This is a government that just raised the retirement age from 60 to 65, proclaimed that one can take on a mortgage at age 70 and let the heirs inherit the mortgage, and do not issue passports freely. Where its banks has delayed its customers from paying off mortgage in full, and from withdrawing large amount of cash. Does that sound like a healthy economy?
HK (and China) export always plunges in the month with the Lunar New Year Holiday. In 2022, that would be February, but in 2023, it's January, hence the large decrease. In fact, HK export this Lunar New Year is the third highest ever, only standing behind 2021 and 2022.
Hk isn’t the main way goods leave China. Guangdong, Shanghai and Tianjin all have massive ports and are still not the only ones. I don’t know why this is being used as a yard stick for anything other than HK is going through a pretty intense change since the failed protest movement.
Which is always hilarious to me that people complain about USD as a global reserve currency and then propose CNY take over.
Whatever the US is doing with sanctions is still much looser than China's controls on capital, and they've made it an explicit point that they would rather keep capital controls and the ability to suddenly put in even more draconian ones, than to become a global reserve currency.
There are certain things that China appears to be the leader in, in particular LFP / Sodium Ion batteries (CATL / Gotion).
It will be interesting to see if the US decides to do to China for those that CHina did to the US for practically ... everything. Essentially take the technology from them with "partnerships" (you see CATL proposing and building factories in EU and US now) that will effectively onshore whatever advantages they have there.
This is a government that just raised the retirement age from 60 to 65, proclaimed that one can take on a mortgage at age 70 and let the heirs inherit the mortgage, and do not issue passports freely. Where its banks has delayed its customers from paying off mortgage in full, and from withdrawing large amount of cash. Does that sound like a healthy economy?
Again, watch online testimonials from average citizens, and you will see entirely empty malls in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oApzG9ycwkw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBpybdnYVEs