A shallow 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck Diebu County in Gannan prefecture, Gansu province at 14:56 Beijing time, centered 10 km beneath the surface. The quake occurred on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, a seismically active zone, and was widely felt in surrounding parts of Gansu and neighboring provinces; as of publication there are no confirmed casualties and emergency teams have been dispatched to assess damage and guard against secondary landslides.
Beijing moved on a different front with fresh internet rules aimed specifically at protecting minors. The Cyberspace Administration of China, together with the education ministry and six other departments, has for the first time divided online content that could harm young people into four distinct categories and tightened controls on behaviour inducement, value guidance, image use and personal data protection. The new framework tightens enforcement and raises the bar for platforms that host or monetise content attractive to children.
Markets have reacted to a mix of macro drivers and domestic developments. International gold rallied above $5,000 per ounce intraday, prompting a wave of buying in China: a leading domestic jeweller raised the price of 24-karat gold to 1,575 yuan per gram. Gold-related ETFs led gains in the exchange-traded fund complex even as the broader A-share market drifted lower; Shanghai and Shenzhen indices closed with modest declines while aggregate turnover in the mainland stock market again topped 3 trillion yuan, signalling heavy liquidity despite a mixed sector picture.
The surge in gold and gold stocks reflects investor appetite for safe assets amid jittery sentiment. Precious-metals plays and mining names enjoyed sharp advances, while capital-intensive sectors such as commercial aerospace, semiconductor equipment and satellite businesses were notable underperformers. Separately, biological-vaccine stocks received a lift after India reported a small cluster of Nipah virus infections in West Bengal, underscoring how regional health scares can ripple through markets with defensive capital flows.
Corporate moves highlight both competitive ambition and cost pressure. Tencent unveiled that its new payments-and-social app Yuanbao will hand out 1 billion yuan in red packets over the Lunar New Year period — a deliberate bid to recreate the viral user-acquisition moment that China saw with WeChat in the mid-2010s. That same day, KFC announced a modest average increase of 0.8 yuan for delivery items while keeping dine-in prices and key promotional bundles unchanged; the adjustment speaks to mounting operational costs and the delicacy of price changes in China’s consumer market.
Travel and automotive headlines completed the day’s tapestry. Chinese carriers extended a waiver permitting free changes and refunds for tickets to and from Japan through October 24, a sign that post‑pandemic travel normalisation continues to be managed flexibly. Meanwhile, Porsche China said it has reached interim solutions to resolve issues arising from the so‑called "Dong’an" dealer closures, including delivering vehicle certificates to customers who have paid in full and preparing remediation options for those who have only placed deposits.
Taken together, the items of the day paint a picture of an economy and polity negotiating competing pressures: seismic and public‑health risks, renewed regulatory tightness around youth and the internet, active corporate competition for consumer attention and a market that is simultaneously awash with liquidity and selective in appetite. Short-term market flows favour havens such as gold, while policy signals underscore that digital-platform strategies will face closer scrutiny when they intersect with minors and social mobilisation.