In 2025, China's domestic tourism reached 6.52 billion trips and total spending of 6.30 trillion yuan, both record highs. In 2026, travel during the Spring Festival, Qingming, and Labor Day holidays also set new records for the respective periods. Service retail sales grew 5.5% year-on-year, and per capita service consumption expenditure was 13,602 yuan, accounting for 46.1% of total consumption. Leisure vacations dominated at 49.8%, followed by niche destinations and off-peak travel. Private car or rental car travel became the top choice at 39.9%. Short trips of 3-5 days accounted for 72.2% of domestic travel.
China's Unitree Technology received regulatory approval for a STAR Market IPO in 2026, with a valuation of 42 billion RMB. The company reported a non-GAAP net profit of 600 million RMB and a gross margin of 60% in 2025. Separately, UBTech launched its U1 series emotional companion robots, priced from 119,800 to 990,000 RMB, with pre-orders exceeding 13,361 units. UBTech's 2025 revenue was 2.001 billion RMB with a net loss of 790 million RMB, while its humanoid robot deliveries surged 2,203.7% to 1,079 units from a base of 3 units in 2024.
China Index Academy reported that total bond financing in the real estate sector reached RMB 315.88 billion in the first half of 2026, up 21.7% from a year earlier. Credit bonds accounted for RMB 176.61 billion, up 11.8% and representing 55.9% of the total. Overseas bonds surged 199.4% to RMB 17.17 billion, a 5.4% share, while asset-backed securities rose 27.5% to RMB 122.10 billion, comprising 38.7%.
Three A-share testing companies reported profit growth in H1 2026, driven by demand from emerging sectors including integrated circuits. Suzhou Sushi Testing Group posted revenue of 1.08 billion yuan (up 8.93%) and net profit of 129 million yuan (up 10.37%). Its environmental testing revenue rose 16% to 565 million yuan (52.39% of total), and IC verification revenue rose 10.61% to 171 million yuan (15.87% of total). Huace Testing focused on medical, semiconductor, and new energy vehicle segments, while Guangdian Measurement expanded its IC testing lab. Industry data showed the inspection sector surpassed 500 billion yuan during the 14th Five-Year Plan, with emerging fields growing at 13% annually.
China's 11 government departments jointly issued an action plan to strengthen grassroots traditional Chinese medicine services, aiming to establish a 15-minute TCM service circle by 2030. Separately, Zhongji Innolight's chairman proposed a share buyback of RMB 4 billion to RMB 8 billion. BOE A's controlling shareholder plans to increase holdings by RMB 500 million to RMB 1 billion, and Hailiang's controlling shareholder by RMB 600 million to RMB 1 billion. Since July, the TCM sector index gained 10.22% while the Shanghai Composite fell 6.87%. Stocks such as Longsheng surged 101.27%, Zhenbaodao rose 57.08%, and others gained over 20%. Zhongji Innolight fell 28.5% since July, BOE A dropped 35.71%, and Hailiang declined 26.09%.
Since 2026, surging AI computing demand has tightened supply of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), driving prices higher and boosting the passive component industry. While MLCC prices have stabilized overall since July, divergence has increased, with high-end AI and automotive-grade high-capacity products continuing to rise. Strong AI server demand has locked up factory capacity, while precious metal raw material costs remain elevated.
Surge in AI computing power consumption is accelerating solid-state transformer (SST) adoption, with Sungrow Power, Envision Group, and others unveiling products. China XD Group leads industry standards. SSTs offer up to 98.5% efficiency, reduce volume by 40%–60%, and cut copper use by 80%. Nvidia targets SST as the ultimate AI data center power architecture. Pilot projects remain limited, but 2026 is expected to mark the start of full commercialization.
The US Department of Energy has launched the $60 million Prometheus project to use artificial intelligence to accelerate nuclear reactor design, licensing, manufacturing, construction, fuel production, and operations. Led by Idaho National Laboratory with partners including NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and over 20 nuclear industry firms, the three-year initiative aims to cut reactor deployment timelines and long-term costs by 50%. The project has attracted over $200 million in industry cost-sharing and $30 million in private capital and technology contributions.
Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group, a state-backed company, has begun producing domestic immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines. It plans to manufacture about five units this year and 20 next year, delivering them to SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, and ChangXin Memory Technologies. The company, founded in August 2023 with over 7 billion RMB in registered capital, is assembling a team from other Chinese firms. However, its DUV machines still require further testing and lag far behind ASML's models, posing no immediate commercial threat. ASML's stock fell 8.3% on July 27.
