エピソード
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Hello! Welcome to this edition of CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie Li.
It's still pretty early into 2025, but we have already witnessed a few record-breaking moments in Chinese film history.
China's 2025 Spring Festival box office has surpassed 11 billion yuan as of Thursday (including revenue after the 8-day holiday), ranking first globally – a landmark achievement for Chinese film industry.
Despite a quiet month at the box office in most of the world, theaters in China, on the other hand, are all about that festive Chinese New Year vibe. Cinemas are overflowing with patrons who are eager to see what wonders await them in the cinema.
The country's box office revenue during the 8-day-long holiday reached a record 9.51 billion yuan, with nationwide movie attendance hitting an all-time high of 187 million people, setting new records for the Spring Festival season.
The daily box office has exceeded 1 billion yuan for six consecutive days since January 29, when six films targeting the holiday season were released.
Spanning genres including mythology, comedy and action, the films on the top of the box office chart were all domestic productions.
In particular, an animated sequel stands as the biggest movie of the year overall — and it's not even remotely close. To say that it had a big opening would be a dramatic understatement. Over the Chinese New Year holiday, the animated film had already amassed over 4.8 billion yuan.
I’m sure you’ve guessed what it is. "Ne Zha 2”, the sequel to 2019's blockbuster "Ne Zha,” which was also among the top 5 in box office revenue in Chinese film history, has officially overtaken the record of “The Battle at Lake Changjin” at 5.775 billion yuan (USD792.86 million) to top China’s box office chart on Thursday.
The figure is still growing, standing at 6.4 billion yuan as of Friday noon. Analysts from ticketing platform Beacon even predicted that the film will potentially gross 9.5 billion yuan.
Stock price of its distributor, Enlight Media, skyrocketed 42 percent in the two trading days following the holiday break.
The sequel has also been strong on IMAX and passed Hollywood’s "Inside Out 2" (USD653 million) to become the biggest animated movie ever in a single country. This is an absolute monster in a global perspective.
"Blockbusters are back in China, in a bigger way than even the most optimistic among us could've imagined," said Rich Gelfond, CEO of Imax.
Ne Zha's story has evolved over time, from the ancientCreation of the Godsto the modern catchphrase "I am the master of my own fate." This character is deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and with the help of cutting-edge technology, Ne Zha is more alive than ever. It's a sign of national pride and a testament to how Chinese culture keeps innovating and shining brightly.
“Ne Zha 2” is just part of what is boosting China's box office right now. Last year, the entire global box office totaled USD30 billion, which was less than what Netflix alone produced in revenue.
The Chinese New Year box office topped last year's record is indeed a much-needed shot in the arm for the industry after experiencing a somewhat gloomy 2024. The desire for the big screen experience rages on.
Behind the success
Directed by Yang Yu, widely known as Jiaozi, the film features Ne Zha, a popular young hero in Chinese legends and literature such as the literary classic “Journey to the West.”
Born with unique powers, Ne Zha finds himself as an outcast who is feared and even hated. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the boy must choose between good and evil.
The success of “Ne Zha 2” goes beyond just its box office numbers - it has sparked widespread emotional connections with viewers. The movie's portrayal of complex relationships, especially familial bonds and friendships, resonates with audiences, particularly during the Spring Festival, a time when family reunion is a central theme.
For many, the film's themes of self-identity, overcoming obstacles, and finding one's purpose mirrored the personal challenges they face in their own lives.
For example, the character of Shen Gongbao, the movie's antagonist, also contributed significantly to the film's emotional impact. Many viewers expressed their emotional reactions on social media, with Shen becoming a trending topic on Sina Weibo.
In addition to the compelling narrative, the film also delivers a powerful visual experience.
Film industry experts praised the seamless integration of traditional Eastern aesthetics with “hardcore” animation techniques in the movie, which the producers of sequel are touting the film as a "dimensional upgrade" from its predecessor.
From Ne Zha diving into the sea to parting the waters in a dazzling display of power, the film raises the stakes in both scale and ambition, particularly in its complex water animations.
Redefining Chinese animation
Chen Changjiang, executive producer of “Ne Zha 2,” emphasized the importance of telling culturally rich Chinese stories requires the expertise of local teams.
As China's computer-generated imaging industry rapidly advances, homegrown teams are at the forefront, blending cutting-edge technology with deep cultural knowledge to bring iconic stories to life for both domestic and global audiences.
When speaking of its stunning visuals and universal storytelling, Chen said the team was not touching the ceiling of Chinese animation. It was touching the ceiling of film production’s visual effects technology.
The making of “Ne Zha 2” is constantly pushing the boundaries of visual effects, not treating it as an animation, but as a movie, she added.
The secret to the film’s success can be summed up in two sentences from its director. One is, "We're living in a great era that gives us the chance to do what we love." The other is, "Treat every project like it's your last, and leave no room for regrets."
With a team of over 4,000 people, 1,900 special effects shots, and three years spent perfecting just one scene, “Ne Zha 2” is a labor of love. It shows how China's animation industry has come a long way, from catching up in technology to building a thriving ecosystem.
"Chinese IPs" are quietly changing the game in global animation, bringing fresh Eastern aesthetics and cultural depth. What audiences around the world see is Chinese filmmakers telling Chinese stories with Chinese aesthetics and values.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Major provinces held first meetings after the holidays, focusing on developing new quality productive forces and improving business environment;
"Ne Zha 2" becomes China's all-time top-grossing film.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Multiple provincial-level regions across China have identified boosting technological innovation and improving the business environment as their top priorities during meetings on Wednesday, the first official working day after the Spring Festival holidays, displaying firm resolve to promote high-quality development.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Huang Kunming, Party chief of South China's Guangdong Province, said that as the largest provincial economy, Guangdong should play a leading and demonstration role in boosting the modernization of the industrial system.
Huang urged relevant departments and cities to seize and make good use of all favorable conditions to transform positive factors into development achievements and build a modern industrial system with more international competitiveness to support the construction of a prosperous and dynamic new Guangdong with abundant economic and social vitality in the months to come.
Among other things, the province will make concentrated efforts in artificial intelligence and robots so as to foster new growth drivers featuring advanced technologies, high growth rates and large industrial volume. Additionally, Guangdong will implement major special projects to strengthen the province's chip industry and strive for breakthroughs in core software.
Guangdong has a wide range of manufacturing industries, including traditional, emerging and future sectors, as well as advanced manufacturing and modern services in Guangzhou, technological innovation and high-tech industries in Shenzhen, smart home appliances in Foshan and smart terminals in Dongguan. This integration has resulted in the development of eight industrial clusters, each valued at 1 trillion yuan, according to the provincial chief.
East China's Anhui Province focused on new quality productive forces at a meeting on Wednesday. The meeting stressed the need to actively seize crucial opportunities in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, lead the development of new quality productive forces with tech innovation, and accelerate the modernization of the industrial system.
Continuously improving the business environment was also a priority in the first meetings of several provincial-level regions. For example, Shanghai's "first meeting" focused on optimizing business environment, and issued an action plan on building a world-class business environment, according to a report on Shanghai's official website.
Wang Weizhong, governor of Guangdong, said the province would spare no effort to create a market-oriented, rule-of-law-driven, internationalized and first-class business environment to accelerate the construction of world-class enterprise clusters in 2025.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Macao recorded over 4.9 million cross-border trips during the Chinese New Year holiday, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier, local authorities announced today. More than 76 percent of the 1.3 million inbound tourists were from the Chinese mainland. Meanwhile, Hong Kong welcomed around 1.4 million visitors during the holiday, which included 1.2 million visitors from the mainland, or 85 percent of the total arrivals.
Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, in cooperation with its Greater Bay Area counterparts, launched a one-stop portal on Wednesday providing guidance for renting and buying properties across the region. The platform offers “GBA housing tips” with essential information for potential homebuyers or tenants, such as each city’s property transaction and rental processes, policies and regulations, terminology explanations and comparisons, as well as cases highlighting potential risks and disputes.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu left the city for Harbin in Heilongjiang province on Thursday to attend the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games on Friday, and support the city’s athletes. Lee was invited by the Heilongjiang government to conduct a seven-day visit to the province.
Next on industry and company news
Ne Zha 2 overtook The Battle at Lake Changjin today to become the highest-grossing film in the Chinese mainland after raking in 5.78 billion yuan, according to movie info tracker Beacon. The animated fantasy adventure sequel has taken moviegoers by storm since Spring Festival, leading the lucrative Spring Festival holiday box office, and has made the highest animated grosser in a single market.
U.S. carmaker Tesla said on Wednesday that its Shanghai energy-storage battery Megafactory will start official operation next week. The construction of this Megafactory in east China was completed at the end of last year. Following its launch ceremony in May 2024, it took just seven months for the project to be completed. Trial operation began last month.
Japanese carmaker Toyota on Wednesday that it will build a wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai to develop and produce Lexus-branded electric vehicles and batteries, becoming the second carmaker to do so after Tesla. The subsidiary will start production in 2027, with initial production capacity to be around 100,000 units per year.
DeepSeek's daily active users exceeded 20 million as of Jan. 31 since its launch on Jan. 11, becoming the second most-used AI app after ChatGPT, according to data platform aicpb.Com.
IM Motors, the EV unit of SAIC Motor, announced yesterday that it is offering a limited-time discount of 30,000 yuan on the L6 electric sedan, with the discounted price starting from 189,900 yuan, from Feb. 5 to 28. While Tesla launched its biggest Chinese New Year campaign ever to provide limited-time insurance subsidies worth 8,000 yuan and five-year zero-interest loans. The revamped Model 3 is now priced from 227,500 yuan.
Huawei's overall performance met expectations last year, with ICT infrastructure remaining robust, consumer business restoring growth, and smart car solution business developing rapidly, Chairman Liang Hua said yesterday. Revenue from the smart car BU exceeded 860 billion yuan in 2024, he added.
Midea's revenue reached record 400 billion yuan last year, with retail revenue from the robotics and automation business contributed over 30 billion yuan, Fang Hongbo, chairman of the Chinese home appliance giant, said yesterday.
Over 18.2 million people traveled by air in China during the eight-day Chinese New Year holiday, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier, according to CAAC data. The daily number of international flights averaged 1,888, recovering to nearly 87 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
China's postal and courier industry has collected over 8 billion parcels since the start of the Chinese New Year travel rush on Jan. 14 as of Feb. 4, up 38 percent from a year earlier. Deliveries surged 35 percent to around 8.65 billion parcels in the period.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks rebounded sharply on Thursday with total turnover of the A-share market reaching 1.54 trillion yuan. The benchmark Shanghai Composite rose 1.3 percent and the Shenzhen Component climbed 2.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also added 1.4 percent and the TECH index jumped 2.6 percent.
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エピソードを見逃しましたか？
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Spring Festival gave travel and consumption strong boost as 8-day holiday ends;
China imposes additional tariffs on certain U.S. products starting from Feb. 10
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
As China wraps up its 8-day Spring Festival holiday celebrating the start of the Year of the Snake, the world's second-largest economy has witnessed shopping and travel booms ignited by hundreds of millions of Chinese people's family reunions.
During the holiday, over 2.3 billion passenger trips were made across regions in China. The total included approximately 96.26 million railway trips, 2.2 billion road trips, 9.35 million waterway trips, and 18.29 million air trips.
With a string of holiday-targeted domestic blockbusters bringing numerous moviegoers to cinemas across China, the country's film industry proved to be one of the biggest winners during this Spring Festival consumption spree.
China's Spring Festival box office revenue reached a record 9.51 billion yuan, with nationwide movie attendance hitting an all-time high of 187 million people, setting new records for the Spring Festival season, data from China Film Administration showed on Wednesday.
From Jan. 29 to Feb. 3, the daily box office exceeded 1 billion yuan for six consecutive days. Among the six domestically produced films, animated feature "Ne Zha 2" emerged as the undisputed leader, grossing an impressive 4.84 billion yuan.
While cinema boomed during the holiday, so did travel and leisure activities across China. According to the data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 501 million domestic trips were made during the holiday, an increase of 5.9 percent year-on-year, bringing in a total revenue of 677 billion yuan, up 7 percent year on year.
Cross border travels also saw significant increase. Data from National Immigration Administration (NIA) showed on Wednesday that border authorities across the country processed 14.37 million border crossings, in which foreign nationals’ inbound and outbound crossings totaled 958,000, marking a 22.9 percent increase year-on-year.
