Editor’s note for March 6, 2023

A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.

My thoughts today:

This is rather funny: Billionaire, emerging markets investor, and former China bull Mark Mobius complained in a TV interview that he has been unable to take his money out of China due to the country’s capital controls

“I can’t get an explanation of why they’re doing this…They’re putting all kinds of barriers. They don’t say: No, you can’t get your money out. But they say: give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money…This is crazy.”

We’re going to hear more complaints like this in the coming months and years, as high profile investors realize that they are actually in the same boat as middle class Chinese urbanites and small-time entrepreneurs and other ordinary people who have known for decades this simple truth: It takes one kind of skill to make a lot of money in China, but it takes a whole different set of abilities to get the money out.

Speaking of money, this week in Beijing, the government announced a GDP growth target of 5% at the annual Two Sessions political conference. That’s an enviable number by global standards, but low enough for China that media reports are calling it conservative.

We’ve summarized the key numbers and announcements of the Two Sessions in our top story today.

Editor’s note for March 6, 2023

A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.

My thoughts today:

This is rather funny: Billionaire, emerging markets investor, and former China bull Mark Mobius complained in a TV interview that he has been unable to take his money out of China due to the country’s capital controls

“I can’t get an explanation of why they’re doing this…They’re putting all kinds of barriers. They don’t say: No, you can’t get your money out. But they say: give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money…This is crazy.”

We’re going to hear more complaints like this in the coming months and years, as high profile investors realize that they are actually in the same boat as middle class Chinese urbanites and small-time entrepreneurs and other ordinary people who have known for decades this simple truth: It takes one kind of skill to make a lot of money in China, but it takes a whole different set of abilities to get the money out.

Speaking of money, this week in Beijing, the government announced a GDP growth target of 5% at the annual Two Sessions political conference. That’s an enviable number by global standards, but low enough for China that media reports are calling it conservative.

We’ve summarized the key numbers and announcements of the Two Sessions in our top story today.