BEIJING — Long gone are the days when catching World Cup soccer games on the go meant buying a portable mini television set.

Instead, consumers in China can just whip out their phones. Soccer is popular in China, even if the national team hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 2002.

“We mostly watch on smartphones, very little on TV,” said Faye Jin. “The TV at home is basically not used. Maybe to watch some competitions we will turn on the TV at the last minute, but most of the time it’s on our phones.”

This year, Chinese social media company Xiaohongshu won the rights to stream the World Cup games for free to all users. The app, also called Little Red Book, is sometimes compared to Meta’s Instagram.

Xiaohongshu’s deal is a strategic partnership with state-owned China Media Group, which sealed broadcast rights less than a month before the World Cup kicked off last week. The company runs China Central Television (CCTV), which has both mobile and smart TV apps that let subscribers watch matches and replays ad-free.

CNBC spot checks found that locals in Beijing are not as eager to head out to bars for World Cup games this year, and instead follow matches online, often at home.

The games this year tend to fall in the middle of the night or during morning working hours due to the 12-hour-plus time difference. Interviews are translated from the original Mandarin Chinese.

“If my friends are interested in the World Cup they will definitely watch at home,” said Xu Wang, who works at Absolut Bar in a tourist-heavy part of Beijing. “It’s hard to find a suitable place for people to gather at that time of night, especially because everyone is spread out across the city.”

The shift to mobile devices builds on a digital-first trend in China.

During the World Cup in 2022, China already accounted for nearly half of all hours of viewing on digital and social platforms globally, according to FIFA.

Widespread 5G connectivity and relatively low-priced roaming packages help. People in China already spend 40% of their daily mobile phone time watching videos, primarily on short-video apps such as ByteDance’s Douyin, according to QuestMobile.

To stay updated on the World Cup matches, Quan Zhao said he scrolls through Douyin, and only plans to watch the last few games in full. He’s not sure yet whether he will go out to do so.

That also reflects how tough it is for Xiaohongshu to capitalize on World Cup streaming to reach more users.

Douyin won streaming rights for the World Cup in 2022, when many people in China still faced Covid-19 restrictions on gathering and moving around. This time, Douyin is promoting a packed lineup of soccer commentators and creators, along with World Cup-themed AI special effects templates.

Douyin has more than 1 billion monthly active users, Questmobile data showed, while Xiaohongshu had 245.3 million as of March.

A shopping-focused version of Douyin ranked first among the top 10 downloaded apps on Apple’s China app store as of midday Monday.

CCTV’s app for streaming the World Cup ranked second, while China’s official sports betting app ranked sixth — and Xiaohongshu ranked ninth.

Chinese tech companies aren’t just focused on the domestic market. Tencent Cloud said Friday that two-thirds of official World Cup broadcasting platforms in Asia Pacific use the company’s services.

The company said it’s supporting match streaming in 16 regions, including Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina — the largest territory for a World Cup ever covered by a Chinese cloud provider.

BEIJING — China’s manufacturing activity expanded faster than expected in May, according to a private survey released Monday, although growth slowed from the previous month and contrasted with softer official data pointing to weaker momentum in the sector.

The RatingDog China General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by S&P Global, came in at 51.8, a touch above the 51.6 expected in a Reuters poll.

The reading was down from April’s 52.2, indicating a slower pace of improvement in manufacturing conditions. The 50 mark separates expansion from contraction.

“While the rate of growth eased, it remained among the highest observed over the past five years,” said Yao Yu, founder of credit research firm RatingDog.

New export business saw a slight decline in May, the RatingDog PMI report said, while employment also “contracted marginally.”

Seasonally adjusted input prices fell in May from the prior month for the first time in half a year, although costs remained elevated due to higher prices for raw materials and energy, as well as supply chain disruptions, the report said.

The private survey of Chinese manufacturers noted optimism for growth over the next 12 months, based partly on “new product launches, technological breakthroughs and improved production capacity.”

Because it samples a smaller group of export-oriented manufacturers, the RatingDog survey often differs from the official manufacturing PMI, which covers a broader segment of China’s manufacturing sector.

