Connect with us
st st

Economy

The Fall in China’s Concepts Stocks and the Decoupling of U.S.-China Capital Markets

Published

on

Recently, the U.S. has again taken substantive actions on the supervision of China concepts stock. On March 10, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced five companies that have been temporarily placed on the “pre-delisting list” under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), namely Yum China Holdings, Beigene Limited, Zai Lab Limited, HUTCHMED (China) Limited and ACM Research. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) responded immediately to the matter that night, saying that it would continue to communicate with the U.S. side; the companies involved have also said they are actively seeking a solution. However, the SEC’s move once again triggered a sharp decline in U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.

In the midst of financial competition between China and the United States, Chinese concepts stocks have seen their market value plummet, and are expected to see an accelerated decline in March. A total of USD 326.09 billion was wiped off the market value of 323 U.S.-listed Chinese companies in the first nine trading days of March, according to statistics from Chinese media cls.cn. Based on the closing price on March 11, 209 or 64.5% of U.S.-listed Chinese companies have seen their share prices fall by more than 80% from their highs. Among them, Tencent Music and China Life Insurance Company fell 89% from the high; DiDi and Bilibili fell 88% from the high; KE Holdings and Futu Holdings fell 87% from the high; Sohu, Vipshop, Weibo, Tianyin Pharmaceutical, etc. fell 85% from the high. With the intensifying of geopolitical competition between China and the U.S., these China concepts stocks are facing the risk of delisting in the future, suffering from plummeting stock prices, and gradually losing the significance of maintaining their status as listed companies in the U.S.

The issue regarding China concepts stocks stems from a dispute between the United States and China over the auditing of listed companies, as tracked by ANBOUND. The U.S. side wanted to audit these companies directly, while the Chinese side has not allowed companies to provide relevant audit documents abroad for the sake of information security and audit sovereignty. During the “honeymoon period” of U.S.-China cooperation, the regulatory authorities of both sides have been tacitly agreeing and compromising on this issue due to common interests. Some Chinese companies took advantage of this gray area of supervision and committed violations such as information disclosure and financial fraud, further aggravating the contradiction. Against the backdrop of changes in U.S.-China relations and geopolitical competition, the U.S. adopted the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), which sets a red line for relevant disputes. This means that if the audit dispute cannot be resolved, a large number of U.S.-listed Chinese companies will have to be delisted from the U.S. capital market around 2024. At present, the SEC has placed several companies on its “pre-delisting list”, which is its substantive action to enforce the relevant laws. Judging from the market’s reaction, the plummeting market capitalization of China concepts stocks means that the market sees a growing possibility of China concepts stocks being delisted.

What then, are the problems that U.S.-listed Chinese companies will face in the future? Will the U.S. and China capital markets be completely “decoupled”? These issues are of great concern not only to a large number of Chinese companies hoping to go public and raise capital, but also to investors. They not only affect the economy, trade, investment, and other fields of China and the United States, but also have a profound impact on the future development and layout of companies. Researchers at ANBOUND have noted that conflicts and disputes between the U.S. and China in trade, science and technology, and finance will increase as geopolitical competition between the two countries intensifies. The same cannot be avoided with respect to the capital markets of the two countries, which will gradually move toward a state of relative disengagement in the future. With the increasing geopolitical risks, future changes in the international environment, policy environment, and market environment will continue to compress the space of China concepts stocks. Even if some companies can continue to exist in the U.S. capital market, the direct connection between U.S. and Chinese capital markets will be weaker in the future, and China’s capital market will gradually move towards a new pattern dominated by geo-circulation.

As far as the current situation is concerned, although the tension between China and the U.S. has eased somewhat compared with the tension during the Trump administration, the Biden administration’s policy toward China is still positioned in a competitive manner. This means that the gray areas of compromise and tacit understanding between the two sides in the past will gradually disappear. It will then become challenging for both sides to compromise and cooperate on the audit dispute. China has repeatedly expressed its attitude towards audit sovereignty, data sovereignty, and information security in the revision of the securities law and the formulation of rules on data security. There is not much room for compromise in this. The U.S. also lacks flexibility in dealing with the audit dispute because of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act and its rules on investor protection. Most importantly, there is the lack of motivation for cooperation between Chinese and American regulators under the context of U.S.-China strategic competition. These are the main reasons for the gloomy outlook for China concepts stocks.

