The New York Times reports: "China's cabinet announced Wednesday that it would try to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants by 60 percent by 2020 through upgrades to plants, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency. If successful, the plan for upgrades would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from such plants by 180 million metric tons, the report said. The announcement formalizes a step China is taking to try to reach broader coal-use and emissions goals to decrease some of the world's worst levels of air pollutants and to help in limiting climate change."
The Washington Post reports: "The Chinese government recently arrested a handful of hackers it says were connected to the breach of Office of Personnel Management's database this year, a mammoth break-in that exposed the records of more than 22 million current and former federal employees. The arrests took place shortly before a state visit in September by President Xi Jinping, and U.S. officials say they appear to have been carried out in an effort to lessen tensions with Washington."
The Washington Post Editorial Board discusses: "Starting next October, China's currency, known as the yuan or renminbi, will form part of the 'basket' of currencies from which the International Monetary Fund derives the value of the IMF's own reserve asset, the Special Drawing Rights. To summarize a lot of economic arcana, countries will be able to sell their IMF-allotted SDRs for yuan when needed to get through balance-of-payments difficulties. That won't be very often, however, since there are only $280 billion worth of SDRs, compared with about $11.3 trillion in global reserve assets. And the other four currencies in the 'basket' — the U.S. dollar, British pound, euro and Japanese yen — are still far more useful for all transactions."