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 U.S. Startup’s 15-Year Struggle to Survive China’s Solar Grip — CEO says green subsidies in the U.S. mean its fourth factory attempt could be the charm.
- Venture-Capital Firm Sequoia to Separate China Business as Political Tensions Rise — The Silicon Valley company will split into three independent partnerships with different brands.
- Hong Kong’s Legal Bid to Ban Protest Song Challenges Google — Court order is sought to block online dissemination of pro-democracy anthem, first major test for U.S. tech platforms over politically sensitive content.
- What Is Happening With Binance? — The SEC sued the largest crypto exchange and its controlling shareholder.
- Former ByteDance Executive Claims Chinese Communist Party Accessed TikTok’s Hong Kong User Data — Allegation is made in suit against TikTok parent company; ByteDance says it vigorously opposes the claim.
- Enforcers of China’s One-Child Policy Now Cajole People to Have Three — The number of births is plummeting as officials struggle to change the mind-set of a generation less eager to start a family.
The Financial Times
- France objects to Nato plan for office in Tokyo — Emmanuel Macron has raised concerns about the transatlantic security alliance losing focus.
- Chipmaker TSMC defends overseas expansion plans — Shareholders question strategy but chair says new foundries outside Taiwan can help it maintain global leadership.
- US venture capital giant Sequoia to spin off China business — Group plans to break up into three entities by March next year.
- ‘Pirelli is in peril’: Pressure rises over Chinese grip on Italian tyremaker — Rome assesses whether to limit state-owned ChemChina’s voting rights or force it to sell down 37% stake.
- US prepared to address ‘aggressiveness’ of Chinese military — Warning comes after Beijing conducted two ‘unsafe’ intercepts of American forces.
- China’s troubles about debt — Dispelling local borrowing woes could have large long-term costs.
- US prepared to address ‘aggressiveness’ of Chinese military — Warning comes after Beijing conducted two ‘unsafe’ intercepts of American forces.
The New York Times
- China and U.S. Lay Out Rival Visions for Asia as Ships Nearly Collide — China’s defense minister says the best way to avoid accidental conflict is for countries outside the region, like the United States, to leave and “mind your own business.”
- S.E.C. Accuses Binance of Mishandling Funds and Lying to Regulators — The S.E.C. said the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange mixed billions of dollars in customer funds and secretly sent them to a separate company controlled by Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao.
Caixin
- CATL Shares Nosedive Amid Speculation on Weakened Tesla Tie — Chinese battery giant denies report of change in strategic relationship with its biggest customer because of new U.S. EV subsidy rules.
- Registrations for Private Fund Managers Nosedive After New Rules Take Effect — Only two companies were allowed to register as private fund managers (PFMs) in China in May, down from 139 the previous month.
- Chinese Debt Collector Suspends Business After Police Raids — Chinese debt collection giant Hunan Yongxiong Asset Management Group Co. Ltd. has suspended its business after a swathe of its employees were taken away by police, according to a notice on its WeChat account.
South China Morning Post
- China’s first home-grown large cruise liner undocks in Shanghai in breakthrough for shipbuilding, high-end manufacturing — China’s first home-grown large cruise liner, the 135,500-tonne Adora Magic City, left its dock in Shanghai on Tuesday after nearly four years of construction ahead of a series of sea trials.
- Supercharged BYD overtakes LG as world’s No 2 EV battery supplier as electrification drive quickens — BYD has gone past LG Energy Solution as the world’s second-largest electric vehicle battery producer, reinforcing China’s dominance of the industry as EV adoption picks up pace globally.
- China-Germany relationship to hit new heights, says Chinese Premier Li Qiang after meeting SDP delegation in Beijing — Premier Li welcomed representatives from the centre-left SDP, one-third of Germany’s coalition government, to Beijing on Monday.
- US will be ‘sole winner’ if Japan copies chip curbs on China, Beijing’s envoy to Tokyo warns — Japan is risking the future of its semiconductor sector by cutting off its No 1 export market, Chinese ambassador Wu Jianghao tells trade body in Tokyo.
- China’s Communist Youth League gets new leader, aged 52, but role is ‘no longer fast track to the top’ — The body’s importance has been eclipsed in recent years and its new head A Dong is older than some previous incumbents.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s 100-plus ‘secret police stations’ span from NY to Tokyo — Besides New York case, firm evidence of illegal repression remains elusive.
- Musk’s China visit reveals dealmaking for Tesla’s expansion — Tesla CEO seeks to lift output in Shanghai despite official wariness of too much competition.
