Earlier this month, PwC China launched its AI Innovation Center in Shanghai. The center helps clients chart practical roadmaps for AI adoption and navigate the many complexities associated with digital transformation. A recent PwC study places China in the top tier globally for AI deployment effectiveness in the real economy. According to Liu Yaxiao, who heads the new center, a growing number of overseas clients are now voluntarily adopting China's open-source AI ecosystem when upgrading their digital operations. The PwC findings are borne out by cosmetics giant L'Oréal. In its Suzhou smart fulfillment center, the group's first such facility globally, smart sorting systems and AI-powered packaging optimizers help the hub process 7,000 consumer parcels per hour, and ensure that 99 percent of its orders are processed within 48 hours.

Once stereotyped as a landscape of billowing smoke and grueling manual labor, China's steel sector is undergoing a profound digital metamorphosis. Inside the smart operations center of Nanjing Steel Group Co., Ltd. in east China's Jiangsu Province, giant screens now display real-time data on converter temperatures and steel grades. Powered by a specialized large language model developed in partnership with Huawei, a renowned tech giant, the system utilizes thousands of internal sensors to dynamically predict furnace conditions. With the accuracy of temperature trend prediction consistently exceeding 90 percent, the AI acts as "X-ray vision" for the furnace, boosting the first-grade rate of hot metal by over 10 percentage points and slashing energy consumption per unit of output by 12 percent.

China will raise retail gasoline and diesel prices by 685 yuan (about 100.89 U.S. dollars) and 655 yuan per tonne, respectively, effective from Saturday, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). These adjustments follow a rise in international crude prices amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, said Liu Bingjuan, an oil industry analyst. Under China's current pricing mechanism, domestic gasoline and diesel prices are adjusted every 10 working days in line with changes in international crude oil prices.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector stood at 49.2 in July, down 1.1 percentage points from June, official data showed on Friday. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 reflects contraction. Despite the overall decline, equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing continued to play a supporting and leading role, with their PMI readings at 51.4 and 53.3, respectively, significantly higher than the manufacturing sector as a whole, she noted.

China's consumer finance companies issued 581 million personal consumer loans worth 5.24 trillion yuan (771.81 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, according to a report released by the China Banking Association. Total assets of the sector reached 1.48 trillion yuan last year, up 7.18 percent year on year. Outstanding loans rose 6.85 percent last year to 1.43 trillion yuan. The report highlighted that consumer finance firms had actively participated in key national initiatives, including consumer goods trade-in programs, rural revitalization and financial services for new urban residents. In 2025, the industry rolled out 255 tailored financial products, generating 278.6 billion yuan in new lending and benefiting 38.3 million customers, effectively boosting domestic consumption.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday that the economy of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has remained resilient amid global uncertainty, projecting a 3.3 percent growth in 2026. According to the Monetary Authority of Macao, the IMF Mission had conducted its Article IV Consultation with the Macao SAR during July 14-23. The mission's staff concluding statement noted that Macao's fiscal and external positions remain strong, with the financial system well capitalized and liquid. It called for continued efforts to safeguard financial stability and accelerate economic diversification.

China's installed new-type energy storage capacity increased 61 percent year on year to 153 million kilowatts by the end of June 2026, the National Energy Administration said Thursday. New-type energy storage has become a key technology for facilitating the large-scale development and consumption of renewable energy, ensuring reliable electricity supply and improving the safety and stability of the power system, said Xu Jilin, an official with the administration, at a press conference. A report released by the administration showed that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China's installed new-type energy storage capacity increased from 3 million kilowatts to 136 million kilowatts, roughly doubling each year.

Coal-fired power accounted for 49.7 percent of China's total electricity output in the first half of 2026, marking the first time its share has fallen below 50 percent and a new milestone in the country's transition toward a green and low-carbon energy system, official data showed on Thursday. During the January-June period, China's coal-fired power generation totaled 2.5 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), the National Energy Administration (NEA) disclosed at a press conference. The figures reflect the phased progress China has made in expanding non-fossil energy as a substitute for conventional fossil fuel generation, Xing Yiteng, an NEA official, said at the press conference.

China plans to continue strengthening intellectual property rights (IPR) protection to support emerging and future industries, the country's top intellectual property regulator said on Wednesday. The protection of IPR will be central to fostering comprehensive innovation, high-quality development, and high-standard opening up, as well as economic and social development, according to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). Rui Wenbiao, deputy head of the administration, told a press conference that the plan for IPR protection and utilization for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) will be implemented in the near future. It will serve the country's development priorities across all aspects of IPR, including creation, protection, utilization, management, services and international cooperation.

