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OpenRouter data shows Chinese AI models surpassed US counterparts in weekly token usage in February 2026, driven by multiple efficient architectures and low costs. Markets split: Chinese cloud, data‑centre and power stocks surged while Nvidia’s valuation plunged, signalling a potential reallocation of AI value away from high‑end GPUs toward models and low‑cost infrastructure.

Kioxia has appointed Yoshihiko Kawamura as CFO effective April 1, 2026. The finance chief will be central to steering the memory-chip maker through capital expenditure decisions, market cycles and geopolitical headwinds as demand from data centres and AI grows.

Kuaishou’s 2026 Spring Festival campaign produced record daily activity driven by gamified cash incentives and QR‑based greetings, with a 60% rise in users of a shake‑to‑get red‑envelope feature and nearly 80 million participants across key events. The results highlight the platform’s skill at converting cultural rituals into digital engagement, but leave open questions about sustainability and costs.

Vivo will unveil its new flagship X300 Ultra at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, signalling a deliberate push into the global premium smartphone market. The debut is as much about courting carriers and international consumers as it is about showcasing new hardware and software features.

Shanghai is considering mandatory real‑name checks for gold buybacks after a robbery‑to‑resale case exposed weak provenance controls, a move aimed at curbing theft and money‑laundering. At the same time the offshore renminbi has rallied more than 600 points in three days, reflecting improved sentiment, capital inflows and a managed tolerance in Beijing for modest yuan appreciation.

China’s A‑share indices opened lower on Friday with semiconductor, fiberglass and optical‑communications sectors leading losses. Domestic brokerages framed the move as part of a rotation from high‑valuation tech names into cyclical heavy assets and green‑energy applications that could benefit from policy shifts and global carbon regulations.

The People’s Bank of China will cut the foreign-exchange risk reserve requirement for forward FX sales from 20% to zero from 2 March 2026 to promote market development and corporate hedging. The move lowers banks’ capital costs for offering forwards, aims to deepen the hedging market and reduce balance-sheet currency risk, but carries risks of larger speculative forward positions if not paired with prudent risk controls.

Chinese local governments have issued more than RMB 2 trillion in bonds by late February as Beijing leans on fiscal tools to spur infrastructure and social projects and to replace implicit local liabilities. About half of the issuance is refinancing aimed at swapping hidden debt into formal bonds, while new special‑purpose bonds are being prioritised for on‑the‑ground investment.

Shanghai has raised its housing provident fund loan ceiling for first‑time buyers from RMB 1.6 million to RMB 2.4 million, with additional top‑ups for multi‑child families and purchases of certified green buildings, allowing a maximum loan of RMB 3.24 million. The policy is part of broader national moves to deploy large provident‑fund balances to support housing demand, encourage upgrades and align housing policy with environmental and demographic goals.

China will require food-delivery platforms to perform substantive licence checks, verify merchant addresses at least every six months, and display vendor credentials publicly, with new rules taking effect June 1. The measures, aimed at eliminating “ghost” takeout operators, embed platforms in the e-commerce regulatory framework and impose steeper fines to strengthen food-safety oversight.

German Chancellor Mertz’s visit to China produced more than a dozen commercial deals across major industrial sectors, accompanied by a high-profile stop at robotics firm Yushu Technology in Hangzhou. The agreements reflect ongoing commercial interdependence between Germany and China, even as governments grapple with strategic risks around technology transfer and supply-chain security.

China’s nine‑day Spring Festival generated historic travel and spending—5.96 billion domestic trips and 8.03 trillion yuan—highlighting a rapid reshaping of tourism around immersive cultural experiences, film and media tie‑ins, and stronger inbound flows. The holiday demonstrated tourism’s growing economic and soft‑power role, even as it exposes challenges in sustainability and regional inequality.

The renminbi has rallied to its strongest levels since April 2023, with onshore and offshore rates testing the mid‑6.80s amid large exporter foreign‑exchange conversions and softer dollar dynamics. Analysts view the move as broadly positive for international investor appetite toward Chinese assets, but caution that policymakers must manage the pace to avoid damaging export competitiveness.

Meizu has halted in‑house development of new domestic smartphone hardware projects due to fierce competition and soaring memory prices, and is seeking third‑party hardware partners while pivoting toward AI‑driven software centred on its Flyme OS. The shift reflects broader cost pressures and consolidation trends in China’s smartphone industry.

Meizu has halted in‑house R&D for new domestic smartphone hardware and will seek third‑party manufacturing partners while shifting strategy toward AI‑driven software built around its Flyme platform. The move reflects mounting cost pressure and market contraction that favour software and ecosystem plays over standalone hardware efforts by smaller vendors.

Anthropic has watered down its 2023 Responsible Scaling Policy, dropping a blanket pledge to pause model scaling when safety cannot be proven and replacing it with conditional delays tied to competitive position. The change reflects commercial pressures, a fragmented U.S. regulatory landscape and an intensifying race among leading AI developers.

Alibaba’s Qianwen plans to launch AI glasses at MWC 2026, opening reservations on March 2, and will follow with AI rings and earphones later in the year for global sale. The move signals Alibaba’s push to turn its AI models and cloud capabilities into a consumer hardware ecosystem, though global regulatory and product challenges remain.

Meizu has publicly denied viral online claims that it is bankrupt, halting operations, or withdrawing its phones from sale, and said it will seek legal action against rumour‑mongers. The rebuttal aims to stabilise partners and customers but does not resolve the structural commercial pressures facing mid‑tier Chinese handset makers.

Rockchip apologised after its MPP media framework repository was temporarily frozen on GitHub over licence compliance issues. The company says it has replaced the problematic code with internally developed, licence‑compliant code and has actively engaged with FFmpeg and GitHub to resolve the matter. The incident highlights licence‑compliance and supply‑chain risks for hardware vendors that rely on open‑source multimedia components, and it will likely spur stricter governance and tooling across the semiconductor ecosystem.

A Chinese naval reconnaissance corporal, Second‑Class Staff Sergeant Jin Lei, has combined his background in communications, drone piloting and sniping to create a cross‑domain approach to battlefield sensing and precision fire. His experience—winning international competitions and advocating new joint training modules—illustrates how human adaptability and information fusion are becoming central to modern small‑unit warfare.