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A small fishing community in the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong is transformed into an industrial and tech hub in three decades of industrialization and growth, since Deng Xiaoping's opening to capitalism and foreign investment in 1979.

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Efforts to revive the Chinese Communist party, and facilitate the evolution of a new economic--political model that helps control corruption. Efforts also to get the involvement of non-governmental organizations from society. The city of Shenzen, near Hong Kong, is being used as the model. It was here that the current economic-political model was first established, through the Shenzen Special Economc Zone.

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An analysis by the Wall Street Journal shows that on July 9, 2015, with the market plunge only 3.2% of companies traded normally. The rest of the shares for the Shanghai and the Shenzhen Stock Exchanges were suspended or hit a daily limit for declines. 51% of companies took themselves off the market, and 46% halted trading because of limit rules.

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Shenzen was a small fishing village in the 1970's. Over four decades its population now exceeds that of Hong Kong. Many companies such as Huawei and Tencent, Ping An Insurance and China Vanke are based in Shenzen.  The protests in Hong Kong are not reflected in the sentiment in Shenzen, says this report from Shenzen, China. About three quarters of a million people cross the dozen border crossings linking the two regional economies. People in Shenzen can watch Hong Kong television yet many prefer to watch mainstream Chinese sources of information such as China CTV, and smartphone app WeChat of Tencent. This report describes Hong Kong's waning cultural and economic influence on China so that most people follow the narrative shown on China Television CCTV.  The protests and situation in Hong Kong are also putting back the effort by China to integrate the whole area into what is seen as a "Greater Bay Area" pulling together nine cities in Guangdong province including Shenzen, Hong Kong and Macau. ...

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Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker gets an order in with a number of Chinese manufacturers for supply of over a million N95 masks. The hard hit east coast states of the U.S. face a critical shortage of N95 masks for health care workers in hospitals. The problem is getting them shipped from Shenzen, China to to Boston's Logan airport. Someone suggested using the Patriots football team's Boeing 767 jet. Robert Kraft, Patriot's owner agreed and the passenger plane was converted to carry cargo. The Chinese consulate in New York stays open over the weekend to process the flight crew's visas. Approval for landing without the crew being asked to quarantine for 14 days was another hurdle. Chinese authorites agreed to permit the landing for about 3 hours to pick up cargo only, with the flight crew staying on the plane. Chinese internet company Tencent sent some of its employees to help prepare the shipment and send it to Shenzen airport. The Boeing 767 makes a stop in Alaska before flying to Shenzen and completes the flight back to Logan airport in Boston. Governor Baker and the Patriot's Mr. Kraft send 300,000 of the masks to New York. ...

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The lockdowns and war in Ukraine are affecting gasoline and food prices in China. Vegetable prices are up annual 17%, fruit 4% and flour 5%. Gasoline prices are up 25%. Shenzen, Jinlin and Shanghai are in lockdowns.

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This editorial in the WSJ says public officials in China should be made accountable for errors such as made in the Shenzhen and other recent man-made disasters, including explosions at Tianjin. It cites Chinese media saying the company that handled the landfill in Shenzhen was not qualified, the company that caused chemical blasts in Tianjin used political connections to operate without proper licenses. Lax law enforcement caused many disasters in China in 2015.

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BYD electric car Chinese automaker has doubled sales in 2022 and is surging past Tesla in China. Most of its component makers are located in Shenzen which were not affected by the lockdowns in 2022, compared to its competitors VW and Tesla with parts makers in Shanghai area. BYD was a pioneer in making batteries for cars in China, which gives it a considerable advantage over VW and Tesla which source the batteries from outside.

Warren Buffett invested 210 million for 7.7% of BYD in 2008. Other US investors also invested in BYD.

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Though Shenzen in some ways is a faster growing region than Hong Kong, the significance of Hong Kong lies in its banking industry. The rise of Chinese banks has increased the role of Hong Kong. Much of China's overseas business is channeled through Hong Kong. 416 global subsidiaries of Chinese banks are in Hong Kong. This report in the WSJ looks at the role of Hong Kong for China in banking and finance.

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The trillions of dollars in debt taken on by local governments in China acts as a barrier to economic growth. WSJ shows a third of China's cities are struggling to pay the interest on the debt they owe. This will slow growth for years to come.The debt built up during the pandemic as costs of lockdowns and covid testing were borne by cities. Revenues from land sales dropped with the slowdown in construction worsening finances. Wuhan, Dalian and Guangzhou have cut medical benefits because of strained city finances. Teachers in Shenzen are affected by cuts in bonuses a major part of their pay. And in rustbelt parts of the northeast there are impending cuts to heating after power companies failed to get help from the local government.

