Almost nine-tenths of foreign investment that once flowed into China's stock market in 2023 has rapidly exited, casting a shadow over the nation's economic trajectory. Financial Times data, based on Hong Kong's Stock Connect trading scheme, reveals an 87% nosedive in net foreign investment from its peak of Rmb235bn ($33bn) in August to a mere Rmb30.7bn.

The catalyst for this financial reversal was the revelation of missed bond payments by Country Garden in August, exposing the severity of China's property sector liquidity crisis. What initially seemed confined to real estate has spiraled into a broader confidence crisis, raising fundamental questions about the resilience of China's economic landscape.