China & Hong Kong Stock Picks (March 2026)

Some quick notes about China before covering some Chinese equity research from last month:

First, there has been another ongoing crackdown hitting the fintech sector that may finally be easing:

📰 Yiren, Qfin swept up in latest fintech lending crackdown (Bamboo Works) April 8, 2026

• China’s latest move against predatory lenders is crippling legitimate loan facilitators like Yiren Digital (NYSE: YRD) and Qifu Technology (NASDAQ: QFIN) by imposing a strict interest rate cap

• Yiren Digital plunged into the red in the fourth quarter of 2025, while Qfin’s profit tumbled, as regulators enforced a 24% ceiling on borrowing costs levied by private lenders

• All lending platforms must fully disclose every facilitation fee by Aug. 1 — stripping away gray zone fees that once boosted their profits

🔬 China Fintech: Seeking deep value gems as regulation stabilises (DBS Treasuries) 6 Mar 2026

China faces both significant threats/dilemmas but also opportunities with the current Israeli-USA war with Iran – for example:

🔬 Materials – Supply risks materialized following weekend’s attacks on Middle East aluminium smelters (CMB International) 03-30 2026 ⚠️

📰 Chinese Chemical Stocks Surge After Missile Attack on Saudi Petrochemical Hub (Caixin) Apr. 8, 2026 $

Desmond Shum has this tweet about the dilemma Xi/China are in:

Desmond Shum@DesmondShum

Iran Is Where Xi Decides Whether He’s a True Believer

What should China do about Iran?

On one hand, applying the Ukraine playbook against the United States looks like a dream scenario for Beijing. Dragging the U.S. into a prolonged conflict over the Strait of Hormuz would

10:48 AM · Apr 11, 2026 · 18.2K Views

22 Replies · 21 Reposts · 81 Likes

Shum continues by writing:

On the other hand, China’s economy remains heavily reliant on exports at a time when its domestic consumption is weak and investment growth is slowing. Provoking a broader recession among its main customers would backfire badly.

This isn’t really a balancing act. It’s a revealing test of what Xi Jinping truly believes.

If he is truly committed to his vision of “changes unseen in a century,” he should be willing to accept economic pain for strategic gain. That would mean going all in on Iran — with advanced military aid, satellite intelligence, economic lifelines, and a sustained effort to use Tehran to erode American power and influence.

This is less a policy dilemma than an ideological test: how much pain is Xi willing to absorb to force the changes he says history demands?

Given the structural or legacy nature of Chinese “Communism,” Chinese localities have long been dependent on land leases for new developments, fines/fees collected/extorted from local residents and Beijing for revenue. Shifting towards another model (like one focused on property taxes rather than land leases, etc.), means inevitably and fundamentally changing the entire economic-political model or social contract.

Caixin has reported Chinese efforts to shore up these finances:

📰 China Steps Up Tax Law Reforms to Strengthen Local Finances (Caixin) Mar. 31, 2026 $

• China’s Ministry of Finance plans to accelerate legislation for a local surtax and advance the consumption tax law in 2026.

• The moves, outlined in a ministry report released Monday, reflect efforts to give local authorities more stable and autonomous revenue sources amid ongoing fiscal pressure.

• A key focus is the local surtax, a reform first proposed at a major Communist Party meeting in July 2024. The tax would merge several existing levies, including urban maintenance and education-related surcharges, and allow local governments to set rates within a prescribed range.

However, Shum has this interesting observation (as the author of Red Roulette: An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today’s China and who’s billionaire (now ex-) wife Whitney Duan (Duan Weihong) “disappeared” for several years in a corruption crackdown – so he knows what he is talking about):

The Real Reason China Avoids a Wealth Tax

The Economist is right to identify inherited wealth as a rising fault line in China. But I’d go one step further on why the CCP is so hesitant to tax wealth.

It is not ideology. It is self-preservation.

To levy a serious wealth tax, the state would first need a reasonably accurate map of who owns what. In a normal system, that is a technical challenge. In China, it is a political minefield.

