China

On July 31, 2026, China's State Council approved four nuclear power projects totaling eight reactor units in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning, and Shandong, with same-day media estimates placing aggregate investment above 170 billion yuan — a figure not confirmed in the official readout. The four projects span three reactor designs, including the first Hualong One installation in Northeast China at Liaoning Zhuanghe and two Guohe One units at a new Shandong site. Official documents do not disclose project-level investment totals or complete construction schedules for any of the four approvals.

China's central bank set the yuan midpoint at 6.7894 per dollar on July 31, a gap of 581 pips below the Reuters estimate of 6.7313 and the largest weak-side deviation since February 27, according to multiple financial outlets. The move came as the onshore spot yuan hit its strongest level since February 2023, and analysts at BNY interpreted the weaker fixing as a deliberate signal against rapid appreciation rather than an official PBOC statement. The central parity rate had strengthened 173 pips across July, from 6.8067 on July 1 to 6.7894 on July 31.

Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department reported 4.3% real year-on-year GDP growth for Q2 2026, down from 5.9% in Q1 and slightly below a Reuters poll forecast of 4.4%. The expansion was driven primarily by a 28.8% surge in goods exports and a 29.3% rise in goods imports, with private consumption up 2.9%. Revised figures and an updated full-year growth forecast, previously set at 2.5% to 3.5%, are scheduled for release on August 14, 2026.

On July 31, 2026, the CPC Central Committee appointed Luo Wen as Hebei party secretary, replacing Ni Yuefeng. As of August 1, 2026, SAMR's official leadership directory still lists Luo as the agency's director and party secretary, with no successor, acting director, or formal handover date announced. The leadership gap at SAMR is notable given the agency's active enforcement calendar, including an unresolved food-delivery-platform competition investigation opened in March 2026.

Taiwan's benchmark index closed at 43,119.75 on July 31, 2026, posting a 7.98% single-day gain of 3,186.45 points on NT$833.7 billion in turnover, breaking the prior record of 1,783 points set just ten days earlier on July 21. TSMC hit its 10% daily upper limit for only the third time in its history, closing at NT$2,425, following a 7.64% overnight gain in its U.S.-listed ADR tied to strong earnings from Microsoft and Amazon. The electronics sub-index rose 9.19%, with gains concentrated in AI supply chain, memory, and semiconductor sectors, while defensive categories including food and telecommunications lagged.

China's State Council Order No. 841 formalizes four areas of exit-entry administration: overseas risk warnings with a potential traveler dissuasion mechanism, stricter application verification requirements, expanded grounds for refusing exit to Chinese citizens and entry to foreigners, and a new filing-based oversight system for exit-entry intermediary service providers. The regulation supplements rather than replaces the existing Exit-Entry Administration Law, with the National Immigration Administration characterizing most provisions as concrete elaborations of existing general grounds. Implementing guidance on filing procedures and risk-level classification methodology had not been published as of August 1, 2026, leaving operational details unresolved ahead of the September 15 effective date.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published its industrial green and low-carbon development plan for 2026 to 2030 on July 31, 2026, setting three concrete targets: a more than 10% reduction in energy consumption per unit of industrial added value, 500 zero-carbon factories, and 500 green standards to be formulated or revised. The plan covers the full industrial sector rather than energy-intensive industries alone, and organizes implementation around a carbon-peak action plus four capability-building and two systems-strengthening priorities. No enterprise-level reporting schedules, penalty structures, dedicated funding amounts, or intermediate annual milestones appear in the publicly available notice and summaries.