Just in the past few days, Google released a new generation of open source model Gemma 4. We found that as a small parameter model that can be plugged into a mobile phone, the performance of Gemma 4 E4B is remarkable and it is enough to deal with less complex scenes.
The wealthy families at the end of the year are too lively. The latest masterpiece "Macau 2049" directed by Zhang Yimou is currently at the MGM Theater in Macau, and the stage effect is amazing.
But when I thought about it, it seemed that this performance was performed by Zhang Yimou himself, so it didn't seem so shocking. After all, his ability is at the level of a household name.
In this performance, we once again saw the aesthetic level of the "National Master", which perfectly combines modern technology with intangible cultural heritage. It is dazzling and full of freshness.
For the audience, it is simply a visual feast!
However, many people may not know that the real mastermind behind the event is Chaoqiong Ho, chairman and executive director of MGM China Holdings Limited.
In other words, this is a performance funded by her and contributed by Zhang Yimou.
The effect of the first performance is so amazing, and the follow-up will definitely boost the economy and make a lot of money.
Of course, in order to build momentum for the event, it was natural to invite some big names in the industry to appear, and with the reputation of He Chaoqiong and Zhang Yimou, many guests did come to the scene, and their status in the world was fully reflected when they were in the same frame.
01 It’s too realistic to serve food to others
There were many "old acquaintances" of the audience at this event, and the appearance of the best actor Zhang Yi gave everyone a big surprise.
He was also quite low-key that day, wearing a black shirt and jacket. He was dressed inconspicuously, but he had a sense of integrity within the system.
In fact, in this kind of situation, his status is really not that big, especially when standing next to Emperor's big boss Yang Shoucheng, he has to act like a junior.
Zhang Yi leaned forward slightly, not knowing what he was talking about. He gave Yang Shoucheng a thumbs up, with an expression of admiration and admiration, and directly grasped the four words "human feelings and sophistication".
In addition, Zhang Guoli, Pan Binlong and others also came to the scene.
However, they are still not qualified to integrate into the conversations of Zhang Yimou, He Chaoqiong and others.
In the camera, Zhang Guoli turns around and greets others. After all, he is an experienced actor and has a certain status in domestic entertainment. There are still others who are willing to give him face. If he cannot squeeze into the circle of big shots, he will not be left alone.
In contrast, Pan Binlong, who had no background, was really embarrassed. He stood there at a loss, watching Zhang Yimou speak helplessly, and did not even dare to approach him.
But the most important thing is that people have self-awareness, and it is not a bad thing to be able to keep oneself in peace.
02 C position is undoubtedly
In addition to celebrities, the most people present were people from wealthy circles.
No, Huo Zhenting came with his son Huo Qigang and daughter-in-law Guo Jingjing.
The 78-year-old Huo Zhenting is now gray-haired, but he is still domineering and looks more and more like Mr. Huo Yingdong.
It can be seen that Huo Qigang's food is good and his life is quite happy recently, and his whole person seems to be fuller again.
Seeing the audience at the scene, he did not have the airs of a wealthy young man. Instead, he greeted everyone enthusiastically and smiled in a very friendly way.
As for Guo Jingjing, she still looks like an elegant and decent wealthy lady, standing next to Huo Qigang, with gentle eyes and relaxed posture. She must have adapted to such an occasion.
However, during the group photo, the Huo family still had to give up the C position for the "main celebrity".
The person standing in the middle was He Chaoqiong, the owner of the organizer of the night.
In addition to being the chairman of MGM, since the death of the gambling king, He Chaoqiong has also taken over most of his business empire and has long become a hot capital tycoon in Macau. There is no doubt about this C position.
As a paid director, Zhang Yimou could only stand on the right side of He Chaoqiong, and on the left was Guo Jingjing.
That's right, it's not Huo Qigang. After all, everyone knows who is the real social responsibility in their family.
Who said "there are many wealthy families, but there is only one Guo Jingjing".
Huo Zhenting did not compete with his juniors for position. He stood beside Zhang Yimou in a low-key manner. The aura around him was hard to ignore.
In comparison, the least imposing person in this group photo is Zhang Yimou. He is hunched over and has his hands folded on his chest. He seems to be overly humble. It seems that in front of capital, no matter how powerful a director is, he is just a worker. He has to bow his head when he should.
03 The heroine of life
Watching He Chaoqiong always straighten her back among a group of men, chatting and laughing, I couldn't help but feel the heroine in her.
Among the many children of the gambling king, He Chaoqiong is the best, and he showed good business talent when he was young.
Therefore, Stanley Ho loves this daughter very much and is quite satisfied. He once publicly stated that "among all the daughters, Pansy (He Chaoqiong's English name) is the most similar to me."
