China Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Meta Platforms said in April that it would lay off 10% of its staff, Allen Sun quickly booked a trip to Menlo Park, Calif.It was a prime opportunity. Sun, a Beijing-based headhunter for some of the biggest Chinese tech companies, works to lure China-born talent back home, targeting people at U.S.-based companies such as Meta, Google, Anthropic and Amazon.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BEIJING—President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reunited on Thursday morning in Beijing, kicking off a summit centered on improving their economic relationship, as the war in Iran and U.S. commitment to Taiwan loom.Speaking inside the Great Hall of the People, both leaders projected optimism for two days of talks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru: India is emerging as one of the most sought-after growth markets for global quick-service restaurant chains, prompting several international brands, which once struggled in the country, to attempt a comeback with revamped playbooks.The latest entrant is Panda Express, the US-based Asian fast-casual chain, which plans to enter India in 2027 through a partnership with Trimex Foods. It is targeting growing demand for international dining brands and widening popularity of Chinese cuisine among Indian consumers, even as global chains remain cautious about the country’s highly competitive and value-conscious market“India has become very aspirational with spending power growing up.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When President Trump arrives in Beijing this week for a summit with Xi Jinping, the Iran file will likely be on the agenda—whether or not either leader wants it there.Just last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made his first trip to Beijing since the war began, a visit timed to land days before Trump’s plane touches down. The choreography was hardly subtle. Tehran wanted to remind Washington that Iran still has a friend in the world’s second-largest economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Every month, Mint’s Plain Facts gives you an update on key global data to help you thread together the biggest developments worth paying attention to. The accompanying analysis and charts explain how each story is creating ripples on the global stage, where it is headed in the coming weeks, and whether it could have an impact on India.After months of steady cooling, consumer prices are rising once again as the escalating war in West Asia continues to disrupt energy markets and global supply chains.The inflationary shock is most severe in import-reliant Asian economies.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BEIJING—When President Trump returns to China nearly a decade after his last visit, he will find a country that is more self-sufficient, militarily assertive and economically insulated from the tools the president has used to stymie it and its ambitions.China has caught up to or surpassed the U.S. in technologies such as batteries, robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Noida-headquartered Dixon Technologies, India’s largest publicly listed electronics manufacturer, expects revenue growth of 15-17% in FY27, with management expecting growth to accelerate to as much as 45% if its long-pending joint venture with Vivo gets government approval.In an interview with Mint following the company’s FY26 earnings on Tuesday, Saurabh Gupta, director and group chief financial officer of Dixon Technologies, said the company is in “advanced-stage talks” with the government regarding the Vivo joint venture and remains confident that approval is only “a matter of time away”.The proposed joint venture with Vivo, in which Dixon holds a 51% stake, was first disclosed in December 2024. However, with Vivo owning the remaining 49%, the venture has been under the Centre’s scrutiny for more than 18 months under the government’s Press Note 3 restrictions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: Exploding sales of low-speed electric scooters—powered heavily by cheap Chinese imports—are giving a headache to India’s established electric vehicle (EV) makers, who warn that the poor-quality products risk hurting consumer confidence in electric two-wheelers just as the sector is gaining scale.Low-speed scooters—with speeds capped at 25 kmph—do not need to be registered on the Vahan portal, and so their growth has gone under the radar. But industry estimates point to sales numbers matching that of established players such as TVS Motor Co., Bajaj Auto, Ola Electric Mobility, and Ather Energy, among others.According to two-wheeler consultancy InsightEV, sales of low-speed electric scooters shot up more than 200% in 2025 to an estimated 1.3 million units.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The likes of Intel and Micron Technology have powered the market higher in recent weeks but escalating geopolitical worries could scuttle the chip-stocks rally.In a research note published on Monday, Gavekal Research CEO Louis-Vincent Gave named the looming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s premier Xi Jinping as one reason for investors to feel cautious about the semiconductor sector.The two leaders are set to meet in China on Thursday and Friday, Beijing confirmed.Trump needs to replenish the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India's top business leaders, including billionaires Gautam Adani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, on Monday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to reduce consumption of import-dependent commodities like fuel and gold to conserve precious foreign exchange as a protracted West Asia war fuels price rise.They also called for strengthening domestic investments, accelerating energy transition, and ensuring self-sufficiency in compute for artificial intelligence (AI) to help insulate the economy from future global shocks.The industry leaders were speaking at the Annual Business Summit 2026 of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).“We need to get away from this obsession of gold. We need to lower our energy cost.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In April, the Chinese government issued a notification—Decree 834, which imposed restrictions on multinational companies operating in the country. Mint examines what this decree is all about, its motivation, its implications for India, and what the Indian government should do to counter it.Decree 834 is China’s first comprehensive regulation on industrial and supply chain security. While not entirely new, it creates a unified national security-driven regulatory framework for supply chain oversight.