- China cracks down on online stealth marketing — Tencent, other platforms adapt to Beijing’s latest tech regulation.
- China’s top VCs warn dollar fundraising will only get tighter — Geopolitics heads list of concerns for investors in cross-border businesses.
- China’s data securities laws pose costly challenge for JPMorgan — CEO of bank’s China fund management arm says ‘more and more’ resources needed.
- TSMC can help ‘stabilize’ U.S.-China relations: chairman — Mark Liu argues thriving chip industry will have positive effect on geopolitics.
Bloomberg
- Supply Chain Latest: US-China Relations Stay Distant Despite Talks — A recent flurry of diplomatic activity between the US and China isn’t thawing relations, despite the emphasis by the Biden administration about cooperation over confrontation on economic issues.
- TSMC Says Capex to Be Near Low End of Target at $32 Billion — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. tempered its outlook for 2023 capital spending, as the main chipmaker to Apple Inc. grapples with soft demand for smartphone and computing chips.
- Sequoia Splits Into Three Entities, Makes China Standalone Firm — Sequoia Capital, the venture capital powerhouse, is breaking up into three entities across the globe, splitting the Chinese and US operations as tensions grow between the world’s two largest economies.
- China Asks Big Banks to Cut Deposit Rates to Boost Growth — Chinese authorities asked the nation’s biggest banks to lower their deposit rates for at least the second time in less than a year, according to people familiar with the matter, marking an escalated effort to boost the world’s second-largest economy.
- US, China Hold ‘Candid’ Talks Days After Security Forum Spat — Senior US and Chinese officials held “candid” talks in Beijing, days after the two countries’ defense chiefs squared off at a fraught security forum exposing limits in mending the bilateral relationship.
- China’s Citic Cuts Banker Pay by 15% in Common Prosperity Drive — Citic Securities Co., one of China’s top investment banks, is slashing basic salaries by up to 15% for some bankers to comply with President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
- China Biodiesel Exporters Pledge Fraud Crackdown After Criticism — Chinese biodiesel producers pledged to improve compliance and export standards, days after European rivals called for action to stem “potentially fraudulent” shipments.
Reuters
- After dangerous encounters, US accuses China of military ‘aggressiveness’ — The White House said on Monday recent dangerous encounters between U.S. and Chinese forces in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea reflect a growing aggressiveness by Beijing’s military that raises the risk of an error in which “somebody gets hurt.”
- China, US talks in Beijing strike upbeat tone but risks remain — Meetings between senior U.S. and Chinese officials in China this week struck an upbeat chord, with both sides agreeing to maintain communication lines.
- China may cut rates further in H2, government researcher says — China will likely further cut banks’ reserve ratio and interest rates in the second half of this year to support the economy, the China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday, citing policy advisors and economists.
- Elon Musk says China will initiate AI regulations — The Chinese government will seek to initiate artificial intelligence regulations in its country, billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday after meeting with officials during his recent trip to China.
- Merck CEO says decoupling from China would be at huge economic cost — The CEO of German technology group Merck KGaA said that unravelling trade ties with China would come at great economic costs and that she was banking on dialogue to ease tensions between Beijing and Western powers.
- Chinese universities raise tuition fees by as much as 54% — Chinese universities are drastically increasing tuition fees this year, with some making their first rises in two decades, hurt by a reduced national budget for tertiary education and tight local government finances.
- Britain says China has closed unofficial police stations in UK — British Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said on Tuesday China had closed reported “police service stations” at sites across the UK, and that an investigation had not revealed any illegal activity by the Chinese state at these sites.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China is acutely vulnerable to rising sea levels — Although Deng knew that the sea could bring wealth to coastal cities, he and his successors appear not to have planned for the fact that rising sea levels could bring serious problems.
- Associated Press: Chinese ex-official’s wife says alleged repatriation pressure turned her life in US ‘upside-down’ — A former Chinese official and his wife had left their homeland and kept their U.S. address private. Yet eight years later, two strangers were banging on their New Jersey front door and twisting the handle, the wife testified in a U.S. court Monday.
- Washington Post: China abandoned ‘zero covid.’ But some don’t want to leave it behind. — Gugu is a “zero covid” holdout, the name given to people in China who are still maintaining the strictest of infection control measures on their own, even as the rest of the country has moved on.
- Rest of World: How China’s rural influencers find fame and fortune across the Great Firewall — Influencer agencies bring Chinese creators to banned sites like YouTube and Instagram.
