Complaints against banking sector rise CHINA Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and its local bureaus received a total of 84,424 cases of consumer complaints in the second quarter of this year, up 25.5 percent year on year. More than half of the complaints were related to credit card businesses. The number of cases involving credit card service increased 37.2 percent year on year to 46,273 in the second quarter, accounting for 54.8 percent of the total. Complaint cases involving personal loan service came in at 23,059, up 52.2 percent year on year, while those involving wealth management products dropped 59.2 percent from a year ago to 4,334 cases. Zhejiang logs rising online retail sales ZHEJIANG Province, an e-commerce heartland in eastern China, saw a robust increase in online retail sales in the first eight months this year. The online retail sales of the province in the period reached 1.38 trillion yuan (US$214.5 billion), up 15.1 percent from the same period last year, data from the provincial department of commerce showed. Residents in the province, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, spent nearly 733.8 billion yuan on online shopping from January to August, up 17.5 percent year on year. Clothes, shoes and bags, home decorations, as well as computers, and communication and consumer electronics ranked in the top categories in terms of online sales. Shanghai’s electric vehicle exports soar THE export value of Shanghai’s pure electric passenger vehicles came in at approximately 20.68 billion yuan (US$3.22 billion), up 14.3 times year on year, in the first eight months of 2021, local customs said Thursday. From January to August, the city’s auto exports reached nearly 35 billion yuan, up 247.8 percent year on year. During the period, pure electric passenger cars accounted for nearly 60 percent of Shanghai’s total automobile export value. Xpeng-backed startup to deliver flying cars XPENG Heitech, a flying car startup backed by electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc., said Wednesday that it would deliver flying cars to customers in 2024. Xpeng Heitech’s model will be able to drive on road, founder Zhao Deli said. The electric flying car will be able to drive over 600 kilometers on road with a single charge but Zhao did not say how far it can fly each time. | 