5 Things That Happened in China This Week (122)

Greetings!

Here are 5 things that happened in China this week.

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China’s Top Legislature Concludes Standing Committee Session

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its eighth session on Tuesday in Beijing. At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt a revised Law on Guarding State Secrets. President Xi Jinping signed a presidential order to promulgate the law. Zhao Leji, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the closing meeting.

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China to Issue First Batch of RMB Treasury Bonds in HK

China's Ministry of Finance announced that it will issue this year's first batch of Renminbi-denominated treasury bonds in Hong Kong on March 13. The scale of the bonds will be 12 billion yuan (about 1.69 billion U.S. dollars). Specific issuance arrangements will be announced on the website of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Central Money Markets Unit.

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China's BYD Unveils Electric Supercar

Chinese car maker BYD debuted its most expensive car, a 1.68 million yuan (about 233 450 U.S. dollars) high-performance fully electric supercar called The Yangwang U9 which will initially be for the Chinese market. According to the company, the car can hit a speed of 100 km/h in 2.36 seconds and reach a top speed of 309.19 km/h.

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Baidu's Latest Financial Report

Chinese tech giant Baidu's unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and the whole fiscal year of 2023 were released on Wednesday. The non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) net income in 2023 was up 39 percent year-on-year. In 2023, the company's non-GAAP net income topped 28.7 billion yuan (about 4.04 billion U.S. dollars) and its total revenues reached approximately 134.6 billion yuan (about 18.9 billion U.S. dollars). During the fourth quarter of 2023, the company also saw its non-GAAP net income soar by 44 percent year-on-year to a total of more than 7.75 billion yuan (about 1.09 billion U.S. dollars). Artificial Intelligence (AI) was Baidu's major new growth engine during the period. __________________________________________________________________________________

China’s Wuhan Operates Driverless Taxi Service

A Robotaxi crossed two bridges over the Yangtze River in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, making it China's first to operate commercial autonomous ride-hailing services spanning the river. The driverless taxi service is developed and operated by Baidu's autonomous driving platform Apollo Go. So far, China has more than 20 cities which have launched policies supporting autonomous driving tests, with over 60 enterprises having obtained autonomous driving test licenses. __________________________________________________________________________________

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it – Lao Tzu