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Haidilao’s founder Zhang Yong has resumed the CEO role after a steep decline in customers and profits. The chain faces falling foot traffic, squeezed per-customer spending and costly service standards, prompting a pivot into incubated sub-brands and experiential formats that have yet to scale.

A candid 31‑minute video by former actor Li Yapeng about Yanran Angel Children’s Hospital’s unpaid rent reversed public opinion and triggered millions of yuan in donations and surge in livestream sales. The episode illuminated the power of transparency but underscored structural weaknesses in charity hospital financing and the risks of celebrity‑dependent philanthropy.

Baidu merged its Wenku document repository and Wangpan cloud storage into a single Personal Super Intelligence Business Group led by Wang Ying, reporting directly to CEO Robin Li. The consolidation aims to leverage document and personal‑file datasets to accelerate consumer AI products, drive new monetisation and tightly integrate generative features into Baidu’s ecosystem while navigating privacy and regulatory risks.

Trump’s public manoeuvres over Greenland and a vague NATO “agreement framework” have prompted European pension funds to reduce U.S. Treasury holdings, exposing how geopolitical unpredictability can transmit into markets. The episode sits alongside fresh military tensions with Iran, commodity rallies and corporate guidance shocks, underlining a fragile intersection of politics, finance and strategic resources.

Zotye Auto has launched a broad recruitment campaign for nearly 50 roles, a move tied to preparations to resume vehicle production after years of near‑hiatus following bankruptcy restructuring. Recent board changes and partial unwinding of frozen assets have improved the company’s funding outlook, but Zotye remains loss‑making and will need strategic capital and technological upgrades to mount a sustainable comeback.

Blue Arrow Aerospace has announced a three‑phase plan to make its Zhuque‑3 rocket partially reusable, achieve a rocket return and reflight this year, and scale production to 20–30 launches annually to support Chinese LEO constellations. The company also plans a Zhuque‑3A upgrade with multiple recovery modes and new 100‑ton‑class engines to lift recovered payload to about 18 tonnes.

XPeng’s vice‑president Gu Jie led talks with Dong'an Power to advance a mass‑production project and next‑generation engine development. The meeting underscores a pragmatic shift in China’s NEV sector toward supplier partnerships and diversified powertrain options to manage cost, range and competitive pressures.

Tencent announced the return of QQ Show, its legacy avatar and virtual-goods feature, on January 24. The move leverages nostalgia and the growing avatar economy, but success will depend on design updates, monetization choices and navigating China’s regulatory landscape.

Xpeng’s vice‑president Gu Jie led a delegation to Dong'an Power to discuss moving a production project into mass manufacture and cooperating on next‑generation engine technology. The meeting, attended by senior technical and commercial leaders from Dong'an, resulted in alignment on core issues and reflects a broader trend of EV makers partnering with traditional suppliers to secure hardware options and de‑risk production.

In Chongqing a growing number of retired soldiers are donating their bodies to medical science and inscribing their names together on a memorial stone, framing the act as a continuation of wartime service. Their choices illustrate how a respected cohort can influence public attitudes toward organ and body donation in China, helping supply cadavers for medical training while also reinforcing narratives of civic duty.

Denmark says it is continuing diplomatic talks with the United States over Greenland while seeking to lower tensions and avoid public escalation. At the same time, Denmark has launched a multinational NATO exercise and increased military activity on the island, highlighting the growing strategic contest in the Arctic.

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi could operate for as little as $0.20 per mile — about half the projected cost of Waymo’s next‑gen vehicles and far below current ride‑hailing and private‑car costs. The target rests on energy efficiency gains, an ‘unboxed’ manufacturing approach that trims parts, and the elimination of driver labour, but faces production, regulatory and safety hurdles before it can reshape urban mobility.

The People’s Armed Police detachment in Hechi, Guangxi, staged a patriotic 'first lesson' for 2025 recruits, using a martyr’s story, honour walls and a revolutionary memorial to instil political loyalty. The event underscores Beijing’s continued emphasis on ideological education for security forces and the PAP’s role in domestic stability, especially in ethnic minority regions.

A U.S. carrier strike group centred on USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived in the Indian Ocean as Washington bolsters forces near the Middle East amid tensions with Iran. The move reinforces deterrence and operational options but increases the risk of escalation and miscalculation in the region.

China’s 2026 conscription drive explicitly targets university students and recent graduates with relaxed age limits, financial incentives, and preferential education and employment treatments. The measures aim to attract higher‑skilled recruits to support the PLA’s modernization and to offer veterans clearer career and educational pathways after service.

A remote Xinjiang border outpost that once relied on crude winter stores is now keeping troops supplied year‑round through local cold‑chain deliveries and a small indoor "vegetable factory." The combination of improved logistics and controlled‑environment cultivation has boosted morale, shortened supply lines and exemplifies broader military logistics modernization in China's frontier regions.

Japan’s OSA security‑aid programme has expanded rapidly in scale and scope, with the 2026 budget jumping to 18.1 billion yen and recipient lists growing across the Indo‑Pacific. Originally framed as non‑lethal capacity‑building, OSA is being used to normalise overseas defence ties, create defence industrial linkages and potentially open the door to more offensive exports if legal constraints are loosened.

Guangdong has merged civil affairs and veterans affairs bureaus in multiple counties as part of a provincial push to streamline county government under the “hundreds-thousands-tens of thousands” reform. The aim is to reduce duplication, lower costs and simplify services for veterans, but success depends on deep integration of processes, personnel and oversight.

The US Navy has taken its Zumwalt-class destroyer to sea after refitting it to carry hypersonic missiles, a milestone that makes it the first US surface combatant to host such weapons. While the move advances the Navy’s long-range strike ambitions, true operational capability depends on further testing, production, and integration with targeting networks and other platforms such as Virginia-class Block V submarines.

NATO says it will hold several military exercises in the Arctic in the coming months but that these operations will not include Greenland. Political consultations between Greenland, Denmark and the United States are underway under a cooperative framework, while NATO continues to await formal directives on Arctic tasking.