In 2011, 49-year-old He Chaoqiong served as the chairman and executive director of MGM China. Her net worth has exceeded 5 billion, and the return on investment has been as high as 18 times. She has long surpassed her father's performance and is known as the "Queen of Gambling" in Macau.
Looking back on He Chaoqiong's life, one word can describe it as "fighting".
She has made a name for herself in her career, and with her strength, she has removed the label of the gambling king's daughter, allowing the public to remember her original name.
It's a pity that despite her successful career, she has never met a suitable partner in love.
The love story between her and singer Chen Baiqiang is still hard to understand. It can only be said that the right pair did not meet at the right time.
Later, she was forced into a wealthy marriage and married Xu Jinheng, the son of Xu Shixun, a shipping king. This was also a wrong choice, and the relationship ended in divorce.
Today, He Chaoqiong is still alone, but looking at her glorious state, one can't help but reflect on whether marriage is really important to women?
With He Chaoqiong's status and achievements, her life is already very complete. Love is just a tonic, cherish it if you have it, and don't force it if you don't have it.
04 Conclusion
This time, the stage of "Macau 2049" allowed the audience to see Zhang Yimou's still-lasting strength. He Chaoqiong invited him to be the director, which is indeed the right person.
The cooperation between the two will also bring greater business benefits to Macau in the future, which can be described as a win-win cooperation project.
In such a big occasion, the audience also saw the status gap between wealthy families and the entertainment industry. Actors who are usually glamorous are nothing more than that in front of capital.
No wonder everyone wants to be a rich man.
However, a wealthy family is actually a wealthy family in nature. Without an outstanding person in power like He Chaoqiong, I am afraid there would not be the current scene.
I think many people will admire such a legendary woman.
So what do you think about this?
In 2025, Semir Apparel handed over an annual report card that seemed stable at first glance: revenue remained at 15 billion yuan, an increase of 3.17 percentage points.
In a year when overall consumption is under pressure, it is not easy to maintain scale.
But if you look away from revenue, the real changes in this company occur on the other side. In addition to low single-digit growth in revenue, net profit attributable to the parent company, earnings per share, total assets, and net assets attributable to shareholders of listed companies all recorded negative growth.
Behind the increase in revenue but not profit is: franchise stores continue to have net outflows, direct sales revenue has increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and sales expense rates have increased. The income is still there, but the price that needs to be paid in exchange for this income is no longer the same.
The company is using higher costs to maintain what it built two decades ago.
How do the neighbors of Baleno survive today?
Semir's early success was actually not that complicated.
In 1996, Qiu Guanghe started in Wenzhou, using the franchise chain model. Most of the store's rent, decoration, and inventory are borne by franchisees. The headquarters charges brand fees and product price differences, leveraging an extremely wide channel network with extremely low own assets.
The elegance of this model is that expansion requires almost no additional capital, the risk is spread among thousands of franchisees, and the headquarters reaps the bargaining power of scale.
There is still a gap in the low-tier market. User acquisition depends on store density. Opening a new store means adding a new batch of customers. The logic was almost impeccable at first.
That is also a very typical dividend of the times. There is room for channels, consumption is growing, and competition is not yet too fierce. "Opening a store" is almost equal to "having customers", and expansion is almost equal to "growth".
At first it was Semir’s casual wear. In its early days, Semir's positioning of "comfortable experience and quality life" attracted many young people in the face of the then "street fighters" Baleno and Giordano.
But by 2010, the space for casual wear began to narrow, and competition turned from incremental to stock. Qiu Guanghe’s children’s clothing brand Balabala began to take over the “big stick” of growth.
Qiu Guanghe's eyes were very vicious. As early as 2002, he saw a gap in the children's clothing market, advocated professionalism, fashion, and vitality, and aimed at well-off families in middle-income families.
At that time, China's children's clothing market was extremely low-concentration, with messy products and a brand vacuum. Balabala uses chain franchising and uses similar channel genes as casual clothing to rapidly replicate and expand.
China's children's consumer market began to expand rapidly in the mid-2010s. At that time, China was experiencing the peak of newborns. The two-child policy coupled with consumption upgrades meant that post-80s parents who were willing to spend money on their children needed branded children's clothing.
Semir Clothing has taken another "hitchhike".
The shift to children's clothing business is particularly important for Semir Apparel. It is more like a structural correction.
Semir Apparel's core business, casual apparel, is essentially a typical cyclical business: affected by fashion, with obvious fluctuations and strong substitution. Such companies are not scarce in the capital market, and it is difficult to obtain stable valuation expectations.
Barabara changed that. Children's clothing consumption is closer to immediate needs, with higher repurchase frequency and longer life cycle. It provides Semir with a more stable source of income and allows the company to move from an "apparel company" to a "consumer products company."
In 2011, Semir Apparel was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. As a core asset, Balabala is a solid backing for its successful listing. From 2015 to 2019, Semir Apparel’s operating income grew at double digits.
