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Tencent’s recent 1 billion yuan Spring Festival giveaway has escalated a familiar marketing ritual into a proxy arena for China’s AI race. Big tech firms are shifting from model-centric competition to full-stack battles that combine massive capital expenditure, distributional advantage and ecosystem playbooks, with 2026 poised as a potential inflection point for AI monetisation.

Moutai’s Horse-year zodiac release cooled quickly as the company deliberately tightened distribution and pricing, shrinking speculative premiums and redirecting the series toward consumption and collecting. The dual-version product design and timed releases aim to broaden access while protecting scarcity, but channel delays and cautious sentiment mean short-term risks remain.

A Nanjing-based network of retired university student soldiers, the Jinling Vanguard, is running volunteer teaching programmes in Jiangxi’s mountain schools, combining military-style management with classroom instruction and patriotic education. Since 2021 the initiative has mobilised thousands of veterans, raised funds and books, built cloud classrooms, and been incorporated into broader municipal and national efforts to integrate veterans into civic life and sustain revolutionary memory.

Sergeant Lei Yaoming, a 23-year veteran stationed in Xinjiang, has become a multi-skilled technical leader in PLA construction units by combining on-the-job learning, innovation and frontline courage. His career underlines the PLA’s reliance on experienced non-commissioned officers to adapt new equipment, solve maintenance challenges in remote areas and train junior technicians as the force modernises.

Soldiers from an Eastern Theatre Command rocket-artillery battalion have spent over a year living and training away from their garrison in improvised sites while operating new long-range containerised rocket systems. Their experience illustrates the PLA’s shift toward dispersed, mobile operations, with implications for logistics, personnel endurance and regional deterrence dynamics.

Hezbollah held a large rally in Beirut on January 26 to publicly back Iran and warn that it would not remain neutral if Israel or the United States launched military action against Tehran. The demonstration underlines Hezbollah's role as both a domestic political force and a regional military actor, increasing the risk that any confrontation with Iran could spill across the Levant.

A surge in demand for AI‑related storage is driving rapid price rises across DRAM and NAND, with suppliers shifting to flexible, quarterly pricing and prioritising high‑margin AI products. Limited capacity growth — because investment is being spent on process upgrades rather than volume expansion — means the shortage looks structural and could persist through 2026–27, benefiting memory vendors but squeezing OEMs and raising the cost of scaling AI services.

Anta has agreed to buy a 29.06% stake in Puma SE for €1.505 billion, a near-30% holding that confers large minority influence while remaining below Germany’s 30% mandatory-offer threshold. The purchase advances Anta’s global expansion strategy and creates scope for commercial cooperation across product, retail and markets, but also invites governance and regulatory scrutiny.

China has opened its 2026 first‑half recruitment window for female conscripts from 1 January to 10 February, targeting students and recent graduates with age‑based eligibility and a prioritisation system that uses gaokao relative scores. The process pairs online selection with local medical and political vetting, offers tuition‑repayment incentives for qualifying recruits, and forms part of a broader effort to professionalise and diversify the armed forces.

China's large industrial firms posted a small 0.6% profit increase in 2025, driven by strong gains in equipment and high‑technology manufacturing that offset a steep fall in mining. Revenue growth remained tepid and indicators such as rising receivables and inventories point to a fragile recovery that could be vulnerable to external demand shocks.

China’s mid-session rebound left headline indices flat to slightly positive while market breadth deteriorated: over 4,400 stocks fell as trading volume declined. Precious metals and semiconductor-equipment pockets drove gains, but widespread selling — particularly in the battery chain — underlines a narrow, rotation-driven market.

Tencent has launched Sogou Input Method 20.0, upgrading voice, typing and translation with model‑level AI and adding a 'HunYuan champion' translation model that supports over 30 languages. The change deepens Tencent's control over a key user interface and raises questions about data use, privacy and the company’s competitive posture in the AI arms race.

The European Commission has designated WhatsApp as a ‘very large online platform’ under the Digital Services Act after its Channels feature surpassed the 45 million‑user threshold in the EU. The move compels Meta to implement systemic‑risk assessments, stronger transparency and content‑mitigation measures within four months or face significant fines.

Chinese automakers and suppliers have accelerated overseas investment, disclosing more than RMB70 billion in projects over three months. Major moves include a planned 2.067 billion euro battery gigafactory in Portugal and policy openings in the EU, Canada and Germany, signaling a shift from export‑led sales to localised, global supply chain building.

Microsoft has started deploying its Maia 200 AI accelerator built on TSMC 3nm, claiming substantial performance and cost advantages versus Amazon’s Trainium and Google’s TPU. The chip — designed to run large models efficiently at low power — is part of Microsoft’s strategy to secure more predictable, cheaper AI compute for Azure and to lessen reliance on Nvidia. An SDK preview is available to developers, while broader cloud rental availability is promised for the future.

Lanqi Technology says it has developed and system‑validated an active electrical cable compatible with PCIe 6.x and CXL 3.x, claiming a domestic first. The development addresses the signal‑conditioning challenges of next‑generation high‑speed links and signals growing Chinese capability in end‑to‑end datacentre interconnects, though production readiness and ecosystem interoperability remain open questions.

TikTok’s US data‑security joint venture reported system failures after a power outage at a US data‑center partner site, restoring network connectivity but warning of lingering errors such as slow loads and incorrect engagement counts. The incident highlights operational vulnerabilities in data‑localization plans and shows how physical infrastructure dependencies—electricity and third‑party hosting—can undermine assurances about control and resilience.

A planned contract to move the Japan–UK–Italy sixth‑generation fighter programme into full development has been delayed because the UK has not finalised its funding amid rising defence bills. The pause risks derailing the partnership’s 2035 deployment target, forcing national workstreams and raising coordination, cost and capability risks for all three partners.

Li Auto is assessing the closure of some low‑efficiency retail stores after an aggressive multi‑year network build‑out, denying plans to close 100 outlets but confirming a targeted optimisation. The retrenchment follows a 19% fall in 2025 deliveries and recent quarterly losses, and accompanies a product and organisational reset aimed at restoring growth and margins amid fiercer competition in the range‑extended EV segment.

A US military probe found a helicopter display at Kadena Air Base in April 2025 violated safety rules and caused rotor wash that fatally injured a 60-year-old Japanese teacher. The aircraft was far closer to spectators than both the event plan and US Air Force guidance allowed, prompting admissions of planning and supervision failures and intensifying long-running local grievances in Okinawa.