The downturn is influenced, among other things, by last Friday's strong job figures from the USA, which can slow down the pace of the American central bank's interest rate cuts.
Oil prices are up after yesterday's announcement of expanded American and British sanctions against the Russian oil and energy sector.
The composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen were down 0.5 and 0.3 percent, respectively.
In Hong Kong, the decline of the Hang Seng index was stronger – minus 1.3 percent.
And in South Korea, the Kospi index was down minus 1.2 percent.
The Chinese stock market mood did not seem to be particularly affected by the fact that China's official statistics for exports in December last year showed an increase of 10.7 percent, more than 3 percentage points above expectations.
Chinese imports increased by 1 percent in December, contrary to a predicted decrease of 1.5 percent.
In Tokyo, the stock exchange was closed on Monday.
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