Man arrested after 4 Chinese nationals were ‘executed’ at Oklahoma marijuana farm

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

Four people were “executed” at a marijuana farm in Oklahoma, U.S.A., over the weekend, and today a suspect was arrested in Miami. The victims and the suspect are apparently all Chinese nationals.

China woos Pacific nation police on Zoom: “Police leaders from six Pacific island countries took part in a first-ever ministerial-level dialogue with senior law enforcement officials from China,” by video call, per Xinhua. But “at least two nations” told Reuters that “their ministers and police commissioners were unavailable to attend.”

China’s state-owned banks are offering $30 billion in credit lines to real estate companies to prop up the ailing sector. The Communist Party’s newspaper, the People’s Daily, quoted Yì Gāng 易纲, the governor of China’s central bank, as saying that the bank was making “multi-pronged efforts to bolster” the development of the property industry, and that “it encourages local governments’ region-specific policies, such as lowering mortgage rates and advance payments for homebuyers.”

• Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, is not impressed, and says COVID policies will remain a serious drag.

Self-censorship in Hong Kong’s financial community: “Fear of breaching ambiguous red lines means an increasing volume of research is so slow and vague it’s of questionable utility,” said Hong Kong financial industry insiders to Bloomberg. “One global money manager said even internal reports and data at their firm are impacted.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo wants to renegotiate a mining deal it signed with China more than 10 years ago, Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said in an interview during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

GM China is going electric: Yesterday, General Motors (GM) China announced that its new plant in Wuhan will begin production at the end of 2022, and will assemble batteries and electric drive systems for GM’s Ultium electric vehicle brand. By 2025, GM China plans to launch 15 new EV models in China. See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:

• Luckin Coffee keeps riding its luck.
• Vipshop is holding its own.
• Xiaomi takes a hit.

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