ASIANOMICS

🇨🇳 Guangdong promotes tech before Apec Ahead of November’s Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen, Guangdong used the Asia-Pacific Media Forum and multi-city media tours to showcase provincial tech firms including BYD, DJI, Tencent, Honor, Vivo, Midea and Oppo. At BYD in eastern Shenzhen, the company demonstrated a Denza Z9GT charged for a 700km range in about six minutes at -30C, while a Yangwang U9 displayed its quad-motor all-wheel-drive system. Shenzhen will be the third Chinese city to host the Apec leaders’ meeting, after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014, with the summit set for November 18-19. Guangdong officials framed the province as a reform and opening-up hub linked to Hong Kong and Macau; official data showed its trade with other Apec economies rose 21% year on year in the first half to nearly 3.6 trillion yuan, or 65% of total trade. The tech push forms part of wider summit preparations across the province as China positions Guangdong as both a manufacturing base and an Asia-Pacific commercial interface ahead of the gathering. #China @asianomics

🇭🇰🇨🇳 Didi Prepares Hong Kong AV Trial Mainland ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing will apply this year to test autonomous vehicles in Hong Kong, according to a government adviser. The initial pilot is planned for Tseung Kwan O, following a visit by Hong Kong transport secretary Mable Chan and lawmakers to Didi’s Beijing headquarters last week. Gary Zhang Xinyu, a member of the Transport Department’s working group on autonomous vehicle applications, said the industrial estate in Tseung Kwan O was viewed as a suitable starting point because of wider roads, lower traffic volume and a simpler operating environment. Didi is also recruiting local autonomous vehicle test drivers at HK$21,000-22,000 a month, with candidates required to hold a Hong Kong licence for at least five years, have no traffic convictions in the past five years, and possess mainland driving experience. Zhang said testing could later expand to new development areas such as So Kwun Wat in Tuen Mun if the business model proves viable. The move places a mainland platform operator into Hong Kong’s emerging autonomous mobility and ride-hailing regulatory framework. #HongKong #China @asianomics

🇮🇩🇷🇺 Prabowo meets Putin in Vladivostok Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week, where both sides highlighted continued personal contact and the strategic nature of Indonesia-Russia ties. Prabowo also apologised for missing Russia’s National Day celebration in June; he and Mongolia’s prime minister were the highest-ranking foreign officials attending the forum. The annual forum is designed to promote investment and development in Russia’s far east and drew delegations from about 50 countries, including China and Myanmar. The meeting fits Prabowo’s broader effort to expand Indonesia’s external engagement across geopolitical blocs, while testing whether political rapport with Russia can produce concrete bilateral gains. The immediate outcome remains unclear, with observers split on whether the personal chemistry will translate into measurable economic or strategic results. The visit nonetheless raises Indonesia’s profile in Moscow at a time of wider geopolitical fragmentation. #Indonesia #Russia @asianomics

🇰🇷 AI Exports Lift Korean Economy South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Institute said the economy continued to improve as AI-linked exports and investment stayed strong in South Korea. In its monthly assessment, the KDI said August exports rose 68.7% year on year, led by semiconductor shipments that jumped more than 200%, while facility investment increased 24.9% in July on spending for chip-related facilities and equipment. The report indicates growth is being driven by AI infrastructure investment at home and abroad, with manufacturing output expanding in related sectors. Industrial output rose 3.1% in July from the previous month, below June’s 4.4% but above the second-quarter average of 2.9%, while private consumption remained modest as household purchasing power improved only limitedly and retail sales fell 0.8% in July. The KDI also flagged continued external risks from U.S. tariff policy and instability in the Middle East. The data points to an economy supported by semiconductors and capital spending, with domestic consumption still lagging. #SouthKorea @asianomics

🇨🇳 State financial shares retreat Shares of major Chinese lenders and insurers fell on Sept. 7 after the Finance Ministry announced a 360 billion yuan capital injection into eight state-backed financial institutions, including Agricultural Bank of China. The package amounts to about $53.6 billion and targets firms seen as central to supporting growth in China. The move signals renewed state support for the financial system as weak credit demand continues to weigh on bank profitability and balance-sheet expansion. State banks and insurers remain key transmission channels for policy support, but the market reaction suggests investor concern that fresh capital alone may not resolve softer lending conditions and broader economic weakness. The plan places state-backed financial institutions at the center of Beijing’s growth support strategy. Market focus will now shift to whether the injections translate into stronger credit activity. #China @asianomics

