China’s debt woes: Headlines from the 19th National Congress unfolding in Beijing this week focus on Xi Jinping’s vision for a “new era” in the next five years of his presidency, William Pesek writes. What’s really happening, though, is an elaborate campaign to hide the financial risks that face the country. President Xi’s big talk of giving market forces a “decisive role” is belied by his intensifying war on the global media, the internet and mainland gateways to information flows. Xi’s efforts to use the internet and big data to control the domestic narrative make China less transparent, effectively turning Asia’s biggest economy into more of a Black Box. It means that when China’s debt reckoning arrives, it may come out of nowhere for investors and governments alike. Beijing also faces runaway local-government debt – which in recent years topped Germany’s annual gross domestic product – and a shadow banking system that generated tens of trillions of dollars of credit since the 2008 global crisis. READ THE STORY HERE
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