Bloomberg writes, "Japan's national security adviser met the top Chinese foreign policy official for talks that China called a step toward improving ties strained by a territorial dispute and suspicions about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to shake off the country's pacifist constraints. The meeting between State Councilor Yang Jiechi and National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi took place Thursday in Beijing, hours after Japan's lower house of parliament approved bills to expand therole of the country's military. Yang, China's top diplomat, suggested the exchange could pave the way for similar talks in the future. 'This is a major move to enhance strategic communications of the two countries,' Yang told reporters. He said the countries decided to hold 'high-level political dialogues' over questions that would have a 'deep and comprehensive influence' on the relationship."
"China's lifting of restrictions on bond purchases by foreign central banks is likely to spur buying, given the banks' keen interest in yuan assets. Right after the Chinese central bank announced the change Tuesday, Jukka Pihlman, head of central banks and sovereign-wealth funds at Standard Chartered Bank, was caught by calls from clients and had to cancel his planned day off. His clients-central banks and sovereign-wealth funds-are excited about free access to the $6.1 trillion bond market. Their demand for China bonds has long been robust, Mr. Pihlman said, but until now entering the world's third-largest debt market has required a lengthy and cumbersome application process," writes The Wall Street Journal.
The Washington Post writes, "China's authoritarian system has in the past few years tolerated a narrow space - a kind of gray zone - for some lawyers and activists to defend human rights, case by case. It became known as the rights defense movement and included appeals to China's existing laws, as well as shrewd use of the Internet to expose the plight of victims. Despite the overarching power of the party-state and its intolerance of dissent, the Chinese authorities permitted these lawyers and activists to function, often because they were often devoted to individual petitioners and didn't seem to threaten the survival of the regime. A wave of arrests and detentions over the past week points to a sudden closure of even this narrow space. In a nationwide sweep, as of Wednesday, police had detained and interrogated at least 159 human rights lawyers, activists and their relatives in 24 cities and provinces... The unusually wide crackdown appears to signal that authorities will no longer tolerate these defenders of human dignity."