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☆ Alibaba’s restructuring and Jack Ma’s homecoming are all part of China’s plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Ma is seen as a symbol of China’s tech industry and a barometer of the Chinese government’s support for private business. Alibaba’s restructuring is “part of [Beijing’s] strategy to shore up confidence in the private sector,” said Hong Hao, chief economist for Grow Investment Group. “[Alibaba’s restructuring plan] offers a way to limit monopoly power and platform sway,” Hong said. Unlocking valueInvestors and analysts have cheered Alibaba’s restructuring. Alibaba’s business will be split into six units: domestic e-commerce, international e-commerce, cloud computing, local services, logistics, and media and entertainment.

The concern around TikTok in Washington is drawing fresh attention to how Chinese apps have woven themselves into the fabric of young Americans’ lives—and what makes them so popular. Four of the five hottest apps in the U.S. in March were forged in China. Algorithms are often cited as their secret sauce. An often overlooked facet is how cutthroat competition for users at home has given Chinese firms a leg up over Western rivals.

Chinese leaders have pledged to step up support for the world's second-largest economy, which is gradually rebounding from a pandemic-induced slump after virus curbs were abruptly lifted in December. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks, except those that have implemented a 5% reserve ratio, by 25 basis points (bps), effective March 27. The move, which came earlier than financial markets had anticipated, comes after data showed a gradual but uneven recovery in the world's second-largest economy in the first months, and stronger-than-expected credit expansion in February. The central bank has promised to make its policy "precise and forceful" this year to support the economy, keeping liquidity reasonably ample and lowering funding costs for businesses. The weighted average RRR for financial institutions stood at around 7.6% after the cut, the central bank said.

☆ What Is ChatGPT? What to Know About the AI Chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT late November triggered a new global race in artificial intelligence. In March, the company’s AI model, GPT-4, which it used to update ChatGPT’s capabilities, upped the stakes even more. The chatbot is part of a wave of so-called generative AI—sophisticated systems that produce content from text to images—that has shaken up Big Tech and is set to transform industries and the future of work.

Baidu CEO Robin Li speaks at the company’s Ernie Bot launch in Beijing on Thursday. BEIJING—At an intimate event space in Baidu Inc.’s Beijing headquarters on Thursday, the Chinese search giant’s Chief Executive Robin Li sought to wow an in-person and online audience by introducing its AI-powered chatbot, Ernie Bot. Over half an hour, Mr. Li showed a series of prerecorded videos of the chatbot—the first real Chinese contender to ChatGPT, developed by San Francisco-based firm OpenAI—answering questions about Chinese literature, solving math problems and generating images and videos.

☆ China Cultivates Thousands of ‘Little Giants’ in Aerospace, Telecom to Outdo U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—China has an answer to intensifying competition with the U.S. for dominance of technology supply chains. It calls them “little giants,” and there are thousands of them. U.S. efforts to maintain its technological edge and slow China’s advance entered a new phase last month with the launch of the Chips Act, which hopes to use $53 billion in subsidies to lure the world’s leading chip makers into manufacturing their most advanced semiconductors in America.

☆ China's economic activity uneven in Jan-Feb after COVID reopening
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Ellen Zhang | Kevin Yao | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Tingshu WangProperty investment in the January-February period fell again as home buyers and developers remained cautious despite a slew of supportive government policies. The reading accelerated from a 1.3% annual rise in December. The mixed data portrayed an uneven recovery in economic activity following China’s abrupt abandonment late last year of its three-year-long campaign to control COVID-19. Within January-February fixed-asset investment, infrastructure investment surged 9.0% from a year before. China has set a modest annual growth target of around 5% this year after significantly missing its target for 2022 and recording one of its worst showings in nearly half a century.

☆ Property investments in China should pick up at the end of the second quarter: Economist
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailProperty investments in China should pick up at the end of the second quarter: EconomistHao Hong of Grow Investment Group says developers will be "running out of inventory to sell" by the middle of 2023 because they haven't been building in the past two to three years.

