Bruce MacDonald, portfolio manager of Fidelity Far East Fund, describes China’s response to the coronavirus and where he believes the Chinese economy will focus post-pandemic. Bruce is in Hong Kong, and witnessed first-hand China’s move into lockdown; he notes that the population took it seriously. At the regional and central level, government took thorough control of movement and demonstrated a very coordinated and consistent approach in how much money it invested in the economy to help recovery and in its positioning coming out of lockdown. Countries that had a good reaction to the first wave and locked down are seeing cases start to pop up again. No one wants to go back to a total lockdown, and some countries are implementing stricter policies to avoid this. Bruce notes that many countries are adjusting their stimulus programs this time around to target specific parts of the economy, instead of individuals.

Recorded on August 20, 2020.