https://www.scmp.com/rss/525610/feed Karen Tian is a correspondent on the political economy desk in Beijing. She previously covered equity capital markets, investment banking and regulatory affairs across Greater China for IFR Asia, part of LSEG/Thomson Reuters, and earlier reported for Caixin Media. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Karen Tian Karen Tian China is seeking to expand its influence over the future of the global auto industry through a sweeping regulatory blueprint covering core technologies ranging from vehicle chips, AI and batteries to autonomous driving and low-carbon development. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday released its 2026 work plan on automotive standardisation, outlining measures to tighten technical requirements as part of efforts to reinforce China’s dominance in electric vehicles (EVs)... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3355063/china-unveils-auto-industry-blueprint-set-ev-ai-vehicle-and-semiconductor-standards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3355063/china-unveils-auto-industry-blueprint-set-ev-ai-vehicle-and-semiconductor-standards?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2026 13:30:05 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian European companies’ confidence in the Chinese market is showing signs of rebounding for the first time since 2022, as Beijing is increasingly perceived as a “champion” of stability amid rising global volatility, according to a survey released on Wednesday. After years of spiralling pessimism, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China found that “the intensity of the deterioration in confidence in China’s business environment has eased” among its members over the past year. In the group’s... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354911/eu-firms-china-starting-feel-less-gloomy-beijing-offers-stability-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354911/eu-firms-china-starting-feel-less-gloomy-beijing-offers-stability-report?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2026 01:10:04 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian US companies increased their investment in China before the two countries’ leaders met earlier this month, according to new data released by Beijing. Actually utilised foreign direct investment (FDI) from American firms rose 24.5 per cent year on year in the first four months of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday. The figure was reached by including inflows through third regions, such as free trade ports, it added. Other FDI sources that recorded significant growth were... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354768/us-investment-returning-chinese-data-shows-double-digit-growth-early-2026?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354768/us-investment-returning-chinese-data-shows-double-digit-growth-early-2026?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 May 2026 11:00:06 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Funding for China’s artificial-intelligence-related start-ups jumped nearly threefold year on year in the first quarter, as investors poured capital into large language models (LLMs) and embodied AI amid growing optimism over the country’s technology ecosystem. AI-related start-ups secured more than 110 billion yuan (US$16.2 billion) in the first three months of the year, representing a 185 per cent surge from the same period last year, according to data released on Thursday by Beijing-based... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3354502/chinas-ai-start-funding-triples-us16b-first-quarter-amid-bets-llms-robotics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3354502/chinas-ai-start-funding-triples-us16b-first-quarter-amid-bets-llms-robotics?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:06 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Chinese listed companies have delivered strong stock returns over the past year even as net profits grew by only about 1 per cent, suggesting the gains were driven more by higher valuations than corporate earnings, according to a quarterly investor survey released by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). Net profit growth turned positive at about 1 per cent on a trailing 12-month basis to the first quarter of 2026, while price-to-earnings ratios rose 31.2 per cent, the survey... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354353/chinas-corporate-earnings-lag-behind-stock-market-gains-survey-finds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354353/chinas-corporate-earnings-lag-behind-stock-market-gains-survey-finds?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 May 2026 07:59:37 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Monday urged deeper integration between AI companies and advanced manufacturing, as China steps up efforts to develop new growth drivers amid slowing domestic demand and mounting external pressures. During a tour of both Xiaomi’s electric vehicle factory and the Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, home to more than a dozen embodied AI start-ups, industry partners and research institutions in Beijing yesterday, Li said faster development and wider application of... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354061/china-says-integration-ai-advanced-manufacturing-can-help-offset-economic-headwinds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3354061/china-says-integration-ai-advanced-manufacturing-can-help-offset-economic-headwinds?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 May 2026 08:00:07 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian As the yuan’s exchange rate hovers near a three-year high against the US dollar, an article by China’s top foreign exchange regulator suggests that authorities remain focused on stability and risk control. Zhu Hexin, head of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, called for “a more convenient, more open, more secure and more intelligent” foreign exchange system in the article published in the Communist Party journal Qizhi. Regulators would seek to keep the yuan “basically stable at a... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353975/chinas-yuan-emerges-global-currency-beijing-faces-balancing-act?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353975/chinas-yuan-emerges-global-currency-beijing-faces-balancing-act?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 May 2026 12:00:05 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian China’s April lending data points to persistently weak borrowing demand among households and businesses, despite a relatively loose monetary policy and strong industrial activity and profits. Banks extended a total of 8.59 trillion yuan (US$1.26 trillion) in new yuan loans in the first four months of this year, with lending barely rising in April, according to data released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Thursday. The rare monthly fall in April – only the second in the past decade –... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353585/chinas-credit-demand-weak-april-despite-policy-support-and-strong-industrial-profits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353585/chinas-credit-demand-weak-april-despite-policy-support-and-strong-industrial-profits?