Reuters reports, "China's tumbling stock market showed signs of seizing up on Wednesday, as companies scrambled to escape the rout by having their shares suspended and indexes plunged after the securities regulator warned of "panic sentiment" gripping investors. Beijing, which has struggled for more than a week to bend the market to its will, unveiled yet another battery of measures to arrest the sell-off, and the People's Bank of China said it would step up support to brokerages enlisted to prop up shares. The CSI300 index (.CSI300) of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed down 6.8 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) dropped 5.9 percent. With nearly half the market on a trading halt and another round of margin calls forcing leveraged investors to dump whatever shares could find a buyer, blue chips that had been supported by stabilization funds earlier in the week bore the brunt."
"China's stock market tumble has presented the government of President Xi Jinping with a searing test of its commitment to overhaul the country's financial system and open up the state-controlled economy. Building off the work of his predecessors in the last three decades, Mr. Xi has been introducing competition into the banking industry, overhauling state-owned companies and making it easier for foreign investors to buy Chinese stocks. But the pace of reform may slow if the stock market slump persists, or even accelerates. The stock market represents the swirl of social, political and economic forces at play in the reform efforts," writesThe New York Times.
The Associated Press reports, "the Philippines has asked an international tribunal to declare China's claims to virtually all the South China Sea invalid, saying Beijing's actions have trampled other nations' rights and damaged vast coral reefs irreversibly. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told the tribunal in The Hagueon Tuesday that China's strategy was to gradually take control of the strategic waters without sparking a crisis. Philippine officials provided his statement to journalists in Manila on Wednesday. 'China's positions and behavior have become progressively more aggressive and disconcerting,' del Rosario told the tribunal. 'Outside observers have referred to this as China's 'salami-slicing' strategy: That is, taking little steps over time, none of which individually is enough to provoke a crisis.' 'When these small steps are taken together, however, they reflect China's efforts to slowly consolidate de facto control throughout the South China Sea,' he said.