HONG KONG -- A flock of Chinese companies is attempting to push ahead with close to $1 billion-worth of initial public offerings in New York, shrugging off hurdles put in place by regulators in Beijing and Washington to curtail such share sales. The share sale applications by companies come in spite of a declaration by Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in a video posted to YouTube on Aug. 17 that he had "put a pause, for now" on listings by companies using a popular method to get around China's foreign ownership restrictions. Yet 11 of...