The environment begins to change
2020 will be a turning point for Semir Apparel’s performance.
That year, Semir's apparel operating revenue was 15.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.37%, and its net profit was 806 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 48%. The net profit was almost halved.
Change doesn't happen suddenly.
The franchise system is an advantage in the expansion stage, but when the market enters stock competition, this system begins to expose its other side: difficult management, uneven efficiency, and weak brand execution.
For a brand trying to move up, this is a real hurdle.
So Semir began to shrink franchises and expand direct sales. In 2025, the company closed 163 directly operated stores and opened 211 new ones; it closed 1,236 franchise stores and opened 848 new ones.
During the period, the revenue growth rate brought by the direct operation model reached 30.25%, the revenue brought by franchise stores decreased by more than 5 percentage points compared with the previous year, and online sales revenue increased by 4.50%.
Increasing direct sales gives Semir greater control over channels and makes brand execution more unified.
But there's a trade-off: It's a heavier set of business.
The essence of franchising is to transfer fixed costs such as rent and labor. Once it changes to direct operation, store rent, shopping guide salary, and inventory risk will all fall back on the company.
The larger the scale, the more obvious this weight becomes.
At the same time, traffic is becoming more expensive.
In the past, stores were the entrance to traffic. Things are different now. Consumers are spending more and more time on their mobile phones, on short video platforms, and on various content. The store is still there, but it is no longer an entrance, it is just a conversion scene.
Traffic on social/e-commerce platforms is becoming more and more expensive, and it has become a continuously rising item in sales expenses.
In 2025, Semir Clothing's sales expenses will reach 4.235 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.88%, mainly due to the increase in online platform shipping fees and the corresponding increase in expenses for newly opened offline stores in this period.
The increase in traffic costs is actually a change in the form of channel costs. In the past, it was rent, but now it is traffic price. It’s just that the latter is more uncontrollable and unpredictable.
Children's clothing, a trump card, is also a focus point
If only the cost structure is changing, it can be said to be a "transformation pain" and it is an acceptable transition.
But there's another thing that makes the problem even harder to deal with: dependence on children's clothing.
In 2025, Semir's children's clothing revenue will be 10.8 billion yuan, accounting for more than 71% of the overall revenue, and its proportion of total revenue has quietly increased by 1.36 percentage points.
Coupled with the two authorized businesses of ASICS Kids and PUMA Kids, the entire group's business focus is almost entirely concentrated on children's consumption.
From a strategic logic point of view, this is a deliberate choice.
Balabala has achieved the largest scale in the domestic children's clothing market, and its brand recognition and channel coverage have reached a certain level. The judgment itself of concentrating resources on this strongest line and cultivating it deeply rather than spreading it out makes sense.
But this also means that all external pressures will be concentrated on children’s consumption. There is no other business curve to cushion, no other categories to hedge costs.
The demand for children's clothing market has gone through two stages in the past ten years: first, the incremental period driven by demographic dividend, and then the quality improvement driven by consumption upgrade. Balabala has experienced both stages.
But now is the third stage.
Declining birth rates, intensified consumption stratification, and intensified competition among domestic and foreign brands are not structural trends that a company can fight against. As a result, those problems that originally belonged to "industry changes" will directly become Semir's problems.
Balabala general manager Will said in an interview that the declining birth rate is actually a reshuffle in the industry, and "the next competitive focus of children's clothing is whether it can truly understand the parent-child relationship in this era."
Behind this is Balabala's ability to seize the changes in the children's clothing market. Children's clothing is no longer just for children's consumption, but a part of family relationships. It began to introduce narratives of companionship, growth and interaction into its products and marketing, trying to embed itself in family relationships.
But this understanding is still superficial.
It is more like inheriting a set of mainstream consensus that has been formed and covering different families and different scenarios as much as possible, rather than proactively proposing a more distinct value position. The result is that the expression is broad enough, but not deep enough; the coverage is broad enough, but it is difficult to form a stronger identity.
The lack of a clear position is bound to make it difficult to establish stronger recognition and premium. This also allows a variable that could have become a "new moat" to remain in the "marketing language" stage for the time being.
It's changing its way of life, but it hasn't fully adapted yet
Judging from its actions, Semir is not a company that is blind to changes.
Shrinking franchising and expanding direct sales is to solve the problem of channel control; increasing sales investment is responding to the migration of traffic entrances; deepening the focus on children's clothing is concentrating resources in the most advantageous direction.
Semir has also invested in mid- to high-end brands.
Semir Apparel's cooperative brands include Jason Wu and SHUKU, and it has established joint ventures with the two brands respectively. In addition, in addition to Asics Kids and Puma Kids, Semir Clothing also has a Nordic fashion lifestyle brand Marc O' Polo.
