CX Daily Mar. 25: Trip.com Eyes Post-Pandemic Tourism Boom as Rivals Circle

France cuts Chinese flights in a tit-for-tat move. Tesla hits bulk buyers with demand for damages if cars are resold within a year

While Trip.com stands to benefit from the long-postponed post-pandemic boom in travel, it is not alone. Photo: VCG

Trip.com /

In Depth: Trip.com eyes post-pandemic tourism boom as rivals circle

Wearing a pink French-style dress and a cloche hat, Trip.com Vice President Sun Tianxu is ripping through her first batch of deals of the night on a corporate livestream.

“This is an opportunity — free of charge — to stay at the Shangri-La Deluxe Riverview room — note this is not the basic room, it is the Riverview room, a luxury room. Share the livestream now with the words ‘Shanghai Foreshore Shangri-La’ for your chance to win!” Sun delivers the spiel with the practiced, rapid-fire clip of a bullhorn-wielding tour group operator. “The fourth and fifth deals on our product catalog are limited to tonight … There are just 100! No more.”

Flights /

France cuts Chinese flights in tit-for-tat move

France canceled three scheduled flights by Chinese airlines between Paris and China, the Chinese Embassy in France said Wednesday.

The affected flights include Air China flight CA934 from Paris to Tianjin scheduled to depart March 30 and April 13 and China Eastern Airlines’ MU570 from Paris to Taiyuan on April 3.

Meanwhile, China Southern Airlines’ flight CZ348 from Paris to Guangzhou on April 7 is also likely to be canceled, the French Embassy in China told Caixin.

FINANCE & ECONOMY

Sunac China Chairman Sun Hongbin

Bonds /

Sunac China seeks two-year extension on $627.85 million bond

Sunac China, the country’s third-largest developer, is seeking a two-year payment extension on a 4 billion yuan ($627.85 million) onshore bond due April 1, Caixin learned from several bondholders. In return, Sunac’s billionaire Chairman Sun Hongbin proposes to provide an unlimited joint liability guarantee.

The move followed rating downgrades by all three global rating companies and a series of negative developments involving other developers including delays in making debt repayments. Sunac said Monday that it expects to miss the March 31 deadline for issuing its audited annual report, joining a handful of Chinese developers to delay financial reports, including China Evergrande Group, Ronshine China Holdings and Shimao Property Holdings Ltd.

Manufacturing /

Economists explain why foreign investment in China’s manufacturing hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels

Foreign investment in China’s manufacturing sector failed to return to pre-pandemic levels last year, possibly due to the impact of Beijing’s “Zero-Covid” policy and the Sino-U.S. tariff war, economists told Caixin.

Realized foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing fell 4.6% in 2021 from 2019, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said at a press conference early this month. Manufacturing FDI accounted for 19.4% of China’s total inward FDI last year, he said, down from 20.8% in 2020 and 25% in 2019.

Covid-19 /

Analysis: Is Hong Kong following Singapore in living with Covid-19?

The Hong Kong government has laid out a phased roadmap to lift most of the city’s social-distancing rules — to achieve a “new normal” within three months — that shares aspects of Singapore’s model of coexisting with Covid-19.

The two places are similarly sized, both in terms of space and population, and have both been hit hard by the highly transmissible omicron variant. But back in August, Singapore released a four-phase roadmap for coexistence with the virus, two months after it announced it would begin to significantly relax restrictions to revive its trade-reliant economy. The city-state then spent about nine months shifting away from strict Covid restrictions and finishing its “coexistence” transition.

Blog: The crucial test of maximum virus containment and minimum disruption

Quick hits /

Shanghai financial firms ask staff to sleep in office amid local Covid flare-up

U.S. restores waivers for some Chinese goods hit by tariffs

Carbon futures ETF debuts in Hong Kong

BUSINESS & TECH

Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai on Feb. 28. Photo: IC Photo

Tesla /

Tesla hits bulk buyers with demand for damages if cars are resold within a year

Tesla Inc. is making some Chinese buyers sign a written guarantee that they will not resell their cars within 12 months in an apparent effort to curb after-market speculation.

People who want to buy cars in bulk need to sign a letter of commitment that stipulates they must pay the firm liquidated damages of 20% of the order value if they resell the cars within a year of receiving them, Tesla told Caixin.

Whether such a guarantee is enforceable is another matter. A consumer lawyer who asked not to be named told Caixin that Tesla would have little chance of holding buyers to such rules under Chinese consumer law, which allows people to freely dispose of the goods they purchase.

Vaccines /

Fosun reports $157 million of China mRNA vaccine sales in 2021

Sales of a Chinese version of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 mRNA vaccine exceeded 1 billion yuan ($157 million) in 2021, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. disclosed Wednesday in its annual report.

Fosun is the exclusive partner of Germany’s BioNTech for marketing in Greater China the mRNA vaccine it co-developed with U.S. drug giant Pfizer Inc. Known in China as the Comirnaty vaccine, the product hasn’t been approved for the Chinese mainland and is sold only in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Property /

Debt-wracked Chinese developers delay 2021 financial reports

A handful of debt-encumbered Chinese real estate developers postponed publishing their 2021 annual reports, blaming disruptions from a recent wave of Covid-19 cases that hit China.

Sunac China Holdings Ltd., the country’s third-largest developer by sales, said it could not complete audit procedures on time due to restrictions on personal movement that resulted from the recent Covid flare-ups, according to a Monday exchange filing.

DingTalk /

DingTalk launches paid versions as Alibaba’s growth dwindles

Alibaba’s workplace collaboration platform DingTalk is following its biggest rival by launching paid versions after the parent group reported its slowest growth on record.

The company will roll out three versions, DingTalk’s President Ye Jun explained at a Tuesday event. Corporate users will be told to pay 9,800 yuan ($1,530) a year for a version of the platform including corporate digital asset storage services. A version that will offer more customized services will start at 100,000 yuan per year, according to Ye.

Quick hits /

China Mobile aims to boost dividends after profit beats estimate

Nickel’s wild moves continue as London futures jump by 15% limit

GALLERY

Guangxi plane crash black box found

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