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2025-05-05 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to this week’s edition of the China Insights Weekly Newsletter!

With the May holiday wrapping up, China’s market momentum is kicking back in.

• Porsche and Perstorp ramp up R&D in Shanghai

• Nike and On expand with local content and retail push

• Massive skyscraper projects restart as bailout funds revive stalled giants

• China’s coffee market hits 66,920 shops, squeezing Starbucks

Dive deeper into these stories and more by clicking the headlines below. We value your feedback. Let us know your thoughts or suggestions on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

Alibaba launches new Qwen LLMs in China’s latest open-source AI breakthrough (link)

Alibaba has released its next-generation open-source large language models, Qwen3, marking a breakthrough in China's open-source AI space. Qwen3 includes eight variations and introduces "hybrid reasoning models," combining traditional LLM capabilities with advanced dynamic reasoning. The models offer improvements in reasoning, instruction following, tool usage, and multilingual tasks, covering 119 languages and dialects. Qwen3 is available on platforms like Hugging Face, GitHub, and Alibaba Cloud, and powers Alibaba's AI assistant, Quark. Qwen has gained over 300 million downloads worldwide and has over 100,000 derivative models on Hugging Face.

US giant Nike set to build out new Shanghai studio in China push, Swiss-based On expands in China with Chengdu flagship, 100-store plan (link, link)

Nike is expanding its presence in China by opening a new creative studio in Shanghai called Icon Studios. The studio will produce digital videos, product photography, and content for e-commerce, social media, and livestreaming. This move is part of Nike's efforts to reconnect with Chinese consumers in a market that generated USD 7.5 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, accounting for 15% of global sales, down from 19% in 2021. Shanghai is one of the company's five key global cities for growth, alongside Beijing, New York, Los Angeles, and London. The company plans to hire about two dozen employees for the Shanghai studio, aiming to create "China-right" creative content quickly and at scale.

Swiss athletic brand On opened its first flagship store in China on April 26 at Chengdu's Taikoo Li, spanning two floors with a total area of 500 square meters. The store, themed around bamboo, showcases the brand's full range of products, including running, outdoor, gym, tennis, and active lifestyle wear. On currently operates over 65 stores across 26 cities in China. The brand plans to open its 100th store in China by 2026 and expects the country to become its second-largest market, accounting for 10% of its sales. In 2024, China hosted 749 road-running events with 7 million participants, showing significant growth in the sports market. Major races like the Shanghai Marathon generated an average direct economic impact of 419 million RMB (USD 57.6 million). Last year, On opened a flagship store in Hong Kong's Central district and added 10 new locations across mainland China.