Daily Buzz: 1 December 2025

China to Inspect Fire-Safety of High Rises, HK Grieves

China ordered a nationwide inspection of fire-safety standards in high-rise buildings after a deadly fire swept through a Hong Kong high-rise residential complex last week. Special attention will be paid to buildings undergoing external wall renovations and interior modifications, the Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement. The inspections will cover flammable materials used in external wall insulation, banned construction materials, fire safety equipment and emergency evacuation routes.

The death toll from the Hong Kong inferno rose to 146 on Sunday, as rescuers continued to search through the charred floors of seven 31-story apartment blocks for the missing. The Tai Po district housing estate, built in 1983, housed about 4,600 residents. A probe onto the cause of the blaze and who bears responsibility continues. Hong Kong declared three days of mourning for those who lost their lives in the city's worst fire since a warehouse blaze in 1948 killed 176.

Trump Declares Venezuelan Airspace Closed

US President Donald Trump declared Venezuela's airspace a no-fly zone. Trump said the closure applies to all "airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers" but gave no further details. Last week he hinted that a US attack on the land of Venezuela might be imminent, after several months of air attacks on alleged off-shore drug vessels and a massive military build-up in the Caribbean. Venezuela condemned Trump's declaration, calling it a "colonialist threat.

Trump's war on drugs took an ironic turn this weekend when he announced he plans to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is currently serving a 45-year prison term in the US on cocaine-trafficking charges.

Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Tankers, Peace Talks Continue

Ukrainian naval drones hit two oil tankers from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" as they travelled through the Black Sea. Both vessels, which caught fire, were sailing under the Gambia flag. No casualties were reported. The term "shadow fleet" refers to tankers used by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions on its energy resources. For its part, Russia has been continuing drone and missile attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure and residential areas.

A Ukrainian delegation met with US officials in Miami on Sunday to continue talks on ending the war. Both sides called the meeting "productive." US negotiators will be in Moscow this week talking to Russian officials, though the Kremlin said last week that Ukraine must hand over territory, including some not occupied by Russian forces, under any peace plan.

Southeast Asia Deaths Mount From Worst Flooding in Decades

At least 700 people across Southeast Asia have died and hundreds remain missing after the heaviest rains in decades triggered flooding and landslides. The death toll on the Indonesian island of Sumatra alone climbed to 435. Days of torrential also resulted in casualties in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. A cyclone that hit Sri Lanka left nearly 200 people missing.

Gaza Says Death Toll Surpasses 70,000

Gaza's health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the two-year conflict has surpassed 70,000. Israel hasn't commented on the announcement but has questioned death figures in the past. Israel forces have continued to conduct some attacks against what it says are terrorists in the territory despite a ceasefire that began October 10.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon in his long-running corruption trial on charges of bribery and fraud, arguing it would be in the "public interest." The trial is in abeyance while Netanyahu remains in office. The president's office said the request will be considered.

Top Business

China Debuts Its Own TPUs

Chinese AI chip start-up Zhonghao Xinying has positioned itself as a domestic challenger to Nvidia with a tensor processing unit (TPU) designed to reduce China's reliance on foreign suppliers. The Hangzhou-based company, also known as CL Tech, claims its flagship chip Chana delivers up to 1.5 times the compute performance of Nvidia's A100 graphics processing units while cutting energy use by 30 percent and lowering per-unit computing costs to 42 percent. The product targets large-model training and inference, core workloads that have made Nvidia the world's most valuable chipmaker. Google pioneered tensor processing unit chips and is selling them to Meta and Anthropic, challenging Nvidia's industry dominance and reshaping the competitive landscape. That shift is encouraging cloud providers and AI firms to diversify their supply chains.

China Sets Up Commercial Space Department

China has created a dedicated Commercial Space Department under the China National Space Administration, the first specialized regulator for the fast-growing role of the private sector in the space industry. Commercial space development is encouraged by government policies and lucrative opportunities in areas such as launch services, satellite buildings and orbital components. More than 600 domestic companies are now operating in the industry. The space administration's 2025-27 plan calls for integrating commercial space into the national aerospace program and providing support to growth of the partnership. Investment is flowing into commercial space companies. Analysts at Citic Securities said the new commercial Space Department's handling of launch approvals to operating licenses for satellites will streamline and speed up approvals.

Economy & Markets

Index of China Manufacturing Activity Notches Up

The November purchasing managers' index for activity in China's manufacturing sector stood at 49.2 in November, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous month, the Bureau of Statistics reported on Sunday. The reading remained just below the 50-mark threshold that separates expansion from contraction. High-tech manufacturing came in at 50.1, its 10th straight month of expansion. The sub-index for production stood at 30, and the sub-index for orders was 49.2. Sectors such as food processing and non-ferrous metal smelting were in the expansion zone. The separate purchasing managers' index for the non-manufacturing sector notched down 0.6 point to 49.5.

India Posts Stronger-Than-Expected Growth

India's economy in the third quarter grew a faster-than-expected 8.2 percent from a year earlier. The strong growth came despite US tariffs on imports from India. The International Monetary Fund has predicted India is likely to become the world's fourth-largest economy next year and the second-largest in Asia after China.

Corporate

Huawei's Companion Robot Sells Out

Huawei first "emotional companion" robot, the Smart Hanhan, sold out immediately upon release on Friday, according to Huawei's online shop. The robot is priced at 399 yuan (US$55). The furry, toy-like robot supports natural voice interaction, touch-based responses and daily-routine reminders, and is powered by Huawei's HarmonyOS system. Smart Hanhan was co-developed with start-up Robopoet and integrates Huawei's Xiaoyi large language model. The device comes in different colors and a choice of accessories. On JD.com, cumulative sales of its three color options exceeded 6,500 units. The product enters a fast-growing market for AI toys, where Huawei, Honor and JD are racing to create new consumer-electronics categories as smartphone growth slows. Robopoet's earlier AI toy Fuzozo had monthly sales this year surpassing 20,000 units.

DeepSeek Math Whiz Debuts

China AI startup DeepSeek launched the DeepSeekMath-V2, a mathematical reasoning model that is the first open-source model to attain gold-medal status in a simulated International Mathematical Olympiad contest. The model successfully solved five of six complicated math problems.

China Merchants, Citi, Industrial Bank Get Asset Approvals

China Merchants Bank, Citi Bank and Industrial Bank have won regulatory approval to open asset investment companies, the first such approvals in eight years, as China expands the equity investment model beyond state-owned banks. The three approved banks have a similar "equity + debt" model combining stake purchases with lending, Yicai Global reported. They will focus on tech innovators, green and low-carbon projects, and smaller, niche technology firms.

Jereh Oilfield Adds to Foreign Contracts

Yantai-based Jereh Oilfield Services Group said it secured a US$100 million order to provide generators to a North American data center. It didn't identify the client. Jereh, which has links with Germany's Siemens, recently landed an order from US energy technology firm Baker Hughes. No details were provided. Shenzhen-listed Jereh reported a 13 percent rise in profit for the first nine months of the year to 1.8 billion yuan (US$254.2 million).