CBN丨Chinese localities, enterprises rush to adopt DeepSeek to enhance efficiency

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

• An increasing number of Chinese localities and enterprises adopt DeepSeek as application of AI accelerates in China;
• China's market regulators issue three-year action plan to optimize consumption climate, eliminating scams and price gouging.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

The day has finally arrived when we work alongside AI. Shenzhen's Futian District has introduced 70 AI-powered digital employees, driven by China's rapidly advancing DeepSeek model, to enhance government efficiency.

Local officials say these AI agents are significantly improving tasks such as document processing, law enforcement, and public services.

Unlike traditional AI tools, the digital workers are customized to handle 240 specific government functions.

An increasing number of Chinese localities have adopted DeepSeek's AI model in various areas. Cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Foshan, and Changsha, among more others, have also implemented DeepSeek, integrating it into various government, financial, and other key systems. 

Among the latest developments, the 12345 hotline in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, which serves as the primary channel for residents to voice their concerns, has integrated DeepSeek to provide more intelligent analysis and answers. 

Foshan in Guangdong Province has also deployed DeepSeek into its city governance system, to improve service efficiency and the intelligent level of decision-making. For example, it will build knowledge bases in various fields like urban management, the environment, and government affairs according to different needs. 

Changsha, in Central China's Hunan Province, has also embraced DeepSeek with the launch of CS-DeepSeek to support efforts to build a smart city

In addition to its government applications, the DeepSeek model is making waves in the tech industry.

On February 16, the popular Chinese social media app WeChat announced the launch of a gray-box test integrating DeepSeek-R1 into its search function, promising more precise and comprehensive results.

Meanwhile, China's tech giant Baidu has also integrated DeepSeek into its search engine and AgentBuilder platforms, allowing developers to create intelligent agents with the model.

Beyond tech, DeepSeek is also making strides in healthcare, the automotive industry, and finance. For example, South China Hospital of Shenzhen University uses DeepSeek to optimize clinical care, cutting patient waiting times.

• Five national departments, including the State Administration for Market Regulation, on Wednesday issued an action plan on optimizing the consumption environment from 2025 to 2027. The 19-point action plan prioritizes work in five sectors: improving quality of consumer market supply, regulating market order, enhancing consumer rights protection, consumption market co-governance and setting leading roles to improve the consumption market. Specifically, the action plan vows to enhance quality, standards, and brand development in fields such as automobiles, home appliances, home furnishings, and electronic products, as well as service quality in livelihood areas such as eldercare, nursery and tourism. In terms of market regulation, the action plan emphasizes safety in foods and medicines, and vows to rectify issues including measurement fraud, price fraud, false advertising, and other issues.

Greater Bay Area, Greater future

• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has completed a public Hong Kong dollar-denominated bond offering, raising HKD4 billion, the multilateral development bank said on Thursday. The three-year senior unsecured fixed-rate sustainable-development bonds pay an annual coupon of 3.847 percent and attracted a final order book reaching HKD9 billion.
• The first commercial flight linking Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region and the Hong Kong SAR started operation Wednesday morning. The flight, operated by Tibet Airlines and using an Airbus A319, runs twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. It departs Lhasa at 8:10 am, stops over in Chengdu city of Southwest China's Sichuan province, and arrives in Hong Kong at 2:35 pm.
• Humanoid robot maker Ubtech Robotics has announced plans to place new shares at a discount of over 8 percent to raise HKD880 million. The Shenzhen-based company proposed on Thursday to place more than 10.15 million new shares at HKD90 each, 8.54 percent cheaper than their closing price on Wednesday.

Next on industry and company news

• China issued an action plan yesterday to stabilize this year's foreign investment, expanding its pilot programs to open up the telecommunication, education, medical services, and other fields, lifting restrictions on domestic loans for foreign-invested firms, and encouraging foreign equity investment in the country to attract more high-quality foreign direct investment in listed companies.
• As of the end of 2023, the total number of existing foreign-funded enterprises in China was 465,000, an increase of 46,000 compared to 2019, before the pandemic, and in 2024, 59,000 foreign-funded enterprises were newly established in China, marking a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.
• DeepSeek denied a news report claiming that the Chinese AI startup is considering outside funding for the first time and has drawn interest from Alibaba and state funds, including China Investment and the National Social Security Fund. Meanwhile, High-Flyer, the AI quantitative hedge fund behind DeepSeek, said the current scale of funds it manages is above 20 billion yuan, media reported today citing a staff member, after reports said yesterday the scale dropped to over 10 billion yuan, as opposed to its highest in 2021 of 100 billion yuan. The person stressed that the change was “normal operation.”

Earnings reports express

• Lenovo’s net profit more than doubled to USD693 million in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31 from a year earlier, the Chinese PC giant said in its latest earnings report today. Revenue climbed 20 percent to USD18.8 billion, marking the third consecutive quarter with double-digit growth.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market

• Chinese stocks closed mixed on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite ended nearly flat while the Shenzhen Component added 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.6 percent and the TECH index dropped 3 percent.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

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