July 21: Defence Ministry tells US not to take sides in sea disputes; Jobless rate dips in June
Politics and policy
President Xi Jinping and six other top leaders of the Communist Party attended the funeral of Cheng Siwei, a renowned Chinese economist and former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, at a cemetery in Beijing yesterday. (Xinhua)
Diplomacy
The Defence Ministry called on Washington not to pick sides in quarrels over the South China Sea, days after the US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift flew over the disputed waters and made a visit to the Philippines, a close US ally which is locked in territorial disputes over the sea. (AFP)
Economy
Guangdong and Shandong provinces will each invest pension funds worth 100 billion yuan in the nation's stock market, in a pilot programme that may be followed by up to 30 per cent of the country's 3.5 trillion yuan pension funds being invested in equity investments in the future. (China Business News)
Society