CX Daily: Torrential Rains And Flooding Leave 25 Dead In Central China

Cloud /

In Depth: What’s darkening the skies for China’s cloud kingpins?

In the first quarter of the year, Alibaba Cloud’s revenue growth dipped precipitously.

Last year the domestic leader, part of the group that includes e-commerce giant Alibaba and an affiliate of financial services titan Ant Group Co. Ltd., made about 55.58 billion yuan ($8.6 billion). That was up 56% year-on-year — above the average of 50% for Chinese cloud businesses%. In the first quarter of this year, income growth dropped to 37%.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. CFO Wu Wei disclosed the reason behind the slump: a changing relationship with a top client. That client, she said, had been using Alibaba’s overseas cloud services but had opted to drop the firm for international operations due for reasons unrelated to the product.

Heavy rains /

Torrential rains and flooding leave 25 dead in Central China

At least 25 people died and seven remain missing after record-breaking torrential rain triggered flooding in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province, local authorities said Wednesday afternoon.

Early this morning, the country raised its emergency response to the second-highest level, up from the third-highest level.

Historic rainstorm grounds planes, halts trains in Central China

FINANCE & ECONOMY

Yang Qinghe

Corruption /

Provincial banking regulator fired over bribery allegations

Yang Qinghe, a former official at the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s (CBIRC) Shanxi provincial branch, was expelled from the Communist Party and removed from public office for alleged corruption, graft-busters said Tuesday.

Yang, 59, was accused of abusing his power to help people who bribed him in relation to loan issuance and uniform customization, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and its local counterpart in Shanxi province said in a statement (link in Chinese). He is also accused of illegally taking a “particularly large” number of bribes, the anti-corruption agencies said.

Yang’s suspected crime sheet will be sent to the procurator for further investigation pending trial, the agencies said.

China-U.S. /

Senior U.S. diplomat to visit China to ‘responsibly manage’ bilateral ties

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will travel to China Sunday and meet with Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in the eastern city of Tianjin, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

During the two-day trip, Sherman will “discuss areas where we have serious concerns about PRC actions, as well as areas where our interests align,” the State Department said in a statement.

Trusts /

Debt-ridden Anxin Trust gets government bailout

China’s embattled Anxin Trust Co. Ltd. will sell ownership to state-backed investors as part of a restructuring plan to solve its two-year-old debt crisis, the company disclosed Tuesday in a filing.

Anxin will sell a controlling stake through a private placement to a company called Shanghai Di’an Co., the trust company said. Shanghai Di’an is a newly formed entity jointly owned by Shanghai government-backed Shanghai Electric Group Co. Ltd., Shanghai Guosheng Assets Co. Ltd., Shanghai International Group, Shanghai Airport Authority and the China Trust Protection Fund Co. Ltd., which operates a state-backed bailout fund for trust companies.

Babies /

China rolls out financial measures to counter baby bust

China’s State Council issued a basket of supportive measures Tuesday to encourage people to have more children after the newly announced three-child policy received a cold response from young couples worried about the costs of child care, education and housing.

Among the measures, China will amend individual income tax law to permit deductions for child care expenses for children younger than 3 years old, according to a policy document released by state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Quick hits /

China’s tightened grip on tech share sales rattles investors

Nanjing to test nearly 2 million residents after Covid outbreak at airport

BUSINESS & TECH

Maglev trains /

China unveils world-beating home-made maglev

China unveiled its self-developed maglev train capable of traveling as fast as 600 kph (373 mph), as the country moves to improve its well-established rail network led by high-speed trains.

The progress on what would be the world’s fastest train paves the way for rolling out maglev trains for commercial use, although more test runs on longer lines that support superfast speeds need to be conducted.

The train, which has been under development by gigantic railroad-equipment maker CRRC Corp. Ltd. since 2016, rolled off the production line Tuesday in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao.

Chips /

Chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup starts search for strategic investors to fund bankruptcy restructuring

Chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup Co. Ltd. is seeking strategic investors that can cope with its vast debt pile as the state-owned business is forced into a court-ordered bankruptcy restructuring.

Strategic investors should be capable of taking over Unigroup’s core chipmaking and cloud computing businesses, according to a Unigroup statement (link in Chinese) released Tuesday via the National Enterprise Bankruptcy Information Disclosure Platform, a website under the Supreme People’s Court.

Power /

State Grid aims to give jolt to bloated Brazilian peer with $510 million stake deal

Leading electricity distributor State Grid of Corp. of China won a bidding contest to buy 66% of mid-sized Brazilian peer CEEE for 2.67 billion reals ($510 million), marking its latest acquisition of such assets in developing markets.

The investment gives State Grid majority control of one of Brazil’s top 10 power distributors, with a distribution network covering the equivalent of 6,000 kilometers and 72 transformer substations. CEEE earned a profit of 193 million reals in its 2020 fiscal year, and its assets account for about 4% of the total in Brazil’s overall electric grid.

Quick hits /

DeepRoute.ai self-driving taxis hit Shenzhen roads

Evergrande contagion risk rises as stock, bonds sink to new lows

XYZ Robotics capitalizes on tech investment boom with new funding

Hot Topics /

Central China hit by deadly rainstorms, Tencent wins WeChat piracy case, ‘bad stars’ to be disciplined by industry

GALLERY