Roche Doubles Down in China 💉 RedNote x Taobao 🧃 ASEAN Export Surge 🌏

2025-05-12 | subscribe | homepage

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

Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• JD.com opens smart 7-story mall as offline push accelerates.

• Huawei to launch its first HarmonyOS PC on May 19.

• Yizhuang zone backs USD 11 billion Nvidia-free AI ecosystem.

• Pony.ai and WeRide expand robotaxis in Middle East and Europe.

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’s Taobao and Tmall Group team up with RedNote to connect the entire consumer journey (link)

Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group have partnered with lifestyle content platform RedNote to launch the "Red Cat" initiative, aiming to integrate product discovery with direct purchasing. Merchants can embed product links from Taobao and Tmall stores into RedNote social posts to create a unified, data-driven ecosystem connecting the entire consumer journey. By combining Taobao and Tmall's commerce expertise with RedNote's lifestyle content strengths, brands can more effectively reach consumers and drive incremental growth. The collaboration reflects a growing trend in China's digital ecosystem, where content platforms and e-commerce giants are aligning to streamline the consumer journey and unlock new value for merchants amid intense competition. Both platforms piloted content-driven commerce in 2023, resulting in a 20% increase in click-through rates for Taobao and Tmall merchants and doubled engagement on RedNote product recommendation content year-over-year by 2024.

Roche to invest USD276 million to build its second drug plant in Shanghai (link)

Swiss drugmaker Roche plans to invest USD276.4 million in a second biopharmaceutical plant in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. The facility, expected to be completed in 2029 and operational by 2031, will produce Roche’s Vabysmo treatment for severe retinal conditions. Vabysmo is approved in over 100 countries and covered by China's medical insurance. Roche highlights this expansion as a key milestone in local development, enhancing production capacity and contributing to China's biopharmaceutical industry and the Healthy China 2030 goals. The company has been in China since 1994 and now markets 30 products across eight therapeutic areas. Last year, Roche reported global revenue of USD72.8 billion, with drug and diagnostic income from China rising 6% and 1% to USD3.5 billion and USD2.9 billion, respectively.

China’s exports surged by 8% in April as shipments to Southeast Asian countries offset 21% plunge in U.S. exports (link)

China's exports rose 8.1% in April from a year earlier, sharply exceeding expectations of a 1.9% increase, driven by a 20.8% surge in shipments to Southeast Asian nations. This growth offset a 21% year-on-year plunge in U.S.-bound exports. Imports declined only 0.2%, much better than the projected 5.9% drop. Exports to the U.S. fell 2.5% in the first four months of the year, while imports dropped 4.7%. Exports to the European Union grew 8.3%, but imports fell 16.5%. China's exports to ASEAN accelerated from 11.6% growth in March, with shipments to Indonesia and Thailand rising 37% and 28% respectively. The trade flows have been affected by the U.S. imposing 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, prompting China to retaliate with 125% tariffs. Both sides have granted exemptions on certain critical products. Morgan Stanley projects U.S. effective tariffs on Chinese goods could be reduced to 45% by year-end.