China has made it a priority to attract foreign institutions to its futures market and is making measurable headway, says Fang Xinghai, vice chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. "The next step for the Chinese futures market is to rapidly increase the proportion of institutional investors in our market, and in particular the real economy traders," Fang says.

Credit expansion would pose risk to the Chinese economy, says Yu Xuejun of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. US interest-rate increases and escalating trade tensions are pressuring the yuan, Yu says, and the Chinese government is still grappling with problems caused by stimulus.

The participation of government-backed funds has steered China's stock market toward more realistic valuations and curbed price volatility, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement. During the first seven months of this year, China's large-cap stocks have outperformed the Dow Jones industrial average and Britain's FTSE 100 Index, the statement said.

Preparations for China's first crude oil futures contract to be traded by foreign entities will be complete in about three months, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said Friday. The Shanghai Futures Exchange has the regulator's approval to cover the contract.

Despite an unanticipated delay, the Hong Kong-Shanghai stock linkage is in its "final stage" of preparation, according to Yao Gang, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Yao's remarks, reported Thursday by Shanghai Securities News, did not go further but echoed similar comments by a Hong Kong regulator Wednesday.