China announced on Wednesday the world’s largest trade surplus ever, even adjusting for inflation, as a tsunami of exports flooded markets around the world last year, the New York Times reported. China’s surplus, the value of goods and services it sold abroad versus its imports, reached $1.19 trillion, an increase of 20 percent from 2024, according to data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs. The number had already exceeded $1 trillion through November.

China’s auto exports surged 21% in 2025, driven by rising shipments of electric vehicles, while domestic demand slowed, an industry association said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Confronted with grueling competition in an overcrowded domestic market, Chinese auto manufacturers have stepped up sales around the globe. As they expanded further into overseas markets last year, exports of new energy vehicles such as EVs and plug-in hybrids doubled from the previous year to 2.6 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan surpassed 10,000 for the second year in a row in 2025 as smaller businesses were hard hit by soaring labor costs and surging prices, Tokyo Shoko Research, a credit research firm, said on Monday, the Japan Times reported. The survey showed that the number of business failures with liabilities of ¥10 million or more grew 2.9% from the previous year to 10,300 in 2025, rising for the fourth consecutive year. Total liabilities left by failed companies dropped 32% to ¥1,592.3 billion.

A debt advisory firm asked China Vanke Co dollar bondholders to consider calling a default on the embattled developer’s notes, based on cross-default clauses, Bloomberg News reported. PJT Partners, which has been seeking to advise Vanke’s creditors, told the bondholders that an event of default was triggered after an original grace period on one of the firm’s onshore notes expired in December. So far, no creditors have made such a call on any of Vanke’s notes and the outreach doesn’t indicate that a default is imminent.

As the availability of fresh land tightens and competition intensifies across India’s major metropolitan markets, strategic buyers are increasingly leveraging the corporate insolvency resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to access urban real estate assets, according to an analysis in the Economic Times of India reported. The framework is playing a growing role in facilitating ownership transitions and land consolidation in supply-constrained cities. This shift has been reflected in a series of recent orders by bankruptcy tribunals across the country.

Japan's plan to give authorities the power to order foreign investors to retroactively divest acquisitions is aimed at sheltering major firms and supply chains, though it is unlikely to curtail increased M&A interest, experts say, Reuters reported. Japan on Wednesday proposed amendments to its foreign investment screening law that would grant authorities an option to force foreigners to sell investments deemed to pose risks to national or economic security.

South Korea plans to open its markets to spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year, part of a broader digital asset push led by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) under its 2026 economic growth strategy, CoinDesk.com reported. Until now, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin weren’t legally recognized as valid underlying assets for ETFs, blocking the creation of these products in the country. The FSC appears to be following the lead of other jurisdictions, including the U.S. and Hong Kong, where spot bitcoin ETFs have seen significant success.