Business News
Latest business news and updates
Total: 467
Shenzhen’s Nanshan Reaches 1 Trillion Yuan — China’s First District to Hit City‑Scale GDP
Shenzhen’s Nanshan district surpassed 1 trillion yuan in GDP in 2025, the first sub‑city district in China to do so. The milestone reflects heavy concentration in software, internet and advanced manufacturing clusters, but also highlights risks from industry concentration, limited land, and external tech‑trade pressures.
Silver Spike and Semiconductor Gains Meet Market Reform and a 35.6‑Tesla Breakthrough: China’s Daily Economic Pulse
Spot silver surged above $113/oz and Shanghai silver futures jumped over 7% as investors priced a mix of rate‑cut hopes, geopolitical safe‑haven demand, and industrial appetite from renewables. That market heat sat alongside structural shifts — electricity‑market liberalization, a national livestreaming standard, and a 35.6‑tesla superconducting magnet — that collectively underscore China’s simultaneous push for market discipline and technological self‑reliance.
Guangdong Keeps China’s Economic Crown — but the Next Leap Will Be Harder
Guangdong maintained its position as China’s largest provincial economy in 2025, driven by strong foreign trade, rapid expansion of high‑tech manufacturing and sustained R&D investment. The province plans to target 4.5%–5% GDP growth in 2026 while pivoting into new sectors such as the low‑altitude economy, but faces headwinds from SME digitalisation gaps and modest fiscal revenue growth.
China’s “Sex‑IQ” Industry: How a Viral Influencer Turned Seduction into a 24m‑RMB Business — and Then Disappeared
A Chinese influencer monetised viral seductive tutorials into a profitable “sex‑IQ” education business that reportedly earned over 24 million yuan through tiered online and offline courses before her verified account was banned. The episode highlights how the knowledge‑payment market monetises intimate anxieties, blurring lines between empowerment and exploitation and posing fresh challenges for platforms and regulators.
How China’s Gen Z Is Rewiring Lunar New Year Spending — From Digital Red Packets to Pet Gift Boxes
China’s Generation Z is transforming Lunar New Year consumption from bulk, family‑oriented shopping into personalised, social and digital rituals. Micro‑paid digital items, pet‑focused gifts, experience tourism and DIY gold‑making exemplify a broader shift toward emotional and social value over material abundance.
Can AI Rescue China’s KTV? Gamified Scoring and Synthetic MVs Reboot an Old Nightlife
China’s KTV chains are investing heavily in AI to revive a flagging industry: real-time scoring, AI coaching and synthetic music videos aim to attract younger customers and cut costs. The result is a commercial uptick driven by gamified rewards, but also a cultural clash as cold metrics and monetised fixes collide with the convivial, emotional core of karaoke.
Washington Ploughs $1.6bn into U.S. Rare-Earth Mines — But Can It Break China’s Grip?
The U.S. is buying a roughly 10% stake in USA Rare Earth for $1.6 billion to hasten domestic rare-earth mining and processing and reduce dependence on China. While the investment is sizeable and politically significant, technical, environmental and resource-quality challenges mean breaking China’s dominance will be a slow and uncertain process.
Forged Seal and a Hidden Channel: How a 3.5bn RMB Loan Became a Bank’s Biggest Loss
A forged corporate seal and a multi‑layered interbank channel enabled the disappearance of Rmb3.5bn in a loan scheme that implicated multiple banks and asset managers. Criminal convictions followed, but a Supreme People’s Court ruling that the deposit was part of an illegal collusion left the originating bank to absorb the loss and restart litigation against several counterparties seeking partial recovery.
When Copper Became a Commodity for the Shopping Cart: The Shuibei Copper-Bar Fad and Its Risks
Shuibei jewellery sellers and livestream channels have popularized 1kg copper bars as a quasi-investment, creating a gap between retail prices and industrial valuations. The craze has exposed severe liquidity problems for sellers and buyers alike, with many investors forced to accept scrap-copper prices on resale and regulators moving to tighten market practices.
Gold Breaks $5,000: A New Safe‑Haven Run as Dollar Wobbles and Central Banks Buy In
Gold surged past $5,000 an ounce on January 26 amid expectations of prolonged Fed easing, a weakening dollar and renewed safe‑haven demand from both central banks and retail investors. Central‑bank purchases, sizable ETF inflows and geopolitical jitters have combined to lift prices, but analysts warn of elevated short‑term volatility and key risks tied to future Fed policy and the pace of official buying.
Trump Slaps 25% Tariffs on South Korea as Markets Rally and Microsoft Unveils New AI Chip
President Trump announced a unilateral increase in tariffs on South Korean cars, lumber and pharmaceuticals from 15% to 25%, citing Seoul’s failure to ratify a bilateral trade deal, while U.S. markets rose as investors focused on tech earnings and Microsoft’s unveiling of its Maia 200 AI chip. The tariff move risks straining a strategic alliance and creating supply‑chain uncertainty even as competition among cloud providers intensifies over in‑house AI hardware.
Paying to Be Judged: Can AI Rescue China’s Fading KTV Scene?
China’s KTV chains are deploying AI scoring, coaching and synthetic music videos to revive a shrinking industry, with major investments from leading operators. The technology attracts customers with gamified rewards and cost-saving AI MVs, but it also provokes backlash over cold, intrusive judging, diminished emotional experience and ways for users to game the system.