State-owned enterprise

As China’s financial system remains plagued by trillions of dollars in local governments’ hidden debt, policy makers may need to take drastic measures to solve the problem.

The recent 15th BRICS summit held in South Africa heralded an expanded organisation with new African members. While China seeks to increase its presence and influence on the African continent, it also faces the difficult task of juggling security and development, particularly given that Russia is likewise adamant about safeguarding and expanding its own interests in the area.

With sluggish sales, a growing list of unfinished projects and mounting debt repayments, China's property crisis, which is stretching into its third year, is now spreading to state-owned developers.

Academic Pei Sai Fan notes that the Chinese government’s moves to regulate and clean up various sectors in China’s economy has led to private enterprises feeling uncertain about what might happen to them in future, especially as declarations of support for the private sector economy seem to be just lip service.

According to a development plan for China’s software and information technology (IT) service industry from 2021 to 2025, China is expected to significantly expand its capacity for developing key software and build two to three open-source communities with international influence by 2025. Meanwhile, China’s giant state-owned enterprises are also rushing to crank up domestic purchases of innovative IT applications under government pressure.

Commentator Chen Kuohsiang notes that even after the 20th Party Congress and talks between Chinese and US Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden during the G20 summit, the Chinese economy is not facing an easy time, not least because of Covid-19 controls, the US's trade restrictions and China's stringent policy on private enterprises.

Cooperatives that used to manage agricultural and other daily resources in China faded away during China's reform and opening up, but recently, they were highlighted again by the state media and promoted in various regions. Chinese people are concerned if this means that the government is going to further tighten its grip on the economy or that China is preparing for the likelihood of containment and even war?

Li Cheng, director of the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, observes that a new breed of technocratic elites — the “technocrats 2.0” — have rapidly risen to the national leadership in China. What are the major differences between technocrats in the Jiang-Hu eras and the Xi era?

Recent news of a large-scale housing project acquisition by a state-owned enterprise (SOE) has gained widespread attention. While some are welcoming the government’s efforts to revive the sluggish property market, others are wary of profiteering and corruption opportunities. Zaobao correspondent Chen Jing takes a look at the implications of the SOE’s move and whether China’s property market will finally look up.