☆ SVB collapse will have limited impact on Asia, but one analyst says it could be a warning sign
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

HANGZHOU, CHINA - MARCH 12, 2023 - Photo taken on March 12, 2023 shows the logo of SPD Silicon Valley Bank in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesAnalysts say the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is not likely to have a major contagion effect in Asia, but one person says it could be seen as a "warning" — especially for economies that haven't hiked interest rates aggressively. It came after U.S. regulators announced measures to further stem systemic risks from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. While a number of companies within Asia's venture capital and tech start-up sector do have exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, not many have openly admitted to seeing major losses from SVB's bankruptcy. SPD Silicon Valley Bank, a joint venture between Shanghai Pudong Bank and Silicon Valley Bank sought to reassure investors over the weekend and said its operations have been "independent and stable."

New bank lending fell much less than expected in February from a record high the previous month. Chinese banks extended 1.81 trillion yuan ($260 billion) in new loans last month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted they would fall to 1.50 trillion yuan from 4.9 trillion yuan in January, and compared with 1.23 trillion yuan a year earlier. Household loans, mostly mortgages, fell to 208.1 billion yuan in February from 257.2 billion yuan in January, while corporate loans fell to 1.61 trillion yuan from 4.68 trillion yuan. TSF for the month of February fell to 3.16 trillion yuan from 5.98 trillion yuan in January, but was still well ahead of expectations for 2.20 trillion yuan.

☆ Baidu Hurries to Ready China’s First ChatGPT Equivalent Ahead of Launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Raffaele Huang | Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Baidu plans to roll out Ernie Bot in stages, first opening it up for public testing to a restricted pool of users. A week away from the March 16 launch of Baidu Inc.’s ChatGPT equivalent, employees at China’s biggest search-engine operator said they are racing to meet the deadline with the chatbot still struggling to perform some basic functions. To develop the artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot, dubbed Ernie Bot, hundreds of people have been working around the clock, people familiar with the project said. Other teams have been asked to lend their staff and their powerful computer chips, which Chinese companies can no longer buy because of U.S. sanctions, they said.

☆ Baidu Scrambles to Ready China’s First ChatGPT Equivalent Ahead of Launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Raffaele Huang | Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Chinese stocks often gain after the country's annual congress meeting. Here's what strategists expect this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

After three years of turbulence under the Covid pandemic, China's leaders are expected to lay out goals to get growth back on track. China's onshore stocks often see a modest rally after the country's party congress sessions, but economists and strategists are mixed on whether that pattern will carry on this year. "The market tends to have reasonable performance pre- and after-twin sessions," Hao Hong, chief economist of Grow Investment Group told CNBC. But there's been fluctuation ahead of this year's sessions: He pointed to a recent decline after Hong Kong stocks rallied roughly 50% and China's mainland stocks rose by 15%. He expects the indexes to move between gains and losses of 3%, "unless there are policies unexpected by the market," he said.

☆ ChatGPT Fever Sweeps China as Tech Firms Seek Growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Karen Hao | Shen Lu | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The viral popularity of ChatGPT has stirred a frenzy within China where tech companies, battered by a two-year regulatory clampdown and the Covid-19 pandemic, have been seeking new sources of growth. Search engine owner Baidu Inc., e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and social-media conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd. are among those that have announced investments to develop their own equivalents to the artificial-intelligence chatbot, which isn’t available in China. Stocks of other Chinese companies have surged in recent weeks as they have jumped on the bandwagon, triggering state media to issue a warning about the speculative rally.

Shortly after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November, Jeff Maggioncalda , the CEO of online education company Coursera Inc., jumped into the technology to see if it could save him time. He began using the chatbot to draft company letters and notes, and asked his executive assistant to try the same for drafting replies to his inbound emails. She prompts ChatGPT based on how she thinks he would respond, and he edits the answers it generates before sending.

☆ China’s property crash is prompting banks to offer mortgages to 70-year-olds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Some banks in the cities of Nanning, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Beijing have extended the upper age limit on mortgages to between 80 and 95, according to a number of state media reports. China’s property market is in the midst of a historic downturn. The mortgage borrower’s age plus mortgage length should not usually exceed 70 years, according to previous rules published by the banking regulator. Separately, a branch of Citic Bank has extended the upper age limit on its mortgages to 80, the paper said, citing a bank client manager. Other than Beijing, some banks in Nanning, the provincial capital of Guangxi province, have raised the upper age limit on mortgages to 80, according to the city’s official newspaper Nanguo Zaobao.

