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
- Chinese Local Governments Used Fake Property Deals to Boost Revenues — Land sales have long been a crucial source of revenue for regional governments.
- Russia Set to Overtake Saudi Arabia in Battle for China’s Oil Market — As Riyadh’s push to boost prices falls flat, Moscow keeps gaining ground with world’s biggest buyer.
- Sequoia Made a Fortune Investing in the U.S. and China. Then It Had to Pick One. — Scrutiny from Washington aggravated tensions within the venture-capital firm, fueling its decision to break up.
- Opinion: My Plan to Confront the Chinese Threat — Trump made progress, but not enough. Biden has set America back. It’s time to be bold and creative. By Nikki Haley.
The Financial Times
- China’s premier criticises west’s de-risking drive at ‘Summer Davos’ — Li Qiang denounces economic ‘politicisation’ and defends globalisation in World Economic Forum address.
- China censors financial blogger as economic recovery falters — Beijing worries negative sentiment could undermine efforts to spur growth.
- Hong Kong’s crypto push puts HSBC and StanChart in a bind — Regulators keen for banks to take on exchanges as clients but that might expose lenders to money-laundering risks.
The New York Times
- If Biden Wanted to Ease U.S.-China Tensions, Would Americans Let Him? — In polls, Americans’ views of China are starting to resemble their views of the Soviet Union decades ago. That could make it harder to mend ties.
Caixin
- China’s Top Graft Buster Ramps Up Internal Anti-Corruption Efforts — A senior publicity official with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has been placed under investigation by the country’s top graft buster.
- Local Chinese Governments Add Billions to Multitrillion-Dollar Hidden-Debt Problem — National Audit Office review of 2022 financials finds inflated revenue, illegal collections, new hidden debts and use of borrowings for prohibited projects.
- China Zeros In on Unemployed Youth With Six-Month Job Skills Campaign — The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will launch a six-month campaign to help certain jobless young people, including new college graduates, find work or improve their prospects in an overcrowded job market.
South China Morning Post
- How did China’s Sun Yat-sen University beat Oxford, Cambridge and Yale on natural science research? — It has invested heavily in research, but its employment practices and treatment of academic staff have proved highly controversial.
- Taiwan to ‘shoot down and destroy’ mainland Chinese balloons if they pose a risk — Taiwanese military are tracking any movements of high-altitude balloons from mainland China, intelligence officer from island’s defence ministry says.
- China censors economic, financial writer Wu Xiaobo for ‘hyping up unemployment rate’ amid economic slowdown — Prominent economic and financial writer Wu Xiaobo and two other users are suspended by Chinese social media platform Weibo for ‘disseminating negative and harmful information’ and having ‘hyped up the unemployment rate’.
- Tsinghua Unigroup names telecoms industry veteran as new chairman of mobile chip design unit — Tsinghua Unigroup named Ma Daojie, who has 30 years of experience in China’s telecoms industry, as the new chairman of its privately-held Unisoc mobile chip design subsidiary.
Nikkei Asia
- China fears Russia chaos after Wagner uprising — Revolt seen as wake-up call for Beijing as a weakened Putin may trigger further insurgencies.
- China’s GAC unveils flying car that can travel on road — Automaker sees demand for transport between cities across waters in southern China.
- Frustration grows in China as banks limit early mortgage payments — Economic headwinds fuel push to pay debt down ahead of schedule.
Bloomberg
- Yellen Plans July China Trip While US Preps Investment Curbs — Trip would mark first meeting with new Chinese counterpart.
- Hungarian Minister Warns China De-Risking Is ‘Brutal Suicide’ — A European “de-risking” of supply chains from China would be devastating for the bloc’s economy, a senior Hungarian minister warned, in comments highlighting the divisive nature of the policy.
- Baidu Claims Its Ernie Bot Now Beats ChatGPT on Key Measures — Ernie 3.5, the latest iteration of Baidu’s foundation model, has surpassed OpenAI’s chatbot built on GPT-3.5 in general abilities.
- Opinion: The Russian Mutiny Drew Parallels in China With a Massive Medieval Rebellion — What does the 8th century have to do with the road not taken in Moscow? Perhaps a lot, in the eyes of Xi Jinping. By Howard Chua-Eoan.
Reuters
- Xi says China and New Zealand should promote trade and investment — Xi said both countries should promote the “liberalisation and facilitation” of trade and investment, and provide a better business environment for each other’s enterprises to invest and operate in their countries.
- The China-U.S. military chill: do they talk at all? — Amid intensifying military deployments across East Asia, high-level defence dialogue between China and the United States remains frozen.
- Indictment details plan to steal Samsung secrets for Foxconn China project — When former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog won a contract with Taiwan’s Foxconn in 2018, he tapped his former employer’s supplier network to steal secrets to help his new client set up a chip factory in China, an indictment by South Korean prosecutors alleges.
Other Publications
- Toronto Star: Influencers face backlash for calling Shein factory conditions ‘pleasantly surprising’ during PR trip to China — The fast fashion company is valued higher than both H&M and Zara combined, and has experts warning that cheap clothes come at a steep cost.
- Los Angeles Times: Braised frogs, mashed potatoes and barbecue: Can food stalls help save China’s economy? — China’s government is relaxing restrictions on night markets and street vendors to stimulate spending and create jobs, especially for young people.
- The Economist: An acrimonious debate about covid’s origins will rumble on — An American intelligence report says it could have come from a market—or a lab.
- The New Yorker: The Double Education of My Twins’ Chinese School — The President of China compared moral education to buttons on clothes. The girls’ buttons were wrong from the start, but they learned the more valuable lessons that two systems can impart.
- The Atlantic: What Is Putin Worth to China? — In standing by Russia’s embattled strongman, Chinese leader Xi Jinping signals just how high a priority he has made of undermining the power of the West.
- Foreign Policy: Anti-China Rhetoric Distracts Washington—and Boosts Beijing — Panic and fear should not drive U.S. foreign policy.
