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Yi Lianhong, vice chair of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee and former Zhejiang party secretary, is under investigation by China’s top disciplinary bodies for alleged serious violations. The probe highlights Beijing’s continued anti‑corruption drive and could have implications for economic oversight, provincial networks, and the political environment ahead of upcoming NPC meetings.

Nestlé China faces a widening dispute with nearly a thousand distributors over unpaid rebates and reimbursed expenses, highlighted by a pet‑products partner alleging about 19 million yuan owed. A new CEO authorised conditional repayments, but stringent retrospective audits and governance gaps have meant many claims are rejected, exposing structural weaknesses in an old ‘push‑stock’ distribution model amid a shifting Chinese retail landscape.

A shaft accident at Zhaojin Mining’s Canzhuang gold mine on 7 February killed seven people and triggered probes into both the cause and alleged concealment by the company. The disaster has hit Zhaojin’s Hong Kong-listed shares and raised questions about safety compliance, corporate disclosure and possible regulatory penalties.

A‑shares traded flat at mid‑day with the Shanghai Composite down 0.02% and turnover easing to 1.39 trillion yuan. Media and film stocks staged a concentrated rally — including several daily limit‑ups and two film ETFs running to limits — while many other stocks fell and commercial aerospace names weakened. The session underscores selective investor appetite amid low liquidity, producing sharp sector rotation and elevated short‑term volatility.

Jia Guolong has stepped down from key roles at an entity related to the Xibei chain amid a reputation crisis, signalling retrenchment by a founder-led brand. Kuaishou joined other major platforms to distribute the 2026 Spring Festival Gala in multiple digital formats, intensifying a broader competition for national cultural content. Meanwhile, dumpling chain Yuanji Yunjiao has expanded to 15 overseas outlets as it pursues a Hong Kong listing, underscoring the push by mid-sized Chinese food brands to internationalise.

ByteDance is testing Seedance 2.0, an AI model that automates short video production end‑to‑end and could dramatically increase demand for cloud compute, storage and CDN capacity. Analysts say the model lowers production barriers but intensifies hardware needs and raises quality, copyright and moderation challenges.

Alphabet plans to raise about $20 billion through dollar bonds, including very long-dated tranches, to fund AI and other growth initiatives. The move coincides with OpenAI reporting renewed user-growth momentum and preparing to release an upgraded chat model, underlining an intensifying AI competition that is reshaping corporate finance decisions.

Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 and its accompanying developer tools have sharpened AI agents’ ability to write code and run business workflows, prompting investor concern about the fate of standardised SaaS. The technology raises governance and trust questions even as industry figures argue it will augment, not replace, software. The most plausible near‑term outcome is market segmentation: commodity SaaS will be under pressure while outcome‑oriented platforms that offer auditable, domain‑specific value will survive and likely thrive.

Jia Guolong has stepped down as legal representative from an affiliate of Xibei as the brand recovers from a high‑profile PR dispute, Kuaishou secured a multi‑format role in streaming the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and Yuan Ji Yun Jiao expanded its overseas footprint to 15 stores after opening a second Thai outlet. Together these moves highlight shifts in reputation management, platform competition for cultural moments, and the operational challenges of Chinese food brands going global.

Blunt American criticisms at high‑profile international meetings have exposed deepening fractures in US–European relations, driven by economic shifts, divergent values and contested security expectations. The rupture raises questions about NATO’s cohesion, the future of the liberal international order and Europe’s push for strategic autonomy, with broad consequences for global stability and alignment.

Chinese firms showcased AI‑enabled AR smart glasses at the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics as analysts declare 2026 a pivotal year for on‑device AI. Advances in model compression and edge compute, plus strengthening supply chains, make large‑model inference on consumer wearables commercially plausible, though adoption will depend on cost, battery life, form factor and regulatory scrutiny.

China’s Foreign Ministry has defended the 20‑year prison sentence of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai as a domestic judicial matter and warned against foreign interference. The ruling underscores Beijing’s determination to enforce national security in the city and sharpens diplomatic tensions with Western governments while increasing political risk for businesses in Hong Kong.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a second humanitarian shipment to Cuba and publicly criticized U.S. penalties on countries that supply oil to the island, calling them unfair. Sheinbaum said Mexico will press for the removal of such sanctions, a stance that signals a more independent regional posture and could complicate relations with Washington.

Palestinian authorities and Hamas condemned an Israeli security cabinet decision to expand settlements and tighten West Bank control, urging emergency meetings of the Arab League, the OIC and the UN Security Council. Palestinians warn the measures violate international law and undermine prospects for a two-state solution while calling on the international community to take concrete action.

In Doha on Feb. 8, Khaled Meshaal declared that Hamas will not disarm or accept foreign rule in Gaza, framing armed resistance as the right of an occupied people. His stance clashes with Israeli demands for full demilitarization before reconstruction, leaving mediators and donors with a difficult choice between urgent relief and long‑term security assurances.

Rising tensions between the United States and Iran have rekindled debate over whether long‑range ballistic missiles can neutralize U.S. aircraft carriers. While intercontinental missiles serve strategic deterrence, they are ill suited to hit moving naval formations; the real threat to carriers comes from more targeted anti‑ship systems and asymmetric tactics in confined waters. The standoff highlights a shift in naval competition: carriers remain central to power projection, but must be defended and complemented by new doctrines and technologies to remain credible in contested littorals.

The 2026 US–Japan 'Iron Fist' amphibious exercise, running 11 February–9 March, is the largest yet and spans 19 sites in and around Okinawa. With deeper operational integration between US and Japanese commands, expanded amphibious forces and sharpened political rhetoric in Tokyo and Washington, the drills both bolster deterrence and raise regional risks of miscalculation.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will press President Trump to force the removal of Iran’s enriched uranium and to constrain Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities. Jerusalem’s assessments warn that Iran is dispersing missiles to complicate strikes and that its missile inventory could return to pre‑attack levels, while Israel weighs risks of wider regional retaliation by Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Iran's IRGC says it has placed a new Khorramshahr-4 medium-range missile in underground facilities and opened a fortified 'missile city,' claiming a 2,000 km range that would reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf. The move boosts survivability and signalling leverage but is likely to raise tensions, complicate regional defence planning and challenge arms-control efforts.

Metersbonwe, once a Chinese retail heavyweight, posted a worsening 2025 outlook and mounting quarterly losses despite founder Zhou Chengjian’s return and high-profile livestreaming. Repeated share sales by the controlling shareholder have provided temporary liquidity but highlight chronic cash‑flow and strategic failures; a meaningful recovery will require deep operational and brand reinvention.