Good Morning. Welcome to The Wire’s daily news roundup. Each day, our staff gathers the top China business, finance, and economics headlines from a selection of the world’s leading news organizations.
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The Wall Street Journal
- American Banks Have What They Want in China. Their Fate Is Still Out of Their Hands. — U.S. investment banks and asset managers can finally control their local subsidiaries in China. That spells huge opportunity—but also plenty of pitfalls.
- China Sticks to Covid-Zero Policies, Despite Rising Pressure to Ease Restrictions — Businesses have called for a plan to end the strict pandemic regime, warning of the increasing economic toll.
- Chinese Online Broker Shares Dropped After Criticism From Central Bank — Futu Holdings and Up Fintech fell after a senior official said cross-border online brokerages operating in mainland China were acting illegally.
- After Alibaba’s $400 Billion Stock Selloff, Investors Hope the Worst Is Over — They may have to wait a while for the former market darling to regain its glory.
- Evergrande Averts Default Again by Making Second Late Payment — Indebted developer pays $45 million before end of grace period.
- India’s Missile Test Seen as Warning to China After Breakdown in Border Talks — The long-range Agni-5 is country’s only missile capable of reaching Beijing.
The Financial Times
- Evergrande’s last-minute payments provide little clarity for investors — Chinese developer has avoided default but questions persist about Beijing’s role in bolstering company.
- China and India cast pall over climate ambitions ahead of COP26 — Beijing leaves targets unchanged while New Delhi indicates it will make no new commitments.
The New York Times
- China’s New Climate Pledge Changes Little, in Bad Omen for COP26 — China’s updated targets for cutting emissions to fight climate change reiterate what its leader pledged nearly a year ago. That doesn’t bode well for progress at next week’s global climate summit.
- China’s Hockey Team Is So Bad It Might Be Dropped From the Olympics — Months ahead of the Beijing Games, hockey officials are trying to balance competitive concerns with fears about embarrassing the host nation.
Caixin
- SPAC Listing Plan in Hong Kong Wins Advisory Panel Backing — Blank-check special purpose acquisition companies would face strict rules after HK exchange’s struggles with shell company scandals.
- China’s Top Power Producers See Red as Surging Coal Prices Sink Profits — Three of the country’s biggest generators lost a combined 6.9 billion yuan in the third quarter.
- Boeing Expects 737 Max to Return to China in Early 2022 — Chinese regulators may lift a three-year-old grounding order in November, reopening the company’s biggest export market.
South China Morning Post
- China debt: Beijing names and shames costly local government projects in bid to curb debt — Beijing has named and shamed eight local government projects in four western provinces as part of its push to rein in mounting local government debt and excessive borrowing in the property sector.
- Huawei revenue drops 32 per cent in first nine months as US sanctions cripple its once lucrative smartphone business — Huawei Technologies Co, the Chinese telecommunications and smartphone giant, reported a 32 per cent slump in sales for the first nine months of 2021, deepening a 29.4 per cent decline in the first half, as the company’s handset business was crippled by US sanctions.
- US lawmakers pass tighter restrictions on Huawei, ZTE, sending bill to Biden — The US Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to approve legislation to prevent companies such as Huawei Technologies Co or ZTE Corp that are deemed security threats from receiving new equipment licences from US regulators.
Bloomberg
- G-20 Still Deadlocked as China Won’t Budge on Climate Goals — Negotiations at the Group of 20 summit in Rome dragged past midnight, stuck on energy and climate. Some countries singled out China, saying it is refusing to beef up commitments to limit temperature increases and digging in over coal.
- Coal in Freefall in China as Government Steps Up Price War — Coal futures extended a dramatic decline as China’s government said there’s further room for prices to fall, ratcheting up interventions in the market aimed at easing an energy crisis.
- Chinese IPO Flops Pile Up in Worst Week Since 2012 — Investors in China are faced with the highest number of stocks falling on their first trading day in over nine years this week, shaking a long-held faith in fat gains on debuts as regulators step up reforms of initial public offerings.
- Hong Kong Exits Top Three Global IPO Venues as China Clamps Down — Hong Kong is no longer in the top three listing venues globally as a widening crackdown by China on a vast range of industries hits investor sentiment and share prices.
Reuters
- China’s Xi to participate in G20 leaders’ summit via video link — China’s President Xi Jinping will participate in the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in Rome on Oct. 30-31 via video link, according to a notice from China’s foreign ministry on Friday.
- China’s Li Ning risks running too far off trail — International expansion and brand-building are among the targeted uses for the money, but the company might get more bang for its buck by investing more internally.
- U.S. lawmakers vote to tighten restrictions on Huawei, ZTE — The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to approve legislation to prevent companies such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd or ZTE Corp that are deemed security threats from receiving new equipment licenses from U.S. regulators.
- China pushes for security reviews of firms seeking to export user data — The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement that the security review requirement would also be applied to firms if their data is collected and generated by operators of “critical information infrastructure,” or if the data to be sent overseas contains “important” information.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s state-controlled media are put on an even shorter leash — All the news sources that may be republished sound similar.
- The Economist: China says it defends women’s rights. So why attack feminists? — If women are not allowed to organise, they will struggle to achieve equality.
- The Washington Post: In China, 300 coronavirus cases means public shaming, marooned travelers and a nationwide dragnet — In many countries, those kinds of numbers would be untroubling or even a cause for celebration. But not in China, which remains steadfastly committed to eliminating the virus while most of the world shifts toward mitigation.
- Quartz: The strongest weapon in Xi Jinping’s common prosperity armoury is a property tax — The country’s top legislative body announced that it will roll out a five-year pilot scheme for the property tax in some regions, despite steep resistance from the middle class and political elites, many of whom own a vast number of properties.
