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
- A Lovestruck Blogger, a Businessman, a 1-Year-Old Girl: Tales of China Eastern Flight Victims Emerge — As inquiry continues into fatal crash, China hasn’t released passengers’ identities; the story of ‘Mr. Red Bean.’
- Shanghai Hospital Harbors Unreported Covid-19 Outbreak, Deaths — Outbreak at elderly-care facility suggests hidden impact on China’s financial center; ‘Orderlies, nurses and doctors, we’re all infected.’
- Chinese Developer Stocks Suspended as Results Deadlines Pass — Producing annual results for developers has become more challenging.
- Shanghai’s Workers Sleep on Floors to Keep Factories Going Amid Covid Lockdown — Nearly 5,000 workers at auto maker SAIC’s plant are living on campus in a closed-loop system.
- State Department Warns of Continued Erosion of Freedoms in Hong Kong — For third year in a row, annual report finds Hong Kong doesn’t deserve special treatment from U.S.
The Financial Times
- Australian refinery close to producing country’s first lithium hydroxide for batteries — Tianqi Lithium and IGO’s joint venture missed production date target because of technical difficulties.
- Shanghai extends Covid lockdown measures despite economic concerns — Two-week local restrictions come as PMI data show negative financial impact of controls.
- Hong Kong’s property tycoons braced for further losses from zero-Covid regime — Family-run developers forecast to face sharp fall in house prices after steep revenue drops last year.
- EUA carbon emissions permit ETF launches in Hong Kong — Fund that tracks ICE EUA Carbon Futures index is first of its kind in greater China region.
The New York Times
- N.B.A. Basketball Returns to Chinese TV After a Long Absence — China Central Television stopped showing the games in 2019 after a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.
- This Is What Happens When Globalization Breaks Down — The story of one shipping container from a factory in China to a warehouse in the United States traces the arc of a global supply chain consumed by trouble.
Caixin
- Sinovac’s Covid-19 Vaccines Give Big Boost to Shareholder’s Profits — With a 15% stake in the vaccine-maker, Sino Biopharmaceutical reports a more than fourfold surge in earnings for 2021.
- Macao Gambling Junket Operator Golden Group Shuts Down — Business run by Hong Kong’s billionaire ‘queen of shell companies’ joins growing list of enterprises closing in Beijing’s gambling crackdown.
- Chairman and CEO of Perfect World Pictures Dies at 48 — In six years at film and game conglomerate, Lian Jie produced successful programming and pioneered co-production with Universal Pictures.
South China Morning Post
- China hints at recognising Taliban as legitimate Afghanistan government ‘when conditions are ripe’ — Beijing has given strong backing to the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying recognition of the group as the legitimate government of the war-torn nation would come “when conditions are ripe”.
- Solomon Islands says it won’t allow a Chinese military base and is ‘conscious of security ramification’ — Amid a regional backlash, the Solomon Islands said it would not allow a Chinese military base in the Pacific islands nation despite its plan to sign a security pact with Beijing.
Nikkei Asia
- Divorces in China nearly halve under contentious ‘cooling-off’ law — Marriages also drop for eighth straight year, accelerating decline in births.
- China Eastern $1.9bn in the red after ‘zero-COVID’ squeezes flights — Surging infections and deadly crash create earnings risks this year.
- U.S. companies warn over China’s COVID lockdown measures — AmCham survey says some groups eyeing relocation if strict rules continue.
Bloomberg
- Chinese Buyers Given Flexibility to Pay in Yuan for Russian Oil — A seller of Russian crude gave Chinese buyers the flexibility to pay in yuan, as the energy giant attempts to keep its few remaining export channels flowing smoothly
- Hong Kong Trading Halts Freeze $15 Billion After Earnings Delays — Trading in 33 Hong Kong-listed stocks was halted on Friday after a number of firms missed a deadline to report annual results in a move that’s expected to affect some $15 billion worth of shares.
- China Chipmaker’s Buyer Said to Miss $9 Billion Payment Deadline — The winner of a bidding process for Tsinghua Unigroup Co. has missed its March 31 deadline to complete a 60 billion yuan ($9.4 billion) takeover payment, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters
- EU urges China at summit not to help Russia in Ukraine war — EU and Chinese leaders met for their first summit in two years on Friday with Brussels pressing Beijing for assurances that it will neither supply Russia with arms nor help Moscow circumvent Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.
- China decries UK judges quitting HK court, London says democracy at stake — China on Thursday blamed the resignation of two senior British judges from Hong Kong’s highest court on “British pressure” against a sweeping national security law which makes dissent in the former British colony a crime punishable by jail.
Other Publications
- The Economist: The war makes China uncomfortable. European leaders don’t care — Get ready for a tense summit.
- The Economist: Why so many elderly Chinese are unvaccinated — Some are complacent, others are afraid.
- The Economist: A final victory for China’s propaganda chiefs — A terrible plane crash prompts a revealing anti-media backlash.
- The Economist: What Shanghai lockdowns mean for China Inc — Nothing good.
- The Economist: Deciphering a Tibetan pop star’s self-immolation — Tsewang Norbu was not the bubbly singer he appeared to be.
- The Atlantic: When War Ends, Family Separation Remains — For Ukrainian families fleeing conflict, the long legacy of the Chinese Civil War offers grim lessons. By Zhuqing Li
- The Guardian: Chinese Communist party expels former justice minister in latest purge — Fu Zhenghua, who had brought down ex security chief for corruption, denounced as ‘extremely despicable’
- Grid News: Some Chinese companies pollute more than entire nations. Can a new rule change the game? — China is now requiring companies to disclose their carbon emissions. A similar rule has been proposed in the U.S. The hope is that more data may help save the planet.