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.More than a decade into Xi Jinping’s rule, China’s military has grown more formidable, its factories dominate global manufacturing and its technology pioneers are closing the gap with Silicon Valley.Yet big parts of its economy are a mess. A colossal property bust has destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth, consumer confidence has been gutted and the job market has grown bleak.The disconnect shows how Xi has made China’s security a priority over its economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—As the heads of the world’s two superpowers meet in Beijing this week, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have another nation looming over their summit: Iran.The long anticipated meeting has already been delayed once due to the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, which has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Apart from some currency depreciation, the Indian economy has held up reasonably well, and growth numbers remain stable, said Sailesh Raj Bhan, president and chief investment officer (CIO) - Equity Investments, Nippon India Mutual Fund.“India today is also far less fragile than before,” he added.The broader belief is that elevated crude prices are not a permanent situation, as they would hurt the global economy as well. Once conditions normalize, flows are likely to return to India, said Bhan.Among the sectors, he likes all private-sector banks, consumer plays, and general insurance plays.Edited excerpts:Things will improve in India as investors begin to see opportunities emerge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.War in the Persian Gulf and new Chinese export restrictions have sent sulfuric-acid prices soaring and raised concerns about the availability of a chemical that the world relies on for food, metal, paper, computer chips and clean water.Sulfuric acid is the most consumed chemical on the planet, produced by smelting and refining nonferrous metals, such as copper and nickel, or by burning sulfur, a byproduct of oil-and-gas processing.The acid can burn a hole in a steel shelf at the hardware store, where it is sold by the bottle as extra-strength drain opener. But it is more prevalently used higher up the supply chain by heavy industry to make a ubiquitous array of products and materials.Sulfuric acid is used to produce phosphate fertilizers, leach copper and other metals from rock, pulp wood, pickle steel, tan leather and vulcanize rubber.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—On a recent call with the heads of the biggest artificial-intelligence companies, Vice President JD Vance was alarmed.New AI models such as Anthropic’s Mythos, which are capable of finding software vulnerabilities on their own, threatened to disrupt small-town banks, hospitals and water plants by starting cyberattacks that local governments weren’t equipped to handle, Vance said.“We all need to work together on this,” Vance told chief executive officers including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet’s Google and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, according to people familiar with the matter.The April call, which followed a White House briefing that played a role in sparking Vance’s concern over the latest AI model capabilities, set in motion a chaotic administration response to Mythos that threatens to increase government oversight of AI and overhaul the administration’s tech agenda. The concern expressed by Vance, paired with other moves by the White House to get involved in the rollout of AI models, marks a shift from previous language about winning the AI race against China and removing barriers to deploying models.The White House is weighing an executive order that could create a formal oversight process for the most-advanced models.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A COURT IN Hangzhou, AI capital of China, ruled in late April that companies cannot fire their staff and replace them with artificial intelligence. This may come as a relief to plenty of people in a metropolis that is home to Alibaba, one of Chinese tech’s mightiest titans, with a total payroll of 128,000 employees. It is also good for Hangzhou’s commercial landlords, who have little use for AI agents and are desperate for human desk jockeys.China’s dazzling skylines are worryingly lifeless.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Sona Comstar expects Chinese carmakers expanding manufacturing outside their home market to open up new business opportunities for the company, a senior executive said. The auto parts maker believes Chinese electric vehicle companies setting up plants in Europe and other regions could benefit suppliers, such as itself, which already have a presence overseas.On the other hand, an opportunity to build business in China will require companies to sacrifice their margins and profitability, a reason for its exit from a proposed joint venture with Chinese parts maker Jinnaite Machinery that had been announced in July 2025, Sona Comstar group chief executive and managing director Vivek Vikram Singh told Mint.“When Chinese OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) set up factories outside is when our opportunity truly arises in the driveline business," Singh said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Jung Da-yun didn’t quite like what she saw in the mirror. Her ears weren’t big enough.She booked a visit to a South Korean clinic offering “elf ear” injections.For about $70, a plastic surgeon injected the ridged cartilage of her ears with a hyaluronic-acid filler that caused her ears to perk up.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ever since coming to power more than a quarter-century ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin built a new state religion around May 9, the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and the holiest day in the Russian calendar.On Saturday, Putin will for the first time preside over a Victory Day parade held as his war on Ukraine has exceeded the length of the Soviet Union’s war on the Nazis.He has no victories to celebrate. Persistent Ukrainian drone strikes across Russia, including on the capital, have forced Putin to ask for a cease-fire for the duration of the festivities.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The global jet-fuel crunch is hitting Asia’s low-cost airlines harder than their full-service counterparts. Governments should prepare financial or operational support to avoid further flight cancellations during the busy summer travel season—as well as outright shutdowns like the collapse of America’s Spirit Airlines.Discount carriers like Malaysia’s AirAsia, Indonesia’s Lion Air and Cebu Air of the Philippines are already bearing the brunt of the energy shock. Policymakers must consider targeted measures in the form of loans, grants or fuel price relief.