China is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s nuclear power leader, as the AI boom and war in the Middle East renew a global push for reliable energy sources, according to a new report. While the US maintained the world’s largest operational fleet of nuclear reactors, China now accounted for nearly half of all those under construction globally and was expected to match American capacity within five years, Gavekal Technologies said on Monday. “By a wide margin, China will have...

The newly appointed head of China’s financial regulator used her first major policy meeting since taking office to stress the urgency of tackling financial liabilities, calling for faster action to address risks at smaller financial institutions, the property sector and local government debt. Ding Xiangqun, who took over leadership of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) on May 29 and is the first woman to lead China’s top banking and insurance regulator, chaired an expanded...

China’s vast export sector continued to defy headwinds from the US-Israel war on Iran in May, as shipments skyrocketed on the back of increased demand for products related to artificial intelligence and a spike in US imports as trade relations continued to recover in the aftermath of the bilateral tariff war. The country’s exports rose by 19.4 per cent year on year to US$376.78 billion in May, according to Chinese customs data released on Tuesday. The reading was significantly higher than a...

At Changxin Memory Technologies’ headquarters in Hefei, the capital of central China’s Anhui province, the sprawling production facilities seem to reflect a broader, citywide optimism. For years, the factory was the quiet epicentre of a high-stakes gamble in China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency drive. Today, it is the site of a historic vindication, as the company – better known as CXMT – pushes for a massive initial public offering on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market that promises to be...

China’s five-year plans have profoundly impacted US businesses – while some American companies have adapted and even profited, US factories have been hit with job losses, lower investment and more closures, according to a US-based scholar. From 2001 to 2020, when Beijing backed an industry under one of its five‑year plans, US factories in the same sector shed about 5 per cent of jobs and around 6 per cent of investment, said Jiang Wei, a finance professor at Emory University. The probability of...

Prompted by lower interest rates on long-term bank deposits, Gong Jie, who works for an export firm in Shanghai, recently decided to invest half her savings in technology-focused mutual funds. “A three-year deposit of mine at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) matured a month ago, but the current rates have almost halved from three years ago,” she said. “Normally, I would not put this capital into wealth management products due to risk concerns. Life insurance products used to be my...

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are opening a new front in their battle with Tesla: humanoid robots. After spending years competing on electric cars and autonomous driving technology, leading Chinese manufacturers including BYD and Xpeng are now accelerating plans to mass-produce humanoid robots, betting that advances in artificial intelligence will unlock a vast new market beyond transportation. The push is expected to strengthen China’s position as a global manufacturing powerhouse for...