First, the entire officialdom is implicated. Corruption is not a marginal defect in the system; it is woven into the way power has operated for decades. Office has long been monetized. Once wealth registration becomes real, it does not just expose “the rich.” It exposes the political class itself. And the problem for Beijing is obvious: what do you do when the rot is universal? You cannot arrest everyone. Nor can you easily shine a light on it, because this is not a matter of a few bad apples. It is a rotten forest.

Second, a genuine accounting of wealth would expose how much of it sits within official families, and how much is passed down to their children. It would reveal that the CCP is not merely governing society, but it sits atop it as a hereditary elite. The real danger is not that people discover inequality. They already know inequality is severe. The danger is that they discover, in granular detail, how much of it resides inside the families of those who rule in the name of socialism.

Third, any serious collection of wealth data would create enormous political risk. In China, database leaks are universal. Once a national database of personal wealth exists, leaks become inevitable. And in today’s climate of slowing growth, falling property prices, youth unemployment, and public frustration, such leaks would not be mere gossip scandals. They could trigger a political earthquake.

That is why wealth taxation in China is not just an economic reform. It is a regime transparency test. The moment the state seriously tries to map private wealth, it risks exposing the hidden balance sheet of Party rule itself: corruption, hereditary privilege, and the conversion of political power into family fortune. That is precisely why the issue keeps being postponed. The CCP does not fear wealth taxes because they are too radical. It fears them because they are too revealing.

Desmond Shum@DesmondShum

The Real Reason China Avoids a Wealth Tax

The Economist is right to identify inherited wealth as a rising fault line in China. But I’d go one step further on why the CCP is so hesitant to tax wealth.

It is not ideology. It is self-preservation.

To levy a serious wealth tax,

The Economist @TheEconomist

Even as the economy slows and opportunity narrows, a lucky few receive big windfalls https://t.co/UgYpiOVGLQ

5:19 PM · Mar 14, 2026 · 87.3K Views

16 Replies · 153 Reposts · 574 Likes

Finally, this was a long and interesting tweet about the real situation outside the places most foreign tourists/business travellers venture:

Yuya Chen@alreadydawn

I’m seeing more and more instances of demand not keeping up with supply in China:

* Hotels are abundant, even at random cities like Jinan, where rates are amazingly low. You can get a decent place at below 20 usd per night. The ones I’ve stayed at so far seem to lack customers

11:25 AM · Mar 26, 2026 · 33.8K Views

38 Replies · 20 Reposts · 303 Likes

* Lines of taxis waiting for riders outside of HSR stations. Some pointed out that this has been the case for years, but the number of potential riders does not match the sheer number of cars. Even at 3rd tier cities at night where few people are out and about the station, the taxi lines stretch on forever like the Great Wall. (I get that taxis around the world have been severely impacted by ride-hailing softwares like Uber and Didi, but these great wall-like taxi lines are nuts to witness.)

* Malls outside of the hot ones in Tier 1 cities (ie Coco Park in Shenzhen) are quiet. The one I’m next to here in Qingdao by their Olympics sailing center is nearly deserted, with most storefronts closed.

It ended by pointing out the Chinese vs. Jewish mentality…:

This all reminds me of a story shared by @spandrell4 that goes:

“When a Jewish businessman opens a gas station at a new town, other Jews come to the city to open various businesses – bakery, accounting firm, law firm, restaurant.

When a Chinese businessman opens a gas station at a new town, other Chinese come to the city to open gas stations.”

Spandrell@spandrell4

There’s this Chinese joke that a Jew starts a gas station. Other Jew saw it went well, so he built a shop next door. Another opened a restaurant etc.

A Chinese builds a gas station. Another sees it goes well, he opens a gas station next door. Another sees them, opens one again

Balaji @balajis

China has many cities that specialize in specific products. Like Detroit for cars, they have Cixi for hair dryers, Wenzhou for lighters, and Ningbo for home appliances.

