Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd. probably saw earnings impacted by weaker loan demand amid limited government stimulus and a sluggish economy.
“More mortgages and consumer loans could turn bad on a housing slump, US tariffs and domestic deflation, even as corporate loan quality appears resilient,” according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Francis Chan and Nicholas Ng. First-half results may indicate muted earnings for the rest of the year, they added.
Shares of Guzman y Gomez Ltd. tumbled by the most since their Sydney listing last year after the Mexican-themed fast-food chain flagged a sales slowdown in its Australian restaurants.
The stock plunged as much as 24% in afternoon trading in Sydney, at one point touching its A$22 initial public offering price. The rout was triggered after the company reported that sales in its Australia venues rose 3.7% in the first seven weeks of the current fiscal year, falling short of analyst expectations. That compares to growth of 7.4% during the same period a year ago.
Chinese students are increasingly opting for Asian universities. With the right policies, Southeast Asia can continue to reap the benefits.
Chinese students are on the rise in Asian universities. The majority of Chinese students still choose the “big four” study destinations in the West, with US, UK, Canada, and Australia accounting for 62.6 per cent in 2024. However, their numbers have declined over the past five years in American, Australian, and Canadian universities (Figure 1).
Conversely, Asian study destinations are trending upwards for Chinese students. Their enrolment in Malaysia increased fivefold from 9,000 in 2019 to over 47,000 in 2024, and quadrupled in Thailand from just under 6,200 in 2016 to 28,000 in 2024. In Singapore, local media reported that Chinese students constituted about half of its 73,200 international students in 2024. In Japan, Chinese student numbers increased from 103,882 in 2022 to 123,485 in 2024. South Korea recorded a similar pattern: 60,087 in 2022 and 73,500 in 2024.
Figure 1: Number of inbound international students from China, top thirteen destination countries, 2018-2023*
Source: UNESCO
* Data for Japan and Singapore are not available in this database. No data in some years (2019 and 2022 for USA; 2018 for Malaysia; 2018, 2019 and 2021 for Thailand). Nevertheless, the general trend during 2018-2023 is visible.
This shift in Chinese student mobility to Asia can be attributed to four factors: (1) the attractiveness of Asian study destinations to Chinese students; (2) the efforts by governments and universities in developing the higher education sector in these destinations, and in meeting Chinese students’ needs in particular; (3) the expansion and diversification of the Chinese student demographic; and (4) the facilitative effects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The first and second factors combine to make Asian destination countries a convenient, cost effective, and more comfortable study abroad experience for Chinese students. The third and fourth factors derive from developments in China.
First, Asian countries are becoming attractive to Chinese students as they offer affordable tuition and living, geopolitical stability, safety, and geographical and cultural proximities. Tuition and living costs in Asian countries are a fraction of those in the traditional Anglophone study destination countries. Asian countries are also perceived to be safer, for instance, by being free of gun violence and less prone to Sinophobic sentiments. The presence of Chinese communities in Asian study destinations offers a familiar environment to Chinese students, who can enjoy shared languages and cultural practices while away from home.
Second, governments in Asian destinations have made concerted efforts to attract international students. Some flagship universities in Asia are well-positioned in international university rankings, making these destination countries even more attractive to ranking-conscious Chinese students and parents. These destinations are thus perceived to offer higher cost-effectiveness on Chinese students’ study abroad investments, evoking the Chinese adage gaoxing jiabi (高性价比, meaning an affordable price for a high-quality product). To attract Chinese students and cater to their study interests and needs, some Asian universities, notably in Singapore and Thailand, have rolled out Mandarin, bilingual or trilingual medium courses. Institutions in Singapore, South Korea, and elsewhere offer live application support and tuition fee payments on Chinese digital platforms such as WeChat and WeChat Pay. Some help ease students’ transition into post-study employment.
Third, while studying abroad used to be primarily pursued by Chinese students from wealthier and middle-class urban families in major cities or those with high academic performance, the Chinese student demographic has expanded to include those from southern and border provinces (including rural areas) and those with average academic performance. The expansion and diversification of Chinese student demographics are also due to the intensifying competition for entry into domestic universities in China. Faced with low prospects of gaining entry into reputable domestic universities, some Chinese students are turning to Asian universities where admissions are perceived to be comparatively easier.
Chinese students are increasingly venturing abroad for postgraduate study, as degree holders seek to improve their employability amid rising graduate unemployment and increasingly competitive entry to domestic postgraduate programmes. These challenges are compounded by “credential inflation”, or employers’ predilection to recruit candidates with higher paper qualifications. For mature students, especially current lecturers and researchers in Chinese institutions, a PhD qualification is often a prerequisite for career mobility. Completing their PhD study in Asia is more practical and convenient as they can bypass the competitive postgraduate entrance exams in China, enjoy relative academic freedom, and secure a PhD qualification from a reputable yet affordable university in Asia.
Chinese students should not be solely treated as cash cows, as they can play important facilitative roles as cultural ambassadors and intermediaries between China and Asian study destinations.
Fourth, China’s BRI and good bilateral relations with Asian study destination countries have opened up various study, work, and business opportunities for Chinese students. BRI-related government scholarships have directly enabled Chinese students to pursue higher education in these countries. Cross-border economic activities and bilateral trade with China have indirectly led to demand for bilingual and multilingual human resources to service Chinese and host country enterprises. Chinese students studying in these countries enjoy potential advantages if they gain linguistic, socio-cultural and network capital, along with a deeper understanding of their host countries. The influx of Chinese students can bring positive benefits to Asian destination countries, including income revenue, spill-over effects to other sectors (e.g. real estate, tourism, healthcare), human capital development, and stronger bilateral ties with China. However, attention should also be given to managing public perceptions and discontent in the local population on matters such as immigration, ethnic relations, local employment, and housing demand. Asian universities must also maintain their quality and reputation to remain competitive in the international education market. Chinese students should not be solely treated as cash cows, as they can play important facilitative roles as cultural ambassadors and intermediaries between China and Asian study destinations.
