Finance & economics | Financial flows

How to sneak billions of dollars out of China

A new era of capital flight has begun

A Chinese yuan note folded into the shape of an airplane.
Illustration: Ricardo Rey
|Singapore

It has been a terrible year to be bullish on China. The CSI 300 index of Chinese stocks has dropped by 13% so far in 2023, to below the level reached during the last of the country’s severe covid-19 lockdowns. Difficulties in the property market are prompting corporate defaults. The lacklustre outlook for economic growth, combined with the need to manage capricious autocratic leadership at home and uncertain relations with big trading partners, makes for a miserable financial climate.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Incoming flight”

From the December 16th 2023 edition

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