13
votes
Accepted
What would happen if China called in its debt?
You have to understand how international debt works. These are not loans, but bonds. China buys a US bond for, e.g., 98 USD. This bond is a promise by the US Treasury to pay 100 USD one year from now. ...
- 961
10
votes
Accepted
If Germany is the largest exporter, why do Chinese products pervade the the US market?
Intermediate and capital goods used in the production of other goods are often very expensive and made by Germany. Think fancy manufacturing equipment in chemicals, semiconductors, and metal ...
- 15.8k
5
votes
Does China subsidize its exports?
World Trade Organization (WTO) rules prohibit export subsidies and China joined the WTO almost 15 years ago (in December 2001). As a condition of membership, China had to eliminate export subsidies in ...
- 6,652
4
votes
What would happen if China called in its debt?
Also remember that China's holdings of US Treasury's are a manifestation of the fact that they run a current account surplus with the US e.g. they sell more stuff to us than what they buy from us, ...
- 61
4
votes
When can we expect China to become a developed country?
Just because a country has a lot of resources (including human capital), it does not necessarily form a path for a developed nation. China is also very involved in military conflicts. It just takes ...
- 69
3
votes
What were "scissors prices" (China, 1950s)?
Under Mao the Chinese government was a planned economy, prices were set by the party, not by the free market. Procurement prices of agricultural produce, what the government payed to farmers, were ...
- 26.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Why is the Australian dollar, often viewed by traders as a proxy for the Chinese economy?
China's currency, the yuan (CNY), only partially reflects what goes on
in China's economy. It doesn't trade freely; the Chinese government
sets an official rate for it every day and only allows it ...
- 15.8k
3
votes
Why is the Australian dollar, often viewed by traders as a proxy for the Chinese economy?
I couldn't read the FT article... but...
According to this article here, China imports a lot of raw material from Australia. This means that if Chinese economy is doing well, they import a lot of ...
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3
votes
Trade in services between the US and China
Table 2.2 of https://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2017/10-October/1017-international-services-tables.pdf suggests
US exports of services to China in 2016 worth $\$54$bn and
US imports of services from China ...
- 4,674
3
votes
Why does China buy so much U.S. Treasury debt?
As was said above, buying debt to affect the exchange rate and make Chinese exports more attractive may be one reason to buy these Treasuries. Surely all of these are not reinvested into buying more ...
- 6,409
3
votes
Why does lowering the value of yuan against the USD disadvantage the US and benefit China
The article reflects a consensus view of the trade situation between US and China. Personally I see it differently : China has been willing to make and ship trillions of dollars’ worth of goods to ...
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2
votes
Why does China buy so much U.S. Treasury debt?
China's interior consumption only represents 30% of its GDP, it's economical growth is not based on its interior consumption but on its exportation, a big part of its consumers are the USA. China has ...
- 347
2
votes
Why does China buy so much U.S. Treasury debt?
Similar to previous answers but with some additional sources (and possibly simpler?)
By investing abroad dollars(or any other currency) are purchased in exchange for Yuan, this reduces the value of ...
- 175
2
votes
Accepted
How is it possible that shipping of eBay items from China to US is 'free'?
The major reasons that I understand are that:
the Chinese government subsidizes shipping.
the US Postal Service, eBay China, and Hong Kong Post office have a trilateral agreement called the ePacket ...
- 6,409
2
votes
Accepted
Confusion regarding debt to GDP ratio
The answer is in the the first line and title of the articles. Not all debt is government debt. One calculation also includes household and corporate debt.
- 26.2k
2
votes
Why are imported Chinese products in India cheaper than those locally produced?
Consider an exact same product, say an umbrella, which is both imported from China in India and locally produced. The reason why the Chinese product is cheaper compared to the local one could be ...
- 6,652
2
votes
Accepted
What are the household holdings of financial products in China?
I do not think there is some dataset that has such an detailed breakdown that you want. However, one of the most widely used datasets on financial assets held by households are the various national ...
- 42.1k
2
votes
Why would governments sell bonds when the economy is in recovery?
The article pretty much answers this:
China has issued 100 billion yuan (about 14.1 billion U.S. dollars) of special government bonds for COVID-19 control measures in a bid to support local ...
- 9,726
2
votes
Chinese tarriffs (pre-tradewar)
First a disclaimer: Trade imbalances are something that we should expect to happen, especially between two massive economies like the US and China. In fact, it will probably be very hard to find a ...
- 4,148
2
votes
Accepted
Are US-branded products manufactured in China considered Chinese?
Short answer, yes, they are considered Chinese imports. Your excellent question speaks to the flaw in using Gross Domestic Product as a measurement of the health of a nation's economy.
The flaw is ...
- 456
2
votes
Accepted
Why would China's housing be in a bubble?
This issue has been at the fore among China watchers for many years. While bubble classification is often subjective (even the Fed concedes):
[The] econometric detection of asset price bubbles cannot ...
- 981
1
vote
Accepted
Who paid the bill for cheap Chinese exports?
The United States was paying the bill. (This has now changed).
- 153
1
vote
Where can I find the statistics of import crude oil to China?
I'm not sure how helpful this is but the way the information is displayed is really nice. https://oec.world/en/profile/country/chn/
- 11
1
vote
How is currency depreciation related to import tariffs?
One answer and one comment here make the false claim that tariffs are equivalent to currency depreciation, playing around with the exchange rate of your currency can "eliminate" a tariff, and so forth....
- 671
1
vote
Accepted
How is currency depreciation related to import tariffs?
Assume that a chinese company is selling a product for 100 RMB or 16 USD.
With the 10% tariff the cost for an american importer rises to 17.6 USD.
If the the RMB depreciates 8% and the price in RMB ...
- 1,361
1
vote
Do Chinese tariffs on American goods make them more expensive to American consumers?
Well, due to Lerner's Simmetry Theorem, an import tax has the same effect of an export tax. When China makes its imports from the US more expensive, its exports get more expensive too.
- 750
1
vote
How can China shield its public from the effects of a trade war?
Barry Naughton is an authority on the Chinese economy. He offers evidence on China's government control over the economy in a nice paper called "Is China Socialist?"
China's government controls an ...
- 6,652
1
vote
China: sectoral data
Good data sources from China are hard to come by. For official data, you can find nearly all available data series through the company called CEIC, although this is somewhat expensive. In general, the ...
- 11
1
vote
Why are imported Chinese products in India cheaper than those locally produced?
The cost of the umbrella is the sum of the cost of input raw resources (wood / plastics / metal / fabric), labor, transport and retail. Assuming the retail costs are the same (you're buying in the ...
- 2,155
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible