MNI China Press Digest, May 15: US-China, Covid-19, Banks

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports

on Friday:

     China does not believe that Washington will "cut off the whole

relationship" as U.S. President Trump suggested in an interview on Thursday,

according to the Communist Party tabloid Global Times. In an editorial, the

newspaper said it was "no surprise to hear more absurd ideas from Trump" in the

run-up to the U.S. presidential election. However, the Times warned that China

should be prepared for "a partial or complete decoupling" in some sectors,

including technology.

     China will step up pandemic prevention measures in Heilongjiang and Jilin

provinces in North-Eastern China which have both emerged as new clusters for

Covid-19, according to a statement from Thursday's meeting of the Politburo

Standing Committee. A statement from the committee, chaired by President Xi

Jinping, also required Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic in China which also

saw new cluster cases, to increase testing. Xi also said the government would

promote the retailing and life service industries to normal levels.

     China will add more domestic banks to the list of systemically important

banks (D-SIBs), a move which will see them subject to increased regulation,

according to Cao Yu, a vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance

Regulatory Commission (CBIRC). In a commentary published in the China Banking

and Insurance News, a media outlet affiliated with the regulator, Cao said that

196 regional Chinese banks are among the Top 1000 in the world according to

their Tier-1 capital levels, a hint that they should be treated as D-SIBs. China

currently requires banks on this list to have additional capital equal to 1% of

risk-weighted assets.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: archie.zhang@marketnews.com

--MNI Sydney Bureau; +61 405322399; email: lachlan.colquhoun.ext@marketnews.com

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