Homie Weekly | News Update for This Week (Nov 1, 2024)

Society

1、9 million watch video in shock as burned China mum screams in pain while protecting toddler

Millions online have been moved by a mother in China who was seriously injured in a gas explosion but managed to save her toddler son from danger.

Huang Jiamei, a 38-year-old housewife from eastern China’s Zhejiang province, was cooking in the kitchen of her home when leaking gas exploded on October 14.

Footage from a home surveillance camera posted by her husband Xu Xiaohui shows Huang running out of the kitchen screaming in pain, but the first thing she did was retrieve her son.

The video attracted more than 9 million views on social media. The family had also received more than a million yuan (US$140,000) in donations from kind-hearted strangers.

Some also advised people to use gas pipes made with stronger material such as steel, and gas valves with sensors that detect leaks.

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3283369/9-million-watch-video-shock-burned-china-mum-screams-pain-while-protecting-toddler

2、China iPhone users urged to turn off FaceTime app to stop scammers

Police in at least two Chinese cities have called for residents to turn off the FaceTime app on their iPhones to block scams.

The police said scammers usually impersonated authorities on FaceTime, claiming that the victim’s accounts could be frozen, leading them to panic, and prompting them to click on fake links.

The police also warned about a FaceTime option that enables screen sharing, allowing the person on the other end of the call to see everything on the victim’s screen, including messages, bank accounts and passwords.

China has stepped up its battle against telecoms fraud in recent years. In 2023, police shut down scam operations behind 437,000 cases of telecoms fraud, down from 464,000 in 2022. The police said the decline was due to fewer overall fraud cases reported since August 2023.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3284455/china-iphone-users-urged-turn-facetime-app-stop-scammers

3、Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance jumps to top of China's rich list

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is China's richest person, with personal wealth of $49.3 billion, an annual rich list showed on Tuesday, although counterparts in real estate and renewables have fared less well.

Zhang, 41, who stepped down as chief executive of ByteDance in 2021, becomes the 18th individual to be crowned China's richest person in the 26 years since the Hurun China Rich List was first published.

He overtook bottled water magnate Zhong Shanshan, who slipped to second place as his fortune dropped 24% to $47.9 billion.

Despite a legal battle over its U.S. assets, ByteDance's global revenue grew 30% last year to $110 billion, Hurun said, helping to propel Zhang's personal fortune.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/founder-tiktok-owner-bytedance-jumps-top-chinas-rich-list-2024-10-29/

Business

4、China-EU trade war erupts as Beijing files WTO complaint over EV tariff hikes

A trade war between China and the European Union is set to intensify, with Beijing lodging a complaint with the World Trade Organization in response to an EU decision to raise tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday that it “does not agree with or accept” the EU’s decision to proceed with extra duties on the EVs after the conclusion of an anti-subsidy probe that began last year.

A final ruling published by the European Commission on Tuesday stated that a top rate of 35.3 per cent would apply to EVs from Chinese state-owned company SAIC Motor and its subsidiaries, in addition to a baseline 10 per cent duty that applies to all EV imports.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3284417/china-eu-trade-war-erupts-beijing-files-wto-complaint-over-ev-tariff-hikes

5、BYD beats Tesla in quarterly sales for the first time as demand soars for hybrid EVs

BYD overtook Tesla for the first time in quarterly sales, as customers worldwide snapped up automobiles that are driven by hybrid petroleum-electric power trains to assuage lingering concerns about battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs).

Sales at the Shenzhen-based carmaker, the world’s largest assembler of hybrids and pure EVs, jumped 24 per cent to 201.12 billion yuan (US$28.2 billion) in the three months that ended on September 30, more than Tesla’s US$25.18 billion in third-quarter revenue, according to the two companies’ results.

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-evs/article/3284573/byd-beats-tesla-quarterly-sales-first-time-demand-soars-hybrid-evs

6、JD latest to accept payment through Alipay

D, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, has become the latest online shopping site to accept a third-party payment provider, allowing customers to make online purchases using Alipay.

