China

China's 14th NPC Standing Committee has scheduled deliberation of a draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law for August 25–28, but the bill text, jurisdictional triggers, investigative powers, and effective date remain undisclosed as of August 19, 2026. The session constitutes a deliberation, not an enactment, and China's existing Supervision Law already grants the National Commission of Supervision substantial international cooperation authorities including extradition coordination, asset recovery, and joint investigations. The incremental effect of the pending draft cannot be assessed until the text and explanatory materials are published.

China's State Council Order No. 844, signed August 10, 2026, revises the housing provident fund regulation for the third time since 1999, adding home renovation, property-management fees, and other State Council-approved housing expenses as withdrawal categories, while removing the income-threshold requirement for renters. The revision also eliminates the employer-issued extraction certificate requirement, cuts loan-application processing time from 15 to 10 days, and raises non-compliance penalties for employers from a maximum of 50,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan. The changes affect a system covering 176 million contributors across 5.29 million contributing units nationally, though the regulation sets no deadline for local governments to issue implementation measures for flexible workers.

Macao's Third Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), published August 18, 2026, sets a non-gaming gross value added target of approximately 60% of GDP, a roughly 3.3 percentage point increase from the 2024 baseline of 56.7%. The plan allocates an aggregate MOP130 billion across four major projects including a Hengqin university town, a technology research park, and an airport cargo station, though no project-by-project budget breakdown or intermediate annual milestones are specified. The plan establishes 35 indicators and eight goals but does not name accountable owners for key targets or define consequences for missing them.

China's Ministry of Public Security Cybersecurity Bureau released details on 14 cases of online rumors targeting businesses, resulting in administrative punishment for 13 individuals and one criminal compulsory measure, under the ongoing Clean Net 2026 operation. Five of the cases involve AI, including two where individuals used AI tools to generate false videos of branded-car crashes, and two where individuals falsely labeled genuine official videos as AI-generated. The release does not specify sanction amounts, formal charges, or prosecution outcomes for any individual case, and no retrieved document formally links these 14 cases to the CAC's parallel Qinglang business-environment campaign.