City Beijing Financial News

BEIJING — For Chinese companies wary of U.S. tariffs, the big difference between President Donald Trump's first and second terms is the emergence of generative artificial intelligence.

extremism in Bangladesh under the Muhammad Yunus regime. “Fortunately, we have an administration and a secretary of state who is completely committed to diplomatic resolutions, to face-to-face conversations with our friends around the world,” a US state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Monday in reply to a question on Bangladesh army chief’s warning of an imminent extremist attack on Bangladesh as well as unlawful imprisonment of journalists under the Yunus regime. “We expect every country, certainly Bangladesh and others, to say the least, to follow the rules of human rights and to be cognizant and fair regarding the behaviour and what their own citizens expect from their government. So, I think that’s a north star for any nation,” she said. Last week, US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had expressed her concerns over attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and is understood to have had detailed conversations with Indian officials on the Bangladesh situation. Foreign minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said the government is working on various mechanisms to draw the attention of Bangladeshi authorities on the issue of atrocities on minorities.

Xiaomi Corp kicked off a share sale that may fetch as much as $5.3 billion, capitalising on a surge in the Chinese company's stock price to help raise funds to expand its electric-vehicle business. The Beijing-based company is offering 750 million shares at HK$52.80-54.60 apiece, according to terms of the deal. That's a discount of 4.2% to 7.4% versus the stock's last close in Hong Kong. Investor demand met the size of the offering by Monday evening, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they're not authorised to speak publicly about the matter. The offering, which comes weeks after EV giant BYD Co's $5.6-billion fundraising, builds on what's shaping up to be a bumper year for share sales in Hong Kong. After years of slumping, the city's benchmark stock index is among the world's best performers this year, fuelling optimism for a rebound in deals in the Asian financial hub.

BEIJING — Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group is using both Chinese and U.S.-made semiconductors for building more efficient artificial intelligence models, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. China’s armed forces are more ready than ever to surround the self-ruled island of Taiwan, cut it off from the world and try to squeeze it into submission. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would be an act of war that sparks a global crisis.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SINGAPORE—China is pushing its commercial space industry to grow in a bid to spur greater innovation and close the gap with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. At least six Chinese rockets designed with reusability in mind are planned to have their maiden flights this year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is battling petty corruption through a nationwide campaign that has swept up more than half a million low-level officials over the past year, as Beijing grapples with rising public resentment over a sagging economy.

China is practicing satellite dogfighting in space, according to CNN. The report, quoting the US Space Force, also said that China and Russia have deployed jammers in space. According to CNN, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations for the US Space Force, revealed that they have observed five Chinese satellites maneuvering around each other in a coordinated manner—a practice he described as dogfighting in space. These included three Shiyan-24C satellites and two Shijian-6 05A/B experimental satellites.

AstraZeneca said on Friday it will spend $2.5 billion on a research and development hub in Beijing, as the drugmaker scrambles to revive business in its second-biggest market after scandals including the arrest of its China president last year. Chief executive Pascal Soriot was in Beijing and met with the city's mayor to reveal the investment, along with two licensing deals with Chinese companies, saying they all showed the company's commitment to the world's No. 2 economy. «This $2.5 billion investment reflects our belief in the world-class life sciences ecosystem in Beijing, the extensive opportunities that exist for collaboration and access to talent, and our continued commitment to China,» Soriot said in a statement. The R&D centre «will partner with the cutting-edge biology and AI science in Beijing and be a critical part of our global efforts to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide,» Soriot said. The Chinese government has launched several investigations into AstraZeneca's executives and activities in the country, where it has invested billions of dollars to build factories and license experimental drug candidates from Chinese biotech firms.

Chinese equities this week — the largest weekly inflow since October 2024 — as blockbuster rallies in electric vehicle giant BYD and Chinese AI firms reignited confidence in China’s market rebound, driving global fund managers to ramp up their bets on Asia’s biggest economy.

Hangor-class submarine to Pakistan, strengthening their long-standing military alliance. The submarine, launched in Wuhan, China, is part of a $5 billion deal for eight such vessels, aimed at enhancing Pakistan’s naval prowess in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Armed with cutting-edge weaponry and sensor technology, the Hangor-class submarines signify a shift in regional maritime security dynamics. This naval cooperation aligns with China’s expanding strategic influence, particularly around Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan, a linchpin of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Beijing’s support to Islamabad extends beyond submarines—Pakistan has also received advanced naval frigates, reconnaissance drones, and fighter jets from its closest ally.

