Alibaba

Beyond tech and manufacturing, dental braces market is also impacted by the trade war. Align, the maker of Invisalign, reduced expectation of demand of braces from China. 40% of the dentists and orthodontist trained by Align arein China. (link)

It is reported that China Securities Regulatory Commission will explore how to transform current initial public offering process both to attract more technology companies to list in Mainland China and to make the IPO process more rigorous. (link)

Starting September 1, residents of Hong Kong and Macao and Taiwan living in mainland China will be able to receive resident cards. The new resident card is a form of digital identity to allow these residents to receive similar benefits as mainland residents.(link)

Didi and Volkswagen are teaming up to build new fleets of cars with autonomous driving capabilities. VW would own about 40% of the joint venture and provide 100,000 cars and technology to distribute via Didi’s network in China. (link)

China’s Ministry of Education has officially approved Westlake University, a private institute that is something of an anomaly in the country’s tertiary education sector. Westlake is China’s first private comprehensive institute for advanced scientific study.(link)

Fosun, one of the most acquisitive conglomerates in China, is looking to invest more than $3b in technology over 3 years. Fosun has invested in a number of foreign companies including entertainment, retail, life style brands, bio tech, fintech, and real estate. (link)

October venture capital reached close to $900M, excluding the $4B funding in Meituan Dianping.

Microsoft Azure announced that it will triple its presence in China in the next few months through its local partners. Microsoft reportedly has more than 1000 cloud partners…