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
- U.S. Companies Are Finding It Hard to Avoid China — Trade between the U.S. and China remains intertwined despite American efforts to diversify supply chains.
The Financial Times
- Xi Jinping reinforces China’s ties to Vietnam after US push — South-east Asian country has become critical supply hub for western and Chinese manufacturers.
- UK business in China sees 2024 as ‘pivotal’ for investment — British Chamber of Commerce flags concerns over economy and complex environment.
- China’s failed charm campaign — Why the world is falling out of love with investing in the Asian giant.
- India bets on worker dormitories as Apple leads tech pivot from China — Executives hope staff will be willing to live on site at factories seeking tens of thousands of employees.
- Fed should stress test US banks for China war risk, House panel says — Congressional report calls for strategy to prepare financial system for conflict with Beijing.
- Opinion: China faces the risk of a debt-deflation loop — The country should stimulate consumption with spending on education, healthcare and public housing. By Chetan Ahya.
The New York Times
- Three Months After Biden, It’s Xi’s Turn to Court Vietnam — The Chinese leader wants assurances that the strategically important country isn’t taking Washington’s side against Beijing, analysts say.
- Why Volkswagen Is Hiring 3,000 Engineers in China — Volkswagen is shifting more operations to China, tapping the country’s electric vehicle capacity and building factories.
- ‘I Have No Future’: China’s Rebel Influencer Is Still Paying a Price — Li Ying used social media to help tell the world about last year’s protests. Now in exile, he has been threatened and lost his livelihood for his defiance.
- Lawmakers Call for Raising Tariffs and Severing Economic Ties With China — A bipartisan congressional report recommended revoking permanent normal trade relations with Beijing.
Caixin
- Standard Chartered China Unit Gets Securities Business License — The Beijing-based brokerage house expects to open early next year with an initial focus on fixed income.
- China Climate Envoy Reaffirms 2030 Target for Peaking Carbon Emissions — Xie told reporters that China had been in “close communication” with other major countries and groups to find language that all parties can agree on regarding the future of fossil fuels.
- In Depth: How the AI Race Has Spread From the Cloud to the Palm of Your Hand — Businesses compete to run edge AI on personal devices rather than data centers, counting on increasing everyday usage as the technology moves closer to users.
South China Morning Post
- Saudi Arabia urges Chinese firms to explore its ‘phenomenal demand’, cooperate in green transition — Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid al-Falih spoke at the China-Saudi Investment Conference in Beijing on Tuesday, along with China’s commerce vice-minister Li Fei.
- Tencent set to hit e-commerce sales milestone in 2023, closing in on short video rivals ByteDance, Kuaishou — The Shenzhen-based tech giant is on track to sell 100 billion yuan worth of goods on WeChat Channels this year, according to Chinese media.
- China population: with falling fertility rate ‘an unavoidable norm’, Beijing told focus should shift to people not numbers — Survey by the Institute of Public Policy at the South China University of Technology says China should focus on fertility services, instead of birth rates as it seeks solutions to its population crisis.
- BYD quickens overseas expansion of showrooms to offset flat EV sales growth in mainland China — BYD said it is actively seeking to tap overseas markets and that its global expansion will pick up after sales stagnated at about 302,000 units in the past two months.
- Huawei to start building first European factory in France in 2024, sources say — Construction of the factory was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the site is expected to open in 2025, sources say.
Nikkei Asia
- NATO official calls for blocking China’s support of Russia — ‘We need to engage with China,’ Czech representative to the alliance says.
- China exports deflation as home demand for steel and autos low — Dollar-denominated exports increased 0.5% in November after 7-month stall.
- Taiwanese tech startups pile into ASEAN amid risks in China — From Singapore to Vietnam, companies tap Southeast Asia in expansion drive.
- Opinion: U.S. and China must seize opening to discuss military AI risks — Even nonbinding agreement could help to build trust and limit harms. By Sam Bresnick.
Bloomberg
- Pernod Ricard Launches First China Whisky Amid Economic Slowdown — Pernod Ricard SA launched its first China-made whisky as the alcohol giant looks to tap rising local demand for premium liquor despite the country’s sluggish economic recovery.
- US Looking Into Nvidia’s AI Chips for China, Raimondo Says — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the US is looking into the specifics of three new artificial intelligence accelerators that Nvidia Corp. is developing for China, after vowing earlier this month to restrict any new chips that give the Asian country AI capabilities.
- China Chipmaker Seeks Funds at $19.5 Billion Value as IPOs Cool — Changxin Memory Technologies Inc. is delaying its initial public offering and will instead consider raising funds at about a 140 billion yuan ($19.5 billion) valuation, becoming the latest Chinese company to call off a debut because of volatile market conditions.
Reuters
- Storm hitting Chinese ports is a wakeup call for climate risk to markets — Despite the increasing risk, companies and financial systems remain unprepared for the disruptions to come due to patchy data, short-term pressures and an over-reliance on insurance.
- China says it will step up policy adjustments to spur recovery in 2024 — Investors are closely watching for clues on next year’s policy and reform agenda as Beijing has been struggling to spur a post-pandemic economic recovery.
- South Korean auto battery firms take on Chinese rivals but with trepidation — The firms are also reluctant to undermine their efforts to develop cheaper nickel-based batteries, the sources added.
Other Publications
- PIIE: USTR abandons the digital rule book—to China’s potential benefit — US abdication encourages other countries, especially China, to take the lead in writing their own digital rules that reflect their own cyber norms.
- MIT Technology Review: Inside the decades-long fight over Yahoo’s misdeeds in China — The Yahoo Human Rights Fund was intended to support imprisoned Chinese dissidents. Instead, a lawsuit alleges that only a small fraction of the money went to help former prisoners.
- CSIS: China’s Essential Role in the Gulf States’ Energy Transitions — China’s dominant position within these critical supply chains has raised alarm bells in the United States and European Union, with both resorting to muscular industrial policy to push back.
- The Economist: The dangers of carrying a child for someone else in China — For a shrinking country, China’s approach to surrogacy is self-defeating.
- The Washington Post: China nears peak emissions but doesn’t want to talk about it — A slowing economy and a surge of renewable energy are shrinking China’s carbon footprint. Beijing isn’t bragging, though.
- Foreign Affairs: How to China-Proof the Global Economy — America Needs a More Targeted Strategy.
- Foreign Affairs: The Big One: Preparing for a Long War With China — Over the past decade, the prospect of Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific has moved from the realm of the hypothetical to the war rooms of U.S. defense planners.