These judgments, taken individually, all make sense.
But there is a question that, taken together, remains unanswered: If it no longer relies on low-cost expansion, what exactly is the core advantage of this business?
This is not a question that can be answered with a strategy document, it needs to be proven with real business results.
Is it product power? Then there needs to be visible investment and differentiation in design, research and development, and fabrics, so that consumers can actively choose Balabala at the same price, not because "the store is close to home."
Is it brand power? Then it is necessary to achieve a certain level of emotional resonance and mental occupation, so that "buying clothes for children" becomes a habitual cognition, rather than a choice that can be replaced at any time.
Is it a user relationship? Then we need a consumer operation system that can continue to accumulate and be activated repeatedly, so that every parent who buys Balabala will have a higher repurchase rate and stronger brand stickiness.
Semir is doing all three of these things. But to what extent it has been achieved and how many real barriers to competition it has created are still unclear.
Before this answer appears, all it can do is maintain its current scale and position at a higher cost. It's a working business, but not an easy one.
Although it has not entered a real crisis, Semir Apparel is getting further and further away from that period of easier "counting money". Not into a real crisis, but it's moving further and further away from that easier period.
On April 9, market research organization Omdia released the global PC market report for the first quarter of 2026. Data show that in the first quarter of 2026, the global PC market increased by 3.2% year-on-year to 64.8 million units. In the market segments, notebook computers (including mobile workstations) increased by 2.6% year-on-year to 50.8 million units. Desktop computers (including desktop workstations) performed even more strongly, increasing by 5.4% year-on-year to 14 million units. The overall market showed a phased recovery trend.
The growth drivers mainly come from three aspects: first, manufacturers and channels prepare stocks in advance to cope with rising costs; second, the Windows 10 replacement cycle continues to promote corporate procurement; third, the pace of new product releases in spring is accelerated, driving the release of phased demand.
But the foundation for this growth is not solid. Omdia chief analyst Ben Yeh pointed out that as supply chain pressure continues to rise, the first quarter may become the high point of shipment performance for the whole year. From a cost perspective, AI data centers have continued to intensify their use of resources since 2025, causing memory and storage prices to rise approximately five times and three times respectively, and are expected to rise further in the second quarter of 2026. At the same time, Intel and AMD also expect CPU prices to rise by 10% to 25%, further compressing the profit margins of machine manufacturers.
By region, cost pressure in North America is borne more by channel vendors than by end customers. The decline in the Japanese market is more significant, which may be due to the high shipment base in the first quarter of 2025, as well as the high cost and parts supply pressure in the education field. The momentum is no longer the same as in 2025; the weakening of policy momentum may also become one of the main factors for the shrinkage of the Japanese market in 2026.
Judging from the ranking, Lenovo continued to rank first with 16.5 million units shipped, with a market share of more than 25%, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, further consolidating its advantages in commercial and global channel capabilities; HP declined year-on-year due to weak demand in Europe and the United States. 4.9%, with a market share of 12.14 million units, accounting for 18.7%, maintaining second place; Dell increased by 7.8% year-on-year, with shipments reaching 10.29 million units, ranking third with a 7.8% share; Apple benefited from MacBook Driven by Air and new products, it achieved a growth of 5.4%, with shipments reaching 7.11 million units, and a market share of 5.4%, ranking fourth. ASUS maintained double-digit growth, with shipments reaching 4.6 million units, and a market share of 7.1%, ranking fifth.
Global PC shipments in the first quarter of 2026 Omdia
Mainland China's PC market will also show the impact of shifting demand and rising costs. According to Omdia data, for the whole of 2025, China's PC market will grow by 6% year-on-year to 42.1 million units, mainly supported by consumer subsidy policies and commercial demand. However, in 2026, as the subsidy intensity drops from about 30% to about 15%, and quotas and phased distribution mechanisms are introduced, Omdia predicts that China's PC market is expected to decline by 10% year-on-year to 37.9 million units in 2026, entering a typical "post-subsidy cycle."
Broken down into brands, in the fourth quarter of 2025 in mainland China's PC market, Lenovo ranked first with 4.6 million units shipped, with a market share of 40%, a year-on-year increase of 13%; Huawei ranked second with 1.3 million units shipped, with a market share of 11%, a year-on-year increase of 16%. HP ranked third with 1.2 million units shipped, with a market share of 10%, a year-on-year increase of 22%. iSoftStone shipped 900,000 units, with a market share of 8%, but fell 20% year-on-year, ranking fourth; Apple shipped 700,000 units, occupying 6% of the market share, growing 14% year-on-year, ranking fifth.
