
London Chinese restaurant chain Ping Pong has shut all its branches with immediate effect
The Chinese restaurant group – which once had 12 locations across London – opened in 2005. The company announced news of its closure over instagram, writing: 'It's a wrap. After 20 unforgettable years, all Ping Pong locations are now permanently closed. We're incredibly proud of what we built, an independent hospitality brand full of creativity, flavour, and soul.'
Ping Pong fans were aghast at the closure, expressing their deep sorrow at the post. 'Noooooo. You were the best dim sum. Where am I going to get the veggie buns and sticky rice from?!', wrote one. 'This is incredibly sad news! Wish we'd have known. Would've loved to visit it one last time,' said another.
The restaurant's founder Kurt Zdesar, who left the group in 2007 and went on to launch the Chotto Matte chain, commented: 'The UK has become increasingly difficult to survive this current economical environment. Very sad news.'
At the time of its closure, there were four London branches of Ping Pong left; in Soho, Southbank, Bow Bells House and St Christopher's Place.

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By 2024, however, China's $18tn economy had fallen back to just over 62% of the almost $30tn of the US. In GDP per head terms, China is still no more than 20% of the US. A rising China uniquely lifted its share of global GDP between 2000 and 2021 from 3.5% to 18.5%, but since then it has slipped back to about 16.5%. There is no question that China's rise is at least stalling. The working age and total population are now in relentless decline. The urbanisation rate, just over 60%, is flattening out. Productivity growth has stalled. The long surge in China's share of global manufacturing exports and production has levelled off, and the external environment for China is now much harder and more hostile. A 90-day pause in the US-China tariff war is due to expire on Tuesday, and it is unclear whether it will be extended. Part of the problem is that China has reached the end of extrapolation. The past really is another country. 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At the Central Economic Work Conference in December last year, China's premier, Li Qiang, summarised his country's condition by saying candidly that the foundation for sustained economic recovery and growth is not strong, demand is weak, there are pressures on job creation and 'fiscal difficulties' among several local governments. Although consumption has been made a top priority, actual policy measures to make it so have been underwhelming, partly because redistributing economic power to companies and citizens also entails changes in political power, which are anathema to the Communist party. The structural downturn in the property sector, which had at one stage accounted for more than a quarter of the economy, is likely to shrink for the foreseeable future, dogged by lower rates of household formation and smaller cohorts of first-time buyers, both linked to demographics, and a chronic oversupply of unsold and uncompleted real estate. The government has softened its approach to private enterprises and approved a new private economy promotion law to bolster AI, technology clusters and hubs, and reduce regulatory barriers. Low business confidence, though, is not really about regulations but about political interference, and weak demand and profits. The super-globalisation from which China benefited is pretty much over, and the world's biggest export nation is now confronted by a fragmenting and fracturing trade and investment environment in which commerce within blocs is holding up better than trade between them. China's bloc includes a majority of the world's population, but very small proportions of world GDP, investment and wealth. At the same time, developed and middle-income economies, as well as emerging nations, are pushing back against what they perceive to be predatory trade policies by a mercantilist China. Peak China does not stem from doubts about China's industrial prowess and pedigree. 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