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
- Undercounted Deaths Cloud China’s Zero-Covid Exit — China’s National Health Commission on Wednesday said there had been no new Covid-related deaths—and that it was retracting one of the Beijing fatalities from the official tally.
- China’s Workers Are Calling In Sick With Covid After Beijing’s U-Turn — An abrupt end to harsh pandemic rules has left factories and businesses with little insulation from fast-spreading infections.
- Chinese Semiconductor IPOs Surge as Chip Arms Race Heats Up – Chip makers and related companies raise billions as China tries to advance domestic industry.
- Opinion: Does Zero Covid’s End Mean China Is Running Out of Money? – The policy may be the result of falling revenue and the high cost of nucleic-acid testing. By Simone Gao
- Opinion: China’s Useful Covid Lesson – Someday Western societies may face a virus a lot deadlier than this one. By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr
The Financial Times
- China’s fiscal deficit hits record as Covid and property slump take toll — Broad measure of public finances doubles year on year.
- US targets China’s potential chip stars with new restrictions — Companies added to trade blacklist previously flew under the radar.
- Zero-Covid leaves China’s hospitals ill-prepared for exit wave — Local healthcare facilities unwilling to upgrade equipment due to economic downturn.
The New York Times
- Putin Ally Meets With China’s Top Leader, Signaling Close Ties — China has remained a significant, if largely silent, counterweight to the international censure of Russia.
- Bans on TikTok Gain Momentum in Washington and States – U.S. officials have argued that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese-based ByteDance, can share sensitive data with the Chinese government.
- Opinion: China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Obsession Is Gone, but the Trauma Lingers – After enduring so much anxiety and disruption to their lives for the goal of suppressing Covid, people in China are left to face the virus anyway, old fears merely replaced by new ones. By Eva Rammeloo
Caixin
- In Depth: Strict Rules at Home Push Chinese Metaverse Entrepreneurs, Investors Overseas — The scramble to monetize the metaverse and web3 is in full swing, as a new phase of the internet based on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology takes shape.
- Xiaomi to Slash 10% of Workforce Amid Declining Revenue — Chinese smartphone giant idles 3,500 as inflation and slowing economies depress global and domestic demand, leading to red ink.
- Where Have All the Antigen Test Kits Made in China Gone? – With the sudden policy easing, factories are not ready to meet the sudden increase in domestic demand, said Xu Yucai, a medical expert at the Chinese Medical Association.
South China Morning Post
- China-Russia relations: Xi Jinping says Beijing is willing to mediate with Moscow to end Ukraine war — Dmitry Medvedev says two countries should advance cooperation in trade, energy, agriculture to resist pressure from outside.
- US-bound exports from China’s Xinjiang drop 64 per cent, monthly trade data shows — Monthly exports to the US from Xinjiang hit their lowest November reading since records began in 2017.
- Tech war: personal wealth of top Chinese semiconductor bosses shrinks amid US sanctions — China’s top 100 richest chip business owners saw their personal wealth shrink this year amid the impact of US sanctions and a weak domestic economy, according to a private survey.
Nikkei Asia
- Pacific islands see China-West tussle as chance for climate action – Geopolitics in area ‘more and more intertwined’ with global warming concerns.
- Australia’s Penny Wong raises trade curbs, detainees on China visit – Two sides agree to keep talking after marking 50 years of ties.
- Opinion: New Zealand is done with speaking softly to China – Wellington’s shift to a firmer stance on Chinese abuses unlikely to go further. By Derek Grossman
Bloomberg
- Chinese Banks Edge Out Wall Street Rivals in Global IPO Rankings — Chinese lenders have leaped ahead of their Wall Street peers in global rankings for initial public offerings, as China wraps up a record year for listings which bucked one of the worst slowdowns in deals history.
- China’s Covid Wave Spurs New Variant Worry as Sequencing Falls — The tsunami of Covid-19 that’s taking hold across China is spurring concern that a dangerous new variant could emerge for the first time in more than a year, just as genetic sequencing to catch such a threat is dwindling.
- China Accused of Fresh Territorial Grab in South China Sea — China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade.
Reuters
- Putin oversees launch of Siberian gas field feeding pipeline to China – The launch is part of Russia’s strategy to shift gas exports to the east as the European Union cuts reliance on Russian energy in response to the war in Ukraine.
- China to unveil new rules to rein in fund ‘greenwashing’ – The regulations could impact some or most of the green funds that make up the bulk of the 160 sustainable products now in China, forcing them to back up their green claims or drop the popular label.
- Appeals court rejects China Telecom bid to reverse U.S. ban – China Telecom had argued the FCC violated its rules by refusing to hold a hearing before revoking China Telecom (Americas)’ domestic and international common-carrier authorizations.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Europe’s Great Catch-Up on China – With the Ukraine war as a wake-up call, Europe is gradually coming to grips with the China threat.
- The Washington Post: Cutthroat competition and state support power China’s electric car revolution – This year, about a quarter of the cars bought in the world’s largest auto market have been battery-powered or plug-in hybrids. By year’s end, that will be about 6 million vehicles. No other country comes close.
- AP News: Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance – In the pandemic’s bewildering early days, millions worldwide believed government officials who said they needed confidential data for new tech tools that could help stop coronavirus’ spread.
- The Economist: Emigrants from a small corner of China are making an outsize mark abroad – Chinese migrants from Wenzhou are strikingly different from their compatriots.
- Brookings: China’s Relations with Russia, India, and Europe – The Russia-Ukraine war has generated or accelerated negative trends in China’s relations with Russia, India, and Europe.
- Technology Review: Why it’s so hard to tell porn spam from Chinese state bots – A new report digs into the porn spam that drowned out China’s covid protests—and finds they were likely not engineered by the Chinese government.
