Business

China Economic Slowdown: History and 2026 Timeline

China's 2026 economic slowdown is the interaction of a multi-year property downturn, weak household consumption, softer credit demand and demographic pressure,…

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TWO-SPEED REBALANCING

State Council Acknowledges Insufficient Domestic Demand

Q2 2026 real GDP grew 4.3% year-on-year while July retail sales rose just 0.6% and property investment fell 19.2% for the year to date. On 17 August 2026 Premier Li Qian…

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PROPERTY CRISIS

Evergrande, Country Garden and the Three Red Lines Fallout

The 2020 Three Red Lines policy restricted heavily leveraged developers' financing just as sales softened, triggering Evergrande's 2021 liquidity crisis and Country Gard…

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COVID AND THE RED LINES

Three Red Lines Policy Introduced

China grew 2.3% in 2020, the only major economy to post positive growth, while regulators introduced developer-leverage caps in August 2020 designed to deflate the prope…

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GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

Four Trillion Yuan Stimulus and the Rise of LGFVs

Beijing announced a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package in November 2008, funnelled partly through newly created local-government financing vehicles since local governments…

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WTO ACCESSION

China Joins the World Trade Organization

China formally acceded to the WTO on 11 December 2001 after 15 years of negotiation led by Premier Zhu Rongji, converting its manufacturing base into the world's factory…

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ZHU RONGJI ERA

SOE Restructuring, Banking Reform and Housing Reform

Zhu Rongji restructured state-owned enterprises, rebuilt the banking system through new asset-management companies, and ended welfare housing in 1998 to create China's p…

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FISCAL REFORM

Tax-Sharing System Reshapes Local Government Finance

The 1994 tax-sharing reform centralised revenue with the central government, leaving local governments to fund themselves through land sales - the root of the land-finan…

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SOUTHERN TOUR

Deng Xiaoping Reignites Market Reform

Deng Xiaoping's January-February 1992 tour of the southern coastal cities restarted stalled reform momentum, leading to the formal adoption of the socialist market econo…

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REFORM AND OPENING

Third Plenum Launches Rural Reform

The December 1978 Third Plenum introduced the Household Responsibility System in agriculture and permitted rural township and village enterprises, the starting point of…

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