The Biden administration has revoked export licences that allow Intel and Qualcomm to supply Huawei with semiconductors as Washington increases the pressure on the Chinese telecoms equipment company, reports the Financial Times. The move by the US Department of Commerce affects the supply of chips for Huawei’s laptop computers and mobile phones, according to people familiar with the situation. The commerce department confirmed to the Financial Times that it had “revoked certain licences for exports to Huawei” but did not name which US companies would be affected. “We continuously assess how ou ..read more

Two Chinese companies and JPMorgan have become the latest banking groups to cut jobs in China as a slow recovery in listing and dealmaking activities force them to ramp up cost controls, six sources with knowledge of the matter said, reports Reuters. Beijing-based China International Capital Corp (CICC) is planning to reduce its investment banking headcount by at least 10% this year, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Peer CITIC Securities is cutting around a dozen investment banking jobs in Hong Kong, according to two other sources. The cuts would be the first major wo ..read more

Alibaba Group Holding is carrying out a major revamp of the webpage of its flagship e-commerce platform Taobao ahead of China’s second-largest online shopping festival, as the internet retail giant bets on an improved shopping experience to regain business momentum, reports the South China Morning Post. The overhaul, which includes the launch of new features and changes in existing functions, will be the “biggest update in seven years” of Taobao’s web version, according to a press release on Monday by Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce unit. The group says it aims to improve ..read more

Tesla Inc. shipments from its Shanghai factory dropped year-on-year in April despite growth in the overall market for new-energy cars, another sign of the pressure Elon Musk’s company is under in China’s hyper competitive automobile sector, reports Caixin. Tesla’s April deliveries, which includes cars for sale domestically as well as for export, came in at 62,167 units, down 18% from April 2023, preliminary data from China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) released Tuesday showed. More broadly, new-energy passenger vehicle wholesale deliveries were estimated at 800,000 units, up 33% year-on-y ..read more

Meituan has become the largest food delivery service provider in Hong Kong with more than 40% share of the market since its debut in the city a year ago, thanks to generous subsidies and rapidly expanding services, reports Caixin. KeeTa, Meituan’s Hong Kong focusing platform captured 44% of Hong Kong’s food delivery orders in March, surpassing rival Foodpanda’s 35% to become the top player, according to market data provider Measurable AI. Beijing-based Meituan launched KeeTa in Hong Kong in May 2023 as the food delivery giant’s first major foray outside the Chinese mainland. Its service initia ..read more

China’s average daily home sales during the major May Day public holiday sank 47% from a year earlier, and were down around 30% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 for the same holiday period, according to a private survey on Monday, reports Reuters. Home sales fell in 19 of 22 surveyed cities during the five-day May Day compared to the same period of 2023, and were down more than 60% in mega cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai, according to data from the China Index Academy, one of the country’s largest independent real estate researchers. Chinese authorities have been ramping up measures to prop u ..read more

A record number of overseas buyers attended China’s biggest trade fair, which concluded Sunday, though the value of their orders remained well below the all-time high, reports Caixin. A total of 246,000 foreign buyers showed up for the spring session of the biannual Canton Fair, up 24.5% from last year’s autumn session, official figures show. The value of the orders they placed rose 10.7% to $24.7 billion. Established in 1957 in the southern metropolis Guangzhou, the Canton Fair makes a major contribution to China’s exports, and so is widely considered a barometer for the country’s foreign tra ..read more

Chinese social media giant ByteDance is seeing a rise in popularity for its four-year-old Lemon8 lifestyle app in the United States, as the company’s flagship short video platform TikTok faces a potential ban in the world’s largest economy, reports the South China Morning Post. Lemon8, which has been described as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest, is a content-curation platform featuring lengthy blog-style posts that emphasise photos over videos. Users can browse, record and engage with popular content that includes fashion, travel, food and health. It has been the most downloaded lifest ..read more

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. posted strong growth in April sales, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while its AI-related business booms, reports Caixin. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc.’s smartphones, reported a 19% rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion ($15.8 billion), compared with revenue of NT$429.2 billion in April 2023. It said in a statement Sunday that April revenue climbed to a record for the month. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn, makes most of the world’s iPhones but is diversifying to put greater focus on building datacenter server racks ..read more

Domestic travelers spent RMB 166.9 billion ($23.13 billion) during one of China’s longest breaks, the May Day holiday, a rise of 13.5% from pre-pandemic levels, government data showed on Monday, but expenditure per head lagged 2019 rates, reports Nikkei Asia. Boosting consumer confidence has presented a key challenge for Chinese authorities this year amid a declining property market, high youth unemployment and deflation pressures. The total spent over the May 1 to 5 holiday was 12.7% higher than last year, shortly after China lifted COVID-19 curbs, and the tourism ministry recorded 295 millio ..read more