China Tightens Grip on Shadow Banks

China is tightening oversight of rapidly expanding shadow-banking services, in a sign the country’s leadership is seeking to slow a run-up of debt and bolster financial stability.

China’s cabinet has distributed rules to regulators aimed at limiting the growth in loans created outside formal channels for bank lending, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the plan, which was sent in December and hasn’t been made public, the State Council calls for stronger oversight of such informal lending by the central bank and other regulators.

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Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/1uAvDJfDudU/

China destroys 6 tons of illegal ivory to prevent elephant poaching

China destroyed about 6 tons of illegal ivory from its stockpile on Monday in an unprecedented move wildlife groups say shows growing concern about the black market trade by authorities in the world’s biggest market for elephant tusks.

Authorities displayed a pile of ornaments, carvings and tusks to reporters, diplomats and conservationists before feeding them into two crushing machines. Tusks that were too long were cut up into smaller chunks by workers with circular saws before they could be pulverized.

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Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/-vUmpbNbHqM/

Fresh Signs of a Cooling Economy in China

Growth in China’s services industries slowed in December, separate surveys have found, echoing a slowdown in manufacturing and confirming views that the economy lost steam at the end of last year.

HSBC on Monday released its purchasing managers’ index for services, compiled by Markit Economics, showing a drop to 50.9 in December, its lowest level since August 2011, from 52.5 in November. But the figure remained above the 50-point level that indicates expansion in activity. New business growth was the slowest in six months.

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Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/HCTKmT-wWKQ/

China to allow 5 private banks this year

China will allow the creation of up to five privately financed banks this year to support economic growth by gradually opening the state-run industry, the country’s banking regulator said.

Analysts including the World Bank say an overhaul of Chinese banks that lend little to entrepreneurs is urgently needed to achieve the ruling Communist Party’s goals of making the economy more productive.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement Monday it would enlarge the role of private capital in banking. It said that would include a closely supervised “pilot project” to allow creation of three to five privately financed banks.

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Joe McDonald, Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/TT693kpys4M/

China-Japan ‘Voldemort’ attacks up ante in propaganda war

Chinese state media warned Japan on Tuesday of an escalation in the war of public opinion after both countries compared each other to Lord Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter stories, in a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s December 26 visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals are enshrined along with other war dead, infuriated China and South Korea and prompted concern from the United States, a key ally.

Both China and Korea suffered under brutal Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied in the 1930s and Korea colonized from 1910 to 1945.

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Sui-Lee Wee and Hui Li, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/hq34Ycnt6xI/

Heavy China Smog Prompts Warnings Against Outdoor Activity

China’s government warned people in north and central parts of the country to stay indoors today as heavy smog blanketed the region.

The level of PM2.5, fine air particulates that pose the greatest health risk, was as much as 287 micrograms per cubic meter at 4 p.m. in Shijiazhuang in the northern province of Hebei, neighboring Beijing, according to data from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center. That level of smog, the highest on a government scale from one to six, triggers warnings for people to avoid outdoor activities.

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Feifei Shen, Bloomberg News via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/4BF0qWlkdVQ/

China ends ban on foreign game consoles

China’s State Council has formally lifted a 14-year ban on foreign-made game consoles, unlocking a potentially huge profit pool that has so far eluded the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

The relaxation, originally announced last year, will allow foreign-invested enterprises to sell their products into the country from factories established in Shanghai’s new free trade zone.

The liberalisation could open a market closed since 2000 to companies including Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

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Tom Mitchell, Financial Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/qQNby1uWc48/