"China has formally approved plans to set up three more free trade zones in a trial program intended to pave the way for liberalization of the country's financial sector. The Communist Party's powerful Politburo approved the plan for the three zones in Guangdong and Fujian provinces in the south and the big northern municipality of Tianjin...The three new zones will join their counterpart in Shanghai, which was opened with much fanfare in September 2013 but has so far failed to convince many foreign companies that it has ushered in an era of more liberalized investment rules...Chinese authorities rolled out what they called a 'negative list' of investment guidelines-essentially allowing foreign companies to invest in any sector that doesn't specifically bar them. But its list of negatives was so long that many foreign companies were disappointed," reports The Wall Street Journal.
Reuters writes, "China and India have agreed to maintain peace and tranquility along their Himalayan border while they work on resolving a long-festering boundary dispute, China's foreign ministry said after talks in New Delhi. The talks are aimed at fixing a dispute over the border that divides Asia's largest nations, part of a push to make progress on the festering row before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits China. China's foreign ministry said in a statement releasedon Monday both countries would build on the results of previous negotiations and push forward in 'the correct direction'... The talks are the first since Modi took office. The nationalist Indian prime minister is keen to resolve a dispute that has clouded rapidly expanding commercial links. Any progress would throw a positive light on his expected visit to Beijing in May."
According to Bloomberg, "Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China's national standard last year, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants next year. The capital city will shutter China Huaneng Group Corp.'s 845-megawatt power plant in 2016, after last week closing plants owned by Guohua Electric Power Corp. and Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co., according to a statement Monday on the website of the city's economic planning agency... The closures are part of a broader trend in China, which is the world's biggest carbon emitter. Facing pressure at home and abroad, policy makers are racing to address the environmental damage seen as a byproduct of breakneck economic growth. Beijing plans to cut annual coal consumption by 13 million metric tons by 2017 from the 2012 level in a bid to slash the concentration of pollutants."
"Ecuador expects to receive $4 billion worth of loans this year from different Chinese lenders, of which about $1 billion correspond to disbursements of loans approved last year, a top government official said...disbursements of Chinese loans have been delayed because or a sharp drop in oil prices in the first months of the year but would begin to arrive next month. According to unofficial estimates, China has committed more than $12 billion in financing to Ecuador between 2009 and 2014. Most financing operations from China to Ecuador have been tied to oil sales and several have been backed with presales of crude oil," writes The Wall Street Journal.