Hello! Welcome to this edition of CBN Perspective. I’m Stephanie Li.

On August 26, Guangzhou inaugurated its first in-city duty-free store in Tianhe District, drawing throngs of shoppers. Notably, Shenzhen also rolled out its first in-city duty-free outlet on the very same day—a synchronized move that marks a pivotal step in enhancing outbound travel convenience for residents of the two Pearl River Delta megacities, offering them streamlined access to duty-free shopping prior to international trips.

This milestone follows a key policy push: in August 2024, five central government ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, jointly released the Notice on Optimizing Policies for In-City Duty-Free Stores. The notice announced the approval of 8 new in-city duty-free locations nationwide, with Guangzhou and Shenzhen each securing one slot—underscoring the central government’s strategic focus on leveraging duty-free commerce to stimulate high-end consumption and fortify the two cities’ roles as regional economic hubs.

Authorized by the State Council, in-city duty-free stores are situated in urban cores and cater exclusively to travelers departing China. Their competitive edge over traditional port-based duty-free shops is stark: unlike port stores, which tie shoppers to tight customs clearance timelines, in-city outlets offer unparalleled flexibility. This allows consumers to browse and purchase a diverse range of duty-free goods at their leisure, eliminating the rush often associated with last-minute airport or port shopping and better aligning with modern travelers’ demand for convenient, stress-free retail experiences.

What sets Guangzhou and Shenzhen’s new stores apart is their deep integration with each city’s unique cultural and industrial identities—a deliberate design choice that transforms them from mere retail spaces into showcases of local character. 

As a global hub for electronics innovation, Shenzhen’s store features an extensive lineup of “Made-in-Shenzhen” products, such as cutting-edge smartphones and panoramic cameras. This not only highlights the city’s technological prowess but also provides an international platform for local high-tech brands to reach outbound travelers, strengthening Shenzhen’s reputation as a leader in global tech manufacturing.

In contrast, Guangzhou’s store doubles as a gateway to Lingnan culture. Infused with design elements that pay homage to Guangzhou’s nickname, the “Flower City,” the outlet includes a dedicated atrium zone for experiencing Lingnan traditions and Chinese time-honored brands. This cultural integration serves a dual purpose: it enriches the shopping experience by connecting consumers to local heritage, and it positions Guangzhou as a city where commerce and culture intersect—an essential trait for building a globally appealing international consumption center.

Regulatory guidelines for in-city duty-free shopping are clear and targeted. Eligible shoppers include all travelers (Chinese and foreign alike) departing China via air or international cruise within 60 days. For Guangzhou and Shenzhen residents with upcoming outbound trips, the process is straightforward: they can shop at the in-city stores using valid 60-day outbound flight/cruise tickets and entry-exit documents. 

Importantly, purchases are not available for immediate pickup; instead, goods are held at dedicated duty-free collection points in the departure isolation areas of ports, ensuring compliance with customs regulations and seamless transport abroad.

Early indicators of success are already evident. Since Shenzhen’s store entered a trial operation phase on August 23, it has become a hotspot for “prospective international students”—a demographic with significant demand for duty-free goods like electronics and skincare. Their enthusiastic spending has sparked an immediate “in-city duty-free shopping boom,” signaling strong initial consumer interest and validating the policy’s relevance to key traveler groups.

The launch of these stores carries far-reaching implications for both cities’ economic recovery and long-term competitiveness. 

Data from the first half of 2025 underscores their growth potential: Shenzhen’s ports handled 130 million inbound and outbound passengers, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, while Shenzhen Airport recorded a passenger throughput of 32.57 million, up 10.9% year-on-year. This surge in cross-border travel creates a massive pool of potential duty-free consumers, directly fueling the stores’ viability and their ability to drive consumption growth.

The initiative is a multi-faceted catalyst: it will accelerate the development of the duty-free economy, boost inbound tourism-related spending, and crucially, redirect domestic consumers’ overseas purchases back to China.

Additionally, by integrating consumption with culture and tourism, the stores will enhance both cities’ international profiles and competitiveness—key goals in their quest to become globally influential international consumption centers.

Looking ahead, these in-city duty-free stores will play a dual role: they will complement existing high-end commercial districts, filling a gap in pre-travel duty-free access, and serve as “new consumption landmarks” that accelerate Guangzhou and Shenzhen’s progress toward their long-term urban development goals.

Stephanie: Hello everyone, I'm Stephanie Li. Today's episode dives into how Chinese enterprises are reshaping Southeast Asia's e-commerce landscape.

Joining me is our ASEAN correspondent Sharon Hu, whose on-the-ground reporting brings fresh insights. Sharon, let's start with those staggering growth numbers you mentioned earlier.

Sharon: Absolutely, Stephanie. A report released by DBS Group of Singapore and Cube, a market research company, shows that from 2012 to 2024, the annual sales of e-commerce in Southeast Asia increased from USD4 billion in 2012 to USD184 billion in 2024—that's a 45 times jump! What's fascinating is how this mirrors China's own e-commerce boom a decade ago.

Stephanie: That's exactly what struck me. In Jakarta for example, street vendors were using Lazada's logistics for deliveries, just like how Taobao revolutionized rural China, but faster. How much of this do you attribute to Chinese companies' influence?

Sharon: A significant chunk. Take Lazada—Alibaba's investment didn't just pour money in, but instead they brought AI algorithms that personalize shopping. During last year's Double 12 shopping festival, 46% more users interacted with their AI tools. I’ve been talking with Liu Teng, who owns a cross-border e-commerce business in Xiamen that also provide relevant services, which I believe will give us an insider look at this trend.

Stephanie: Great! Small and medium sized enterprises are often the unsung heroes in these ecosystem shifts.

Sharon: Exactly. Liu entered Southeast Asia three years ago, mainly selling cosmetics, and what's interesting is their strategy. Instead of just listing products on platforms, they also have Chinese customers who want the full package—product plus setup. Basically every day, there’re Chinese merchants approach Liu for advice on how to expand business into Southeast Asia, from local policies and legal compliance, to on-the-ground operational strategies. Due to the robust demand, Liu established a 20-member local team in Malaysia, acting as a liaison between Chinese enterprises and local influencers to boost sales in live-streaming e-commerce, and assisting them to handle procedures such as registration, tax, and product certification.

Stephanie: That's brilliant. Let's talk infrastructure. As I've always said, logistics is the backbone—you can't have e-commerce without reliable delivery.

Sharon: And here's where the ecosystem support comes in. Many Chinese delivery giants, including Alibaba’s Cainiao, SF Express, ZTO, and Best Express, have set up overseas warehouses in Southeast Asia, which cuts delivery Tim es to under 48 hours. In the first half of this year, JD Logistics has added three new self-operated overseas warehouses in Malaysia and Vietnam.

Stephanie: Payment systems are another frontier. It reminds me of Alipay's early days in China, overcoming cash habits through convenience. How are they cracking that market?

