China

China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on 30 July 2026 that Hou Wailin, former Party secretary and chairman of Guangdong Yuehai Holdings Group, is under disciplinary review and supervisory investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. The official notice names no specific allegations, amounts, dates, or co-respondents, and no institutional measures affecting the firm or any listed affiliate have been publicly announced. Hou previously served as director of the CSRC Guangdong Regulatory Bureau from approximately 2007 to 2016 before becoming Yuehai Group chairman in 2019, a position he left in 2023.

The China Coast Guard Xiushan formation conducted patrols east of Taiwan on July 31, 2026, with vessels detected as far as 151 nautical miles east of Orchid Island. Taiwan deployed coast guard vessels in response and rejected Beijing's jurisdictional claims over the area. The patrol continues a pattern begun June 1 by a predecessor formation, with the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany having jointly expressed concern about the activity in late June.

China's State Council approved its 15th Five-Year Intellectual Property Plan on July 20, 2026, designating CNIPA as lead regulator across ten emerging technology sectors including AI, 6G, and brain-computer interfaces. The plan signals future revisions to AI patent examination guidelines but sets no specific dates, creates no new patent categories, and has not yet been published in final form. Readers will learn what the plan actually commits to versus what remains prospective, and how it relates to examination standards already in force since January 2026.

All three NBS PMI gauges — manufacturing at 49.2, non-manufacturing at 49.0, and the composite at 49.3 — fell below the 50-point expansion threshold simultaneously in July 2026 for the first time since February, missing the market consensus of 50.0 across the board. Manufacturing new orders dropped 2.7 points to 48.5 and construction new orders fell 6.2 points to 40.1, while high-technology and equipment manufacturing held above 50. The Politburo, meeting the day before the release, called for expanded counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary measures in response to weakening demand.

On July 30, 2026, the US Treasury and State Departments added six entities and individuals from China, India, Russia, and Iran to the Specially Designated Nationals List for acting as sales agents or logistics facilitators for Mahan Air and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Three of the six are China-based, including two Shanghai companies that served as Mahan Air's general sales agent and coordinated electronics shipments to Iran. A separate Iran-based designation targets a startup Treasury describes as an IRGC-affiliated front company that solicited targeting information on American and Israeli military equipment in the Middle East.

The People's Bank of China fixed the yuan midpoint at 6.7892 per dollar on July 30, 2026, its firmest level in over three years, while the onshore rate touched 6.7550 following the Federal Reserve's decision to hold rates at 3.5–3.75%. Notably, the fix came in 362 pips weaker than the Reuters model estimate, indicating the PBOC moderated the yuan's appreciation despite dollar softness. This currency strength coincided with China's July PMI readings falling below 50 across manufacturing, services, and composite measures, marking a divergence between exchange-rate policy and contracting domestic economic activity.