China 'in distress': economy suffering 'rapid' slowdown as 'systemic' problems surface
Fox News
China's Zero-Covid policy exacerbated the country's economic troubles, with months-long lockdowns stalling out multiple sectors including shipping, banking and construction.
A passenger in protective overall waits to board a train at the Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, China Sunday, May 22, 2022. The locked-down Chinese metropolis of Shanghai opens some public transit services as it slowly eases pandemic restrictions that have kept most residents in their housing complexes for more than six weeks. ((Chinatopix via AP)) A man tries to receive medicine he bought at a pharmacy through its closed glass doors in Shanghai, China, Sunday, May 22, 2022. Numerous residential compounds in Beijing have restricted movement in and out, although conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months. ((AP Photo/Chen Si)) In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, workers labor at the site of a temporary hospital being constructed at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) in east China's Shanghai, Friday, April 8, 2022. China's largest city of Shanghai will soon begin lifting lockdown in communities that report no positive cases within 14 days after another round of COVID-19 testing, authorities said Saturday. (Ding Ting/Xinhua via AP) ( ) FILE PHOTO: Under-construction apartments are pictured from a building during sunset in the Shekou area of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China November 7, 2021. (Reuters/David Kirton) Aerial photo taken on Feb. 16, 2022 shows the construction site of the new campus of New York University NYU Shanghai, in east China's Shanghai. (Photo by Fang Zhe/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Fang Zhe/Xinhua via Getty Images) Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news.
Economists can’t seem to make heads or tails of China’s current economic situation: GDP data indicated a sharp slowdown in Q2, but just weeks ago the Hang Seng hit a 3-month high in what some analysts hailed as signs of recovery.
Larry Hu, the chief Chinese economist at Macquarie in Australia, told Fortune that the economy "is on the mend, but it remains very weak." He attributed the struggles to the impact of extended lockdowns during the pandemic, and China’s zero-covid policy has only further complicated the issue.