Sharon: Through partnerships. For payments, they rely on global payment platforms such as the Hangzhou-based PingPong to handle cross-border transactions, which has been working with major e-commerce sites,  such as Amazon, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Shopee in Southeast Asia. And PingPong isn't replacing local payment apps—they're integrating with them, offering real-time currency exchange for sellers. 

Data shows that the penetration rate of e-payments in the region has exceeded 50%. In 2024, mobile payment based on QR code technology in Thailand accounted for approximately 55% of e-commerce transactions, and the proportions in Malaysia and Indonesia were even higher. It's a perfect example of how larger Chinese platforms are enabling smaller players to thrive.

Stephanie: That's the ripple effect we often miss. Big companies build the highways, and SMEs drive the traffic. What's their growth look like?

Sharon: Liu said they only started testing the waters of product exports in Southeast Asia three years ago. Back then, he could hardly imagine that one day, he would not only be able to create a top-selling product across all Malaysian e-commerce platforms, but also lead more Chinese enterprises to achieve one successful live-streaming sales feat after another on Southeast Asian platforms. They're now expanding into Indonesia, using TikTok Shop's live streams to demo their products. It's localization at every step.

Stephanie: And TikTok Shop is another game-changer. I remember when live-stream commerce took off in China, skeptics thought it wouldn't work elsewhere. But research finds 75% of Southeast Asian consumers are more willing to buy products out of online influencers’ recommendations. And I believe that's a cultural shift, not just a business model.

Sharon: You're spot on. TikTok creator studios in Southeast Asia are training local influencers in Chinese-style live-stream techniques: product demos, limited-time flash sales, even the way hosts interact with viewers. It's localization with Chinese DNA.

Stephanie: As we wrap up, let's look ahead. With projections hitting US$410 billion by 2030, this is just the beginning. What excites me most is how this collaboration is elevating the entire region's digital economy. It's not one-way—Southeast Asia's unique challenges are pushing Chinese firms to innovate, too.

Sharon: Well said. This isn't just Chinese companies reshaping Southeast Asia—it's a mutual evolution.

Stephanie: Thanks for sharing your insights, Sharon. And for our listeners, stay tuned as we explore more on the fascinating cultural and business exchange between China and ASEAN. Until next time!

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

Toy maker Pop Mart posts over 360% rise in profit in H1 as Guochao trend accelerates global expansion;

Xiaomi reports 75% leap in Q2 profit as EV business gains momentum.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

Shares in Chinese toymaker Pop Mart reversed course to rise Wednesday, a day after the company posted a near-400% surge in net profit, driven by booming global demand for its LABUBU dolls.

Pop Mart jumped 12.5 percent today in Hong Kong to close at HKD316, with a market cap surpassing HKD400 billion, both setting new highs. Shares in Pop Mart have risen more than 200 percent in the last year, resulting in a market valuation of HKD424.4 and making the company worth more than Barbie-maker Mattel, Nerf-seller Hasbro, and Hello Kitty-owner Sanrio combined.

The LABUBU-maker on Monday released its financial results for the first half of 2025, reporting a 362.8 percent jump in net profit, reflecting the rise of China's Guochao trend and its intellectual property incubation capacity.

Adjusted net profit reached CNY4.71 billion, while revenue stood at CNY13.88 billion, up 204.4 percent year-on-year, extending the strong momentum from the previous two quarters.

Revenue from China stood at CNY8.28 billion, up 135.2 percent; Asia-Pacific (excluding China) revenue was CNY2.85 billion, rising 257.8 percent; revenue from the Americas surged to CNY2.26 billion, up 1,142.3 percent; and revenue from Europe and other regions rose 729.2 percent to CNY480 million.

The company, best known for creating the global sensation LABUBU, has also seen explosive sales growth across other in-house products with intellectual property rights. In the first half of 2025, 13 artist IPs each generated more than 100 million yuan in revenue.

Thanks to its distinctive appeal and unique style, LABUBU, a member of The Monsters family, with a revenue topping CNY4.8 billion, was one of the world's most popular IPs in the first half of 2025.

Pop Mart founder and CEO Wang Ning said Wednesday that the firm was well-positioned to hit its 2025 revenue target of CNY20 billion, adding that reaching CNY30 billion this year “should also be quite easy.” Pop Mart also said it will roll out a miniature LABUBU this week that can be clipped onto phones.

As one of the leading representatives of China's rising pop toy industry, Pop Mart established four regional headquarters in April for the first time, underscoring its deepening globalization strategy. The company attributed its growing market presence to continuous improvements in operational effectiveness and business efficiency in China.

In the first half of 2025, Pop Mart opened its first stores in landmark locations such as Cambridge in the UK and Bali in Indonesia, continuing its push into iconic global destinations. 

Pop Mart will expand into markets including the Middle East, South Asia, Central and South America, and Russia, Co-Chief Operating Officer Justin Moon said on today’s earnings conference call.

As of June 30, the company was operating 571 stores across 18 countries, including 40 new physical outlets and 105 new Robo Shops, according the company.

H

Shares in Chinese toymaker Pop Mart reversed course to rise Wednesday, a day after the company posted a near-400% surge in net profit, driven by booming global demand for its LABUBU dolls.

Pop Mart jumped 12.5 percent today in Hong Kong to close at HKD316, with a market cap surpassing HKD400 billion, both setting new highs. Shares in Pop Mart have risen more than 200 percent in the last year, resulting in a market valuation of HKD424.4 and making the company worth more than Barbie-maker Mattel, Nerf-seller Hasbro, and Hello Kitty-owner Sanrio combined.

The LABUBU-maker on Monday released its financial results for the first half of 2025, reporting a 362.8 percent jump in net profit, reflecting the rise of China's Guochao trend and its intellectual property incubation capacity.

Adjusted net profit reached CNY4.71 billion, while revenue stood at CNY13.88 billion, up 204.4 percent year-on-year, extending the strong momentum from the previous two quarters.

Revenue from China stood at CNY8.28 billion, up 135.2 percent; Asia-Pacific (excluding China) revenue was CNY2.85 billion, rising 257.8 percent; revenue from the Americas surged to CNY2.26 billion, up 1,142.3 percent; and revenue from Europe and other regions rose 729.2 percent to CNY480 million.

The company, best known for creating the global sensation LABUBU, has also seen explosive sales growth across other in-house products with intellectual property rights. In the first half of 2025, 13 artist IPs each generated more than 100 million yuan in revenue.

Thanks to its distinctive appeal and unique style, LABUBU, a member of The Monsters family, with a revenue topping CNY4.8 billion, was one of the world's most popular IPs in the first half of 2025.

Pop Mart founder and CEO Wang Ning said Wednesday that the firm was well-positioned to hit its 2025 revenue target of CNY20 billion, adding that reaching CNY30 billion this year “should also be quite easy.” Pop Mart also said it will roll out a miniature LABUBU this week that can be clipped onto phones.