Mainland China PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2025 Omida
Overall, the PC market in 2026 is changing from demand-driven to cost- and structure-driven. The global market will still have shipment support in the short term, but cost pressures will gradually emerge; the Chinese market is the first to enter an adjustment cycle and needs to find a new growth balance between subsidies and falling demand. The key to the future competitive landscape lies in whether manufacturers can control costs while strengthening AI capabilities and product structures to stimulate market vitality.
A few days ago, reporters learned from China Railway Harbin Bureau Group Co., Ltd. that as an important railway hub in the Northeast region, Harbin Railway Station and trains pick up a large number of passengers' lost items every year, covering documents, electronic products, cash, luggage and other items. During the Spring Festival travel period, Harbin Station alone picks up hundreds of items lost by passengers every day on average. Although the staff worked hard to find and return them, some items were still stranded for a long time due to incomplete information. Railway staff said that these methods will help passengers find their lost items.
According to official statistics from Harbin Railway, at major stations such as Harbin Station, Harbin West Station, and Qiqihar Station, dozens of lost items are picked up every day. During peak passenger flow periods such as Spring Festival, Summer Transport, and holidays, the number of items picked up in a single day surges to hundreds. Taking the 2026 Spring Festival as an example, the Harbin Railway Public Security Department recovered more than 2,100 items of lost property for passengers, saving nearly 1.4 million yuan in economic losses.
In terms of types of lost items, ID cards, bank cards and other documents accounted for the highest proportion, accounting for almost 30% of the total; followed by electronic products such as mobile phones, headphones, and computers, as well as daily necessities such as backpacks, suitcases, and clothing. Valuable items such as cash, jewelry, and important documents also appeared from time to time. Most of these items are left behind in waiting room seats, security checkpoints, train seats, sleeper berths, toilets, luggage racks and other areas. These items are often caused by passengers rushing to catch the train, focusing on their mobile phones, or having too much luggage and neglecting to check it.
There is no need to panic after items are lost. Harbin Railway has established an online and offline linkage lost item search and return system.
Online, passengers can log in to the railway 12306 APP and submit information through the "My - Warm Service - Lost Items" function;
You can also call the 12306 customer service hotline to clearly explain the train number, time, seats and item characteristics. Offline, you can go to the station service desk, lost and found office, or ask the nearest staff for help.
All found items will be strictly registered, entered into the system, affixed with unique labels and properly kept. ID cards and other documents will be registered in the 12306 system, and passengers with reserved information can receive SMS notifications for collection. Once found, the items can be handed over to the station ahead by train, etc., so that passengers can collect them nearby. They can retrieve them after verifying that the information is correct and signing.
The railway department hereby reminds passengers: Be sure to take care of your belongings when traveling and carry valuables with you; do not indulge in mobile phones while riding or waiting; carefully check around the seats, bunks, luggage racks and pockets before leaving your seat and getting off the train; mark them when carrying multiple pieces of luggage to avoid taking them by mistake.
At the time of the Hong Kong IPO, Baiwei Storage’s “patent litigation battle” escalated again.
On the evening of April 8, Baiwei Storage announced that the company had recently received a "Response Notice" from the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court. Emtier Storage Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Emtier Company") filed a lawsuit with the court over two disputes over infringement of invention patent rights. The plaintiff requested compensation of 50 million yuan.
According to the announcement, this case is two new patent lawsuits based on the same patent package, involving eMMC standard products. As early as 2025, Emtier has initiated two invention patent lawsuits against Baiwei Storage, and the court proceedings have been opened in April this year. This new lawsuit means that the litigation tug-of-war between the two parties has intensified.
Regarding the new lawsuits, Baiwei Storage stated in the announcement that after preliminary assessment, the above-mentioned lawsuits will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's production, operations and financial status. At the same time, as of the announcement, the two lawsuits have not yet been heard.
For Baiwei Storage, this is a critical period.
This semiconductor memory company submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2025. It is still in the process of Hong Kong stock IPO, which is an important period for the impact of listing. At the same time, the patent lawsuit filed by Emtier targets Baiwei Storage's R&D capabilities and the "gold content" of its patents. This is a "cut to the core" accusation for the semiconductor industry, which already values these two elements.
In addition, according to the 2025 financial report data just released by Baiwei Storage, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company last year was 853 million yuan. According to the plaintiff's compensation amount of 50 million, it has exceeded 5% of the net profit attributable to the parent company last year. The potential risk is that if the plaintiff is supported, it will not be ruled out that other companies will also initiate compensation lawsuits against the patent, which will cause continuous erosion of the company's profits.
Behind the plaintiff lies an industry rival
Baiwei Storage is a well-known semiconductor storage company in China. It was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. Its main business includes the research and development, production and sales of semiconductor memories. Its main products and services are semiconductor storage solutions and advanced packaging and testing services, which are used in servers/data centers, smartphones, tablets, computers and other industries as well as in the field of personal mobile storage.