Consumption was another standout trend. Meituan, one of China's leading e-commerce platforms for services, reported a staggering 300 percent year-on-year increase in online reservations for Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve dinners.
Data from the People's Bank of China showed that during the first seven days of the holiday, UnionPay and online payment systems processed 22.08 billion transactions, with a total volume of 8.52 trillion yuan, up 25.7 percent and 17.1 percent year on year, respectively.
China has struck back against the executive order of US President Donald Trump to impose 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports with a series of countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs, new export controls, and a dispute filing with the World Trade Organization. China will impose additional tariffs on certain US imports starting Feb. 10, including 15 percent on coal and liquefied natural gas and 10 percent on crude oil, agricultural machinery, large-displacement vehicles, and pickup trucks, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced yesterday. Meanwhile, China has decided to add two U.S. firms, namely PVH Corp. and Illumina, Inc., to the country's unreliable entity list, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Ministry of Commerce.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Guangdong hosts its annual High-quality Development Conference today, the first working day after the Chinese New Year holiday, in Guangzhou. The conference, with a focus on building a modern industrial system and leveraging Guangdong's robust industrial base and technological prowess to drive modernization and sustainable growth, marks the third consecutive year that Guangdong has convened this significant gathering to rally efforts across the province toward high-quality development. With the course to be charted by this year's High-quality Development Conference, Guangdong aims to lead the nation in constructing a modern industrial system with greater international competitiveness, building on its GDP of 14 trillion yuan in 2024, which has maintained its top position in the country for 36 consecutive years. Apart from a plenary session, the event also features group discussions on key topics, including the transformation of traditional industries, the development of strategic emerging industries, the implementation of the "High-quality Development Project for Guangdong's Counties, Towns, and Villages," and the promotion of foreign trade, foreign investment, foreign outsourcing, outbound economic cooperation, and overseas talent attraction.
Hong Kong's economy expanded 2.5 percent last year as exports of goods and services maintained growth, according to advance estimates released by the SAR government. The region's GDP rose 2.4 percent in real terms in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
Next on industry and company news
Sales of several Chinese new energy vehicle makers surged in January despite the first month of the year being a traditional off-peak period for car sales. BYD sold 300,500 NEVs last month, up nearly 50 percent from a year earlier. BAIC BluePark sold 7,219 autos last month, up nearly five-fold from the same period last year. Sales of Huawei Technologies’ Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, including Aito, Luxeed, Stelato and Maextro, rose 6.1 percent to nearly 35,000 units in January from a year earlier. Changan Auto’s Avatr delivered just over 8,000 units last month, up 14 percent from the same period last year. Among NEV startups, Xpeng Motors delivered 30,350 units and Nio 13,863 units, up 268 percent and 38 percent, respectively, in the period. Leapmotor Technology’s deliveries more than doubled to 25,170 units.
XPeng chief executive He Xiaopeng expressed confidence in doubling annual deliveries by 2025 at the Guangdong High-quality Development Conference on Wednesday. He also announced plans to achieve L3-level autonomous driving by the second half of the year, supported by a projected R&D investment of 9.5 billion yuan, of which approximately 4.5 billion yuan will be dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Several major Chinese platforms, including Baidu Intelligent Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and 360 Digital Security, have launched the DeepSeek large model and allowed users to access DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-V3 models, after the Chinese startup's open-source artificial intelligence chatbot became a global sensation.
Enlight Media surged by the 20-percent limit today after Ne Zha 2, which the Chinese entertainment firm distributes, has so far raked in over 5 billion yuan, becoming the Chinese mainland's fourth highest-grossing film ever.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation said yesterday that it launched an investigation into Google for suspected violation of China’s anti-monopoly law.
Switching gears to financial news
China had 52 private pension fund sales agencies as of Dec. 31, compared with 37 a year earlier, according to the Asset Management Association of China. Among them, 19 were commercial banks, 25 were securities companies, and eight were independent sales institutions.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks ended mixed on Wednesday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite fell 0.65 percent, while the Shenzhen Component inched up 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 1 percent lower and the TECH index dipped 0.9 percent.
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Hello! Welcome to this edition of CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie Li.
Lately, if you go on a citywalk in Shanghai, you're bound to run into Korean tourists.
Shanghai, China’s top-tier megacity, has recently become one of the most popular destinations for South Korean sightseers.
From groups of young women posing in front of Cinderella's castle at Shanghai Disneyland to families visiting the festive markets, South Koreans are taking advantage of China's visa-free policy that became effective on November 8, 2024.
The latest Shanghai "Korean Wave" index released by online travel agency Tongcheng Travel indicates that since mid - December 2024, the number of Korean tourists arriving in Shanghai has been on a sharp rise.
By early January 2025, the number of tourists coming to Shanghai from Busan, South Korea, had increased by over 115.8% year-on-year. And Huangpu District has become the epicenter for Korean tourists in Shanghai.
“Travel to China after work”
"Travel to China after work on Friday" has reportedly become a popular key phrase and trending hashtag on South Korean social media platforms. The younger South Korean generation's travel choices are increasingly focused on short trips, such as two nights and three days. Cities in Eastern China that are closer to South Korea, such as Shanghai, Qingdao, and Dalian, naturally become the preferred weekend destinations for South Korean tourists.
These are ideal of what are known as “night owl travel destinations,” where Korean travelers can enjoy a trip to China after finishing work on Friday evening and return on Sunday or Monday.
Providing local guided tours is one of the services that are in high demand. The price per day of a Korean-speaking guide for custom tours is generally between 600 (USD82) and 2,000 yuan. If the tourist also needs a car, the price can increase on this basis by 1000-2000 yuan more.
Chinese netizens have noticed some distinct ways to spot Korean tourists. The guys often sport long overcoats paired with trendy curtain-bangs hairstyles. As for the girls, they're all about that meticulous makeup, and short skirts teamed with woolen overcoats are their top picks.
A significant number of visitors admire Shanghai for its unique fusion of traditional Chinese heritage and European-inspired elegance. Young South Koreans are finding creative ways to experience Shanghai, such as dressing in traditional Chinese Hanfu outfits for unique photo sessions at studios in Yuyuan Garden. And newlywed couples are shooting wedding photos outside the iconic Wukang Mansion.
But what's really got netizens talking is the spending power of Korean tourists. Stories like "Spending 460,000 yuan on a single meal," "Taking a taxi straight from Pudong Airport to the city center and then all the way to Disneyland from The Bund," and "Treating fruits as the main course at buffets" are doing the rounds.
So, what makes Shanghai so appealing to Korean tourists? Besides the visa-free convenience and diverse entertainment options, the most astonishing answer may be the “affordability of Shanghai.”
Yes, you heard me alright. Shanghai, as one of China's leading metropolises, has long been regarded by compatriots as one of, if not the most, pricy places in China, often jokingly referred to as having "a currency of its own."
But Korean tourists see it differently. Ctrip's data revealed that many inbound foreign travelers, especially those from Japan and South Korea, prefer to book high-star hotels. And since they spend less on transportation compared to long haul travelers from Europe and America, they’re more willing to spurge on fine dining, luxury hotels, and entertainment.
When it comes to high-end spending, Shanghai certainly has a lot to offer. Take the Shanghai Bulgari Hotel as an example. It costs USD700 per night, versus USD1,200 for a night at the Tokyo Bulgari Hotel around the same time.
This is just a tip of the iceberg. As more and more foreigners travel to China, they soon realized that enjoying an abundance of fresh fruits and meat is just one of the many understated perks of a trip to China.
On Gmarket, South Korea's largest online shopping platform, 10 kg of rice costs about 140 yuan, 1 kg of strawberries around 140 yuan, a 1.2-kg beef gift box is approximately 1,000 yuan. While in Shanghai, fruits, vegetables and meat are 4 to 5 times cheaper, and even more so for beef.
In fact, the number of overseas tourists coming to Shanghai is still on the rise. During the Spring Festival, the number of inbound travel bookings from South Korea surged by 452% year-on-year. Shanghai is clearly becoming an even more popular destination for Korean tourists, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Beyond the Korean Wave
This wave of South Korean tourists is not an isolated phenomenon. China's ongoing expansion of visa-free policies have been bringing an influx of international visitors across the country, reshaping global travel trends in recent years.
The number of inbound trips made by foreigners to China under the country's visa-free policies in 2024 doubled compared with the previous year.
Border inspection agencies across China handled 64.88 million cross-border trips by foreigners in 2024, up 82.9% from a year earlier. Among them, more than 20 million inbound trips by foreigners were made visa-free, a year-on-year increase of 112.3%, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA).
Since July 2023, China has been actively optimizing its visa-free policies to create an open and welcoming environment for travelers. By the end of 2024, China has established comprehensive mutual visa exemptions with 25 countries, implemented unilateral visa-free policies for 38 countries, and transit visa-free policies for 54 countries, including Britain, the United States and Canada.
The most recent updates to the country's visa-free transit policy that extended the permitted stay from the initial 3 days to 10 days, is expected to broaden the scope for foreign travelers to explore China's diverse culture, history, and economic development.
China's expanding visa-free network is part of its broader commitment to "high-level opening-up," a strategy emphasized at the Central Economic Work Conference in late December.
With the market effects of the visa-free policy continuing to be unleashed, as well as the further implementation of measures such as easy payments for foreigners in China, inbound travel in 2025 is expected to maintain a positive growth trend.
The stamp in each passport is not just a permit, but an invitation - an invitation for more people to experience the diverse aspects of China in person.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China rolls out medium- and long-term investment plan, with state-owned insurers to invest 30% of new premiums in A-shares from 2025;
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport becomes first in the GBA to have four runways.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Multiple Chinese government departments, including the securities regulator and the central bank, rolled out on Wednesday an implementation plan, vowing to promote inflows of medium- and long-term capital into the stock market, an effort that experts said would boost confidence and stabilize business growth.
The plan emphasized the importance of encouraging medium- and long-term investment funds - such as commercial insurance funds, the national social security fund, basic pension funds, enterprise annuity funds and public funds - to boost their presence in the stock market.
Specifically, Wednesday's plan aims to enhance the proportion and stability of commercial insurance funds that are invested in A-shares. It seeks to guide large state-owned insurance companies to expand their A-share investments (including equity funds) in both scale and proportion.
A long-term performance assessment cycle of at least three years will be introduced for state-owned insurance companies, with annual net asset returns weighted no more than 30 percent and three- to five-year performance indicators weighted at least 60 percent, the plan said.
Starting from 2025, 30 percent of new annual premiums will be allocated to A-share investments, Wu Qing, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), told a press conference on Thursday.
The second round of pilot programs for long-term equity investments by insurance funds, with a scale of no less than 100 billion yuan, will be rolled out without delay, Wu said.
According to the the National Financial Regulatory Administration today, the first batch of the pilot ran smoothly, which began in October 2023 when the bureau approved China Life Insurance and New China Life Insurance to raise 50 billion yuan to establish a private equity fund for long-term investment in yuan-denominated stocks.
Additionally, the market value of A-shares held by public funds is expected to increase by at least 10 percent annually over the next three years, Wu noted.
The plan also proposes optimizing the investment management mechanisms for the national social security fund and basic pension funds. Public funds, state-owned commercial insurance companies, basic pension insurance funds, and annuity funds should lay out and implement three-year assessments, Wu said today.
Efforts will also focus on improving the market-oriented operation of enterprise annuity funds, such as introducing long-term performance assessment guidelines for enterprise annuity funds and supporting eligible employers in exploring individual investment options for annuities.
Moreover, the plan aims to expand the scale and proportion of equity funds, and encourage listed companies to increase share buybacks and implement policies for multiple dividend distributions annually.
In 2024, over 300 listed companies, of which more than 40 percent are enterprises with a market capitalization of over 10 billion yuan, have announced plans to apply for loans for stock buybacks and shareholding increases, with the potential total amount exceeding 60 billion yuan, according to the central bank today. The PBOC also announced that it has reached agreements with nearly 800 listed companies and major shareholders on these loans.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
The fourth runway of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport officially opens today, with CZ6731 flight landed smoothly on the runway at 8:10 am. The airport becomes the first and sole airport with four runways in the Greater Bay Area, injecting fresh momentum into the economic development of the region and consolidating Guangzhou’s position as an international comprehensive transportation hub.
More than half of the talents who moved to the Hong Kong SAR through its Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) have been in employment, according to the city’s labor chief on Wednesday. The scheme received over 116,000 applications as of December last year, and approved nearly 92,000. Of those approved, more than 75,000 have already arrived in Hong Kong with their families. The talents in employment mainly took up managerial and professional jobs with median monthly employment earnings of about HKD50,000, with a quarter of them earning HKD100,000 or above.
