China’s Commerce Ministry on Thursday accused the European Union of making unreasonable demands in its investigation into imports of Chinese electric vehicles before announcing it was raising tariffs by as much as 38%, the Associated Press reported. Ministry spokesman He Yadong said that the European side had demanded excessive amounts of information from Chinese automakers and then unfairly accused the Chinese companies of failing to cooperate.

China’s central bank chief hinted at a blueprint for a new toolkit that could open the door to its biggest policy overhaul in years, as officials try to bolster growth in the world’s No.2 economy, Bloomberg News reported. Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, gave the clearest signal yet that the authority may start trading government bonds in the secondary market, during a speech in Shanghai on Wednesday. That shift has the potential to rewire how the central bank injects money into the economy and regulate liquidity.

China's securities regulator said on Tuesday it will strengthen regulation of all financial activities and prevent and resolve risks, in a move to improve and reform financial markets amid a wobbly economic recovery, Reuters reported. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement it will maintain a "zero-tolerance" stance on illegal activities in the capital market. "Preventing and defusing financial risks, especially preventing systemic financial risks, is the fundamental task of financial work," the CSRC said in a statement.

China's latest property support measures have boosted transactions in its biggest cities, but activity in smaller localities is struggling to get off the ground, pointing to more pain ahead for most of the country's real estate market, Reuters reported. On May 17, China cut minimum mortgage rates and downpayments and instructed municipalities to buy unsold apartments to turn them into social housing, sparking dozens of announcements from cities easing policies under the new guidelines.

Property investment in China fell 10.1% in the first five months of 2024 from a year earlier, after dropping 9.8% in January-April, even as policymakers doubled down on efforts to support the ailing sector and shore up consumer confidence, Reuters reported. Property sales by floor area in January-May fell 20.3% from a year earlier, compared with a 20.2% slump in January-April, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Monday. New construction starts measured by floor area fell 24.2% on year, after a 24.6% drop in the first four months.

China’s central bank left a key interest rate steady for the tenth straight month, displaying caution on monetary easing given abundant liquidity and the pressure to prevent the yuan from weakening further, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China kept the rate on one-year policy loans, the so-called medium-term lending facility, steady at 2.5% on Monday, in line with the forecast in a Bloomberg survey. It withdrew a net 55 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) from the banking system to avoid excessive liquidity.

China ramped up warning against bond bulls via state-media reports as a debt-buying frenzy re-emerged, Bloomberg News reported. Funds investing in bonds will find it difficult to sustain the returns, which have exceeded 10% in some cases so far this year, the People’s Bank of China-backed Financial News said in a report Saturday. If yields rise, long-duration bonds will “face larger risks of a retreat in capital gains,” the report said, citing unidentified people close to regulators.

Lawyers appointed by the liquidators of China Evergrande Group (3333.HK), opens new tab are investigating some of the property developer's service providers including its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, to potentially recoup losses for creditors, Reuters reported. Evergrande, once China's largest property developer, was ordered to be liquidated by a Hong Kong court in January, after it failed to deliver a concrete restructuring plan for its $23 billion worth of offshore debt deemed to be in default.

New bank lending in China rebounded far less than expected in May and some key money gauges hit record lows, suggesting the world's second-largest economy is still struggling to regain its footing even as the central bank seeks to bolster confidence. Chinese banks issued 950 billion yuan ($130.93 billion) in new yuan loans last month, compared to 730 billion yuan in April, according to Reuters calculations based on the latest data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) released on Friday.

Chinese electric-vehicle makers, increasingly a global force, have been bracing for months for the prospect of hefty tariffs in Europe, one of their most promising markets. When that day arrived on Wednesday, many were prepared, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some have already started building factories on the continent, while others have set up joint ventures with companies in the bloc.