Investors trying to make sense of China’s National People’s Congress last week and its relation to the more important 19th Party Congress to be held later this year should familiarize themselves with an old saying: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.” Orders from Beijing are often ignored in the cities and provinces. Instead, important decisions such as whether and how to restructure the debt of insolvent local governments and state-owned enterprises are made locally, a Bloomberg View reported.

China is getting serious about dealing with so-called zombie companies through court-led bankruptcies as it seeks to cut overcapacity in industries and boost economic growth, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said at the National People’s Congress Sunday that authorities will improve the country’s judicial system for dealing with bankruptcies in 2017 to support those goals.

China’s central bank governor said Friday the country needs to get soaring corporate debt under control but its economy and currency are stable and the decline in its foreign exchange reserves is no cause for concern, The Washington Post reported. Zhou Xiaochuan’s comments at a news conference held during China’s national legislature follows warnings a rapid rise in debt could lead to financial trouble. Beijing is trying to reduce reliance on credit and to clear away debts of state companies but private sector analysts say it needs to move faster.

Li Keqiang’s annual, 42-page “work report” to China’s parliament is packed with obscure details on matters such as mobile roaming and urban utility tunnels. But one of China’s biggest policy initiatives of 2016 — the reimposition of capital controls — went unmentioned in the premier’s address to the National People’s Congress, the Financial Times reported.

For the second day running, China data have economists scratching their heads. Tuesday came a surprise increase in foreign-exchange reserves. Wednesday, it was an unexpected trade deficit—China’s first in three years—which made the rise in Beijing’s currency hoard even harder to account for, The Wall Street Journal reported. Economists say the two don’t fit together easily. Chinese imports in February were up 45% from a year earlier in yuan terms, accelerating from January’s 25% pace, while exports increased just 4.2%.

Global investors are returning to China’s swelling market for bad debt after several years of watching from the sidelines, the Financial Times reported. Private equity funds Lone Star and PAG over the past few months have started buying non-performing loan (NPL) portfolios in the country, according to several people familiar with the matter. The entrance of the groups marks the first time in years that foreign funds have braved China’s bad debt market without powerful local partners.

Global investors are returning to China’s swelling market for bad debt after several years of watching from the sidelines, the Financial Times reported. Private equity funds Lone Star and PAG over the past few months have started buying non-performing loan (NPL) portfolios in the country, according to several people familiar with the matter. The entrance of the groups marks the first time in years that foreign funds have braved China’s bad debt market without powerful local partners.

Bankruptcies of Chinese businesses have surged in the past two years, in a sign the state is beginning to take painful steps to trim the bloated industrial sector as it tries to rein in debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. China’s search for ways to manage its slowest growth in a quarter-century hangs over the annual National People’s Congress, which starts on Sunday. The challenge is expected to drive discussions among delegates on how to unwind the heavily indebted companies that account for much of the industry and jobs in their home regions.

China’s banking system has surpassed that of the eurozone to become the world’s largest by assets, a sign both of the country’s increased influence in world finance and its reliance on debt to drive growth since the global financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. While China’s gross domestic product surpassed the EU’s economic bloc in 2011 at market exchange rates, its banking system did not take over the top spot until the end of 2016, Financial Times analysis shows.

A surge in bankruptcy cases in Chinese courts last year is welcome progress, the Financial Times reported. The lack of creative destruction in China has been a perennial problem, exacerbating industrial overcapacity and piling mountains of bad loans on to the banking system. But the cull of zombie companies, while positive, still falls a long way short of the thorough restructuring that China’s economy needs. The zombie hunt did not aim at the big, lossmaking state-owned enterprises.