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Guangdong’s Rise as a Global Leader in AI-Driven Manufacturing and Innovation

Jan. 15, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

Guangdong province has evolved from producing traditional goods to becoming a global powerhouse in advanced technologies and AI-driven manufacturing.

**Guangdong’s product landscape has transformed dramatically since the 1980s, when the region was known for items like Pearl River water and Lingnan clothing.**
Today, it leads China’s cross-border e-commerce trade, accounting for more than one-third of national exports and imports. Guangdong-based companies command significant market shares—DJI produces 70 percent of the world’s consumer drones, and the province manufactures one out of every three smartphones sold worldwide.

**This manufacturing dominance traces back to Guangdong’s early reform and opening-up policies, especially the “three supplies and one compensation” model, which matched global trends with affordable, quality production.**
Enterprises such as the Taiping Handbag Factory exemplified labor-intensive beginnings, while Midea evolved from making plastic bottle caps into a Fortune 500 conglomerate spanning smart home appliances, new energy solutions, and robotics. Over time, industrial clusters expanded into high-value sectors—consumer electronics, biotech drugs, and 5G phones—shifting the region’s advantages from land and cheap labor to engineering expertise and innovation dividends.

**As the world enters the AI era, Guangdong companies have seized emerging markets with products like smart glasses and intelligent robots.**
The province accounts for about 40 percent of China’s smart glasses manufacturing capacity, centered in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and saw that market expand 25-fold during the 2025 Double Eleven sales. Firms such as Thunderbird Innovation are rapidly gaining global share in consumer AR glasses. In robotics, Unitree deploys humanoid robots autonomously in service roles, while Guangzhou Ligong Industrial produces hundreds of industrial robots each month for aerospace, automotive, and research applications. Guangdong also leads global production in AI-related technologies: it makes 70 percent of consumer drones, 40 percent of smartphones and industrial robots, 80 percent of service robots, and holds significant shares in integrated circuits.

**To build on these strengths, Guangdong will launch the “Guang Products Travel the World” Spring Campaign in January 2026.**
Around 30 events, supported by major commercial platforms and involving thousands of enterprises, will promote the province’s diverse product range and expand its global footprint.

**At the Central Economic Work Conference in December 2025, leaders emphasized the role of major provinces like Guangdong in driving China’s economic growth for 2026, prioritizing industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the low-altitude economy.**
Guangdong’s strategy focuses on expanding its high-quality AI industry and broadening application across regions and sectors. Its ecosystem already includes over 1,600 AI core enterprises and platforms such as Huawei’s Ascend and Tencent’s Hunyuan, aligning with the State Council’s “AI+ Action” objectives and the action plan released on January 7, 2026, which targets globally competitive AI manufacturing capabilities by 2027.

**In early 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reaffirmed its commitment to advance strategic sectors—robotics, quantum technology, and brain-computer interfaces—by enhancing research, product development, and ecosystem support.**
Guangdong’s extensive manufacturing base and innovation capabilities underpin its emergence as a new center for AI-driven industrial innovation.

China Advances Industrial Internet Platforms with New Action Plan for 2026–2028

Jan. 15, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

China is accelerating its digital-intelligent transformation of manufacturing through a new Action Plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for 2026–2028.

The plan aims to raise the number of influential industrial internet platforms from over 340 to more than 450 by 2028, while connecting upwards of 120 million industrial devices and achieving over 55 percent nationwide platform penetration.

**It centers these platforms as hubs for aggregating data, developing models, expanding applications, ensuring ubiquitous connectivity, and allocating resources efficiently.**
The plan emphasizes integrating industrialization and informatization through differentiated development: specialized, industry-focused, and collaborative platforms. It also establishes a multi-tier cultivation framework that guides platforms through basic, advanced, and ecosystem maturity stages to boost professionalism and industry specificity.

**Artificial intelligence integration forms another key pillar.**
The plan encourages enterprises to intensify research and development of high-quality industrial datasets, large models, and intelligent agents, leveraging platforms’ existing strengths in data and model accumulation to drive “AI + manufacturing” innovations. A complementary AI action plan aims to upgrade at least 50,000 enterprises’ industrial networks by 2028, using AI to redefine manufacturing processes and generate new productive forces.

**The plan deepens scenario-based applications by identifying targeted entry points for technology integration, enhancing service capabilities, and scaling solutions.**
It promotes flexible service models—such as pay-after-use, subscription, and performance-based payments—to lower adoption barriers and spur widespread platform usage across manufacturing subsectors.

**To underpin these efforts, the plan outlines four cornerstone initiatives: cultivating a multi-level platform system; aggregating industrial data for smarter analytics; driving extensive, scenario-driven applications; and reinforcing the broader industrial internet ecosystem.**
It calls for improved data collection, dataset construction, and intellectual property protection; the development of open-source communities and international cooperation; and innovation through ecosystem partnerships.

**Finally, the plan tasks local and regional authorities with tailoring support via funding mechanisms, tax incentives, and talent development programs.**
Policies will ensure equal treatment for private firms and small and medium-sized enterprises, expand public service capabilities, and accelerate platform deployment in line with local industrial strengths.