Next on industry and company news
China's total expenditure on research and development (R&D) exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan last year, up 8.3 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
Chinese banks have approved 5.6 trillion yuan worth of loans to property projects under a mechanism to support the construction and delivery of 14 million homes, the National Financial Regulatory Administration said on Wednesday. Credit lines to “whitelisted” projects issued by commercial banks reached 5.03 trillion yuan in 2024 exceeding the target of 4 trillion yuan, and the figure further increased by 570 billion yuan to 5.6 trillion yuan as of yesterday.
CNOOC, China's largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas, said on Wednesday that production will continue to grow in 2025, with daily net production to exceed 2 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). Compared with 2024's net production total, which is estimated to be around 720 million BOE, the net production target for 2025 is between 760 million and 780 million BOE.
Switching gears to financial news
Over 310 listed companies in China likely handed year-end dividends to investors this month and the last, with a total worth of around 340 billion yuan, CSRC’s Chairman Wu Qing said today. Meanwhile, as of the end of last year, a total of 866 Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) had received investment approval, and foreign investors held about 3 trillion yuan in A-shares through QFII and the Stock Connect program. And a total of 26 foreign-controlled or foreign-invested securities companies, fund companies, and futures companies, obtained approval from Chinese regulators.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks ended mixed on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.5 percent while the Shenzhen Component slid 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 0.4 percent lower and the TECH index dropped 1.4 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Chinese vice-premier urged the world to uphold multilateralism at Davos;
China’s domestic tourist trips top 5.6 billion in 2024, generating 5.75 trillion yuan in revenue.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, making him the first senior leader from China to address global concerns about the country’s economic prospects and foreign policy priorities since Donald Trump kicked off his second term as US president.
The vice-premier emphasized that the world is undergoing rapid and unprecedented changes, with global governance facing profound adjustments. He called for the international community to promote universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, uphold and practice true multilateralism.
China is not pursuing a trade surplus and is willing to import more competitively priced high-quality products and services from abroad to promote balanced trade development, according to Ding. “Protectionism leads no where. Trade war has no winners,” he said.
Ding continued to say that the international community should jointly foster new drivers and strengths for global economic development, enhance connectivity in the digital age, promote international cooperation on scientific and technological innovation.
Ding also shared insights into the key trends shaping China's economy. He said high-quality development is making solid progress in China, and there is evident progress in the transition from traditional growth drivers to new ones, emerging and future industries are booming and new quality productive forces are taking shape at a faster pace.
China, which posted economic growth of 5 percent last year, has pledged to create more jobs, revitalize private and foreign investments and spearhead tech self-reliance to ensure resilience and counter external challenges.
The vice premier noted that this year, China will further intensify macro policies, and adopt a more proactive fiscal policy and an appropriately accommodative monetary policy.
He also called on the international community to jointly tackle major global challenges, such as climate change, food and energy security, and work together to advance the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, thereby gathering formidable strength to overcome difficulties and challenges.
Following his speech, Ding engaged in a discussion with WEF founder Klaus Schwab and met with global financiers including Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon during a private luncheon.
Ding also participated in discussions with international business leaders from companies including Siemens and ABB Group, whoexpressed strong confidence in China's future development and reaffirmed their commitments to invest in China.
Next on industry and company news
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China said on Wednesday that domestic tourism boomed in 2024, with Chinese travelers making 5.615 billion domestic trips, up 724 million from a year earlier, marking a year-on-year growth of 14.8 percent. In terms of spending, domestic tourists spent 5.75 trillion yuan in 2024, up 840 billion yuan from 2023, marking a 17.1-percent increase.
Chinese New Year's Eve dinner bookings are in high demand, with online reservations tripling year-on-year as of January 16, industry data showed. As of January 16, more than 40,000 restaurants nationwide were offering online reservations, with some allowing installment payments to secure meals and seats, data from Meituan showed.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will roll out a new round of growth initiatives for 10 key industries, and increase support for major industrial provinces and cities, officials said on Tuesday. The 10 key industries are steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, machinery, automobiles, power equipment, light industry and electronics. These industries together account for about 70 percent of the industrial added value of sectors above the designated size.
China's sales of mobile phones, tablets, and wearables soared on the first day after several regions launched trade-in programs. Sales of mobile phones and tablets increased by three to five times yesterday when regions gradually began implementing the national subsidy program, according to data released by distributors and online platforms. Manufacturers, such as Huawei, Honer and Apple, have also moved to keep their high-end products below the 6,000-yuan price cap for buyers to get the 15 percent discount offered by a new round of trade-in program.
China's new energy vehicle industry ranked first worldwide by production and sales for the 10th consecutive year in 2024, according to the country's vice minister for industry and information technology. China produced and sold 12.888 million and 12.866 million NEVs, respectively, last year. The average range of electric cars produced in China approached 500 kilometers, and the country has 12.818 million charging piles and 4,443 battery swap stations, the world's largest network.
All Chinese primary and secondary schools will have at least one VP for science to promote science education, with scientists and experts from universities, research institutes, and others encouraged to apply for the role, the Ministry of Education announced today.
Nio has assembled a team of about 20 people to research an AI robot dog project. The team is headed by Xu Kang, a former algorithm expert at autonomous driving startup Momenta, who joined Nio's self-driving division a few years ago.
ByteDance denied a report that it plans to spend up to USD12.3 billion on AI infrastructure this year, with USD6.8 billion overseas and the rest to buy AI chips in China. The company attaches great importance to AI, but the budget and plan are false, it told media today.
Earnings reports express
CATL, the world's largest battery maker, dropped nearly 4 percent in morning trading in Shenzhen after the Chinese company warned that its annual revenue fell for the first time last year and that profit grew at its slowest pace since 2019. Despite sales volumes’ growth, CATL said late Tuesday that its revenue fell between 8.7 percent and 11.2 percent last year after it adjusted product prices to reflect a decline in the price of raw materials. Net profit rose between 11.1 percent and 20.1 percent in 2024 from the previous year, marking its slowest growth since 2019. Meanwhile, CATL’s co-chairman Pan Jian revealed at the ongoing Davos forum that the firm is expected to unveil a new JV plant project with European carmakers this year.
Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology and its livestreaming e-commerce unit East Buy slumped due to weak revenue guidelines of the Chinese educational services giant. New Oriental expected its total net revenues, excluding revenues generated from East Buy private label products and livestreaming business, to range from USD1 billion to USD1.03 billion in the three months ending February, much weaker than market expectations. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-listed East Buy logged a net loss of nearly 96.8 million yuan in the fiscal first half of 2024, compared with a net profit of 160.7 million yuan a year earlier, while revenue fell 9.3 percent to 2.2 billion yuan, after the departure of its most popular live sales host Dong Yuhui in July.
Switching gears to financial news
China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 10.5 percent year-on-year in 2024, which amounted to USD143.85 billion, data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Commerce shows.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite down 0.9 percent and the Shenzhen Component sliding 0.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 1.6 percent and the TECH index dropped 2.4 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Most Chinese provinces set GDP growth targets of above 5% for 2025;
Over 200 million train tickets have been sold for 2025 Spring Festival travel rush.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Almost all of China’s 31 provincial-level regions have given economic growth goals of 5 percent or higher for this year, and some economically developed provinces are even aiming for more than 5.5 percent, according to their government work reports released during the regional Two Sessions recently convened across the country.
Xizang is the most ambitious with a growth target set above 7 percent. The western region will even strive to reach 8 percent, it said in the work report published during its Two Sessions, which are annual meetings of the region's political and legislative advisory bodies.
Hainan province in the south, Chongqing municipality in the southwest, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the west, Hubei province in central China and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north have all fixed goals of 6 percent or higher.
Only Qinghai province in the west has set its growth target at around 4.5 percent.
Guangdong, the province with the largest economy, is aiming for growth of around 5 percent, which is consistent with the target set last year. The southern province’s GDP is expected to rank first in the country for the 36th consecutive year in 2024, topping 14 trillion yuan, according to its recent government work report.
Eastern Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, which are the country’s second and third largest economies, are aiming for growth of more than 5 percent, same as last year. While other provinces with big economies, including Zhejiang in the southeast, Sichuan in the southwest and Henan and Hunan in the center of the country, have all given growth forecasts of 5.5 percent.
When it comes to how to achieve these targets, local governments have put expanding investment and bolstering consumption as their main focus this year.
The Guangdong provincial government, for example, is proposing boosting demand on all fronts, effectively unleashing the potential of consumption and investment, expanding the scope of the consumer goods trade-in and large equipment upgrade policies and spurring infrastructure construction projects in key areas, according to its work report.
Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's orbiting space station completed their mission's second series of extravehicular activities at 1.12 a.m. today, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Taikonauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze worked for 8.5 hours to complete multiple tasks.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
The London Metal Exchange has approved the Hong Kong SAR as a warehouse location for the first time as the bourse seeks a stronger link to the Chinese mainland, the world’s biggest metals market. The Hong Kong storage site will be permitted to hold the LME’s main base metals, including copper, zinc and aluminum, the LME said on Monday.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of Macao have jointly launched a direct linkage for bonds between the two SARs, demonstrating the synergistic development of the Greater Bay Area. The connection between bond market infrastructures will provide a cross-border investment and financing channel, enabling investors from one market to participate in the other with greater ease and efficiency, the two regulators said in a joint statement.
The total trade volume of Guangzhou hit 1.12 trillion yuan in 2024, up year-on-year by 3 percent. The city sold products valued at 700.55 billion yuan abroad, up 7.8 percent year-on-year.
Hong Kong will host a range of cultural and sports events to mark the upcoming Chinese New Year, with a pair of locally-born panda twins set to make their public debut on Feb 16, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday. Events such as night parade, fireworks display, horse racing and the Chinese New Year Cup football match are scheduled during the holidays. An estimated 1.4 million mainland tourists are expected to visit Hong Kong, a 14-percent increase over that of the previous year.
Next on industry and company news
China had sold 214 million train tickets for the Chinese New Year travel rush as of 9.00 a.m. yesterday, with 13.45 million trips expected nationwide, according to the country's railway operator. Additional 862 trains will be put into operation to accommodate the growing demand.
China's manufacturing industry has maintained the top position in the world in terms of overall scale for 15 consecutive years in 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday. In 2024, China's total value-added industrial output reached 40.5 trillion yuan.
Over 60,000 urban renewal projects were launched in China in 2024 as part of its ongoing efforts to transform cities into more resilient and intelligent areas that are desirable to live in, drawing a total investment of 2.9 trillion yuan, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Tuesday.
China created 12.56 million new urban jobs in 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Tuesday. In 2024, China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous year.
China's installed capacity of solar power and wind power climbed by 45.2 percent and 18 percent respectively in 2024, the National Energy Administration said, as the country seeks to ramp up renewable energy use and upgrade its power system. As of the end of December, China's total installed power generation capacity reached 3.35 billion kilowatts, up 14.6 percent year-on-year.
China's national artificial intelligence industry investment fund partnership was recently set up, billed at 60.06 billion yuan, media reported on Monday, citing company information inquiry app Qichacha. The business scope of the limited partnership covers private equity investment, investment management, and asset management.
Beijing will distribute 33 million yuan in cinema vouchers from Jan. 29 to Feb. 16 to boost the movie industry, the Beijing Municipal Film Administration announced. The China Film Administration recently launched a consumption promotion campaign with subsidies of 600 million yuan.
Xiaomi will offer free roadside assistance and provide a 500 yuan car-hailing voucher valid for five days to SU7 car owners facing breakdowns or accidents during the Chinese New Year holiday, founder and CEO Lei Jun said today. During the holiday, Xiaomi's car service stores will operate normally. Meanwhile, XiaomiAuto reportedly saw strong growth in orders in January, with estimates ranging from 37,000 to 40,000 units.
Sales of Apple iPhones dived 18.2 percent in China during the December quarter, according toCounterpoint Research. The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei, whose sales jumped 15.5 percent year-on-year.
