This week on the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief: Major Chinese tech companies are ordered to do more to protect gig workers; Xi Jinping and Joe Biden speak by phone for the second time since Biden’s inauguration; Germany’s ambassador to China, Jan Hecker, dies tragically after just two weeks on the job; Fujian health authorities mobilize after new COVID-19 cases emerge in the South China province; and a court rules that China’s search engines cannot bury negative search results. 

In addition, we speak with Caixin Global podcast producer Nandini Venkata about real estate behemoth Evergrande Group’s struggle to deal with its mountain of debt.