In Depth: Tackling China’s Heavy-Handed Environmental Pollution Penalties

ASML’s China sales: Dutch lithography titan ASML Holding N.V. reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter. The company, a major player in the global chipmaking supply chain, said revenue hit 7.7 billion euros ($8.9 billion), up 23%, while net profits came to 2.3 billion euros, a 45% increase. President and CEO Christophe Fouquet said that 27% of revenue came from the Chinese mainland, adding that he expects sales in the region to account for over 25% for the whole year. A major uncertainty for the year ahead will be U.S. trade policy, both in terms of tariffs and restrictions on sales of chips to China.

Burden of innovation: Participants at a recent industry expo in Beijing cited high research and development (R&D) costs as a major challenge for the country’s vast clean energy industry. The chief of CHKO Electric Group Co. Ltd., a producer of electrical system gear, said that the need to fulfill China’s ambitious carbon goals requires a lot of innovation, thus leading to a rise in spending in R&D, while at the same time changes in raw materials prices and subsidies are driving up the industry’s costs. A vice president at ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd. urged the government to do more to support early-stage innovations.

Xizang chief’s corruption: The former Communist Party chief of the Xizang autonomous region has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking over 340 million yuan ($47.3 million) in bribes. Customarily, such sentences are commuted to life imprisonment. In making its judgment, a Beijing court said that Wu Yingjie, who held the top job in Xizang for five years until late 2021, wasn’t given an immediate death sentence because he admitted his guilt, cooperated with investigators and had made “meritorious contributions.” Wu is the third senior Xizang official to receive this sentence since the party’s last national congress in 2022.