China’s private economy set for winter ‘colder and longer than expected’, warns billionaire tycoon
- Self-made billionaire and Cheung Kei Group chairman Chen Hongtian says rhetoric from Beijing has yet to translate into policies to help private businesses
- Comments from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee member represent a more bearish view during US trade war
A winter “colder and longer than expected” is arriving for China’s private business entrepreneurs and Beijing’s supportive rhetoric has yet to translate into concrete policies that will help the private economy, self-made billionaire Chen Hongtian has said.
Chinese tycoon Chen, 59, says “the difficulties will be larger than expected” next year for China’s private business owners amid a domestic economic slowdown caused by the continuing trade war with the US.
Cheung Kei Group chairman Chen, a self-made billionaire and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, was speaking last week in his capacity as the chairman of the Harmony Club, a group of about 150 tycoons who are mostly based in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
The club includes Tencent chairman Pony Ma, Wang Chuanfu, the chairman of carmaker BYD, and Wang Wei, the chairman of courier service SF Express. Its members directly and indirectly control over 85 listed companies and more than 3,000 corporate entities, according to the club.
More than half of the club’s members had encountered difficulties stemming from China’s trade war with the US, the economic downturn, financing difficulties and stricter regulations, Chen said, while 10 per cent of them had “encountered very big problems”.
