Alibaba officially released its 2.4-trillion parameter Qwen 3.8 foundation model alongside QwenWork, an integrated enterprise agent platform overseen by DingTalk's CEO. The launch escalates competition with ByteDance and Tencent as Chinese tech giants aggressively restructure internal teams to capture enterprise productivity workflows.

Chinese equity benchmarks pulled back sharply as the tech-focused STAR 50 Index plunged 5.08%, driving broader market losses across the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. Defensive and policy-supported sectors such as nuclear energy and AI applications posted gains amid reduced trading volumes.

China recorded historic daily rainfall across northern stations and its second-hottest July on record, driven by an intensifying El Niño event. Climate authorities warned of elevated risks for severe heatwaves, flooding across major northern and southern river basins, and active typhoon behavior throughout August.

Persistent heavy rains across Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Yunnan forced thousands of emergency evacuations and triggered high geohazard warnings. Central authorities deployed emergency response workgroups and distributed relief supplies to support localized disaster recovery and monitoring.

A Long March 8A rocket launched the 23rd group of low-Earth orbit internet satellites into designated orbits from the Hainan Commercial Aerospace Launch Site. The mission underscores the growing operational role of commercial launch facilities in building out China's satellite communications network.