China has issued national guidelines governing bike-sharing operations to address mounting complaints over an accumulation of millions of bikes on city streets. Users of bike-sharing services should register under their real names, controls on the parking of bikes will be tightened, offenders will be punished, and the use of the bikes by children under 12 is prohibited. China has around 70 bike-sharing brands, which have put more than 16 million bicycles on the streets and attracted more than 130 million users. By the end of June, the industry had registered 106 million customers, just a year after Mobike launched its services in Shanghai in April 2016. Around 14% of China’s 751 million internet users have now used smartphones to rent a bike. The industry has attracted billions in investment from the likes of Warburg Pincus, DST Global, Tencent and Alibaba.

Beijing-based bike-sharing firm Mobike announced the launch of bike-rental services in London, with a plan to operate 750 bikes in September. The company plans to expand to 200 cities globally. As Mobike is set to cover more countries, the company will explore more payment methods. The bikes are produced in China and then exported to overseas markets. Rival Ofo said it plans to operate a total of 6,000 shared bikes in Bangkok by the end of September. Now Mobike has rolled out more than 6 million bikes in over 150 cities globally, while Ofo said it has over 100 million users.

Conglomerate HNA Group has disclosed its ownership structure for the first time following questions over its opaque shareholding and the Chinese government clampdown on overseas acquisitions. The company, based in the Hainan provincial capital of Haikou, has expanded since its founding in 1993 with just four aircraft to almost 2,000 planes under operation and management. In the process, it also went on a global buying spree, owning CNY1 trillion of assets, including stakes in Hilton Worldwide Holdings and Deutsche Bank. In a statement on July 24, HNA said it counted Hainan Province Cihang Foundation, Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation, 12 individual shareholders and Hainan Airlines Holding as its shareholders. Businessman Guan Jun, mentioned in a June 2 Financial Times article as among the company’s shareholders, was not listed. In an interview with the South China Morning Post last month, HNA Founder Chen Feng said Guan “holds a tiny stake in the company” but was not a significant shareholder. The two charities own 52% of HNA collectively. One is set up in New York and the other is established under the Hainan provincial government. Chen and HNA co-founder Wang Jian are Directors of Hainan Province Cihang Foundation. According to the statement, Chen and Wang hold the highest stakes with 14.98% each. The statement also said Guan had donated the shares to the charity and no longer holds any stake in the company. HNA said in the statement that while it is a private company with no obligation to disclose its ownership, it would “respect and appreciate the desire for transparency in this regard”.

Three Chinese banks, who were among the eight largest providers of credit lines to HNA as of 2015, have decided to stop extending new loans to HNA. A dearth of fresh credit could further restrain HNA’s ambitions as Chinese regulators clamp down on offshore deals to stem capital outflows and shore up the yuan, the South China Morning Post reports. HNA, which has announced more than USD40 billion of acquisitions spanning six continents since the start of 2016, said its financial position remains “strong” and noted that its debt-to-asset ratio decreased for a seventh straight year in fiscal 2016. HNA reported CNY172.5 billion of cash and cash equivalents at the end of last year. It also disclosed CNY493.7 billion of debt and said it had CNY611 billion of committed credit lines from banks, of which around 40% was unused.

Chinese tourists are expected to make 200 million outbound trips in 2020, a 48% increase from last year’s 135 million, led by Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea and Japan as the most-visited destinations, according to CLSA. The cosmetics, gaming, luxury and online sectors are likely to be the biggest winners, with spending expected to grow 64% to USD429 billion in 2021 from last year’s level. “While 2016 was challenging, impacted by terrorist attacks in Europe and weaker spending in the U.S., the tide turned in the third quarter, we believe largely driven by wealthy Chinese consumers,” CLSA Analysts Oliver Matthew and Jon Oh wrote in a report, their fifth tracking China’s outbound tourism trends since 2005. “Other driving factors affecting Chinese tourist numbers included extra holidays, eased travel restrictions, and greater desire for experiencing different cultures and activities.” Hong Kong was still the number one destination for mainland Chinese tourists between 2013 and 2017, followed by Thailand, South Korea, Macao and Japan, the South China Morning Post reports.

An environmental impact assessment for a new high-speed railway linking Beijing and the Xiongan New Area was released. It was the first public acknowledgment that a new line will be built. China Railway Design Corp is seeking public comment on the assessment. The Beijing-Xiongan railway will start at Liying in Beijing’s Daxing district, pass through Langfang and terminate at Xiongan East Railway Station at a total length of 100.3 kilometers. The new line will also pass through the capital’s new airport, which will be about 36 km from Liying and about 64 km from the Xiongan New Area. The airport is expected to open in 2019. A Tianjin-Xiongan railway is also in the planning stages. An older rail line is already in operation. Passengers must transfer in Baoding or Tianjin to get to the Xiongan area on high-speed rail. Since July 7, four daily high-speed railway services have been started. The journey takes one hour and 50 minutes. A major transportation network should be in place in Xiongan by 2020. The area will be well connected to Beijing, Tianjin and other cities in Hebei province by 2022, when the Winter Olympic Games will be held. The Xiongan New Area is intended to house the bulk of Beijing’s non-capital functions, including some administrative and public institutions, company headquarters, financial institutions, higher education institutions, and science and technology units.

Thailand approved USD5.2 billion for the construction of the first stretch of a long-delayed high-speed railway that will ultimately connect to China, part of its Belt and Road infrastructure plan. Trains will travel south from Kunming in Yunnan province through Laos, Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore. Construction in Laos began late last year. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Thai section was held in 2015, but the project has been held up by disputes over financing, loan terms and labor protection regulations. The Thai government has now approved phase one of the high-speed railway from Bangkok to Korat. The first phase is 250 km, less than a third of the planned 850 km track within Thailand, and remains far from the extension to Nong Khai on the border with Laos. Thai Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has said local firms would be responsible for construction, while China would handle the design, technology, signaling systems and technical training, the South China Morning Post reports.