Earnings reports express
Shares of Suning rose after the Chinese electrical appliances retailer said it expects to have swung into the black last year and post a first profit since 2020, mainly thanks to the government-backed home appliances trade-in program. Net profit was likely between 500 million and 700 million yuan last year, the company announced yesterday. That compared with a net loss of 4.1 billion yuan in 2023. After deducting non-recurring gains and losses, Suning expects its net loss to have narrowed 72 percent to 77 percent to between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion yuan. Thanks to the home appliance trade-in program, sales surged 65 percent last quarter from a year earlier. Home appliance sales in China jumped more than 12 percent to 1.03 trillion yuan in 2024.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks ended mixed on Tuesday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed 0.05 percent lower while the Shenzhen Component added 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.9 percent and the TECH index rallied 2.1 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China's 2025 film market off to strong start with over 200 million yuan in pre-sales;
Hong Kong FDI inflows hit record high in 2024.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China's advanced ticket bookings for movies set to be released during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday have reached 200 million yuan as of Monday, marking a strong start for the world's second-largest film market this year.
The annual Spring Festival holiday is one of China's most lucrative movie-going seasons, running from January 28 to February 4 this year, one day longer than in previous years.
Pre-sales began on Sunday and topped 100 million yuan as of 2:27 pm on the same day, marking the fastest 100-million yuan pre-sale total in Chinese cinema history.
Five domestic films, including the highly anticipated "Ne Zha 2," the sequel to the 2019 animated blockbuster "Ne Zha," are topping the pre-sale list for the season. All of them are set to debut on Jan. 29, the first day of the Lunar New Year, according to film data platform Beacon.
Tsui Hark's adaptation of Louis Cha's wuxia classic "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is currently leading the pre-sale box office chart with approximately 110 million yuan.
"Ne Zha 2" claimed the second spot, with advanced bookings totaling 36.5 million yuan, followed by the latest installment of the "Detective Chinatown" franchise, which garnered a pre-sale box office of 34.8 million yuan.
A number of new films have been prepared for release as the Spring Festival approaches and Chinese authorities have launched a special campaign to boost movie consumption during the festive season.
The National Film Administration launched the national film consumer benefit season recently, which runs from December 2024 to February 2025, covering major movie periods such as the New Year and Spring Festival. Several organizations are participating, and a total of no less than 600 million yuan will be allocated to subsidize movie consumption.
Online ticketing platform Tao Piao Piao under Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao is introducing movie subsidies, offering discounts between 15 and 60 yuan. JD.com is also offering a range of discount vouchers for popular movies, with no restrictions on the cinema or specific films.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with representatives from the U.S.-China Business Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other members of the U.S. business community including Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, where he will attend the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday. Han said it is hoped that US companies will continue to invest and take root in China, play an active role as a bridge, and make greater contribution to the stable, sound and sustainable development of China-US relations.
The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will be held on January 20 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland, with the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age." Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang is scheduled to attend the meeting and deliver a special address at the opening plenary, according to China's Foreign Ministry. The five-day annual meeting convenes close to 3,000 leaders from various industries around the world. A total of 350 government leaders will attend the event, according to the WEF's official website.
China's gross domestic product expanded by 5 percent in 2024, meeting the country's preset annual growth target of around 5 percent, official data showed on Friday. The country's annual GDP came in at 134.9 trillion yuan in 2024. For the fourth quarter of 2024, the Chinese economy grew 5.4 percent year-on-year, following a 4.6 percent growth in the third quarter.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Hong Kong logged a record 41 percent increase in the number of foreign direct investments in 2024, reflecting its strong appeal as leading business hub in the region. Invest Hong Kong said on Monday that it assisted 539 overseas and Chinese mainland companies to set up or expand their business in the city, represents a 41 percent increase compared to 2023. Their total investment brought in HKD67.7 billion, also a record high and a nearly 10 percent rise compared to the previous year.
Next on industry and company news
Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote overseas, rolled out a new feature in its latest update enabling users to translate posts and comments into multiple languages, the Chinese social platform said today. The update comes after many users joined the platform from TikTok. Meanwhile, TikTok's parent company ByteDance has not reached any agreement with the US government, media learned today. The short-video site resumed operations today after a 14-hour service suspension mainly because the US decided to temporarily suspend the sell-or-ban enforcement. US President-elect Donald Trump proposed a 50-percent US ownership yesterday.
Nvidia’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang arrived in Beijing yesterday to attend the Chinese New Year celebration. The US chip maker has around 1.5 million developers in the country, and its employee turnover rate is extremely low compared with other tech firms, Huang said at the event.
AliExpress, the global retail e-commerce platform of Alibaba, is reportedly aiming to expand its local currency payment support in the African market next month. The platform will accept currencies from countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda starting in February, media reported today.
Total profits of China's central SOEs reached 2.6 trillion yuan last year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council. In 2024, the total assets of central SOEs exceeded 90 trillion yuan, marking a 5.9 percent increase year-on-year. During the year, the fixed-asset investment of central SOEs, including real estate, expanded 3.9 percent year-on-year to 5.3 trillion yuan. In particular, investment in strategic emerging industries totaled 2.7 trillion yuan, marking a remarkable increase of 21.8 percent year-on-year.
Switching gears to financial news
The People's Bank of China conducted 123 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 1.5 percent on Monday. The central bank today also left benchmark lending rates unchanged for a third consecutive month.
In 2024, nearly 300 billion yuan in stock buyback and repurchase plans were announced by A-share listed companies, according to the central bank on Sunday. Since the introduction of the stock buyback and repurchase loaning program in October 2024, more than 300 listed companies have announced using bank loans for stock buybacks or repurchases, of which over 40 percent possess a market value exceeding 10 billion yuan.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks rose on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite up 0.1 percent and the Shenzhen Component gaining 0.9 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rallied back to the 20,000-point mark for the first time this year in early trading, closing 1.75 percent higher, and the TECH index climbed 2.6 percent.
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If you’re a regular user on Chinese lifestyle sharing app Xiaohongshu, you might be baffled with a flood of English-language content, which only happened overnight.
Thousands of self-proclaimed “TikTok refugees” are flocking to Xiaohongshu, or RedNote by US users, which surged to the top position on Apple’s US App Store on Tuesday, as TikTok faces a potential ban in the US.
Data research firm Sensor Tower showed that Xiaohongshu's US downloads surged more than 200 percent year-on-year this week and 194 percent last week. And the number is growing by the day.
As many US users are feeling that TikTok’s days are numbered and could be deleted from US app stores, they are looking for the next place to go. Hence an intriguing internet spectacle emerges.
Why Xiaohongshu?
Over the weekend, thousands of people began swarming to Xiaohongshu, which is known in China as a platform for travel and lifestyle content.
The newcomers, who refer to the app as the Chinese version of Instagram, are relying on translation tools to navigate Xiaohongshu’s mostly Chinese ecosystem.
Some say they are hoping to rebuild communities they had on TikTok, while others say they joined the app out of spite and to undermine the US government’s decision to ban TikTok over concerns that “the Chinese government could use the app to surveil Americans.”
The US Supreme Court is expected to decide whether the app can continue operating in the country before the January 19 deadline. TikTok plans to shut its app for US users from Sunday, unless the Supreme Court moves to block it, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The TikTok ban might have catapulted Xiaohongshu to the center of attention in the US, but the app has been successful for a long time in China.
Originally launched in 2013, the Shanghai-based company has operated one of the most, if not the most, trendy platforms in China over the past few years and boasts over 300 million monthly active users and surpassed US$1 billion in profit in 2024.
To put it simply, it’s the hottest app in China that non-Chinese people might have never heard of before.
It also has a sizable following among Chinese-speakers outside of the country, ranging from Chinese students overseas to Chinese-speaking communities in Malaysia. Restaurants, tourist hot spots, and travel companies around the world have started noticing the app because of how many Chinese tourists heavily rely on it for local information and recommendations shared by fellow Chinese people.
When these American TikTokers started looking for alternatives, Xiaohongshu offered a cozy yet exciting new home. It's like walking into a new coffee shop that has the same warm, inviting smell as your old favorite. The video interface on Xiaohongshu, with those nifty like, save, and comment buttons on the right side, bears a striking resemblance to Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese twin. Plus, the graphic and text-heavy community is somewhat similar to Instagram, another platform they were familiar with. So, it was easy for them to jump right in and start exploring.
Why not going back to Facebook or Instagram, you might wonder. One American user explained in his video that one of the things that they liked about TikTok was the authentic engagement from other users and they felt comfortable to put themselves into the videos they are sharing. They feel the same with RedNote.
“Instagram has always been a place that feels very manufactured, very fake. It’s a very toxic place. And Facebook is just where your grandparents share AI generated images of Jesus,” he said. The post has garnered over 76,500 likes as of today.
The great cross-pacific chatfest: Cat tax, English corner and more
The sudden migration of US users to Xiaohongshu has created an unlikely platform for Chinese and American users to interact with each other.
Many of the newcomers are apologizing for not knowing Putonghua and paying the "cat tax" to stay here. But Chinese Xiaohongshu users are fascinated by the influx of new voices. Most of them, especially those who speak English, are extending a welcoming hand, liking the videos posted by TikTok refugees and following their accounts. Some are taking the time to try to explain how the app works to people who find it hard to navigate due to the language barrier on the comment section.
This has ignited a vibrant and uproarious cross-cultural conversation bonanza on Xiaohongshu. American and Chinese netizens are colliding in the most delightful way, turning the platform into a global playground of ideas, laughter, and shared experiences.
"This could be a historic moment," one Chinese user commented. "It feels like so much has changed in an instant. Ordinary people from our two countries have never really connected before ... I hope everyone can take this brief chance to engage in meaningful exchanges of ideas.”
And vice-versa. An American user posted a cute video of her dog wearing a Chinese-style outfit, captioned “My best attempt at Chinese.” The comments were flooded with Chinese netizens not only complimenting the adorable pooch but also patiently correcting her Chinese.
Some Chinese users even seized the opportunity to ask for help with their English homework in a viral post that garnered over 2,000 likes. Both English and Chinese livestreaming “study groups” have sprung up all over the platform, with natives speakers helping out each other in an unprecedented wave of language learning.
These spontaneous interactions are not just random conversations. They are building bridges between two cultures, one comment at a time, and making Xiaohongshu a truly unique and special place in the social media universe.
Can Xiaohongshu handle this tsunami of traffic?
So far, Xiaohongshu has been riding this wave of new users like a pro surfer catching the biggest wave of the season, as the app has shot to the top of the free chart in the Apple App Store in the US and the keyword “RedNote” has seen a meteoric rise in Google search trends.
Companies that have a stake in Xiaohongshu, like those in the e-commerce and marketing sectors, are probably doing a little happy dance as their stock prices get a healthy boost.
On Wednesday, more than 10 companies that do business directly or indirectly with Xiaohongshu hit their daily limits on multiple stock markets. The standouts included Hangzhou Onechance Tech Corp, an e-commerce service provider in the A-share market, and Sunwave Communications, a wireless communication technology provider.
But let’s not get too exited about what’s going on. Can Xiaohongshu handle this sudden shoot to stardom? Or is the influx of English-speaking users really what the app wants?
First up, content management is like trying to herd cats. With users from different legal and cultural backgrounds, Xiaohongshu has to walk a fine line. What might be acceptable in the US might not fly in China and vice versa. The platform needs to find a balance that respects everyone's values while keeping the content engaging.
Second, it’s still early to tell if Xiaohongshu’s sudden rise to fame is going to fade soon. At least so far, pettiness and revenge appear to be the biggest motivation for people to learn how to navigate Xiaohongshu, which is overwhelmingly used by Chinese-speaking people and was not designed with English-speaking users in mind. “I have no idea what I’m doing here. I can’t even read the rules,” one TikTok refugee who goes by “Elle belle” said in a post on the app.
Indeed, Xiaohongshu isn’t actually designed for English speakers, while TikTok isn’t in China at all. One of the app’s key features is its content algorithm, which focuses on user interests rather than the people they follow. Some users say this fosters more original content and reduces the dominance of powerful influencers.
The company behind the app, Xingin Information Technology, was founded by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu and is headquartered in Shanghai. And TikTok is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance and was tailored for a global audience. TikTok is also not accessible in China, where a sister app, Douyin, serves the domestic market.
But earlier this month, Xiaohongshu revamped its video playback interface, repositioning interaction buttons and making its design increasingly similar to Douyin.
Finally, the business model needs a bit of a tune-up. American users have different consumption habits compared to their Chinese counterparts. In July 2024, Ke Nan, the COO of Xiaohongshu, positioned the app to be a lifestyle e-commerce platform. It needs some time to see whether the newcomers can really integrate into the app’s ecosystem when the initial freshness and excitement have passed before new opportunities emerge.