☆ China's new home prices rise in Jan for first time in a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

More major cities among the 70 surveyed by NBS reported increases in new home prices last month, with prices rising in 36 cities, up from 15 in December. Analysts see rising home prices as a positive sign, but believe more stimulative policies are needed to lift currently dismal demand and spark a longer-term recovery. The property sector, once an engine of the world's second-largest economy, has been hobbled by fragile demand and developers' mounting debt defaults. Prices were down 1.5% year-on-year in January, with the rate of decline unchanged from December. "The roots of the crisis in China's property sector lie in the worsening long-term outlook for demand," said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.

☆ China's factory prices fall as manufacturing struggles to recover
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Joe Cash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Employees work at the production line of aluminium rolls at a factory in Zouping, Shandong province, China November 23, 2019. The drop in factory gate prices was unexpected because China's economic activity returned to growth in January. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI), which measures manufacturing activity, crossing the 50-point threshold for the first time since September. Falling input prices, including chemicals, as well as lower crude oil and domestic coal prices contributed to the greater-than-expected decline. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices ticked up to 1.2% last month from an annual gain of 0.7% in December.

☆ What Is ChatGPT? What to Know About the AI Chatbot That Will Power Microsoft Bing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Within weeks of its launch, OpenAI ‘s ChatGPT triggered a new global race in artificial intelligence. The chatbot is part of a fresh wave of so-called generative AI—sophisticated systems that produce content from text to images—that is set to be one of the most disruptive forces in a decade to Big Tech, industries and the future of work. Microsoft Corp. has added the technology to its products, including search engine Bing, while competitors Google and Baidu are pushing to launch similar tools. Despite its sudden burst in popularity, the technology currently has serious limitations and potential risks that include spewing misinformation and infringing on intellectual property.

☆ Baidu Developing Its Own ChatGPT, Aiming to Integrate It Into Search
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Karen Hao | Raffaele Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Baidu CEO Robin Li, here in 2019, told employees in late December that the great challenge is turning the company’s ‘cool technology’ into products that everyone needs. China’s Baidu Inc. has thrust itself into a global race to commercialize the next-generation of artificial-intelligence technologies like ChatGPT that could bring major transformations to the internet. The company is developing an AI-powered chatbot similar to OpenAI ‘s popular ChatGPT and plans to integrate it into its main search engine in March, people familiar with the matter said.

☆ Baidu Is Developing Its Own ChatGPT, Aiming to Integrate It Into Search
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Karen Hao | Raffaele Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Baidu CEO Robin Li, here in 2019, told employees in late December that the great challenge is turning the company’s ‘cool technology’ into products that everyone needs. China’s Baidu Inc. is developing an artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot similar to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT and plans to integrate it into its main search engine in March, people familiar with the matter said. The search giant also plans to build an independent website for users to access the tool, some of the people said.

☆ Tourism is roaring back in China. But the $6 trillion consumer market is digging itself out of a deep slump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

He's hopeful business improves this year – and allows Rêver to recoup the roughly 35% in revenue it lost last year. Within a retail sales slump of 0.2% to 43.97 trillion yuan ($6.28 trillion), catering sales dropped by a steeper 6.3%. He expects 7% year-on-year growth in retail sales. Hainan's recovery plansHainan, a tropical province aiming to be a duty free shopping destination, announced a goal for 10% growth in retail sales this year. That's after its retail sales fell by 9.2% last year.

☆ China Visa Offices Overwhelmed in Wake of Border Opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Karen Hao | Wenxin Fan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—China has opened its doors to the world after three years of zero-Covid controls—at least in theory. In practice, many travelers eager or desperate to visit the country are struggling to acquire the key that will gain them entry. Processing times for visas to enter China have multiplied as the Chinese Embassy in Washington and consulates across the U.S. struggle to keep up with a wave of applications. Many visa offices are closed entirely, leaving would-be visitors to contend unassisted with an online application system that travel agencies say is prone to crashing.

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