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CCTV’s Focus Interview highlighted Chengdu’s “Western Brain Valley,” an initiative to combine artificial intelligence and brain science to accelerate application of neuroscience breakthroughs. The project exemplifies China’s shift from basic research to rapid industrialisation of sensitive technologies, raising opportunities in healthcare and human‑machine interaction alongside regulatory, privacy and geopolitical challenges.

Fushi Holdings said its chairman and majority controller, Chen Yongliang, was placed under retention by a national supervisory commission on February 1, without the company being asked to assist the probe. The development heightens investor and governance risks for the loss-making firm and highlights broader regulatory scrutiny of speculative “metaverse” concept stocks in China.

The UAE president has cancelled a planned state visit to Japan amid rising U.S.–Iran tensions, a move widely interpreted as a precautionary response to growing regional instability. The decision underscores Gulf states’ delicate balancing between security ties with the United States and pragmatic engagement with Iran, with implications for diplomacy, energy markets and regional risk calculations.

Tencent vice‑president and Shanghai political adviser Li Qiang says the city has comprehensive advantages in AI — spanning chips, compute, data and talent — and is a welcoming place for AI startups and professionals. Shanghai’s mix of universities, capital markets and corporate R&D positions it to translate research into commercial AI products, even as chip supply constraints and regulatory issues temper prospects.

At Shanghai's municipal meetings, CPPCC member Tong Lin called for reforms to AI education, platform data governance and credit restoration for bankrupt companies. He proposed a staged AI curriculum with an approved textbook list and education accounts for minors, an industry association to standardise data dispute resolution, and automated court data links to speed credit repair for entrepreneurs.

China’s Institute of Modern Physics has installed the main accelerator for IP-SAFE, a superconducting linac demonstrator intended to mass-produce scarce alpha-emitting isotopes Ac-225 and Ra-223. The facility aims to ease global shortages that constrain targeted alpha therapies and to bolster domestic biomedical and accelerator capabilities.

SenseTime CEO Xu Li argues China’s AI future hinges on cultivating "super individuals" and packaging foundation models as end-to-end delivery tools that empower single people to complete tasks. He warns that treating large models only as efficiency tools risks weak commercial outcomes; productised delivery that enables individuals will drive a pronounced productivity leap.

A dramatic intraday collapse in silver—down as much as 36%—and steep falls in gold rattled markets as China launched its Spring Festival travel season. The Shanghai Gold Exchange moved to tighten margin and price‑limit rules, while authorities and firms rolled out transport, social and marketing measures to stabilise movement and capture consumers during the holiday.

Hong Kong markets slipped as a sharp drop in gold and silver hammered miners and a VAT increase on telecom value‑added services pressured the three major operators. The Hang Seng fell 2.23% and the tech‑heavy Hang Seng TECH lost 3.36%, with notable declines across chips, autos and precious‑metals stocks.

China’s equity markets tumbled on February 2, with major indices down over 2% and hundreds of stocks hitting limit‑down as trading volume contracted. Defensive pockets such as white spirits and power‑grid equipment held up, while metals, energy and semiconductor names led the declines, raising questions about investor confidence and near‑term policy reaction before Lunar New Year.

Tesla’s January 2026 push of 5‑year 0% and 7‑year low‑interest purchase plans has spurred competitors to extend similar financing, making new EV purchases cheaper per month and prompting buyers to favour new cars. That shift has weakened demand for secondhand electric cars, forced dealers to cut prices or offer short-term interest‑free loans, and highlighted structural risks to EV residual values driven by rapid technological obsolescence and battery concerns.

Ji Xinhua, chairman of cloud firm UCloud and a Shanghai municipal delegate, has urged the city to fast‑track “space compute” by creating a dedicated funding programme, a national key laboratory, in‑orbit testbeds and industry alliances. His proposals span hardware, software standards for domestic GPUs, an AI‑for‑Science compute pool and regional cooperation to position Shanghai as a hub for a strategically important, fast‑growing sector.

At SEF2026 in Sharjah, venture capitalists signalled that Gulf countries — buoyed by low energy costs, proactive regulation and growing AI education — are entering a new phase of technology investment. Saudi Arabia led the region in deal value in 2025 and has launched funds targeting early-stage biotech, reflecting its Vision 2030 diversification agenda.

OpenClaw, an open‑source agent platform created by Peter Steinberger, has gone viral by turning chat messages into executable commands across multiple model APIs, accelerating demand for inexpensive, high‑throughput models and simple local hardware like the Mac Mini. The surge highlights opportunities for Chinese model providers such as Minimax and Kimi, while raising acute security, deployment and governance challenges.

An open‑source agent called OpenClaw has popularized always‑on, self‑executing AI workflows by running locally with broad control over devices and services. Its rapid spread exposed a new paradigm—delegated, 24/7 digital labour—that big cloud providers are racing to productize while security experts warn of multi‑layered, systemic risks.

China’s leading internet groups are spending hundreds of billions of yuan on AI, each following a different industrial logic: Alibaba is doubling down on cloud and commerce integration, Tencent is turning AI into immediate revenue uplifts inside WeChat and games, and ByteDance is attempting to seize the system‑level gateway on phones. The contest has moved from model architecture to ecosystem control, but talent, chips and capital patience are emerging chokepoints that will determine who converts investment into durable advantage.

NIO opened its first national-authorised showroom in Uzbekistan on 31 January, introducing models from its premium NIO line and launching Le Dao’s L90 and L60 — the sub‑brand’s first overseas models. The company also announced a tie-up in Costa Rica, signalling simultaneous expansion into Central Asia and Latin America as Chinese EV makers chase growth beyond a crowded domestic market.

Maotai prices swung sharply around the Lunar New Year, with single‑bottle quotes briefly rising to about ¥1,830 before retreating to ¥1,740–¥1,780. Wholesale boxed vintages saw modest declines while single‑bottle retail prices remained comparatively stable, underscoring festival demand and speculative trading pressures that strain small merchants.

China’s local governments saw land‑sale revenues fall for a fourth straight year in 2025, dropping to about ¥4.15 trillion and roughly halving since the 2021 peak. The slump has tightened municipal budgets, increased debt pressure and cut land‑related spending, prompting proposals for central fiscal backstops and targeted measures to stabilise the housing market in 2026.

Vanke reported an expected RMB82 billion net loss for 2025 and disclosed urgent liquidity pressures, prompting a subsidised rescue loan from majority shareholder Shenzhen Metro Group. The collapse highlights alleged off‑balance liquidity channelling and structural incentives that rewarded senior managers even as shareholders and creditors suffered, reviving questions about the limits of the manager‑led corporate model in China.