In the long run, Xiaohongshu still needs to find a way to get along with the newcomers. What's even more critical is how it capitalizes on this opportunity to sustain international users over the long term and reshape the global social media landscape.
The TikTok refugees' journey to Xiaohongshu has been one wild ride. It's a story of unexpected connections, cultural exchanges, and a platform's struggle to keep up with its newfound fame. Whether Xiaohongshu will be able to turn this tidal wave of traffic into a longterm success story remains to be seen.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Chinese localities roll out 2025 plans, with new quality productive forces in focus to fuel economic growth;
China's trade-in program boosts consumer goods sales by over 1.3 trillion yuan.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Chinese provinces and cities, especially economic powerhouses, have rolled out their economic work plans for 2025, with new quality productive forces, as well as scientific and technological innovation, in focus to boost high-quality growth.
South China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday released its 2025 Government Work Plan, focusing on 12 major tasks. These include the consolidation and enhancement of Guangdong's leading position in manufacturing, the building of a modern industrial system and the development of new quality productive forces, in accordance with local conditions.
According to the Government Work Plan, Guangdong will accelerate the development of emerging and future industries, as well as the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.
Efforts will be put into emerging industries such as ICs, new-energy vehicles (NEVs), AI, the low-altitude economy, new materials and biopharmaceuticals. Guangdong will cultivate future industries such as bio-manufacturing, quantum technology, embodied intelligence and 6G.
The province also vowed to advance the construction of pilot cities for intelligent connected vehicles, while improving the systems for low-altitude smart logistics, urban air transportation and emergency air rescue.
Guangdong's leading position in manufacturing is evident from signs of progress in 2024. The added value of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing accounted for 56.7 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively, of the industrial output of enterprises above a designated size.
The production of NEVs grew by 43 percent, that of industrial robots by 31.2 percent and that of ICs by 21 percent, according to Guangdong's Government Work Report.
Guangdong's GDP in 2024 is estimated to have surpassed 14 trillion yuan, marking a new milestone as it becomes the first province in China to achieve this.
Shanghai, which delivered its Government Work Report on Wednesday, said it will strengthen scientific and technological innovation capabilities in frontier fields such as cell and gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, 6G, quantum computing and fusion energy.
Shanghai's Government Work Report revealed that the scale of the municipality's three leading industries - integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence - reached 1.8 trillion yuan in 2024. Expenditure on research and development accounted for 4.4 percent of the city's GDP, which hit 5 trillion yuan last year.
Beijing on Tuesday rolled out its 2025 work plan, proposing to focus on developing and expanding high-tech industries. To achieve this goal, Beijing will accelerate the construction of a global benchmark city for the digital economy, promote deep coverage of 5G networks, and establish a comprehensive pilot zone for the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements.
Next on industry and company news
The sales revenue of consumer goods under China's policy-backed trade-in program has surpassed 1.3 trillion yuan, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed on Wednesday. Green and smart products are in high demand, with retail sales of new energy vehicles increasing more than 40 percent in 2024. The ministry said that the central government had earmarked 81 billion yuan for the consumer goods trade-in programs this year. On Wednesday night, the ministry released an announcement on trade-in programs for home appliances, which detailed 12 types of products, including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners and computers. Each subsidy should not exceed 2,000 yuan.
Tencent dismissed over 100 employees and handed more than 20 to authorities for alleged crimes, including commercial bribery, embezzlement, or other serious illegal acts last year, according to the Chinese tech giant's annual anti-fraud report released today.
Douyin denied rumor that it has opened registration to international users, media reported. Douyin complies with relevant laws and regulations and requires real-name identity verification for registration, according to informed sources. Douyin’s sister app TikTok is expected to be banned in the US from Jan. 19 if its owner ByteDance does not sell the short-video platform. As a result, many users with IP locations overseas recently started turning to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform known as RedNote overseas.
China's smartphone market rebounded last year after two years of falling shipments. Annual shipments increased 4 percent to 285 million units from 2023, driven by manufacturers' strategic investments and technological innovations, according to analyst firm Canalys today. Domestic brand Vivo led the market with 49.3 million shipments, up 11 percent year-over-year, capturing a 17 percent market share. Huawei ranked second with 46 million shipped units, a 37 percent year-over-year increase, representing a 16 percent market share. Apple secured third place, followed by Oppo and Honor in fourth and fifth positions, each of them holding a 15 percent market share.
Earnings reports express
China Merchants Bank and China Industrial Bank, two of China’s leading commercial banks, posted positive results for 2024 on Wednesday after major Wall Street banks reported second-highest profits in history. CMB expects its annual net profitto be 148.4 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent, while revenue stood at 337.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 0.47 percent. Notably, the bank’s fourth quarter revenue was 84.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 7.6 percent, reversing a five-quarter decline in revenue growth. CIB achieved a total profit of 87.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.31 percent. Its net profit stood at 77.2 billion yuan, up 0.12 percent.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks rose on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and the TECH index both climbed 1.2 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China’s new bank loans in December beat forecasts as government support kicks in;
Guangdong targets 2025 GDP growth of around 5%.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Chinese banks extended 990 billion yuan in new yuan loans in December, up from November and outpacing analysts’ forecasts as government stimulus measures slowly spur credit demand.
Financial institutions offered 18.09 trillion yuan of new loans in 2024, according to data released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday. It was lower than the previous year’s volume of 22.75 trillion yuan, representing the first annual drop in 13 years.
Aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, rose 32.26 trillion yuan, less than the 35.59 trillion yuan recorded in 2023, PBOC figures showed.
Broad M2 money supply grew 7.3 percent from a year earlier in December, faster than the 7.1 percent growth the month prior.
The narrower M1 money supply fell 1.4 percent in December from a year earlier, from a 3.7 percent drop in November.
Outstanding yuan loans grew 7.6 percent in December from a year earlier, slightly slower than 7.7 percent in November.
The data also showed that outstanding social financing stood at 408.34 trillion yuan at the end of last month, up 8 percent year on year.
Xuan Changneng, deputy governor of the PBOC, said at a press conference on Tuesday that China's overall monetary policy has yielded positive results in 2024. He highlighted that the year-on-year growth of social financing, the M2 and yuan loans surpassed the nominal economic growth rate.
Xuan also indicated that the PBOC will implement a moderately loose monetary policy this year. A comprehensive use of monetary policy tools, such as interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio, will be employed to ensure ample liquidity and an accommodative financing environment, he said.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
China's manufacturing heartland Guangdong province has set a GDP growth target of about 5 percent for 2025, Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong said Wednesday. Despite mounting external pressures and internal challenges, the GDP of the southern province was estimated to surpass 14 trillion yuan in 2024, topping the country for 36 consecutive years, said Wang as he delivered a government work report at the annual session of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress. Total import and export volume has exceeded 9 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.8 percent, contributing 38.7 percent to the national increase. Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link opened to traffic in 2024, with average daily traffic volume over 80,000 vehicles. Traffic volume of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge increased by 90 percent, with more than 4.5 million Hong Kong and Macao vehicles heading north. Guangdong's regional innovation capacity has ranked first in China for 8 consecutive years. The R&D expenditure of Guangdong reached about 510 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for 3.6 percent of its GDP.
Hong Kong recorded steady growth in visitor arrivals in 2024, the city’s tourism chief said on Wednesday, putting the number of whole-year visitor arrivals at close to 45 million. After the resumption of the multiple-entry Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), the number of mainland visitor arrivals in December exceeded 3.1 million, averaging over 100,000 people per day, which is 17 percent higher than the daily average in the previous month.
Next on industry and company news
China's second domestically-built large cruise ship completed hull assembly on Tuesday, marking the start of its rapid construction phase. The cruise is slated for delivery in 2026. From dock assembly to hull integration, the process took just nine months — two months faster than its predecessor, Adora Magic City. The hull of the ship measures 341 meters in length and 37.2 meters in width and it has been named Adora Flora City.
Moutai’s net profit rose 10.2 percent to 120.7 billion yuan last year from the prior one, while revenue jumped 13.3 percent to 187 billion yuan, the Chinese liquor giant said today. Investment in R&D climbed 11 percent, it added.
Jensen Huang has reportedly arrived in Shenzhen for employees’ annual Lunar New Year celebrations held at Nvidia’s Shenzhen base on Wednesday. Huang also planned to visit Shanghai and Beijing, media reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The chief of the US chip giant has embarked on a trip to China this week at a time when Beijing is investigating the company’s domestic presence and Washington is slapping new curbs on the sale of its AI chips abroad.
Manufacturing giant Foxconn and Shenzhen-based humanoid robot company UBTECH announced on Wednesday that the two companies will establish a strategic partnership to advance the integration of UBTECH's humanoid robots into Foxconn's intelligent manufacturing processes.
Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor launched three new electric models under its Maxus brand, the Dana V1, the V70, and the V90, in Israel yesterday. The Maxus brand debuted in the Israeli market in 2021.
Shanghai authorities had preliminary talks with Taylor Swift’s team about the possibility of her holding a concert in the city, Zhang Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, told media yesterday. “We are optimistic, there may be hope for this year,” he added.
Switching gears to financial news
The PBOC on Wednesday injected a net 958.4 billion yuan of cash via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements in daily open market operations, a near-historic amount of short-term funds into its financial system, dialing up liquidity support amid a cash squeeze with the new year holiday looming.
China's cross-border receipts and payments by non-banking sectors, including firms and individuals, rose 14.6 percent to a record high of USD14.3 trillion last year from the prior one, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange yesterday. China's commercial banks saw a forex settlement deficit of USD110.3 billion in 2024.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite down 0.4 percent and the Shenzhen Component closing 1 percent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and the TECH index each added 0.3 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Spring Festival travel rush begins with record 9 billion trips expected;
China's NEV production and sales surpass 12 million each, leading globally in 2024 for the 10th year.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
As the Spring Festival draws near, Chinese travelers packed into cars, trains and planes on Tuesday, kicking off the landmark chunyun, the world's largest annual human migration.
Chinese authorities expect an unprecedented 9 billion inter-regional trips during this year's chunyun, or Spring Festival travel rush. The 40-day travel period began on Tuesday and will continue through Feb. 22.
Over 510 million passenger trips will be handled by the country's railways during the period, with an average of 12.75 million trips daily, an increase of 5.5 percent compared with the previous year. About 10.3 million train trips are expected to be made on Tuesday.
A total of 75.74 million railway tickets had been sold as of 4pm on Sunday since the start of Spring Festival travel ticket sales on December 31, 2024, media reported.
China State Railway Group plans to operate more than 14,000 passenger trains daily, providing an additional 500,000 seats per day. Ahead of the Spring Festival travel rush, a total of 185 new Fuxing bullet trains had been put into service nationwide, capable of reaching speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile, China's civil aviation sector is set to handle a record of 90 million passenger trips during the holiday travel season. The sector will operate an average of 18,500 flights per day, an 8.4 percent increase from 2024.
This year, road trips are also expected to dominate the annual travel rush, accounting for about 80 percent of all inter-regional journeys. An estimated 7.2 billion road trips are projected, with highways likely to experience record-breaking single-day traffic peaks.
As passengers have been packing their bags to embark on reunion trips filled with joy, observers predict that the upcoming holidays will see a consumption spree, which is set to provide a vivid display of the vitality and dynamism of "an economy on the move."
Bookings for domestic and overseas tours have also doubled year-on-year during the Spring Festival holidays, data from trip.com showed. In particular, bookings for trips to Hong Kong soared 73 percent year-on-year, while those to the UK, Spain, Italy, France and Iceland jumped 56 percent, 74 percent, 50 percent, 49 percent and 108 percent, respectively.
China recorded a total of 610 million entries and exits in 2024, marking a 43.9 percent year-on-year increase, according to the National Immigration Administration on Tuesday. The number of foreign nationals entering the country without a visa reached 20.115 million, presenting a year-on-year increase of 112.3 percent.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Hong Kong passport-holders visiting Saudi Arabia will be eligible for visa-on-arrival at designated ports, starting this Wednesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has announced. The new arrangement includes multiple entry visas with a maximum stay of 90 days. Meanwhile, visa-free stays for Saudi passport holders in Hong Kong will be extended from 30 to 90 days.
Next on industry and company news
China's new-energy vehicle (NEV) output and sales in 2024 each exceeded 12 million, topping global rankings for the 10th consecutive year, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on Monday. In 2024, NEV production and sales reached 12.89 million and 12.87 million units, up 34.4 percent and 35.5 percent year-on-year, with sales accounting for 40.9 percent of total new car sales, up 9.3 percentage points from the previous year. NEV exports rose 6.7 percent to 1.28 million, maintaining global leadership.
