Talking points

Four drug traffickers, including Golden Triangle kingpin Naw Kham, will be executed in Kunming , Yunnan province, according to state media. Naw Kham and three accomplices were convicted of murdering 13 Chinese sailors in October 2011 in an attack on two ships on the Mekong River. Myanmese Naw Kham, Thai citizen Hsang Kham, Zha Xika of Laos, and Yi Lai, who is stateless, will die by lethal injection.

Beijing releases its official purchasing managers' index, a key indicator of the mainland's industrial outlook. The benchmark index fell to 50.4 in January from 50.6 the month before, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. HSBC's flash PMI reading, published on Monday, showed the slowest pace of growth in four months. However, the figure stayed above 50, which indicated expansion.