China’s factory activity improved in August but remained in contraction territory for a second straight month, as a pickup in orders could not fully offset the impact of overall weak domestic demand and disruptions from extreme weather.The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 49.8 in August, up from 49.2 in July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. The reading was largely in line with the 49.85 projection from economists polled by the...