News briefing for Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

Weibo will no longer operate in Taiwan, after parent company Sina shuttered the Twitter-like platform, along with its main news feed site, citing its “operational strategy.” There probably was never much point running a censored social media platform in Taiwan, which enjoys an open internet.

Still no games for Tencent and NetEase: Yesterday, a batch of 69 new mobile games were approved by the National Press and Publication Administration, the fourth batch of approvals since April 2022, but there are still no new games for leading game developers Tencent and NetEase.

China’s first domestically produced large airliner, the C919, developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), has received a test flight airworthiness certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The C919 needs to obtain two more certifications, and is expected to enter commercial operation in 2023.

Environmental protection industry growth: Yesterday, the president of the China Environmental Protection Industry Association stated that the national environmental protection industry achieved total revenue of about 2.17 trillion yuan ($320.97 billion) in 2021, an increase of 11.3% year-on-year. In the first half of 2022, revenue growth has moderated to 3.1% year-on-year. It’s not clear, however, what companies and sectors are included in the “environmental protection industry.”

Xinjiang’s growing liquor industry: According to the Xinjiang Brewing Industry Association, in the first five months of this year, 69 brewing enterprises in Xinjiang produced 14.90 million liters (3.93 million gallons) of the distilled liquor báijiǔ 白酒, a year-on-year increase of 11.92%.

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