China Market Update: Baidu Releases New AI Model, Week In Review
CLN
KraneShares
Asian equities mostly followed Wall Street higher overnight as Japan and Taiwan outperformed, while India and Singapore underperformed.
The Politburo issued a press release reiterating that it is willing to step in and support the market through its various mechanisms. These include the 'National Team', which refers to investment firms associated with sovereign wealth. It also mentioned supporting consumption, cutting rates at opportune times, and lowering some regulatory barriers. We are likely to see a cut to the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), though we may have to wait for more clarity on tariffs or for the People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, to gain the confidence necessary to make the cut.
Baidu unveiled a new AI model, ERNIE 4.5 Turbo, overnight. The new large language model (LLM) is being offered at an even lower price point than previous versions. Combined with upgrades, it could offer Baidu a new edge in the ongoing price war between China's LLM and cloud providers, chiefly Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu. Baidu shares were up in Hong Kong overnight and are trading slightly higher in the US this morning.
Electric vehicle names struggled overnight after Tesla's disappointing earnings, though the China-based players are in a very different situation. Xpeng led declines and is down -3% this morning in US trading.
Mainland media reported that certain semiconductor and technology imports from the US were to be exempted from retaliatory tariffs. Bloomberg reported that China is also mulling exemptions for medical equipment and chemicals, including methane. This makes sense and mirrors the US' move to exempt electronics, as no one wants to pay $2,000 or more for an iPhone. This is more evidence that tariffs will not be sustainable and are likely still opening gambits for negotiations, albeit very strong ones. Alternatively, tariffs could be in place long-term, but with so many exemptions as to make their overall impact. Any long-term tariffs are likely to target specific industries.
After Xi's recent visit to Kenya, China will finance the country's construction of roads and railways. China's Belt & Road Initiative has expanded China's trade with African nations. Trade tensions could give China a new zeal to make deals and increase trade with Africa, which could benefit the infrastructure industry.
New Content
Read our latest article:
New Drivers For China Healthcare: AI Med-Tech Innovation, Cancer Treatment, & Favorable Balance of Trade
Please click here to read
Chart1
KraneShares
Chart2
KraneShares
Chart3
KraneShares
Chart4
KraneShares
Chart5
KraneShares
Chart6
KraneShares
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mitsubishi plans battery swapping tech for electric CVs in Tokyo
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus (MFTBC), in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors, Ample, and Yamato Transport, is set to roll out an EV battery swapping initiative in Tokyo, Japan, by September 2025. The plan includes introducing more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles (EVs) and creating 14 modular battery swapping stations across the city. This major move towards sustainable transportation follows a smaller pilot in Kyoto last year and will feature MFTBC's eCanter light-duty truck and Mitsubishi Motors' Minicab EV, targeting commercial delivery fleets. Yamato Transport will be the first major customer, focusing on last-mile delivery applications. Ample, a US-based battery swapping company, will provide the technology for the EV platforms and will be responsible for installing and operating the swapping stations. The Tokyo Metropolitan Environment Public Corporation is backing the project through its "Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy", aligning with Japan's climate goals. Japan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46% from 2013 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. With the transportation sector responsible for nearly 19% of the country's CO₂ emissions in 2022, commercial fleet electrification is a strategic priority for Japan's decarbonisation efforts. The consortium in Tokyo is targeting battery swapping times of just five minutes, offering a fully automated service where drivers do not need to exit their vehicles. Ample's compact and rapidly deployable stations are a practical solution for high-utilisation fleets in dense urban areas like Tokyo. Future expansions of this initiative may include grid services, such as renewable energy storage, to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative builds on previous collaborations, with Yamato Transport pioneering commercial EV battery swapping since 2022 and a successful pilot involving commercial delivery and battery swapping taxis in Kyoto in 2024. "Mitsubishi plans battery swapping tech for electric CVs in Tokyo" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Prime Healthcare cutting 100 jobs across its Illinois facilities, months after acquiring hospitals from Ascension
Prime Healthcare, which bought eight Illinois hospitals earlier this year, is eliminating more than 100 jobs, the hospital system confirmed Monday. Prime made most of the reductions Friday, and will continue cutting other jobs through July. 'As we continue to offer and create opportunities, we are also evaluating alignment with best practices and support from our national and regional teams,' Prime said in a statement. 'Through this process, there is a small number of positions that are duplicated or not aligned with the care model and service line offerings – most of them not directly providing patient care – that will be consolidated.' None of the affected jobs are union positions, according to Prime. Prime hired 13,000 workers from Ascension when it bought the hospitals from that health system, and has created nearly 1,000 new jobs since the acquisition. The job cuts represent less than 1% of the combined 14,000 employees, according to the statement. 'Importantly, these efforts will not affect the quality of care we deliver to the communities we serve and in fact will help expand best practices from across the nation,' Prime said in the statement. 'All decisions made at our Illinois facilities are guided by our mission to improve quality, strengthen care delivery, preserve access in underserved areas and ensure long-term sustainability.' The California-based Prime bought the Illinois hospitals for more than $370 million in March. Six of the hospitals sold to Prime changed from being nonprofit hospitals to for-profit hospitals as part of the sale. Hospitals that were sold include St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee, Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines, Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago. The job cuts are the latest in a string of changes Prime has made since closing the deal, drawing criticism from elected officials and a nurses' union. Prime announced in April that it planned to suspend inpatient pediatric care at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, saying at the time that the unit had been averaging less than one patient a day, while the need for other services such as advanced surgical, neurosurgical and spinal care had grown. The Illinois Nurses Association condemned the move arguing it would hurt the community, which only has one hospital. Also, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora lost its designation in April as a Level II trauma center. Prime also suspended obstetrical services at St. Mary's in Kankakee after the hospital's 'nearly sole obstetrics physician' retired, and because of low demand, Prime has said. Sen. