Daily Buzz: 14 November 2025

Chinese President Hosts Royal Visitors This Week

Xi Jinping met Spain's King Felipe VI in Beijing this week, the first visit by a Spanish monarch in 18 years. Xi expressed a desire for closer economic ties with Spain. "The world needs more constructive forces dedicated to peace and development," Xi told Felipe. "China stands ready to work hand-in-hand with Spain to build a comprehensive strategic partnership." China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the EU. Bilateral trade last year totaled US$50 million. Xi said he hoped Chinese and Spanish companies can work together to tap opportunities in Latin American markets. "The friendship between Spain and China undoubtedly benefits both peoples," Felipe said. "A relationship of trust has been forged.

In a week of royal visits, Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn arrived in Beijing on Thursday, the first Thai reigning monarch to visit China. China is the largest market for Thailand, with exports last year valued at US$80 billion. The king is scheduled to meet with Xi and Premier Li Qiang.

Tencent Revenue Rises 15 Percent on AI Deployment

Tencent, China's largest gaming and social media company, posted a 15 percent gain in third-quarter revenue to 193 billion yuan (US$27.2 billion), with AI-driven technologies driving the key segments of gaming, marketing and social media services higher. Net profit rose 19 percent from a year earlier to 63.1 billion yuan. The company said chip shortages are restraining growth of its cloud-related business in China.

Game revenue in the domestic market increased 15 percent, aided by "Delta Force" and "Valorant Mobile," with the company calling the latter its most successful mobile game launch this year. Global game revenue was a standout, jumping 43 percent to surpass 20 billion yuan for the first time. Tencent cited the success of "Dying Light: The Beast" and record gross receipts for "Clash Royale." The company said its video unit had 114 million subscribers and its music unit, 126 million. The company had record investment in research and development, with artificial intelligence a key driver in expanding ad-targeting features across its WeChat social media platform. The company said it updated its foundational AI model, HunYuan, improving its coding, math, and science capabilities.

Record-Long US Government Shutdown Ends

US President Donald Trump signed into law a stopgap funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in history – 43 days. His signature came after the House passed a Senate measure that provides funding through January. The actions mean that 670,000 furloughed federal employees will return to work, 730,000 federal employees who worked without paychecks will be compensated, airlines will resume normal operations, needy families will get food benefits and national parks will fully reopen.

BBC Apologizes to Trump Over Edited Comments

The BBC formally apologized to US President Donald Trump on Thursday over a documentary that spliced film segments to suggest he incited supporters in a contentious January 2021 speech in Washington that preceded storming of the Capitol. Trump threatened to sue the UK broadcaster for US$1 billion unless it apologized and provided compensation. The scandal, which resulted in two top executives resigning, doesn't merit compensation or a defamation claim, the BBC said.

Top Business

JD.com Posts Revenue Gain, Profit Slump

JD.com, an e-commerce giant in China with businesses in retail, logistics and healthcare, said third-quarter revenue rose 15 percent from a year earlier to 299 billion (US$42 billion) on steady consumer spending buoyed by government subsidies on "trade-in" goods. Active customers hit 700 million in October, it said. However, profit in the quarter dropped 55 percent to 5.28 billion yuan, partially due to heavy discounting in its fast food-delivery war with rivals Meituan and Alibaba. Retail sales, which account for the bulk of the company's revenue, rose 11 percent, while logistics sales increased 24 percent. The company said it is increasing spending on its international business and budget shopping platform Jingxi.

JD said it set record sales over the annual Singles' Day shopping festival, which ended on Tuesday, but gave no figures. Beijing-based tech and commerce consulting firm Analysys estimated its sales rise was 8.3 percent, lower than rival platform Alibaba. JD launched its new JD Fashion apparel label in September. The company, under its JD Mall physical store segment, was operating 20 mainland stores in the latest quarter and said it will soon open its first outlet in Hong Kong. Its JD Health business entered into agreements with leading pharma companies, including Eli Lilly, Bayer China and Innovent Biologics.

China Private Equity Firm Mulls Bid for Costa Coffee

Chinese private equity firm Centurium Capital, a backer of the Luckin Coffee chain, is considering a bid to buy UK-based Costa Coffee from Coca-Cola Co, Bloomberg News reported. It isn't clear if Centurium would be acting on its own behalf or for Luckin, which has surpassed Starbucks to be the largest coffee retailer in China with 26,000 outlets. Among other possible bidders for Costa are UK buyout firm TDR Capital and Bain Capital. Offers could value Costa at about 1 billion pounds (US$1.3 billion), the report said.

Costa, which has 2,000 outlets in the UK, its biggest market, and about 380 shops in China, has been struggling in recent year amid stiffer competition and rising costs. Coca-Cola Chief Executive James Quincey told investors earlier this year that Costa had "not quite delivered" and was "not where we wanted it to be from an investment point of view." Coca-Cola bought the chain from UK-based Whitbread in 2018 for 3.9 million pounds.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Beats Profit Forecasts

Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China's largest contract chipmaker, beat market forecasts with a 9.7 percent rise in third-quarter revenue to 17.2 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion). Net profit surged 29 percent to 192 million yuan. The company attributed the gains to higher wafer shipments, saying earlier this year that demand for analog chips used in mobile fast charging and power management exceeds its capacity amid the government's push for self-sufficiency in AI-related technologies and the withdrawal of Nvidia chips from the China market. It forecast slower revenue growth of up to 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

China Drugmaker Delays HK IPO

Sichuan Province-based drug developer Sichuan Biokin Pharmaceutical postponed its debut on Hong Kong's stock exchange next Monday amid some cooling investor sentiment in the city's hot IPO market, the South China Morning Post reported. The company cited "prevailing market conditions" in a stock-exchange filing but provided no details on when it will reschedule the start of trading. The company, which is already listed in Shanghai, was seeking to raise 3 billion yuan (US$422 million) from the IPO. Initial public offerings in Hong Kong in recent weeks have had mixed results in trading debuts after sure-fire gains for new listings in preceding months.

