China news roundup / Nachrichten 2026-08-16/17
China’s economy slows further in July as retail sales barely grow, investment slump steepens
"China’s economy lost momentum across the board in July, as consumer spending stalled and urban investment contracted at a faster pace while unemployment ticked higher, adding to pressure on Beijing to step up support in the second half."
--- Is someone still waiting for that great stimulus?
"China’s urban fixed-asset investment, including real estate and infrastructure, contracted 6.7% this year as of end-July from a year earlier, worse than the estimated 6% decline in the poll. The decline also steepened from the 5.7% drop in the first half of this year."
--- How often have they told us that real estate investment has bottomed out? And still it's going down.
"China’s consumer inflation had eased to a six-month low of 0.5% in July
[...] In another sign of persistent weakness in spending, new bank loans issued in July — typically a slow month for lending — recorded their largest monthly decline on record"
--- Domestic demand is doing good as well.
But recession? No, we don't talk about recession. It's just that the recovery is going a bit more slowly.
"A private survey conducted by the team of Li Daokui, a professor of economics at Tsinghua University, showed China’s broad unemployment rate at 10.2% as of July, significantly higher than the official figures of around 5%.
The survey, counting in people who have been jobless for the past two years and are no longer covered in the official labor force survey, also showed that more than half of the roughly 24 million long-term unemployed are aged 16 to 24."
--- And that still covers only urban areas. My guess would be that the actual unemployment rate is closer to 20% and for youths maybe 40 to 50%.
China’s economy showing signs that slowdown may be extending
"“Currently, the problem of insufficient domestic demand remains prominent, some industries and enterprises are facing increasing difficulties, and uncertainties in external environment are rising,” Li told a meeting of China’s state council, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
“We should actively stabilise external demand, expand mutually beneficial international economic and trade cooperation and promote balanced trade development.”"
--- Translation: 'We will flood foreign markets even more than we have been doing already.'
China surprises oil markets again with a return to stockpiling in July
"To compensate for the lower imports, China has cut refinery processing rates, but they are still at levels sufficient to meet domestic demand."
--- It's almost as if domestic demand were really really bad.
China leads wave of clean power wastage as grids globally hit limits
"China, the world's top producer of solar power, rejected 360 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean power from January to June, up 49% from the same period a year earlier, according to a report this month by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The report's estimates for curtailments far exceed figures given by the Chinese government.
Insufficient transmission infrastructure and supply contracts that guarantee operations of newly built coal-fired power plants in China are forcing the rejection of abundant renewable output, analysts say.
"Curtailment in China is structural, not a temporary bottleneck. We expect curtailment pressure to continue through the rest of this decade,""
--- This has been a problem for a long time in China, largely ignored by Western green energy 'experts'. Many of these new energy projects are not even connected to the grid. They were often just built to fill a quota and to make China look good.
"Curtailments, along with a new policy that removes a guaranteed fixed price for renewables, have contributed to a 66% drop in new solar installations this year in China. At the same time, China's coal-fired power generation is expected to rise again this year"
--- Renewable energy with Chinese characteristics.
U.S. to tell partners they must pick sides in AI race with China
"The U.S. is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must pick sides in the artificial intelligence race with China, warning they will be excluded from a U.S.-led AI coalition if they also sign up for Beijing’s competing framework, according to a U.S. official and an internal draft reviewed by Reuters"
--- Probably reasonable considering how naive many European countries have been when it comes to China.
"The race between the U.S. and China for technological leadership has reached a pivotal moment, as Chinese open-weight AI models have made rapid gains against proprietary systems from U.S. companies"
--- The Chinese open-weight AI models are still proprietary in their core, so there is not that much of a difference.
Chinese funding for pro-Palestinian marches to be investigated
"It comes amid concern that Beijing is seeking to exploit divisive causes in the West to deepen social tensions and wage what critics describe as “political warfare” against its adversaries.
Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “It is good news the Home Office has responded positively to the Telegraph report.
“But we have to be honest – the UK is under siege from China and practically defenceless on the battlefield. The CCP is engaged in a whole-of-state effort to manipulate narratives abroad, to sow division and chaos.
“Communist Party academics call this kind of activity unrestricted warfare: seeking advantage through non-military means, and they’re very good at it.
“We have yet to even recognise this acute threat, let alone defend ourselves appropriately.”"
--- China taking a page out of Russia's playbook. But this is nothing new. This has been going on for quite some time. Code Pink has been active at least in the USA for quite a number of years now.
s.a.: Nobody can now pretend that China isn’t our enemy
China rejects New Zealand spy allegations as false
How China-India border tensions are rising again over encroachment claims
--- Le Monde: "Tiananmen Square: Unseen footage reveals how the Chinese regime turned to violent repression"
--- China Uncensored featured the usual weekend news variety again:
--- China Uncensored: What If We Just Like, You Know…Sunk China’s Aircraft Carriers?
--- China Uncensored: China's "Good Communist" is DEAD
--- DW News: South Asia projects boost China's presence in India's sphere
Chinas Strukturkrise hält an
"Chinas Wirtschaft wächst weiter deutlich"
"Die Verbraucher in der Volksrepublik hielten sich weiter zurück. Die Einzelhandelsumsätze legten nur um 0,6 Prozent zu. Zugleich verschärfte sich der Rückgang der Investitionen. Von Januar bis Juli sanken die Anlageinvestitionen um 6,7 Prozent. Beide Werte verfehlten die Erwartungen von Analysten. Die Immobilieninvestitionen brachen in diesem Zeitraum sogar um fast ein Fünftel (19,2 Prozent) ein."
--- Die Tagesschau vertraut weiter den öffentlichen chinesischen Zahlen. Die Realität dürfte aber deutlich negativer aussehen.
Trump-Regierung stellt Ländern im KI-Wettstreit mit China ein scharfes Ultimatum
"Länder, die mit den Vereinigten Staaten im Bereich KI kooperieren, könnten bald vor die Wahl gestellt werden, welchem Technologieblock sie angehören wollen. Laut einem internen Entwurf des Außenministeriums, den Reuters einsehen konnte, erwägt Washington, Dutzenden von Regierungen mitzuteilen, dass eine Teilnahme an einer von den USA geführten Initiative nicht mit einer Mitgliedschaft in einem konkurrierenden chinesischen Rahmenwerk vereinbar ist."
--- Was durchaus vernünftig ist. Denn nur so kann man vermutlich einige recht naive europäische Regierungen dazu bringen, nicht auf den chinesischen Zug aufzuspringen.
Wie China Taiwan erobern könnte: „Wenn China angreift“ von Andreas Fulda
"Binnen einer Woche könnte die Volksrepublik China die Insel Taiwan erobern und deren demokratische Regierung stürzen, um das Land, das die Kommunistische Partei Chinas als abtrünnige Provinz betrachtet, gewaltsam mit dem Festland zu vereinigen."
--- Nicht unmöglich, aber unwahrscheinlich. Weil man allein schon die Vorbereitung für eine Invasion weit im Voraus sehen würde und dementsprechend eigene Vorbereitungen treffen kann.
Washington schätzt, dass circa 40 Länder als Zwischenstationen für chinesische Produkte dienen, um Zölle zu umgehen
Der Kongo stoppt wichtige Rohstoffexporte und trifft damit auch China
--- auslandsjournal: "Hightech statt Handarbeit: Chinas Antwort auf den Fachkräftemangel"
--- tagesschau24: Geschäft mit dem Tod in China
