China’s slowing economy, seen from ground level
A bossy, secretive party is ill-suited to fixing a crisis of consumer confidence
THE dejected, shirtless man kneeling this week outside the head office of Country Garden, a troubled Chinese property giant, might easily have gone unnoticed—if, that is, guards had not tried to hide him behind a wall of large, red umbrellas. Still more security guards held up umbrellas to conceal a woman and a teenage girl, sitting on the ground beside the family’s luggage. Others blew whistles at anyone taking pictures.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “China’s crisis of confidence”
From the August 19th 2023 edition
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