China’s instagram-like app Xiaohongshu topped the most downloaded apps in the US as the TikTok ban closes. The social media platform, also called Red Note by US users, becomes the most downloaded free mobile applications in the United States in Apple’s App Store, according to the latest ranking. Shares in several marketing agencies related to Xiaohongshu, including BlueFocus, KAISA Jiayun Technology, Shunya International, and Insight Brand Marketing Group, surged over 10 percent today.
Leapmotor expects to have turned a profit in Q4 last year, achieving its single-quarter profit goal a year ahead of schedule, it said in an earnings forecast yesterday. If it hits the milestone, Leapmotor will be only the second Chinese NEV startup in the black after Li Auto.
Switching gears to financial news
China’s financial institutions offered 18.09 trillion yuan of new loans in 2024, according to data released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday. It was lower than the previous year’s volume of 22.75 trillion yuan, representing the first annual drop in 13 years.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks surged on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite jumping 2.5 percent and the Shenzhen Component rising 3.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also closed 1.8 percent higher, and the TECH index rallied 3.1 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China will allocate more forex to assets in Hong Kong, PBOC chief says at the Asian Financial Forum;
China's foreign trade hits new high in 2024.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China will significantly increase the proportion of the its foreign exchange reserves allocated to assets in Hong Kong, said People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng on Monday.
Speaking at the Asian Financial Forum, Pan outlined four key priorities to support Hong Kong's role as an international financial center, including enhancing financial market connectivity between the mainland and Hong Kong.
He also highlighted the importance of a thriving capital market for Hong Kong's financial ecosystem, with plans to collaborate on macro-prudential and financial stability measures. The central bank aims to facilitate more high-quality companies listing and issuing bonds in Hong Kong while deepening financial cooperation in the Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong will launch a new yuan-denominated trade finance scheme and expand the hours and scope of its Bond Connect program for Chinese mainland investors, Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said at the forum.
Beijing will support Hong Kong in the launch of the trade finance scheme using 100 billion yuan in currency swaps for one, three and six months, Yue told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.
The PBOC and the HKMA have a currency swap arrangement for a total 800 billion yuan.
Under the new facility, banks can exchange their Hong Kong dollars for yuan funding with the HKMA at interest rates linked to onshore rates, providing banks in the SAR with a stable source of relatively lower-cost yuan funds, Yue said.
The HKMA and the PBOC are also working to implement the linkage of the mainland’s Internet Banking Payment System and the SAR’s Faster Payment System.
This linkage can support residents in both places in making real-time, small-value, cross-boundary remittances, by entering the recipient’s mobile number or account number, the HKMA said, adding that some services are expected to be launched around mid-2025.
At the same forum, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the city plans to further boost competitiveness as an international asset and wealth management center, as well as exploring new opportunities including setting an international gold trading center.
The government is set to relax the requirements of the invest entrant scheme this March to attract more top-tier global businesses and talent and to expand joint asset projects with mainland financial markets, including strengthening Bond Connect trading, said Lee.
The Asian Financial Forum, organized by the Trade Development Council, drew about 3,600 business leaders, policymakers and specialists from more than 50 countries and regions to discuss ways for empowering the next growth engines of the world.
China's exports surged to a record high in 2024, providing a much-needed boost for the economy as the prospect of biting tariffs imposed by US President-elect Donald Trump looms. The total value of China's foreign trade reached a record high of 43.85 trillion yuan in 2024, marking a 5 percent year-on-year growth, statistics from the General Administration of Customs showed. China's exports amounted to 25.45 trillion yuan last year, reflecting a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase, while imports totaled 18.39 trillion yuan, marking a 2.3 percent rise compared to the previous year.
China will further implement the special campaign to stimulate consumption, actively expand imports and attract foreign investment this year, according to a national commerce work conference held in Beijing from Saturday to Sunday. The country will step up efforts to implement the consumer goods trade-in program. More diversified consumption scenarios will be created, and service and digital consumption will be promoted. In terms of foreign trade, China will actively expand imports, develop cross-border e-commerce and green trade, and promote trade digitalization. To attract foreign investment, China will expand voluntary and unilateral opening up in an orderly manner, give full play to the role of national economic development zones in attracting foreign investment, and improve services for foreign enterprises.
Next on industry and company news
BYD will release the Sealion 07 in Japan, its fourth model in the country after launching the ATTO3, the Dolphin, and the Seal since January 2023. The Chinese carmaker's sales in the Japanese market surged 54 percent to 2,223 units last year from the prior one.
The transaction volume of China's data market likely topped 160 billion yuan last year, up 30 percent from the year before, according to the National Data Administration. The number of data center racks in use exceeded 2.11 million by Sept. 30.
China’s Ministry of Education today said it plans to approve 14 new undergraduate colleges, including Fuyao University of Science and Technology. Established by Cao Dewang, chairman of Chinese glass firm Fuyao Group, the university is a non-profit, public welfare institution, with an initial investment of 10 billion yuan.
Air Serbia and Trip.com Group are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday after a new route was launched. According to the MoU, besides cooperation in ticket distribution, other areas of collaboration will include jointly developing tourism routes and products, and promoting Serbian tourism resources and culture through the Trip.com platform to attract more Chinese tourists.
Switching gears to financial news
China today raised the macro-prudential adjustment parameter, a multiplier that decides the upper limit of outstanding cross-border financing available to an institution, from 1.5 to 1.75, effective immediately, according to the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks closed down on Monday with total turnover dropping below the 1-trillion-yuan mark since Sep 25. The benchmark Shanghai Composite dipped 0.2 percent while the Shenzhen Component ended flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also closed 1 percent lower, and the TECH index fell 0.9 percent.
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China's film industry closed 2024 with a total box office revenue of 42.5 billion yuan, according to data from the National Film Administration.
Compared with 2023's 54.9 billion yuan, box office revenue has slumped by almost a quarter. Of that, box office revenue of domestic films totaled 33.44 billion yuan, plunging 27.3% from 46 billion yuan in 2023.
The year was a roller-coaster ride, starting with an upbeat Spring Festival peak that reaped 8 billion yuan in takings, topping previous periods and accounting for nearly one-fifth of ticket revenue for 2024.
However, the May Day, summer vacation and National Day holiday periods, only slightly surpassed, or even fell below, earnings for 2023.
But it wasn't just about the money: 1.01 billion moviegoers flocked to the theaters, creating a wave of enthusiasm that swept across the nation.
Despite the revenue decline, the Chinese film market staged a vibrant show in 2024, bustling with activity and brimming with surprises.
Domestic films were the clear champions, gobbling up 78.68% of the total box office pie, which translated to a staggering 33.44 billion yuan. Among the over 70 films that breached the 100-million-yuan revenue mark, a whopping 55 were homegrown productions.
Comedy emerged as the darling of the 2024 film scene. The top three highest-grossing films, Yolo, Pegasus 2 and Successor, were all laced with comedic charm. Each of these films pocketed over 2.4 billion yuan, and together, they led the charge in a comedy-dominated year. The total box office of comedy films in 2024 was over 20 billion yuan, almost half of the entire market share.
Unlike 2023, where all 10 of the highest-earning films were Chinese titles, two imported blockbusters secured spots in the top 10 list. Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire took ninth position, while Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron, which won an Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Film, claimed the 10th spot.
Overall, imported films experienced a resurgence in China. Their box office revenue accounted for 21.3% of total earnings, and was the highest share by foreign films in five years. Hollywood scored commercial success with space thriller Alien: Romulus, superhero film Venom: The Last Dance, the Marvel action-comedy Deadpool & Wolverine, and the sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two.
New Tricks in the Cinema Bag
The integration of other forms of entertainment into cinemas emerged as a key trend in 2024. Events such as "cinema + sports" and "cinema + concerts" gained traction, transforming theaters into multi-function venues.
During the Paris Olympic Games in the summer of 2024, over 800 theaters hosted 2,300 viewing events, drawing 56,000 attendees and generating 2.4 million yuan in ticket sales, with the single day box office for the table tennis mixed doubles final hitting 1.12 million yuan.
Similarly, concert films like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour brought fans together for immersive experiences. For many, the cinema's high-definition screens and powerful audio systems offered a compelling alternative to live concerts, combining convenience with emotional resonance.
Wanda Cinema, not to be left behind, ventured into uncharted territory by collaborating with game IPs like "League of Legends" and "Genshin Impact" to livestream game competitions, concerts, and even New Year's Eve countdowns. These innovative moves were like a breath of fresh air, redefining what a trip to the cinema could be.
Yet another highlight of 2024 was the growing "film + tourism" trend, which bridged the gap between cinematic storytelling and real-world exploration. Iconic filming locations such as Shanghai, Chongqing, Hunan and Sichuan became popular tourist destinations, blending the charm of cinema with local culture.
For instance, White Snake: Afloat brought fresh perspectives to summer tourism in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province while That Untold Story attracted honeymooners to the picturesque Yulong Snow Mountain in Yunnan Province. Meanwhile, Shanghai's "city walks" saw increased popularity following the release of Her Story.
This synergy between film and tourism not only enriched visitor experience but also boosted local economies and cultural heritage preservation.
A Challenging but Promising 2025
The decline in box office in 2024 was driven by multiple factors. These include insufficient supply of high-quality films, the absence of blockbusters, and the diversification of entertainment options such as short videos and the summer Olympic Games.
A total of 612 feature films were produced last year, down from 792 in 2023. The fall in offerings reflects ebbing investment and output capacity in the industry.
China’s drop in box office revenue is not a global anomaly, as in the United States, the world’s largest movie market, receipts were down 5.6% year-over-year. According to ProdPro, which tracks production data, the number of projects actively filming fell by 17% globally in July to September 2024, compared to the same period in 2022, as the industry continues to reel from the impact of 2023’s disruptive Hollywood strikes.
Theaters are struggling around the world as people opt to watch more movies at home and new phenomena, like so-called microdramas — minute-length vertical shows released episodically— gain popularity.
In a year filled with challenges for the film industry, China once again underscored its crucial role by contributing over 20% of global box office in 2024, enhancing its status as the second-largest international movie market.
Construction of cinema facilities also surged ahead. A total of 4,658 new screens were installed in 2024, catapulting the country's total to 90,968, the highest amount in the world.
The box office would probably still continue to grow over the next few years “due to the enormous size of China’s population”, according to USC’s Fenton.
As the curtains closed on 2024, all eyes were on the 2025 Spring Festival film schedule. Six exciting films were already lined up for release, creating a palpable sense of anticipation. The fantasy epic Creation of the Gods II: Demonic Confrontation and martial arts fare The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero, both set to be released during the peak Lunar New Year season at the end of January, could revive box office sales.
Box office growth in 2025 will depend on boosting high-quality content and attracting more audiences back to theaters. The market is confronted with a generation of young audiences who are more accustomed to consuming video content on the internet. Chinese filmmakers should refine their storytelling skills and elevate their artistic creations to produce higher-quality work, film critics noted.
As the world film industry celebrated its 130th anniversary and the Chinese film industry its 120th anniversary in 2025, the stage was set for more cinematic magic, innovation, and record-breaking moments in the Chinese film landscape.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China’s December CPI rises 0.1% year-on-year, while PPI down 2.3%;
PBOC will issue bills worth 60 billion yuan in Hong Kong on Jan 15.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China's consumer prices increased modestly in December while factory-gate prices saw a slowdown in annual declines, official data showed on Thursday.
The country's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose by 0.1 percent year-on-year in December after a 0.2 percent rise in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said. China's full-year inflation rises 0.2 percent in 2024, in line with the previous year's pace.
Within the CPI, food prices dropped 0.5 percent year-on-year in December versus a 1 percent annual growth in November. Meanwhile, non-food prices posted a 0.2 percent rise compared with a year earlier in December.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI remained unchanged, following a 0.6 percent decline in November.
China's producer price index, which gauges factory-gate prices, dropped by 2.3 percent from a year ago in December, narrowing from a 2.5 percent fall in November.
On a month-on-month basis, the PPI dropped 0.1 percent in December after a 0.1 percent rise in November.
Dong Lijuan, an NBS statistician, attributed the year-on-year CPI growth to the smooth functioning of the consumer market, while the factory-gate prices declined due to factors including December being the traditional offseason for production for some industries and the international commodity price fluctuations.
