Economic activity in China expanded sharply for a second straight month, in an early sign the country may be shaking off the impact of pandemic curbs sooner than expected, the Wall Street Journal reported. An official gauge of manufacturing rose at the fastest pace in more than a decade in February, while export orders expanded for the first time in almost two years, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. Services and construction activity also expanded further, the purchasing managers index report showed.

China’s banks and asset managers are turning to an old yet potentially risky accounting maneuver to attract buyers for their investment funds after a rout in the bond market triggered waves of redemptions last year, Bloomberg News reported. Banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Postal Savings Bank of China Co.’s wealth management units are rushing to sell new funds that value most assets based on adjusted costs rather than current market prices, masking day-to-day volatility.

Property developer China Evergrande Group is struggling to reach a deal with foreign bondholders, raising the possibility that a court will tell the company to wind down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande, once China’s largest property developer by sales, sold more than $20 billion of dollar bonds during a debt-fueled spending spree. The company defaulted on its foreign debt in late 2021, and has since been embroiled in a difficult negotiation with international bondholders.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to shake up the leadership of the country’s financial system, installing key associates to run the central bank and reviving a Communist Party body to tighten political control over financial affairs, the Wall Street Journal reported. The moves are a continuation of efforts by Mr. Xi to reshape the world’s second-largest economy. In recent years, the central bank and other financial regulators have continued to lose their already fading independent status amid Mr. Xi’s broader effort to strengthen the party’s rule.

In the realm of global economic policy, Friday Nov. 13, 2020, was meant to be about hope — not the trigger for another pandemic-era fright. That’s when Group of 20 finance ministers announced final agreement on a blueprint for the US, China and other relatively new creditor countries like India to cooperate on debt relief for more than 70 low-income nations facing a collective $326 billion burden, and deliver it in a “timely and orderly” way, Bloomberg News reported.

When China’s private real-estate developers started sliding into distress more than a year ago, the government encouraged state-owned property companies to step in and take over their ailing peers’ projects and assets, the Wall Street Journal reported. That call has gone largely unheeded—a big reason why the country’s housing market remains in the doldrums. State-backed property companies have considered and ultimately decided against acquiring a great number of projects started by private developers.

China said it is launching a pilot program for real estate private equity investment funds as part of efforts to promote the property industry, Bloomberg News reported. The investment scope of the funds would include residential housing, commercial property and infrastructure projects, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement Monday. Investors in the pilot products have to put in no less than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) and would mainly be institutional investors, according to the statement. It was unclear when and where the pilot would start.

In October, Hong Kong rolled out the red carpet for crypto businesses to help revitalize the embattled financial hub. Signs are now emerging the push has under-the-radar backing from Beijing, providing impetus for mainland Chinese firms to return, Bloomberg News reported. Representatives from China’s Liaison Office and other officials have been frequent guests at the city’s crypto gatherings over the past months, swapping business cards and WeChat details. The encounters have been friendly, with officials checking on developments, asking for reports and in some cases making follow-up calls.

China Evergrande Group’s weak controls and poor management decisions were to blame for a funding arrangement that ultimately led banks to seize $2 billion of deposits held by a subsidiary, an independent investigation found, the Wall Street Journal reported. The property giant used deposits from six units of Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd., a separate Hong Kong-listed company, to borrow money between late December 2020 and early August 2021, when the developer was in need of capital.