China’s official manufacturing PMI for May fell to 50 in May from 50.3 in April, in line with expectations and its lowest since a 49 print in February, according to data released Sunday.

Overall, the official PMI suggests “subdued manufacturing sector growth, increased services activity, and continued decline in the construction industry,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a report Sunday.

The mixed manufacturing signals come as China’s broader economy continues to show uneven momentum.

While China’s retail sales growth hit a 40-month low in April, official figures showed overall domestic tourism and spending picked up during an extended May 1 holiday. Chinese hotel group H World said the 10 most popular destinations by occupancy rate were in smaller cities. Rates tend to be lower in those regions than major cities.

BEIJING — Hong Kong may be the top market globally for initial public offerings, but it also suffers from a growing trend of weak stock performance from those debuts.

The Hong Kong exchange was first in the world by IPO funds raised last year — besting the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, which came second and third respectively — according to KPMG, which noted that strong momentum in 2025 continued in the first quarter of this year. More than 600 companies are waiting to list on the Hong Kong exchange as of Thursday, according to its website.

However, Hong Kong IPOs broadly are underperforming. Out of 179 listings since January 2025, about half have traded lower over the past three months, according to Chinese financial-data company Wind Information. That compares with a mild drop for the benchmark Hang Seng index and gains of more than 10% for the FTSE Renaissance Global IPO Index over the same period.

For those in the Stock Connect, a program which allows mainland Chinese to invest directly, the performance difference is even worse. Out of 33 Hong Kong-listed stocks that joined the Connect on March 9, over half more than doubled in price between their IPO and the last trading day before inclusion. Eight, including AI startup Deepexi, surged by more than 300% during that time.

All of the group of eight have dropped by 10% or more since. Deepexi was down 51% as of June 3.

Beijing is taking notice. State-backed Securities Times on May 29 was the latest to highlight concerns over sharp rallies and subsequent declines in some Hong Kong IPOs.

Many listings in Hong Kong’s H shares are already traded as mainland China’s A shares, noted Leonid Mironov, portfolio manager at Gavekal. Capital retreats to the often cheaper A shares after the stocks have joined the Connect program, he said.

Ding Wenjie, investment strategist for global capital investment at China Asset Management Co., said the firm has noticed some funds in Hong Kong have capitalized on Connect inclusion as a way to generate additional returns.

Goldman Sachs this spring predicted companies will raise about $60 billion this year in Hong Kong listings, nearly double the $36 billion raised in 2025. The investment firm on Wednesday downgraded Hong Kong H shares in favor of mainland Chinese A shares for greater exposure to artificial intelligence hardware plays.

Low fees, weaker fundraising and intensifying competition means “there has unquestionably been pressure on parts of China’s financial sector,” Benjamin Cavender, managing director at China Market Research Group, told CNBC. “This has probably placed a focus on short-term performance.”

HKEX said in a statement to CNBC that share price performance is influenced by a range of factors.

The next tests for the market: Knowledge Atlas Technology, the company behind AI model Zhipu, is one of the more high-profile stocks expected to begin trading in Shanghai via the Connect on Monday, while fellow AI company MiniMax is likely to join later this summer. Both companies listed in Hong Kong in January.

BEIJING — A former OpenAI researcher is now chief AI scientist for Tencent in China, and wants to build artificial general intelligence.

It’s a sign of a shift in the U.S.-China tech race.

AI with human-level or above capabilities (AGI) has long been the goal of U.S. companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet, which acquired British startup DeepMind.

Chinese companies rushing to catch up on AI and facing U.S. chip controls have instead focused on ways to use the technology in applications from factories to consumer electronics. Baidu CEO Robin Li previously predicted it would take until at least 2034 to achieve AGI, in contrast to Elon Musk’s 2026 forecast at the time.

But as Chinese companies grab talent from Silicon Valley, they’re increasingly bringing the U.S. vision with them.