As one of the leading representatives of China's rising pop toy industry, Pop Mart established four regional headquarters in April for the first time, underscoring its deepening globalization strategy. The company attributed its growing market presence to continuous improvements in operational effectiveness and business efficiency in China.

In the first half of 2025, Pop Mart opened its first stores in landmark locations such as Cambridge in the UK and Bali in Indonesia, continuing its push into iconic global destinations. 

Pop Mart will expand into markets including the Middle East, South Asia, Central and South America, and Russia, Co-Chief Operating Officer Justin Moon said on today’s earnings conference call.

As of June 30, the company was operating 571 stores across 18 countries, including 40 new physical outlets and 105 new Robo Shops, according the company.

GBA express

Guangdong Province on Tuesday revealed a 21-point action plan to promote high-quality development of the province's commercial space industry from 2025 to 2028. The action plan supports enterprises investing in the satellite constellations for civil and commercial applications, offering a "green channel" for project approval and coordination support for satellite frequencies and orbital resources. Financial support of 10 percent of total investment will be provided, with a maximum of CNY2 million per node and an annual cap of CNY10 million per enterprise, according to the plan.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) on Wednesday posted its best-ever half-yearly revenue and profit for the first six months of the year following a stock market boom. The city's bourse operator reported that its revenue and other income soared 33 percent year on year to nearly HKD14.1 billion, boosted by record high volumes in the money market, equity market, and higher investment income. Profit, meanwhile, jumped 39 percent to stand at about HKD8.52 billion between January and June.  

China's southern tech hub Shenzhen saw its foreign trade hit CNY2.58 trillion in the first seven months of this year, topping all Chinese mainland cities, the local customs said yesterday. Private firms contributed CNY1.8 trillion of the total.

Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi hired Bank of America, CICC, and JPMorgan to work on a second listing in Hong Kong before mid-February, which could raise between USD200 million and USD300 million, media reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Luxshare Precision Industry has filed for a secondary listing of shares in Hong Kong, with CITIC Securities, Goldman Sachs, and CICC as joint sponsors. The Shenzhen-listed Apple supplier reportedly aims to raise over USD1 billion.

Industry and company news

Chinese smartphone and electric carmaker Xiaomi reported second-quarter adjusted net profit surged 75 percent from a year earlier to CNY10.8 billion on a 31 percent increase in revenue to CNY116 billion. The Hong Kong-listed company said revenue from smartphones fell 2 percent to CNY45.5 billion on price reductions. Global shipments of 42 million phones ranked the company third in the world, after Samsung and Apple, with a 15 percent market share.

Ping An Healthcare reported first-half profit surged 137 percent to CNY134 million from a year earlier on growth driven by expanding corporate customers and the successful adoption of artificial intelligence. Revenue rose 19.5 percent to CNY2.5 billion. Revenue from the smart EV, artificial intelligence, and other new initiatives segment reached CNY21.3 billion in the second quarter on a doubling of deliveries of 81,300 vehicles.  

BYD inked a deal with Finnish auto dealer Veho Group to upgrade its sales and service network layout in Finland. The Chinese car giant plans to establish new retail outlets in Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, and other cities.

China's collection of stamp duty on securities in July trading doubled from a year earlier to CNY15 billion and rose 29 percent from June, according to the Ministry of Finance. The surge coincided with bullish stocks markets, where volume across Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing exchanges topped CNY2 trillion for a sixth straight day on Wednesday.

Asia-Pacific highlights

Meituan today launched its international food delivery platform Keeta in Doha, Qatar, as it further expands in the Middle East, the Chinese on-demand service giant said. Meituan forayed into the Saudi Arabian market last September and now is available in 20 Saudi cities.

Japanese investment company SoftBank will invest USD2 billion to take about a 2 percent stake in ailing US chipmaker Intel amid reports the US government is in talks to buy up to a 10 percent stake.  

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

China's summer box office surpasses CNY10 billion, led by domestic films;

Japan prepares to approve first yen-backed stablecoin.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

China's summer box office revenue has surpassed CNY10 billion as of Monday, with homegrown titles dominating the season's top earners.

According to ticketing platforms Maoyan and Beacon, domestic films currently occupy four of the top five slots.

Leading the charge is "Dead To Rights," a film about the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, which has grossed CNY2.6 billion since its July 25 release. It is the only summer release to top the 2-billion-yuan threshold so far, and now ranks as the year's third-highest earner overall in China.

The film has received a rating of 8.7 out of 10 on review platform Douban and won widespread critical acclaim. Director Feng Xiaoning has hailed it as "a new high point for Chinese cinema," while audiences have described screenings as harrowing yet profoundly moving. 

This year's summer slate has been shaped by the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Alongside "Dead To Rights," themed releases include historical drama "Dongji Rescue" and documentary "Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness."

Animation has also been a breakout category. "Nobody," a spinoff from the acclaimed "Yao-Chinese Folktales" animation series, ranks second on the summer chart, raking in more than CNY1 billion since its Aug. 2 release. It has become the highest-grossing two-dimensional animated film ever released in China.

Other strong performers include "The Lychee Road," a bittersweet drama set during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) which has grossed more than CNY670 million, and "The Legend of Hei 2," the sequel to a 2019 animated hit and now at nearly CNY450 million. Universal's "Jurassic World Rebirth" is the highest-ranking imported film, currently in fourth place with more than CNY560 million earned to date.

China's summer moviegoing season runs from June 1 through Aug. 31 and is traditionally one of the country's most lucrative film periods. Analysts note that local hits have revitalized what began as a sluggish season.

GBA express

Cathay Group said it would continue to increase investment in the Chinese mainland and hire more staff from the Chinese mainland to meet growing demand. By the end of this year, the Hong Kong flagship airline plans to raise the total number of mainland staff members to 4,000 from 3,000 plus currently. In Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the company has two offices that focus on technology and it hopes to soon expand these teams to about 200 people in total.

Dongfeng Motor has listed its 50 percent stake in Dongfeng Honda Engine, its Guangzhou-based joint venture with the Japanese auto giant, for sale to accelerate its new energy vehicle shift. Dongfeng Motor has not yet set a reserve price, with the listing deadline being Sept. 12.

Industry and company news

Nongfu Spring has become the world’s third-most valuable non-alcoholic beverages brand, following Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The largest bottled water company in China climbed one spot ahead of Red Bull in the annual Non Alcoholic Drinks 50 compiled by the London-based brand valuation agency Brand Finance, with its brand value climbing nearly 34 percent year on year to USD11.1 billion. 

JD.Com said it has offered social insurance benefits and housing fund to over 150,000 full-time delivery riders from March 1 to today, with an average of CNY2,000 per month. All of its delivery persons can enjoy employee welfare, including annual leave, physical examination, and paid sick leave.

