Business briefs from the Chinese media — Thursday September 22

McDonald’s unaffected by COVID with 800 new outlets this year: ADRs in the U.S. and stocks in Hong Kong have tumbled after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points. In China, McDonald’s this week held a press conference to announce its first “zero carbon outlet,” during which its China CEO stated that the company’s expansion plans are unaffected by the COVID pandemic. With around 800 new outlets opening in 2022, McDonald’s will soon have more than 5,000 domestic outlets with 180,000 employees.

Mobile number with nine sixes up for grabs: A mobile phone number with nine sixes, 15666666666, will be auctioned on Alibaba’s 阿里巴巴集团 auction platform on October 10, with a starting price of 13.66 million yuan ($1.93 million). The number has 380,000 yuan ($53,923) in unpaid bills, not included in the selling price.

Evergrande has resumed construction at most projects: Yesterday, China Evergrande Group 中国恒大, China’s second-largest (and currently the world’s most indebted) property developer, announced that of its total 706 construction projects in China, 668 projects have resumed construction, and only 38 projects have not yet done so.