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President Trump announced he will visit Venezuela and said U.S. companies are extracting oil there, as Washington pursues high‑level talks with Caracas on energy, mining and sanctions. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright met Venezuela’s acting president in Caracas to negotiate cooperation and possible sanctions relief, while anti‑U.S. demonstrations have erupted in the capital.

China’s GB 48001—2026 mandates mechanical redundancy for vehicle door handles and effectively bans fully power‑dependent hidden exterior handles, with staggered compliance from 2027 to 2029. The rule responds to a cluster of rescue failures and consumer complaints and will force costly redesigns across automakers and suppliers, with likely global ripple effects given China’s market size.

A post‑holiday rush of young buyers in China is boosting sales of lightweight, design‑led gold jewellery even as global bullion prices climb. Financial results show a split: large franchised chains drive revenue through scale while a handful of boutique operators extract far higher margins, but the durability of brand premiums is uncertain because resale values remain tied to metal prices.

Li Zhaoting, the former head of the Dongxu business empire and once among Hebei’s richest individuals, was detained by Shijiazhuang police on February 13 as investigations continue. Regulators had already imposed roughly RMB 1.7 billion in penalties and lifetime market bans related to disclosure violations and alleged fraudulent share issuance; only Jia Linjie remains listed from the Dongxu orbit and says operations are normal.

Chinese media reports that J‑16s and Su‑30s were able to lock onto and expel an F‑22 in a training encounter highlight the PLA’s focus on integrating legacy fighters into a now more sophisticated sensor and electronic‑warfare network. The episode underscores that systems and tactics can mitigate some advantages of stealth, even as platform modernisation continues.

A brigade in the Tibet Military Region has reoriented its in-unit ‘‘craftsmen’s studio’’ from producing many inventions to developing fewer, higher-impact solutions aimed at immediate battlefield problems. Through embedded technicians, structured courses, and targeted projects, the unit has shortened artillery preparation times and improved survivability in exercises, demonstrating how grassroots innovation is being harnessed for operational readiness in the PLA.

Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. will deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, signaling a stepped-up American military posture amid persistent regional tensions. The move is intended to deter attacks and reassure allies, but it also raises the risk of miscalculation and broader economic and geopolitical consequences.

Sailors aboard China’s Fujian aircraft carrier published festive New Year greetings, joking that “80,000 tonnes of good fortune” have arrived—a symbolic use of the ship’s displacement to project national pride. The episode is a domestic PR effort to humanize the navy and normalize China’s expanding carrier force, with signal value for regional observers.

The 62nd Munich Security Conference opened on February 13 with Wolfgang Ischinger warning that the transatlantic partnership is at a crossroads and calling for a unified, stronger Europe. The gathering—attended by more than 1,000 delegates including over 60 heads of state—aims to forge a "transatlantic reset" amid what Ischinger described as unprecedented global security challenges.

JD Airlines’ first Airbus A330-200P2F freighter — its 12th aircraft and first wide‑body — marks the company’s entry into long‑haul international cargo. The deal fast‑tracked Airbus’ foothold in China’s freighter market and underlines JD’s strategy to bind its e‑commerce supply chain to owned airlift, even as regulatory slots and empty return legs pose commercial challenges.

Xinhua published a short piece showing the People’s Armed Police offering Lunar New Year greetings, a mix of public-relations and reassurance during the high-travel chunyun period. The dispatch underscores the dual role of China’s paramilitary forces as both community-facing and continuously on duty.

China’s foreign ministry presented Lunar‑New Year “lucky bags” to foreign journalists at a Beijing press briefing, a small act praised as warm by those present. The gesture illustrates how cultural rituals serve as low‑cost public diplomacy aimed at softening interactions with the foreign press amid broader diplomatic tensions.

Ned Davis Research warns that if the current sell‑off becomes a full crypto winter, Bitcoin could fall to about $31,000 — a drop of roughly 55% from current levels and as much as 70–75% from its October peak. Other banks and strategists offer differing downside targets, but the central risk is that renewed selling, leverage and miner pressure could amplify losses even as greater institutional participation offers some stabilising force.

A new server production line in Jiangsu bundles Loongson CPUs with Taichu Yuange’s heterogeneous many‑core AI accelerators as China pursues an indigenous, energy‑efficient AI compute stack. Backed by policy and driven by demand for HPC+AI, this approach challenges the dominant GPGPU model but faces ecosystem, utilisation and commercialisation hurdles.

Mercedes‑Benz China has announced a managed leadership reshuffle: Duan Jianjun will step down as president and CEO of the Beijing sales company and remain as an advisor until 30 April, Li Desi will take over on 1 March, Zhang Mingxia will move from smart’s global marketing role back into sales on 1 April, and Kang Yi will become smart’s global CMO. The moves prioritise continuity and closer alignment between sales, marketing and finance as Mercedes navigates intense competition and rapid change in China’s automotive market.

JD.com says French police and the Chinese embassy helped recover most goods stolen from the company’s Paris warehouse in a December 2025 robbery. The recovery reduces immediate losses and reputational damage as JD presses ahead with a broader European expansion that includes a logistics network (JoyExpress), a new retail brand (Joybuy) and a major stake in Germany’s CECONOMY.

ByteDance has launched Doubao 2.0, a family of production‑oriented large models (Pro, Lite, Mini, and a Code variant) focused on efficient inference, multimodal ability and long‑chain task execution. The company claims strong benchmark performance versus rivals but faces scrutiny over IP and international review requests, highlighting the tension between rapid commercialisation and the need for independent validation and regulatory compliance.

PICC Property and Casualty has received at least 15 regulatory penalties since the start of 2026, with regional branches fined for falsified data, misuse of policy terms, fabricated intermediary fees and refusal to accept cash. Regulators have issued fines, warnings and long-term industry bans, exposing systemic weaknesses in internal controls across the insurer’s local operations.

NetEase reported that OpenAI is named in competing Pentagon bids to supply voice‑to‑digital translation for drone‑swarm command software, a narrowly defined role that stops short of direct control or targeting. The work is part of a $100m Pentagon prototype challenge to field autonomous swarms, raising technical, ethical and geopolitical questions about the integration of generative AI into weapons systems.

Anthropic has raised $30 billion at a roughly $380 billion valuation to accelerate research and infrastructure, while OpenAI released GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark on Cerebras hardware to lessen its reliance on Nvidia. The moves underscore a shift toward capital‑heavy model development and strategic chip diversification, with Chinese firms simultaneously open‑sourcing large models and pushing robotics and embodied AI.