Biding time until China's outlook gets clearer

Beijing

FOR many in China's capital, the smog that has obscured buildings and dimmed the sun into a pale disc this winter is a fitting metaphor for the uncertainty that has marked their year. In interviews and private conversations, people here say that 2015 was a year of biding time until China's outlook, political and economic, becomes clearer.

"The whole nation is in a state of waiting," said Ouyang Jin, a businessman and magazine publisher from southern China. "Nobody knows what direction the future will take," Mr Ouyang said. "It's a complicated time, with complicated feelings - anxiety, hope, fear. So the only thing we can do is wait."