Flash News

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance on Oct. 30 published draft standards for the first batch of government procurement of domestic products and opened them for public comment. The five products covered are portable Fourier-transform infrared gas analyzers, reverse-osmosis water treatment equipment, field-emission scanning electron microscopes, fixed multi-joint industrial robots and small and medium-sized helicopters.

TREE NEWS update: Traffic Control Technology chairman Gao Chunhai has been placed under detention by a supervisory commission for personal reasons and has resigned as chairman, director and head of the board’s strategy committee, the company said. He remains chief scientist. His resignation automatically ends his status as legal representative, and vice chairman Deng Aiqun has been designated to perform the duties of chairman, legal representative and strategy committee head.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration issued guidance on preferential tax policies for corporate mergers and restructurings. Stamp duty already paid before a restructuring will not be levied again on taxable contracts signed before the restructuring but not yet performed, if the successor entity assumes the original rights and obligations without changing the tax base. Property transfer documents for corporate restructuring, mergers, splits, bankruptcy liquidation and public institution restructuring are exempt from stamp duty.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan has recorded about 260 million personal information leaks since the start of the fiscal year in April 2026, roughly twice the country’s population, according to data published by the Personal Information Protection Commission. The figure covers the period through the current fiscal year ending March 2027.

TREE NEWS reports: The hacker behind the Binance breach swapped $325 million to evade asset freezes, Chainalysis said in a findings report that put frozen assets at about $2.8 billion. The firm described transaction patterns suggesting automated laundering. The report did not specify the time frame of the swaps or the assets involved.

TREE NEWS update: Binance said a compromised engineer’s laptop may be to blame for hot-wallet losses it now pegs at $6.3 billion, and the exchange expects withdrawals back within 48 hours while vowing to cover the shortfall. TRM pointed to North Korea in its assessment, and ZachXBT said the loot crossed paths with Bitget exploit funds at one address.

TREE NEWS update: European Central Bank Governing Council member and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said the ECB will act decisively if necessary to bring inflation back to target, as consumer price growth has picked up again, driven mainly by higher energy costs. He said medium-term inflation expectations must stay firmly anchored at 2%, and officials are prepared to raise rates again if the December inflation outlook does not improve.

TREE NEWS update: Binance CEO Richard Teng said the $6.3 billion hack involved “additional points of breach” and was “not a single ‘one-click’ action,” as the exchange confirmed about $3 billion has been frozen. The disclosure adds detail to the scale of the attack and the recovery effort. Binance did not specify which additional systems or processes were compromised.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a guidance opinion on strengthening consumer infrastructure construction and promoting positive interaction between consumer investment. The opinion calls for expanding investment channels, using central and local funds to support eligible consumer infrastructure projects, leveraging new policy-based financial tools and real estate investment trusts, and guiding financial institutions to provide credit support on market-based and law-based principles.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments issued a guidance opinion on strengthening consumer infrastructure construction and promoting positive interaction between consumption and investment. The plan calls for upgrading agricultural product markets, renovating industrial consumer goods markets for daily necessities, food, clothing, appliances and autos, and advancing smart digital applications such as electronic settlement, smart weighing, contactless payment and traceability management in urban and rural commodity trading markets.

TREE NEWS update: China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing chaired an expanded Party committee meeting on Oct. 30, calling for deep reflection on the cases of Yi Huiman, Wang Huimin, Wang Jianjun and Fang Xinghai. The meeting urged strict oversight of senior officials and the leadership team, adherence to the Central Eight-Point Regulation and democratic centralism, and supervision talks with lower-level chiefs. It also pledged to stabilize markets and expectations and deepen comprehensive investment and financing reform.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China will begin holding overnight reverse repo tenders every working day from Nov. 2, 2026, at a fixed rate of 1.25%, the central bank announced. The seven-day reverse repo will shift to fixed-quantity, rate-based bidding with multiple price awards, mainly around tax periods and month-end. Other tools priced off the seven-day rate will instead be priced off the overnight rate, with the same spreads.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China and the South African Reserve Bank renewed their bilateral local-currency swap agreement, with the State Council’s approval, at a scale of 30 billion yuan/74 billion South African rand, valid for five years. The renewal extends a standing arrangement between the two central banks that allows them to exchange each other’s currencies.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation approved and released four national standards covering oral care products, including classification and terminology, toothpaste, and an HPLC-MS/MS method for detecting phenylbutazone. The standards address basic terminology, product quality and banned-substance testing, further improving the country’s oral care product standards system.

TREE NEWS update: The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) released the Global Intellectual Property Protection Index Report (2025), covering 25 major economies that together account for over 80% of global GDP. The index system added frontier indicators including ‘AI-related patent applications’ and ‘capacity to build IP as an economic asset,’ focusing on technological innovation capacity and IP’s economic contribution.

TREE NEWS update: The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said at a press conference on Oct. 30 that its trade friction index for the electronics sector has stayed at a high level for 68 consecutive months. The council released the latest edition of the index at the briefing. It did not give the index’s reading or specify the causes behind the sustained high level.

TREE NEWS update: Binance withdrawals remain paused while deposits operate normally, following a breach that the exchange says was not a “one-click” attack. About $3 billion in affected assets has been frozen onchain. The exchange has not disclosed further details on the incident or a timeline for resuming withdrawals.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and National Energy Administration jointly issued an action plan for building a product carbon footprint standards system covering 2026-2028. The plan sets out more than 100 national product carbon footprint standards across five key areas, the five departments said.

TREE NEWS update: The Tibet Financial Regulatory Bureau on Tuesday issued a notice requiring banks and insurers to support recovery and reconstruction in Baqing County, Nagqu, after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. The notice instructs institutions to maintain continuous basic financial services in the disaster zone, provide targeted assistance to affected households and businesses, and coordinate rebuilding with rural and pastoral housing safety.

TREE NEWS update: China’s 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee will hold its 25th session in Beijing from Nov. 2 to 6, the Council of Chairpersons decided. The agenda includes draft laws on financial affairs, state-owned assets, anti-cross-border corruption, tax collection and administration, plus a criminal procedure law amendment and a revised renewable energy law. The session will also review amendments to 15 laws including the emergency response law.