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
- Biden Weighs Ending Some China Tariffs Soon in Response to Inflation — Administration will decide in the coming weeks on Trump-era levies, as business groups push to lift them and unions seek their extension.
- China Releases Bloomberg News Staffer Detained on National-Security Grounds — Haze Fan, a Chinese national, was taken into custody for unknown reasons in December 2020.
- U.S., EU Plan Joint Foreign Aid for Cybersecurity to Counter China — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the importance of supporting countries vulnerable to nation-state cyberattacks, officials say.
- China’s Xi Fails to Endorse Putin Over Ukraine in Call With Russian Leader — Chinese president says Beijing will ‘independently judge’ the war, while welcoming ties with Moscow.
- China’s Economy Shows Signs of Recovery, but Covid Lockdown Threat Remains — Data shows uptick in factory production, smaller decline in retail sales in May.
- China’s Hot Growth Summer Will Probably Disappoint — Data showed that growth is bottoming out. But a strong summer rebound probably isn’t in the cards.
- Chinese Bond Market Records Fourth Month of Foreign Outflows — International investors’ holdings of yuan-denominated bonds have fallen by $61 billion since February.
The Financial Times
- China retail sales slide as lockdowns hit world’s biggest consumer market — Beijing’s commitment to zero-Covid policy and threat of more restrictions risk a ‘relapse.’
- China under pressure to reform debt market as foreign inflows slow — ‘Access is no longer a problem’ but investors wary over low liquidity and opaque default process.
- Bloomberg unable to contact staffer that China says was released on bail — US media group ‘encouraged’ by claimed release in January of journalist Haze Fan.
The New York Times
- In Call With Putin, China’s Xi Offers Closer Cooperation with Russia — The Chinese government has tried to keep good ties with Moscow while maintaining that it wants to be an impartial broker for peace in Ukraine.
- Constructive Communication Between the U.S. and China Gets Harder — Later this month, the United States and China may face another threat in their already fraught relations.
- Attack on Women in China Stirs Outrage, and Competing Narratives — Graphic footage of an attack in a restaurant fueled online debate that showed both the growing awareness of women’s rights and how divisive feminism still remains.
- Biden Weighs Tariff Rollback to Ease Inflation, Even a Little Bit — While lifting some levies on China is unlikely to put a large dent in inflation, administration officials concede they have few other options to address surging prices.
- Haze Fan of Bloomberg News Released From Chinese Detention — Haze Fan was taken into custody in 2020 and has not been heard from since. Chinese officials announced last month that she had been freed in January, but many questions remain.
- Opinion: The U.S. is losing its military edge in Asia, and China knows it — America can no longer deter China without help from its allies. By Ashley Townshend and James Crabtree
Caixin
- Four Things to Know About China’s Plan to Go ‘All-Out’ on Infrastructure — China is turning to its old stimulus playbook and pinning its hopes on infrastructure investment this year to rescue an ailing economy, as policymakers scramble to shore up sentiment depressed by the country’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since early 2020.
- China Resumes Processing Family Visit Visas After Two-Plus Year Suspension — China will resume issuing visas for family visits to U.S. and Singaporean citizens, among others, more than two years after the country closed its borders to most incomers as part of stringent Covid control measures.
- Shanghai Landlords Reluctant to Cut Clothing Wholesalers a Break — Merchants are demanding a rent holiday after the city’s Covid lockdown forced them to close during what’s normally their busiest time of year.
South China Morning Post
- e-CNY trials move beyond retail to cover corporate loans for small businesses and tax payments — Since China started trials of its digital currency in 2019, more than 20 cities have conducted consumer-targeted promotions and now the country is exploring corporate use cases.
- UN human rights chief ‘not able to speak to’ any detained Uygurs or their families in Xinjiang — Michelle Bachelet tells the UN Human Rights Council that she couldn’t move freely through the Chinese region when she visited last month.
- For China’s elite graduates, career dreams take a back seat to stability in coronavirus-hit job market — This year, a record 10.76 million college students are set to graduate, adding pressure to a job market economists are calling the most challenging yet for young Chinese. Many are setting aside career dreams for stability.
Nikkei Asia
- Pakistan blackouts choke economy as China power plants go unpaid — CPEC-linked suppliers await $1.5bn dues; industry disruptions hinder exports.
- Dozens of countries condemn China over Xinjiang abuse claims — Mounting calls for U.N. rights chief to publish delayed report on allegations.
- The China research battle: Debate rages over red lines in academia — U.S. opposition to joint projects grows over fears of Beijing’s military ascent.
- Macao to offer tax breaks to casinos for non-China gamblers — Gross rate, already Asia’s highest, to edge up to 40%.
Bloomberg
- Chinese Battery Maker CATL Is Said to Price Jumbo Stock Offering — Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric cars, has priced its jumbo stock offering at 410 yuan per share, people familiar with the matter said.
- Hong Kong Covid Cases Top 1,000 as Home Isolation Tweaked Again — Hong Kong reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest in two months, with the rise in infections spurring officials to continue to tighten rules around who can isolate at home.
- China’s Solar Industry Reels as Material Cost Nears Decade-High — The cost of a key material for solar panels in China is nearing its highest level in a decade, squeezing profits even as companies ramp up production to meet the world’s growing renewable power needs.
- China Jobs Crisis Worsens as Youth Unemployment Surges to Record — China’s labor market worsened in May with a record number of young people out of work and joblessness in major cities surging to an all-time high.
Reuters
- U.S. rebuffs China by calling Taiwan Strait an international waterway — The United States on Tuesday backed Taiwan’s assertion that the strait separating the island from China is an international waterway, a further rebuff to Beijing’s claim to exercise sovereignty over the strategic passage.
- Exclusive: Baidu in talks to sell majority stake in iQIYI, China’s answer to Netflix – sources — Baidu, which owns 53% of iQIYI and holds more than 90% of its shareholder voting rights, plans to sell all its holdings in the Chinese video streaming services firm, the two people and another two sources familiar with the matter said.
- More than 100 CEOs urge U.S. Congress to pass China competition bill — The legislation includes $52 billion in federal funding to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity, which happens in factories called “fabs,” short for fabrication plants.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: Spy agencies’ focus on China could snare Chinese Americans — A new report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence makes several recommendations, including expanding unconscious bias training and reiterating internally that federal law bans targeting someone solely due to their ethnicity.
- The Atlantic: What Returning To China Taught Me About China — Coming back to Beijing showed me what happens when an unfettered state is allowed free rein, unchecked by law or civil society.
- The Washington Post: ‘Zero covid’ has many in China dreaming of leaving — For many like Zhu, it is not just about China’s severe “zero covid” policy, but what the future looks like in a society where politics — upholding the top leader’s policies no matter the cost — trumps science and the well-being of residents whose day-to-day lives are subject to ever more state interference.
