CX Daily: Huawei Aims to Pull Ahead of Tesla in Autonomous Driving Race

TOP STORIES

Self-driving?/

In-Depth: Huawei aims to pull ahead of Tesla in autonomous driving race

The race to be first to develop a self-driving car and corner a potentially vast market is heating up and the starting grid is getting busy.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. entered the contest when it announced in November a new venture focusing on intelligent car systems and components. The telecom equipment giant, which recently launched a luxury electric SUV, aims to be a world-class intelligent driving leader. ?

Corruption?/

Beijing health insurance director detained, source says

A senior official in charge of managing Beijing’s health insurance program was taken away by authorities without explanation on the eve of the three-day New Year’s holiday weekend, Caixin has learned.

Zheng Jie, director of the medical insurance management center of the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, was detained at a local airport on Dec. 29, a source close to the bureau said, without specifying which airport.

• Disgraced former China soccer coach admits match fixing, bribery ?

FINANCE & ECONOMY

Central bank?/

Former China central bank deputy governor abused power for 30 years

More than a year after the downfall of former central bank Deputy Governor Fan Yifei, further details of his nearly three decades of corruption were revealed Tuesday in an episode of an anti-graft docuseries shown on state broadcaster CCTV.

Fan’s case has uncovered “a substantial amount of covert and evolved novel forms of corruption” that allowed him to take advantage of financial market rules to conceal his corrupt practices and trade influence for wealth, Qian Long, an official at China’s top graft watchdog, said in the episode. ?

Economy?/

UBS economist expects less property drag on China’s economy in 2024

The property slump is expected have slightly less of an impact on China’s economy in 2024 than feared, while fiscal support will play a bigger role, Wang Tao, UBS’s chief China economist, said at a Tuesday seminar.

The year-on-year growth rate in 2024 will be lower than that in 2023, but the economy will continue to recover and stabilize with a growth rate of about 4.5%, Wang said. ?

PSL?/

PBOC added $70 billion cheap credit in 2023 to fund housing, infrastructure

China’s central bank added 500-billion-yuan ($70 billion) worth of low-cost loan quota for policy-oriented banks in 2023 to ramp up financing for housing and infrastructure projects and bolster the economy, according to a report by the People’s Bank of China.

By the end of December, the outstanding amount of the PBOC’s Pledged Supplemental Lending (PSL) program to policy banks was 3.25 trillion yuan, an increase from 2.9 trillion yuan in the previous month, according to data released by the central bank. The monthly net injection of 350 billion yuan was the largest increase via the program since November 2022. ?

Quick hits?/

• Hong Kong IPOs expected to rebound to $12.8 billion in 2024 ?
• China orders banks, insurers to review cyber and data security ?

BUSINESS & TECH

Papers?/

China tells colleges to look into retractions of academic papers

The Ministry of Education has asked the nation’s colleges and universities to look into the retractions of academic papers by their researchers, as Chinese scholars produced three-quarters of the highest-ranking scientific papers pulled by journal publishers last year.

The ministry also asked institutions of higher education to verify the reasons for the retractions and severely punish academic misconduct, according to recent notices published by universities including Suzhou University, Inner Mongolia Normal University and Heilongjiang University of Science and Technology. ?

Energy?/

State companies’ rush to clean energy sparks bubble fears

China’s largest state-owned companies have poured hundreds of billions of yuan into wind and solar power projects, putting the country on course to hit its clean energy target six years ahead of schedule. But the investment frenzy has also raised concerns over profitability and waste.

China has seen explosive growth in photovoltaic and wind power over the past three years as Beijing pushes to achieve a carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. To meet these goals, China in 2020 set a target to install 1.2 billion kilowatts of wind and solar power capacity by 2030. ?

Spinoff?/

Iflytek to spin off loss-making health care arm

Chinese speech-recognition and artificial intelligence developer Iflytek Co. Ltd. plans to spin off its loss-making health care arm via a Hong Kong IPO.

Xunfei Healthcare Technology Co. Ltd. will seek approval to list on the main board of Hong Kong’s stock exchange, with an offer of up to 20.1 million shares and a 15% over-allotment option, Iflytek said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. ?

Quick hits?/

• Growth in China’s EV-market is set to slow for a second year ?
• Eisai wins Chinese approval for its Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi ?

Long Read?/

• Why China’s last dynasty failed in its efforts to modernize ?

GALLERY

A ride through transportation history

The Beijing Public Transport Hall, a museum exhibiting a century of transportation in China’s capital, opened on Dec. 1 and has since attracted large crowds. The museum covers an area of about 5,000 square meters and has over 6,000 exhibits ranging from old trams and buses, as well vintage tickets and uniforms.