This is another important step to remove payment barriers across online enterprises, following the integration of Tencent's WeChat Pay with Taobao and Tmall in late September.

Previously, shoppers could only pay for purchases on JD's online marketplace using Tencent's WeChat Pay, JD Pay, or UnionPay.

In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology urged digital service providers to remove obstacles that had long divided the ecosystems of the country's largest technological enterprises.

https://www.shine.cn/biz/tech/2410305142/

Technology

7、Xiaomi launches faster version of flagship EV in challenge to Tesla

Xiaomi unveiled a luxury version of its SU7 electric sports car on Tuesday, saying the $114,000 model would rank as the fastest four-door car in production in a direct challenge to the likes of Tesla and Porsche.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, who has a near-celebrity following in China, used the last section of a live-streamed product update that ran over three hours to show off the SU7 Ultra.

He also announced pricing that put the new EV on a par with the Tesla Model S Plaid and signaled an intent to compete on performance rather than cost with more established car makers.

Xiaomi said the production version of the SU7 Ultra would feature carbon-fiber components, including its roof, performance ceramic brakes and an aerodynamic styling.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-10-30/Xiaomi-launches-faster-version-of-flagship-EV-in-challenge-to-Tesla-1y7keEZH9bW/p.html

Entertainment

8、Singer Tengger catches ’em all with Pokémon theme cover

On 25 October, meme-tastic master singer Tengger, collaborated with Nintendo’s official Pokémon account to release a Mandarin cover version of the original Japanese theme from the anime’s first season based on the 1997 game series, “Mezase Pokémon Master” (also known as “Aim to be a Pokémon master).

The unlikely but very fitting collaboration was to celebrate the belated official release of the 2018 Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! video games in Mainland China.

Nintendo has been frequently launching localised campaigns for its Pokémon IP, from the heart-warming Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn promotional videos to the meme-tic collaboration with Tengger. Tengger has been a meme icon, especially in the ACGN (anime, comics, games and light novels) world since as early as 2021.

https://daoinsights.com/news/singer-tengger-catches-em-all-with-pokemon-theme-cover/

Sport

9、Chinese table tennis great Ma Long wins ANOC Outstanding Sporting Career Award

Chinese table tennis icon Ma Long received the Outstanding Sporting Career Award from the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Cascais, Portugal on Wednesday, recognizing his exceptional achievements and contributions to the sport.

Ma, 36, has competed in four consecutive Olympic Games since London 2012. Over his Olympic career, he has won six gold medals, becoming China's most decorated Olympian.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, he clinched his first singles gold, completing a career Grand Slam. Five years later in Tokyo, he defended his title, becoming the first male table tennis player to claim back-to-back Olympic singles titles and achieving the status of the first "double Grand Slam" champion in the sport.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202410/31/WS672340fda310f1265a1cab57.html

Space

10、China launches 3 astronauts to Tiangong space station on Shenzhou 19 mission

China's next human spaceflight mission is on its way into orbit.

A Long March 2F rocket topped with the Shenzhou 19 crew spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center today (Oct. 19) at 4:27 p.m. EDT (2027 GMT; 4:27 a.m. Oct. 30 Beijing time), rising into a night sky above the spaceport.

Aboard are commander Cai Xuzhe, 48, who was a member of the Shenzhou 14 mission, and rookie astronauts Song Lingdong, 34, a former air force pilot, and Wang Haoze, also 34, a spaceflight engineer.

Shenzhou 19 is scheduled to rendezvous and dock at the Tiangong space station around 6.5 hours after launch. The astronaut trio are set to spend six months in orbit aboard Tiangong, conducting a range of experiments and embarking on a number of extravehicular activities, or spacewalks.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/china-launches-3-astronauts-to-tiangong-space-station-on-shenzhou-19-mission