Instead of talks of a trade war, investors should be focusing on the economic stimulus, which has been a more tangible factor in improving the Chinese economy. For example, there is a $435 tax cut for the average white-collar Chinese worker, earning $13,608 a year, along with more mortgage, student loan and child deductions.
During this spring, Beijing issued a 1% cut in value-added tax (VAT) rates. Combined with income tax relief, the Chinese government has enacted $103.8 billion in cuts this fiscal year alone.
Consequently, contrarian investors who are interested in taking on a potential rebound story could look to China-related ETFs. For example, the WisdomTree ICBCCS S&P China 500 Fund (NYSEArca: WCHN), tries to reflect the performance of the S&P China 500 Index, a group of 500 of the largest, most liquid Chinese companies by market capitalization and one of the only broad-based indices with exposure to all Chinese equity share classes, listed both in mainland China and internationally.
Additionally, WisdomTree China Ex State Owned Enterprises Fund (NasdaqGM: CXSE) tracks companies that are not state-owned enterprises, which means that it does not hold some of the large Chinese banks that make up a sizeable portion of the overall Chinese market capitalization. The ETF tilts toward tech and consumer discretionary to capture the quickly rising e-commerce or online retail segment as a way to capitalize on the country’s growing middle-income demographic and ongoing economic shift toward domestic consumption.
For more information on the Chinese markets, visit our China category.