Bloomberg reports that China's economy resumed its grind toward slower growth in April, weighed down by overcapacity industries such as steel and coal. Industrial production climbed 6 percent in April from a year earlier, down from 6.8 percent in March and missing economists' estimates for 6.5 percent. Retail sales also missed analyst forecasts, rising 10.1 percent, while fixed-asset investment increased 10.5 percent in the January-April period versus economists' expectation for 11 percent. After a rocky start to 2016 marked by a sliding yuan, capital outflows and tumbling shares, China's economy stabilized and even picked up in March, led by a surge in new credit and rebound in the housing market. A pullback in lending and Saturday's tepid readings dash hopes the economy has turned a corner. Top leaders this week signaled a shift away from debt- and stimulus-fueled growth, stressing the need for deleveraging, upgrading industrial capabilities and cutting excess capacity.

New York Times writes that Fifty years after Mao Zedong unleashed the decade-long Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority and revive his radical communist agenda, the spirit of modern China's founder still exerts a powerful pull. Millions of people were persecuted, publicly humiliated, beaten or killed during the upheaval, as zealous factionalism metastasized countrywide, tearing apart Chinese society at a most basic level...But the surge in Maoist sentiment and distrust of the status quo points to the complex risks facing Chinese leaders. The legitimacy of the Communist Party is staked upon both Mao's legacy and a tacit promise of bettering people's lives. Those two pillars may prove difficult to maintain as China navigates a painful economic transition that threatens to shed countless miners and factory workers and widen social inequality.