Business News
Latest business news and updates
Total: 749
Beijing Summons 12 Travel Platforms Over Misleading Train‑ticket Practices — A Test of China’s Tech Oversight
Beijing’s market regulator held administrative talks with 12 major platforms over misleading practices in online railway‑ticket sales, demanding clearer pricing, the end of implied paid priorities, and fixes to deceptive add‑on products. The move underscores broader Chinese efforts to rein in opaque platform monetization and signals that repeat offenders face stricter enforcement rather than further admonitions.
When an Egg Becomes Premium: How ‘Functional’ Labels Repriced China’s Staple
China’s egg market has fractured into multiple price tiers as producers and retailers attach nutrient and production‑process labels to ordinary eggs. The premium reflects real feed and logistics costs for some features and ambiguous, often unverifiable claims for others; regulatory tightening in 2025 is beginning to force a reckoning over which labels correspond to enduring supply‑chain investments.
The ‘Hermès of Nuts’: How Xueji’s Luxury Snack Play Exposes China’s Emotional Consumption and Its Limits
Xueji Chaohuo, a fast-growing Chinese chain that styles itself as the luxury choice for roasted nuts, has provoked both ridicule and long queues with high prices and glossy mall stores. Its premium rests on mall location, heavy investment in store design and a carefully cultivated emotional pitch to middle-class gift buyers, but supply stabilization, fierce peer competition and wavering freshness claims expose the model’s fragility.
Former Guangzhou Tycoon Sentenced to Life as Cedar Holdings Collapse Leaves Retail Investors Ruined
A Guangzhou court sentenced Cedar Holdings founder Zhang Jin to life imprisonment and ordered confiscation of his assets after finding him guilty of large‑scale fundraising fraud. The collapse of Cedar’s trust and wealth products left about 6,800 investors short roughly RMB 20 billion, with retail holders likely to recover only a tiny fraction of their losses.
When Developers Gift Gold: How Chinese Realtors Used Bullion to Sell Flats as Prices Slid
Chinese developers have used gifts of gold and other in-kind incentives to bridge the gap between asking prices and buyer expectations during a property downturn. A recent rise in bullion prices has made some of these promotions look like profitable hedges in hindsight, but industry practitioners say the effect is coincidental and marketing-driven rather than a durable solution to weak demand.
Beijing Injects Rmb20.5bn into Lunar New Year Consumption Blitz — Prize-invoice lottery and loan subsidies aim to jump‑start spending
Beijing has deployed roughly Rmb20.5 billion in vouchers, subsidies and prizes over a nine‑day Lunar New Year period to spur household spending, backed by a larger Rmb625 billion trade‑in fund and a Rmb100 billion prize‑invoice pilot. The package combines fiscal transfers, retail supply measures and financial easing aimed at converting available goods and services into sales, but its long‑term effectiveness depends on household confidence and income growth.
Why Silver Crashed: Crowded Bets, Fragile Liquidity and the Cost to Small Investors
Silver’s dramatic surge and sudden crash in early 2026 exposed a commodity market strained by crowded speculative bets, structural liquidity limits, and a large inflow of retail money into ETFs and physical holdings. A shift in macro expectations—especially around U.S. monetary policy—and programmatic deleveraging triggered a liquidity dry‑up that caused sharp price falls and heavy losses for many investors.
China’s Huazhu Told to Reform Loyalty Terms after Beijing Flags Mandatory Arbitration Clause
Beijing’s consumer watchdog has ordered Huazhu’s membership-services operator to review and fix a clause that requires disputes to be arbitrated in Shanghai, saying it unlawfully restricts consumers' right to sue. The move highlights growing regulatory scrutiny of standard-form contract terms in China and poses compliance and reputational challenges for the country’s largest hotel group.
Exhibition Mogul’s Baijiu Gamble Unravels as 132m‑Yuan Tax Bill Exposes Fragile Empire
Hengchang, the baijiu venture of exhibition magnate Deng Hong, has been hit with 132 million yuan in tax arrears amid collapsing prices, channel breakdowns and excess inventory. The case exposes larger vulnerabilities in China’s premium sauce‑flavour liquor boom, where heavy marketing, property ties and leverage masked weak consumer fundamentals.
Gold’s Decade of Reinvention: From Safe Haven to Strategic Reserve
Over the last decade gold has transformed from a peripheral hedge into a central asset, rising more than 300% from under $1,100 to peaks above $5,000 per ounce by early 2026. The shift is driven by sustained central-bank buying, weakening dollar share of reserves, low real interest rates and heightened geopolitical risk, but the market now displays greater volatility and complex implications for investors and policymakers.
China Mobile Leans on Celebrity Charm to Sell ‘A Better Network’ Ahead of Lunar New Year
China Mobile has launched a Lunar New Year–timed promotional campaign featuring actor Wang Yaoqing to highlight network stability and user experience. The ad aims to reassure subscribers that China Mobile can handle seasonal traffic peaks and to translate large-scale network investment into everyday consumer benefits.
Premium by Promise: How 'Functional' Eggs Are Rewriting China's Egg Market
Chinese retailers and producers are charging significant premiums for eggs labelled as 'functional'—selenium‑enriched, DHA‑fortified, antibiotic‑free or suitable for raw consumption—by leveraging feed additives, tighter husbandry and marketing. Costs and risk management differ sharply across these claims, and tightening regulation is likely to compress ambiguous premiums, favouring integrated producers who can internalise the investments required.