The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is expected to draft a regulation to protect tenants’ rights and bring order to the nation’s largely unregulated rental market. Some 160 million people, 21% of urbanites, are renters, with the majority being recent college graduates and migrant workers. Analysts say they face problems dealing with unscrupulous landlords and real estate agents, especially in major cities, where there is a severe shortage of rental properties.

Alibaba Group and Shanghai-based retail conglomerate Bailian Group announced a strategic alliance to develop new retail formats. The two companies will share resources such as offline retail branches, merchandising capability, logistics facilities and internet technologies. The partnership intends to bring in new customers, to offer new retail experience and to boost new technology development, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said. The two partners are also expected to design new retail outlets and to research and develop retail technology, customer relationship management and payment systems. Alibaba’s payment affiliate Alipay is set to be integrated with Bailian’s prepaid card service to offer more convenience for shoppers to pay for their online and offline shopping. No specific timetable has been released for the services launch. Alibaba’s other ventures in offline retail include its share swap deal with Suning Commerce Group and a privatization deal to acquire department store chain Intime.

Beijing has given the green light for the creation of China’s first ‘national laboratory for deep learning’, to try to surpass the United States in developing artificial intelligence (AI). The lab will not have a physical presence, instead taking the form of a research network predominantly based online. Deep learning involves feeding data through virtual neural networks designed to mimic the human brain’s decision-making process, in order to solve problems and recognize images and sounds. Baidu will lead the effort. “About 40% of the leading AI research papers in the world are published by the Chinese. The really top-level AI experts are still those from North America and the UK, but the Chinese are expected to get better and better with their quick learning and the improvement of platforms they work for,” said veteran tech investor Lee Kai-fu, founder of Chinese venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures.

Xian Yan, a senior executive of Shenzhen-listed Guangxi Future Technology, was fined CNY3.47 billion for stock price manipulation and wrongdoings in information disclosure, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said. Xian and 10 other company executives were also barred for life from working in the securities market. Xian is the second executive this year to receive a huge fine from the stock market regulator after Xu Xiang was fined CNY11 billion by a court in Qingdao. The fine was the largest ever imposed in China for financial wrongdoing. Xu, 39, was also sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail and had CNY9.3 billion of “ill-gotten” assets amassed by him and two associates confiscated by the state, news portals including Sohu and Sina reported. China intends to apprehend a group of tycoons – known as the “big crocodiles” of China’s stock market – and bring them back to China to face justice, Liu Shiyu, Chairman of the CSRC, said in early January.

SF Express, China’s largest courier, made a backdoor listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as Maanshan Dingtai Rare Earth & New Materials Co was officially renamed SF Holding Co. The stock rallied by the 10% limit to CNY55.21, taking its total value to CNY230 billion, the most valuable company on the exchange. Founded in 1993, SF Holding’s service covers more than 200 countries and regions with 34 airplanes and about 15,000 vehicles. The listing also makes Chairman and Founder, Wang Wei, worth more than CNY140 billion, the richest man in the private delivery industry. The entrepreneur said the biggest aim of SF Express’ listing was to raise more funds in order to improve its service. SF Holding has raised approximately CNY8 billion though the listing and plans to invest it in aviation and other transport equipment, information platforms and logistic technology. The company announced that the net profit attributable to its shareholders was CNY4.18 billion in 2016, more than the total of three other industry leaders – STO Express, Yunda Express and YTO Express, who were all listed last year, the China Daily reports.