The company will be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board at the end of 2022, and leading companies such as OPPO, VIVO, Lenovo, Meta, Google, Alibaba, and Xiaomi are its customers in different product fields. According to earlier financial report data, Baiwei Storage will only turn losses into profits in 2024, and will achieve revenue of 11.3 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the parent company of 850 million yuan in 2025, a profit increase of more than 465%.
It is worth noting that standing behind the plaintiff is Longsys, also a leading company in the semiconductor storage industry. The litigation "confrontation" during the IPO period will undoubtedly further intensify the competition between the two parties.
If you look through the equity of the plaintiff Emtier, you will find that this company has only two shareholders. Among them, the American company Memory Technologies LLC (hereinafter referred to as "MTL") holds 51% of the shares, and Shenzhen Anjiecun Electronics Co., Ltd. holds 49% of the shares.
Information shows that Shenzhen Anjiecun is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Longsys. In other words, the main party in the lawsuit against Baiwei Storage is Longsys's grandson company.
Baiwei Storage also mentioned in the announcement that MTL is marked as a Patent Assertion Entity (that is, a company that mainly obtains income through patent licensing or patent litigation) in patent litigation databases such as Unified Patents Portal. The company is in active licensing negotiations for the patent package held by MTL. During the negotiation process, the owner of a small number of patents in the patent package was changed to Emtier, the plaintiff in the above two cases.
A lawyer engaged in patent litigation in East China said that there are indeed some companies in the technology industry that hold patents that are relatively important or have relatively wide coverage in the industry: "As long as you are engaged in this industry, you cannot circumvent its patented technology. Therefore, many industry companies must obtain patent licenses from this company, or this company can obtain benefits through continuous appeals for compensation."
The specific patents involved this time are two patents in one patent package, both involving the expanded utilization area of storage devices. The original applicant of one of the patents was MTL, and the original applicant of the other patent was Nokia. Both were later transferred to Emtier, and the patent expiration dates are January 30, 2029.
This situation is similar to the lawsuit filed by Yuanxuzhi Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuanxuzhi Company") in June last year.
According to the announcement at the time, Yuanxuzhi also filed a lawsuit against Biwin Storage for two disputes over infringement of invention patent rights. The patents involved also involved Biwin eMMC products. The original applicants for the patents were Nokia Corporation, and were later transferred to MTL, Longsys Electronics (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., and Emtier Corporation.
Two months before Yuanxuzhi filed a lawsuit against Baiwei Storage, Emtier had just signed a "Patent Implementation License Contract" with Yuanxuzhi, licensing the patent to Yuanxuzhi for use.
However, the expiration date of this patent is November 27 this year, and the time of prosecution is closer to the expiration date of the patent. At the same time, the amount of compensation requested by Yuanxuzhi at that time was 1.2169 million yuan, which was far lower than the amount of compensation demanded in the recent lawsuit.
This lawsuit was withdrawn in September last year, but not long after, Emtier again sued the court for the same invention patent dispute. The lawsuit was heard on April 2 and 3 this year.
Litigation directly hits the "vital gate" of listing
Regarding the impact of new lawsuits on the company, Baiwei Storage stated in the announcement that during the licensing negotiation process for the patents involved, the company always adhered to the FRAND principle (the principle of fairness, reasonableness, and non-discrimination), actively cooperated with the negotiations, showed full goodwill and willingness to cooperate, and made no obvious mistakes.
At the same time, the company believes that the amount of damages claimed by the plaintiffs in the two cases involved in this announcement lacks evidence support, and it is expected that the litigation will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's profits for the current and subsequent periods.
Baiwei Storage added in the announcement that the plaintiff's current compensation amount is 50 million yuan. According to the "Patent Law of the People's Republic of China", if the loss of the right holder, the benefits obtained by the infringer and the patent license fee are difficult to determine, the people's court can determine the compensation to be between 30,000 yuan and 5 million yuan based on factors such as the type of patent right, the nature and circumstances of the infringement.
In this regard, the above-mentioned intellectual property lawyer said that as for the amount of compensation for infringement of patent property rights, the court must first determine whether it actually constitutes infringement: "After determining the infringement, it also depends on the contribution rate of the infringing patent to the overall product, the duration of the infringement, and how much of the technology is publicly available on the market."
He also mentioned that if the defendant has benefited greatly from patent infringement, then it does not rule out the possibility of exceeding the 5 million statutory compensation amount stipulated in the Patent Law: "It mainly depends on how much evidence the plaintiff has."
Since Baiwei Storage is in the critical period of the Hong Kong IPO, it is being sued in court for patent infringement. Whether it will affect its listing process is also a matter of concern to the market.
Baiwei Storage emphasized in the announcement that the lawsuit will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's production, operations and financial status. However, a relevant person from the Securities Department also said in a reply to "21st Century Business Herald", "We still need to determine internally whether it will have an impact on Hong Kong stocks (IPO)."
