China

The Chinese city of Chongqing accumulated tens of billions of dollars in liabilities during Bo Xilai's term as local Communist Party chief, as it juiced growth that helped launch the former high-flyer's campaign for a top political post.

Three Sino-Forest Corp. executives were fired by the insolvent Chinese timber firm and the company’s co-founder and chief financial officer both resigned, in a prelude to formal allegations expected to be laid by the Ontario Securities Commission, The Globe and Mail reported. Allen Chan, the Hong Kong national who co-founded Sino-Forest two decades ago and helped build what was once the largest forestry company on the TSX, resigned as “founding chairman emeritus” and an employee, the company said in a statement. Mr.

A property developer in China's Hangzhou city has filed for bankruptcy protection, falling victim to the government's two-year campaign to rein in property prices and pointing to wider problems ahead in the country's real-estate market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts said the financial woes of Hangzhou Glory Real Estate Co., a small developer, won't drag down other firms in the hard-hit property sector. But they said that other weaker players could see similar strains.

Sino-Forest Corp has asked a Canadian court to extend creditor protection granted to the Chinese forestry company last month until July 9, saying it would create certainty for potential buyers considering a bid for its assets, Reuters reported. The Ontario Superior Court's current order of protection under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act expires April 29. The company, accused of fraudulently exaggerating its assets, said the allegations had paralyzed its business. Sino-Forest's Toronto-listed shares tanked last June after a short-seller made allegations against it.

Lawyers handling a $9 billion class-action lawsuit against Sino-Forest Corp. will ask an Ontario judge on Friday to terminate bankruptcy proceedings involving the troubled timber company, the Toronto Star reported. When Sino-Forest, which is based in Mississauga but operates in China, sought protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act last month, any pending legal actions were essentially put on hold.

Sino-Forest, the Chinese forestry company whose stock collapsed after a short-seller's fraud accusations, said on Monday that Canada's top securities regulator found that its conduct ran afoul of sections of securities law pertaining to fraud, Reuters reported. The Ontario Securities Commission made its findings known to Sino-Forest by serving the Toronto-listed company and some of its current and former executives with enforcement notices, the company said in a statement on Monday.

A Chinese maker of synthetic fibres that was on the verge of becoming the first company to default in China's bond market said on Monday that it would repay its obligation, bringing short-term relief to worried investors but raising doubts about the longer-term development of the market, Reuters reported. Shandong Helon Co Ltd, an insolvent chemical fibre manufacturer based in eastern China, said on Monday that it will repay its commercial paper on schedule next week.

Ernst & Young LLP has resigned as Sino-Forest's auditor, days after a Canadian court granted creditor protection to the embattled Chinese forestry company and months after fraud allegations triggered a stampede out of its stock, Reuters reported. Sino-Forest's Toronto-listed shares tanked last June after a short-seller accused it of exaggerating the size of its forestry assets. The company says the allegations have paralyzed its business.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a national audience on Tuesday that China's state-controlled banks are a "monopoly" that must be broken, in an unusually blunt appeal for a shake-up of the creaky financial system of the world's No. 2 economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Wen's declaration on a national radio program on Tuesday represents an unprecedented 11th-hour push for an overhaul by China's top economic official, who formally came into office in 2003 with a reputation as a reformer but has acknowledged publicly his regrets that he didn't go far enough. Mr.

Richard Chandler, the New Zealand billionaire and biggest shareholder of Sino-Forest, has hired a team to plan a rescue restructuring of the Chinese timber group after it filed for bankruptcy protection last week, the Financial Times reported. Richard Chandler Corporation, his investment vehicle, said on Monday that it had assembled a group including David Walker, an expert in the Asian forestry sector, to lead its proposal for the restructuring of Sino-Forest. “Sino-Forest faces a range of complex problems,” Mr Walker said.