ukraine, unemployment, uncertainty… these are weird times, and in China the sense of unease is exacerbated by opacity.
But have a great weekend anyway.
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