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung Electronics’ global education program in the form of an open competition in which youth apply STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) knowledge to address community challenges while developing analytical skills. More than an ideas contest, the program provides participants with Samsung’s Design Thinking training — offering hands-on experience at every stage of innovation, from defining problems and generating ideas to developing prototypes and validating solutions. Through this process, youth gain essential practical and creative problem-solving skills.
Initially launched in the U.S. as an essay competition in 2010, Solve for Tomorrow now operates in 68 countries — serving as a platform for youth around the world to collaborate on solutions for a better future.
Beginning in 2025, Solve for Tomorrow introduced global themes to the competition — starting with Environmental Sustainability via Technology and Social Change Through Sports & Technology — further strengthening its role in addressing universal challenges through cross-border collaboration.
Samsung remains committed to increasing educational opportunities that build future-ready skills such as design thinking while addressing pressing community issues, including those related to the environment, sports and quality education. The company aims to expand support to turn students’ ideas into reality, empowering them to play an active role in shaping a brighter world.
Explore the 15-year journey of Samsung’s global CSR education program Solve for Tomorrow in the infographic below.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand doesn’t need to be too stimulatory with policy because it views the recent lull in economic activity as temporary, according to Chief Economist Paul Conway.
“We are seeing the weakness in the second quarter as a short-run phenomena driven by policy uncertainty that held back investment and created a bit of uncertainty for households,” he said in an interview Friday in Wellington. “We do think that’s going to dissipate. I don’t think we need to be overtly stimulatory.”
(Bloomberg) — Nvidia Corp. has instructed component suppliers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Amkor Technology Inc. to stop production related to the H20 AI chip, the Information reported, citing unidentified sources.
Nvidia issued those orders this week after Beijing urged local companies to avoid using the H20, the Information said, referring to a chip designed specifically for the Chinese market.
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A production suspension would raise questions about fundamental demand for the H20, a less-powerful version of Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI accelerators that competes with capable chips from the likes of Huawei Technologies Co. and Cambricon Technologies Corp.
Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. both recently secured Washington’s approval to resume lower-end AI chip sales to China, on the controversial and legally questionable condition that they give the US government a 15% cut of the related revenue.
But their Chinese customers are under pressure to adopt homegrown chips instead — part of a broader objective to build a world-class domestic industry and wean the country off US technology.
In past weeks, Chinese authorities have sent notices to a range of firms discouraging use of the less-advanced semiconductors, Bloomberg News has reported. That followed warnings about alleged security risks in the H20 chips, after Washington officials said they were considering ways to equip chips with better location-tracking capabilities.
Nvidia — which is due to report earnings next week — has repeatedly denied it builds such features or backdoors into its product. Representatives for Amkor didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment after normal hours. A Samsung representative declined to comment.
“We constantly manage our supply chain to address market conditions,” an Nvidia spokesperson said.
“As both governments recognize, the H20 is not a military product or for government infrastructure. China won’t rely on American chips for government operations, just like the US government would not rely on chips from China. However, allowing US chips for beneficial commercial business use is good for everyone.”
It’s unclear whether the Information’s story relates to new production of the H20 or stockpiles of unfinished AI accelerators. Semi-finished semiconductors are “piling up” at Amkor, which packages chips for customers like Nvidia, the Information reported.
Nvidia, which wrote off $5.5 billion of H20 chips for China after the Trump administration decided to ban the product, is still sitting on unsold inventory. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has said the US reversal of that ban over the summer could help Nvidia recover some but not all of that writedown.
–With assistance from Nick Turner, Yoolim Lee and Debby Wu.
(Updates with Nvidia’s response and context from the fourth paragraph)
(Reuters) -Nvidia (NVDA) has told some component suppliers to suspend production of its H20 AI chip, designed specifically for the Chinese market, the Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the communications.
According to the report, Nvidia instructed Arizona-based Amkor Technology to stop production of the H20 chips this week and also notified South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
Amkor handles advanced packaging for the chip, while Samsung Electronics supplies high-bandwidth memory chips for the model.
Neither companies immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.
Meanwhile, Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement, “We constantly manage our supply chain to address market conditions.”
“As both governments recognise, the H20 is not a military product or for government infrastructure. China won’t rely on American chips for government operations, just like the U.S. government would not rely on chips from China,” it said.
This comes as Chinese authorities last week summoned domestic companies, including major internet firms Tencent and ByteDance, over their H20 chip purchases, expressing concerns over information risks.
(Reporting by Yazhini MV in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
HANOI: Coffee prices in Vietnam continued to inch up this week due to a scarcity of beans, while heavy rainfall in Indonesia likely hurt the growth of coffee cherries, traders said on Thursday.
Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing region, sold beans at 121,000-123,000 dong ($4.59-$4.66) per kg, up from last week’s 107,000-110,000 dong, and the highest level since late-May.
“Domestic prices have increased significantly over the past week, although trade remains sluggish due to tight supply at the end of the harvest season,” said a trader based in the coffee belt. He added that the current weather is favourable for new trees.
