China's financial regulator advised the country’s largest lenders to temporarily suspend new loans to five refineries recently sanctioned by the US over their ties to Iranian oil, Bloomberg News reported. The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) asked banks to review their exposure and business dealings with firms, including Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, one of China’s largest private refiners, while awaiting further guidance. For now, banks have been guided not to extend new yuan-denominated credit, though they have also been told not to call in existing loans.

Saddled by billions in crushing debt owed to Beijing, the Zambian government helped a Chinese-owned mining giant cover up one of the worst mining pollution incidents in the country’s history, according to an investigation by a U.S. House Select Committee on China, the Wall Street Journal reported.

China’s top market regulator is intensifying its crackdown on debt-laden “zombie companies” – rolling out a pilot programme in seven economic hubs to facilitate the forced exit of unprofitable firms often propped up by government subsidies or bank loans, the South China Morning Post reported. The move signals a broadening of Beijing’s campaign against local protectionism and the low-quality vicious competition that officials say results in neijuan, or “involution”.

Rising oil and natural gas prices from the war in Iran are beginning to weigh on the Chinese economy, further slowing already anemic consumer spending and hurting critical export sectors, the New York Times reported. Car sales fell in March and plunged further in April. Restaurants and hotels are seeing fewer customers as households turn cautious. In southern China, thousands of toy factory workers protested last week after their employer collapsed under rising plastic costs and ongoing tariffs in the United States.

Profits at China's industrial firms grew ​at their quickest pace in half a year last month, adding to broader signs of ‌an uneven economic recovery in the first quarter as policymakers brace for the impact of the Middle East war, Reuters reported. The country's export engine stuttered last month while retail sales and industrial output cooled, although producer prices emerged from a years-long deflationary stretch, ​a shift that analysts warn could leave companies boxed in by rising costs but limited ​pricing power as demand remains fragile.

China's electric vehicle industry, the world's largest and most advanced, is facing mounting financial strain as fierce competition and overcapacity push many companies toward bankruptcy, UPI.com reported. While the sector has expanded rapidly on the back of strong battery manufacturing and artificial intelligence capabilities, analysts warn that structural weaknesses are emerging beneath the surface. China produced nearly 17 million electric vehicles in 2025, accounting for about 70% of global output.

China on Monday left benchmark loan prime rates (LPRs) unchanged for the 11th consecutive month in ​April, in line with market expectations. Solid economic growth ‌at the start of the year and a pick-up in inflation reduced the need for fresh monetary easing to support the broader economy. China kept the one-year LPR at 3.00% and five-year ​LPR at 3.50%.