As of end-June 2026, only 153 banks still offered proprietary wealth management products, with total outstanding scale of RMB 2.48 trillion, declining for two consecutive quarters. Many small and medium banks saw significant reductions, while a few bucked the trend. Wealth management subsidiaries' market share reached 92.13%, and cross-bank distribution channels expanded to 656 institutions. The industry is shifting from self-issuance to agency distribution.
In the first half of 2026, the robot industry chain reported widespread positive results, shifting from a concept-driven phase to one of order fulfillment and profit realization. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revenue of major robot enterprises exceeded RMB 90 billion in January-May, up 26.9% year-on-year, with an average annual growth of over 20% in the past five years. A robot maker received tens of thousands of orders for its new humanoid robot within a month of launch. Another supplier of frameless motors, a key component for humanoid robot joints, saw orders in hand exceed 1 million units in H1 2026, more than nine times the 2025 level.
Xingyuan Caili, in an institutional research presentation, stated that the diaphragm market is experiencing tight supply-demand dynamics due to strong downstream demand from power batteries and energy storage. Diaphragm prices have stabilized and recovered, with the company implementing batch price adjustments for core customers since the market bottomed in late 2025. In the first half of 2026, mainstream wet-process base film prices recovered significantly from end-2025 levels. Overseas pricing remains significantly higher than domestic pricing, supporting further price adjustment potential.
China's COVID-19 positivity rate reached 16.3% in week 29 of 2026, up from low levels in the prior week, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus is at a medium epidemic level overall, with the highest rate among those aged 15-59. In response, Junshi Biosciences and Simcere reported rising demand for their antiviral drugs. Junshi saw a rapid increase in orders from late June, while Simcere's online platform orders grew 48.2% week-on-week, with Shanghai accounting for 22.66% of JD. com orders.
The Chinese luxury goods market is estimated at between RMB 400 billion and RMB 500 billion, a segment that has been almost entirely dominated by European companies. The market size highlights the potential for local brands, though the status of jeweler Laopu Gold as a luxury brand remains unclear.
On July 28, Gansu Electric Power Investment Group launched 'Zijin Yuneng', the first provincial-level AI large model for the power industry in China. The model supports fine-tuning and high-performance inference with hundreds of billions of parameters, is compatible with multiple mainstream multimodal models, and provides a one-stop toolchain covering data preprocessing, model training, and inference optimization. It aims to integrate AI resources and facilitate collaborative development across the energy power sector.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on July 27 held a media briefing to report on efforts to push major auto companies to shorten payment cycles for suppliers. The ministry noted that a few companies still have disguised extensions, such as delayed start dates and non-standard management. To strengthen oversight, MIIT appointed 20 journalists as the first batch of 'supervisors' for the industry's payment-cycle issues. Next, MIIT will accelerate the compilation of payment guidelines, step up supervision, and enforce laws to protect supplier firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
On July 28, 2026, the four first-tier Chinese cities—Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen—held simultaneous land auctions, with multiple parcels transacting at high premiums. Shanghai's sixth batch of concentrated land supply saw three residential plots sell for a total of about RMB 235.14 billion, led by a Poly Developments-China Resources Land joint venture that won a Yangpu district plot at RMB 161.2 billion, a 35.83% premium. Beijing's Chaoyang district plot was won by China Overseas Land & Investment at RMB 46.814 billion, a 25.84% premium. Guangzhou's Liwan district plot attracted a 40.97% premium, won by Greentown China. Shenzhen's Guangming district plot changed hands at a 18.88% premium. In the first half of 2026, land sales across 300 cities declined but first-tier average premium reached 19.8%.
Reversible computing expert Michael P. Frank assigned GPT-5.6 Sol a high-difficulty research goal: to explore a more concise proof of Fermat's Last Theorem than the Wiles-Taylor proof, focusing on the Frey curve, infinite descent, and other approaches. After 33 hours of background computation, OpenAI forcibly terminated the task. The model reported that it converted plausible shortcuts into verifiable statements, then systematically falsified them, producing a roadmap of dead ends rather than a proof.
SpaceX completed the 13th test flight of its Starship, the second flight of the upgraded V3 version. The second-stage Ship achieved all major objectives, including deploying 20 functional Starlink V3 satellites, while the first-stage Super Heavy booster experienced a re-ignition failure during landing, with only 8 of 13 engines restarting, leading to a high-speed ocean impact. The Ship made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean and transmitted data. SpaceX plans to attempt catching the second stage with the launch tower's mechanical arms on the next flight.
