Investors should avoid reading international news coverage of China’s economy, a top Chinese securities regulator yesterday told a summit of global bankers in comments that received endorsement from two senior executives.
The advice was made by China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai (方星海) in a prerecorded interview that was broadcast to a summit in Hong Kong.
“I deal with international investors quite a lot in my daily work and I am afraid some of them have read too much the international media reports about events in China,” he said.
Photo: AFP
“A lot of media reports, let me put it this way, they really don’t understand China very well and they have a short term focus... Don’t read too much of international media,” he added.
Hong Kong is hosting a week of high-profile events after years of political unrest and COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions tarnished the territory’s business-friendly reputation, sparked an exodus of talent and battered its economy.
Senior executives from banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Blackrock Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, UBS Group AG, HSBC Holdings PLC and Standard Chartered PLC are among those attending.
In a later panel discussion, UBS chairman Colm Kelleher backed Fang’s comments.
“Like Vice Chairman Fang said: We’re not reading the American press, we all buy the story,” he said.
Kelleher added that international bankers were “very pro-China” and watching closely as to whether the world’s second-largest economy would reopen.
Bank of China (中國銀行) president Liu Jin (劉金) also referenced Fang’s remarks in comments about China’s deeply indebted property market.
“Don’t worry too much. As Mister Fang said, don’t read too much negative reports,” he told delegates.
China is the last major economy committed to a “zero COVID-19” strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines. The measures have stamped out outbreaks, but created growing economic pain for local and international businesses.
Huge defaults have hit China’s property sector in the past 18 months, much of its revelations that were first reported on by international media.
Domestic media is state-controlled in China, and censorship is used to suppress negative stories or critical coverage.
Foreign media face intense restrictions, but have more leeway and are a conduit of information in a country where official economic data can sometimes be opaque.
In his comments, Fang told investors to “find out what’s really going on in China, and what’s the real intention of our government, by themselves.”
However, China has been largely cut off from the rest of the world for the past two years by pandemic travel controls. Beijing has yet to signal any timeframe for whether and when China might move away from its “zero COVID-19” controls.
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