Your Daily China Briefing

China Accelerates Emerging Industries While Managing Border Disaster Aftermath

• Rescue efforts continue along the China-Nepal border following a devastating flash flood and mudslide, which has resulted in a combined death toll of 676 and nearly 3,000 missing persons across both nations as of Saturday, August 29, 2026. Chinese authorities reported seven deaths and over 550 missing on their side, with Premier Li Qiang arriving at the disaster zone and General Secretary Xi Jinping chairing a meeting to direct relief efforts. Concerns about a barrier lake bursting have eased, as satellite images from August 27-29 indicate the lake's water has been slowly flowing out, reducing its reservoir size by 21,000 square meters since Thursday.

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• China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced plans to accelerate the development of key emerging pillar industries, including integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and smart robots, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The ministry also aims to promote future industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied AI, and 6G as new drivers of economic growth.

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• Despite a broader increase in profits for China's industrial firms, which rose 17.6% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2026, the country's new energy storage sector experienced a notable slowdown in the first half. New installations declined by 18% in power terms and 16% in energy terms compared to the previous year, signaling a shift from rapid expansion towards more market-driven growth. Meanwhile, Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Technology (CXMT) swung to a profit of 77.6 billion yuan (US$11.3 billion) in the first half, driven by AI demand and tight global supplies for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips.

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