The above-mentioned lawyer also mentioned that intellectual property rights such as patents are industry barriers for many technology companies and are also an important factor in being recognized by the capital market. If it does constitute infringement and the infringement is on a relatively important patent in its own business, the impact on the company to be listed will be quite "destructive".
But he also admitted that at this stage, technology companies are intensively listed and are the "sweet potato" of the capital market, so lawsuits against IPO companies are also relatively common.
It should be mentioned that Longsys, the plaintiff behind this lawsuit, and Baiwei Storage, the defendant, are both in the process of the Hong Kong stock IPO. Longsys submitted its application to the Hong Kong stock market in March last year, earlier than Baiwei Storage, but the materials had expired in September last year.
Interestingly, after the announcement of the lawsuit, Baiwei Storage's A-share stock price did not seem to be greatly affected. After a slight drop the day after the announcement, on April 10, affected by the general increase in the memory chip sector index, Baiwei Storage's stock price also rose by 6.15%. The stock price closed at 241.51 yuan per share, with a market value of 113.712 billion yuan. Longsys was affected by the same positive news, and its stock price also rose simultaneously. It closed at 341.3 yuan per share on April 10, with its total market value reaching 143.054 billion.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman insisted on April 8 that Apple’s first foldable screen iPhone will still be released in September as planned.
Just the day before, Nikkei Asia reported another picture: the engineering verification and testing phase encountered more complex problems than expected. The hinge yield rate was only 30% to 65%, and the screen creases could not be eliminated. In the worst case, mass production may be delayed for several months.
The tug-of-war between the two voices just exposes the real dilemma of Apple’s folding screen - Huawei Mate
The era when suppliers worked hard to squeeze into Apple's supply chain is gone forever. What replaced it was a collective rational defense based on "Ophelia fear." Working for Apple has gone from being a ticket to the top spot in the A-share market to a toxic asset that may return to zero overnight.
Looking deeper, Apple itself is in structural trouble. It is still a reluctant monarch of the global supply chain and a sandwich layer in the geopolitical game. When security and politics replace pure market logic and become the primary variable in supply chain decisions, Apple's control techniques that rely on technological leadership and business reputation are experiencing unprecedented backlash. In this sense, Apple's toxicity does not only refer to its strong treatment of suppliers, but also to a distorted macro environment - an environment in which commercial rationality gives way to political narratives, and Apple is both a pressurer and a victim.
1. From the myth of wealth creation to the closed loop of fear
To understand Apple's current predicament, one must look back at the dramatic turnaround in its supply chain relationships over the past fifteen years.
It was an era of wealth creation belonging to the fruit chain. Wang Laichun, the founder of Luxshare Precision, once said that flying with the phoenix must be a handsome bird. In order to get orders from Apple, Luxshare pursues a close-to-customer strategy. Foxconn will build factories wherever they go. In 2017, when Inventec was struggling with the yield rate of AirPods, Luxshare not only overcame the problem, but also shortened the product delivery cycle from five to six weeks to one to three days, winning the exclusive OEM right in one fell swoop.
This faith-based collaboration has paid off handsomely. Luxshare Precision’s revenue was less than 10 billion yuan when it went public in 2010, but it had soared to 268.7 billion yuan in 2024. Wang Laichun also ranked the fourth richest female in China with a net worth of 85.5 billion yuan in March 2026. The same story happened to Goertek and Lens Technology. At that time, entering the fruit chain was synonymous with technical strength and global reputation, and was a proven high-speed upward path.
The turning point began in March 2021. Apple suddenly kicked OFILM out of the supply chain. The superficial reason was supply chain adjustment, but the industry generally believes that the geopolitical background of being included in the U.S. Entity List was the key pressure for Apple to make the decision to cut. This company that has been OEMing for Apple for many years collapsed instantly: its revenue in 2021 was cut by 52.75% year-on-year, with a net loss of 2.665 billion yuan, its stock price plummeted 70%, and its market value evaporated by more than 30 billion yuan. What's even more fatal is that some of the special equipment and process standards customized for Apple are difficult to directly reuse in Huawei and Xiaomi's product lines, resulting in low production capacity utilization during the conversion period and a sharp increase in asset impairment pressure.
However, Ou Feiguang did not die as expected. After the return of the Huawei Mate 60 series in 2023, OFILM won most of the orders for camera modules; in 2025, it will also exclusively supply camera modules for Xiaomi AI glasses and SU7 Ultra. This abandoned fruit chain company, once abandoned by Apple, relied on orders from Hualian and Milian to urgently add new production lines at its Nanchang factory, achieving a dramatic turnaround.