Even if some agreement can be reached between American and Chinese regulators on auditing issues, the policy risks associated with increasing restrictions on Chinese financial investment and sanctions against Chinese companies will cause investors in the U.S. market to stay away from China concepts stocks. With this, the valuation and trading of China concepts stocks will be affected as a result. In the long run, such market conditions will gradually reduce the incentive for Chinese companies to go public in the U.S. At present, some Chinese companies have started to re-list in the Hong Kong market to avoid the risk of being “zeroed out” in terms of their market value. It is a choice companies have to make in order to stay in business.

A complete decoupling of the financial sector between China and the United States would not only be detrimental to Chinese companies, but also to the financial services industry dominated by the U.S. After all, Wall Street’s financial institutions, including investment banks, venture capital, and mutual funds, remain deeply engaged in the Chinese economy and markets. However, in the case of increasingly intensified geopolitical competition, the capital market connection between China and the United States needs a new geopolitical equilibrium to support. Despite the gradual separation of direct capital market ties between the U.S. and China, each will continue to seek new ways to link capital markets in the new geopolitical landscape to meet the needs of financing and investment of both sides. Hong Kong, Singapore, or other places will likely serve as intermediaries for such connectivity based on geopolitical ties.

A researcher at ANBOUND, graduated from the School of Mathematics at Peking University and has a PhD in economics from the University of Birmingham, UK

Continue Reading
Comments

Economy

Brick By Brick, BRICS Now a New Bridge for a New World

Avatar photo

Published

on

Measuring BRICS in single decades, in 2001, BRIC started as an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, and China; Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill claimed that by 2050 the four BRIC economies would come to dominate the global economy. So South Africa was added to BRIC in 2010. The following countries are now expressing interest in joining: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Is this now the awakening of BRICS+ or BRICS power?

BRICS+ by 2030 will add dozen new members and carve new indices, and by 2040, it will lead to new intellectualism on geopolitics and socio-economies for the super complex 2050 age of smart living.  

Historically, BRICS nations pushed on their people-power agenda over super-power titles. They made extreme value-creation economic models over focusing on powerful military-industrial complexes. They focused on nation-building and avoided special mandates to manage global affairs. They have been on a quest to upgrade them. They were feeding hungry mouths, as they were population rich, constantly up-skilling, and improving value creation as they were SME rich. They kept a steady watch to create multilateralism to uplift humankind.

They, too, made mistakes, as did the rest of the world

In the third decade of the third millennium, come 2020, three transformations erupted. First, futurism changed the rules on the ‘physicality of work’ and created a new imbalance with the ‘mentality of performance’; this has divided the workforce of world; the old system of over a billion commuting daily to the center of a complex maze to arrive daily at the sanctum of the company and create climate change. So now, in response, some 50% of the world’s workforce has chosen to stay away and work remotely in the surroundings of wide-open choices. Furthermore, technology uplifted micro-power-nations and exposed Western economies now stripped naked in bubble baths on slippery floors, they tippy-toe practicing conga-lines

Newly magnified economy: Behold, what microscopes exposed the magnified inner workings of the body. Similarly, the integrated networks have exposed the digital connectivity and working of millions of villages, cities, and nations with additional billions of people to interact, trade, improve grassroots prosperity and create a well-informed and opinionated citizenry. Some 100 years ago, if only 1% of the world’s population knew what was happening, today it is a dozen times more, and by 2030 double again. Why would these numbers change the global economic matrix when translated into micro-trading, micro-manufacturing, and micro-exporting? International opinion today is already strong enough to crush any national opinion of any nation still lingering under the illusion of a self-promoted victory.

When the SME sector already exists within each nation, the global markets are always hungry for good quality goods and services, and the rains of almost free digital technologies make such transformation a quick turnaround. Therefore, mindsets are critically essential; the need to define the difference between the job seeker mindset that builds the organizations and the job creator mindset that originates and creates that organization in the first place.

So what are the lessons, key features, and blueprints in sight?

Mistakes and new lessons: Last many decades, as the new world was rising, Western citizens felt like China experts, and their regular visits to local China towns restaurants in each city misguided them that Laundromat trained Chinese could only produce some chicken fried rice. Ever since the advent of the camera, the East was always projected as poor and dysfunctional; mesmerized by the media coverage during the last many decades, the West was equally convinced that India, a land of only snake charmers and fakirs, finally someday speak better English. The general perceptions about Asia, besides eating rice, if they could ever make cheaper products for the West. The rest is history, mistakes, and lessons.

