Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• Dragon Boat festivities and zongzi exports surge ahead of traditional holiday;
• Bangladeshi mangoes enter China for the first time.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, celebrations are in full swing across the globe, with dragon boat races and traditional food gaining popularity beyond Chinese communities.

This year, the demand for festive zongzi—sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves—has seen a significant rise, with exports from Shenzhen alone exceeding 134 metric tons, marking a 110 percent increase compared to last year.

Traditional festivals have long been celebrated by overseas Chinese communities, and this year’s Dragon Boat Festival is no exception.

In Cape Town, South Africa, the local dragon boat association organized races and even a fun tug-of-war competition. The event attracted not only Chinese participants but also many locals eager to experience the lively festivities.

Meanwhile, the export market for zongzi has expanded considerably.

At a Shenzhen-based food factory, workers are busy preparing thousands of the delicacies daily to meet growing international demand.

Huang, a zongzi factory manager, recently gave a video tour to a British client, showcasing the production process. "This is our factory. We produce around 10,000 zongzi per day, all freshly steamed," he told the client.

Each zongzi is meticulously hand-wrapped, with skilled workers making 600 to 700 daily. However, due to surging orders, the factory has had to nearly double its workforce.

With increasing interest from abroad, the factory is eyeing new markets. Deputy manager Feng revealed plans to expand further, develop markets in Singapore, the Netherlands, the U.S., and Vancouver.

Classic Cantonese savory zongzi, such as those filled with salted egg yolk and pork, remain the top export, but innovative flavors like seafood and fruit zongzi are also gaining traction.

Additionally, as this year’s Dragon Boat Festival falls earlier than usual, many export companies began receiving orders as early as late March, contributing to the notable rise in both export volume and reach.

GBA express

• The Forum on Building up Cultural Strength and Promoting Digital Intelligence of the Greater Bay Area was held in Shenzhen on Wednesday, which gathered professionals from cultural sectors and experts on diverse disciplines such as Wu Zhiliang, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC, Haiya, Hugo Award winner for Best Novelette, and renowned actor Zhang Guoli. In their speeches, attendees, drawing on the ongoing digital technology innovations in the GBA, particularly in Shenzhen, explored topics such as how digital technology can support the development of a cultural community in the region. Meanwhile, the Lingnan culture big data center was inaugurated in Guangzhou yesterday. By integrating cultural resources such as intangible cultural heritage, history and folk customs, the center has developed distinctive databases like the Lingnan dialect corpus and the Lingnan cultural gene bank to promote the digital protection and revitalization of cultural heritage. In the GBA, Lingnan culture boasts a rich and profound history, encompassing five UNESCO Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage elements, including Cantonese opera, guqin, paper-cutting and tea art.
• Hong Kong is taking another big step to strengthen financial-market linkages with the Middle East with the launch of Asia’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking Saudi Arabia’s Islamic government bonds, or sukuk. The ETF, called Premia BOCHK Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk ETF, started trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
• Zhuhai has launched a new company as part of an ambitious program to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics sectors. On Wednesday, the city announced its support for the newly established Zhuhai Technology Industry Group, focusing on AI and robotics. It also unveiled incentives for local businesses, including “computing power vouchers” totaling 500 million yuan. Eligible companies will be reimbursed for half of their computing power expenditures, capped at 10 million yuan.

Industry and company news

• NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said during a quarterly earnings calls on Wednesday that the US' export control policy on AI chips to China was "clearly wrong," noting that China's AI will move on with or without US chips due to its abundant AI talent. Huang stated that China is one of the world's largest AI markets and a springboard to global success. Nvidia said the restrictions on exports of its H20 chip to China resulted in lost sales of US$2.5 billion in its fiscal first quarter in 2025 and are expected to rise to US$8 billion in the current quarter.
• Honor CEO James Li yesterday confirmed that the Chinese phone maker has entered the robotics sector. Li shared behind-the-scenes stories of the company’s robotics team at the Honor 400 series launch, with a video showing a humanoid robot running at a speed of up to 4 meters per second, a new industry benchmark.
• Competition in China’s auto market will get fiercer in the next five years, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Chinese NEV startup Xpeng said yesterday. Carmakers should shift their focus to technological breakthroughs and expanding overseas from low-price competition, he added.
• Nio joined hands with Geely's EV brand Zeekr over battery charging, the Chinese NEV startup said today. This will allow Nio, Onvo, and Firefly car owners to find and use Zeekr's charging stations via the three Nio brands' own apps.
• DJI has reportedly started mass production of robotic vacuum cleaners, with the first model set to launch next month. The Chinese drone maker has spent more than four years developing the products, media reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The debut model will be a vacuum-mop combo.
• China’s cinema ticket pre-sales for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival holiday exceeded 30 million yuan as of 10 p.m. yesterday, with Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning leading the chart, according to movie data tracker Beacon.
• China launched the Tianwen-2 spacecraft early on Thursday morning to bring asteroid samples back to earth. The craft is designed to collect samples from an asteroid orbiting Earth that scientists believe may be a fragment of the moon. China would become the third country, after Japan and the US, to return asteroid samples.

Asia-Pacific highlights

• Malaysia’s central bank has granted Chinese cross-border payment platform PingPong the Money Services Business license, making it the first China-based B2B cross-border payment institution to achieve such milestone. PingPong has secured over 60 global payment licenses and permits worldwide.
• Shanghai's iconic Peace Hotelwill be rebranded as Raffles Peace Hotel Shanghai, joining the portfolio of Singaporean luxury hotel chain Raffles Hotels and Resorts.
• A shipment of 3 tons of fresh mangoes from Bangladesh arrived in Changsha, central Hunan province, yesterday, marking China's first import of mangoes from the South Asian country. Previously exported mainly to the Middle East and the EU, Bangladeshi mangoes are now entering China, with the importer estimating over 100 tons in the first year. In July 2024, China approved the import of fresh mangoes from Bangladesh. To facilitate the shipment, Changsha Customs offered end-to-end support, including policy consultation and quarantine approval.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

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