☕️ Good morning, friends,

the award for Best Investment of the Year goes to an 8-year-old from northern China.

He carefully cut his mother’s gold necklace into tiny pieces and handed them out to his classmates one by one.

We think: there is no better investment than in friendship. His parents did not share our enthusiasm.

🤝 P.S. Partner of the week: Cathy Tax.

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Highlights: With the Fed’s long-priced-in interest rate cut just around the corner, Asian stock markets remain largely flat. The real bet has now shifted to how much easing may still follow in 2026.

Tensions between China and Japan continue to weigh on sentiment, but Indonesia is emerging as a new favorite among global funds: for the first time in over a year, a noticeable amount of fresh foreign capital is flowing back into its equity market.

TOP BIT

🛫 Runway at sea: Dalian plans a next-level airport

Off the coast of the port city of Dalian, a giant artificial island is becoming what could be the world’s largest offshore airport.
By 2035, the new hub is expected to handle up to 80 million passengers a year. It is a prestige project, a testbed for offshore construction and an economic boost for China’s struggling northeast.

Details

🌊 An island built for flying: The airport is rising on an artificial landmass of roughly twenty square kilometers, making it larger than the offshore airports in Hong Kong and Osaka.

📍 Why Dalian is thinking big: The current airport sits in a valley, surrounded by mountains and operating at full capacity. Limited visibility in bad weather and a lack of expansion space are key reasons for moving operations offshore.

🏗️ Capacity and cost: Plans include four runways and a terminal of about 900,000 square meters, designed for up to 80 million passengers and around one million tons of cargo per year. Estimated cost: roughly 4.3 billion USD.

📍 A new hub for the northeast: Dalian’s position on the Bohai Bay offers short routes to Japan, South Korea and Russia. The new airport aims to connect air and sea logistics and help revive the region’s old industrial base.

📦 Logistics gateway for Northeast Asia: Dalian is already a major port with fast links to Japan, South Korea and Russia. The new airport will merge air and maritime traffic and position the city as a logistics and e-commerce hub.

⚠️ Learning from Kansai: Japan’s Kansai Airport shows the risks of offshore construction. Since 1994, its artificial island has sunk by more than eleven meters and suffered typhoon flooding, forcing costly upgrades to its foundation and storm protection.

Background

Offshore airports are not new, but they are increasingly relevant in densely populated coastal regions.
China is driving dozens of new airport projects and aims to operate more than 450 civilian airports by 2035 to serve an expected two billion passengers per year.

📊 All Details & Data: SCMP, UK Express, Interesting Engineering

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CATHY TAX

You know what is even scarier than taxes? Taxes in China.

That is why we let Cathy handle all our money business. 👇🏻

Here is why we love working with her:

She takes care of everything that keeps us awake at midnight: accounting, tax filing, bookkeeping, HR, payroll, visas and the mountain of paperwork that comes with doing business in China.

👀 And the best part: Cathy explains complex rules in perfect English and suddenly they make sense.

📅 Book a free consult with Cathy now! 

NUMBER OF THE DAY

This was the total value of estates in Japan in 2024 that had no legal heirs.

👛 Straight into the state’s pocket: The amount is nearly four times higher than in 2013. Behind this trend are more single people without close relatives. In addition, only a small share of Japanese citizens actually draw up a will.

👵 Aging, shrinking society: With 1.6 million deaths in 2024, Japan’s demographic imbalance is worsening markedly. Millions of homes stand empty as akiya because there are no heirs or no one willing to take on the burden.

Watch: The record sum is less a windfall for the state than a warning sign — Japan is sliding into an “heirless” phase of aging, in which wealth, real estate, and entire estates quietly flow into state hands with no social transfer.

MARKET BIT

🚢 $1 Trillion: China exports its way through the trade frontlines

💵 $1 Trillion Milestone: China’s trade surplus hit a record $1.08 trillion after just 11 months, surpassing the full-year total of 2024. November alone delivered a $112 billion surplus.

🇺🇸 U.S. drops out, rest of the world steps in: Shipments to the U.S. plunged 29%, while exports to Europe (+14.8%), Australia (+35.8%), Africa (+28%) and Southeast Asia (+8.2%) surged. China is clearly redirecting its export engine toward new markets.