We’re familiar with this idea for cultural sectors, like NYC/Shanghai for finance, Silicon Valley/Shenzhen for

4:08 PM · Dec 14, 2025 · 564K Views

42 Replies · 327 Reposts · 8.53K Likes

Balaji@balajis

China has many cities that specialize in specific products. Like Detroit for cars, they have Cixi for hair dryers, Wenzhou for lighters, and Ningbo for home appliances.

We’re familiar with this idea for cultural sectors, like NYC/Shanghai for finance, Silicon Valley/Shenzhen for

1:46 PM · Dec 14, 2025 · 918K Views

166 Replies · 1.17K Reposts · 6.7K Likes

spandrell4 says he heard the joke years ago and here is another version:

Besides Jews, I think Lebanese, Armenians and Coptic Greeks (there used to be many from Egypt etc all over Africa) probably have a similar mentality and that’s why their diasporas are also successful (aside from facing persecution at home).

However, I remember when I lived in HCMC and there was a street seemingly lined with frozen yogurt shops (which I guess that can be eaten instead of ice cream as I think nearly all Vietnamese are lactose intolerant to some degree…). In Kuala Lumpur, we hit peak Shwarma about a decade ago, then peak Hokkaido cheese tarts and peak Kunafa (again, with the arrival of many Syrians, etc.) followed by the inevitable shakeouts of these businesses…

Stocks covered by a couple of equity research providers in this post:

(Note: On desktop browsers, an autogenerated table of contents will appear on the left side linked to each stock. I will add those links below after publishing/emailing this post…)

🇨🇳 China – OmniVision Integrated Circuits Group (Will Semiconductor), InnoScience (Suzhou) Technology Holding Co, Angelalign Technology Inc, PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd, Zoomlion Heavy Industry, CR Beverage, BYD Electronic International Co Ltd, Jiangsu Zenergy Battery Technologies Group, Nanjing Leads Biolabs Co Ltd, J&T Global Express Ltd, China Merchants Bank, Duality Biotherapeutics Inc, Ping An Insurance, BYD Company, Xunfei Healthcare Technology Co Ltd, Great Wall Motor, Guangzhou Automobile Group, Akeso, Sinotruk (Hong Kong), Innovent Biologics, China Tower, Zixin Group Holdings Ltd, Baozun, PATEO CONNECT Technology (Shanghai) Corp, China Life Insurance, Meituan, Binjiang Service Group, Weichai Power, Zhongan Online P&C Insurance, BOC Aviation Ltd, CR Beer, Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd, BaTeLab, Hesai Group, WuXi Biologics, PDD Holdings, Nongfu Spring, CSPC Pharmaceutical, Kuaishou Technology, WuXi XDC, WuXi AppTec, Xiaomi, Tongcheng Travel, SenseTime, Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co Ltd, Deepexi Technology, Minth Group, Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Greentown Service Group, VSTECS Holdings Ltd, China Hongqiao Group, Sany Heavy Equipment International Holdings, Xpeng Inc, Aac Technologies Holdings, Giant Biogene Holding, Tuhu Car, Baidu, Tsingtao Brewery, Chuangxin Industries Holdings Ltd, Dmall Inc, Alibaba, Horizon Robotics, Kanzhun Ltd, Geely Automobile, Kingdee, Tencent, ZTO Express, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, Sunshine Insurance Group Co Ltd, Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co Ltd, Ke Holdings, Q Technology (Group) Company, Futu Holdings, Shennan Circuits, Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT Hon Teng), JD.com, Li Auto Inc, NIO Inc, Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Group Co Ltd, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, China Aviation Oil, ZTE, Yancoal Australia, Yuexiu Transport Infrastructure, Unity Group Holdings International Ltd, Bilibili, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec Group), Shanghai REFIRE Group Ltd & BeOne Medicines

Hong Kong stocks:

🇭🇰 Hong Kong – Henderson Land Development, CK Asset Holdings, Champion REIT, AIA Group Ltd, Hongkong Land Holdings, MTR Corporation, Fortune REIT, Sino Land, New World Development Co Ltd, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, DFI Retail & Sun Hung Kai Properties

