The BBC's Stephen McDonell said the Chinese government appears to have rushed through the investment law as an olive branch to the US amid trade war negotiations.
Many in the business community in China see this law as a kind of sweeping set of intentions rather than a specific, enforceable set of rules, he says. They fear it could be open to different and changing forms of interpretation.
Industry concerns
The new law aims to create a more level playing field between domestic and foreign businesses.
In a statement earlier this week, the American Chamber of Commerce in China welcomed the "legislative effort to improve the foreign investment climate".
But it said some provisions were "still quite general and do not address a number of the persistent concerns of foreign companies or foreign-invested enterprises in China".
2. Boeing: What next after the 737 Max disasters? BBC News
By Virginia Harrison and Theo Leggett,
15 March 2019
Two fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 Max jets have left the plane maker rushing to restore confidence in the safety of its fastest-selling fleet.
As investigators work to determine the cause of the tragedies, the US regulator said the aircraft would be grounded until at least May.
Boeing has halted 737 Max deliveries and some airlines say they will demand compensation.
Some customers have signaled they could back away from orders.
But analysts say the long-term impact on the firm will depend the outcome of the investigation.
Many countries grounded the plane after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 flight crashed on Sunday minutes after take-off, killing 157 people on board. In October, 189 people were killed in a Lion Air crash involving the same model.
◾Boeing grounds entire crash aircraft fleet
◾Six charts on the Ethiopian Airlines crash
◾Which airlines use the Boeing 737 Max 8?
How important is the 737 fleet to Boeing?
US regulators say the 737 Max, the fastest-selling plane in Boeing's history, is now likely to be grounded at least until May. The aircraft is a new model, a heavily re-engineered version of its workhorse 737. Deliveries to customers only began in 2017.
Globally, about 370 are in operation but the plane maker has close to 5,000 on order.
Teal Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia said although the current 737 Max fleet is relatively small "the future revenue stream is enormously important" to Boeing
Each plane on order was priced at between $45-50m, Mr Aboulafia said, and Boeing has "taken deposits worth a small portion of many of the orders received".
What will happen to 737 Max orders?
Boeing has temporarily halted deliveries of the new aircraft, following the decision by the US Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators to prevent it from operating. It will continue to build the planes, however, and currently has no plans to slow production.
Nevertheless, some customers have indicated they could scrap their orders.
Garuda Indonesia has said it may cancel its order for 20 planes, while VietJet said its recent $25bn order depended on the outcome of the investigation. Kenya Airways is also reportedly considering a switch to rival manufacturer Airbus.
Boeing jostles with the European giant to be the world's biggest plane manufacturer. Airbus's A320 Neo is the direct rival to Boeing's embattled 737 Max. But swapping from one manufacturer to the other is unlikely to be a simple process.
Both companies have bulging order books, and according to Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor of Flight Global, that means any new orders could take years to fulfil: "You can't just switch to Airbus, because Airbus has a backlog that runs for years as well."
Mr Waldron believes the size of Boeing's 737 Max order book means the jet is not just significant to the plane maker, but is "very important for the future of the industry as well".
There are other reasons, too, why moving from one manufacturer to another may be impractical.
"There's pilot training to consider as well," says Peter Morris, chief economist at the aviation consultancy Ascend. "You tend to have Boeing pilots and Airbus pilots." The instruments and control systems used by the two manufacturers are different, and pilots need to be certified to fly different aircraft, so it isn't as simple as getting out of one aircraft and starting to fly another.
However, if the 737 Max remains grounded for an extended period, some customers may see their deliveries delayed. That could mean renegotiation of orders, which could well hit Boeing's earnings.
What else have airlines said?
Some carriers say they will demand compensation.
Norwegian Air and Czech carrier Smartwings are among the airlines reportedly calling for Boeing to pay up.
But Teal Group's Mr Aboulafia said Boeing will be able to absorb any compensation costs.
He argues the "worst-case scenario" for damages would be in the range of "hundreds of millions of dollars".
"Since the company earns many billions of dollars per year, that's not a major threat."
What impact will all this have on airlines?
Because there are relatively few 737 Max in service, and the grounding has not occurred during a peak period for the industry, the impact has so far been relatively muted. Some carriers have been able to reorganize their fleets to cover for the missing aircraft.
Others have experienced some disruption. Norwegian, for example, says it has been combining services on its transatlantic routes, using a single larger Boeing 787 to replace two 737 Max.
This has left some passengers facing bus journeys to their final destination, but has avoided cancellations.
If the 737 Max remains grounded for an extended period, and deliveries of new aircraft remain suspended, things will become more complex.
During busy periods, airlines do have the option of leasing planes from specialist companies. A typical "wet lease", in which a plane is provided "ready to use" with crew, maintenance and insurance provided currently costs $3000-3300 per hour for an older 737-800, according to Ascend.
It is also possible to lease the aircraft on its own, for between $230,000-330,000 per month.
