TREE NEWS update: South Korea’s presidential office said on Tuesday it is still reviewing a proposal to send troops to the Strait of Hormuz and has made no decision yet. The office added that Seoul could make a contribution to the situation without undermining its current defense posture.
TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s Planning and Natural Resources Bureau issued the city’s 2026-2030 spatial implementation plan, targeting a significant upgrade of its ‘five centers’ core functions by 2030. The plan aims to strengthen global resource allocation, tech innovation, high-end industry leadership, open hub influence, and cultural soft power, advancing its vision as an innovative, ecological, and cultural international metropolis.
TREE NEWS update: Anhui province issued a 10-year general local bond of 722.89 million yuan at a yield of 1.7400%, with a marginal multiple of 4.29 times. The province also sold special bonds across 7-, 15-, and 20-year tenors, totaling about 116.16 billion yuan, with yields from 1.5600% to 2.2400%.
TREE NEWS reports: Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, said the Chinese auto industry is in deep transformation and intense competition in the first half of 2026. Despite rising revenue, automakers see slowing growth and a profit squeeze, with profits concentrating in upstream battery leaders while downstream dealers face severe survival crises.
TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the AI SME Entrepreneurship Support Plan (2026-2028), promoting open-source entrepreneurship. It supports the national AI open-source community AtomGit and encourages AI startups to contribute open-source models, tools, and datasets, fostering an open and collaborative ecosystem.
TREE NEWS update: Rodrigo Coelho, CEO of Edge & Node and founding member of Ampersend, discussed on the Unchained podcast how Ampersend aims to make it safe to entrust money to AI agents. The conversation focused on preventing errors from AI models when managing multiple agents, highlighting the company’s approach to secure AI-agent operations.
TREE NEWS reports: Nitya Subramanian, CEO of Para, discussed the wallet infrastructure enabling AI agents to hold, spend, and have spending limits on stablecoins in an Unchained Premium episode. He highlighted the complexity of setting permissions and the potential evolution of agentic commerce, where agents operate autonomously within defined constraints.
TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the AI SME Entrepreneurship Support Plan (2026-2028), aiming to enrich data resources for AI startups. It encourages industry leaders to build high-quality datasets and open them to startups, and fosters data service firms providing consulting, governance, and labeling to cut data costs.
TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the AI SME Entrepreneurship Support Plan (2026-2028), proposing to leverage the China Computing Power Platform to pool and flexibly allocate computing resources, offering efficient, low-cost support for startups. The plan also calls for building edge computing facilities and optimizing resource-matching services on the China SME Service Network and the platform.
TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the AI SME Entrepreneurship Support Plan (2026-2028), aiming to lower entry barriers and trial costs for AI startups. The plan emphasizes market-led, government-guided growth, fostering innovation and ecosystem support to nurture tech and innovative SMEs, including specialized and ‘little giant’ enterprises.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s ChiNext Index dropped more than 1% in morning trading, after earlier surging over 1.7%. The reversal reflects volatile market conditions amid ongoing economic uncertainty.
TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.3% at 65,020.94 points on [date]. The broader TOPIX index edged up 0.03% to 4,103.23. South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 1.64% to 6,687.21, reflecting broad gains in Asian equities.
TREE NEWS reports: Lithium carbonate futures plunged 6% intraday on the Chinese exchange, with the main contract trading at 144,100 yuan per ton. The sharp decline reflects ongoing market volatility in the battery materials sector.
TREE NEWS update: Ukraine’s Odesa military administration reported that Russian forces attacked the city in the early hours of December 4, killing one person and injuring at least three others. A residential building and cars were damaged in the attack. Emergency services are working at the scene.
TREE NEWS update: Argentine President Javier Milei said on the evening of the 3rd that he will impose sanctions on foreign companies extracting natural resources in the Malvinas Islands (Falkland Islands) and surrounding disputed waters. The move targets firms operating without Argentine authorization in the area, which is also claimed by Britain.
TREE NEWS update: The IMF attributed Bitcoin accumulated by El Salvador since June 2025 to private donations, addressing questions raised after the country reported a $100 million acquisition. The fund clarified that no public funds were used, responding to scrutiny over the government’s Bitcoin strategy.
TREE NEWS update: Apple’s foldable iPhone is currently producing only ‘hundreds of units’ per day in early stages, sources say, due to extremely stringent quality control standards. The initial yield is reportedly low as the company enforces strict quality checks, potentially delaying mass production.
TREE NEWS update: On September 2, a freight train carrying crude oil tank containers departed from Kuitun Station in Xinjiang to Jinling Town Station in Shandong, marking the completion of the country’s first trial shipment of such containers. This represents an important innovation in crude oil transport modes.
TREE NEWS reports: China’s three major A-share indices turned negative in the afternoon session, with semiconductor chips, computing hardware, precious metals and consumer electronics leading the decline. More than 2,300 stocks fell across Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing markets.
TREE NEWS update: At a media briefing on September 3, NIO founder and CEO Li Bin said the brand’s average transaction price reached 406,000 yuan this year, rising to 434,000 yuan in July, surpassing Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. He emphasized that NIO prioritizes ‘high-quality development’ and will not adopt a price-for-volume strategy, as brand factors now account for over 30% of purchase decisions.