MNI China Press Digest Aug 31: Monopoly, LGB, Afghan Minerals

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

• China's top leadership called for strengthening anti-monopoly measures and further implementing fair competition policies, including increasing supervision on platform economy, technological innovation and information security, according to a statement by Xinhua News Agency following a Monday meeting on reform chaired by President Xi Jinping. The leadership also emphasized that China must have national reservers befitting a large nation, improve the strategy and emergency material reserve system, as well as enhance commodity reserves to help stabilize the market, Xinhua said.
• China is likely to accelerate the sales of local government special bonds and increase fiscal spending to boost the growth in H2, while reserving some quotas for use in December to help Q1 growth, the Shanghai Securities News reported citing analysts. The PBOC will moderately inject long-term funds to support infrastructure investment, especially providing precise support to SMEs, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, short-term and long-term measures to promote employment are important for an internal demand-driven economy, the newspaper said citing Guan Tao, the global chief economist of BOC Securities.
• The Taliban needs to attract foreign investment, including building infrastructure, to use Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth to keep the country's economic system afloat, the Global Times said in a commentary reacting to western media reports that China eyes nation's mineral resources under the excuse of helping rebuild the country. As the U.S. and the West threaten to cut off funding, if Afghanistan cannot cash in on its mineral wealth, it will turn to the drug economy, causing its neighbours to suffer, the newspaper said. A thriving mineral and mining sector lifts up ordinary Afghanis while also creating a pathway for the country to become a productive and stable regional actor, the state-owned newspaper said.