After the big ding-dong nights of 2000 New Year’s Eve, today’s new story starts from the 20th chapter. Now China and India alone have created some 500 million new entrepreneurs, not by a magic pill or meta-crypto-wand but by National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism, a slow, painful deployment of SMEs across the nation, and by creating mobilization protocols to identify, classify, and digitizing based on multiple factors from type and size to the evaluation of their “respectable” role in future communities and economic factors. This methodology was far more advanced in strategy and stern management over the globalization frenzy from the West, where sudden exporting of manufacturing of the industrial plants to kill manufacturing and destroying the middle class out of the West already declared globalization a great success.

The other mistake is to assume this is an economic or an academic study, at best, like an Oscar Slap on sleepy rotundas occupied with endless printing of money across the Western economies. Instead, this is an entrepreneurial response for the entrepreneurial nations to awaken hidden entrepreneurial talents in up-skilling SMEs and re-skilling manufacturers at national levels.

Recommendations and warnings: No airline can survive with only Flight Engineers and Frequent Flyers stuffed inside the cockpits; that space is only reserved for highly trained pilots. Henceforth, across the world, any economic development of any size, shape, or authority may find other more suitable alternate paths of occupation if they still cannot demonstrate any levels of understanding, applicable skills, or mobilization mastery on the National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism to up-skill exporters and re-skill manufactures and uplift national SME sector as the most prominent economic contributor of the nation. Study the biggest error of economic thinking  

Underestimating the hidden powers of early thinking and starting a tiny unknown SME is a mistake of mindsets; here, entrepreneurialism like a saga unfolds, like a voluminous piece of literature but demanding literacy, understanding the job seeker mindsets and the ability to differentiate with entrepreneurial job creator mindset is already winning half the battle. Study the Mindset Hypotheses

Nations failing to realize the power of the billion SME rising in Asia and still unable to declare a national agenda of national mobilization of SMEs now must acquire an understanding of the 4B Factor: a billion displaced due to the pandemic, a billion replaced due to technology, a billion misplaced in wrong jobs now a billion on starvation watch. Furthermore, this 4 billion ever digitally connected mass of people ever in the history of humankind is now the most significant force of global opinion. Notice nations are already intoxicated with joy over the popularity of their national public opinion while having just an opposite international opinion on the world stage.

Recommendation; everyone is born an entrepreneur; our system chips away at this talent. Nevertheless, 10% to 50% high potential SMEs of any nation once are identified, classified, and digitized within 100 days. The uplifting digital platforms of up-skilling exporters and re-skilling manufacturers will result in 10% to 50% quadrupling their performance, productivity, and profitability. Imagine how much-regimented efforts will activate a positive national economic revolution based on real value creation, uplifting grassroots prosperity. How soon is a nation ready for a significant change? The rest is easy.

Continue Reading

Economy

Promoting Economic Security: Enhancing Stability and Well-being

Avatar photo

Published

on

The stability and well-being of people, communities, and countries are critically dependent on economic security. It covers a range of topics, such as access to necessities, work opportunities, stable incomes, and defense against economic shocks. The need of guaranteeing economic security has increased significantly in the modern world, which is characterized by technical developments, geopolitical shifts, and unexpected disasters. The importance of economic security is examined in this article, along with important tactics for promoting adaptability and preserving people’s quality of life.

The value of economic security to individuals, communities, and countries cannot be overstated. By fostering an atmosphere where people and families can achieve their basic needs without suffering undue stress, it promotes stability. Because of this stability, people can recuperate and start over after severe shocks like economic downturns, natural disasters, or health crises.

Furthermore, economic security contributes to social cohesion by reducing inequality and fostering inclusivity. When individuals feel economically secure, they are more likely to actively participate in society, contribute to their communities, and engage in productive endeavors. This sense of security leads to greater social harmony and a collective feeling of prosperity.

Moreover, economic security is vital for long-term sustainable development. It enables individuals and societies to invest in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and innovation. These investments drive economic growth, improve overall well-being, and create the foundation for a prosperous future. By ensuring economic security, countries can build resilient and sustainable economies that benefit their citizens and contribute to global progress.

To enhance economic security, several key strategies can be implemented. Firstly, governments and businesses should prioritize diversifying their economies by promoting sectors with growth potential and resilience. By reducing reliance on a single industry or market, countries can mitigate the impact of economic downturns and build a more robust and diversified economy.

Investing in education and skills development is another crucial strategy. Governments and organizations must focus on providing quality education, vocational training, and lifelong learning opportunities. Equipping individuals with the necessary tools and knowledge enables them to adapt to changing economic landscapes and remain competitive in the job market.

