Beijing freezes plant approvals for energy-storage batteries
Beijing has put a freeze on new approvals of production facilities for energy-storage batteries amid worries about excess supply and vicious price competition, reports the South China Morning Post.
Companies had not been allowed to add new capacity since May, as key regulators like the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) stepped in to curb a construction spree that risked creating severe overcapacity despite rising demand from renewable-energy projects around the world, inside sources told the Post. The temporary ban could be lifted if the supply-demand balance changed, they added.
An official with an advisory firm that serves some of the battery firms said the suspension was seen as “window guidance”, and new approvals would be granted if additional manufacturing capacity was needed. Window guidance is used by Chinese authorities to deliver verbal or written instructions to companies or local authorities on government policies. This form of guidance is not officially announced or published and can be adjusted swiftly.
Xi pushes for greater BRICS economic ties
Chinese Leader Xi Jinping unveiled on Sunday initiatives in areas ranging from AI to trade to deepen cooperation among the “Greater BRICS” emerging economies, reports Reuters. This comes as Beijing seeks to weld the grouping into a practical platform for Global South development.
Cooperation in areas from politics and security to economics and finance are the main focus areas of the grouping, with 2026 chair India and 2027 chair China seeking wider partnership to boost the organization’s global clout. The success of the “Greater BRICS Initiative” depends on laying a solid foundation for pragmatic cooperation, Xi told the leaders’ annual summit in New Delhi.
‘Greater BRICS’ nations should further co-operate, maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains and cultivate an integrated market, Xi told the summit’s closing session. China will take the lead in establishing a BRICS AI Open-Source Zone to promote cooperation on large language models, AI training and an open AI ecosystem, Xi added. He also proposed a BRICS Special Economic Zone partnership and said China would host a BRICS Service Trade Forum next year to boost trade and investment ties.
China orders SOEs to pay small suppliers in cash to avoid payment delays
China is ordering state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and government procurement projects to pay small suppliers in cash, reports Caixin. The policy is aimed at stepping up a campaign against chronic payment delays that have strained businesses.
The State Council on Thursday issued new rules aimed at tightening oversight of large companies’ payment practices and preventing them from using commercial bills and electronic receivables certificates to delay payments to small and midsize enterprises.
The measures come as unpaid corporate bills continue to mount despite earlier government efforts to clear arrears. Receivables at China’s large industrial companies reached RMB 28.9 trillion ($4.3 trillion) at the end of July, up 8.5% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The average collection period rose to 71.9 days, nearly one day longer than a year earlier.
China’s car exports for first eight months surpass 2025 total
China shipped about 7.2 million vehicles overseas in the first eight months of 2026, reports Caixin. The number surpasses its total auto exports for all of 2025.
The country’s auto export engine was in overdrive in August, shipping more than 1 million vehicles for a third straight month, according to data released Thursday by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The momentum is fueling expectations that full-year exports will hit 10 million cars.
Domestic auto sales fell 24.2% year-on-year to 1.7 million units in August, bringing the January-to-August total to 13.2 million units, a 21.8% decline from a year earlier.
Ant to let AI agents shop via digital wallets
Ant International, the overseas affiliate of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, is making a major bid to power the next phase of mobile payments: letting autonomous AI agents handle your electronic wallet to make purchases, reports the South China Morning Post.
The company on Friday open-sourced its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) on GitHub, effectively putting it forward as a potential global technical standard for how AI agents securely pay for real-world goods. AMP was built onto Ant International’s existing Alipay+ cross-border network, which connects to 10 major Asian digital wallets serving 1.5 billion consumer accounts for an initial phase, according to the company.
The protocol’s release would “enable agents to enter existing mobile payment systems as trusted actors”, allowing platforms like Alipay in mainland China, AlipayHK in Hong Kong, Starryblu in Singapore, and KakaoPay or Toss in South Korea to accelerate their AI strategies, said Yang Jiang-ming, Ant International’s chief innovation officer.
Too much of a good thing
The Chinese government has issued an unofficial “window guidance” policy effectively freezing the approval of new energy-storage battery factories, according to inside sources cited by the South China Morning Post. The move—which has been in place since May—comes in response to concerns over vicious price competition and overcapacity, the industry insiders are reported as saying.
This comes in stark contrast to public statements China’s Ministry of Commerce rebutting a recent G20 communique addressing global concerns surrounding “economic imbalances” and excess capacity. The spokesperson, Huang Ling, said that China’s growth in exports reflects global demand and that periodical fluctuations in demand are normal. In July of this year, China’s Vice Commerce Minister, Yan Dong, went further and presented a paper titled “China’s position on the so-called overcapacity issue”, firmly denying the viewpoint that insufficient domestic demand was causing China to dump products overseas.
Despite the strong rebuttals, it is well known that China’s domestic economy is not in good shape, and the trade surplus has been consistently increasing over the past few years. This “window guidance”—a term used to describe guidance or policies delivered from the government to industry without any official announcement or publication—strongly suggests that there is a concern from policymakers regarding overcapacity, and that they are seeking to put a cap on it, at least in terms of energy-storage batteries.