Noll Kina-avtal för världens 10 största private equity-bolag 2026 | NTD NYHETER

Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Ten of the world's largest private capital firms have made no new equity investments in China so far this year, at least not publicly. That's according to the Financial Times. Why are foreign investments in China declining? And what does new data say about where the Chinese economy is headed? NTD's Julia Song tells the story. A drop in foreign investments flowing into China. In just five years, the number of investment deals that some of the world's biggest buyout firms made in China went from a dozen down to zero this year. Milton Israti is the chief economist at Vested, a financial communications agency. He says the deals likely dissipated for two reasons. The only growth in China in these days is in the government-sponsored high-tech electric vehicles area. And that means that the government is being much stricter about investment flows than it would have been if it was the production of toys or shoes or things like that. So the government is interfering. The government in Beijing is interfering much more with the investing. And of course, the investors are very concerned about that because their main object isn't how to get out when the time comes. Israti noted that the trend is also a reflection of the investment environment in China not doing well. So we've had reports recently that even private investing in China, this is quite aside from the government, private investing from private firms on capital projects is way down. And this is an indication that there just aren't that many opportunities in China, the way the economy is today. There are investment opportunities in areas like AI, but this is where the Chinese regime appears conflicted. On one hand, Beijing has restricted foreign investments in sensitive industries, forcing Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of Chinese-founded AI firm Manus. But on the other hand, Israti says China also desperately needs more money to build AI and other high-tech industries. So it is looking for funds. Beijing has allowed the issue of more Panda bonds in the Hong Kong market, which is a way of channeling foreign capital into China. They've also encouraged Chinese firms to go abroad to issue bonds and not so much equities, but bonds in order to get money. It's a difficult situation for China to be in. They both want the money and want the control. And of course, in China, they might be able to have their way both ways. But with foreigners, no, they're just not going to put the money in if they don't think they can get it out and they don't think they can control it. So they've dried up a source of funds that they really desperately need. Zooming out, data released Monday shows China's GDP growth slowed to a three-and-a-half-year low in the second quarter of this year. Of the engines driving the economy forward, only exports are going strong. The rest are struggling, especially the property market. Property values have fallen 25 percent. That has really hit Chinese homeowners, and that's a large part of the population. Their household net worth has shrunk, and that means they're not consuming. He noted China's economy is distorted, and over-reliance on exports for growth presents a risk. Following the tariff war, China has been shifting its exports away from the U.S. and selling more to other countries. Those sources are not going to last forever. The Europeans are already putting on tariffs, and countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have complained that their own development is being hamstrung by China's presence. So depending on exports has a short future for China, and that's all it has now. Though for the United States, Israti says tariffs have, in some respects, insulated the country from China's economy and made it less vulnerable to China. Juliet Song, NTD News.