Meanwhile, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC), China’s state economic planner, vows to expand domestic demand on all fronts this year.
In an article he published in the state-backed newspaper People’s Daily today, Zheng wrote that the NDRC would push the implementation of major national strategies and the construction of security capacity in key areas faster and step up efforts on the replacement of existing equipment and devices.
The NDRC would also implement special schemes to boost consumption to integrate consumption promotion with livelihood benefits closely. The goal is to maintain stable economic growth and stabilize employment and prices in general, said Zheng.
To achieve the target, the NDRC would strengthen counter-cyclical policies, put outstanding policies in place, and introduce timely and practical measures, Zheng added.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
China plans to issue the biggest ever central bank bills in Hong Kong on Jan. 15. The People's Bank of China said Thursday it will issue 60 billion yuan worth of bills with maturity of six months. The move aims to enrich yuan-investment products with high credit ratings in Hong Kong and improve the yield curve of yuan in the region, the central bank said.
Hong Kong will send its largest-ever delegation of 74 athletes to the 2025 Asian Winter Games, which will be held in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, from Feb 7 to 14. They will compete in figure skating, short track speed skating, alpine skiing, speed skating, ice hockey, and for the first time, curling — a sort of bowls on ice.
Next on industry and company news
Tencent's instant messaging and social media app WeChat was removed from the United States Trade Representative's 2024 "notorious markets" list for the first time after being included twice in 2022 and 2023, according to the latest list released today.
The loss of China's civil aviation industry shrank 20.6 billion yuan last year from the one before, achieving an overall turnaround to profitability, according to official data. The number of international passenger flights increased to 6,400 per week in 2024, recovering to 84 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.
Alibaba Cloud launched its upgraded AI programming assistant Tongyi Lingma yesterday, aiding human programmers in completing multi-file coding tasks through conversational collaboration with the support of VS Code and JetBrains IDEs development tools.
TCL Technology Group is expecting its sales in North America to soar 30 percent in 2025 from last year, thanks to the recent restructuring of the firm’s supply chain and the optimization of its product portfolio, the chairman of the Chinese television manufacturer said. Last year, the firm’s US business should have grown by 20 percent, Li Dongsheng told media at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
BYD unveiled the Xia yesterday, its new multi-purpose vehicle part of its Dynasty series. Priced from 249,800 to 309,800 yuan, the auto comes with the DiPilot 100 intelligent driving assistance system as standard.
Merck Sharp & Dohme’s quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine has become the first jab against HPV that has been approved for use on men in China, the US pharmaceutical giant said yesterday.
Switching gears to financial news
Alibaba's Tmall has allied with UnionPay to ease users receiving government subsidies through the latter's Cloud QuickPass, becoming the first e-commerce platform providing such a service. This will be first tested in China's Sichuan province before expanding nationwide.
Bridgewater Associates widened its lead over global peers in China by around 40 percent last year, after its multi-asset strategy’s stable returns attracted more wealthy local clients in a volatile market. The US giant’s Shanghai-based private fund management arm boosted assets under management to more than 55 billion yuan as of Dec. 31, media reported today.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks closed mixed on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite slid 0.6 percent while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.2 percent while the TECH index edged up 0.1 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
China will boost funds from treasury bonds to support trade-in program;
More than 3,600 global business leaders are attending Asian Financial Forum in HK next week.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China will expand the scope of consumer goods trade-in program, and increase funding support for equipment upgrades through loan interest discounts, the country's economic planner said on Wednesday, as the world’s second-largest economy is deepening efforts to boost domestic demand.
The total scale of the ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support the replacement of existing equipment and devices will “increase significantly” compared to last year, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Wednesday.
Support will be expanded to cover more areas including electronic information and protected agriculture, with focuses on high-end, intelligent and green equipment, it said.
In 2024, China allocated 300 billion yuan out of the proceeds from the ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to subsidize the trade-ins.
To ensure the delivery of subsidies, the central government has recently earmarked 81 billion yuan for the consumer goods trade-in program this year, said the Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, in response to actual needs, the number of air conditioners eligible for subsidies per consumer will be increased from one to three.
The state economic planner also introduced that home appliances enjoying subsidies for trade-in, increased from 8 categories last year to 12 categories, with a maximum subsidy of 20 percent of the sales price for a single piece.
The NDRC also repeated that the subsidies for new digital products such as smartphones will be rolled out again, to “especially meet the public demand”.
Each consumer will be offered a subsidy of 15 percent of the selling prices when buying smartphones, tablets and smart bracelets, while the eligible products should not be sold higher than 6,000 yuan per piece. Each consumer is allowed to only one piece of each eligible product type, with the subsidy of up to 500 yuan per device.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
More than 3,600 financial and business heavyweights from around the world will gather in Hong Kong to attend the 18th Asian Financial Forum (AFF) on Jan 13 to14 to explore global investment trends, challenges and opportunities. Themed “Powering the Next Growth Engine”, the region’s first major international business gathering in 2025 will focus on analyzing business growth points, artificial intelligence (AI), the establishment of family offices, green and sustainable development, and Islamic finance, with the aims of stimulating growth momentum and promoting global cooperation amid a shifting global economic landscape.
China’s State Council has given the all-clear for a new international airport in Guangdong to ease congestion and help the region become an international cargo hub. The new facility will serve cities west of the provincial capital Guangzhou, diverting flights from three other airports in the Pearl River Delta area. The Pearl River Delta Hub (Guangzhou New) Airport, slated to start operations in 2028, plans for a yearly throughput of 30 million trips in 2035 and twice that flow by 2050, according to the province’s official website.
The Airport Authority of Hong Kong sold HKD18.5 billion of bonds in the largest-ever issuance in the financial hub’s local currency. The 3-year, 5-year, 10-year and 30-year notes are priced with yieldings of 4.05 percent, 4.1 percent, 4.25 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, late Tuesday. The notes received HKD25.3 billion of bids, all from Asia, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Next on industry and company news
The Ministry of Natural Resources said Wednesday that China's lithium reserves have increased from 6 percent to 16.5 percent of the global total, propelling it from sixth to second place in the world rankings, after a world-class spodumene-type lithium belt spanning 2,800 kilometers in west China has been discovered.
China's parcel delivery shipments surged 21 percent to 174.5 billion last year from a year earlier, with revenue rising 13 percent to 1.4 trillion yuan, the State Post Bureau said today.
Xpeng AeroHT showcased a modular land aircraft carrier at the CES 2025. The flying car subsidiary of Chinese NEV startup Xpeng Motors is building a manufacturing base, with plans to begin mass production and delivery of its flying car next year.
The BYD Hefei, the firm's third car carrier, was delivered and set sail yesterday. The 199.9-meter-long and 38-meter-wide clean energy ro-ro ship features 7,000 standard parking spots and utilizes advanced LNG dual-fuel tech, cutting carbon emissions by 30 percent to support diverse shipping routes.
Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao launched a “send gift” feature, following WeChat’s lead, allowing users to buy eligible products and gift them to others by sending a QR code. Recipients will have 24 hours to accept the gift before it expires.
Switching gears to financial news
China's foreign exchange reserves totaled 3.2024 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of December 2024, down by 63.5 billion dollars, or 1.94 percent, compared to the end of November last year, as the U.S. dollar index climbed while global financial asset prices declined last month.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks ended mixed on Wednesday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite edged up 0.02 percent while the Shenzhen Component slid 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 0.9 percent and the TECH index lost 1.1 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
The NDRC urges local governments to increase cross-regional market connectivity;
Chinese tech giants refute US “Section 1260H” list inclusion.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China’s state economic planner asked all local governments to act under the same standards to eliminate cross-regional restrictions in market entry, aiming to accelerate their integration into the unified national market and actively support its development.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a trial about “Guidelines for the Construction of a National Unified Market” in a briefing on Tuesday.
The move is part of the efforts to implement the key tasks outlined at the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2024, which emphasized the importance of formulating a guideline for building a unified national market.
The guideline outlined key measures including unifying the underlying institutions and rules of the market, improving the high-standard market infrastructure connectivity, building a unified market for factors and resources, advancing the high-standard integration of goods and services markets, enhancing fair and unified regulation, and curbing unfair market competition and improper intervention.
Among the proposed measures, the NDRC urged all regional governments not to use administrative and criminal means to intervene in economic disputes and shall not carry out law enforcement or exercise jurisdiction outside of their administrations, which would violate the law.
The NDRC has also requested that local governments should not restrict the free flow of commodities and production factors across regions, and should not set unreasonable limitations to exclude, restrict or prohibit local business entities from supplying commodities and services to other regions.
The local governments should also refrain from strengthening the protection of local products or specific products in the form of targeted subsidies, local recommendation catalogs, etc., as well as restricting the entry of products from other areas into the local market.
The NDRC also proposed to accelerate the development of a unified capital market and to strengthen information sharing with capital market-related institutions and interconnection with bank credit information.
Rescuers are braving freezing temperatures in combing through rubble in their search and rescue of survivors after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted a county in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region on Tuesday morning. Ninety-five people have been killed and 130 others injured as of 4 pm today. The Finance Ministry has allocated 100 million yuan to support rescue, relief and rebuilding work in quake-stricken areas.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Hong Kong eased some requirements of its revived investor visa schemes to attract more millionaires, with measures effective from March 1. The government will allow the investment made by an applicant through a wholly-owned eligible private vehicle to be calculated into the amount of the required investment, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and Invest Hong Kong announced on Tuesday. Officially launched in March 2024, the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme raised the investment threshold to HKD30 million from HKD10 million before being suspended.
Shenzhen Airport’s passenger throughput reached 20,400 people on Dec. 22, setting a new single-day record high since the full resumption of border crossings after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the city’s border inspection authorities yesterday. The passenger throughput at the airport doubled to a five-year high of 5.5 million last year from the previous one, ranking among China’s top airports.
Next on industry and company news
Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings on Tuesday refuted its inclusion on a US blacklist over allegations of aiding Chinese military, stating that the “inclusion on this list is clearly a mistake.” According to a document published by the US Department of Defense, it added Tencent Holdings, leading battery maker CATL and artificial intelligence software company SenseTime, among a number of other Chinese companies, to its “Section 1260H” list of firms allegedly linked to China’s military. SenseTime also expressed its strong opposition to the decision, saying that it is entirely unfounded and will not have a substantial effect on the company’s business. CATL also called the designation a mistake, saying it "is not engaged in any military related activities.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun today urged the US “to immediately lift its illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against Chinese companies” during a routine press conference.
Xiaomi raised the cash prize of its annual Million Dollar Technology Award to 10 million yuan and awarded it to the engineer team that developed HyperEngine V8s for the SU7 electric car, Chairman Lei Jun said today.
JD.Com launched a housekeeping business recruitment plan for 100,000 cleaning staff from hundreds of counties and thousands of towns in China, with plans to expand its housekeeping services to 100 cities and invest 1 billion yuan to improve workers' earnings and experience by the end of this year, the Chinese e-commerce giant said today.
Switzerland's Roche and other pharmaceutical companies are churning out their influenza drugs in China as a massive flu outbreak sweeps across the country during the cold winter months. Sales of flu drugs have soared more than two-and-a-half times in the last month on certain drug purchasing platform.
China's southeastern province of Fujian will reward its top travel agencies with up to 600,000 yuan each to boost tourist arrivals from areas such as the Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan province, as well as foreign countries. Local travel agencies that are among the top 10 in terms of inbound group tourists and show the fastest growth rates, can receive between 400,000 and 600,000 yuan in rewards, the provincial department of culture and tourism announced yesterday. Eligible agencies must also host at least 3,000 tourists annually and provide tours in foreign languages.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks rebounded on Tuesday after losing for four straight sessions. The benchmark Shanghai Composite added 0.7 percent and the Shenzhen Component jumped 1.1 percent. While Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 1.35 percent lower and the TECH index dipped 0.9 percent.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Record-breaking travel reveals China's strengthened economic vitality;
China's central bank will issue the biggest batch of offshore yuan bills to defend exchange rate.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
China witnessed a remarkable surge in both rail and air travel in 2024, fueled by vigorous economic activities and robust consumer spending.
The country's railway network handled a record 4.08 billion passenger trips in 2024, a 10.8 percent year-on-year increase, according to China State Railway Group.
Similarly, the latest data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China shows that air passenger trips are estimated to have hit a record 730 million in 2024, an 18 percent year-on-year increase.
