Bloomberg says that China's central bank called officials from the nation's biggest commercial lenders to a meeting in the southern city of Shenzhen last week to stress a close adherence to rules on mortgage lending, people familiar with the matter said. The People's Bank of China told lenders not to compete excessively on mortgages, said the people, who asked not to be identified as they aren't authorized to speak publicly. Banks were also requested to step up their scrutiny on the source of borrowers' down payments, the people said. The meeting came as Shenzhen, located in the province of Guangdong that borders Hong Kong, experiences the biggest boom in residential home prices in China, with prices rising 52 percent in January from a year earlier. Concerns are rising about risks in loan markets amid warnings from officials that housing prices in some top-tier cities are climbing too fast.Chinese authorities are mulling plans to impose rules ending the practice of home buyers taking out loans to cover down-payments, people familiar with the matter said last week. Regulators including the PBOC and the China Banking Regulatory Commission will also ask commercial banks to scrutinize mortgage applications and reject those where down-payments come from loans offered by such institutions, the people said at the time.

Reuters reports that China's military must pour efforts into developing cutting edge defense technology, which has strategic significance, China's President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, according to state media reports.Xi also stressed professionalizing the country's military brass, the official China Daily reported on Monday. The armed forces have long been plagued with corruption, which senior officers have cautioned threatens combat capabilities.Xi, who also chairs the elite Central Military Commission, has targeted corrupt military officials as part of a sprawling campaign against graft that has felled many political foes.The capability to innovate will determine the future of the Chinese armed forces, he said, briefing lawmakers from the military.