Leapmotor is only the second Chinese EV startup to achieve profit in the first half, along with Li Auto, with a net profit of CNY30 million, the firm said today. This is a big turnaround from the net loss of CNY2.2 billion it racked up a year earlier. Revenue soared 174 percent to CNY24.3 billion and deliveries surged two-and-a-half to over 221,660 units.

Xpeng Motors has formed a strategic partnership with China Citic Bank, under which the lender’s Guangzhou branch will provide CNY10 billion in credit to support the Chinese EV maker’s business operations and development.

Tesla launched the Model Y L on its website in China today, with deliveries expected in September. The Model Y L is a six-seat, longer-wheelbase version of the popular Model Y and is priced from CNY339,000.

Sales of German automotive giant Mercedes-Benz Group in China have plunged to the lowest in nearly five years last month, falling over 40 percent to 26,653 units from the previous month, according to industry data.

China’s railroads have completed about 712 million passenger trips from July 1 to yesterday, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, according to China State Railway Group. Meanwhile, the nation’s railway system transported over 2.3 billion tons of cargo in the first seven months of the year, up 3.3 percent from a year earlier.

China opened a total of 145 new air cargo routes in the first half of this year, among which 117 were international air cargo routes, marking a year-on-year increase of 58.1 percent, according to data from the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP).

Asia-Pacific highlights

Japan's Financial Services Agency is poised to approve the issuance of the first yen-denominated stablecoin as early as this autumn. Tokyo-based fintech firm JPYC will register as a money transfer business within the month and will lead the rollout. The cryptocurrency will be valued on a 1-to-1 ration with the yen. JPYC plans to issue up to JPY1 trillion of stablecoins within three years.

Nio will expand to Singapore, Costa Rica, and Uzbekistan this year and next in partnership with local dealers, the Chinese EV startup said today. The Shanghai-based carmaker plans to introduce models from its Nio, Onvo, and Firefly brands in these new markets.

Chinese lithium battery and chip supplier Azure said yesterday that it plans to invest USD83.9 million to build an LED chip packaging factory in Malaysia to better meet overseas demand and hedge against shifting international trade and tariff risks.

Australia's third-largest iron ore exporter Fortescue Group had completed a record syndicated term loan worth CNY14.2 billion. The financing drew strong participation from leading banks in China, Australia and other global markets, marking the first syndicated yuan-denominated loan by an Australian company, FMG said.

Lenovo Group is setting up a regional headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the PC giant said today. The new factory there is expected to start trial producing laptops, desktops, mobile phones, servers and other hardware next year.

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

Shanghai Composite Index hits 10-year high on Monday, with gross A-shares market cap surpassing CNY100 trillion;

China’s economy remains steady despite July data dip.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

The Shanghai Composite Index surpassed 3,740 points and reached an intraday high of 3,745 on Monday, marking a ten-year record since August 20, 2015. 

Since hitting a low of 3,040 points on April 7, 2025, the benchmark index has risen by 22.72 percent. Notably, during the same period, the Shenzhen Component Index gained nearly 30 percent, while the ChiNext Index soared by 47 percent. 

Meanwhile, as of 10:34 am on Monday, China's total A-share market capitalization has surpassed CNY100 trillion, setting a new record and marking the first time in A-share history to break the threshold. 

The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.85 percent at 3,728 points today, while the Shenzhen Component Index jumped 1.73 percent to end at 11,835 points, with total turnover topping CNY2.8 trillion.

Hong Kong stocks also opened higher for the week, as the southbound capital accelerates its flow into the city’s stocks market. Last Friday, investors in the Chinese mainland set a new record for the highest single-day net inflow of HK$35.876 billion.

Regarding individual companies, Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) leads the A-share market capitalization rankings with CNY2.19 trillion, followed by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) with CNY2.02 trillion. And, the A-share market capitalizations of Kweichow Moutai, PetroChina, Bank of China, and CATL all exceeded CNY1 trillion.

Pan Helin, member of the Expert Committee on Information and Communication Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), told the 21st Century Business Herald that the latest market rally, which began at the start of the year, reflects the concentrated emergence of China's efforts in advancing technological innovation.

He noted that breakthroughs in areas such as artificial intelligence, large models, and digital transformation have boosted the global appeal of Chinese assets. This, in turn, has drawn overseas capital inflows and fueled the prosperity of China's stock market.

Several of China’s key economic indicators slipped last month due to the difficult external environment and adverse weather at home. Industrial production rose 5.7 percent in July from a year ago, slowing from June’s 6.8 percent, while retail sales of consumer goods rose 3.7 percent, compared with 4.8 percent in the prior month, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. From January to July, fixed asset investment rose 1.6 percent, down from 2.8 percent in January to June. NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui said while the economy is stable overall, further efforts will be made to maintain the continuity and stability of policies, and to enhance their flexibility and foresight.

GBA express

Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the opening of the new passenger inspection area at Hengqin Port in Zhuhai, which has seen 75.64 million inbound and outbound passenger trips in the past five years, as a core hub for personnel exchanges, economic and trade cooperation, and livelihood integration between Guangdong and Macao, as well as a vital gateway for the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, CCTV reported. Data shows that so far this year, the average daily passenger flow at Hengqin reached 76,946, a 1.88-fold growth compared to before the new passenger inspection area was launched in 2019.

UK-based consumer goods multinational Unilever began operation at its new food-production center in Guangdong Province to strengthen its supply chain on the mainland. The company's brands include baby food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, dairy products, ice cream, instant noodles and soft drinks.

Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxi service completed 20,000 kilometers of "safe driving" in Hong Kong road tests, the Chinese company said on Saturday, earning it the go-ahead to expand to another area of the city. City officials approved robotaxi road tests to expand to a technology hub in the southern part of the city.

Industry and company news

Huawei topped China's phone market in the second quarter, followed by Vivo and Oppo, according to data released by IDC today. Global smartphone shipments rose 1.4 percent to 297 million units last quarter from a year earlier. The report also showed the scale of China's AI public cloud service market expanded 55 percent to CNY19.6 billion last year from the year before, with Alibaba Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud jointly ranking first by market share, followed by Tencent Cloud and Huawei Cloud.

JD.Com's first offline catering brand 7Fresh Food Mall is in talks to open new stores in over 10 Chinese cities to expand its services nationwide, media reported today, citing the Chinese retail giant. 7Fresh Food Mall opened its first mall in China's northeastern Harbin in June.

Great Wall Motor has launched production at its factory in Brazil, the Chinese carmaker's first plant in Latin America. The plant will produce Haval H6 fuel and hybrid SUV models, the Haval H9 SUVs, and Poer pickup trucks, with an initial annual capacity of 50,000 units that will eventually reach 100,000 units, according to Great Wall.

China's summer box office, including presale, surpassed CNY10 billion as of 2.28 p.m. today, according to data from ticket info tracker Maoyan. Chinese movie Dead to Rights is leading the summer box office earnings ranking with a market share of nearly 26 percent.

