China

China will set up a financial watchdog run by the Communist Party, state media reported on Thursday, as part of a broad reorganisation of governing bodies set to give the ruling party direct control and supervision over financial affairs, Reuters reported. The creation of the Central Financial Commission will see the dissolution of the state-run Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC), a powerful body set up in 2017 and headed by former Vice Premier Liu He to curb risks in China's complex and often opaque financial system.

A business tycoon long sought by the government of China and known for cultivating ties to Trump administration figures including Steve Bannon was arrested Wednesday in New York on charges that he oversaw a $1 billion fraud conspiracy, the Associated Press reported. Guo Wengui and his financier, Kin Ming Je, faced an indictment in federal court in Manhattan charging them with various crimes, including wire, securities and bank fraud. Guo was charged in court papers under the name Ho Wan Kwok. U.S.

China will steadily reduce the number of high-risk institutions to help fend off systemic financial risks，its central bank said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Reforms of problematic small and mid-sized financial institutions have made key progress and illegal financial activities have been curbed, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement after its annual meeting on financial stability. The central bank will continue to follow the guidance of "overall planning and coordination, differentiated policies and precise bomb disposal", it said.

China's economic activity picked up in the first two months of 2023 as consumption and infrastructure investment drove recovery from pandemic disruption, despite challenges of weak global demand and a persistent downturn in the property sector, Reuters reported. China's abandonment of COVID-19 controls late in 2022 has reinvigorated an $18 trillion economy that has suffered one of its lowest growth rates in nearly half a century, with analysts expecting momentum to improve further in coming months.

Chinese money brokers are preparing to suspend their data feed businesses in the coming days after being instructed to do so by Chinese regulators on Tuesday due to data security concerns, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The brokers, which include the local joint ventures of Tullett Prebon and NEX International Ltd, currently feed price quotes to data vendors such as Wind Information Co and Sumscope Information Technology Co, and the move could potentially slow trading in the country's money and bond markets.

China’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., said that it would again permit foreign tourists to visit the country, a major easing of travel restrictions put in place early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Step by step, China has been permitting more foreigners to enter the country in recent months, including in January when it opened its borders to let Chinese begin traveling overseas again. It also made it easier for business travelers to enter.

China’s new premier, the country’s No. 2 leader after Xi Jinping, sought on Monday to reinvigorate confidence in the faltering economy, promising that private-sector companies would be treated equally with state-owned ones and that the property rights and other interests of entrepreneurs would be strictly respected, the New York Times reported.

The People’s Bank of China is expected to extend monetary support this week and maintain a key policy rate, after Beijing retained its governor in a leadership reshuffle that signals policy continuity, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank will probably provide 350 billion yuan ($50 billion) to financial institutions through a medium-term lending facility on Wednesday, as 200 billion yuan of the one-year policy loans mature, according to the median estimate of seven analysts surveyed. The net expected increase in liquidity would be less than the 199 billion yuan last month.

A new Chinese financial watchdog will help bridge regulatory gaps but analysts and investors say the agency will consolidate power at the top and could introduce more state and party intervention, Reuters reported. In a major shake-up, China will set up the new regulatory body, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), according to a proposal that the State Council, or cabinet, presented to parliament on Tuesday.

China’s passenger car retail sales shrank almost 20% in the first two months of this year, underscoring the challenges facing manufacturers in the world’s largest but long-stuttering auto market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The nation’s auto makers sold 2.7 million passenger cars in January and February combined, according to the China Passenger Car Association, down from 3.3 million a year earlier. The association partly attributed the drop to the ending of tax cuts on autos that boosted sales during the pandemic, as well as the end of electric-vehicle subsidies.