A “price war” among global auto brands offering showroom discounts in China will quickly spread to domestic makers as overall sales slow, Dong Yang, Secretary General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), wrote on his blog. He said brands facing hardship should consider transforming or “uniting” with others, rather than continuing to expand. Vehicle sales in China rose only 2.1% year-on-year in the first five months of this year, suggesting that full-year growth could be well below 2014’s pace of 6.9%.

Mercer’s 21stannual Cost of Living Survey revealed that Shanghai was the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland for expatriates. Shanghai jumped four places to become the world’s sixth costliest city for expats, followed by Beijing at seventh place, up four places from last year. The jump in the rankings is being attributed to a stronger Chinese currency. Three of the top 10 costliest cities in the world are in China. Hong Kong edged up to second place. The U.S. consulting firm surveyed 207 cities and measured more than 200 items of costs, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. The costliest city for the third straight year is Luanda, the capital of oil-rich but poverty-stricken Angola. Two costal cities in south China, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, moved up to 14 (17) and 15 (24), respectively. Five other Chinese cities also moved up significantly – Chengdu from 71 to 29, Shenyang from 54 to 21, Qingdao from 48 to 24, Nanjing from 47 to 26 and Taipei from 61 to 41. All Asian cities – except Japanese cities and Singapore – moved up the rankings, the Shanghai Daily reports.

The Bank of Communications (BoCom), China’s fifth-largest lender, became the country’s first state-owned bank to carry out mixed-ownership reform. The reforms include optimizing its ownership structure through the introduction of private shareholders, improving its internal administration system to strengthen risk control and the introduction of an employee stock ownership plan. BoCom’s total assets reached CNY6.28 trillion in 2014. Experts have voiced doubts whether small private capital introductions can have real influence on the management of a big bank. Investors think so, as on June 1, June 4 and June 8, the bank’s shares jumped by the daily limit of 10% on the stock market, a rare occurrence for any bank in China. Since early 2014, large SOEs, including Sinopec, PetroChina and State Grid, have unveiled plans to conduct mixed ownership reforms. By the end of March, 54% of BoCom was state-owned. The Ministry of Finance owns 26.53%, London-based HSBC 18.7%, and the National Council for Social Security Fund 4.43%.

46.5% of Japanese companies intend to expand their operations in China in the next two years, compared with 66.8% in 2011, according to the annual white paper on Japanese enterprises operating in China by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in China. The white paper, first published in 2010, analyzes critical issues facing Japanese companies in various sectors and regions in China. In the first four months of this year, Japanese investment in China stood at USD1.44 billion, a year-on-year fall of 7.8%, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). The trend is likely to continue this year due to the slower Chinese economy, rising labor costs and depreciation of the yen, according to analysts. Last year, the value of Japanese investment in China contracted by nearly 40% to USD4.3 billion. But Kazuaki Tanaka, Chairman of the Japanese Chamber in China, said economic activities will benefit from improved bilateral political relations.

China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) grew 7.8% to CNY 57.3 billion from a year earlier in May, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said, down from the rise of 10.5% in April. In the first five months, foreign investment expanded 10.5% to CNY330.9 billion, with 9,582 new foreign-invested firms being set up in China. The investment growth was led by capital in services, which surged 23.5% to USD33.9 billion in the January-May period and represented 63% of the total. Funds for the financial sector rose nearly five times, and those for scientific research more than doubled. Investment in manufacturing fell 5% to USD16.5 billion. However, investment in telecom equipment, transport equipment and chemical manufacturing rose 4.8%, 4.4% and 2% respectively. The 28-country European Union invested USD3.3 billion in China in the first five months, up 23.2% year-on-year. U.S. investment dropped by 32.6% to USD970 million, partly due to a high comparative base. The 64 foreign countries involved in China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative raised their investment by 11.6% to USD2.9 billion in the period. Last year, China drew USD119.6 billion in non-financial foreign investment, up 1.7% year-on-year. It helped China surpass the U.S. to become the world’s top spot for foreign investment.

China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) soared 47.4% to CNY278.3 billion in the first five months, with funds flowing into 3,426 overseas companies in 146 countries and regions. China’s investment in the EU nearly quadrupled during the period. Chinese investment in Australia shrank 42% in the first five months, the Shanghai Daily reports. Outbound direct investment from China to the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose by 367.8% and 78.4% respectively during the first five months of the year, thanks to the depreciation of the euro and the “One Belt, OneRoad Initiative”. The top three destination countries in Europe for Chinese investors were the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany.