China mulls tax, household registration, judicial reforms - Xinhua

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Leading Group for Overall Reform convened its third meeting on Friday, deliberating on plans to reform the country's finance, taxation and household registration systems.

The meeting, presided over by Chinese President and the group's head Xi Jinping, also approved two documents on piloting reform of the judicial system and a plan to set up special courts on intellectual property rights.

It was also attended by deputy group leaders Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, all of whom are members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Political Bureau.

BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China's top economic planner on Tuesday released economic priorities for 2014 in a plan that has been approved by the State Council, the country's cabinet.

The National Development and Reform Commission said authorities will cut red tape and slash items that need administrative approvals. Full story

Banks' exposure to real estate healthy: official

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Lending by Chinese banks to the real estate sector is in stable condition, a senior official said Friday amid concerns that a cooling property market may lead to increasing risks of bad loans.

"Currently, the real estate market draws 20 percent of total bank lending in China, of which around 70 percent goes to home buyers in mortgage loans," said Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC). Full story

Commentary: Cool heads needed in viewing China's economy

BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Recent statistics show China's industry, investment and consumer price index grew at a slower pace, but these are temporary fluctuations and no cause for panic as several upbeat signals were easily overlooked amid the gloom.

Every coin has two sides. China's Consumer Price Index increased 1.8 percent year on year in April, much lower than the 2.4 percent in March. But the positive view is that China has no worries about inflation and is in a strong position to keep its interest rates low. Full story

Xinhua Insight: Property bubble will not wreck China's economy

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Economists from China's leading think tanks have dismissed predictions that a possible property meltdown would trigger a crisis or even a crash in the world's second largest economy.

"It can be said that China's property bubbles are now the biggest risk in its economy, but bearish talk of a collapse of the whole economy smells of ulterior motives," Wang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told Xinhua. Full story