“My personal goal is that in China we should establish a long-term AGI organization,” said Tencent Chief AI Scientist Yao Shunyu, who joined the company in the last year after leaving his OpenAI role, in remarks CNBC translated from Mandarin.

Yao was discussing the next stage of AI development on-stage Friday with Tencent’s Cloud executive Dowson Tong at the company’s event in Beijing co-organized with local authorities. A senior Beijing official gave opening remarks.

Yao said Friday his vision for AGI will require foundational knowledge, products and frontier exploration.

“I don’t think ChatGPT or Claude will be the only super-app,” Yao said, saying untapped potential is in the “trillions of dollars.” Performance of an AI tool is most important, followed by cost, he said, adding that the path forward in China is with smaller AI models and more consistent performance on basic tasks.

His optimism contrasted with growing caution on AI in the U.S.

Anthropic on Thursday warned that frontier models are nearing the point where they can improve themselves without human oversight. The company called for an industry slowdown or pause in new model development to stave off disruption to society.

The San Francisco-based startup earlier this year urged Washington to maintain the U.S. lead over Chinese models. Anthropic has emphasized AI safety from its founding and drawn criticism from rivals that its safety warnings are designed to hobble competition.

BEIJING — More European companies are maintaining or expanding their supply chains in mainland China to remain competitive globally, according to a survey released Wednesday by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

Nearly one-third of respondents said they were onshoring further in China, while 37% said they had not changed their supply chain strategy over the last two years, the report said.

The survey was based on responses from nearly 300 members collected from January to February who were familiar with their companies’ mainland China supply chain strategies.

In total, 68% of respondents said they were either staying or expanding operations in China. By comparison, only 7% said they were moving factory sourcing outside the country or setting up alternative manufacturing bases elsewhere, the report said.

“We don’t see sort of de-risking becoming a theme,” said Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.

“If anything it would indicate that European companies continue to be more dependent on China as a sourcing and manufacturing location for their products,” he said.

China accounts for about 28% of goods manufactured globally, despite U.S. and EU tariffs. The bloc is reportedly ramping up its scrutiny of China’s trade practices. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

About 24% of EU chamber members responding to the supply chain question said they were diversifying by both expanding in China and establishing alternative suppliers elsewhere.

The shift is also changing how global logistics companies operate.

Chinese companies are increasingly taking greater control over overseas supply chains as they expand globally, said Michael Aldwell, executive vice president for sea logistics at Swiss shipping company Kuehne+Nagel.

“We see a rising amount of business in our industry that’s controlled, decided, shipped, and paid for here in China,” Aldwell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” These sectors include electric vehicles, batteries and consumer electronics, he added.

“We basically see this trend where when the China-based supply chain management organization is more mature than the destination market, or where you’ve got rapid change in an industry, the Chinese companies are choosing to take control over that supply chain.”

As the leaders of the world’s two most powerful economies rekindled personal ties in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, with a cavalcade of American business leaders accompanying U.S. President Donald Trump, the Chinese capital turned into something of a spectacle.

The visit — the first by a sitting U.S. president to China in nearly a decade — was full of friendly overtures, closely orchestrated pageantry, business dealmaking, and headline-grabbing sideshows that captivated audiences on both sides of the Pacific.

Beijing deployed its diplomatic arsenal to the full.

It laid on brass bands and flower-waving schoolchildren at the airport, a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People, a private tour of the Temple of Heaven, and a closing garden stroll at Zhongnanhai – the walled compound where China’s top leaders have worked and lived since 1949 – during which Chinese President Xi Jinping offered Trump rose seeds as a parting gift. 

“There were unusually long handshakes, back-patting, smiling, and synchronized walking during public appearances,” said Lyle Morris, senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “The interaction was warmer and more relaxed than some previous Trump-Xi encounters,” Morris said. 

Crowds gathered along streets near the Four Seasons hotel and the Great Hall for a glimpse of Trump’s motorcade. “It was quite a spectacle,” said Alicia Liao, a university student in Beijing. “We had an exam the next day, but almost everyone followed the broadcast or social media clips.”