Daniel Ren

The global coronavirus pandemic may have been a disaster for the global economy, but it was a boon for China’s largest technology companies.  Tencent Holdings, the Chinese gaming giant and owner of WeChat, is flirting with a market value of US$1 trillion and has made its founder, Pony Ma Huateng, the second richest man in China.  The brand value of Alibaba, Tencent’s rival company, jumped by 108% to US$39.2 billion as the world’s second-fastest-growing brand, behind only Tesla’s 158% increase, according to a 2021 report by Brand Finance, a British consultant. “Alibaba.com has benefited from the unprecedented surge in demand, as consumers turned to online shopping during the pandemic,” Brand

He Xiangjian, the Chinese billionaire who founded the world’s biggest home appliances maker Midea Group and was the victim of a recent botched kidnap attempt, is a man of few words. The man with a $25 billion fortune shares only 26 words with his staff and customers on Midea’s official website. But plenty has been written about He – China’s sixth-richest person, according to Forbes – since June 14, when five kidnappers with explosives held the 77-year-old for ransom after breaking into his luxury villa in Foshan, his and Midea’s birthplace in southern China. Local police arrested the suspects after He’s son – 55-year old He Jianfeng, who sits on the Midea board – sneaked out of the property

Singapore’s wealthiest man is getting richer to the tune of more than $1 billion a month this year, as the stock price of his medical devices company soared by almost 50% amid the coronavirus pandemic. The fortunes of Li Xiting, the co-founder and chairman of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, have risen by $4.3 billion this year to $13.5 billion, according to Bloomberg data, or an average of $37.7 million every 24 hours. That makes Li, born in eastern China’s Anhui province, the wealthiest man in Singapore. He has been a citizen of the city-state since at least 2018. Mindray’s shares have jumped since the coronavirus pandemic, which was first reported in central China’s Hubei provinc

A Beijing-bound flight from Shanghai landed at its origin more than 17 hours after the journey began, as severe thunderstorms at its destination forced the aircraft to turn back twice. The China Eastern Airlines plane took off from Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport at 2:11 am Monday morning, after a five-hour delay, bound for Beijing. The Airbus A330-300 aircraft, carrying 250 passengers, was delayed due to inclement weather in the Chinese capital. More than 400 flights were canceled. About 62 miles from its destination, the flight made a U-turn and returned to Shanghai, landing at the Pudong airport (on the east side of the city) about three hours later, at 4:59 am, according to data provided by

When former US President Richard Nixon visited Beijing in 1972, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai gifted him a bag of his favorite sweets — White Rabbit rolls. The chewy milk flavored Tootsie roll-like candy is a beloved Chinese brand. Its iconic white rabbit image evokes a strong nostalgic feeling for generations of Chinese who grew up eating the candy in the 80s and 90s. Now White Rabbit is selling milk tea, and Chinese people are all over it. So much so that many are willing to line up for hours and pay scalpers up to $70 for a cup. Some White Rabbit lovers spent five hours waiting in line for a cup. Those less patient were willing to pay a premium from scalpers to cut the line. One scalpe

Tesla has started taking orders in China for the Model 3 electric cars it’ll make in the country. By pricing the car 13% lower than US imports, the American carmaker could make greater inroads into the world’s largest electric vehicle market. The standard range plus Model 3 car that Tesla plans to assemble at the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai will be priced at 328,000 yuan ($47,529), which is about $7,000 cheaper than the same model currently imported from the United States. Tesla’s US-built cars are subject to import duty in China, which could raise if the US-China trade war escalates. The US electric carmaker plans to start deliveries in the next six to 10 months. Industry observers said that

Tesla is revving up for the Chinese market. On Monday, the American electric carmaker broke ground for its Shanghai plant, its first outside of the United States. The company’s CEO Elon Musk announced plans to start building its Model 3 car in China – by the end of 2019.  Construction has begun just three months after Tesla secured a land parcel at Lingang, Shanghai for the Gigafactory 3. The speed at which the $5 billion project has taken off underscores China’s pressing need to attract foreign investment, as the country grapples with its slowest economic growth in a decade amid the impact of the US-China trade war. ‘Affordable versions’ The factory in Shanghai will produce “affordable ver

An electric car rolls off the production line at top Chinese electric carmaker BYD’s factory in the southern Chinese mega city of Shenzhen every 90 seconds. While Tesla often grabs the headlines, BYD and rivals like Beijing Auto and Roewe are quietly selling enough electric vehicles (EVs) to make China the world’s largest market for both electric and conventional cars. In fact, sales of electric vehicles in China reached 770,000 units last year, more than half of all new-energy vehicles sold globally. Driving the explosive growth is a government desire to promote the country as a world leader in green vehicles. This is because of serious pollution problems at home, as well as a broader goal

Tesla is one step closer to realizing its China manufacturing ambition. On Wednesday, the electric automaker signed a $141 million deal with the Shanghai government to acquire a 212 acre plot of land close to the city’s free trade zone. That’s the equivalent of about 3,300 tennis courts. “Securing this site in Shanghai, Tesla’s first Gigafactory outside the United States, is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site,” said Robin Ren, Tesla’s vice-president of worldwide sales. The planned Gigafactory 3 – the company’s first plant outside the US – is designed to produce 500,000 cars a year. The company is expected to take two years to p

The US-China trade war is hurting America's biggest electric car maker – but maybe not for long. Tesla has had to raise its China prices by 20%, in response to retaliatory tariffs on US imports to China. But now Tesla has announced that it is about to set up its first overseas assembly plant in Shanghai, establishing a beachhead in the world’s largest vehicle market. The California-based carmaker will establish its Gigafactory 3 on the outskirts of Shanghai, with an annual capacity to produce 500,000 vehicles, according to an announcement. The wholly foreign-owned plant – the first in China to operate without a local partner – will also be the largest overseas manufacturing investment in the