Major automakers should push for "rational competition" in the electric vehicle industry, a senior Chinese official said on Thursday, according to a statement from the industry ministry published on Friday, Reuters reported. The comments from Che Jun, head of a Communist Party central leading group, came a day after China's cabinet pledged to regulate what it called "irrational" competition in the EV market and vowed to strengthen price-monitoring. Che Jun spoke at a meeting attended by officials from the industry ministry and representatives from automakers BYD and BAIC Group.
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The U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on Chinese imports of graphite, a key battery component, after concluding the materials had been unfairly subsidized, Bloomberg News reported. A trade association representing US graphite producers in December filed petitions with two federal agencies, asking for investigations into whether Chinese companies were violating anti-dumping laws. The new duties will add to existing rates making the effective tariff 160%, according to American Active Anode Material Producers, the trade group that filed the complaint.
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China’s government is threatening to block a deal that would transfer ownership of dozens of seaports to Western investors if Cosco, China’s largest shipping company, doesn’t get a stake, the Wall Street Journal reported. The proposed sale includes two ports at the Panama Canal and more than 40 others around the world, all owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison. China is pushing for state-owned Cosco to be an equal partner and shareholder of the ports with BlackRock and Mediterranean Shipping Co., a containership operator.
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China’s economy showed resilience in a turbulent first half of the year, remaining on track to hit its official growth target for the year despite President Trump’s shifting tariff assault, the Wall Street Journal reported. China said that its gross domestic product expanded 5.2% in the second quarter of 2025 compared with a year earlier, slowing a touch from the 5.4% pace set in the first three months of the year and coming in line with economists’ expectations.
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Confronting a trade war with the United States, China’s government has poured $42 billion this year into a consumer trade-in program, double last year’s amount. The aim was to jolt a much-needed surge in spending at a precarious moment for the economy by subsidizing discounts for a wide variety of consumer goods, from washing machines to electric vehicles, the New York Times reported. The program has proved so successful that several municipalities have suspended or curtailed the program in recent weeks to prevent the money from running out prematurely.
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The struggles continue for global automakers in China, Electrek reported. After halting production, Volkswagen announced it will close a plant in China. And that’s not all: Another OEM is filing for bankruptcy through its joint venture. Although it might not seem significant, China is one of, if not the most important markets, for Volkswagen, accounting for around 30% of its deliveries. Volkswagen has already halted production at its manufacturing plant in Nanjing and plans to close it officially later this year. The Nanjing facility was opened by VW’s joint venture, SAIC Volkswagen, in 2008.
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It's the official end of an ambitious project launched nearly fifteen years ago: The court in Changsha, Hunan province, has declared the Gac-Fiat Chrysler joint venture bankrupt, putting a definitive end to the industrial presence of Stellantis via this entity in China, italpassion.fr reported. This joint venture, created in 2011 at the instigation of Sergio Marchionne, was to enable Fiat Chrysler to conquer the world's largest automobile market alongside Chinese giant GAC Group.
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Chinese FTX creditors have formally contested the proposed reorganization plan of the bankrupt exchange in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, AInvest reported. The objection, filed by Weiwei Ji, a Chinese customer of FTX, alleges that the current payout proposal unfairly discriminates against creditors in “Restricted Jurisdictions,” including China and other regions. Ji argues that the plan violates Section 1129(b)(1) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code by allowing “unfair discrimination” between classes of similarly situated creditors.
The value of apparel imports from China to the U.S. fell in May to its lowest monthly level in 22 years, according to latest trade data, highlighting the impact of steep U.S. tariffs, Reuters reported. China has for years been the biggest exporter of clothes to the U.S., but its share of the U.S. apparel market has fallen as trade relations between the world's two biggest economies soured. U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted tariffs up to as much as 145% in April, driving more U.S. retailers to reduce purchases from Chinese factories in favor of Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, and elsewhere.