Major Chinese manufacturing province Zhejiang is fighting its first COVID-19 cluster this year, with tens of thousands of citizens in quarantine and virus-hit areas suspending business operations, cutting flights and cancelling events. The outbreak in three Zhejiang cities - Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou - was developing at a "relatively rapid" speed, while the situation nationwide was largely stable, National Health Commission official Wu Liangyou said on Saturday. Before the current outbreak, Zhejiang - home to a legion of small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which are exporters - reported only one local case in 2021. More than a dozen Chinese-listed companies said they had suspended production in parts of Zhejiang owing to tightened COVID-19 curbs.
For China’s government planners, one of the most important roles for artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is addressing looming challenges in the labor market. After nearly four decades of the one-child policy, China’s aging population is growing, while the number of working-age people (15-64) is decreasing.
China-based Gree Electric and two of its subsidiaries, including one in the U.S., have agreed to pay $91 million to resolve criminal charges for not reporting to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) their faulty dehumidifiers that caught fires resulting in damages.