Caixin: "Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen accounted for 45.5% of sales in 2026 ytd. This is a significant shift from three years ago, when they contributed just 28% of sales. Meanwhile, the broader housing market is still searching for a bottom." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-03/t...

Xinhua: "China has extended a raft of unemployment insurance policies through the end of 2026 to help businesses retain jobs, encourage the hiring of young workers, and upgrade workforce skills." en.people.cn/n3/2026/0703...

This is pretty funny. According to the WSJ, Guo Wengui’s lawyer said "that instead of using homes, cars and a yacht as personal luxuries, as the government alleged, they were “props” for branding to show possibilities to the people of China." www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

1/3 Bloomberg: Since Bretton Woods cemented the global dominance of the dollar in 1944, "Americans and the world have been arguing about it. Some US analysts worry about losing that status; a few think it’s not worth all the trouble. Plenty of non-Americans... www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bloomberg: "Officials in Brussels and several member states are skeptical that the European Union has the political will or guts to take decisive trade action on China, should current diplomatic efforts fail." www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Debate on the Plaza Accord: x.com/michaelxpett...

SCMP: "Reindustrialising “is far more difficult than it was 30 years ago”, said Jean-Herve Lorenzi, president of Le Cercle des economistes. “If we had each defended our own countries’ interests more back then, it would have worked out better.”" sc.mp/9k44s?utm_so...

Caixin: "China’s auto exports are expected to approach 10 million vehicles in 2026, up from 7.1 million in 2025. The surge highlights a strategic shift among Chinese automakers, which are accelerating overseas expansion as growth in the domestic market slows." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-02/c...

Zhao Wei: "Since April, Chinese export prices have surged, taking the baton from volume as the primary growth engine. Rising prices are a symptom of robust external demand, not a deterrent, and they reveal a profound structural shift in global trade." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-02/c...

Caixin: "The Caixin BBD New Economy Index came in at 34.1, up 1.7 points from the previous month. That indicates new economy industries accounted for 34.1% of China’s overall economic inputs." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-02/c...

Yicai: "The falling birth rate has already begun to reshape China's education system. The number of elementary school students likely peaked in 2023, while the ranks of junior high school pupils is expected to peak this year." www.yicaiglobal.com/news/china-v...

Yicai: The 10 most sought-after majors this year were electrical engineering and automation, AI, electronic information engineering, computer science and technology, communication engineering, law, economics, psychology, biopharmaceuticals, and digital media. www.yicaiglobal.com/news/seven-o...

Xinhua: "Service exports rose 15.9% to 1.23 trillion yuan in the first five months of 2026, while imports edged up 0.4% to 1.87 trillion yuan. The service trade deficit narrowed by 160.72 billion yuan from one year earlier to 638.56 billion yuan." english.news.cn/20260701/884...

Nice, short NPR piece on the culture of China's Dongbei region, which some in China compare to the American rustbelt. www.npr.org/2026/06/27/n...

1/9 A very good Adam Tooze explanation of the current state of debate on Chinese imbalances. He is right, by the way, when he dismisses sectoral explanations (I call them “incremental” explanations) for the surge in overall imbalances by noting that... open.substack.com/pub/adamtooz...

Bloomberg: "China’s manufacturing sector capped its strongest quarter in almost six years, a private gauge suggests, even as growth eased slightly in June and the underlying economy remains fragile." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Caixin: "The disappearance of a regional bank chairman in southwestern China is casting a renewed spotlight on the governance failures and bad debt risks plaguing the country’s smaller lenders." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-30/m...

Caixin: "France’s Senate passed a bill on Monday aimed at curbing ultra-fast fashion, targeting platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress with per-item penalties and advertising restrictions." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-01/f...

1/7 Very interesting Caixin article on private-equity financing in China. According to a fund manger cited in the article, "state-backed investors have become the main source of capital for China’s private equity industry in recent years." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-30/i...

Bloomberg: "The National Development and Reform Commission has asked select Chinese bankers in recent weeks to avoid underwriting any offshore yuan notes yielding more than 4% and any dollar securities yielding more than 5%." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Interesting FT article about the relaxed life in China's "ghost" cities. www.ft.com/content/510b...

WSJ: "U.S. margin debt rose 54% to a record $1.4 trillion in May from a year earlier." It's not as if we don't know how this works: it's self-reinforcing on the way up and even more self-reinforcing on the way down. www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...

Interesting WSJ article on the growing role of USTR Jamieson Greer. www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

Yicai: "Total trade in the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui) soared 16% in the five months ended May 31, with exports reaching CNY4.9 trillion and imports CNY2.9 trillion. The region accounts for 38% of the country’s total foreign trade." www.yicaiglobal.com/news/chinas-...

1/2 NYT: "President Trump threatened to scrap a just-finalized trade deal with the European Union on Friday, saying that any country that levies a digital services tax would be hit immediately with a 100 percent tariff on all exports to the United States." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/b...

