Western hedge funds, banks and short sellers are targeting China, Hong Kong, and South Korea. As geopolitics is proliferating in Asia, weaponization is spreading to markets.

As Chinese stock exchanges struggle, their poor performance is a reflection of greater problems for the world’s second largest economy.

Chinese internet giant Tencent has surpassed Facebook in terms of market value just a day after it became the first Asian technology firm to reach the $500 billion valuation mark.

The performance of Chinese and U.S. shares are rarely compared side-by-side. Together though, they tell the story of the gains that have been available to investors over the past decades, in what are now regarded as the two largest economies—and most capitalised stock markets—in the world.

China isn’t facing a "cataclysmic" economic slowdown and last week’s market turmoil was more about badly designed stock market circuit breakers, said Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The Asian Development Bank president said Friday he is optimistic China's economy will post healthy growth of 6.7 percent this year despite jitters over the yuan's depreciation and a plunge in Chinese stocks.

China moved to support its sinking stock market as state-controlled funds bought equities and the securities regulator signaled a selling ban on major investors will remain beyond this week’s expiration date, according to people familiar with the matter.