CMB International Capital Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank (SHA: 600036 / HKG: 3968 / OTCMKTS: CIHKY / OTCMKTS: CIHHF), has a monthly list of 20+ high conviction stock ideas – namely Chinese stock picks (see our 2023 – May, June, July, August, September, October, November & December; 2024 – January-February, March, April, May, June, July-August, September, October, November & December; 2025 – January, February, March, April, May, June, July-August, September, October & November-December; 2026 – January-February posts summarizing those) BUT these lists do not change too much from month to month. Stocks covered by the CMBI March list (including Additions and Deletions) and included in this post with updated stats and charts include:

Geely Automobile, Jiangsu Zenergy Battery Technologies Group, J&T Global Express Ltd, Sany Heavy Equipment International Holdings, Chuangxin Industries Holdings Ltd, Bosideng International Holdings, Guoquan Food Shanghai Co Ltd, Luckin Coffee, Proya Cosmetics, CR Beverage, 3SBio Inc, Ping An Insurance, AIA Group Ltd, Futu Holdings, Tencent, Kuaishou Technology, Alibaba, Trip.com, China Resources Mixc Lifestyle Services, Greentown Service Group, Luxshare Precision Industry, Aac Technologies Holdings, Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT Hon Teng), BYD Electronic International Co Ltd, Zhongji Innolight Co Ltd, Shengyi Technology, NAURA Technology Group & Datadog

DeepSeek can be tricky to use on anything about China – readers can decide whether these insights or summary about these stocks are accurate (and its in yet another new format…):

🤖 DeepSeek Analysis

And as always, this post is provided for informational purposes only (and to make your life easier…). It does not constitute investment advice and/or a recommendation…

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China, Hong Kong & Macau Stock Index

Frontier & Emerging Market Stock Index

🔬 OmniVision (603501 CH) – Higher-value CIS mix expansion supports margin resilience (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

🔬 InnoScience (2577 HK) – GaN-ning momentum one step at a time (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

🔬 Angelalign (6699 HK) – Earnings beat with strong overseas momentum (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

• 🌐 Angelalign Technology Inc (HKG: 6699) 🇰🇾 – Service provider of oral invisible orthopaedic technology & invisible orthotics production & sales. 🏷️

• Price/Book (Current): 3.97

• Forward P/E: 35.09 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 0.53% (Yahoo! Finance)

🔬 PICC P&C (2328 HK) – Non-auto CoR sees headroom for improvement (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

🔬 Zoomlion (1157 HK/000157 CH) – First take: 2025 earnings +36% in-line; overseas revenue surged 60% in 4Q25 (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

• 🌐 Zoomlion Heavy Industry (SHE: 000157 / HKG: 1157 / FRA: 8CZ / OTCMKTS: ZLIOY / ZLIOF) 🇨🇳 – Construction machinery enterprise. Developing & manufacturing major high-tech equipment (agricultural, building, energy, environmental & transport engineering). 🇼 🏷️

• Price/Book (Current): 1.11

• Forward P/E: 15.90 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 6.43% (Yahoo! Finance)

🔬 CR Beverage (2460 HK) – Expect earnings to bottom out in FY26E (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

🔬 BYDE (285 HK) – Expect 2026 growth drivers from Apple Fold, auto business and AI server ramp-up (CMB International) 03-31 2026 ⚠️

🔬 BYDE (285 HK) – 2H25 preview: expect flattish earnings dragged by smartphone/auto headwinds; Maintain BUY (CMB International) 03-16 2026 ⚠️

🔬 BYD Electronic (00285 HK): Short-Term Headwinds; AI Infrastructure as the New Growth Engine, Maintain “Buy” (Guotai Junan International) 2026-03-30 ⚠️ $

• 🌐 BYD Electronic International Co Ltd (HKG: 0285) 🇭🇰 – Intelligent product solutions, new materials R&D, product R&D, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management, logistics and after-sales services. 🇼 🏷️

• Price/Book (Current): 1.63

• Forward P/E: 12.30 / Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 2.17% (Yahoo! Finance)