Monitored Intelligence for China - Jan. 15, 2026

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“撤辣”两年后，香港楼市成交创阶段新高

Two Years After Removing Strict Measures, Hong Kong Property Market Transactions Hit a New Phase High

Beijing News | Local Language | News | Jan. 15, 2026 | UndeterminedReal Estate

Sun Hung Kai Properties’ Sierra Sea Phase 2A project in Sai Sha, Hong Kong, recently set a record with about 42,000 registrations of intent for only 213 units, marking an oversubscription of nearly 196 times. This surpassed the previous record from August 2023. The first batch of units sold out on the launch day, reflecting the strong market demand that has extended from 2025 into early 2026, driven largely by the full removal of property market cooling measures such as the abolition of various stamp duties. In 2025, primary private residential transactions hit a new high of 20,000 units, signaling a market rebound.

In 2025, the total number of building sale and purchase agreements registered in Hong Kong reached 80,702 transactions, a four-year high, with residential sales totaling 62,832 units worth HK$519.83 billion, representing increases of 18.3% and 14.4% year-on-year respectively. Both primary and secondary markets showed improvement; the secondary market price index (CCL) rose 4.7%, reversing a three-year decline. Different districts showed varied transaction patterns, with primary sales dominating areas where developers offered competitively priced new units, while secondary market transactions slowed due to smaller bargaining margins amid price stabilization.

The market warming in 2025 was driven by several factors: a weakening US dollar, geopolitical uncertainties boosting demand for physical assets, monetary easing with falling interest rates, a simultaneous rise in rents and prices, and clear signs of local economic recovery. Rental yields remained high, with mortgage costs often lower than rent, encouraging tenants to buy homes. Local wealth effects from a strong stock market and rising bank deposits further supported market confidence. Supply constraints emerged as developers slowed land acquisition and construction, with primary inventory dropping to about 19,000 units by end-2025, tightening the supply-demand balance.

Policy measures also played a critical role, notably the full withdrawal of cooling measures in early 2024 and talent-attraction policies easing market entry for non-local buyers. Mainland Chinese buyers' share in the market increased from 16% to 25%, reaching historic transaction and value highs in 2025. These policies helped unlock previously constrained purchasing power, especially in high-demand districts where rents hit records and units became scarce.

Looking ahead to 2026, industry experts express optimism for continued market growth. The property market is expected to be in an early-stage rebound, with prices forecasted to increase approximately 15% for the year. Primary market transactions are projected to remain stable at around 20,000 units, while secondary market sales could rise by 30% to 50,000 transactions, supported by rising prices and interest rate cuts. Rental growth is also anticipated to continue at about 5%, sustaining the current scenario of simultaneous rent and price increases. Structural trends include parallel growth in rigid and investment demand, renewed significance of the rent-to-mortgage cost ratio, and strong interest in new launches and land-rich developers, with small-to-medium units remaining central to market activity.

Govt funds for investment in reform focus

China Daily | English | News | Jan. 15, 2026 | UndeterminedInitiative

China has introduced a comprehensive national-level framework to standardize government investment funds, aiming to enhance fund management, boost entrepreneurship and innovation, and support industrial upgrading. The initiative prioritizes aligning investment with major national strategies, key sectors, and areas underserved by market forces while shifting focus from expanding fund scale to investing with precision and efficacy.

The new policy emphasizes supporting sectors with competitive advantages and distinctive features, particularly early-stage startups, small enterprises, long-term investments, and hard technology. It also prohibits practices that increase hidden local government debt, restricts certain equity investments, futures trading, guarantees, and investments with unlimited liability to safeguard against financial and debt risks.

In conjunction with these measures, China’s top economic regulator released a trial regulation to improve the evaluation and management of fund allocations. The regulation sets performance benchmarks tied to national priorities, such as technological innovation and unified market development, and links evaluation results to the credit-building of government investment funds.

These policies collectively aim to optimize fiscal efficiency, encourage private capital involvement in higher-risk sectors, and promote a modernized governance system. The move follows the launch of a State-backed venture capital guidance fund focused on channeling long-term capital into strategic emerging industries to foster quality growth and innovation.

Former chairman of State-owned enterprise sentenced to death with two-year reprieve

China Daily | English | News | Jan. 15, 2026 | Corporate Corruption or Fraud

Zheng Jianhua, former Party secretary and chairman of Shanghai Electric Group Co Ltd, was sentenced by the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court to death with a two-year reprieve for multiple occupational crimes. He was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and abuse of power during his tenure at the State-owned enterprise.

The court imposed a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for bribery, stripped Zheng of his political rights for life, and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets. Additional sentences included five years and a fine of 200,000 yuan for embezzlement, 15 years for misappropriation of public funds, and seven years for abuse of power.

Investigations revealed Zheng solicited or accepted assets worth over 156 million yuan from 2003 to 2021, embezzled 2.15 million yuan between 2007 and 2008, and misappropriated more than 700 million yuan in public funds for personal loans in 2018. His abuse of power from 2015 to 2021 caused significant harm to national interests.

The court cited the extraordinarily large bribe amounts and solicitation circumstances as factors for the severe punishment. However, the death sentence was suspended due to some unsuccessful bribery attempts, recovery of most illicit assets, and Zheng’s full confession following his arrest.

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