Earlier this week, China International Capital Corp predicted that Hong Kong's IPO market will remain strong through next year, led by listing of technology and advanced manufacturing companies. Hong Kong has led the world this year in numbers and value of initial public offerings, with HK$216 billion (US$27.8 billion) raised in the first 10 months of the year.

Economy & Markets

New York Stocks Suffer Biggest Decline in a Month

A retreat from investment in AI-related stocks sent New York markets to their steepest declines in a month, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 2.3 percent and the Dow Jones losing 1.7 percent. Some investors ae worried that technology shares, after a prolonged rally, are overvalued when compared to their short-term profit potential. Shares in chipmaking giant Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, dropped 3.6 percent. Worries about inflation vs rate cuts, flagging employment and the health of the US economy also played into market sentiment.

Chinese Companies Sour on EU Business Climate

Chinese companies operating in the EU say business conditions there have deteriorated, citing high labor costs and political pressures, according to the China Chamber of Commerce in the European bloc. A survey of 200 Chinese companies also cited obstacles such as talent recruitment, market access, restrictions on research collaboration and inadequate digitalization. The survey, carried out by consulting firm Roland Berger, gave an overall score of 61 for the EU business environment, a point lower than last year and down 73 points from a 2019 survey. About 81 percent of respondents expressed uncertainty and 67 percent noted a strong anti-China sentiment affecting business.

Overseas Investors in Chinese Stock Markets

Overseas institutional investors hold 3.5 trillion yuan (US$493 billion) of Chinese Class A, yuan-denominated shares, according to the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission. That's up from 3 trillion yuan five years ago. China has been steadily relaxing requirements on so-called qualified foreign investors allowed to buy mainland shares. Among the more popular sectors with foreign investors are technology, integrated circuits, biomedicine and electric vehicles.

UBS Lifts Forecast of China Electricity Demand

Swiss investment bank UBS has raised its forecast for the growth of China's electricity demand to 8 percent a year between 2028 and 2030, citing the increasing number of power-hungry AI data centers, robust exports and accelerating electrification. The forecast exceeds prevailing market consensus of a 4-5 percent growth in demand over the same period. Artificial intelligence data centers alone will contribute about 2.3 percentage points to power demand growth.

Corporate

Tesla, Volvo AI Models Gain China Approval

Carmakers Tesla and Volvo became the first foreign firms to gain official approval for generative AI models in China, a milestone underscoring the country's opening of that sector to overseas participation. Tesla's xBot Customer Service and Volvo's Xiaowo Smart Assistant, both registered in Shanghai, are among 115 generative AI services now cleared for operation nationwide, local authorities said. Tesla's xBot offers multilingual, multi-round conversational support through the Tesla app, enabling users to book test drives, track vehicle logistics and locate charging stations. Volvo's Xiaowo Assistant provides similar intelligent services across car ownership and maintenance via its app and WeChat mini program.

Baidu Unveils New Chips, Upgraded Ernie 5.0

Chinese tech giant Baidu unveiled the latest generation of its self-developed Kunlun chips and the upgraded version of its large language model Ernie 5.0, marking what it said is a significant step in artificial intelligence technology. The Kunlun M100 chip, scheduled for release early next year, is designed large-scale inference, while the Kunlun M300, to be released in 2027, targets ultra-large, multimodal model training and inference. Ernie 5.0, the company's latest large language model, contains 2.4 trillion parameters capable of multimodal understanding and generation capacities, including text, images, audio and video inputs and outputs.

Anker Seeks to List in Hong Kong

Anker Innovations, a Chinese maker of portable charging devices, plans to list in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported. Anker shot to prominence after it was revealed to be the preferred power bank of US President Donald Trump. Anker is already listed on the Shenzhen market, with a market cap of 58.9 billion yuan (US$8 billion). The company, which earned 96 percent of its 2024 sales from overseas, didn't indicate how much it will seek to raise in the Hong Kong initial public offering.

Alibaba to Revamp AI Agent App

Alibaba Group Holding is preparing a major overhaul of its AI app as it races to catch up with rivals in China's fast-evolving artificial intelligence race. The company plans to relaunch its Tongyi mobile apps under the name Qwen, its flagship AI model. The upgrade will add AI agent features to assist users with shopping on Taobao and other Alibaba platforms, The Business Times reported.

China Vanke Gets New Loan From Shenzhen Metro

Debt-laden property developer China Vanke secured an additional 1.7 billion yuan (US$230 million) low-interest loan from its largest shareholder, Shenzhen Metro Group, to help repay borrrowings. Shenzhen Metro has loaned Vanke a 30.8 billion yuan since the beginning of the year to keep it afloat. At the end of the third quarter, Vanke had interest-bearing liabilities of 362.9 billion yuan, Yicai reported. Its Shenzhen-traded shares have dropped 17 percent since January.

Tongxing Environmental to Build Two Factories

Shenzhen-listed Tongxing Environmental Protection Technology said it plans to invest 3.2 billion yuan (US$449.5 million) in two factories, one producing sodium-ion batteries and the other, cathode materials. The Hefei-based company said the plants will be located in Sichuan Province.

The sodium-ion battery plant will have a capacity of 6 gigawatt-hours, and the cathode materials factory will have annual capacity of 100,000 tons.