China to issue 300 bln yuan in special treasury bonds to boost financial firms' capital

China's Ministry of Finance said Monday it will issue 300 billion yuan (about 44.25 billion U.S. dollars) in special treasury bonds to support eight state-owned financial enterprises directly administered by the central government in replenishing their core Tier 1 capital.

The move, which builds on similar efforts last year, is expected to further strengthen the institutions' operational capacity, resilience to risks and ability to serve the real economy, providing stronger support for the country's steady and sound economic growth, according to a circular issued by the ministry.

"From the perspective of the financial institutions that received the capital injections, after obtaining the capital, they have achieved good results in supporting the real economy. For example, in terms of loan disbursement, the loan growth rate of these large financial institutions exceeds the industry average, and they are the main force supporting the real economy," said Wang Jian, chief analyst of the banking sector at Guosen Securities.

The ministry will also channel funds to two policy-backed institutions -- the Export-Import Bank of China and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation -- to bolster their capacity to support key economic sectors and high-level opening-up.

In addition, four state-owned insurance groups, including the People's Insurance Company of China, China Life Insurance, China Taiping Insurance Group, and China Reinsurance Group, will receive fresh capital to improve their solvency margins and underwriting capacity.

"Judged from the effect of the capital replenishment last year, these capital-injected financial institutions have actually delivered sound operating performance. Whether in terms of profits, operating revenue, or relative indicators such as ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity), they have all achieved fairly good benefits," said Wang.

China to issue 300 bln yuan in special treasury bonds to boost financial firms' capital

Journalists must exercise caution when using artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure it strengthens rather than undermines the core values of their profession, a senior Malaysian media executive said Saturday at the Asia‑Pacific Media Forum in south China's Shenzhen.

Datin Paduka Nur‑ul Afida Kamaludin, chief executive officer of the Malaysian National News Agency Bernama, stressed that accuracy, balance, fairness,transparency and human accountability must remain at the heart of journalism.

The forum brought together more than 400 representatives from media, think tanks and government sectors across 42 countries and regions, as well as United Nations agencies and other international organizations.

While AI offers journalists an efficient tool, it also carries the risk of generating misinformation and deepfakes on an unprecedented scale, Nur‑ul Afida Kamaludin told the forum.

She later highlighted the same point in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), stressing the need for caution in adopting the technology.

"AI is bringing very rapid transformation to the media world, and especially among us, the journalists, but at the same time, despite using it as a tool to ease the process of our daily work, I believe that the journalists should also be extra careful using AI in their work," she said.

Looking ahead to the 53rd anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia next year, Nur-ul Afida called on the media to play a greater role in strengthening people-to-people ties.

"From a media perspective, I believe we need to focus more on the people-to-people relations. We have to produce more stories on the ordinary people, because that is the human interest stories that will attract our readers, our audiences. Let's look forward for a better relationship among the people and between the government, as well as companies between China and Malaysia," she said.

Malaysian National News Agency CEO calls for responsible AI use