Covid gave us two versions of China. The first, visible to the world through 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, was peak efficiency China.
After coronavirus broke out in China, Beijing then showed how it should be tackled: close borders – external and, if necessary, internal – and test for the virus big and often. It skirted recession by cranking up its factories and stoking its export machine.
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That was followed by a different China; one not seen in decades. This one came into view in summer 2021 and surprised just about everyone, from banks and investors to foreign governments.
This version is a confident yet strangely insecure China, one less inclined to seek external compliments but more thin-skinned about outside criticism. A place where regulators unveil new schemes to make foreign capital feel at home, even as the ruling Party cracks down on sector after sector, forcing global investors to ask if onshore assets and securities are still investible.
And