Since China's DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley by releasing AI models comparable to its U.S. competitors but developed at a fraction of the cost, Chinese investors have been on the lookout for the next domestic startup with the potential to upend the global tech order. Some have pointed to Manus. The company went viral on X a few weeks ago by releasing what it claimed to be the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.

BEIJING — UBS analysts on Wednesday became the latest to raise expectations that China's struggling real estate market is close to stabilizing.

Ocean Infinity in a “no-find, no-fee” mission to solve aviation’s greatest mystery. The operation targets a newly identified 5,800-square-mile zone in the remote Indian Ocean, leveraging upgraded underwater robotics and seabed mapping tools. Ocean Infinity, which failed to locate the plane during a 2018 search, could earn $70 million if successful. Experts warn the mission faces extreme risks, from 60-foot waves to logistical nightmares in one of Earth’s most isolated regions.

Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that China had executed four Canadian citizens in recent weeks, defying pleas from Ottawa for leniency. «We strongly condemn the executions that did happen against Canadians in China,» Joly said. She said she was unable to discuss details of the case due to privacy requests from the affected families. However, Beijing suggested on Thursday the Canadians had been convicted over narcotics offences, saying "… combating drug crimes is the common responsibility of all countries".

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has resumed, marking another effort to solve one of aviation's greatest mysteries. Malaysia has agreed to terms and conditions of an agreement with Ocean Infinity to resume the search for the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, its transport minister said on Wednesday. The decision will enable commencement of seabed search operations in a new location estimated to cover 15,000 square km in the southern Indian Ocean, based on a «no find, no fee» principle, minister Loke Siew Fook said in a statement. The firm will receive $70 million if the wreckage is successfully located, he said. The aircraft vanished on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Now, nearly 11 years later, Ocean Infinity has launched a fresh search in the Indian Ocean, 1,500 km off the coast of Perth, Australia.

BEIJING — Among the top five priorities China has laid out for boosting consumption is child care subsidies.

BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Zeekr is releasing advanced driver-assistance capabilities to its local customers for free as competition heats up, Zeekr CEO Andy An told CNBC ahead of a launch event Tuesday.

digital arsenals" to interfere in Western democracies, while their messaging around the war in Ukraine had become increasingly aligned. «Foreign information manipulation and interference is a major security threat to the EU,» foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a report. «We must not underestimate the power that this has over us, or the intentions of those behind it.» In its latest annual report on the subject Brussels said that last year it tracked disinformation attacks against over 80 countries and more than 200 organisations. The war in Ukraine remains a major target for Russia — but events such as the Olympics in Paris, elections in Moldova and farmers' protests in Germany were also in the crosshairs.

The ministry on Tuesday published on its social media several images of Chinese drones and ships and said 43 out of 59 of them entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone but that no confrontations were reported. Taiwan monitored the situation and deployed aircraft, navy ships and coastal anti-ship missile defences in response, the ministry said. China launches such missions on a daily basis in hopes of wearing down Taiwanese defences and morale, although the vast majority of the island's 23 million people reject Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan and its threat to use force to assert its control. It's unclear what prompted the large Chinese deployment. Daily figures often vary widely based on statements by the Taiwanese authorities or their US partners.

Trump moves to axe Voice of America and other US-funded media, China and Russia are eager to fill the void. The targeting of VOA, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia not only freezes some of the most dogged reporting on countries with heavily restricted media, but it comes after years of concerted efforts by Beijing and Moscow to promote their own worldview on the global media landscape. Trump issued an executive order Friday to pare down the nearly $1 billion US Agency for Global Media, with hundreds of journalists swiftly put on leave or fired, in his latest sweeping cut to the federal government. Lisa Curtis, who was a senior official on the National Security Council in Trump's first term and serves as board chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach behind the Iron Curtain, said that closing the service «will actually help our adversaries.» «Countries like China, Russia and Iran are investing hundreds of millions of dollars pumping out anti-American propaganda and disinformation,» she said.