Tencent WeChat Ban Blamed In Suicide Case
A 21-year-old man jumped from the top of the 11-floor office building that houses Tencent's customer service center in Shenzhen after the company would not explain its reasons for banning his WeChat account. After his suicide, Tencent paid "humanitarianism compensation" of 150,000 yuan to the deceased's elder brother, who signed an agreement to not pursue further legal actions, The Paper reported.
The elder sibling said that some days ago, his brother discovered his WeChat account had been banned without being provided any notice in advance. It led to the suspension of his business, which relied upon WeChat Pay financial transactions. After calling Tencent's customer service numerous times and only receiving automated responses, he then went to Tencent's customer service center. After he was not assisted there, he decided to jump off the building.
A source at Tencent alleged that the deceased's WeChat account had been blocked due to "pornographic harassment." It normally takes a few days before a user can apply to unblock an account, the source told The Paper.
The elder brother said he found a selfie video in his deceased brother's cellphone in which he explains why he chose to commit suicide. The video was given to Tencent as part of the investigation, and the family has refused to disclose details to the public, according to the report.
The case is still under investigation by local police.
Drug Giant Takes Double Hit
Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd (HPGC), a state-controlled Sino-foreign equity joint venture, faces huge financial losses and administrative punishments for producing subpar medicines, National Business Daily reported.
The company reported a total of 4.809 billion yuan ($698 million) in revenues in this year's first-half fiscal report, a decline of 12.81% year-on-year, while profits declined by 333 million yuan.
The Food and Drug Administration of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region last week issued an administrative punishment to HPGC for producing Amoxicillin tablets that failed quality testing. This was not the first time the company has faced such problems.
In response to the decline in shareholder benefits, HPGC indicated that the company was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with restricted sales of many medicines, as part of the government's regulations for COVID-19 prevention and control.
But analysts said the major reason for its fiscal decline was its huge loss from its investment in GNC Holdings Inc. (GNC), the 85-year-old U.S.-based vitamin and herbal supplement retailer. HPGC held 40.1 percent of GNC shares.
GNC filed for bankruptcy at the end of June, with 1,200 brick-and-mortar locations closing their doors. This means that HPGC's investment in GNC convertible preferred stock previously valued at 2.049 billion yuan ($293 million) would not likely to be returned.
HPGC stated in its first-quarter fiscal report that HPGC's early investment in GNC had lost over 1.1 billion yuan ($157 million).
ByteDance Invests 10 Billion Yuan In Chengdu
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance Technology, plans to invest up to 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) to build a business innovation center in Chengdu, focusing on the fields of intelligent education systems and interactive multimedia office systems, state-run CCTV reported.
The project aims to reach 10 billion yuan in annual sales and to recruit up to 10,000 people within five years.
The Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, where ByteDance's new center will be located, already houses nearly 90,000 companies in various kinds of new economy sectors, including 383 so called gazelle enterprises and five unicorn enterprises.
Other internet giants including Baidu, iQiYi, Tencent Holdings and NetEase have also made competitive investments in the zone this year. After Baidu-backed iQiYi launched a $20 million investment to build an AI and big data research center, Tencent announced on August 20 that it will build a new 5 billion yuan headquarters for cultural and creative sectors.
ByteDance initially entered Chengdu in 2015. Since then, the city has become a hub for the company's core teams, including research and development, commercialization and creative businesses, according to a ByteDance spokesman.
IC Industry Projects Increased Sales
Annual sales of integrated circuits are projected to reach 876.6 billion yuan ($127 billion), this year, representing a 15.92 percent increase compared with one year earlier. The sectors of IC design, including manufacturing and assembly and testing are expected to maintain high growth through the end of this year, China Securities reported.
China's integrated circuits industry topped 353.9 billion yuan in sales in the first half of the year, a rise of 16.1% year-on-year, according to statistics released by the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA).
Despite efforts to increase local production capacity, the vice chairman of CSIA, Wei Shaojun, said that China is likely to import at least $300 billion worth of semiconductors for the third year running. This is a sign of continuing reliance on foreign know-how, Reuters reported.
In 2013, China's chip imports exceeded $200 billion, and had climbed past $300 billion in 2018, holding at that level in 2019.
Alibaba's Supermarkets Resume Operation
Alibaba's brick-and-mortar supermarket business Hema Fresh announced Thursday that stores would resume operations in selected locations throughout Shenzhen after a two-week shut-down for COVID-19 control and prevention, China News Network reported.
Ten of the 21 Hema supermarkets in Shenzhen will reopen, while the rest, including the location at the epicenter of the latest outbreak in Luohu district, remains suspended.
On August 14, the Shenzhen Health Committee reported an infection case, a salesman in Hema supermarket in Luohu district, which lies at the Hong Kong border. Following this, all Hema supermarkets in Shenzhen suspended operation. Staff and the fresh foods across the supermarket chain reportedly were tested via nucleic acid amplification method.
In response to the outbreak, Hema stated that all of their imported frozen food products will have to pass COVID-19 diagnostic testing before offering them to the public.
As of August 20, two Hema staff in close contact with the original case and three families were confirmed with asymptomatic infection with COVID-19. Other staff and fresh foods tested negative, according to a statement by the committee.
