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Three leading Chinese embodied-AI firms—Yush Technology, Galaxy General and Magic Atom—have been named partners of CCTV’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala, turning the national broadcast into a competitive showcase for humanoid robots. The appearances underscore a broader industry inflection: rapid shipment growth, major financing rounds, and a race between publicity and practical commercialization.

Anta Sports has agreed to buy a 29.06% stake in Puma for €1.5bn, becoming the German brand’s largest shareholder as it seeks faster international growth. The transaction gives Anta global brand heft but presents integration challenges: Puma already competes in China, the stake is non‑controlling, and Puma’s recent losses highlight the turnaround work ahead.

Gold jumped past $5,200 per ounce as the U.S. dollar tumbled to near four-year lows amid falling consumer confidence and heightened political pressure on the Federal Reserve. President Trump’s public attacks on Chair Jerome Powell and the disclosure of a federal inquiry into Powell’s conduct have compounded market concerns about the independence of U.S. monetary policy.

China’s three state telecom carriers reported 938,000 externally offered data‑centre racks by end‑2025, up 108,000 year‑on‑year, reflecting a strategic pivot from broad cloud coverage to deeper compute‑network integration. The move aims to deliver intelligent, green and diversified compute services for AI and edge applications while advancing domestic digital infrastructure goals.

MIIT’s 2025 communications bulletin shows China reached 4.838 million 5G base stations by year-end, a net increase of 588,000, bringing 5G to 37.6% of all mobile base stations. Nearly 2.064 million 5G sites now support RedCap, indicating a strategic shift toward low-power, cost-effective IoT connectivity.

Allegations from the ex-wife of Zhang Yuqi’s former husband have led multiple brands to swiftly remove her endorsements and state that partnerships have ended. Zhang has not publicly responded; the episode underscores how quickly reputational risk can translate into commercial fallout in China’s celebrity-driven marketplace.

Bright Dairy used a high‑profile Shanghai launch to roll out premium and localized products, service upgrades and cultural tourism projects that combine R&D, urban branding and experiential marketing. The moves reflect a broader strategy by Chinese state‑linked consumer firms to compete on quality, provenance and health functionality rather than price alone.

Chery’s RELY brand launched its first pure‑electric pickup, the R08 EV, priced at RMB 127,800–158,800 and offered in two trims. The company also formed a “Qilin Power Ecological Alliance” to integrate energy supply, smart‑agriculture tools and engineering equipment, underscoring a shift toward vehicle‑plus‑services strategies in the electric pickup market.

China’s telecom sector reported only 0.7% revenue growth in 2025 to ¥1.75 trillion, but underlying activity rose sharply: real telecom output grew 9.1% and investment in 5G, gigabit fibre, data centres and cloud services accelerated. The industry is shifting from legacy voice and SMS to cloud, IoT and industrial connectivity, with heavy capacity build‑out and rising R&D and standards influence.

An open‑source AI agent formerly known as Clawdbot — now Moltbot — surged in popularity before a forced renaming and a brief username vacancy allowed scammers to hijack its identity and pump a fraudulent Solana token, briefly reaching a market value of about $16m. Security researchers have since warned that many instances were exposed to the public internet with plaintext credentials and no authentication, turning the agent into a high‑value target for credential theft.

Tether has been buying physical gold at a rate reportedly exceeding one tonne per week, positioning itself as one of the largest private holders of bullion and signaling an ambition to operate like a central bank in the gold market. CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company will keep reinvesting profits into gold and compete with banks on bullion trading, while warning that geopolitical rivals may pursue gold‑backed currency alternatives.

A decade‑old turnkey highway link in Ziyang has produced a cascade of unpaid bills, about 52 lawsuits and an at‑risk private contractor after competing geotechnical reports, subsequent criminal convictions, and a controversial re‑survey that was later rebranded as a "consultation". The dispute highlights systemic risks in how local platform companies manage legacy debts and could set a dangerous precedent for overturning long‑standing technical findings.

Taiwan’s digital authority published an advisory list of “high‑risk” apps — including Douyin, Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu and Baidu Cloud — aimed at protecting minors and flagging cybersecurity concerns. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office condemned the move as politically motivated, underscoring how digital‑safety measures are being interpreted through fraught cross‑strait politics and raising questions about business, youth behaviour and influence.

China’s tax authority has announced a 2026 push to deepen tax reform, expand legally authorised local taxes and strengthen social insurance through national pension pooling, provincial medical insurance coordination and accelerated long‑term care pilots. The package aims to stabilise local finances and broaden welfare coverage, but implementation choices will determine the economic and political trade‑offs.

Indonesia’s stock benchmark fell 8% to 8,261.79 on January 28, triggering a 30‑minute trading halt after MSCI paused index adjustments over concerns about concentrated shareholdings. The local index provider froze new constituents and actions that would increase tradable shares, heightening concerns about governance, liquidity and foreign capital flows.

Foshan invested heavily in hydrogen fuel‑cell buses to foster a local hydrogen industry, buying roughly 1,000 vehicles and supporting refuelling infrastructure. High fuel costs, falling ridership and limited fiscal space have left many buses parked after they reach subsidy thresholds, exposing the gap between industrial demonstration and operating economics.

Gaotu reported narrower losses in 2025 despite strong revenue growth, but repeated regulatory penalties, poor after-sales service, employee welfare controversies and underperforming new ventures have left the company’s turnaround fragile. Its diversification into livestreaming, sports, esports and AI has yet to generate sustainable profits, while weak ESG disclosure and compliance lapses heighten execution risk.

Mingming Hen Mang, a China food‑and‑beverage retailer with nearly 20,000 stores, saw its Hong Kong shares jump about 88% on debut after retail investors oversubscribed the public offering 1,899.49 times and institutions bid 44.44 times in the placing. The listing highlights strong investor appetite for large domestic retail chains but raises questions about valuation sustainability and the economics of a rural‑heavy store footprint.

Two high-profile, abrupt departures of senior equity managers at HuaAn Fund have exposed weaknesses in the firm’s talent retention, product strategy and risk governance. The exits, characterised by one-time clearance of all managed funds, come as HuaAn’s active-equity assets have materially contracted despite overall AUM growth.

SK keyfoundry has launched a 200V, 0.18µm BCD process on 8‑inch wafers and plans to begin customer product development with an aim of mass production within the year. The capability targets demand for mature high‑voltage power ICs across EV subsystems, chargers and industrial power electronics and signals intensified competition in the specialty foundry market.