The New York Times reports, "In one of the more surprising announcements during his visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping of China announced on Monday during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that his country would offer more money and more troops to aid United Nations peacekeeping efforts. China, he said, planned to set up a United Nations permanent peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops and would provide $100 million to the African Union to create an immediate response unit capable of responding to emergencies. In addition to the peacekeeping pledge, Mr. Xi promised a $1 billion donation to the United Nations for a "peace and development fund." All this amounted to an effort to respond to calls from the United States and others in the West that as the world's second largest economy, China needed to shoulder more responsibilities at the United Nations."
"China will prioritize its energy and financial cooperation with Iran, as the recent nuclear deal means there is now even more opportunity to work together, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. China and Iran have close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties, and China has been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach agreement on the nuclear issue. Under the multilateral deal, agreed in July, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb," Reuters writes.
The Wall Street Journal writes, "Asian currencies plumbed fresh lows, with Malaysia's ringgit falling as much as 1.2% against the U.S. dollar to yet another 17-year low while Indonesia's rupiah touched 14,730 against the U.S. dollar, a fresh 17-year low. Industrial metals including zinc and copper fell to multiyear lows. Two factors that have pressured markets-signs of a deteriorating Chinese economy and the uncertain timing of a rise in U.S. interest rates-have sparked selling in recent weeks. But heavy losses in mining-and-trading firm Glencore PLC on Monday put the spotlight back on China's slackening demand for commodities. China is one of the world's biggest consumers of metals and other raw materials. Market reaction to worries about the debt-laden balance sheet of Glencore PLC, whose London-listed unit sank nearly 30% to a new all-time low Monday, "feels like a bit of a turning point or an acceleration in pessimism" for the region, said Steve Wang, research director at Hong Kong-based research firm Reorient Financial Markets Ltd."