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
- China ETFs Attract Billions as Investors Hope Selloff Is Over — Fear of regulatory pressure wanes as government support underpins a market rally.
- Shanghai Revives Mass Testing as Cases Slip Through China’s Covid Armor — Beijing signals possible shift toward vaccine passes, while Xi’an goes into one-week lockdown after discovery of BA.5 subvariant.
The Financial Times
- Mainland ETFs dominate as China-Hong Kong trading scheme goes live — More than 80 Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed ETFs can now be traded via the northbound Stock Connect route.
- BYD/Tesla: China’s carmakers gain ground as profitability is stretched — Low pricing strategy is not sustainable as raw material prices soar and with electric vehicle subsidies set to be phased out.
- Tianqi Lithium raises $1.7bn in biggest Hong Kong IPO of 2022 — Maker of battery components prices second share deal towards top of expected range.
The New York Times
- China Offers Women Perks for Having Babies, if They’re Married — Beijing is giving incentives to stem a demographic crisis, but its control over childbirth and its suppression of women’s rights are making it difficult for some aspiring parents to start a family.
- Lawmakers Ask F.T.C. Chair to Investigate TikTok’s Data Practices — Questions are surfacing once again about whether TikTok poses a national security threat because it is owned by a Chinese company.
- U.S. Aims to Expand Export Bans on China Over Security and Human Rights — The Biden administration is applying lessons learned from controls on Russia during the Ukraine war to try to limit China’s military and technological advances.
- In a big potential breach, a hacker offers to sell a Chinese police database. — For about $200,000, an unidentified person or group is offering what is described as data on a billion Chinese citizens. A sampling seemed to show the data to be genuine.
Caixin
- Caixin Explains: China Takes Another Step to Unshackle Interest Rates — China’s central bank is testing the waters for a new mechanism that will give banks more freedom to set their own deposit rates, the latest step toward realizing its long-standing goal of liberalizing interest rates.
- China’s Silk Road Fund Strikes Deal with Indonesian Sovereign Fund — Framework agreement could see Beijing invest up to $3 billion in Southeast Asian country.
- Blaming Investors, Guinea Again Suspends Simandou Iron Ore Project — While the West African country’s ruling junta blamed investors for the halt, sources say that investors had submitted an agreed upon JV plan to the government, but never heard back.
South China Morning Post
- US pushes Netherlands to ban Dutch tech supplier ASML from selling older semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China — Washington’s proposed new restriction would expand an existing moratorium on the sale of the most advanced chip-making systems to China, thwarting the country’s semiconductor ambitions.
- Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei seeks employee input on business direction amid struggle to reinvent company under US sanctions — Ren Zhengfei said ‘Huawei’s strategy should not be decided by a handful of people’ but ‘come from tens of thousands of experts’.
- Tesla in for further setback after losing EV crown to BYD, as some production is suspended to upgrade Shanghai assembly line — Tesla, which was this week dethroned as the world’s largest EV producer by sales, is set for another setback after some production was suspended at its Gigafactory 3 for upgrades to its assembly line.
- Chinese pork stocks including WH Group recede as nation’s top planning body cracks down on misconduct, ‘vile speculation’ stoking hog prices — Trading in pork stocks started to unravel after the National Development and Reform Commission said it would crack down on misconduct and ‘vile speculation’ it blames for stoking runaway hog prices.
Nikkei Asia
- The next wolf warriors: China readies new generation of tough diplomats — As party congress looms, Xi Jinping set to replace foreign policy leadership. By Richard McGregor and Neil Thomas
- China takes wider aim at foreign tech with national standards plan — Proposed regulation would reach deep into supply chains.
- Syngenta sows food self-sufficiency for China with IPO — $10bn offering to fund acquisitions and R&D with focus on seeds.
- Lithium stays sky-high as other EV battery metals come down to earth — Changing tech trends in top auto market China reduce demand for nickel and cobalt.
Bloomberg
- China Accuses US of ‘Technological Terrorism’ as Chip Curbs Grow — China accused the US of “technological terrorism” in pushing to stop ASML Holding NV and Nikon Corp. from selling key chipmaking technology to the country, in some of its strongest criticism yet of Washington’s efforts.
- US Chip Pressure on ASML Over China Is a Tough Sell — Washington needs to do more to dissuade foreign partners to cut off its biggest rival.
- SenseTime Plunge Raises Stakes for Slew of China Lockup Lifts — SenseTime Group Inc.’s share price collapse after a lock-up period expired has heaped pressure on other Chinese companies that face similar situations this month.
- VW CEO Eyes ‘Big Moves’ in China to Gain Thousands of Coders — Volkswagen AG is planning major investments in China to employ “several thousand” software engineers and catch up with local rivals when it comes to equipping cars with the latest digital technology, Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess said.
Reuters
- Biden still weighing China tariff options as requests to keep them pile up — More than 400 requests to keep tariffs in place on Chinese goods had been submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office as of late Tuesday, complicating Biden’s decision-making.
- Congo administrator orders China’s CMOC to stop exports from Tenke cobalt mine — A temporary administrator appointed by a Congolese court to run the world’s second-largest cobalt mine ordered majority Chinese owner CMOC to suspend marketing and export of its production, letters seen by Reuters showed.
- Henan displays China’s economic cracks all at once — It is home to nearly 100 million people, hosting a vast Foxconn factory that assembles most of the world’s iPhones. It also churns out embarrassing headlines.
Other Publications
- The Economist 1843 Magazine: “They are there but you’ll never see their faces”: The secret heroes of Shanghai’s lockdown — For two months, a shadowy network of volunteers delivered necessities to the vulnerable. Then it vanished.
- Quartz: Chinese Internet users are spooked by alleged government data breach — Internet users in China are expressing shock and concern over an alleged data leak involving the personal information of 1 billion citizens, a reminder of the huge risks that come with the country’s surveillance state.
- The Guardian: Decision on sale of UK’s biggest chip maker to Chinese-owned firm delayed — New national security legislation used to allow more time to scrutinise £63m deal for Newport Wafer Fab.