🏗️ Trade replaces domestic demand: Net exports now account for nearly one-third of economic growth. The property crisis and weak consumption continue to drag on the economy. Imports rose only +1.9%, while exports jumped +5.9%.

⚙️ Machinery, chips & electronics fuel the boom: Growth is driven mainly by electronics and semiconductors. Chip shortages are pushing up prices, while Chinese firms increasingly import components globally—often from their own overseas factories.

🇪🇺 Europe next in line: After the U.S. tariff war, tensions are shifting toward the EU. President Macron openly threatens tariffs over overcapacity in EVs, steel and clean tech. Europe’s patience with China’s export wave is visibly wearing thin.

Background

China continues to offset weak domestic demand with an aggressive global export strategy to keep its annual GDP growth target of ~5% within reach.

Banks such as Morgan Stanley expect China’s share of global exports to rise to ~16.5% by 2030 (from ~15% today), driven mainly by EVs, batteries, robotics and heavy machinery. That very success, however, is also intensifying protectionist risks in China’s key destination markets.

👉🏻 Full Story: AP News, Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg

HEAD OF THE DAY

🇨🇳 Mark Mao 毛汉勇

Mark Mao spent fifteen years in the wearables industry, including roles at Huami, Dreame and ZTE. Now he has applied that expertise to a new field: pets.

With SATELLAI, he built a smart collar that reads behavior, flags problems early and provides data for insurance companies.

👉🏻 The result: In less than three months, the team generated several million dollars in revenue in North America and won its category on Amazon Prime Day.

You will read more about his unusual idea tomorrow in asiabits AI.

HIGHLIGHTS

✈️ Thailand launches airstrikes on Cambodia: After fresh clashes along the border, Bangkok deployed F-16 jets. At least one Thai soldier was killed and several were injured. Cambodia reports four civilian deaths. The peace agreement brokered by Donald Trump in October is already close to collapse. Both sides accuse each other of provocation. Thailand rules out negotiations and Cambodia denies all accusations. The conflict is escalating in the middle of Thailand’s election season and shaking regional stability.

🔋 LG Energy powers Mercedes’ electric fleet: The Korean battery giant has secured a new supply deal worth about 2 trillion won (1.4 billion USD) with Mercedes-Benz, delivering batteries for EVs in Europe and North America from 2028 to 2035, especially in the mid-price segment. The package equals roughly 8 percent of annual revenue and embeds LG Energy Solution even deeper in Mercedes’ mass-market lineup. The German automaker aims to reduce reliance on China and respond to stricter EU rules on battery CO₂ footprints.

🪙 Robinhood jumps into Indonesia: The US trading app is acquiring local brokerage Buana Capital Sekuritas and the licensed crypto dealer Pedagang Aset Kripto in order to secure an early foothold in Asia’s fastest-growing retail market. Over time, Indonesian retail investors will gain app-based access to US stocks, ETFs and crypto. With 19 million registered investors and millions of new accounts this year, Robinhood is carving out a substantial slice of Southeast Asia’s retail boom.

COUNTRY READS

🇨🇳 China is testing self-driving trucks in the world’s highest mine in Xinjiang at 5,600 meters. More.

🇰🇷 Tesla is rolling out “hands-free” driving in South Korea and launching its own robotaxi app. More.

🇯🇵 Japanese noodle chain Marugame Udon will close early on Christmas Eve so employees can spend time with their families. More.

BITS TO DO

✅ Eat Japanese udon noodles on Christmas Eve.*
✅ Fly to the best airports in the world.
✅ Try lamb cooked with ice in Inner Mongolia.
✅ Visit the best bar in the world (it’s in Asia 👀).
✅ Sleep peacefully while Cathy handles your paperwork in China.**

_{*Yes, it’s an affiliate link. No, you won’t pay more. But it helps support asiabits. Thanks ;)
** A message from our partner.}

FORTUNE COOKIE

Support the sweetest grandma in the world! 👇🏻

🏠 しんちゃんの店
🏠 Shin-chan’s Shop

🚃 近鉄 塩浜駅
🚃 Kintetsu Shiohama Station

📍 〒510-0863 三重県四日市市大字塩浜4101-1
📍 4101-1 Ooaza Shiohama, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie-ken 510-0863, Japan

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