News in review

Monday____July 3

Overseas shoppers sustain e-commerce boom

The Chinese online shopping market has boomed in recent years and will likely continue to boom on the back of indulgent consumers overseas.

According to a cross-border trade report jointly released by online payment provider Pay-Pal and research firm Ipsos, China rose to be the most popular cross-border e-commerce destination for the first time in 2016, dislodging the US and the UK.

Up to 21 percent of the 28,000 respondents from 32 countries said they had shopped on Chinese websites last year.

China's online market is even more appealing to Russian shoppers. Latest figures provided by Russia's largest e-payment service Yandex shows that Russian consumers spent up to $4.3 billion on cross-border e-commerce platforms last year. And 80 percent of that amount was spent on Chinese platforms. (Photo 1)

Jack Ma's bank expanding into new sector

MYbank, the two-year-old Chinese online lender that already has 3.5 million small-busi-ness customers, said it plans to push deeper into a segment that's long been ignored by the country's biggest banks.

MYbank wants to capitalize on its links with billion- aire Jack Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd by offering loans to the more than 10 million smaller businesses that use the company's e-commerce platforms, MYbank President Huang Hao said in a interview.

The Hangzhou-based lender is controlled by Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial affiliate.

Huang said he is looking to win "as many as possible" of China's 70 million to 80 million small businesses as customers, most of which have no access to bank loans because they lack collateral.

Tuesday____July 4

Tencent sets limits for online game

Internet giant Tencent is limiting daily playing times on its smartphone smash hit King of Glory, a multi-player online battle game, to "ensure children's healthy development".

Young players will be restricted to one or two hours on the mobile online multiplayer battle game, which boasts 80 million daily users, as concerns grow in China that long periods online are posing a serious threat to the health of the country's youth.

Tencent said that King of Glory was "supposed to bring joy ... but excessive gaming brings joy to neither players nor their parents".

The game became the world's highest grossing game this year, with estimated first-quarter revenue of around $882 million. Users under 12 years old are now limited to one hour of play a day, and will not be permitted to sign in after 9 pm.

SF gets OK to use drones for air deliveries

Leading delivery company SF Holding Ltd said it has obtained a landmark license from the military authorities to use drones to deliver commercial packages and was conducting the country's first drone pilot demonstration zone.

The airspace application made by SF, and the government of Nankang district in the city of Ganzhou, was approved by the Eastern Theater Com- mand, one of the five national military commands.

The flying range covers five counties in Nankang district and Ganzhou city in Jiangxi province. The first pilot flight, in the first pilot demonstration zone, was conducted on June 29.

SF said it has launched several types of drones for delivery services, with a maximum load capacity of 5.5 pounds and flying distance of 62 miles.

JD.com Inc, China's second- biggest e-commerce player, has been developing drone deliveries to meet the rising retail demand in China's rural areas. (Photo 2)

Wednesday____July 5

Archeologists find graves of tall ancestors

Measurements of bones from graves in Shandong province show the height of at least one man to have reached 6.2 feet with quite a few at 5.9 feet or taller.

"This is just based on the bone structure. If he was a living person, his height would certainly exceed 1.9 meters," said Fang Hui, head of Shandong University's school of history and culture.

From 2016, archeologists have been excavating the ruins of 104 houses, 205 graves and 20 sacrificial pits at Jiaojia village in Zhangqiu district, Jinan city, capital of Shandong.

The relics are from the Longshan Culture, a late Neolithic civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, named after Mount Longshan in Zhangqiu. (Photo 3)

Battery train can switch energy sources

A new energy train powered by both a battery pack and power grid is having its trial run in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The train is the first prototype that can switch its power source freely between the power grid and batteries and has a maximum speed of 99 mph. It can run for 124 miles when the power grid is cut off, and it is able to operate under extreme weather and geographical conditions, including sandy and frozen environments.

Its manufacturer CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co, a subsidiary of China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, said the core technologies are in the train's battery system and it can be used on both high-speed train tracks and light railway tracks in future integrated railroads.

Thursday____July 6

US involved in most IP disputes, says top court

US citizens or companies were at the center of most international intellectual property disputes heard in China in 2015 and 2016, according to the Supreme People's Court.

French and German were the next most common nationalities, the top court said in a report.

The court's work report in March said Chinese courts last year handled 147,000 IP cases involving foreign litigants or defendants, a 41 percent year-on-year rise.

More than half of the cases were over copyright disputes, according to the report, which added that judges took on average 105 days to rule on IP cases, while patent disputes took longer.

Most cases in 2015 and 2016 were heard in Beijing as well as Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, with more than 80 percent of defendants being private business owners, according to the report, which was compiled by the SPC's data center.

Mixed-ownership being pushed for SOEs

Mixed-ownership reform of a number of central State-owned enterprises is expected to be approved in the third quarter of this year, as the coal, steel, heavy equipment and thermal power sectors become the government's priority in restructuring its giant SOEs, experts said.

A group of central SOEs, have already started to draft plans for mixed-ownership reform.

A total of 91 central SOEs achieved a rise in revenue during the first quarter of this year, with 54 of them, including defense-related industries, construction materials, pharmaceuticals and modern services, witnessing a rise of 10 percent or more, and sectors such as oil, steel and coal experiencing an increase in revenue of at least 40 percent.

The number of central SOEs has been cut to 101, and there are plans to reduce the number to under 100 this year. (Photo 4)

Friday____July 7

GDP may reach 6.8 % to 6.9% for first half

China's economic growth could be at 6.8 or 6.9 percent by the end of the first half of the year, says a senior national statistics bureau official.

Pan Jiancheng said China's growth was better than expected and more optimized in structure during the first six months of the year, and improving indicators, increasing jobs, stable prices and a sound balance of international payments.

Pan said that both industrial and tertiary industry growth were improving, and consumption has become a major pillar of growth, which indicated the inherent growth momentum of the economy was getting stronger. He said, however, that the world's second-largest economy could also face some challenges.

"The real estate prices, for example, remain resilient; but there are expectations for rising home prices, especially in smaller cities, which could lead to increasing real estate investment," Pan said.

Ofo raises $700m in latest financing round

Chinese bike sharing company Ofo said that it has raised more than $700 million in its latest round of financing, the largest in the sector to date.

The funding round is being led by Alibaba Group, Hony Capital and CITIC Private Equity, with additional participation from current investors Didi Chuxing and DST Global.

Since its launch in June 2015, Ofo has connected more than 6.5 million bikes to riders in 150 cities across five countries, generating more than 25 million transactions daily. More than 2 billion rides have been provided to more than 100 million users globally, the company said.

A stewardess walks down the aisle of a new bullet sleeper train, which began running on the Beijing-Shanghai line on July 1. The train, designed and manufactured by CSR Qingdao Sifang Co Ltd, can travel up to 155 miles per hour. The train, 37 percent bigger than the former model, now has room for 880 passengers. Provided to China Daily

Wearing traditional-style dress and cloth shoes, Li Li accompanies his 3-year-old son Li Qilin as he rides a donkey to school. A picture of the father-son-donkey was posted on the internet and generated some heated discussion. Since last winter when his son started kindergarten, Li began to pick him up with a cow or donkey. He teaches Qilin to recite ancient poetry classics on the way. "This is communication of people and nature," Li said. Guo Guangyu / Chengdu Business Daily

(China Daily USA 07/07/2017 page12)