Hey friends,

Ning again. There's not a lot happening this past week, but a few developments caught our eye.

Regulators introduced new laws for facial recognition with a focus on privacy, banks adjusted lending policies to continue pumping consumption, and Alibaba and Meituan announced strategic investments are on the way (signaling the confidence in tech?).

Anyways, I'll let you read the below for more details!

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Licensing & Regulations

• China's regulators announced that facial recognition should not be forced upon individuals, signaling a potential shift in the country's approach to biometric data collection.
• Several commercial banks in China have started to raise credit limits and extend maturity dates on personal consumer loans, responding to regulators' call to relax lending conditions and boost spending.
• The Trump administration is considering new tariffs on Chinese goods and a potential ban on TikTok.

Financing, Investment & Acquisition

• Alibaba Group announced that the company will resume hiring, citing increased confidence among China's business entrepreneurs following a meeting with President Xi.
• Meituan, a Chinese food delivery giant, has joined the AI spending race, allocating significant resources to develop large language models and other AI technologies.

Product & Partnership Launches

• China's finance ministry will issue RMB-denominated sovereign green bonds in London, valued up to 6 billion yuan, to support green projects.
• LankaPay and Alipay have partnered to improve cross-border payments for travelers, facilitating easier transactions between Sri Lanka and China.