This surge was partly driven by a growing thirst for leisure travel, with the tourism sector standing out as a bright spot of China's consumption in 2024, experts noted.
In the first three quarters of last year, China reported 4.24 billion domestic trips, representing a year-on-year increase of 15.3 percent. The total expenditure of domestic tourists amounted to 4.35 trillion yuan, up 17.9 percent year on year.
With improved infrastructure making various regions and lesser-known destinations more accessible, the shift toward off-the-beaten-path travel has gained momentum, drawing travelers in search of niche experiences.
Beyond the hustle and bustle of the domestic travel market, international travel also flourished last year, with a boom in both inbound and outbound tourism.
In early December, the Chinese leadership positioned "boosting consumption" as a key policy task for 2025 at a tone-setting conference, and called for the implementation of a special action plan to that end.
Looking ahead, this strong travel momentum is expected to carry through to the Spring Festival travel rush, a traditional peak period for China's transportation network. This year's travel rush will run from January 14 to February 22, which is poised to see a record-breaking 9 billion trips. Rail journeys and civil aviation passenger trips are projected to hit record highs of 510 million and 90 million, respectively.
To accommodate the mass movement of travelers, China's railway system announced a new operating plan on Sunday, adding 230 passenger trains to schedules across the country to bring the total to 13,028. Meanwhile, the civil aviation sector is set to handle an average of 18,500 flights per day during the Spring Festival travel rush, an 8.4 percent increase from 2024 levels.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
New high-speed rail services linking Hong Kong with Xi'an and Wuhan, two major cities in the Chinese mainland, were officially launched on Sunday. A single trip in either direction takes under 11 hours, with other stations located in the provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong. Trains departing from Wuhan take no more than five hours to reach Hong Kong.
More than 27 million inbound and outbound passenger trips were recorded through the Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in 2024, an increase of 72 percent year on year and a record high. The bridge handled more than 5.55 million inbound and outbound vehicle trips last year, up 71 percent and exceeding the 5-million mark for the first time.
Guangdong is expected to rank first in China in terms of foreign-invested enterprises. There are 215,100 registered foreign firms in the province by the end of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, accounting for a quarter of the country’s total.
Next on industry and company news
Apple dropped the price of nearly all of its products, including the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods, for the first time this year after launching a New Year shopping event on its Tmall flagship store from Jan. 4 through Jan. 20. The iPhone 16 series was discounted by up to 1,000 yuan and its new price starts from 4,999 yuan.
Volkswagen China announced on Monday forging a partnership with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Xpeng to jointly build a fast charging network for running EVs in China. The project will feature more than 20,000 self-operated charging piles, covering 420 cities and regions across China, according to Volkswagen.
The Luxeed R7 has received 58,000 lock-in orders in the 100 days since its launch, Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s smart auto solutions unit, said on Weibo yesterday, adding the NEV model the Chinese telecoms giant co-developed with Chery Automobile "exceeded expectations.”
Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of Apple, will become the first non-US company to rank as the world's largest server vendor since 2018, a report by market research firm Omdia said yesterday. Foxconn's original design manufacturing direct-to-user business had "astronomical growth" last year thanks to surging demand for AI-optimized servers from major US cloud providers, it said.
Switching gears to financial news
The central bank will issue offshore Chinese yuan bills in Hong Kong this month, whose amount is estimated to be the largest-ever, to defend the falling exchange rate, media reported today, citing a source at the central bank. The new note issuance is in response to strong demand for high-grade yuan-denominated bonds by overseas investors, the person said. They will be newly issued this time to drain yuan liquidity from the market and will not be bills that are rolled over upon maturity. If there continues to be strong pressure on the yuan exchange rate, the central bank may issue even more offshore bills. The onshore yuan tumbled past 7.3 against the US dollar for the first time since November 2023 on Jan. 3 to 7.36 due to a new high set by the US dollar index the day before.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges recently held meetings with foreign institutions, both bourses said, assuring investors that they would continue to open up China's capital markets after fresh volatility in Chinese stocks in the first trading days of 2025.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks closed mixed on Monday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite down 0.15 percent, while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.4 percent, and the TECH index ended 0.2 percentlower.
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Do you remember the heartwarming story of the “Little Clementines” from Guangxi who ventured into the snowy realms of Harbin, Heilongjiang earlier this year?
Dressed in their vibrant orange jackets, these southern children, known for their region’s famous citrus fruit, captured the hearts of the internet as they experienced the magic of snow and the warmth of the Northeastern hospitality.
Well, the “Little Clementines” are back, and this time, they’re ready to dive deeper into the winter wonderland that is China’s burgeoning ice and snow economy.
As the winter season arrives, 23 of these Guangxi cuties have embarked on another adventure to the Northeast, donning their signature bright orange puffer jackets. They’ve affectionately been dubbed “Little Clementines” by netizens, a nod to the common fruit from Guangxi, and their return has once again captured the internet’s attention.
From snow disco to ice slides, the children played in the Harbin Ice and Snow World, and their contagious laughers melt the hearts of netizens across the country who affectionately referred to them as “too cute to be true”.
According to data from the Harbin Sports Bureau, as of December 22, the number of visitors to Harbin Ice and Snow World has reached 106,000 in two days, showing a continuous booming trend.
As enthusiasm for winter sports surges, the knock-on effects for tourism, culture and equipment manufacturing are profound.
China recorded over 385 million winter leisure visits nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 38 percent, with related revenue up 50 percent.
Harbin, a traditional winter tourism hot spot, saw a 300% increase in visitors and a 500% increase in tourism revenue. The city is set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2025, promising another explosive season for the local ice-and-snow economy.
In addition, Harbin and other snow season tourist cities, known for being good at making guests feel at home, have tapped into the trend of “service-oriented consumption,” attracting spontaneous promotion from young people while increasing Harbin’s popularity on social media.
The heat and appeal brought by Harbin are radiating and spreading throughout the province. Data from Qunar show that Harbin’s hotel bookings have increased by more than 50% year-on-year, driving the booking volume in the province’s Daxing’anling to grow by 140% year-on-year.
Compared with Heilongjiang Province, which is rich in ice and snow sightseeing tourism products, Jilin Province has rich skiing resort resources. Meituan data show that since December, searches for “skiing” in Jilin has increased by 48% month-on-month.
To accelerate growth in the north-eastern region’s winter economy, the Chinese government has unveiled initiatives including establishing dedicated ice-and-snow holidays, increasing flight routes and optimizing visa-free policies, all aimed at attracting more domestic and international visitors.
Snow starts a gold rush
China’s winter economy is on a meteoric rise, transforming the country’s frosty frontiers into a playground for enthusiasts and a goldmine for investors.
According to a recent industry report, this ice-and-snow economy is expected to reach a staggering 970 billion yuan by 2024 and is projected to surpass the 1 trillion yuan mark in 2025. By 2030, the sector is forecast to balloon to 1.5 trillion yuan, as stated in China’s ambitious plan to boost its ice and snow economy.
Driven by the successful hosting of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, China has unveiled an ambitious plan to grow its ice and snow economy, targeting winter sports, tourism, and equipment manufacturing as key drivers of economic growth.
The plan focuses particularly on the northern regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, and Xinjiang, which are poised to become winter sports hubs. These areas will benefit from expanded training facilities, the establishment of elite winter sports centers, and the hosting of international winter events.
By investing in these locations, China aims to establish three to five globally recognized winter tourism destinations, positioning itself as a prominent player in the international winter tourism market.
China’s push for a winter economy is driven by several factors. For one thing, it’s about leveraging the country’s natural “cold resources” into a burgeoning “hot economy”. For anther, the winter sports industry saw a 16.3 percent increase in skier visits during the fiscal year ending on April 30, 2024, with 23.08 million visits recorded compared to 19.83 million in the previous year. This surge in interest reflects a broader trend and the potential for economic growth.
The proliferation of facilities has made winter sports more accessible than ever. Data from China’s General Administration of Sport show that the number of winter sports venues nationwide reached 2,847 by the end of 2023, marking a 16.11% increase year on year. Many of these facilities are nestled in southern regions, like Jiangsu, which hosts about 50 ice-and-snow venues covering over 640,000 square meters.
China’s winter sports equipment industry is also snowballing, driven by advancements in 5G, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. The country now boasts a comprehensive suite of 15 categories of ice-and-snow equipment across the supply chain, from individual gear to venue equipment.
China’s winter economy is not just about sports; it’s a complete transformation of consumption patterns. This is more than just an economic boom; it’s a story of how a nation is turning the chill of winter into the heat of economic prosperity. And for millions “Little Clementines” or “Southern Potatoes”, it’s a story of how a simple love for snow is becoming a part of China’s economic narrative.
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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program
Hotel searches for Japan soar after introducing 10-year visas for Chinese tourists;
China revises up 2023 GDP to 129.4 trillion yuan.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
Chinese tourists' searches for Japanese accommodations have tripled following an agreement between the two nations to strengthen bilateral ties, including Japan's introduction of 10-year tourist visas.
Hotel searches for Japanese destinations grew threefold over the past week, according to data from online travel platforms.
The foreign ministers of China and Japan reached 10 key agreements yesterday, including enhanced tourism cooperation and new measures to promote bilateral travel.
Japan will extend the maximum length of multiple-entry visas from five years to 10 years, while the maximum stay for groups of tourists will also be increased from 15 days to 30 days. It follows China's decision to add Japan to its visa-free entry scheme last month, allowing visitors to stay for up to 30 days.
Visa experts at Ctrip predict increased Chinese tourism to Japan following the relaxed visa requirements and extended group visa durations. The new 10-year visa is expected to particularly benefit high-income travelers.
Flight searches on Qunar for Tokyo and Osaka rose 20 percent as of yesterday week-on-week, with the two cities ranking second and third among outbound destinations. Lesser-known destinations such as Hakodate, Otaru, and Izu saw hotel searches more than triple from the previous week.
Based on Qunar's hotel booking data, Japan leads all outbound destinations for Chinese tourists during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. Within Japan, Chinese tourists are primarily interested in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. Airfares remain competitive, with Beijing-Osaka flights in late February priced at 600 yuan, down from around 2,000 yuan in January.
Ctrip reports Japan as Chinese tourists' top outbound destination this year. Despite flight capacity between China and Japan reaching only 75 percent of 2019 levels, Chinese bookings to Japan have surpassed pre-pandemic figures.
Japan particularly appeals to younger Chinese travelers. According to Ctrip, tourists born after 1980 account for 41 percent of bookings. Travelers from major cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou show the strongest interest in Japanese destinations.
China on Thursday revised up its 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) by 2.7 percent to 129.4 trillion yuan, or 3.4 trillion yuan more than the preliminary figure, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The World Bank has revised up China's real GDP growth for this year and next to 4.9 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, while underlining the necessity of ramping up structural reforms alongside stimulus measures to reinvigorate growth. In its latest China Economic Update released on Thursday, the World Bank said the projections were revised up by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, compared to the June publication.
China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has pledged to continue efforts to stabilize the real estate market and reverse its downturn in 2025. China will focus on unlocking housing demand by fully implementing a mix of policies to support people's needs for buying their first homes or improving their housing conditions, said a ministry official during a two-day work conference that ended Wednesday.
Greater Bay Area, Greater future
Shenzhen is making significant strides towards its goal of becoming a "City of Superchargers," with a total of 1,002 supercharging stations having been built to date, according to the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission yesterday. This achievement marks a breakthrough, particularly following an April milestone when the number of supercharging stations surpassed that of traditional gas stations in the city.
Next on industry and company news
Xiaomi Auto announced a charging network alliance with Nio, Xpeng, and Li Auto yesterday, integrating over 14,000 Nio, 9,000 Xpeng, and 6,000 Li Auto charging piles into its charging map, allowing users to view real-time station data and pay seamlessly via the Xiaomi Auto app.
JD.Com yesterday announced another upgrade to its customer service staff’s salary and benefits, granting over 20,000 workers an average pay increase of two months’ salary, after a 30 percent raise in February. Founder Richard Liu personally purchased 80,000 boxes of chocolates as New Year’s gifts to employees.
China Eastern plans to begin operating round-trip flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong using the homegrown C919 passenger plane starting Jan. 1. The airline will become the first to run regular commercial flights to the SAR using this aircraft.
The Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou High-Speed Railway officially opened today, connecting the three cities with a seamless 164 km route. The journey from Shanghai Hongqiao to Huzhou now takes only 55 minutes.
Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market
Chinese stocks gained on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite added 0.1 percent and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.7 percent.
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