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 May 2026 11:05:54 +0000 Coco Feng,Karen Tian Coco Feng,Karen Tian China’s tech-heavy ChiNext Index surged to an all-time high on Wednesday, closing past the 4,000-point mark as investor optimism rose ahead of US President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing. The index, which tracks tech firms listed on Shenzhen’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext board, reached 4,038.33 by market close, its highest finish on record. Other Chinese stock indexes also made strong gains, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising to its highest level since 2015. China’s stock markets have been on an... https://www.scmp.com/business/markets/article/3353390/chinese-tech-index-surges-11-year-high-investors-await-trump-xi-summit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/markets/article/3353390/chinese-tech-index-surges-11-year-high-investors-await-trump-xi-summit?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 May 2026 06:17:02 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian German companies in China have grown more optimistic about the country’s economic outlook, even as the Iran war and persistent trade tensions continue to weigh on their operations, according to the German Chamber of Commerce in China. In a survey released on Tuesday, the chamber found that 37 per cent of respondents expected China’s economy to improve over the next six months. That was up 22 percentage points from last year, with only 17 per cent anticipating a deterioration – a sharp reversal... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353294/german-firms-china-more-upbeat-about-economy-despite-iran-war-trade-headwinds-survey?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3353294/german-firms-china-more-upbeat-about-economy-despite-iran-war-trade-headwinds-survey?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 May 2026 11:01:04 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Pakistan is poised to become the latest partner in a China-centred trading network, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, to sell “panda bonds”. Islamabad seeks to raise as much as US$250 million through its first-ever sale of the bonds – yuan-denominated debt instruments sold by foreign entities in mainland China’s onshore market – as early as this week. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb confirmed on Saturday that Islamabad was preparing to access Chinese capital markets with the sale – the... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3353149/panda-power-pakistan-tap-china-debt-market-first-sale-yuan-priced-notes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3353149/panda-power-pakistan-tap-china-debt-market-first-sale-yuan-priced-notes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 May 2026 02:00:14 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian China’s trade with the United States has declined this year, official data shows, as US President Donald Trump heads to Beijing next week for a high-stakes visit that could determine the future of economic relations between the two superpowers. China’s merchandise exports to the US fell 10.2 per cent year on year to US$133.4 billion in the first four months of 2026, according to data released on Saturday by the General Administration of Customs. Imports from the US also declined 10.9 per cent to... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3352992/not-decoupling-what-us-china-trade-data-signals-ahead-xi-trump-summit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3352992/not-decoupling-what-us-china-trade-data-signals-ahead-xi-trump-summit?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2026 11:00:05 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Overseas-invested securities firms collectively saw income from their China businesses skyrocket in 2025, as combined net profits climbed more than fourfold from a year earlier to 2.65 billion yuan (US$390 million), according to their annual reports. However, while the industry’s bottom line surged last year – fuelled by China’s lifting of capital restrictions and a rebound in the capital market – the individual performances of firms showed a widening gap in scale. A South China Morning Post... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352912/wall-street-giants-lead-china-profit-surge-despite-market-polarisation-uneven-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352912/wall-street-giants-lead-china-profit-surge-despite-market-polarisation-uneven-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 May 2026 12:00:15 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian China’s central bank has set the yuan’s exchange rate at its strongest level against the US dollar in more than three years, as Beijing pushes to internationalise its currency and global confidence in US dollar assets continues to waver. The People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s midpoint rate at 6.8487 per US dollar on Thursday, the strongest level since April 2023. The fixing rate, used as a reference for daily market trading, was 6.8562 a day earlier. Analysts expect the Chinese currency to... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352735/chinas-exporters-face-test-yuan-hits-3-year-high-against-us-dollar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352735/chinas-exporters-face-test-yuan-hits-3-year-high-against-us-dollar?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2026 08:22:07 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian Chinese investment in the US is unlikely to recover meaningfully from its mid-2010s collapse even if President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump reach a bilateral deal when they meet in Beijing next month, according to a report released on Thursday. Rhodium Group, an American research firm that tracks China’s cross-border investment, said Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States had “fallen significantly from its 2016 peak, and remained at low levels for the past five... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352026/xi-trump-summit-unlikely-revive-chinese-investment-us-report-warns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3352026/xi-trump-summit-unlikely-revive-chinese-investment-us-report-warns?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:00:09 +0000 Karen Tian Karen Tian A leading ratings agency that previously expressed concerns about China’s local debt woes has cast a vote of confidence in the world’s second-largest economy, raising the country’s sovereign credit outlook to “stable” from “negative”. This week’s move by Moody’s Ratings was closely watched, as energy shocks from the US-Israel war in Iran have exacerbated concerns about the global economy’s trajectory. The agency had dropped China’s sovereign rating from Aa3 to A1 in 2017, its first downgrade for... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3351716/why-moodys-has-raised-chinas-credit-outlook-amid-iran-war-shocks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3351716/why-moodys-has-raised-chinas-credit-outlook-amid-iran-war-shocks?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:31 +0000