China’s stock investors could be excused for feeling like President Xi Jinping is disinterested in their plight as market valuation losses mount. Bond punters seem ascendant, though, as Beijing officialdom makes clear it has their backs in the way few international funds saw coming. The hyper-targeted nature of policy rescue efforts by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and other arms of the state explain why yuan-denominated corporate bonds were among the globe’s best-performing asset classes last year. The dollar bonds of local government financing vehicles (LGFV) were also big winners in 2023. Unlikely, too, given ... (full story)