☕️ Good morning, friends,

Early risers in Chengdu, the home of the pandas, had to blink twice this morning.

A middle-aged white man in shorts jogged past them, surrounded by five bodyguards. On second look, it turned out to be the French President Emmanuel Macron. 🥐

So if you see someone jogging today, maybe look twice. Could be a head of state. Enjoy your weekend!

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Highlights: Japan’s Nikkei jumped nearly 2%, driven by industrial, tech and robotics stocks such as Fanuc $FANUY ( ▲ 11.74% ), SoftBank $SFTBY ( ▲ 6.19% ) and Lasertec. Fanuc surged into double-digit gains after announcing a strategic partnership with Nvidia on AI-powered industrial automation.

TOP BIT

🐼 Macron’s Mission: Markets, Mediation and Mutual Interests

Emmanuel Macron is spending three days in China, officially as a state guest and unofficially as France’s chief dealmaker.

His goals: shrink the trade deficit, secure better access for French companies and push Xi to take more responsibility on trade and Ukraine.

Details

🔴 A deep red trade balance: France’s deficit with China reached around 20 billion euros in 2024. Paris is pushing for wider market access for agricultural products such as wine, pork and poultry, and wants to prevent new tariffs on French goods.

📈 Beijing’s charm offensive: Xi promises more imports from France and calls for a fair environment for Chinese companies in Europe. Both sides agree to expand Chinese foreign direct investment in France.

🔌 From nuclear power to algorithms: The two countries signed agreements on energy, nuclear technology, education, environmental cooperation and the digital economy. Beijing highlights aviation, biopharma and artificial intelligence as key fields for deeper collaboration.

🌍 Ukraine as a stress test: Macron urges China to use its influence over Russia to move toward a ceasefire. Xi signals willingness to talk but maintains China’s formal neutrality.

🐼 Pandas, ping pong and power play: In Chengdu, Macron meets students, sports stars and engages in panda diplomacy. For Beijing, the cultural setting is a perfect backdrop to show warmth toward France while at the same time leveraging divisions within the EU.

Background

Macron has long promoted “strategic autonomy” and maintains closer channels to Beijing than many EU partners. At the same time, tensions are rising over Chinese exports, fast-fashion platforms and EU tariffs on electric vehicles.
For Xi, France is a politically convenient partner in Europe, while Germany pushes harder for de-risking and stricter trade instruments.

📊All Details & Data: France24, CNBC 

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NUMBER OF THE DAY

This is how many hours South Koreans work on average per year – around 140 hours more than the OECD average.

💼 State-backed 4.5-day workweek: Companies with up to 50 employees receive up to USD 410 per worker per quarter plus USD 545 for each new hire. Firms with 50–300 employees can receive subsidies for up to 100 workers, if they reduce working hours.

⏰ Work culture under pressure: Despite the 52-hour weekly cap, Korea still ranks among the longest-working countries in the industrialized world. 78% of employees want shorter hours, while employers warn of productivity losses.

Watch: This is a real economic stress test. If Korea manages to cut working hours without sacrificing prosperity, a four-day week becomes realistic. If it fails, the model risks becoming an expensive prestige project.

MARKET BIT

🎯 Nvidia who? China’s Moore Threads celebrates a mega stock market debut

Details

🧨 Rocket start: Moore Threads jumped in Shanghai from 114.28 CNY (16 USD) per share to as high as 650 CNY (92 USD): a gain of around 470 percent on the first trading day.

💸 Money rain in Silicon Dragon style: The IPO raised 8 billion CNY (1.13 billion USD). The retail tranche was oversubscribed more than 2,700 times. Some bid amounts even exceeded Nvidia’s market capitalization.

🎮 GPU made at home: Moore Threads builds GPUs for AI data centers and gaming applications. The company benefits from Nvidia’s limited presence and the political desire to build a fully local chip supply chain.

📊 Valuation beyond gravity: The price to sales ratio is around 123. This puts the stock clearly above the average of other GPU manufacturers. The company is still loss making but expects revenue to jump to 1.2 to 1.5 billion CNY next year.

Background

Moore Threads was founded in 2020 by Zhang Jianzhong, the former China head of Nvidia. The company is a central player in China’s goal to build a domestic GPU industry that is less dependent on US technologies.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange has relaxed listing requirements for unprofitable tech companies to promote exactly such firms.

👉🏻 Full Story: Yahoo Finance, ETNOW, SCMP 

STARTUP OF THE WEEK

🇨🇳 方里 Funny Elves

💄 Founder Yang Ju spent years thinking about one question:
Why is there no truly good foundation for Asian skin?

She founded Fangli in 2017, launched the first product in 2020 and immediately hit a nerve.

Fangli combines three things that rarely come together in China:

• Deep product development instead of simple OEM work and a packaging update

• A clear niche: sensitive Asian skin

• Highly targeted marketing: little aggressive advertising, lots of user content and the founder as a visible personal brand

👉🏻 Lesson learned: Even a niche can become a multimillion-dollar business (2024 GMV: 228 million USD).

HIGHLIGHTS

💎 Singapore’s ultra wealthy are keeping a low profile: Chinese high net worth individuals have become far more discreet as authorities in both China and Singapore tighten scrutiny. Golf clubs now verify sources of wealth more carefully, luxury car sales are dropping and even private jets are losing their appeal. Money is shifting from Bentleys and Rolexes to art, wine and private membership clubs. Family offices continue to grow and Singapore remains a safe harbour for Chinese capital.

🖨️ End of an era for Canon: The company has shut down its large printer factory in Zhongshan as the market contracts and Chinese brands take the lead. Production stopped at the end of November and the remaining staff are now focused on winding down operations, severance and outstanding payments. Many of the engineers are already moving to local manufacturers that are benefiting from strong domestic demand.

🛰️ Install first, ask later: India’s government attempted to push a mandatory cybersecurity app onto every smartphone via forced update. It could not be deleted. The backlash came within hours: activists warned of surveillance, the opposition called it a “spy tool” and even major tech companies pushed back. By Wednesday, New Delhi withdrew the requirement.

COUNTRY READS

🇰🇷 South Korea’s president plans to apologise to North Korea for provocative drone flights carried out under his predecessor. More here.

🇮🇳 India’s airports have descended into chaos after IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, cancelled more than 1,200 flights. More here.

🇨🇳 Chinese physicists have produced evidence contradicting Einstein and resolved a century old scientific debate. More here.

BITS TO DO

✅ Run in the park with these Chinese jogging shoes.*
✅ Watch Macron’s IG Story from his reception in Beijing.
✅ Read our secret tips for the best cafés in Shanghai on Sunday.
✅ Travel to the penguin parade in Hokkaido.
✅ Get jealous of Costco shoppers in Asia. You will not find anything like it anywhere else in the world.

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

BEHIND THE BITS

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👉🏻 There is definitely a “what I learned from this” lesson in there for a viral LinkedIn post. If you have any ideas, send them our way over the weekend at [email protected].

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