Daily Buzz: 2 January 2026

China Imposes Quotas on Foreign Beef Imports

China announced three-year import quotas on beef shipments from foreign suppliers after the domestic industry said it was losing money because of an increasing volume of cheaper imports and numbers of breeding stock were falling. The total quota this year will allow 2.7 million tons of imported beef into China, roughly the same level as in 2024. A 55 percent tariff will be levied on incoming shipments over quotas, which vary by country, the Ministry of Commerce said. For Brazil, the top supplier, the quota for 2026 is set at 1.1 million tons, compared with 1.7 million tons imported last year, while Australia and the US have been allocated about 205,000 tons each. Argentina, Uruguay and New Zealand are also among affected countries. "The objective is to help the domestic industry overcome its current difficulties, rather than to restrict normal trade," a ministry statement said. China is the world's largest beef importer. Its new restrictions come as global beef prices are rising.

CIA Debunks Kremlin Claim of Attack on Putin Residence

The US Central Intelligence Agency has found no evidence of Russian claims that Ukraine targeted one of President Vladimir Putin's residences in an attack involving 90 drones. The accusation came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met US President Donald Trump in Miami, with Moscow saying the incident would alter its negotiating stance in peace talks. Zelensky said the false accusation was an effort by Moscow to try to derail peace efforts. Trump said initially that the report of the attack of the report troubled him. However, after a briefing from the CIA, Trump posted on his website a link to a New York Post article headlined: "Putin 'attack' bluster shows Russia is the one standing in the way of peace."

Finland Accuses Russian-Origin Ship of Cable Sabotage

Finland said it seized a ship sailing in the Baltic Sea from a Russia port on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecom cable connecting Helsinki with Estonia. The vessel was reportedly en route from St Petersburg to Israel. The EU has accused Russia of escalating incidents, including drone incursions, in retaliation for European support of Ukraine. It is not the first time cable or underwater pipeline damage has been reported in the Baltic.

Iranians Protest Worsening Economy

Street protests against deteriorating economic conditions continued for a fifth day in several cities in Iran, with the semi-official Fars news agency reporting three people were killed and 17 injured in clashes between protesters and police. The unrest comes amid an inflation rate of 42 percent and a halving of the value of the nation's currency. The Iranian government said it will address "legitimate" grievances. The nation's central bank governor Mohammadreza Farzin has been replaced with former economy and finance minister Abdolnasser Hemmati.

Swiss Ski Resort Fire Kills Dozens

Fire in a popular bar at a Swiss luxury ski resort in the Valais canton killed at least 40 New Year's Eve party-goers and injured 115. Swiss authorities said cause of the blaze at the Crans-Montana alpine resort is under investigation but ruled out an intentional attack.

Man vs Machine: Score One for Humans

Dismissing employees because their jobs have been replaced by artificial intelligence constitutes an unlawful termination under Chinese labor law, according to a labor arbitration decision in Beijing, Yicai reported. The case involved the city's shift to AI-driven automated collection, which resulted in a map data gatherer surnamed Liu losing his job. The arbitration decision said businesses are free to embrace AI but "voluntary circumstances" don't warrant firing staff, in contrast with unforeseeable or uncontrollable circumstances that may require terminations. The ruling suggests that voluntary circumstances require negotiations with affected employees who have work contracts. Loss of jobs to AI is a mounting concern for many workers around the world.

Top Business

LandSpace Gets Fast-Track Path to IPO

Privately owned Chinese rocket maker LandSpace's proposed 7.5 billion yuan (US$1 billion) initial public offering on the Shanghai STAR market has been accepted for fast-track processing by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Government policymakers earlier announced that companies involved in rocket launches, especially those involving reusable boosters, will receive priority in mainland IPOs to help the aerospace industry raise funds for research and development. In early December, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 rocket completed a flight mission as planned, but the company failed to recover its descending first-stage boosters. It was first mission of its kinds in Chinese mainland, which is trying to narrow the gap with Elon Musk's SpaceX project. At least nine other companies are planning IPOs.

TSMC Receives US Greenlight on Chipmaking Gear

The Trump administration has granted an annual license to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp to ship US chip manufacturing equipment to its facilities in the mainland city of Nanjing, the company announced. TSMC joins South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in receiving similar US approval this week. Washington has been tightening policies related to export of its advanced technologies as it seeks to slow China's emergence in the global industry. Its licenses to the three companies are limited to supplying their mainland factories.

Separately, US chip giant Nvidia has approached TSMC about ramping up production of its H200 artificial intelligence chips because of high demand from Chinese technology companies, Reuters reported. Washington recently agreed to allow shipments of H200s to China, though Beijing has yet to approve purchases by domestic companies. Mainland companies have reportedly placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips, which Nvidia may price at US$27,000 per chip.

Is Silver the Next Trade Flashpoint?

