A record European heatwave has collided with a continent where only about one home in five has air conditioning. Chinese AC brands, led by Midea, Gree, TCL, Haier and Hisense, are selling out across France, Spain, Germany and the UK. The question is whether a cooling crisis becomes a durable brand position.

Molly Tea opened in Flushing in 2024 to roughly US$500,000 a month, the strongest debut Chinese new tea had seen in North America. Eighteen months later, four New York stores went nameless and the brand and its US partner were suing each other. The collapse is a case study in what growth narratives hide.

For years base makeup was the one beauty category Chinese brands could not win, ceded to CPB, NARS and Estee Lauder. FUNNY ELVES just became the No.1 powder brand across Tmall and Douyin. Here is how it built a category of one, and where the model is now under pressure.

A 5,999-yuan LABUBU mini-fridge drew nearly 38,000 preorders and resold for close to 90,000 yuan. Behind the spectacle, Pop Mart is testing whether an emotional toy IP can carry a functional product, and whether its new overseas retail engine can carry both.

A DTC brand breakdown of Augustinus Bader using the WWW.HER framework (customer, product, marketing, brand story). The Augustinus Bader strategy inverted the standard DTC playbook to build a US$1 billion premium brand. Here is what Chinese brands going global can actually take from it.

In May 2026 Proya paid 351 million yuan to lift its stake in Flower Knows to 51 percent, valuing the brand at 2.83 billion yuan on a 595.76 percent appraisal premium. This is why the most-watched Flower Knows acquisition of the year was rational, what Proya was really buying, and how it marks a split in how Chinese consumer giants do cross-border M&A.

SHEIN paid US$100 million for Everlane, and CEO Alfred Chang has already promised Everlane will stay independent under SHEIN ownership. We unpack why the business case is clean, why the integration temptation will be enormous, and which leading indicators over the next 12 months will tell us whether SHEIN can stick to its promise or quietly drift toward full absorption.

Anta is now the largest sportswear company in China, ahead of Nike. But the more interesting story is what it owns abroad. Arc'teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Descente, Maia Active and a fresh 29% stake in PUMA: a portfolio that looks less like Nike and more like LVMH in sport.

While Florasis opened flagships in Tokyo and Flower Knows raised growth capital, Proya, China's largest pure-play beauty company, has barely opened a counter abroad. Instead, it bought a Japanese hair brand, took a Series B stake in Flower Knows, opened a Paris R&D center and filed for a Hong Kong IPO. Inside Proya's patient capital playbook for going global, and what it tells us about the next phase of Chinese beauty's international ambition.

Chinese games have become China's most successful cultural export. Genshin hit US$10 billion in lifetime spending, Black Myth: Wukong sold 25 million copies, and Infinity Nikki crossed US$69 million in its first year. Consumer brands are often asked to follow the same playbook, but games and consumer goods sell very different things.