MNI China Press Digest, Sep 8: Sino-US, NPLs, Fin'l Opening

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

The U.S. should "stay sane" and not tell lies about China and provoke military conflicts as peace is the bottom line in Sino-U.S. relations, according to an editorial in the Global Times, the tabloid published by China's ruling party. U.S. politicians are not held accountable for making disparaging remarks about China as long as they take an anti-China stance, the newspaper said in its editorial on Monday night. While the U.S. is shouting "decoupling" with China, it must know that maintaining trade and cultural exchanges is in the interest of Americans, the Times said.

Chinese banks saw their credit card issuance volumes and loan balances plunge in H1 while non-performing rates for credit card loans surged after the pandemic reduced spending, according to the Securities Daily citing semi-annual reports from banks released in the past week. The rate of bad credit card debt for privately owned banks was worse than SOE banks, with private Shanghai Pudong Development Bank's NPL ratio rising 1.01 pp from end-2019 to 3.31% while that of Minsheng Bank was up 0.75 pp to 3.23%, the Daily said. The situation has improved from Q2 and the quality of credit card loans may be controllable in H2, according to the report.

China will continue to push for the opening up of its bond market to foreign capital, the internationalisation of the yuan and the convertibility of yuan accounts, reported the Economic Information Daily. The PBOC will continue to treat foreign companies equally as domestic firms on top of the negative list management system, the paper cited Yi Gang, the Governor of PBOC. China should continue to develop the yuan's pricing, settlement, trade, investment and reserve functions, while improving macro-prudential regulation to prevent external risks, the newspaper said citing Guo Shuqing, the head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.