China is poised to tighten controls over exports of silver, reported by Securities Times. Global silver prices surged 158 percent to a record in 2025. The precious metal is vital in some industrial production, including electrical circuits, electric vehicles and solar cells. China has released a list of 44 companies allowed to export silver, but they must meet more stringent requirements for export licenses. The new controls also affect exports of tungsten and antimony. The ruling puts silver on par with rare earths as strategic minerals requiring government controls. For its part, the US added silver to its designated list of critical minerals needed for domestic production. China is one of the world's largest producers of silver and hosts one of the world's largest reserves of the metal. In the first 11 months of 2025, it exported 4,600 tons of silver.

Economy & Markets

Standards for Greener Motoring

Tighter China mandatory standards on fuel consumption by passenger cars and light commercial vehicles have come into effect under automobile energy conservation policies of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). The State Administration for Market Regulation said the standards tighten fuel consumption by about 18 percent on all passenger vehicles. Xinhua reported that the standard for an automatic-transmission vehicle weighing about 1.5 tons will be capped at 7.74 liters per 100 kilometers. For light commercial vehicles, fuel consumption limits will be reduced by 10 percent overall.

China Banks to Pay Interest in E-Yuan Wallets

Chinese banks will be required to pay interest on the central bank's e-yuan they hold in digital wallets in a move to make the e-yuan more like bank deposits. The new policy, announced this week by the People's Bank of China, aims to encourage wider use of the government sanctioned digital currency. Interest on the e-yuan will be calculated based on lenders' existing deposit rates. As of the end of November, the e-yuan had been used in 3.5 billion transactions valued at more than 16.7 trillion yuan (US$2.4 trillion), with the number of e-yuan wallets topping 230 million.

China Adds Robots to Tariff Categories

China has created new tariff categories related to bionic robots, Yicai reported, citing the Customs Tariff Commission under the State Council, China's cabinet. The new designations will help companies and industries track trade data more accurately, analyze overseas market trends and develop effective strategies, Li Yanxia, chief engineer of the China Machinery Industry Federation, told state broadcaster China Central Television. Total tariff-category items now number 8,972.

Corporate

BYD Achieves Annual Sales Target

Xi'an-based BYD, China's largest electric carmaker, said it met its 2025 sales target despite an industry price war, stronger competition from domestic rivals and softening demand. Deliveries in the year rose 7.7 percent to 4.6 million vehicles. The company lowered its 2025 target in September. However, it remained China's top-selling brand and has been aggressively expanding overseas. Deliveries outside China hit 1 million in 2025.

Moutai Begins Direct Online Liquor Sales

China's top liquor producer Kweichow Moutai has begun selling its flagship Feitian Moutai at the official price of 1,499 yuan (US$214) a bottle directly through its online platform, in a move seen as an effort to regain pricing control. The company placed daily quotas and per-person caps on purchases of the 500-milliliter bottles of the popular 106-proof distilled spirit, but supplies were snapped up in minutes. Moutai has long faced a gap between its official retail prices and actual market prices because of hoarding by distributors and speculation by resellers. While secondary-market prices have fallen sharply over the past year, they still trade well above official levels.

Moonshot AI Raises US$500 Million

Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI raised US$500 million in a recent Series C funding round, the South China Morning Post reported, citing LatePost. Among the investors in the developer of Kimi AI models were IDG Capital. Alibaba Group and Tencent. The fundraising lifts Moonshot's valuation to US$4.3 billion, with cash reserves reported at 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion). Moonshot said it is not joining the rush for an IPO in the near term, even as rivals MiniMax and Zhipu AI are poised for listings this month in Hong Kong.

Changan Auto to Raise Money in Private Share Placement

Chongqing-based Changan Automobile said it plans to raise 6 billion yuan (US$850 million) through a private placement of shares to its controlling shareholder Changan Automobile Group to finance development of smart new energy vehicles. After the placement is completed, the group's stake will rise to 39 percent from 35 percent. Part of the funding will be used to build the second phase of a global research center and a new vehicle-testing site. The Shenzhen-listed company said it is planning to increase vehicle sales to 5 million by 2030, with new energy cars accounting for about 60 percent and exports comprising 30 percent of production.

Citic Special Steel to Acquire Independent Trader

Citic Pacific Special Steel Group, a Chinese maker of special steels, plans to invest 1.5 billion yuan (US$214 million) to acquire the parent company of Stemcor Global Holdings, one of the world's top three independent steel traders, to widen its global footprint, Yicai reported. The acquisition will be completed through the purchase of 100 percent equity in Prosperity Kingsfield, the holding platform of the target asset. Citic Special Steel said the transaction represents a key step in building a global operating system and the supply chains of the two companies will be integrated

Smaller Humanoid Robot Targets Consumers

Swancor Advanced Materials unveiled a compact humanoid robot in a move to make inroads into the household market. The robot, named Qiyuan Q1, stands under one meter tall and its weight is about an eighth of conventional humanoid models. The company said the robot, with AI embodied intelligence, can do some household chores and function as a companion. However, analysts said development of consumer robots is still in its early stages.