Chinese economy's export pillar shows cracks from global slowdown

BEIJING: China's exporters - the last reliable pillar of the world's second-largest economy as it struggled with the pandemic, weak consumption and a property crisis - are warning of hard times ahead as softer overseas markets force them to shed workers, shift to lower-value goods and even rent out their factories.

Alarm bells sounded for China's $18 trillion economy when trade data last week showed export growth well short of expectations and slowing for the first time in four months.