China recorded over 64.7 million air passenger trips in July, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, of which nearly 7.1 million were on international routes, up 16 percent in the period, CCTV reported, citing the CAAC. Air passenger trips rose 5.6 percent to about 440 million in the first seven months from the same period last year.

Asia-Pacific highlights

WeRide will receive a strategic investment from Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading all-in-one app that covers services from ride-hailing to package delivery, the Chinese self-driving tech startup said. The deal is part of a partnership aimed at fast-tracking the roll out and commercialization of Level 4 robotaxis and shuttles across Southeast Asia. Guangzhou-based WeRide has tested or operated its vehicles in 30 cities worldwide and currently has autonomous driving permits in China, Singapore, France, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A direct air cargo route for fruits and vegetables from Urumqi in China's northwest Xinjiang to Dubai launched on Aug. 16, with the inaugural flight moving over 18 tons of melons, tomato products, grapes, dried apples, and others, Xinhua reported.

Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics, which supplies robotic parts to Tesla, said it will invest as much as US$100 million to build a factory in Thailand to expand overseas operations. Shares in the Shenzhen-listed firm have risen about 80 percent this year.

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

A-share market is poised for sustained bull run;

Tencent’s stock soars to 4-year high on strong Q2 performance.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

The signs of a bull run are slowly but steadily emerging in China's A-share market, underpinned by ongoing structural reforms and sustained long-term capital inflows. 

The Shanghai Composite Index rose for an eighth straight session on Wednesday, climbing to close at 3,683, its highest since December 2021. On Thursday, the benchmark index opened higher, hitting 3,700 points in early tradings, before heading down to close 0.46 percent lower.

Nevertheless, investor enthusiasm is surging on both the institutional and retail fronts. The combined trading value at the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses topped CNY2.15 trillion and CNY 2.28 trillion in the latest two sessions.

July also witnessed a record monthly number of new mutual fund launches, reflecting rising interest among households in equity assets as returns from traditional savings and wealth management products continue to decline. Total assets under management in public mutual funds have now exceeded CNY34 trillion.

Insurance companies are also ramping up their presence in the A-share market. The number of public disclosures triggered by insurers' equity holdings surpassing the 5 percent threshold has already exceeded last year's total. Analysts said insurers are increasingly focusing on companies from the emerging industries and advanced manufacturing sectors, supporting China's shift toward high-quality development.

Retail investor participation is also rising. Nearly 14.6 million individual trading accounts were opened in the first seven months of 2025, a 37 percent year-on-year increase, according to data provider Wind Info.

Furthermore, foreign investors have been steadily increasing their exposure to Chinese equities, including A-shares and Hong Kong-listed stocks. Net foreign inflows totaled US$2.7 billion in July, more than double the level in June, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

Analysts said the macro environment is becoming increasingly favorable for Chinese equities. Expectations of a weaker US dollar and potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are improving the outlook for emerging markets. The narrowing interest rate differential between China and the United States could further accelerate foreign capital inflows.

Hong Hao, chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management, said the upward momentum of Chinese stocks will sustain for a long time if the US dollar's weakness proves to be a multiyear trend. Also, the Chinese market has been increasingly resilient in the face of negative tariff headlines.

Given the current favorable liquidity conditions in the Chinese market and the fear-of-missing-out sentiment, any corrections in the A-share market are likely to be quickly absorbed by buyers, he added.

GBA express

AliExpress has upgraded its logistics hub in Dongguan, Guangdong province, into the Alibaba-owned marketplace’s first fully automated cross-border logistics park, media reported. The enhancement is expected to shorten package transit times by as much as six hours.

Industry and company news

Shares of Tencent Holdings climbed to the highest at HKD600 today in more than four years after the Chinese internet giant reported a strong financial performance in the second quarter of the year. Net profit widened 17 percent to CNY55.6 billion in the period, while revenue climbed 15 percent to CNY184.5 billion, both significantly beating market expectations. Th company reported double-digit growth in most segments. Gaming was a key driver, with mainland revenue rising 17 percent and international sales up 35 percent on the success of titles including "Honor of Kings" and "Dungeon & Fighter Mobile." Tencent has been increasing investment in AI. Capital expenditure in the latest quarter surged 119 percent to CNY19 billion, which was mainly spent on AI-related infrastructure.  

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has invested in China's unmanned delivery vehicle company Neolix, although the amount is unknown, media reported citing people familiar with the matter. Neolix has deployed over 7,500 autonomous vehicles across more than 280 cities.

RayNeo and Ant Group said today they have allied to launch the RayNeo X3 Pro AI glasses, the world’s first full-color smart payment glasses, enabling “just look and pay” without needing a voice assistant or entering an amount on Ant's Alipay.

China's newly-added yuan-denominated loans rose CNY12.87 trillion in the first seven months of the year, according to data released by the PBOC yesterday. Of the total, CNY680 billion were household loans.

China's data sector reached CNY5.86 trillion by the end of 2024, up 117 percent from the end of 2020, the National Data Administration told a press conference on Thursday. The number of data-related Chinese firms exceeded 400,000 as of the end of last year.

China has allocated CNY188 billion from its 2025 ultra-long special treasury bond funds to support equipment upgrades across major economic sectors, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Wednesday. The funds will support about 8,400 projects, leveraging more than CNY1 trillion in total investment. 

Asia-Pacific highlights

Leading Australian wine producer Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) reported a 15.5 percent increase in its annual profit on Wednesday, amid a stabilization of exports to the major Chinese mainland market. The winemaker posted underlying net profit after tax of AU$470.6 million for the year ending June 30, according to the company. The Penfolds range delivered another strong result, reflecting a successful return to China for the Australian country of origin portfolio and continued positive momentum in a number of other key Asian markets, said TWE CEO Tim Ford.

Bangkok’s Iconsiam shopping mall is hosting a Charming Shanghai Week event from Aug. 8 to 15, featuring a full-scale recreation of Shanghai’s famed Yuyuan Lantern Festival in Thailand for the first time. The event celebrates the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand.

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

China launches a 1-percentage point personal consumer loan interest subsidy to boost spending;

Shanghai Composite Index recorded a near 4-year high on multiple boosts.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

China has unveiled an interest subsidy for personal consumer loans to boost domestic consumption, with a CNY3,000 cumulative subsidy limit per borrower at designated lending institutions.

Residents can receive the subsidy if they use personal consumer loans (excluding credit cards) issued by designated institutions from Sept. 1 this year to Aug. 31 next year, but need to use the funds for consumption and transactions musts be traceable, according to a policy document jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration yesterday.

Eligible purchases include single transactions below CNY50,000, with single transactions of CNY50,000 or more allowed only if related to autos, elderly care and childbirth, education and training, sightseeing, home furnishing and decoration, electronic products, and healthcare, the document said.

Such subsidies can directly reduce residents' consumer credit, enhance their willingness and ability to use financial leverage to spend more, improve living standards, and stimulate effective financing demand from lenders and residents, industry experts noted.