Airlines which had been expecting new aircraft to join their fleets may have to keep planes scheduled for retirement in service for a bit longer, or bring spare aircraft out of storage. While this is unlikely to trigger any safety concerns, it will add to their costs.
One of the main attractions of the 737 Max is that it is considerably more fuel efficient to operate than its predecessors. "Airlines may well face higher costs," says Peter Morris.
"They will then have to choose whether to absorb those costs or pass them on to passengers. In the end, prices will probably have to rise."
What has it cost Boeing so far?
Shares have lost around 10% since the crash, wiping about $25bn off its market value.
The longer-term impact will come down to the cause of the crash. A software fix may prove less costly and quicker to fix than a major design flaw, analysts say.
Mr. Aboulafia says if the second tragedy was caused by the same issues as the Lion Air disaster, it will require "aggressive implementation of a software patch" for systems along with crew training on possible system failures.
"None of this would be terribly expensive or time consuming, probably a matter of a few months, perhaps less."
But Boeing will still face challenges in rebuilding passenger confidence in the brand. Flight Global's Mr. Waldron says the firm's reputation has already been hard-hit.
"Having your top-selling brand crash twice in a very short period is obviously very bad for their reputation. The fact that it has spread so widely on social media... is difficult for them.
"It should recover, but it depends on how it resolves."
The 737 Max is not the first mainstream aircraft to be prevented from flying for safety reasons, although it only happens rarely.
Boeing's own 787 was grounded in 2013 because of battery fires, for example. It was rapidly modified, returned to service and continues to notch up healthy orders.
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 had a poor safety record in its early days, and was suspended from operating in 1979 following an accident that killed 271 people.
It remains the deadliest accident in US aviation history, but after a redesign it was allowed to resume flying - and remained in commercial service until 2014.
Japan's central bank is now less optimistic about the economy, Reuters
May 15, 2019 Published 6 Hours Ago Updated 4 Hours Ago Reuters
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday but tempered its optimism that robust exports and factory output will underpin growth, a nod to heightened overseas risks that threaten to derail a fragile economic recovery.
Factories across the globe slammed on the brakes last month as demand was hit by the U.S.-China trade war, slowing global growth and political uncertainty in Europe ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union.
In a nod to the increased risks, the BOJ cut its assessment on overseas economies to say they are showing signs of slowdown. It also revised down its view on exports and output.
"Exports have shown some weaknesses recently," the central bank said in a statement on its policy decision, offering a bleaker view than in January when it said they were increasing as a trend.
At a two-day rate review ending on Friday, the BOJ maintained a pledge to guide short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent and 10-year government bond yields around zero percent. The widely expected decision was made by a 7-2 vote.
The central bank also stuck to its view Japan's economy is expanding moderately, but added a phrase that "exports and output have been affected by slowing overseas growth." In January, it said only that the economy was expanding moderately.
"The sharp deterioration in exports and industrial production should be a serious source of concern for the BOJ. I think the BOJ is doing some thought experiments about what they can do," said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief macro strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
"For now you can still make the argument that current economic weakness is temporary, but this is becoming an increasingly closer call. The next three months are critical."
Japan's exports posted their biggest decline in more than two years in January as China-bound shipments tumbled. Factory output also posted the biggest decline in a year in that month, a sign slowing global demand was taking a toll on Japan Inc.
Many in the BOJ expect Japan's economy to emerge from the current soft patch in the second half of this year, when Beijing's stimulus plans could lift Chinese demand and underpin global growth, sources have told Reuters.
But there is uncertainty on how quickly global demand could rebound, adding to woes for Japanese companies already feeling the pinch from slowing Chinese demand, analysts say.
Inflation target
The BOJ faces a dilemma. Years of heavy money printing have dried up market liquidity and hurt commercial banks' profits, stoking concern over the rising risks of prolonged easing.
And yet, subdued inflation has left the BOJ well behind other major central banks in dialling back crisis-mode policies, leaving it with little ammunition to battle the next recession.
While BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda insists that hitting 2 percent inflation remains a top priority, politicians and economists are increasingly expressing doubts about the target as the strains from years of ultra-low rates accumulate.
About two-thirds of economists recently polled by Reuters believed the optimal target for Japan's consumer inflation was around 1 percent.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday "things could go wrong" if the BOJ insisted too much on achieving 2 percent inflation. "No one in the public would be angry even if the inflation target isn't achieved," he told reporters.
The biggest worry among BOJ policymakers is that weakening exports and output will hurt corporate sentiment, prompting firms to delay capital expenditure and wage hikes.
"The BOJ will keep insisting that the economy continues a moderate recovery, unless there are clear signs Japan is falling into recession," said Hiroshi Shiraishi, senior economist at BNP Paribas Securities, adding that the hurdle for additional easing is "quite high."
"That said, we expect the BOJ to eventually be forced into easing around the middle of next year when world economy faces a downturn."
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