The new finance czar

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

Beijing picked the next man to oversee its $61 trillion financial sector as part of the sweeping reforms to its regulatory system. Lǐ Yúnzé 李云泽, a 52-year-old former banker and current vice governor of Sichuan Province, was named Party secretary of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), the newly-formed government body that regulates thousands of banks, insurers and trust firms, excluding the securities sector. Li’s appointment comes as a surprise: Many had predicted a pick with more seniority and expertise to lead China’s economic recovery and reform.

China urged Afghanistan to reform its radical policies on women’s roles, which exclude women from education and public life. China hopes that Afghanistan “will make more progress in…safeguarding the rights and interests of women and children,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wāng Wénbīn 汪文斌 said today, while also calling for a “more resolute attitude in combating terrorism so as to produce more visible results.”

Hong Kong’s leader will have the power to bar overseas lawyers from handling national security cases. The city’s legislature, packed with those loyal to Beijing, unanimously passed a bill today requiring foreign lawyers who do not generally practice in Hong Kong to obtain permission from the chief executive before applying to represent clients in national security cases. The decision cannot be challenged.

China’s mysterious space plane returned to Earth on Monday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, after staying aloft for 276 days on its second orbital flight. The trip marks “an important breakthrough in China’s research on reusable spacecraft technologies, which will provide more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future,” Chinese state media said.

China will tighten up its emission rules for vehicles across the country from July 1, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (in English, Chinese), in a move that will pressure automakers and car dealers to get rid of old models that do not comply with the regulations. The new rules will ban the production, importation, and sales of vehicles that do not meet current emission standards, which include stricter requirements on pollutants such as carbon monoxide in fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

Chinese investment in Europe is lowest in a decade. A new report from Merics and Rhodium Group says investment in 2022 dropped 22% from the previous year, taking it back to its 2013 level. But Chinese greenfield investments in EV battery plants increased by 53%.

ChangXin Memory Technologies is preparing for an IPO: The Anhui-based memory chip manufacturer is looking to raise funds through a listing on Shanghai’s Star board. This follows clarification from the U.S. that American equipment supplies on which it relies will not be subject to further U.S. export restrictions..

State media: The strength of Chinese brands worldwide and the importance of brand building for economic growth is top story on the website of the Communist Party’s newspaper, the People’s Daily today, while the paper edition highlights a message of condolences sent by Xí Jìnpíng’s 习近平 to his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for the fatal floods deaths in the tiny African country, and Xi’s concern for “strengthening the protection of labor rights” for gig economy workers. Xinhua News Agency today leads with a video on China’s space program.