團隊

It’s been a record year for China’s internet moguls, but not in the way most would have hoped. The country’s 10 richest tech tycoons lost $80 billion in combined net worth in 2021, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, amid widescale crackdowns by Chinese regulators. The drop represents almost a quarter of their total wealth and is the largest one-year decline since 2012, when the index started tracking the world’s richest people.

Every once in a while, a company grows so big and messy that governments fear what would happen to the broader economy if it were to fail. In China, Evergrande, a sprawling real estate developer, is that company.

Billionaire owners of Chinese developers have dipped into their own pockets for at least US$3.8 billion to save their troubled companies from default, as a cash crunch engulfs the industry. From sales of luxury assets to stakes in sought-after listed companies, the personal balance sheets of China's property tycoons have become key for investors to determine whether developers will meet their debt obligations.

China Evergrande, the struggling real estate giant, said on Wednesday it had ended its effort to sell a stake in its property services company to another developer, its latest setback following weeks of missed interest payments. The now-scrapped sale of a 50 percent stake in Evergrande Property Services would have raised about $2.6 billion. The termination comes as Evergrande is scrounging for assets to sell to help pay angry home buyers, contractors, employees and creditors. Evergrande is just days away from defaulting on an $83 million interest payment that it skipped in September.

Shares of China Evergrande, the troubled real estate giant whose fate has contributed to jitters in global markets, fell again on Tuesday amid a new prediction that it would soon default.

Anxious investors, employees and suppliers describe a scramble inside teetering Chinese property giant Evergrande, in a crisis that has shaken public trust as it struggles to tide over a liquidity crunch.

Every once in a while a company grows so big and messy that governments fear what would happen to the broader economy if it were to fail. In China, Evergrande, a sprawling real estate developer, is that company.

為何中國科企更容易走入惡性競爭？港大亞洲環球研究所所長、金融學講座教授陳志武接受本刊專訪時，便拆解中美分別。首先，美國勞工成本高，科企不希望浪費資源模仿別人產品。其次，美國擁有完善保護知識產權、專利的法律，加上法院享有獨立地位，就算總統出手也難以干預。相反，如果中國政府希望發展高科技，法官為免違反中央鼓勵政策，通常不會受理相關案件。「在這個環境下，有時便出現浪費、重複的低階惡性競爭。」

A whistleblower from one of China’s most powerful banks says its shady dealings highlight how Hong Kong’s financial system is increasingly at the mercy of Beijing.