ASEAN becomes hotspot for Chinese tourists in Q1

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programChinese travel to ASEAN soars 40% in Q1, fueled by tourism and business demand;Nvidia CEO Jenson Huang arrived in Beijing.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours Outbound travel from the Chinese mainland to ASEAN destinations surged in the first quarter of 2025, driven by both steady growth in leisure tourism and booming business activity, according to a report by Chinese travel agency Tongcheng Travel.Data from the platform showed that ticket bookings from major mainland cities to key cities in ASEAN countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, rose about 40 percent year-on-year in Q1 2025.Flight bookings from major Chinese mainland cities to destinations such as Penang, Malaysia, rose 130 percent year-on-year. Bookings to popular cities in Vietnam increased nearly 60 percent, while those to Cambodia jumped close to 90 percent, according to the platform.Tongcheng attributed part of the growth to favorable visa policies. Countries like Thailand and Malaysia, which offer visa-free access to Chinese travelers, have maintained strong growth momentum since 2024.From a demand perspective, while leisure travel continued to grow steadily, business travel between Chinese mainland cities and major destinations in Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia saw rapid growth, according to the report.In the first quarter, ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner, with total trade reaching 1.71 trillion yuan, a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase and accounting for 16.6 percent of China's overall foreign trade, said Lü Daliang, a spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs, on Monday.Canton Fair Global ShareChinese home appliance manufacturers have focused more on innovation to attract international buyers through competitive differentiation at the first of this year's bi-annual Canton Fair. The number of AI-powered home appliances, including air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines, has significantly increased at the event this year. For example, Haier Group displayed its smart refrigerator that can recommend recipes using DeepSeek-R1. GBA expressSwire Properties has not slowed down its investment pace in the Chinese mainland, as it is looking for new opportunities in Shenzhen, according to the Hong Kong-based builder's chief executive officer. "We hope to find new opportunities in Shenzhen, as it is a suitable city for the development of Swire Properties," Tim Blackburn said at the 10th-anniversary ceremony of mixed-use development Taikoo Li Chengdu.Hong Kong's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2023 amounted to approximately 34.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e), representing about 20 percent decrease compared to the 2005 levels and about 25 percent decrease from the peak emissions in 2014, official data showed on Thursday.Industry and company newsNvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrived in Beijing today on an invitation by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade(CCPIT), CCTV News reported. Huang arrives at a time when the US has put new restrictions on China-bound shipments of H20 GPUs, the only compliant AI chip Nvidia can sell legally to China. During his meeting with Chairman of the CCPIT, Huang said the US chip company will “spare no effort” to optimize its product portfolio in compliance with regulatory requirements and remain “unswervingly committed” to serving the Chinese market.Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng was featured in the Pioneers category of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2025. "The buzz around DeepSeek’s low-cost AI helped add billions to the value of tech stocks," Time said.Tencent today unveiled its largest-ever employment plan, adding 28,000 internship roles and expanding graduate hiring over the next three years. This year alone, the Chinese tech giant will offer 10,000 campus internship positions, 60 percent of which will be geared toward tech talents.Douyin said it will launch a special support program for foreign sellers of premium goods, including lowering commission fees and offering interest-free loans to ease cash flow pressures to help them expand into the Chinese market. Merchants will be able to register and list products on a new dedicated section on its recruitment site, with the entry thresholds for qualified small and medium-sized sellers further lowered with a "free entry" policy, it added.China's railway passenger trips exceeded 1 billion last quarter, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, China Railway Group announced today. Railway freight volume rose 1 percent to 1.25 billion tons in the period.Shanghai will provide policy support for private firms to invest in AI and new infrastructure and promote commercial banks to offer preferential interest rate loans for their key projects, such as trusted data space, embodied intelligence, and the low-altitude economy, Chen Yanfeng, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Development & Reform Commission, said at a press briefing today.The global merchandise trade volume is likely to decline 0.2 percent this year under the current tariff conditions, nearly 3 percentage points lower than the previous prediction based on a “low tariff” baseline scenario, according to the WTO's latest Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report.Asia-Pacific highlightsChina and Malaysia jointly announced on Thursday that the two sides have agreed to build a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future to accelerate their modernization efforts and jointly promote regional and global prosperity and stability. China and Malaysia vowed to strengthen strategic coordination, deepen synergy of development, tighten people-to-people bonds, maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, strengthen regional cooperation, and conduct multilateral cooperation. Focusing on four key areas of digital economy, green economy, blue economy and tourism economy, the two sides pledged to expand future economic cooperation. The two governments has signed an official agreement of mutual visa-free arrangement for their citizens, Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday. Ascott told media yesterday that it remains bullish on China's long-term prospects, with over 130 projects in operation and nearly 100 to open within five years. The Singaporean real estate and lodging firm plans to launch a new business model in the second half of this year to speed up its expansion in China.