According to the document, 1 percentage point of the annual interest on loans will be subsidized, not exceeding 50 percent of the contractual interest rate. The central government will cover 90 percent of subsidy funds, with provincial governments providing the rest.

Six big state-owned banks, 12 national joint-stock lenders, and five consumer lenders will serve as qualified lending institutions.

Meanwhile, eight categories of eligible service sector businesses, including catering and accommodation, health care, elderly care, childcare, housekeeping, culture and entertainment, tourism and sports, will also benefit from a similar subsidy plan that rebates loan interest of 1 percentage point for no more than a year, said the finance ministry.

To qualify for the subsidy, loans must be extended between March 16, 2025 and December 31, 2025, provided that the loans are used for improving consumption infrastructure or service supply capacity. The maximum loan amount eligible for subsidies per operator is CNY1 million.

GBA express

As the countdown ticks down for the 15th National Games, 400,000 tickets for the Hong Kong competition region are set to go on sale in phases beginning August 28 with a real-name registration system. The initial batch includes tickets for the beach volleyball, men's handball, men's under-22 basketball, and rugby sevens that will be held in the city, with remaining events released in phases starting at the end of September. There will be 5 million tickets on sale in batches for most of the competitive and mass participation events at the National Games and the National Special Olympic Games, including the events in Guangdong and Macao.

Hong Kong’s capital markets continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience, emerging as the world’s top destination for IPOs in the first seven months of 2025. Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s secretary for financial services and the Treasury, said on Tuesday the number of IPOs in Hong Kong this year has already surpassed its annual fundraising totals for each of the past three years, with 53 new listings raising HK$127 billion, a staggering sixfold year-on-year increase. Hong Kong’s exceptional performance comes as global IPO markets saw only a modest 10 percent growth in capital raise in the first half of 2025, with deal numbers declining 5 percent worldwide, Hui noted.

Margin trading balance on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, which is a key gauge of market sentiment and leverage levels, topped CNY2 trillion yesterday for the first time in a decade, official data show. Margin financing in Shanghai was about CNY1.021 trillion, while that in Shenzhen came in at roughly CNY983.9 billion.

Industry and company news

Chinese stocks extended winning streak on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing up 0.48 percent, a record high since December 2021. The index has risen 10 percent so far this year. The Shenzhen Component Index also jumped 1.76 percent today, while the tech-focused ChiNext Index soared 3.64 percent. Total turnover of both the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses hit CNY2.15 trillion, surpassing the CNY2 trillion threshold again since February. 

China's summer box office, including presales, topped CNY9 billion as of 15:06 today, led by Dead To Rights,  Nobody, and The Lychee Road, according to film data tracker Beacon.

Tencent Music's shares soared over 15 percent today, after the music streaming arm of Tencent said its revenue climbed 18 percent to CNY8.4 billion and adjusted net profit widened 33 percent to CNY2.6 billion in the second quarter.

CATL, the world's biggest maker of electric vehicle batteries, has rolled out a repair service for its batteries using cell-to-pack technology to reduce expenses for car owners and seek a new growth driver. Replacing a battery typically costs around CNY100,000, while the new repair costs can be as low as CNY10,000.

China has announced its first batch of nine pilot projects for liquefied green fuels as part of efforts to meet its 30/60 environmental targets. The projects, which use renewable energy to produce e-fuels, include five for methanol, three for ammonia, and one for ethanol, according to the National Energy Administration's recent notice. Eight are located in northeastern China, known for abundant renewable resources, while one is in the country’s economically developed east.

Ingka Group, parent of Swedish retail giant Ikea, has invested in Shanghai-based Re-Mall Environmental Protection New Material, a Chinese recycler of consumer packaging waste. Ingka, which operates 39 Ikea stores and 10 shopping malls under the Livat brand on the Chinese mainland, said the investment is a commitment to tackle the global waste problem.

Nine Chinese mainland universities and research institutes, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Fudan University, together with five Hong Kong universities and one from Macao jointly initiated a life science open alliance today to promote the technological innovation and integrated development of the life science industry, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Asia-Pacific highlights

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will chair the tenth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Anning, Yunnan from August 14 to 15, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry announced on Wednesday. The Informal Discussion Between the Foreign Ministers of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand will be held on the sidelines of the LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the spokesperson said.

Agriculture ministers of China, South Korea and Japan held their fourth trilateral meeting in South Korea's western port city of Incheon on Monday, the first since its last edition in China in 2018. The meeting focused on issues including food security, animal diseases, and sustainable agriculture, according to a joint statement.

U.S. tariff rhetorics won't significantly alter global trade, as America's expanding fiscal deficit will sustain its import demand, David E. Sumual, chief economist at Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's largest private bank, said in a recent interview with the 21st Century Business Herald. Sumual said lower production costs in Southeast Asia, coupled with exchange rate factors, will prompt the U.S. to increase consumer goods imports from the region. Sumual noted ASEAN's local currency settlement (LCS) has expanded, with intra-ASEAN trade settled in local currencies reaching 25 percent in 2024, up from 10 percent in 2019, reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar. He believes with growing China-ASEAN trade, LCS may advance faster in ASEAN+3, and the Chinese yuan will be the best choice for regional currency diversification.

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

Beijing’s home viewing jumps after lifting curbs on suburban house buying;

China will extend tariff suspension on imported U.S. products.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

Recent policy adjustments in major Chinese cities are fueling expectations that more policy fine-tuning and easing measures are likely in the coming months to support the real estate sector's steady recovery. 

Sales offices of property projects under development in Beijing outside the Fifth Ring saw a significant increase in traffic over the past weekend. Even during the hottest hours, many homebuyers went out to view properties.

Beijing on Friday announced it would lift the limits on the number of home purchases outside the Fifth Ring for local residents to boost the local property market, effective Aug. 9. The Fifth Ring road is a ring-shaped expressway surrounding the city’s central urban area. The ring has a radius of around 16 kilometers, with the center being Tiananmen Square. The home purchase restriction on non-residents is still valid though.

Suburban areas are the main focus of homebuyers in Beijing. In terms of transaction volume, apartments outside the Fifth Ring accounted for 80 percent of the city’s new home sales and over 50 percent of second-hand house sales in the first seven months of the year, according to data from the China Index Academy.

Easing home-buying curbs will certainly have positive effects on Beijing’s property market, said Yan Yuejin, deputy director of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute. However, if the number of second-hand home listings in the city is not reduced, the recovery in new house demand would still be constrained, he added.

Official data showed that Beijing’s property market experienced a recovery in sales in the first half of the year, but the market slid again in July. New home sales plunged 30 percent from a year earlier and 28 percent from June last month, while pre-owned house sales dropped 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Shanghai's housing market showed signs of recovery in July. Newly-built home prices averaged CNY71,353 per square meter, up 7.2 percent year-on-year, albeit with a soft decline month-on-month, according to property consultancy Centaline Shanghai.

