Zhongzhi Bankruptcy Raises China Risks

Chinese shadow banking giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group filed for bankruptcy, cementing the rapid downfall of a firm that oversaw more than $140 billion at its peak before succumbing to the property crisis that has wrought havoc on the world’s second-largest economy.

Zhongzhi's downfall marks one of China’s biggest-ever bankruptcies. I Photo: Zhongzhi Enterprise Group

The downfall marks one of China’s biggest-ever bankruptcies, putting more stress on already fragile consumer and investor sentiment, as serious as the threats posed by cascading bankruptcies in the property sector, which accounts for up to 33% of the gross domestic product (GDP.)

In another development, China is launching an anti-dumping investigation into liquor products like brandy from the European Union (EU) in a modest step after the bloc opened a probe last fall into its electric vehicle (EV) subsidies.

Last month, the EU also opened anti-dumping probes into Chinese biodiesel and melamine exports. In November, the bloc imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of some plastics products from China.

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