Flash News

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Council announced a series of personnel appointments, naming Li Chenggang as the country’s International Trade Representative at full ministerial level, with Ling Ji serving concurrently as Deputy International Trade Representative. The same round appointed Cai Dong as a deputy head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration and Zhang Yongjun as a deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on September 20 that the city will further expand its dim sum bond market and develop RMB-denominated gold and commodities markets, to help raise China’s international pricing power in those areas. Hong Kong’s offshore RMB loans hit a record RMB935 billion last year, and the RMB business facility quota has been expanded to RMB500 billion.

TREE NEWS update: BitMEX will formally close on Sept 23, 2026, and has stopped accepting new user registrations, parent HDR Global Trading Limited said after a strategic review. The Moscow Exchange will list BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and TRX index perpetual futures on Sept 22, cash-settled and ruble-denominated for qualified investors. Phantom ends Sui support Sept 24, and oracle project Switchboard halts operations Sept 25.

TREE NEWS update: Japan’s National Police Agency and the FBI jointly disclosed that North Korean hacking group WaterPlum, also known as “Contagious Interview,” has posed as recruiters and crypto firms to trick developers into running malicious code. Between December 2025 and July 2026, the group infected at least 30,000 devices across more than 100 countries and stole funds or credentials from over 7,000 crypto wallets, involving at least $10.71 million in crypto assets.

TREE NEWS update: Istanbul prosecutors said a transnational investment fraud network allegedly run by an Israeli citizen and operating in Turkey has been dismantled, with losses exceeding $3 billion. Turkish police arrested 191 of 239 suspects in a joint operation involving the Interior Ministry, intelligence agency MIT, Interpol and financial crimes watchdog MASAK. The network posed as service, consulting and travel firms and lured investors into forex and crypto trading with promises of high returns.

TREE NEWS update: A senior aide to the UK’s Reform Party, Arron Banks, said the party would set up a crypto industry union to circumvent a potential ban on foreign donations if the Labour government introduces one. Labour has promised new residency requirements to retroactively void £72 million in crypto billionaire donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne received last week. Banks said the party plans to establish the “Allied Computer & Crypto Workers Union (ACCAW),” representing IT, AI and crypto workers, which could legally receive funds if certified in the UK.

TREE NEWS update: Paraguayan authorities dismantled two illegal Bitcoin mining farms in Alto Paraná, seizing 35 mining machines. On Sept. 17, power utility ANDE found an illegally connected farm in Minga Guazú, confiscated 10 ASIC miners and fined the operator about 1.76 billion guaraníes (roughly $30,000). Earlier, on Sept. 12, police seized 25 mining devices in Remansito, Ciudad del Este, after noise complaints. The Chamber of Deputies has ordered ANDE to report on crypto mining power use within 15 working days.

TREE NEWS update: The Beijing Municipal People’s Government issued the “Beijing 15th Five-Year Plan for Optimizing the Business Environment,” which calls for orderly circulation and efficient allocation of data elements. The plan covers improved government data sharing, public data opening, authorized operations and data asset management, plus a multi-source computing power supply system and vouchers for computing and AI models to lower costs for SMEs. It also upgrades the negative list for cross-border data flows, targeting healthcare, AI, smart connected vehicles and tech finance.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will research and draft compliance evaluation guidelines for online trading platforms, Zhu Jianqiao, director of the administration’s online transaction supervision department, said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The regulator will also accelerate construction and use of the national online market supervision platform and push for cross-level, cross-department interconnection of regulatory data to support platforms’ qualification verification duties.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Medical Products Administration will encourage foreign companies to bring original research drugs and high-end medical equipment into domestic production, deputy director Yang Sheng said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The agency will back smart and green factories, support pharmaceutical clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing regions, and aims to cultivate three to five globally competitive biopharma innovation hubs.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Medical Products Administration will establish market exclusivity periods for pediatric drugs and rare disease treatments, deputy director Yang Sheng said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The regulator will also implement a drug trial data protection system, strengthen early-stage guidance for novel-target drugs, and issue clinical trial and review guidelines for frontier fields including brain-computer interfaces.

TREE NEWS reports: Polymarket mishandled stolen debit card fraud during its rapid US expansion, with at least $10 million in fraudulent deposits flagged, the Wall Street Journal reported on September 20. The firm processing debit card transactions for Polymarket’s US platform found fraudsters linking stolen cards to accounts to place bets and withdraw to controlled accounts. At the peak, more than 80% of deposits were flagged as fraudulent, far above the industry norm of about 1%.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will expand testing and certification services into key industries including BeiDou navigation and integrated circuits during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, vice minister Shu Wei said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The plan calls for building at least 30 national quality inspection centers and 300 public testing service platforms, with a focus on core components and advanced industrial equipment.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Medical Products Administration will step up early-stage guidance for innovative drugs targeting new targets and mechanisms, deputy director Yang Sheng said at a State Council Information Office briefing on May 20. The regulator will implement a drug trial data protection system and create market exclusivity periods for pediatric drugs and rare-disease treatments, while extending its medical-device innovation program to frontier fields such as brain-computer interfaces.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said on September 20 it will keep pushing standards upgrades for ten traditional industries and advance standards-setting for emerging and future industries. Zhu Jianqiao, head of the administration’s online transaction supervision department, said at a State Council Information Office briefing that at least 20,000 national standards and at least 1,000 mandatory national standards will be drafted or revised. The plan also includes at least 200 overseas pilot applications of Chinese standards.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will deepen enforcement of the newly revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Vice Minister Shu Wei said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The regulator will run regular special enforcement campaigns targeting false advertising, mutual smearing, commercial defamation and commercial bribery, and will handle a batch of typical cases. It will also strengthen trade secret protection, exploring local regulations and management rules.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will accelerate revision of the Price Law during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, spokesperson and deputy head Shu Wei said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The agency will draft rules against below-cost dumping, issue cost-calculation standards with industry associations, and build a “1+1+N” legal framework, opening cost investigations and price inspections into companies engaging in malicious low-price competition. It will also push price-behavior rules for internet platforms.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Medical Products Administration will issue an opinion on improving the drug safety responsibility system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, deputy director Yang Sheng said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 20. The plan includes revising the medical device management law and traditional Chinese medicine variety protection regulation, fully implementing the drug administration law’s implementing rules, compiling the 2030 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and advancing standards for frontier fields including brain-computer interfaces.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it will prioritize cracking down on prominent violations of consumer rights during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, announced at a State Council Information Office briefing. The regulator will tighten oversight of online sales and livestream shopping, expand online dispute resolution to cover major e-commerce platforms, and strengthen credit systems in the consumer sector.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it will optimize market-entry administration and deepen reform of the registered-capital subscription system, according to a State Council Information Office briefing on the 15th Five-Year Plan. The measures aim to lower institutional transaction costs and make it easier for companies and entrepreneurs to enter the market. The regulator also said it will use a combined policy approach to address ‘involutionary’ competition.