Reflections On China – Where To Next?

If you’re not following China’s economic story  in a “day-to-day sense” – I completely understand.

It’s not like you don’t have enough on your plate, with what’s going on in your own lives. Tough enough these days keeping up with the troubles in Europe, or the world’s largest nuclear disaster in Japan, not to mention your kids, employment, your health and likely a million other things far more pressing than “what the hell is really going on” in China.

Well…..I try keep things pretty straight forward here for that reason alone. Gimme the info , no need for a bunch of meaningless numbers and charts etc – just tell me what it amounts to, and how it may affect my investment decisions / trading moving forward. Thank you Kong, have a good day – talk to you later. Fine.

You may recall that China’s leaders had their “Third Plenum” meeting some months ago outlining a list of reforms to be taken on by the country through the coming years. The general gist of this as it may affect you is simple – China needs to move away from the policies centered on “massive and somewhat inefficient growth” to a more sustainable model where support is now given to the “tiny shoots” that may have blossomed as a result.

Simple enough, and simply put – China’s reform policies moving forward will contribute to “a generally slowing economy” as “growth” takes a temporary back seat to “sustainability”.

You also have to appreciate that China “IS” the global growth engine. China is now the largest trading nation in the world in terms of imports and exports, after overtaking the US last year.

The proposed reforms in China make absolute and perfect sense as,  much like a well-tended lawn – you’ve done the work to get that grass growing, it’s up , it’s starting to grow – but you’re certainly not going to “flood it” with a pile more fertilizer now are you?

The implementation of reforms in China will undoubtedly contribute to the slowing of global growth moving forward, but as we’ve all come to recognize / understand – this will only be a small “zig or a zag” in the long-term chart of China’s continued move higher.

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