Among China’s four first-tier cities, Guangzhou is the only one that has fully lifted home purchase restrictions. Meanwhile, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen still retain curbs for their core urban areas, with conditional relaxations in suburban areas.

While China's real estate sector is undergoing structural transformation, there are policy tools available to manage the transition, experts noted. The central government has emphasized the importance of meeting housing demand and preventing systemic risks — a dual focus that is likely to shape upcoming policy moves across major cities.

They added that the latest development may point to a trend of calibrated policy easing, especially in top-tier cities, and demonstrate stronger policy objective to stabilize the country's property market.

China will continue to suspend 24 percentage points of additional duty rate on imports from the United States within 90 days starting from 12:01 p.m. Tuesday, while retaining the remaining additional tariffs of 10 percent on those articles, Xinhua reported today, citing the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council. Also, China’s commerce ministry announced Tuesday that it has continued to suspend or removed export-control measures on some U.S. entities from Tuesday, in line with the consensus reached during the high-level China-U.S. economic and trade meeting in Stockholm, per another Xinhua report. 

GBA express

China Resources Longdation plans to establish a center at its Wan Chai headquarters to source high-quality gerontechnology as well as elderly-friendly products from the mainland. Hong Kong Lawmaker Peter Douglas Koon Ho-ming, also the chairman of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, said the center could handle maintenance and after-sales services for mainland age-tech products, which are significantly more affordable than those in Hong Kong.

The Greater Bay Area Cultural and Sports Center in Guangzhou, marked its debut operation with a men's basketball competition on Sunday. The center includes a stadium with 60,000 seats, an indoor arena that can accommodate 20,000 people, and a water sports center equipped with a 50-meter standard swimming pool and diving pool, which can accommodate 4,000 people, along with related supporting facilities.

Industry and company news

China sees 13.278 million new market entities set up in the first half of 2025, led by culture, sports, and entertainment companies, which posted an impressive 17.5 percent year-on-year increase, latest data from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) revealed on Tuesday. A total of 4.346 million new private enterprises were established, up 4.6 percent year-on-year, while foreign-funded entities grew by 4.1 percent to 33,000.

Car production in China jumped 13.3 percent in July from the year before to 2.591 million units, while vehicle sales soared 14.7 percent to 2.593 million autos, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. New energy vehicle production in China surged 26.3 percent in July from a year earlier to 1.243 million units, while electric car sales soared 27.4 percent to 1.262 million autos. NEV sales accounted for almost half of all new car sales at 48.7 percent.

China Earth Group denied the online rumor that the Chinese company will co-develop the world's first rare earth-backed Chinese yuan stablecoin with the People's Bank of China and Ant Group, reminding investors of potential risks. Ant Group denied the news yesterday.

Shanghai Clearing House yesterday announced it has dropped the requirements for agreement commitment documents for overseas central banks and similar institutions to open accounts to further optimize China’s bond market.

Asia-Pacific highlights

UnionPay is scheduled to debut in Brazil in 2025, local media reported. On Brazilian soil, the Asian country's institution intends to operate credit cards and integrate with PIX. The operation will be enabled by fintech Left, which is working to connect the Chinese company to banking networks, vending machines and ATMs in the country.

Singapore's economy grew slightly faster than initially estimated, prompting the government to upgrade the city state's growth forecast for this year. Singapore’s GDP rose by 4.4 percent year-on-year in the April-June quarter, government data showed on Tuesday, ahead of an advance estimate of a 4.3 percent gain released last month. The trade ministry raised its GDP growth forecast for 2025 to 1.5-2.5 percent from 0-2 percent, saying it largely reflected a better-than-expected first half performance.

Cambodia's trade with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member countries reached nearly USD23 billion in the first seven months of 2025, up 15.7 percent over the same period last year, said an official report on Monday.

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

China sees positive price trends in July amid demand pickup;

“ChatGPT moment” for robots is likely to arrive within 3 years, said Unitree’s Wang Xingxing.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours 

China reported positive signs in terms of both consumer and producer prices last month, as government policies to boost domestic demand continued to take hold.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, climbed 0.4 percent in July compared with the previous month, reversing a 0.1-percent drop in June and exceeding the average seasonal pace of 0.3 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Saturday.

On an annual basis, the CPI was unchanged in July, while the core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.8 percent -- a rising streak for three consecutive months.

NBS statistician Dong Lijuan said these positive trends were driven mainly by higher prices for services and industrial consumer goods, while emphasizing the effective role of policy measures in expanding demand.

China has intensified moves to bolster domestic economic circulation this year, including stronger fiscal support for consumer goods trade-ins nationwide and strengthened focus on key service sectors such as elderly care and childcare and digital consumption.

Saturday's data also revealed improved signs in the industrial sector. The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 0.2 percent from a month ago in July -- an improvement considering the 0.4 percent-drop recorded in June, while also marking the first month-on-month narrowing since March. Compared with a year earlier, the PPI slid by 3.6 percent in July, the same as in June.

Dong attributed the improving PPI performance in part to optimized market competition order, ongoing industrial shifts and unleashed domestic demand potential.

GBA express

As of the end of July, the number of local companies registered in the Hong Kong SAR exceeded 1.5 million, and the number of non-Hong Kong companies registered in the city surpassed 15,000, both hitting record highs, John Lee Ka-chiu, chief executive of the HKSAR, said on Sunday. From January 2023 to July 2025, InvestHK assisted 1,333 companies in setting up or expanding operations in the region and created more than 19,000 new jobs. The agency also attracted HK$174 billion in first-year direct investment, Lee said.

Chinese mainland insurers have stepped up their holdings in Hong Kong-listed companies during the first half of the year. Public announcements showed that 13 out of the 19 major increased shareholding cases reported by mainland insurance companies so far this year have targeted companies trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange. According to the latest report released by the Insurance Asset Management Association of China, 63 percent of the surveyed Chinese mainland insurers will expand their investment in Hong Kong stocks this year.

Ab&B Bio-Tech soared as much as 169 percent in its trading debut in the Hong Kong SAR, after retail investors flocked to the Chinese mainland vaccine maker’s initial public offering. The stock climbed to as high as HK$34.64 per share on Monday morning, more than double its HK$12.90 IPO price, which was set at the low end of the marketed range.  

Industry and company news

The "ChatGPT moment" for robots could arrive within the next two to three years, said Wang Xingxing, CEO, CTO and founder of Chinese robot startup Unitree in his speech on Saturday's 2025 World Robot Conference. Wang noted that in the first half of this year, China's humanoid robot industry saw significant growth and gained worldwide attention. Including both complete machine manufacturers and component manufacturers, companies in the sector posted average growth of 50 to 100 percent. Unitree's humanoid robot G1, priced from CNY99,000, has become one of the most widely shipped humanoid robots worldwide, he added.  

