How the world is watching the opening of China

Chinese stocks rose on Tuesday after Joe Biden and Xi Jinping expressed their desire to improve relations between the US and China at the G20 summit. Over the past week, Xi has taken the most notable actions in years to stabilize the world’s second-largest economy, which is growing at its slowest pace in four decades, according to Bloomberg authors. In addition to diplomatic signals, he presented a plan to rescue the affected real estate sector and provided the first steps towards a long-awaited exit from the costly policy of zero tolerance for COVID-19. This is the official position of the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi – to contain the spread of the disease at the cost of mass testing, severe restrictions on movement, travel and strict quarantine measures, when entire neighborhoods and even cities are isolated in response to a single case of the disease.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks mainland companies listed in the city, rose 26% this month from the world’s worst stock index to the best, Bloomberg said. Only on Tuesday, November 15, it rose by 4.84%. While tight measures to prevent deaths from COVID-19 remain in place, any signals of policy easing, even Xi’s appearance without a mask at a meeting with Biden, raise investor hopes that China will return to its previous pace of growth. And if they are justified in terms of opening China after three hard quarantine restrictions, this could provide serious support to the Russian economy.