China will bolster the open sharing and integrated use of data in the sci-tech finance sector to better fuel high-level technological self-reliance and channel more efficient financial support to innovative enterprises, according to a joint notice issued on Wednesday by nine government departments, including the People's Bank of China. The notice unveils the first version of a national catalog for sci-tech finance data development and utilization, covering 26 data indicators across eight major categories, such as enterprise rosters, innovation capability assessments, and enterprise needs. It encourages localities to craft region-specific data utilization lists and build supporting information infrastructure.

China has released its 15th Five-Year Plan for the postal industry, outlining 10 major tasks including improving services and accelerating the development of a modern delivery and logistics network. Jointly issued by the State Post Bureau and several other government agencies, the blueprint also sets specific quantitative targets for 2030. In 2030, the postal industry's total business revenue is expected to reach 2.4 trillion yuan (about 353.47 billion U.S. dollars), with overall delivery volume hitting 290 billion pieces. Express delivery alone is projected to generate 2 trillion yuan from 270 billion parcels. The targets reflect a strong push to bridge urban-rural gaps, with mail delivery reaching 90 percent of administrative villages at least five times a week by 2030.

China's capital city has continued to optimize its international consumption environment in recent years, having recorded 5.48 million inbound tourists in 2025, with tourism expenditure reaching 50.56 billion yuan (about 7.44 billion U.S. dollars), both rising by roughly 40 percent year on year. The number of departure tax refund stores in the city has surpassed 1,500, while the sales value of tax-refundable goods exceeded 1.5 billion yuan in Beijing last year, up nearly 70 percent, according to local government data. According to the Beijing Municipality's 15th five-year plan, the city will make further efforts to build itself into an international consumption hub during the 2026-2030 period by accelerating the upgrading of key business areas, integrating fashion and technology into traditional commercial zones, and creating open urban blocks that blend business, art and lifestyle.

China's outbound direct investment (ODI) across all industries reached 596.42 billion yuan (about 86.53 billion U.S. dollars) during the first six months of 2026, representing an increase of 3.8 percent year on year, official data showed Tuesday. China's domestic investors engaged in non-financial direct investment in 6,867 overseas companies across 144 countries and regions, with the investment value totaling 453.06 billion yuan, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. During the first six months, China's non-financial ODI in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reached 120.77 billion yuan, down 11.1 percent year on year.

The 34th National Book Fair concluded on Monday in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, recording total transactions worth 1.18 billion yuan (around 173.71 million U.S. dollars), organizers said. The four-day event brought together over 1,000 exhibitors from across the country, drawing around 560,000 visitors. Organizers said the fair hosted more than 1,000 reading events, and featured nearly one million titles.

China's state-funded student loan program had issued a total of 695.8 billion yuan (around 102.43 billion U.S. dollars) in loans by the end of 2025, benefiting more than 30 million students, the Ministry of Education said Tuesday. Since 2012, China has gradually raised the ceiling for student loans from 6,000 yuan per student annually to 20,000 yuan for undergraduate and vocational college students and 25,000 yuan for graduate students, the ministry said.

China has taken a major step forward in protecting seed industry innovations by releasing a set of documents detailing how it will implement its essentially derived variety (EDV) system, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Monday. An EDV refers to a new plant variety bred by modifying an existing original variety, differing from it by only a few specific traits. The EDV system protects intellectual property (IP) by preventing competing breeders from making minor modifications to an existing protected variety and commercializing it without the original creator's permission, thereby encouraging true original breeding.

Over 70 percent of shopping malls across China recorded increased foot traffic in the first half of 2026 (H1), showing a mild upward trend, a survey showed Monday. The survey, released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, covered companies operating in China's shopping mall sector. It showed that more than 40 percent of respondents reported a 5 to 10 percent rise in foot traffic in the first six months. Online shopping also saw an uptick during the period, with 43.4 percent of surveyed companies reporting a higher online sales ratio, according to the survey.

China's electronics industry posted a 96.9 percent year-on-year increase in profits in the first half (H1) of 2026, contributing 8.5 percentage points to the overall profit growth of major industrial firms, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. Driven by the wide adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and growing demand for computing power, profits of computer manufacturing and computer peripheral equipment manufacturing (including mice, keyboards and monitors) surged 689.3 percent and 305.8 percent from a year earlier, respectively. Within electronic device manufacturing, profits of integrated circuit manufacturing soared 2,579.5 percent, while those of discrete semiconductor device manufacturing, such as transistors and diodes, increased 31.2 percent.