Against the backdrop of a sweltering summer, China's Covid-zero policy rumbles on, the country's commercial property sector teeters, and youth unemployment soars.

To talk about all these issues and more, I spoke to Beijing-based David Mahon, Managing Director of Mahon China Investment Management, for the latest episode of interest.co.nz's Of Interest Podcast.

On the weather Mahon says it's China's hottest summer since records began in 1961, and has exceeded anything he has experienced in the almost 40 years he has lived in China.

It has also been dry leading to "a complete collapse" of key hydro-driven power from the Yangtze River and its tributaries. This has led to factory closures and limited electricity supplies to some cities, with the impact stretching from Sichuan province to Shanghai.

"It's having major ramifications on the economy," Mahon says. "This year's weather means the harvest in general will also be poor."

In terms of the battle against Covid-19, Mahon describes the experience of being tested every three days, the challenges of business travel, clients in lockdown running out of food, and when and how he thinks the Government will start to loosen the Covid-zero policy.

"The Covid policies are baffling at the moment. I think China knows that whatever happens there'll be a death toll once they begin to relax as New Zealand is finding," says Mahon.

In the podcast he also talks about how China's strategic reserves are helping it combat inflation, interest rates, supply chains, problems in the commercial property sector, high youth unemployment and general demographic challenges, plus what recent clashes between bank depositors and the police were about.

"The longer-term issue is that in general China won't have enough workers in industry, and they're going to have to look at a migrant worker programme, something which to date they never would've even begun to conceive of," Mahon says of China's demographic challenges.