Roaring exports lifted China’s economic growth in the third quarter of this year, with factory output growing much faster than consumer spending. China’s GDP grew by 4.5% year-on-year between July and September, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported on Monday. The figures were better than economists had expected and up from the second quarter’s growth rate of 4.3%. China’s economy has now grown by 4.6% in the first nine months of the year, putting it on track to hit the government’s 2026 target of 4.5%-5% growth without extra…
Tag: Business
Why Britain should reject the lure of cheap – and scary – Chinese AI
There is much to fear from artificial intelligence developed in China and handed to businesses and governments in the west almost free of charge. Every month Chinese AI developers such as DeepSeek and Xiaomi dispatch the latest versions of their “open-weight” models that allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. In Britain, we love cheap Chinese kit, usually setting aside any concerns about how it was made and who by. The row over whether to allow Chinese electric cars unfettered access…
No 10 leaves option open to impose Chinese EV tariffs if UK joins EU scheme
No 10 has left the door open to imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of the Made in Europe package, prompting a warning from Beijing that such a move would be “discriminatory”. Downing Street said on Friday that it would “welcome the objective to have the UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act” after France dropped its opposition to Britain joining the scheme. The aim of the rules is to curb subsidised Chinese imports by giving EU-made products preferential treatment, but the UK and others such as Norway…
France drops opposition to UK being included in ‘Made in Europe’ legislation
France has dropped its opposition to the UK being included in the EU’s “Made in Europe” legislation as long as the British government aligns with the bloc’s position over tariffs on Chinese EVs. In a breakthrough for Andy Burnham, France on Thursday came round to backing Germany, which has always supported the UK’s calls to be designated European for the purposes of the Industrial Accelerator Act. The legislation, which is in its draft stage, is designed to protect domestic manufacturing from cheap Chinese competition. According to a joint Franco-German paper…
Excluding UK from ‘Made in Europe’ law will hurt entire EU car industry, Mercedes boss warns
Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial “Made in Europe” legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz has said. Speaking in his capacity as president of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Ola Källenius said such a move would “weaken the industry on both sides”. He was speaking just weeks before political leaders hope to reach agreement on the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), potentially keeping the UK car industry out of key contracts…
‘Super app’ aimed at UK students uses servers owned by Chinese firm on US blacklist
A new messaging and payment “super app” marketed at British students uses servers owned by a Chinese company that has been put on a US military blacklist for its alleged affiliation to the People’s Liberation Army. ZyMix, which is being pushed on university campuses as the UK’s first super app designed “for gen Z”, combining chat, payments and community features, has a contract with a German-based subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, a Chinese conglomerate in Shenzhen. Tencent Holdings was added in January 2026 to the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) list…
Stellantis and Renault back UK to get EU car industry protection
Stellantis and Renault have backed the UK car industry for inclusion in proposed rules to protect EU industry, but urged the British government to consider limiting imports of Chinese cars. Emanuele Cappellano, who leads Stellantis’s European brands including Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall, and François Provost, the chief executive of France’s Renault, said the UK should effectively be counted as one of the EU’s 27 member states for the purposes of the proposed “Made in Europe” legislation. The new rules aim to ensure EU subsidies and government procurement benefits Europe’s…
EU deal with China limits imports of hybrid electric vehicles
The EU is to limit the number of hybrid electrical vehicles imported from China to 350,000 cars a year, the European Commission has confirmed. Imports have been soaring in the last two years with about 800,000 battery and plug-in hybrids likely to be sold this year. The EU expects that the quota, which will come into force in December, will halve China’s market share which now stands at 6% in a landmark four-year agreement made in Beijing last week. The annual limit on imports of hybrids will be taken under…
Volkswagen boss backs EU plan to bolster domestic European industry
The boss of Volkswagen has backed EU proposals to boost its domestic industry, arguing European carmakers need to be able to “compete under comparable conditions” with Chinese rivals. Oliver Blume said “Made in Europe” rules from the EU “must reward real value creation in Europe”, speaking in Paris before the motor show this week. The rules are aimed at countering the rapid rise of Chinese brands in Europe in the automotive sector and other important manufacturing industries. Lower-priced Chinese manufacturers have prompted a crisis in several industries. Volkswagen is among…
China agrees to ‘halve’ hybrid car exports to EU in landmark deal
The EU said it has reached a landmark deal with China to “halve” its sales of hybrid cars in the bloc amid fears surging sales could kill off parts of the European car industry. Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said the deal was the first of its kind and the result of “intense” negotiations with China since June to curb a trade deficit of €1.18bn (£1bn) a day, which has caused mounting tensions between the two economic powers. The deal “opens the prospect of cutting China’s export [of hybrids] by more…