Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said that local-government financing vehicles using land as collateral may pose risks for the nation’s banks.

“When land prices rise, there may be over-valuation of land,” Zhou said at a press briefing in Beijing yesterday. “In the future, if land prices fall, there may be a difference in the assessment of the loan.”

About 2,000 Falun Gong ­practitioners staged a march in Taipei City yesterday in support of the nearly 70 million people they claim have dropped out of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2005.

Holding banners that read “support China’s human rights = support Taiwan’s freedom” and “only with the disintegration of the CCP can the persecution be stopped,” demonstrators gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard to denounce criminal acts allegedly carried out by the Chinese authoritarian regime against Falun Gong practitioners, including harvesting organs from living people.

The US and China completed a series of top-level talks on arms sales to Taiwan, with Washington refusing to give Beijing any assurances that the sales would be stopped or curtailed, a US official said on Thursday.

“The US responded to PRC [People’s Republic of China] concerns over Taiwan by reiterating that it has followed a consistent approach,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.