What kind of national financial information is China reluctant to reveal and is this reluctance a hindrance to economic development?
China has long been sensitive about releasing financial information to the outside world and considers such information vital to national security. The most sensitive issues are the true amount of non-performing loans, which State Owned Enterprises are performing badly, the true pension shortfall, as well as the potential conflicts between official and individual bank statistics. Successful reform will require the release of this information to potential foreign partners, investment banks and fund managers. This is a big step that Chinese officials are, as yet, unwilling to take. Other related nationalistic concern is the possibility, actual or otherwise, that the deposit of PRC companies' and citizens' savings and pensions into foreign banks and insurance firms (even though kept within China) will somehow put the country at the mercy of foreign financiers.
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