🇨🇳🇰🇷🇹🇼 China Artists Quit Gwangju Biennale Chinese artists are boycotting the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea after organizers allowed a Taiwanese exhibition to use the name “Taiwan Pavilion.” China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the decision, while participating Chinese artists said they would withdraw from the festival, which opens Saturday and runs through mid-November, according to reporting by Kyodo News. The dispute centers on one of about 25 separate galleries in the biennale’s Pavilion Project. Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture said it planned to exhibit as “Taiwan Pavilion,” while organizers said their contract was with the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and they initially expected the museum acronym to be used before accepting the Taiwan name under pressure. Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said the naming decision was made by a non-governmental entity and should not affect bilateral cooperation. The case adds to broader Chinese pressure against international references that imply Taiwanese sovereignty. #China #SouthKorea #Taiwan @asianomics

🇨🇳 China Adds Mobilization Office China’s National Development and Reform Commission has set up a National Defense Mobilization Department ahead of the revised National Defense Mobilization Law taking effect in October, according to the agency’s published description. The new unit will handle overall coordination, planning, and implementation supervision for defense mobilization, and support the daily work of the national mobilization commission. China last month approved the first major revision of the law in 16 years, formally defining defense mobilization as the conversion of economic and social capacity into defense capacity. The revised framework also brings advanced technology and emerging sectors into the system, further institutionalizing a structure linking the military, local governments, enterprises, and research bodies for peacetime resource control and wartime conversion. Under the revised law, the national defense mobilization commission is responsible for organizing nationwide mobilization, drafting national plans, and preparing overall implementation contingencies. The NDRC’s new office indicates a clearer division between military personnel mobilization and civilian resource mobilization. #China @asianomics

🇨🇳🇹🇼 China Expands East Taiwan Patrols Chinese coast guard vessels have begun regular patrols in waters east of Taiwan, with Bloomberg reporting vessel-tracking data showing coverage of about 27,100 square nautical miles, or roughly 92,950 sq km. The patrol area is more than twice the size of Taiwan proper, and the ships have operated around 30 nautical miles off Taiwan’s east coast without entering waters claimed by Taipei. For decades, Beijing’s maritime pressure on Taiwan was concentrated in the Taiwan Strait. Since June, however, China has deployed an average of two coast guard ships per month to Taiwan’s eastern waters, marking the first such patrols in the area in data traceable back to January 2025, after Japan and the Philippines announced plans to delimit their maritime boundary nearby. The eastern approaches are a key Pacific access route for Taiwan, including shipping lanes linked to major ports, military facilities, and US-allied resupply routes. MarineTraffic data cited by Bloomberg showed 527 transits by oil, gas, iron ore, and agricultural cargo vessels in June, above the 420 recorded through the Taiwan Strait. #China #Taiwan @asianomics

🇨🇳🇺🇸 China, US Theater Chiefs Meet Chinese and US military theater commanders held their first face-to-face bilateral meeting during the Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense Conference in Victoria, Canada, from August 31 to September 2. China’s Eastern Theater Command chief Yang Zhibin and US Indo-Pacific commander Samuel Paparo discussed maintaining high-level military communication to reduce the risk of miscalculation. A commentary published by China’s Global Times said the meeting carried particular weight because it involved the PLA command responsible for the Taiwan Strait direction and the main US command overseeing military posture in the western Pacific. It framed the contact as a resumption of face-to-face theater-level communication in the most sensitive area of China-US friction, following a breakdown in military exchanges after Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 Taiwan visit and a gradual restoration through senior talks, working groups, and maritime safety consultations. The article said the meeting does not narrow China-US differences over Taiwan, but helps clarify red lines, intentions, and operational rules. It also presented the contact as a signal that military communication is meant to manage crisis risk, not legitimize further provocation around the Taiwan Strait. #China #UnitedStates @asianomics

