Will China stop buying American T-bills?

Bloomberg reports: “China added to bond investors’ jitters on Wednesday as traders braced for what they feared could be the end of a three-decade bull market.” The source of the jitters, according to “people familiar with the matter,” is that senior Chinese government officials “reviewing the nation’s foreign-exchange holdings have recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. Treasuries.”

• China holds $3.1 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, and “regularly assesses its strategy for investing them.” Bloomberg says it is not clear “whether the recommendations of the officials have been adopted.”
• Other assets may offer more attractive returns, and Sino-U.S. trade frictions are another factor, as well as a long-held desire in China to diversify away from T-bills, as they are also called.

Some opinions on China’s appetite for T-bills worth reading:

• Former U.S. Treasury official Brad Setser: China’s impact on the U.S. bond market gets too much attention. And Europe’s too little.
• Reuters: China’s U.S. bond rebalancing would hold few fears for Fed

• The business of the baby boom
  The apps delivering babies to Chinese women / Sixth Tone
  “How changing attitudes toward science are boosting the country’s market for fertility technology.”
• Chinese stock markets
  Global investors can ill-afford to ignore China’s equities / Financial Times
  An opinion piece in the FT says that “China equities are set to be one of the investment opportunities of 2018,” and that “MSCI’s milestone decision last year to include A-shares, which are traded on Chinese stock exchanges, in its flagship emerging markets index was just the beginning.”
• Choppy waters ahead for fintech companies
  Beijing’s grip on internet finance is tightening / Peterson Institute for International Economics
  “The days of laissez-faire are numbered for financial technology companies in China.”
  Microlenders’ debt sales slump as crackdown bites / Caixin
• Meituan-Dianping-Didi rivalry (?)
  Meituan-Dianping’s car-hailing service to launch soon in Beijing / Caixin
  Local authority says Meituan not yet authorized to offer ride-hailing services / TechNode
• Apple complying with cybersecurity laws
  Apple: Chinese firm to operate China iCloud accounts / BBC
• Growing controversies over data privacy (?)
  Baidu sued over claim it illegally obtained users’ data / Caixin
• Belt and Road (?)
  ‘Belt and Road’ companies may get help with yuan-denominated Hong Kong IPOs / Caixin