Country Garden Holdings, one of the biggest casualties of China’s real estate crisis, is wrapping up its US$14.1 billion offshore debt restructuring after more than two years, with creditors likely to approve its plan in a vote on Wednesday (Nov 5), Bloomberg News reported. The vote represents a milestone for the developer after years of negotiations as it sought to avoid the fate of its peer China Evergrande Group, which was ordered to liquidate in 2024. It’s also a sign of some stability amid a years-long property slump that has triggered US$130 billion of defaults.

A private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity showed Chinese factories continued to expand production in October, albeit at a slower pace, signaling weaker growth momentum heading into the fourth quarter of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RatingDog China General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by S&P Global, declined to 50.6 last month from 51.2 in September, according to a statement released on Monday.

China's factory activity shrank for a seventh month in October, dragged by a drop in new export orders as the boost from months of front-loading to beat U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats finally wore off, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.0 in October from 49.8 in September, a six-month low, the National Bureau of Statistics' survey showed on Friday, remaining below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and missing a forecast of 49.6 in a Reuters poll. Policymakers had banked on producers rushing goods to the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing, Reuters reported. Trump's face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of a whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.

Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow's two biggest oil companies, multiple trade sources said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow, to comply with the U.S. sanctions imposed over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

China's Communist Party elite vowed on Thursday to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technological self-reliance, moves it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States, Reuters reported. As expected, the Party's Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people's livelihoods - long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritised manufacturing and investment - without giving many details.

Shoppers all over the world are buying more stuff from China than ever before. Even Americans are, despite the rising cost of tariffs. The only people who aren’t, it seems, are those in China, the New York Times reported. That is at the heart of a very big problem for China’s top leadership as it tries to steer a weakening economy through the volatility of the trade war with the United States. China depends on the world’s consumers to keep its economy steady, a point that was made clear on Monday by its latest economic update.

With trade hostilities between the world’s two economic superpowers back on, China has sent the unmistakable message that it is ready to fight. A week ago, it invoked its grip over virtually the entire global supply of critical materials, breaking a delicate trade détente between the two countries. Beijing feels it has another ace card: its booming factories. Even in the face of sky-high tariffs by President Trump, China’s manufacturing sector is helping to maintain growth and give the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, a stronger hand to face down the United States.