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With China's economy slowing, fewer jobs for college graduates in the cities, what is president Xi- who is visiting San Francisco this week- doing to tackle this problem? Even in Guangdong province with cities like Shenzen, it is very, very, very rural says Brian Spegele in this WSJ discussion. He talks about widespreard rural poverty. From his own experience spending time in the countryside in the impressionable years Xi has put this task to revitalize the rural areas to young people. In Guangdong alone about 300,000 youngsters will be given the opportunity to improve their credentials for future government work by going to the rural areas to bring talent that was drained from the 20 years of free market hypergrowth and urbanization. China is about 40% rural in 2023 and these regions have suffered badly, and Xi's efforts to revitalize come at a time after the pandemic when it makes little sense to continue urbanization as the only solution to problems. ...

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The Hong Kong protests in 2019 are dividing families as shown in this report in the WSJ. It is about the young who have never known much about China and its recent history in the 20th century and the older parents who have seen China grow from the colonial period to what it is today. As other reports show the part of China called Shenzen that borders Hong Kong has very different perspective of the events there and see the events from the perspective of Beijing. Some of the protest leaders are only in their teenage years and lack the experience needed to help reach some sort of agreement with Chinese leaders. Day after day the two sides are growing further apart and see the protests in a different light. The leadership under Chief Executive Carrie Lam has also not provided some way to bridge the differences. 

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The damage done to India and China by the Opium Agency, and the British East India Company through the forced growing of poppies in northern India and the sale of opium in China. Two wars by Britain opened up China for sale of opium. Britain gained access to the port of Hong Kong as a base for this trade. BBC New gives a new perspective on the situation in Hong Kong and the questions about the rule of law in Hong Kong today by showing the story on the other side, that of China and the Shenzen region which suffered the consequences of British enroachment on China's sovereignty during the 19th century. Young people in Hong Kong today may be oblivious of the history of the region under colonial powers, and how far China has come from the situation of hopelessness of the 19th century.

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Grades 1 through 9 in China are not for profit and China's education system is highly important and sensitive for Beijing. Particularly at this time with different ideas in Hong Kong compared to adjoining Shenzen. Uptil now private compnies were allowed to effectively control some schools with contractual agreements and funnel out money through service fees. This practice is now halted by tighter restrictions. Draft legislation is prepared and expected to be finalized this year. 

Earlier 25 companies in the education sector brought $3.8 billion of private capital through IPO's in Hong Kong and the U.S., according to Dealogic. These education companies are seeing shares drop by a half in 2018-2019, as China moves to protect its basic education from what may be seen as wayward ideas and thinking. More so today after the events at Hong Kong schools and universities.

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Daimler and China's BYD Company are setting up a 50-50 joint venture to develop an all electric car for China's market. The total investment is for $87 million and the venture name is Shenzen BYD Daimler New Technology Company.

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Poetry of migrant worker Xu Lizhi at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China.

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A $37 billion deal over 15-20 years for Australian LNG between Woodside Energy, Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina, China's biggest oil and gas company. The is shows a shift to natural gas in the urban coastline areas of China such as Shenzen and Shanghai, a shift away from the dirter but cheaper coal based fuels as urban incomes rise and preferences change.

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Stewart points out that Japanese government efforts to prop up stock prices by buying stocks in 1992 failed after 2 years when the fundamentals did not support the government effort. Experts say that even if the stock prices recover in China in 2015 after government efforts to prop up prices, this will be temporary if the economic fundamentals do not support such high valuations. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has a P/E ratio of 37 and the Shenzen Stock Exchange has a P/E of 80, very high valuations. Earnings numbers from smaller companies in China are also unreliable increasing investor risk. Additional issues are the timing of the government's effort to promote a surge in the stock market in 2014-2015. It comes as real estate and housing prices are in a bubble and the economy is slowing rapidly.

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Qianhai in Shenzen Economic Zone is being developed to become China's key financial center by 2020. One of the reforms planned under the Jinping administration is to ease currency controls and allow freer flow of Chinese money into foreign stock, bond and property markets, as welll as giving overseas investors access to China's stock, bond and property markets. Qianhai is being developed to act as the financial center for the plans.

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141 stocks trade on ChiNext. ChiNext operates as part of the Shenzen exchange. Since it opened in Oct 2009, 134 companies have gained access to $15 billion in funding. This provides funding to smaller private companies.