MNI China Press Digest Sep 15: Electricity, Property, China-US

MNI (Beijing) - The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Tuesday:

China's Jan-Aug electricity consumption rose 0.5% y/y to 4.7676 trillion kWh, the first positive growth for accumulated usage this year, on the back of the stable economic recovery and higher summer temperatures, the People's Daily reported citing official data and Ye Chun, a director from the China Electricity Council. Total usage in August rose 7.7% to 724 billion kWh, while the manufacturing sector's consumption was up 9.7% to 351 billion kWh, an increase of 7.4 percentage points from last August, the newspaper reported.

Chinese governments' tighter controls over the housing markets and pressure to reduce debt may force developers to cut prices in the next two months, a period when the markets are usually more active, the Economic Information Daily said citing Chen Xiao, an analyst with Zhuge.com. The government may also further tighten regulations in the coming month as the latest data showed that house prices are increasing at a faster pace from last month, said Zhang Dawei, the chief analyst with Centaline Property.

The abrupt departure of the U.S. ambassador to China Terry Branstad signals an intention by the U.S. to downgrade its relations with China and his replacement is likely to be more hawkish towards China, Global Times reported citing Chinese scholars. Branstad's resignation came after a hardening of U.S. policies over the last three years, leaving little room for Branstad's mission to be useful, the newspaper said citing Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University.