#china-financial-power

#china-financial-power

The US dollar returned to the upside as geopolitical fears rebounded after US President Trump's address to the nation. The rhetoric fuelled risk aversion and flows toward the dollar while oil prices surged.

In recent weeks, China approved the world's first commercial brain-computer interface medical device and unveiled a five-ton class electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that has already completed a public flight.

Richard Yu promises that Huawei will expand satellite connectivity to lower-priced devices, ensuring that it won't be confined to high-end models only. This initiative marks a new chapter in the company's journey, addressing the connectivity struggles that persist due to insufficient mobile network coverage.

The competitive landscape among AI apps in China is fierce. Companies have been dumping money into the market to try to win customers and show them how AI is useful in everyday life, in particular, for buying stuff.

The meeting made clear, based on the requirements set out in the 2021 joint notice issued by ten government agencies, that stablecoins are considered a form of virtual currency. At present, they cannot adequately meet requirements for customer identification, anti-money-laundering compliance, or related regulatory standards. They also carry significant risks of being used for money laundering, fraudulent fundraising, and illegal cross-border capital transfers.

The S&P 500 closed up approximately 2.4% near 6,496, while the Nasdaq Composite gained roughly 3.3% to around 21,475, indicating a strong market response to geopolitical news.

Escalating geopolitical risk continued to dominate global markets' concerns, with safe-haven demand keeping the dollar index anchored near a multi-week high.

In an unprecedented Chinese New Year marketing blitz, Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings spent an estimated 8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) to turn their artificial intelligence assistants into household names, according to Morgan Stanley.

China's approach to AI is architecturally different. Where Western tech companies have largely pursued AI as a product category - chatbots, copilots, and standalone tools that can be sold to enterprises - China has treated AI as infrastructure: a utility layer woven into the fabric of commerce, logistics, government services, and daily life.

While recognizing our achievements, we are also clear-eyed about the difficulties and challenges we face. The government is striving to balance two goals: reviving the flagging economy by boosting domestic spending while also furthering top leader Xi Jinping's ambitions to build China into a global power in AI, robotics and other advanced technologies and one that is not dependent on the U.S. or others for high-end semiconductors and other components.

The lowered growth figure reflects China's economic slowdown, triggered in part by the collapse of the country's property sector, which once accounted for between 25 and 30 percent of GDP. The growth target is quite realistic, the Economist Intelligence Unit's China economist Tianchen Xu said, noting the figure reflected China's trend towards more conservative expectations.

What we'll see is the trade-off between whether it's going to be industry and tech, or looking after domestic demand. These are the two priorities that are juggling for Xi Jinping right now.

China, which the U.S. until recently saw as its "pacing threat," may feel relieved that neither of President Trump's targets were in its neighborhood. On the other hand, it may also worry that U.S. actions are aimed in part at countering China's influence, per Trump's and his officials' explanations, and that Trump's "America First" rhetoric has not reduced his appetite for what China calls "military adventurism."

Last week, news broke that Meta is buying Chinese AI startup Manus for around $2 billion. The company is known for its AI agent that can handle everything from job interviews to stock analysis. Meta plans to integrate Manus' AI agent into its own products. Now, the Financial Times reports that China's Ministry of Commerce has decided to review the purchase to determine whether the deal violates the country's export control rules for technology.

About 1.4 billion people began marking the Lunar New Year on Tuesday amid fireworks as China enters the Year of the Fire Horse, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Known as the Spring Festival in China, the new year, based on the lunar calendar, also brings about the world's largest annual human migration, called Chunyun, as millions travel across the country for family reunions.

A decade ago, China's political leaders laid out an ambitious industrial plan: By 2025, they pledged, their country would be a world capital, with the goal of moving from "Chinese speed to Chinese quality, the transformation of Chinese products to Chinese brands." This is the difference, they wrote, between "Made in China" and "Created in China." At WIRED, we never take what the government (ours or anybody else's) says at face value.

EPS: $0.89 vs. $0.86 estimate (3.5% beat) Revenue: $4.23 billion vs. $4.34 billion estimate (in line), up 6% year-over-year Adjusted Operating Margin: 14.4%, up 290 basis points from prior year Guidance Raised: FY2026 adjusted EPS now $2.05-$2.25 (36-49% growth) Stock Reaction: Shares dropped 18.7% over the past week despite raised guidance Estée Lauder delivered a mixed quarter, beating earnings expectations while revenue met estimates.

China's official discourse centres on the idea of peaceful rise, the commitment to non-interference in internal affairs, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and economic partnerships based on mutual benefit. Beijing insists that relations with Washington should not slide into conflict, calling for a system of global governance built on cooperation rather than confrontation. Yet the geopolitical landscape reveals a wide gap between this discourse and reality. Donald Trump's return to the White House has brought back rhetorical escalation and increased geopolitical pressure.