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.
Paid subscribers automatically have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day by 10 a.m. EST. Subscribe here.
The Wall Street Journal
- Chinese Authorities Trace Origins of Chained Woman After Footage Stirs Online Anger — Questions remain over how ‘Little Plum Blossom’ came to marry a man nearly 2,000 miles from her home.
- U.S. Adds China’s Wuxi Biologics to ‘Unverified List’; Shares Dive — Listing restricts an entity’s ability to receive U.S. exports.
- China-Based Hytera Charged With Stealing Trade Secrets From Motorola Solutions — U.S. prosecutors allege that Hytera got Motorola Solutions employees to steal proprietary digital mobile radio technology.
- Hong Kong Expands Vaccine Mandate Amid Record Covid-19 Outbreak — Unvaccinated residents will be barred from supermarkets, shopping malls starting Feb. 24.
Olympics Coverage
- Chinese Heritage Can Be a Burden as Much as a Boon for American Olympians in Beijing — Top athletes such as Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou are no longer conferred automatic hero status, a reflection of the changed political landscape.
- Eileen Gu’s Beijing Olympics Begin With Gold in Big Air—And Citizenship Questions — The U.S.-born freestyle skiing star competing for China landed a huge trick on her final run to win the first of three events she’ll contest at these Games.
The Financial Times
- Hong Kong’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy faces critical test from Omicron surge — Asian financial hub vows to implement tougher controls as new infections mount.
- Chinese healthcare stocks sell off after US adds companies to ‘unverified’ list — Slide for drugmaker WuXi Biologics wipes $10bn from market cap.
- Inflows to Hong Kong ETFs double from 2020 — Net flows reached $10bn in 2021 despite poor performance and regulatory headwinds.
- Peng Shuai meets Olympics chief and denies alleging sexual assault — Tennis star largely disappeared from public view after making accusations against Chinese official.
Olympics Coverage
- Eileen Gu’s gold at Beijing Olympics ignites celebrations in host country — US-born skier described as ‘pride of China’ is one of the most marketed athletes at Games.
- Beijing’s mixing of geopolitics and the Winter Olympics comes at a cost — Choice of torchbearer involved in Himalayan clash irks India and reveals mindset of Xi’s China.
The New York Times
- North Korea Builds ICBM Base Near China to Deter U.S. — The location is meant to protect its most powerful weapons from pre-emptive strikes, allowing the military to expand an already rapidly growing arsenal.
- Why This Could Be a Critical Year for Electric Cars — Booming in a depressed market, battery-powered vehicles are a plus for the climate but pose a big threat to carmakers and parts suppliers that are slow to change.
- Hong Kong announces its toughest social-distancing rules yet as cases reach record highs. — Hong Kong will require hair salons and places of worship to close for two weeks starting Thursday, and no more than two households will be allowed to meet in private.
- ‘Fight Club’ Ending Is Restored in China After Censorship Outcry — Last month, viewers noticed that the ending of the 1999 film had been replaced with a pro-government message. Now the ending is back, and the message is gone.
Olympics Coverage
- At Winter Games, a Hard-Bitten Chinese Coal Town Hunts for Gold — The little city of Qitaihe has produced an improbable number of China’s golds at the Winter Games, and residents say it began with a miner with a pair of skates.
- How a Uyghur Olympic Torchbearer Became a Divisive Symbol — For China, a Uyghur lighting the cauldron was a feel-good moment of ethnic unity. Western critics saw a cynical bid to whitewash human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Caixin
- Ant-Backed MYBank Fined for Anti-Money Laundering Violations — Central bank levies $3.5 million for multiple violations including breaching rules on credit scoring and financial institution management
- Wuxi Biologics Among 33 Chinese Firms to Land on Market-Rattling U.S. Government List — Shares of the firm sank as much as 32% in Hong Kong earlier on Tuesday, leading health care stocks lower.
- Hong Kong Expert Warns of Covid ‘Tsunami’ — Hong Kong reported 614 new Covid infections Monday, the highest daily tally in two years and nearly double its previous peak of 351 cases set on Saturday.
South China Morning Post
- Chinese video platform Bilibili denies death of 25-year-old employee was the result of overwork — Chinese video-sharing platform operator Bilibili said in an internal letter on Monday that the sudden death of a young employee was not caused by working overtime.
- Hong Kong protests: judge rejects American lawyer’s appeal against 4½-month sentence for assaulting plain-clothes policeman — Bickett’s lawyers had denied an intent to wound, and contended the officer posed an imminent threat to public safety as he had refused to identify himself.
- Hong Kong resident with Australian citizenship prosecuted for subversion last year, Canberra confirms — Consular officers sought to offer assistance several times but were denied, due to Hong Kong law on recognising dual nationalities, Canberra says.
Bloomberg
- China Targets Billionaires for Detentions in Rough Justice, Communist-Style — For those doing business in the world’s second-largest economy, an opaque legal system presents a grave risk.
- Wuxi Biologics Halted After U.S. Unverified List Sparks Rout — Wuxi Biologics Cayman Inc. shares were suspended in Hong Kong Tuesday after its inclusion to the U.S. government’s unverified list sparked a record selloff and prompted fears of a fresh hit to Sino-American relations.
- Pilots Made to Wear Trackers as Hong Kong Boosts Covid Rules — Hong Kong is further tightening quarantine rules for airline staff, with cargo pilots isolating at home to be tracked with electronic monitoring bracelets and crew on passenger planes who have been in countries with high levels of the virus made to quarantine for 14 days.
- WTA Calls for Private Meeting with Chinese Tennis Star Peng — The Women’s Tennis Association has said it wants to speak privately with tennis player Peng Shuai after she gave an interview to a French news outlet that was overseen by a Chinese sports official.
Reuters
- U.S. charges China’s Hytera with conspiring with ex-Motorola staff to steal technology — The government said Shenzhen-based Hytera Communications Corp recruited Motorola employees in Malaysia to steal proprietary trade data about the radios, known as walkie-talkies.
- Britain joins EU-China WTO challenge over Lithuania — Britain will join the United States and Australia in backing a European Union trade case against China at the World Trade Organization over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lithuania.
- China biotech has moving U.S. target on the back — Even if WuXi Biologics’ planned mainland factories eventually make it self-sufficient for parts, the company is a moving target with over half of its revenue from North American clients, including a large proportion from the United States.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Hong Kong denies U.S. lawyer’s appeal over assault in ruling critics call win for police impunity — It has come to be seen by critics of the verdict as a testament to the unchecked power of the city’s police force, which has been exonerated of using excessive force against citizens during the 2019 protests.
- The Atlantic: How China Captured Hollywood — Over this next century, China wants to use the movies to rebrand itself, and it has learned how to do so from the best.
- Associated Press: US approves support deal with Taiwan for Patriot missiles — The Biden administration has approved a $100 million support contract with Taiwan aimed at boosting the island’s missile defense systems as it faces increasing pressure from China.
