Chinese onshore bond issuance is falling for the first time in four years, as the authorities try to dampen borrowing in the world's second largest economy without triggering a crash.

Most Chinese corporate bonds denominated in the onshore yuan currency - CNY - are snapped up by local banks. But they are under pressure from the central bank to trim their lending, as China attempts to engineer a soft landing after a multi-decade growth spurt, moderate leverage and rebalance its economy away from investments and towards consumption.

So far this year, there have been 376 CNY-denominated corporate bond sales worth a total of $81.2bn, according to Dealogic, down from a record $109.9bn over the same period last year and the first year-on-year decline since 2010.