1/2 FT: "The world economy is at risk from the “tit-for-tat” economic warfare breaking out between nations, the IMF’s outgoing chief economist has warned." What many in the IMF have trouble understanding, and what Joan Robinson explained in 1937, is that trade... www.ft.com/content/8199...

1/2 Bloomberg: "A handful of former and current advisers urged authorities to correct the imbalance between strong production and weak demand, at an event held on Saturday." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

1/12 WSJ: "Germany’s famously open economy was its greatest economic asset, delivering almost 20 years of uninterrupted growth and turning it into one of the biggest winners of globalization." I think I would have framed this differently. www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Caixin: "Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global labor market not by triggering mass layoffs of existing workers but by causing employers to pull back on hirings for new, entry-level positions, according to a Peking University researcher." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-26/a...

SCMP: "A record 156 new models are expected to hit the Chinese automotive market in the second half of 2026, intensifying concerns about small players’ profitability as a new price war looms." Hard to believe that a banking system would willingly fund this much capacity. sc.mp/jocqi?utm_so...

People's Daily: China accounts more than 50 percent of worldwide air conditioner production. en.people.cn/n3/2026/0627...

Xinhua: "China's outstanding external debt came in at $2.4121 trillion at the end of March 2026, up $83.3 billion, or 4%, from the end of 2025." With at least $5-6 billion held by the PBoC, the CIC and state banks, China's external debt is very manageable. english.news.cn/20260626/691...

Very interesting Benn Steil essay on the maintenance of a global, rules-based order. www.cfr.org/articles/dra...

Michael Pettis's elegant theory as to why we are seeing the return of industrial policy worldwide - thread.

A thoughful Caixin orbituary for Alan Greenspan, whose death "is an elegy for an era defined by a headlong embrace of globalization." www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-26/c...

1/ Interesting short essay by Cornell's Nicholas Mulder on "nationalization waves" in recent history. He describes some of the reasons for these waves, but I would add another. In a highly globalized world in which some countries intervene heavily in their domestic... www.imf.org/en/publicati...

Very cool WSJ article about the math geek in goal for the US team. www.wsj.com/sports/socce...

Bloomberg: "China called for global measures to curb what it described as “malicious litigation” by bondholders in debt relief cases, saying such action is needed to protect a Group of 20 restructuring mechanism for poor countries struggling to repay their loans." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

1/2 Caixin: "As Brussels raises tariffs on Chinese EVs and tightens scrutiny of Chinese investment, China’s automakers and clean energy companies are increasingly converging on Spain, turning the country into... www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-18/a...

1/12 Financial Times: "Beijing now sees AI-enabled machines as a way out of the demographic trap. Last year the country installed more industrial robots than the rest of the world put together." This very interesting FT article claims that because its... www.ft.com/content/c873...

Good piece by Yasheng Huang, who makes the same point that I often do: China's massive trade surplus reflects competitive (or absolute) advantage, not comparative advantage, and this is based mainly on its relatively low labor share of output. yashenghuang.substack.com/p/china-as-a...

Yicai: "Beijing has wrapped up land auctions for the first half of this year, with the city's market remaining mired in a downturn after sales tumbled 66% from a year earlier. The average price fell 35% while the planned construction area almost halved." www.yicaiglobal.com/news/beijing...

1/5 In an interesting article on how local governments in China have used deceptive tactics to mask billions of yuan in hidden debt, Caixin writes that the country's top auditing office "said authorities in multiple provinces artificially reduced their hidden... www.caixinglobal.com/2026-06-24/c...

FT: "Venezuela is set to reveal a much higher than expected debt pile of $240 bn, as the country embarks on the biggest sovereign restructuring in history in a bid to return to international markets." This promises to be a fascinating (and very difficult) exercise. www.ft.com/content/f1f7...

For French readers. Thanks, Martin.

1/2 FT: "China’s premier Li Qiang attributed his country’s competitiveness to technological innovation as he dismissed international complaints over state subsidies. “The key to the competitiveness of Chinese products is not, as some people claim, that it relies on... www.ft.com/content/ecf2...

1/2 FT: "Pimco views China’s role as a global source of disinflation as a structural trend. While higher energy prices due to the Iran war have recently pushed up producer prices, the firm expects Beijing to continue prioritizing manufacturing and... www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

FT: "On Monday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Kelly wrote to senior Trump administration officials demanding an explanation for the country’s growing trade deficit on manufactured goods." www.ft.com/content/fbee...

Xinhua: "China on Tuesday rolled out a package of new measures aimed at expanding automobile consumption across the industrial chain, with a particular focus on reforms in auto circulation and steps to boost the auto aftermarket." en.people.cn/n3/2026/0623...

1/ Global Times on a new "Plaza Accord": "China will not accept using exchange rates as a pretext for oppression, nor will it return to the old era of great powers coordinating the fate of a few countries." www.globaltimes.cn/page/202606/...