A 10-year-old boy attending a Japanese school in southern China has died after being stabbed on his way to class on Wednesday, according to Tokyo’s foreign minister, in the second knife attack near a Japanese school in the country in recent months.

Japan's ambassador to Beijing has asked for more security for Japanese nationals in China after a 10-year-old Japanese boy was killed this week in a knife attack that was the second to target school students.

Chinese banks maintained their benchmark lending rates for September, as policymakers hold off on further monetary stimulus while financial institutions struggle with record-low profit margins.

China unexpectedly left benchmark lending rates unchanged at the monthly fixing on Friday, despite the Federal Reserve delivering an outsized interest rate cut earlier this week. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept at 3.