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China’s January CPI slowed to 0.2% year-on-year as the calendar shift of the Spring Festival and falling global oil prices weighed on headline inflation. Core inflation excluding food and energy rose modestly, while analysts say January and February should be read together because of the festival timing, with annual inflation likely to remain low.

China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala has become a focal point for AI platforms and robotics firms seeking to convert national TV reach into user habits and investor momentum. While tech companies flood the event with prizes and live demonstrations, traditional sponsors such as baijiu distillers have sharply reduced their presence, underscoring a broader commercial shift toward hard tech.

Actor-turned-livestreamer Li Yapeng has seen a dramatic rebound in online sales and followers after publicising the financial distress of the Yanran Angel Children’s Hospital. The surge in donations and livestream revenue, however, sits alongside tax and court liabilities — including a RMB 6.34 million tax delinquency tied to a company he partly owns and an earlier judgment over overdue rent — exposing governance and regulatory risks in celebrity-backed ventures.

ByteDance’s Seedance2.0 is a step change in AI‑generated video, able to produce cinema‑grade short films from simple prompts and impressing senior industry figures. The model both democratises content creation by lowering technical barriers and raises clear risks around deepfakes, prompting ByteDance to impose early safeguards.

Recurring food-safety and service lapses have turned the simple act of renewing a Sam’s Club membership in China into a fraught decision for many households. The incidents expose structural vulnerabilities in last-mile delivery, high-touch prepared-food processing and assortment strategy, threatening the trust-based business model that underpins membership retail.

Xintai, a city in Shandong province, has built a systematic, municipality‑level support network for active‑duty troops, veterans and martyrs’ families that ranges from emergency financial aid and medical outreach to agricultural help and reunification of bereaved families. Officials say the measures improve soldiers’ focus, reward merit, and institutionalize remembrance, turning social respect for military service into concrete, routinized care.

Wang Yizhi, wife of NIO founder Li Bin and a former CCTV anchor, has launched a documentary-style podcast focused on women’s stories. Her move echoes similar efforts by other high-profile business spouses and coincides with improving financial signals at NIO and the broader Chinese podcast boom, highlighting how personality-driven content is becoming part of corporate communications strategies in China.

Sanae Takaichi’s decisive electoral victory has unlocked a push to lift Japan’s long-standing ban on lethal weapons exports, signalling a major shift in Tokyo’s postwar defence posture. The change promises economic opportunities for Japan’s defence industry but risks heightening regional tensions and provoking strong responses from China and neighbouring states.

China’s sixth UN peacekeeping helicopter rotation finished a nine-day induction in Abyei led by UNISFA instructors, marking the unit’s first comprehensive training. The exercise aims to professionalize the detachment, improve interoperability with UN forces, and advance Beijing’s role in peacekeeping operations.

Soldiers from a PLA brigade have visited the parents of Shen Liangliang — killed in a 2016 Mali peacekeeping attack and named a People’s Hero in 2019 — every year for ten years, delivering signed flags, albums and domestic comforts. The ritual illustrates how the Chinese military institutionalises care for martyrs’ families to sustain morale, manage risk from overseas deployments, and project a narrative of sacrifice and responsibility.

Benjamin Netanyahu made a rapid, high-stakes visit to Washington to press President Trump to insist that U.S. talks with Iran include limits on ballistic missiles and Tehran’s support for proxy militias, not just nuclear restrictions. The move reflects Israeli anxiety about being sidelined in negotiations and risks complicating an already delicate diplomatic process with Iran.

U.S. and U.K. forces used F‑35Bs to simulate Chinese fifth‑generation fighters during a Red Flag exercise at Nellis, part of a broader effort by the reactivated 65th “Invaders” squadron to model J‑20/J‑35 tactics. The practice underscores Washington’s shift to China‑focused high‑end training while highlighting the limits of surrogate aircraft in fully reproducing adversary capabilities.

A Southern Theater Air Force brigade completed continuous day‑to‑night flight drills incorporating multiple aircraft types, complex weather effects and night intercept missions. The exercise tested instrument and night‑vision capabilities, maintenance turnarounds and data‑driven debriefs to enhance all‑hours operational readiness.

Zhang Jin, founder of Cedar Holdings and once Guangzhou’s richest man, is on trial for alleged fundraising fraud and related offences after the company’s wealth‑management products blew up into an estimated 20 billion yuan exposure affecting about 6,800 investors. The collapse highlights systemic risks in China’s supply‑chain finance and shadow‑banking practices, and will test regulators’ appetite for asset recovery and punishment of high‑profile private firms.

A Chinese delivery app, UU Paotui, briefly offered a 999‑yuan service in which riders would perform three kowtows on behalf of customers, provoking public outrage and rapid removal. The incident highlights the commercialisation of intimate, symbolic labour in the gig economy and the reputational and regulatory risks that follow when platforms monetise cultural practices.

President Trump’s January 30 nomination of Kevin Warsh as Fed chair jolted markets, sending the dollar higher, Treasury yields up and precious metals into steep declines. Warsh’s public scepticism of prolonged quantitative easing and his preference for shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet prompted investors to reprice liquidity and risk, with implications for global capital flows and asset valuations.

The People’s Bank of China has reaffirmed a policy of moderate monetary easing, combining new measures with existing tools to support growth and a gradual rebound in prices. The bank is steering credit toward technology, small firms, green projects and consumption while monitoring liquidity through a wider lens that merges deposits and managed assets.

China’s A‑shares historically show a strong probability of rising in the first five to ten trading days after the Lunar New Year, prompting many analysts to recommend carrying a partial equity position through the holiday. Reduced pre‑holiday volumes and sector rotation toward defensive and consumer names temper the optimism, and the long market shutdown raises the risk of gap moves from unforeseen headlines.

President Trump said he may send another U.S. carrier strike group to the Middle East if talks with Iran fail, while a carrier strike group centered on the Abraham Lincoln is already in the CENTCOM area. Iranian officials denounced Israeli attempts to pull the U.S. into conflict but said talks with Washington have made progress and could expand beyond the nuclear file if negotiations succeed.

Li Yapeng’s livestreaming revival has delivered blockbuster sales and renewed public attention, but emerging corporate and hospital debts complicate the picture. A shareholder firm tied to him owes about RMB 6.34 million in land use tax, and Yanran Hospital faces a court‑ordered rent liability that donations cannot easily cover under Chinese fundraising rules.