Business News
Latest business news and updates
Total: 2066
Curbing China's 'Involution' Overtime: A Push to Reclaim Rest, Consumption and Innovation
At the 2026 Two Sessions, CPPCC member Lu Ming urged legal, cultural and technological measures to tackle China's widespread unpaid overtime, citing its harms to health, consumption and innovation. His proposals include tightening the Labour Law, improving enforcement and evidence rules, encouraging industry standards and using digital tools and retraining to lift productivity.
Beijing Bets on 'Spring–Autumn' School Breaks and Paid Staggered Leave to Rewire China's Consumer Calendar
China’s 2026 government work report endorses local rollouts of spring and autumn school holidays and paid staggered leave for workers to spread and stimulate year‑round domestic consumption. Early pilots in Zhejiang and Sichuan produced sharp rises in travel and bookings, and analysts expect the policy to shift spending toward experiential services while posing implementation and equity challenges.
From Star IPO to Margin Squeeze: How Stone Technology’s Sweep for Growth Has Stalled
Stone Technology (Roborock) has seen sales rebound but profits tumble, as fierce competition, premiumisation that has not matched user expectations, and founder distractions have eroded investor confidence. The company shows early signs of course correction — higher R&D share and reduced marketing spend — but must prove sustainable margin recovery before its proposed Hong Kong listing can reset market trust.
Three Dolls, Three Fates: How Pop Mart’s Hits and Heritage Shape a Fragile Valuation
Pop Mart’s future hinges on whether its hit‑making is a repeatable industrial capability or a string of lucky, unreplicable phenomena. Labubu’s blockbuster success has driven recent growth and volatility, while Molly provides a steadier revenue baseline that underwrites the business. The company’s large design pool, global channels and willingness to trial dozens of IPs give it a plausible path to create further hits, but concentration risk and investor disagreement keep its valuation unstable.
Uni‑President’s China Unit Tops RMB31.7bn but Faces Slowing Drink and Noodle Growth
Uni‑President China posted RMB31.714 billion in revenue and RMB2.05 billion in net profit for 2025, maintaining its position above the RMB30 billion mark. Growth is slowing in both beverages and instant noodles, prompting investor caution despite a 100% cash dividend and margin gains from cost control and commodity tailwinds.
Huawei’s Favored Car Falters: Why the ‘Chosen’ Zhijie Brand Can’t Find Buyers
Zhijie, a Huawei-backed car brand within Hongmeng Zhixing, has seen sales collapse despite heavy investment and top-level support, delivering just 945 vehicles in February. The brand’s weakness stems from its awkward mid-market position between high-end models that benefit from Huawei’s experiential advantages and price-sensitive mass-market sedans; the upcoming V9 MPV is a make-or-break bet to reset its trajectory.
China’s Post-Holiday Consumption Shift: How Experience, County Markets and Cultural Scenes Are Reshaping Demand
China’s 2026 Spring Festival produced record travel and spending but revealed a structural shift in consumption: lower-tier and county destinations are benefiting from urban-born expectations for curated experiences, while consumers prefer denser, scene-driven cultural and sporting offerings over routine goods purchases. The new battleground for growth is delivering high-quality, place-based experiences that combine cultural meaning, social belonging and commercial value.
China’s Two Sessions Signal a Quiet Pivot: Modest Stimulus, Big Bets on Tech and Decarbonisation
China’s 2026 policy package keeps overall fiscal appetite steady but prioritises three strategic directions: lifting prices modestly, accelerating technology and industrial self‑reliance, and imposing a roughly 3.8% carbon‑intensity reduction. The government set a lower but pragmatic GDP target of 4.5%–5%, signalling a conscious pivot from quantity to quality of growth.
Oracle’s Big AI Buildout Forces Tough Choices: Thousands of Jobs at Risk as Cash Flow Tightens
Oracle is planning to cut thousands of jobs to ease cash‑flow pressure from a major AI data‑centre expansion led by Larry Ellison. The move underscores the high upfront costs of scaling AI compute and reflects a wider industry trade‑off between aggressive investment and cost discipline.
“Jelly King” Qinqin Foods Reverts to Loss as Core Product Slumps and Margins Squeeze
Qinqin Food Group, known as the “Jelly King,” has issued a 2025 profit warning and expects a small net loss after a fragile recovery in 2024. The reversal stems from falling traditional‑channel jelly sales that reduced scale benefits and a mix of one‑off property gains and impairments, underscoring structural challenges for legacy snack brands in China.
AI Surge and Private Valuations Propel Musk Back to No.1 as China Reclaims Top Spot for Billionaires
Hurun’s 2026 Global Rich List records a historic jump to 4,020 billionaires as global wealth on the list rises 28%. AI-driven valuation gains and private-company growth catapult Elon Musk back to the top while China, led by Shenzhen’s tech ecosystem and ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming, surpasses the United States in billionaire headcount.
Beijing Turns to Long-Term Debt and Family Subsidies to Repair Growth — Markets and Tech Watch Closely
Beijing plans to issue large volumes of ultra-long special sovereign bonds in 2026 to support major projects, shore up state banks and give local governments funding room, while lawmakers propose big increases in childcare subsidies financed by long-term bonds. The measures underline an active fiscal response to slowing growth but raise questions about future debt burdens, market reaction and the sustainability of bond-financed social spending.