According to the statistics from the Urban and Rural Statistics Yearbook that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued, between 2014 and 2018, 451 cities had “urban expansion and population growth,” 87 cities had “urban expansion and population shrinkage,” 18 cities had “urban contraction and population growth,” and 13 cities had “urban contraction and population shrinkage.”

In 2018, the total newly constructed urban area was 58,456 square kilometers, an increase of 53.4 percent over 2009, while the permanent urban population was 510 million, only 35.8 percent higher than ten years ago. This indicated a phenomenon in which “land urbanization was faster than population urbanization.”

In comparing the data between 2018 and 2014, one can find that the number of cities with urban population reduction is twice the number of cities with urban area reduction. 122 cities experienced a decrease in urban permanent population during those five years; five cities showed little change; and 507 cities maintained a positive population growth. Among them, Longjing City in Jilin province, Jieyang City in Guangdong province and Honghu City in Hubei province are the only three cities whose population has decreased by more than 50 percent.

Most of those with a declining population are the third and fourth tier cities. Two main types of cities exhibited more urban population losses: cities in northeast China where young people are leaving en masse; and the smaller cities in the Pearl River Delta, whose population is beimg absorbed by the two top-tier cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Source: 21st Century Business Herald, September 12, 2020
http://www.21jingji.com/2020/9-12/1NMDEzNzlfMTU5MDI1NA.html

China Economy recently reported that China-owned Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo issued multiple recalls for a total of 380,000 cars in the Chinese domestic market in the last month alone. Volvo ranked number one on the recall list in August in China. Volvo made its name in the Chinese market for its quality and safety. However, numerous design mistakes and manufacturing issues caused multiple large-scale recalls and have been eating into the brand’s reputation. Volvo has recalled over half a million cars this year in China. The latest batch of recalls in September impacted 135,316 cars, which is greater than all the recalls issued in the past four years (2016-2019) combined. As the inventor of the safety belt, Volvo’s recent global safety belt recall of 2.2 million cars added to the crisis, as it was the largest recall in the company’s history since its founding in 1927. Chinese multinational automotive company Geely Holding Group acquired Volvo from Ford in 2010.

Source: China Economy, September 8, 2020
http://www.ce.cn/cysc/zljd/gd/202009/08/t20200908_35695591.shtml

China’s financial regulatory authority recently issued a document imposing strict restrictions on the products and services that can be provided by the locally established financing platform – the financial asset exchanges (FAE). The move may deal a blow to real estate companies and urban investment companies that have resorted to these exchanges as a financing channel in recent years.

The financial asset exchange is a financial asset trading service platform set up with the approval from local governments (provincial and municipal governments).

According to a Reuters report, this document forbids local FAE’s from cooperating with e-financing and real estate companies that are subject to state regulatory restrictions. It also obliges FAE’s to stop providing passages for financial or non-financial institutions to circumvent regulatory requirements such as the scope of investment and leverage constraints.

The document also pointed out that the local FAE’s are not allowed to sell products, in any fashion, to individuals, and that they are not allowed to issue, sell or trade financial products and private equity products under the supervision of the central financial authorities.

Since 2010, China’s local governments have been setting up FAE’s, originally to solve the financing problems of local small and medium sized enterprise. However, many FAE’s were involved in a number of illegal fund-raising activities and were subsequently subject to strict regulation. In recent years, FAE’s are becoming an important financing channel for real estate companies and local government owned infrastructure investment entities. The new document is believed to put a brake on the new waves of housing and infrastructure development.

Source: Central News Agency, September 13, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202009130049.aspx