But the price of this renewal is that OFILM has shifted from being deeply bound to Apple to equally deeply dependent on Huawei and Xiaomi. In 2024, the sales revenue share of its top five customers will increase from 69.54% to 77.35%. OFILM's case has thus become a preview of suppliers' worst fears: no matter which chain they switch to, over-reliance on a single customer's high-investment model is a high-risk gamble.
If OFILM's resurrection had given the market a glimmer of luck, then the experience of Wingtech Technology had completely extinguished this glimmer of hope. In 2021, Wingtech acquired OFILM's original Apple camera business for 2.42 billion yuan, intending to enter the fruit chain. After difficult compliance reforms and production line upgrades, its Kunming factory will finally start manufacturing MacBooks for Apple in 2023. However, in December 2024, Wingtech was included in the entity list by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and all efforts came to nothing in an instant. In 2025, Wingtech was forced to sell all of its foundry business to Luxshare Precision for about 4.4 billion yuan.
Apple’s sandwich layer dilemma is highlighted here. OFILM was abandoned due to Apple's hedging choice under geopolitical pressure; Wingtech was blocked due to external sanctions beyond its control. Apple is both the enforcer of pressure and the passive party unable to protect its partners. This dual role allows suppliers to see clearly the fact that when cooperating with Apple, they not only have to face its commercial strength, but also bear non-market risks that it cannot shield. No matter how good the technology is, it may be abandoned by Apple for non-commercial reasons; compliance operations may also be sanctioned by external forces beyond Apple's control.
The two cases are superimposed to form a complete closed loop of fear - it declares to all Chinese suppliers that investing in dedicated assets and excessive technology investment for Apple is a high-risk gamble with an uncontrollable outcome. The risk-benefit formula of Fruit Chain Certification, which once symbolized glory and wealth, has been completely rewritten.
2. From faith-based cooperation to risk pricing
Fear directly leads to fundamental changes in behavioral patterns.
In the past, the belief-based cooperation that took the initiative to advance regardless of costs has now been replaced by a calculated and defense-first risk consideration. This shift is essentially about pricing non-market risks.
Leading suppliers are taking the initiative to reduce their dependence on Apple. Luxshare Precision's revenue from Apple has dropped from approximately 75% in 2022 to 64.3% in the first half of 2025. Its strategic focus has clearly shifted: through the acquisition of Germany's Leoni wiring harness business and Wingtech's ODM department, it will aggressively enter the automotive electronics and Android mobile phone camps. In the first nine months of 2025, Luxshare's automotive business revenue surged 155% year-on-year to 23.7 billion yuan. Lens Technology is also reducing Apple's sales proportion. Its new energy vehicle business revenue will increase by 39.47% in 2023. Its customer list includes Tesla, BYD, Ideal, Weilai, etc. Resources are flowing from the uncertain Apple folding screen project to a track with more certainty and policy support.
Investment strategies have also shifted from specialized to general purpose.
In the past, suppliers would spend huge sums of money to build dedicated production lines for specific Apple products. For example, in 2021, Luxshare invested 11 billion yuan in Kunshan to build a super factory equivalent to the size of 40 football fields in order to compete for iPhone orders. Now, facing Apple’s folding screen project, the first principle for suppliers is to avoid repeating the mistakes of OFILM. They refuse to build production lines that only serve Apple, and require that the production lines must be compatible with the standards of customers such as Huawei and Xiaomi to prevent assets from being scrapped if orders change due to commercial or non-commercial reasons. They even began to require Apple to prepay for investment in production lines, subverting the traditional investment first and amortization after success model. This is equivalent to requiring Apple to pay a deposit for potential political cut-off risks.
Technology interactions similarly shift from transparency to retention.
"Nikkei Asia" reported an intriguing detail: Apple purchased domestically produced folding screens for disassembly, but was still unable to solve the crease problem. This is most likely a technology retention strategy. Take Huawei Mate X6 as an example. Its hinge patents have exceeded 2,850, and the crease depth is controlled to 0.08 mm, which is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. China's supply chain already has the ability to achieve crease-free production, but in the face of Apple, they have the incentive to show that the technology is not feasible in the game.
The most fundamental changes occur at the negotiating table. In the past, suppliers accepted Apple's harsh terms in exchange for admission, including 90 to 120-day accounting periods, 5% annual price reduction requirements, and technology exclusivity. Now, they are beginning to demand a risk premium from OFILM: technical protection clauses signed in advance to prevent technology from being transferred to Indian or Vietnamese suppliers; a clear exit compensation mechanism to prevent being kicked out without reason or for political reasons; and a shorter accounting period. In short, the shift from cooperation first and then discussing money has become to insuring political risks first and then discussing business cooperation. If Apple does not agree, suppliers would rather give up the order than make unguaranteed excess investment. The annual reduction mechanism that Apple used to control costs and the threat of second suppliers to control technology are failing in the face of this new algorithm.
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