Strong social safety nets are necessary to protect people during times of economic upheaval. The most disadvantaged populations should be given priority in the design and implementation of comprehensive social welfare systems by the government. Creating a safety net for all citizens entails implementing programs for income support, healthcare coverage, and unemployment benefits.

Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation can create new opportunities for economic growth and job creation. Governments can support aspiring entrepreneurs by providing access to capital, mentorship programs, and favorable regulatory environments. Embracing technological advancements and fostering a culture of innovation further enhances economic security, particularly in an increasingly digital world.

International cooperation is essential since economic security is a global issue. Cooperation between nations is necessary to advance ethical business practices, lessen economic inequality, and improve financial stability. Initiating discourse, coordinating policy, and assisting nations in economic crises are all important functions of multilateral organizations.

Societies can improve their economic security and create a more secure and prosperous future by putting these strategies into practice: diversifying the economy, investing in education and skills, creating social safety nets, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation, and fostering international cooperation.

Having economic security is crucial in a world that is uncertain and changing quickly. Governments, corporations, and individuals may all work together to create an environment that promotes economic security by putting a priority on stability, resilience, and inclusivity. We can create a more resilient and prosperous future for everybody through diversity, education, social safety nets, entrepreneurship, and international cooperation. By making investments in financial stability, we build a more just and sustainable world.

Continue Reading

Economy

The Impact of Globalization on the South Asian Economy

Published

on

Globalization refers to the process by which economies, societies, and cultures from different countries become integrated with one another. The economies of the countries that make up South-East Asia, which include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, have been significantly impacted by the spread of globalization in recent decades. The effects of globalization on the economies of South Asian countries have been mixed, with some positive and some negative results.

Positive Impacts of Globalization on the South Asian Economy

The expansion of South-East Asia’s trade and investment opportunities is one of the aspects of globalization that has had the most positive impact on the region’s economy. Because of its large consumer base, low labor costs, and strategic location, the region has become an attractive destination for foreign investors. As a consequence of this, the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Asia has significantly increased, which has led to the development of new industries and the production of new jobs.

The expansion of the service industry in Sout-East Asia can also be attributed to the effects of globalization. South Asian countries have emerged as a hub for the outsourcing of services such as information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing as a result of the emergence of new technologies and the increased availability of skilled labor (BPO). As a direct consequence of this, the area has benefited from an increase in both the number of available jobs and the amount of money it brings.

Last but not least, globalization has facilitated greater cultural interaction and integration throughout South-East Asia. The region possesses a significant cultural legacy, and the advent of globalization has made it possible for South Asian music, films, and cuisine to become popular all over the world. This has not only contributed to a greater awareness of the region’s cultural heritage, but it has also opened up new doors for the travel and hospitality industry.

Negative Impacts of Globalization on the South-East Asian Economy

Even though there have been some positive effects, there have also been some negative effects that globalization has had on the South Asian economy. The widening gap between rich and poor is one of the most pressing problems that we face today. The advantages brought about by globalization have accrued almost entirely to a relatively small number of people, which has contributed to a widening income gap. As a consequence of this, social unrest and a wider gap in incomes have emerged.

Another significant obstacle that has been presented is the displacement of workers and traditional industries. Due to the effects of globalization, many smaller businesses have been forced to shut down, and their employees have been relocated to larger companies that are more productive. As a consequence of this, there has been an increase in unemployment as well as social unrest, particularly in rural areas.

Globalization has contributed to the deterioration of the environment in South Asia. The region has seen a growth in industries such as the textile industry, both of which have had a significant impact on the environment as a result of their expansion. The population’s health and well-being have suffered as a direct result of environmental degradation, which can be traced back to the increased consumption of natural resources and the improper disposal of waste produced by industrial processes.

Conclusion

The economy of the South-East Asian region has been affected in both positive and negative ways by the phenomenon of globalization. While it has resulted in the growth of industries and increased cultural exchange, it has also resulted in the displacement of workers and the widening of income inequality. While it has contributed to the growth of industries and increased cultural exchange, it has also resulted in the displacement of workers. In order to address these challenges, policy interventions that foster inclusive growth, protect the environment, and create new opportunities for the population will be required. By acting in this manner, countries in South Asia will be able to take advantage of globalization’s positive aspects while mitigating some of its more damaging effects.

Continue Reading

Publications

Latest

Trending