🇵🇭🇨🇳 Teodoro warns on exercise cuts Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said recent cuts to U.S.-South Korean military exercises could give China an opening to reassert itself in the Indo-Pacific. He made the remarks on Monday. Teodoro also said Washington had assured Manila that U.S. commitments to the Philippines remained unchanged. The comments link the reduced exercises to regional security perceptions. The immediate implication is added Philippine scrutiny of changes in U.S. force posture and allied military activity in the region. #Philippines #China #SouthKorea @asianomics

🇯🇵🇰🇷🇺🇸 Trilateral drills begin near Jeju Japan, South Korea and the United States on Monday launched a trilateral multi-domain exercise running through Friday in international waters east and south of Jeju. The Freedom Edge drills include real-time data sharing and synchronized maritime and aviation coordination, while North Korea condemned them as part of Washington’s hostile policy. The exercise is the fourth since Freedom Edge was established in 2024 and follows a five-day edition last year. It comes after last month’s annual South Korea-U.S. exercise was shortened from an originally planned 11 days after U.S. President Donald Trump said the drills were costly and could send the wrong signals to North Korea. The latest drills indicate continued trilateral military coordination despite recent pressure to limit allied exercises on the peninsula. North Korea said it would respond with the toughest stand. #Japan #SouthKorea #UnitedStates @asianomics

🇰🇷🇫🇷 Lee Begins France Visit South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed Sept. 6 for a four-day visit to France, where he will hold a summit with President Emmanuel Macron on security, the economy and broader bilateral cooperation. The trip includes attendance at the Lumiere Summit in Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, followed by a two-day state visit to Paris. In Paris, Lee is scheduled for a one-on-one luncheon with Macron, a formal summit, and a dinner at the Elysee Palace, along with a business roundtable involving 20 companies from both countries. The visit follows Macron's April trip to South Korea and coincides with the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations, as both sides seek to develop the global strategic partnership announced earlier this year. A presidential official said the summit may also cover cooperation on nuclear power plants and troop deployment to the Strait of Hormuz. The meetings will indicate how far Seoul and Paris intend to broaden coordination beyond trade into security-linked sectors. #SouthKorea #France @asianomics

🇹🇼 Mortgage curbs hit Taiwan buyers Taiwan’s tighter home-loan rules are slowing purchases in Taipei and other urban markets, with longer bank screening times and stricter credit conditions weighing on mortgage-dependent households. Nikkei Asia reported that middle-class buyers are being squeezed while cash-rich purchasers remain more able to acquire high-priced properties. The restrictions were introduced to cool an overheated property market, but their immediate effect has been uneven across buyer groups. That leaves owner-occupiers and salaried households facing tighter access to financing, while buyers with substantial liquidity are less exposed, reinforcing a structural divide in Taiwan’s housing market. If sustained, the curbs may suppress transaction volumes more than high-end demand. The near-term pressure appears concentrated on financed buyers rather than cash purchasers. #Taiwan @asianomics

🇨🇳 China Equity Derivatives Gain Interest Demand for China-linked equity derivatives has risen as investors seek to diversify away from crowded AI trades in Japan and South Korea, with banks including Barclays and UBS reporting stronger interest in bullish positions tied to CSI index call options and swaps. UBS said the largest derivatives flow in Asia during the week of Aug. 30 was into long China CSI trades, focused on the CSI 300 and CSI 500. The shift comes as technology gains a larger weighting in major mainland indices and Beijing’s push for tech self-reliance draws more investor attention. BNP Paribas and Bank of America cited capital market reforms, progress in domestic technology, and improving earnings prospects in hardware as supportive factors for Chinese equities, particularly in small and mid-cap segments. Caution remains over China’s economic outlook and the scale of policy support. The CSI 1000 has rebounded after its largest monthly drop since 2016 in July, but remains 16% below its May peak. #China #Japan #SouthKorea @asianomics

🇯🇵🇹🇭 Kumamoto Eyes Thailand Flights Kumamoto Airport in southwestern Japan plans to launch passenger flights to Thailand within about three years, as Nikkei Asia reported. The airport is also expanding international cargo operations to serve rising industrial demand linked to local semiconductor and electronics production. The push is tied to growing traffic around Kumamoto following major investments by TSMC and Sony in the prefecture. New overseas links would deepen the region’s integration into Asian supply chains while supporting both business travel and freight flows from a manufacturing hub that has gained strategic weight in Japan’s chip sector. The plan points to broader infrastructure adjustment around Kyushu’s industrial buildout. Air connectivity is being positioned as a supporting asset for export logistics and regional investment absorption. #Japan #Thailand @asianomics

