Bloomberg writes that China's ratio of debt to its economic size is seen climbing for at least another four years, underscoring the risks facing policy makers as they strive to prevent a deeper slowdown without triggering a credit blowout. Seven out of 12 economists see the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio increasing through at least 2019, with four expecting a peak in 2020 or later, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Debt will peak at 283 percent of GDP, according to the median estimate of eight economists.  Policy makers grappling with the fallout from a credit binge after the global financial crisis are also being confronted by anemic demand for exports and an aging workforce, pushing economic growth to the slowest pace in a quarter of a century. With robust consumption and services struggling to pick up the slack from slowing investment and manufacturing, China's communist leaders are striving to put a floor under growth to ensure average expansion stays around 6.5 percent through 2020."We doubt the debt ratio will peak before 2020," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in Singapore. "Our model puts the peak in the debt ratio in 2024, but the ratio could rise further beyond that if Chinese policymakers fail to implement the necessary structural reforms required to improve credit allocation."

Wall Street Journal writes the removal of Xiao Gang as China's top securities cop marks the beginning of an overhaul of financial regulators in the face of a deepening economic slowdown, Chinese officials say. Mr. Xiao, who had been blamed for missteps during China's stock collapse last year, was replaced on Saturday by Liu Shiyu, a veteran of China's central bank, which is set to take a leading role in the financial refurbishing. At the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the passing of the baton was an amicable affair. As Mr. Liu, a former central-bank deputy governor who most recently headed one of China's largest state banks, took over the podium after a senior Communist Party official announced his appointment as the regulator's new chairman, he complimented Mr. Xiao for his hard work in the past three years, according to people with knowledge of the gathering. Mr. Liu and other senior commission officials even walked Mr. Xiao out of the commission's headquarters in downtown Beijing to show their camaraderie.