Day: February 10, 2026

The Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, backed by the municipal government, has expanded one of its three funds more than 11-fold to pump more capital into the financial hub’s chip firms as part of China’s broader pursuit of tech self-reliance. The third phase of the fund, also known as Shanghai IC Fund III, recently increased its registered capital by 5.5 billion yuan (US$794 million) to 6 billion yuan, according to business registry database Aiqicha. It added two new equity investors, namely Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment Leading IC Private Equity…

A growing debate in France over raising tariffs on China heated up on Monday, with a senior minister calling for a targeted approach even as a government planning agency proposed a blanket 30 per cent duty on all Chinese imports entering the European Union. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said China’s large trade surplus with Europe was “unsustainable”, but insisted there was no “one-size-fits-all answer” on tariffs and that Paris would need to continue engaging with Beijing to make changes. Advertisement “They’ve been saying the right things. So far, I don’t…

The scandal unfolded in late December when Nanjing Museum in eastern Jiangsu province was alleged to have secretly sold donated paintings after the artworks were mishandled by a former director. The controversy centres on five paintings among a 137-piece collection donated by the family of collector Pang Laichen in 1959 with the intention of being preserved within the museum, yet they were found to be missing during a court-ordered inventory check filed by Pang’s descendants. Detail from Spring in Jiangnan by Qiu Ying. Photo: The Paper Earlier last year, one…

More than a month after China’s central bank upgraded the digital yuan from a cash equivalent to “digital deposit money” – allowing it to accrue interest like a bank deposit – many residents and merchants in Beijing have yet to notice a major difference. While signs accepting digital yuan – also known as e-CNY – have long been commonplace in department stores and supermarkets, multiple sales staff said the dedicated point-of-sale machines had sat idle for months, if not years. At most wet markets and street stalls, the familiar green…

Investors in mainland China raised their stakes in Hong Kong-listed drug makers through the cross-border trading link over the past week, as a wave of out-licensing deals between the country’s pharmaceutical firms and global partners rolls on. The Hang Seng Southbound Connect Hong Kong Innovative Drug Index, which tracks around 40 of the largest Hong Kong-listed Chinese drug manufacturers, biotech researchers and AI-driven drug developers by market capitalisation, rose about 9 per cent between February 2 and Tuesday morning. The southbound Stock Connect mechanism, introduced in 2014, allows qualified investors…