🇨🇳 China taps iron waste reserves China has begun extracting iron from tailings and low-grade ore on an industrial scale, according to South China Morning Post. The process could unlock domestic iron resources sufficient to meet demand for decades and reduce reliance on imported ore. The development targets material long treated as mining waste, converting low-value deposits into usable feedstock for China’s steel supply chain. For China, the move carries strategic weight because iron ore imports remain a major external dependency in a sector central to construction, manufacturing, and heavy industry. If scaled further, the process could improve resource security and lower exposure to overseas supply disruptions. It also expands the economic value of existing mine sites and tailings stockpiles. #China @asianomics

🇨🇳 Huawei Updates Chip Power Claims Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo on Sept. 4 published an updated paper on ChinaXiv detailing measured results for the Kirin 2026 chip, responding to scrutiny over power use and heat. The paper says transistor density rose 55%, while power consumption at the same performance level fell 66% for NPU, 58% for GPU, and 41% for CPU performance cores. The update focuses on logic folding, which Huawei says reduces energy use by shortening on-chip signal paths through vertical interconnects rather than longer planar routing. Huawei first proposed the “Tao law” in May as a path beyond conventional geometric scaling, as the semiconductor sector faces tighter physical limits, higher technical barriers, and rising costs. The paper also states that stacked chips are not inherently more power-efficient, and that the gains in Huawei’s test chip came from using performance and latency headroom to reduce voltage and power. Broader competitive impact depends on whether the wider supply chain, including EDA and packaging, can support the approach. #China @asianomics

🇨🇳 CXMT Reaches 10% DRAM Share China’s CXMT raised its global DRAM revenue share to 10% in Q2 2026, up from 4% a year earlier, ranking fourth worldwide, according to data released by Counterpoint Research. The company narrowed the gap with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, while reporting that first-half revenue rose 873.64% year on year to 150.31 billion yuan and net profit reached 77.61 billion yuan after returning to profitability. In the same quarter, Samsung’s share rose from 33% to 38%, SK Hynix fell from 39% to 25%, and Micron increased from 22% to 24%. CXMT’s gains were linked to stronger memory demand from global AI infrastructure buildout, which tightened supply, lifted prices, and improved conditions across the DRAM market. As a general-purpose DRAM supplier, CXMT is also expanding capacity and advancing R&D in HBM and other higher-end memory products to improve its position in the premium segment. #China @asianomics

🇹🇼 Taiwan defense institute hacked Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology said its procurement platform in Taiwan was breached after a hidden scheduling management interface was cracked by an overseas IP, triggering the resend of more than 200 expired procurement notices to vendors on August 28. The institute later acknowledged the intrusion after initially attributing the incident to an internal AI cybersecurity testing agent. The case marks the first reported overseas hacker intrusion disclosed by the institute, which is responsible for weapons R&D and production including Hsiung Feng, Tien Kung and Tien Chien missile systems, the IDF fighter, unmanned platforms, and AI-related programs. Taiwan’s digital authorities reportedly classified the incident as an external brute-force compromise, while the hidden admin interface left by the original system developer raised questions over vendor management and cyber controls around a key defense procurement node. The institute said it will pursue accountability for management failures and implement corrective measures, while Defense Minister Wellington Koo said standard operating procedures would be required. The investigation is also focused on whether any sensitive data was exposed. #Taiwan @asianomics

🇨🇳🇹🇼 Taiwan Visits to Mainland Rise China’s state-run People’s Daily said on Sept. 6 that travel by Taiwan residents to the mainland reached 2.85 million trips in the first half of 2026, up 24.9% year on year. The article also accused Taiwan’s government of distorting cross-strait issues and criticized official warnings over risks tied to travel to mainland China. The report was framed around a dispute over new mainland exit-entry rules due to take effect on Sept. 15. Beijing’s media said Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council was mischaracterizing the regulations and discouraging exchanges, while Taipei has said the rules are vague and could arbitrarily restrict departures, urging residents to assess risks before travel. The figures add to a wider political contest over control of the cross-strait narrative, with people-to-people links remaining active despite sharper official tensions. #China #Taiwan @asianomics