China’s factory activity contracts for 8th month in November despite trade war truce

China's factory activity contracted for the eighth consecutive month in November, according to an official survey by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose slightly to 49.2 in November from 49.0 in October, but remained below the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction.

The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index fell to 49.5, down 0.6 points from October, while the composite PMI output index eased to 49.7, indicating a slight pullback in both manufacturing and services activities.

The results were driven by seasonal factors and the fading effect of a boost in consumption during a week-long public holiday in October.

A US tariff cut earlier this month likely would mean that Chinese exports could gain competitiveness in the US market, but it may be too early to say whether exports have regained momentum following the trade truce.

The data highlights the dilemma facing policymakers over whether to press ahead with tough structural reforms or roll out more stimulus to lift domestic demand.

Reference Sources

1. aawsat - China's Factory Activity Shrinks Again in November, Services Cool
2. nikkei - China's factory activity shrinks again in November, services cool
3. ft - China services activity hits three-year low while factory slump persists
4. cnbc - China factory activity edges up in November but remains in contraction for eighth month as fading holiday demand drags services
5. apnews - China’s factory activity contracts for 8th month in November despite trade war truce

More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI

A growing number of American AI companies are turning to free, Customizable and increasingly powerful "open" AI models that are gaining ground on their US competitors.

However, most of these models are being made in China, and these systems are quickly gaining ground on their US competitors. Over the past year, a growing share of America's hottest AI startups have turned to open Chinese AI models that increasingly rival, and sometimes replace, expensive US systems as the foundation for American AI products.

While models from American companies continue to set the pace of progress at the frontier of AI capabilities, many Chinese systems are cheaper to access, more customizable, and have become sufficiently capable for many uses over the past year.

The growing embrace of free Chinese models by American companies raises questions about how exceptional those models actually are and whether America's pursuit of closed models might be misguided altogether. Running Chinese models on Exa's own hardware has proved to be significantly faster and less expensive than using bigger models, like OpenAI's GPT-5 or Google's GEMINI, in many cases.

Chinese models, like DeepSeek's R1 and Alibaba's Qwen, are free to use and considered "Open-Source" or "Open-Weight" because anyone can download, copy, modify, and operate them.

Reference Sources

1. nbc - More of Silicon Valley is building on free Chinese AI

South Korean e-commerce company Coupang apologizes over massive data breach

South Korean E-Commerce giant Coupang has apologized for a data breach that exposed personal information from its 33.7 million customer accounts via unauthorized data access.

The company, dubbed the Amazon of South Korea, is the country's top online retailer, with its services ubiquitous for many Koreans, using its "rocket" fast deliveries.

The exposed data is limited to names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order histories, but does not include payment details or Login credentials.

The incident is the latest in a series of data leaks at major South Korean companies, including SK Telecom.

The government, which held an emergency meeting on Sunday, is looking into whether Coupang violated safety rules regarding personal information protection, said Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-Hoon. A former Chinese employee at Coupang is suspected to be behind the breach, but the ex-worker has left the country, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Coupang sent a complaint to the police this month, so the police are conducting an investigation.

Reference Sources

1. thestarmy - South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang says 33.7 million customer accounts breached
2. cnbc - Top South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang says 33.7 million customer accounts breached
3. nikkei - South Korean e-commerce company Coupang apologizes over massive data breach

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