Nvidia and rival AMD have reportedly agreed to give the US government 15 percent of their revenue from chip sales to China, under an arrangement to obtain export licenses for the semiconductors. Separately, Nvidia's chips pose security concerns for China, said an article posted on WeChat by Yuyuan Tantian, an account affiliated with CCTV. "When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, we as consumers certainly have the option not to buy it," the article concluded. The company was recently summoned by the Cyberspace Administration of China for “serious security issues” concerning its H20 chips.

Tech titan Huawei will reportedly announce this week a major advance in AI inference, the technology that runs the models. The breakthrough could reduce China's reliance on high-bandwidth memory technology, a critical bottleneck in the performance of AI models, boosting large-model inference speeds.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, said first-half net income rose 5 percent from a year earlier to CNY84.2 billion. Telecom revenue rose 0.7 percent to CNY467 billion. The company said it expanded its customer base to over 1 billion mobile users, including 599 million 5G network customers.

CATL announced on Monday that it has temporarily suspended mining operations at its Yichun project in East China’s Jiangxi province following the expiration of the mining license on August 9. CATL is currently applying for a renewal of the permit and will resume production as soon as it is approved, the battery giant said. 

Asia-Pacific highlights

This summer, two-way tourism between China and Southeast Asia is booming, fueled by China's visa-free policies and Chinese tourists' enthusiasm for Southeast Asia travel. China was Malaysia's largest source of tourists outside ASEAN in the first five months of this year, with about 1.81 million visitors, up 38.8 percent year-on-year. Vietnam hosted 1.95 million Chinese tourists in the period, while Cambodia saw a 50 percent jump in Chinese tourists, topping 280,000. China has been the top source of tourists for Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia for three years, contributing over a quarter of their tourism revenue. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian visitors to China also surged this year. At Kunming airport, arrivals from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore rose 406 percent, 119 percent and 273 percent respectively, compared with 2019.

Global trade is estimated to expand 0.9 percent this year from a year earlier, up from the 0.2 percent contraction predicted in April but below the pre-tariff projection of 2.7 percent, the WTO said in its latest update released on Aug. 8. Higher international tariffs will slow trade growth to 1.8 percent next year, according to the new prediction. This compares with a 2.5 percent increase forecast in April. WTO added that Asian economies are projected to remain the largest positive driver of world merchandise trade volume growth in 2025, although their contribution in 2026 will be smaller than predicted in April.

While much of China swelters under scorching summer heat, Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is drawing visitors with a refreshing contrast, offering a chilly escape with a comfortable 23-degree-Celcius coolness.

As the northern hemisphere enters its hottest months, China's "Ice city” is welcoming another heat waves of tourists not just from the rest of the nation, but even from ASEAN countries. 

Data from Harbin Orange Vacation Travel Service show that the company received a total of 1,300 summer vacationers from Southeast Asian countries in June.

"May, June, September and October are the peak months for inbound tourism from Southeast Asia," said Wang Hongxin, the company's general manager.  

The footsteps of Southeast Asian tourists have knocked on the summer gate of the "Ice City”. The company received over 60 summer vacation groups from Southeast Asian countries in June, marking a year-on-year increase of 30 percent, according to the manager. Bookings for September have already exceeded 100 groups and over 2,000 visitors, with some reservations extending into the end of 2026, he added.

With the increasing popularity of Harbin, the customer base is also expanding. In addition to traditional customer sources such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Wang finds emerging markets such as Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Laos are also rapidly increasing this summer.

The country’s expanded visa-free policy also allows visitors from afar to enjoy their journey with peace of mind. Since February 2024, Singaporeans have been able to stay in China visa-free for up to 30 days, as against 15 days earlier. Malaysia and Thailand have also established mutual visa exemption policies with China, making spontaneous trips a reality.

Travel agencies reported that the number of group bookings for flights from Singapore to China in the first half of 2025 matches the total for all of 2024.

Data from the Harbin immigration station show that in July, a total of 61,000 inbound and outbound passengers were inspected at Harbin Airport, an increase of nearly 10,000 compared with the number in June and a year-on-year increase of 19.3 percent. Among them, the number of inbound foreign passengers was nearly 10,000, with a year-on-year increase of 15.9 percent.

"Visitors from Southeast Asia and other regions can now reach Harbin more easily with continuous increase in charter flights, significantly reducing time spent traveling," Wang said. 

Bringing winter into summer, Harbin Ice and Snow World Park remains a popular destination even though it is no longer the official ice and snow season. Its indoor pavilion, maintained at -10 C, features nine themed areas and 19 attractions that blend urban culture, artistic creativity and ice-themed innovations.

Visitors can explore ice sculpture exhibits, displays on the history of the Asian Winter Games and European-style streetscapes. Simulated snowfall, a giant slide and figure skating performances add to the immersive experience.

Yet, Harbin has much more to offer. For some, an authentic experience with China's bathhouse culture is worth the trip. In northeastern China, bathhouses are more than places to relax — they are social hubs. The tradition of "scrubbing "in bathhouses, where guests are meticulously cleaned and massaged, is quite an exotic “adventure” for those living in tropical regions.

Watching Siberian tigers casually pacing in Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park, touching ice sculptures in the Ice and Snow World, and eating “guobaorou” (crispy fried pork in sweet and sour sauce), these all become the most vivid "Harbin memories" of ASEAN tourists.

After enjoying their time in Harbin, many vacationers extend their itineraries to areas further north, such as Yichun and Mohe. A chartered tourist train, named "Yichun", offers guests an extraordinary experience aboard one of the best-quality trains dedicated to sightseeing in the country. Bookings for the tourist train have been scheduled until the end of 2026.

From the forest oxygen bar in Yichun to the exotic streets and lanes in Harbin, these guests from afar are measuring the diverse charm of Heilongjiang with their footsteps.

These Mandarin-, Cantonese-, and Hokkien-speaking tourists in Southeast Asia, have then shared their experiences in English on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, TikTok and YouTube, broadening the appeal to non-Chinese-speaking communities.

Local travel agencies are even hiring students from ASEAN who have stayed and loved the city, while travel agencies are also busy going abroad to market the city and secure business orders. Southeast Asian customers not only asked about winter tours, but also expressed interest about our summer offerings, said the manager of a Harbin-based international travel agency.

Harbin has ignited a fervor for ice and snow tourism on Chinese social media this winter, since the opening of the 41st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival on Jan 5. Then in February, the 9th Asian Winter Games marked yet another major ice and snow celebration in all of Asia.

The city greeted over 90 million visitors in 2024-2025 winter season, with Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and Indonesia being the top 5 sources of international arrivals. From January to June this year, Harbin welcomed 87 million tourist visits, indicating an all-time travel season for the city.

Harbin, once known globally as a winter wonderland, is now redefining its allure under the summer sun—proving that its charm is no seasonal fluke, but a year-round symphony of contrasts. This "Ice City" has unlocked a new chapter, where the warmth of its hospitality meets the cool of its summers, and where every footstep from Southeast Asia leaves not just a memory, but a bridge between latitudes.