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth sent a letter to Prime's chairman, founder and CEO Dr. Prem Reddy, in May expressing concern about those changes and asking Prime to elaborate on the reasons behind them and its future plans for the hospitals. Prime responded to that letter last week, emphasizing its mission of turning around struggling community hospitals across the country. Prime said that before it bought the hospitals in Illinois they were losing about $200 million a year. Prime said maintaining services with low patient demand is not sustainable, nor good for the quality of care. Prime also told the senators it plans to expand behavioral health care services for seniors at its Illinois facilities. In its statement Monday, Prime said it has started fulfilling a previously stated commitment to invest $250 million across the Illinois hospitals. Prime said those affected by the job cuts are invited to apply for any of the more than 900 open positions across its Illinois facilities. The job cuts were first reported by the Herald News.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Despite military purges, China's next war ‘could be imminent' and spread fast
'There's no reason to sugarcoat it,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on May 31 at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security conference. 'The threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.' Hegseth is right: America needs to urgently prepare for war. War is coming to East Asia, and Taiwan — to which Hegseth was referring — is a target of Chinese aggression. Chinese President Xi Jinping, after all, has staked his personal legitimacy on annexing it as China's 34th province. Yet the U.S. and its partners have to be ready for anything at any place and at any time. Why? The Chinese regime, which is mobilizing all of society for war, is now unstable. It is not clear who, if anyone, is in charge. Therefore, the regime could take us by surprise. One thing we know: Xi's most senior loyalist in uniform has disappeared from public view. Gen. He Weidong, a vice chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission and the second highest-ranked uniformed officer, was last seen in public on March 11, at the end of the Communist Party's major political event of the year, the so-called Two Sessions. Many report that Xi sacked He. It's true that Xi, since being named general secretary of the party in November 2012, has purged many military officers, ostensibly for 'corruption,' and restructured the People's Liberation Army. Both moves resulted in his taking firm control of the military. Some have therefore assumed that Xi, for some reason, turned on his most important supporter in the military in March. However, it is not likely that Xi took down He. On the contrary, it is much more probable that Xi's adversaries removed that general. While Xi loyalists were being removed from public view, PLA Daily, the Chinese military's main propaganda organ, ran a series of articles praising 'collective leadership,' a direct rejection of Xi's continual calls for unity, centralization of control and complete obedience to his rule. These articles, which began appearing last July, were written by people aligned with the top-ranked uniformed officer, Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Gen. Zhang Youxia. The propaganda pieces could not have appeared if Xi were in complete control of the military. Moreover, He's disappearance was followed by the disappearance of another Xi loyalist, Gen. He Hongjun. Rumors started that both generals had died by suicide in May at the military's 301 Hospital in Beijing. Whether they are alive or not, they are out of the way, so their disappearance spells trouble for Xi. 'Gen. He Weidong was instrumental in Xi's earlier purges in the military, so his disappearance could indicate a great threat to Xi's authority,' Charles Burton of the Sinopsis think tank noted in comments to me this month. The recent disappearances follow the sackings of, among others, Gen. Li Shangfu, a defense minister, Gen. Wei Fenghe, one of Li's predecessors and perhaps as many as 70 in the Rocket Force, the branch responsible for the country's nuclear weapons. Given all the turmoil in the Chinese military, America and its partners need to focus on more than just Taiwan. In fact, the main island of Taiwan might be the least likely target. To start hostilities by attacking Taiwan's main island, China would need to launch a combined air-land-sea operation. To do that, Xi would have to give a general or admiral almost complete control over the military. The appointed flag officer would thereby become the most powerful figure in China. Even in the calmest of times, Xi would be reluctant to create such a rival for power, but this is by no means a calm moment in Beijing. China's leader seems to have lost substantial influence recently — so much so that there is speculation he could be pushed out of power in the coming months. Whoever is controlling the purges — Xi or his political enemies — the Chinese military does not look ready to launch a complex operation such as a Taiwan invasion. Either Xi does not have the power to order an invasion because the military no longer answers to him, or Xi does not trust the most senior officers, a precondition for such a complex undertaking. Despite all the turmoil in the leadership ranks, Hegseth was right to talk about an imminent war. The disruptive leadership moves in China have not prevented the Chinese military from engaging in low-level but especially provocative actions in the last couple of months against countries to China's south and east. We do not know whether China's regime has made the decision to go to war, but its series of dangerous actions clearly reveals it has made the decision to risk war. And war, if it begins somewhere, will likely spread. For one thing, the Chinese leadership will not be able to deal with incidents responsibly. In senior Communist Party circles these days, only the most hostile answers are considered acceptable. Another factor is the existence of alliance and semi-alliance networks in the region. Four of China's targets, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia, are U.S. treaty allies, and one, Taiwan, is protected by the United States. China, for its part, could bring in its friends. Moreover, the U.S. should be prepared for conflict with the world's most destructive weapons. 'China has spent the last five decades investing in building nuclear proxy forces in Pakistan, North Korea and Iran to create nuclear crises to divert Washington's attention away from the Taiwan Strait,' Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center told me this month. 'China's investment in Russia's war in Ukraine is in the same vein.' As Blaine Holt, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, said after Hegseth's comments, 'Millions of lives now hang in the balance.' Gordon G. Chang is the author of 'Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America' and 'The Coming Collapse of China.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
