China

New bank loans in China likely fell in May, a Reuters poll showed, as the central bank gradually scales back pandemic-driven stimulus to reduce debt and financial risks as the economy shows solid signs of recovery. BEIJING: New bank loans in China likely fell in May, a Reuters poll showed, as the central bank gradually scales back pandemic-driven stimulus to reduce debt and financial risks as the economy shows solid signs of recovery. Chinese banks are estimated to have issued 1.41 trillion yuan (US$220.54 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, down from 1.47 trillion yuan in April, according to the median estimate in the survey of 29 economists. That would be lower than 1.48 trillion yuan issued the same month a year earlier, when policymaking was firmly in emergency mode to cu...

YANGON: A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced 28 people to 20 years in jail with hard labour for arson attacks on two factories, state media reported, after a string of mainly Chinese-financed factories were torched during unrest in Yangon in March. The army-run Myawady news portal said the offenders had targeted a shoe plant and a garment factory in the industrial Hlaing Tharyar suburb of Myanmar's biggest city. Martial law was imposed in the suburb after the blazes, with dozens killed or wounded when security forces opened fire on anti-military protesters, media and an activist group said. The Chinese embassy in Myanmar said at the time that many Chinese staff were injured and trapped in the arson attacks and called on Myanmar to protect Chinese property and citizens. A t...

HONG KONG: Beijing has broken its legal obligations by undermining Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and used a national security law to "drastically curtail freedoms" in the global financial hub, according to a report by Britain on its former colony. In a foreword in the six-monthly report covering July to December 2020, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city in June last year was being used to stifle political opposition. There had been "clear breaches" of the 1984 Joint Declaration, signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that guaranteed wide-ranging freedoms for Hong Kong, Raab said. The report criticised Beijing's overhaul of Hong Kong's electoral system, prosecuti...