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
- China’s Xi Pushing to Beat the U.S. in GDP Growth Despite Covid Lockdowns — Topping U.S. economy required to demonstrate superiority of China’s one-party system, Chinese leader tells officials.
- HSBC’s Quarterly Profit Drops 28% — Bank hit by provisions for souring loans in Russia and China, but says it is benefiting from rising interest rates.
The Financial Times
- America’s lopsided China strategy: all guns and no bread and butter issues — The administration is preparing an economic plan for the Indo-Pacific, but it will not include access to the US market.
- China Covid-19 tsar pushed treatments without revealing business ties — Renowned Beijing adviser Zhong Nanshan has links to firms behind some officially approved remedies.
- Skadden loses top lawyer to ByteDance amid China IPO chill — Julie Gao will become chief financial officer at TikTok owner ByteDance.
- China’s Covid booster campaign slows as staff redirected to mass testing — Almost 20mn Beijing residents will have to undergo 3 rounds of tests by Saturday.
- South Korea’s recovery slows as worries over China lockdowns rise — Exports fell in April as analysts warn that demand is weakening as Beijing grapples with Covid fears.
- Mainland China property companies pull back in Hong Kong — Cash-strapped developers sell up and shun land sales after Evergrande liquidity shock.
- Wall Street’s Shanghai problem — Travails of bankers during lockdown is further blow to city’s ambitions to be an international financial centre.
- Hong Kong human rights awards suspended over security law fears — Foreign Correspondents’ Club halts journalism prizes in wake of media crackdown in Chinese territory.
The New York Times
- China’s Covid Strategy: Test 20 Million in Beijing Amid Lockdown Fears — China’s capital reported 22 cases as it kicked off an ambitious mandatory testing campaign across the city and reassured residents that food and other supplies were plentiful.
- Amid Virus Chaos, Shanghai Residents Band Together — As the authorities in China’s biggest city fight to stamp out an Omicron outbreak, neighbors are turning to one another for support.
- The prospect of lockdowns in Beijing fuels more concerns about supply chain disruptions. — China’s capital city is not as central to global production networks as Shanghai, but the costs for global companies will still mount if lockdowns spread.
- Kenneth Roth, ‘Godfather’ of Human Rights Work, to Step Down — Mr. Roth joined Human Rights Watch when it was a fledgling organization. It has expanded into one of the most influential human rights advocacy groups.
Caixin
- BlackRock Venture Launches First Pension Product in China — BlackRock’s majority-owned joint venture in China launched its first pilot pension wealth management investment in government and financial bonds.
- Asset Management Sector Regains Steam to Hit $20.5 Trillion — Chinese industry expanded 11% in 2021 after three years of shakeup for new regulatory framework, Boston Consulting Group and Everbright report.
- Chipmaker Onsemi Gets Go-Ahead to Resume Shanghai Operations — Announcement comes after company said last week that it was running some of its shipments through Southeast Asia, sparking concerns of a potential retreat from China due to its ‘zero-Covid’ policy.
South China Morning Post
- China’s Hainan free-trade port tipped to deepen Asean ties, but island must ‘brave’ uncertainty — Southeast Asian firms will be incentivised to invest in Hainan under the free-trade port plan, especially in the service sector, thanks to the easing of restrictions and lower taxes, authorities say.
- British surveillance camera monitor asks British government to clarify Hikvision position — ‘There are serious unanswered questions about Hikvision’s involvement in appalling human rights abuses in China,’ says Fraser Sampson, Britain’s commissioner for biometrics and an independent monitor.
- University of Hong Kong proposes disciplining students for ‘bringing disrepute’ to institution, fuelling concerns over freedom of speech — Governing body proposes new clause to University of Hong Kong Ordinance, with range of penalties including reprimands, fines, expulsion.
Nikkei Asia
- BMW and Audi suspend shipments by train to China — Railway official cites client worries about insurance and Russian confiscation.
- Sri Lanka begins talks with China on refinancing debt — Colombo asks Beijing for help as it struggles with debilitating financial crisis.
- Taiwan’s share of contract chipmaking to hit 66% this year: report — TSMC set to widen lead over Samsung, Chinese rivals.
Bloomberg
- China Is Running Out of Ways to Stem Self-Made Market Meltdown — China looks increasingly left to its own devices in a bid to rescue its economy and markets from the Covid crisis as the rest of the world withdraws stimulus to battle surging inflation.
- China’s No. 2 Phone Maker Seeks New Funding Ahead of 2022 IPO — Chinese smartphone maker Honor Device Co. is seeking to raise expansion capital ahead of an initial public offering as early as this year, people familiar with the matter said.
- China Locks Down Northern Hub for Coal and Rare Earths Output — The lockdown of Baotou in the northern region of Inner Mongolia takes China’s Covid Zero policy deep into coal country and to a crucial hub for the production of rare earths.
- China’s Solar Polysilicon Giants Are Expanding as Profits Surge — Chinese producers of the key material for solar panels are planning major expansions as demand stays strong despite high prices, sending profits soaring.
Reuters
- Bezos asks if Musk’s Twitter deal will signal change in China content policy — “Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?” Bezos tweeted late on Monday.
- China’s Huawei seeks out growth areas as risks mount — Huawei has identified helping businesses to use 5G technology, cloud computing and to improve their energy efficiency as ways to bolster the company.
- China will step up infrastructure construction to boost growth – President Xi — China will step up infrastructure construction to boost domestic demand and drive economic growth going forward, state TV reported on Tuesday.
- Elon Musk buys Tesla a pounding Chinese headache — As with Alibaba’s purchase of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, there’s lots of hidden risk.
Other Publications
- The New Yorker: How China’s Response to COVID-19 Set the Stage for a Worldwide Wave of Censorship — Authoritarian governments in eighty nations have enacted restrictions on free speech and political expression that were falsely described as public-health measures.
- Associated Press: UN team in China ahead of rights chief visit to Xinjiang — The rights chief has long talked about hoping to visit Xinjiang, and her office has also been compiling a long-awaited report into alleged human rights abuses in the region.
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: U.S.-China Technological “Decoupling”: A Strategy and Policy Framework — A partial “decoupling” of U.S. and Chinese technology ecosystems is well underway. Without a clear strategy, Washington risks doing too little or—more likely—too much to curb technological interdependence. By Jon Bateman