The 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, released July 28, showed energy companies declining in the top 20 by revenue. Saudi Aramco ranked fifth, down one place, with 2025 revenue of $445.53 billion (down 7.2%) and net profit of $92.79 billion (down 11.6%), losing its four-year title as the world's most profitable company to Alphabet, whose profit rose 32% to $132.17 billion. China's three oil majors all slid: CNPC to 10th, Sinopec to 12th, and CNOOC to 83rd, each reporting lower revenue and profit.
The 2026 Fortune Global 500 lists 15 pharmaceutical companies, unchanged from 2025 but with reshuffled rankings. Eli Lilly posted the largest leap, rising 112 spots to 224th, with revenue surging 44.7% to $65.179 billion and profit soaring 94.9% to $20.64 billion. Its GLP-1 drug tirzepatide generated $36.507 billion in sales, surpassing Novo Nordisk's semaglutide ($36.1 billion) to become the world's best-selling medicine. Novo Nordisk also gained 35 places, and both companies led profit margins among pharma peers.
Expectations for a reversal in lithium carbonate prices in July have largely been dashed as the month draws to a close. Companies including Ganfeng Lithium, Tianqi Lithium, and Sinomine Resource are now turning their attention to the outlook for August, following the failure of a hoped-for rebound in the key battery material.
The Shanghai Municipal People's Government has issued an implementation plan for inland waterway shipping in the Yangtze River Delta, targeting 280 kilometers of Grade III and above waterways and a 35% container waterway transshipment ratio for domestic routes by 2030. The plan also aims to upgrade the river-sea direct channel for Shanghai Port, enhance green and smart shipping, and develop an integrated river-sea intermodal network.
The 2026 Fortune Global 500, released July 28, includes seven Chinese insurers, unchanged from last year. China Life Insurance (Group) ranks 42nd, up three places, while New China Life Insurance jumps from 498th to 414th, the biggest gain among the group. The list's total revenue reached approximately $43.1 trillion, exceeding one-third of global GDP, with the entry threshold rising 3% to $332 billion.
By mid-2026, the AI industry's revenue and token usage continue rapid growth, but financial and operational breakdowns reveal divergent business models. Four structural paradoxes—cost, hierarchy, responsibility, and open-vs-closed source—indicate intelligence is commoditizing rapidly, with profits concentrated in a few segments. Token prices have fallen over 95% since GPT-4's launch in March 2023, yet enterprise monthly bills have risen from $50,000 to $500,000 as demand shifts to economically viable tasks. The industry is moving from cost-per-token to cost-per-task optimization.
China Overseas Land & Investment won a residential land plot in Beijing's Chaoyang district for RMB 4.68 billion, after 248 rounds of bidding. The plot, with a planned floor area of 57,750 square meters, drew six bidders and six online offers before the auction. The final floor price reached RMB 81,063 per square meter, a 25.84% premium over the starting price of RMB 64,416 per square meter.
On July 28, the China Drug Price Registration System (China Drug Registration) launched its medical device segment and issued the first batch of price registration certificates to eight companies, including Beijing Huatan Biotechnology, Shanghai Xinwei Medical, and others. The platform, jointly sponsored by the National Healthcare Security Administration and the Beijing Municipal Government and organized by the Xicheng District Government, aims to facilitate market price registration outside the medical insurance payment system. Supported by the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Trade Development Bureau, the system will also organize domestic medical device firms to participate in international medical exhibitions in Poland and Bangladesh.
A report by AI Forensics found that 7 of the 9 most popular image-editing models on Hugging Face generated sexualized deepfake images when prompted to undress subjects. A honeypot space set up to track requests received over 1,000 prompts in a week, of which 73% were sexual, 83% aimed to undress people, and 95% of victims were female. Nearly 7% of sexualized requests targeted children. The platform lacks effective safeguards.
BYD, XPeng, Li Auto and nearly 20 other automakers are accelerating their push into humanoid robots. BYD will officially unveil its humanoid robot prototype in August at its 'Di Space' venue. XPeng's IRON robot has begun small-batch trial production at its Guangzhou plant, with mass production lines in final commissioning. Li Auto plans two robot products, including a wheeled model to be publicly released this year. The technology overlap between smart cars and humanoid robots exceeds 70%, and China's auto industry profit margin fell to 4.1% in 2025, the lowest since 2015.
The U. S. Department of Defense announced on July 27 two separate seven-year agreements with defense contractors L3Harris Technologies and Lockheed Martin to expand production capacity for key components of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.